Celestine, also known as Celestite, is named after the Latin for Celestial, or heavenly, referring to it's sky blue colour. Although blue is the most desired colour, Celestite also occurs in clear, yellow, green, orange, red and white shades.
Celestite is a Strontium Sulfate mineral, and was first recorded in the 1790s. It is a relatively soft mineral with a score of 3/3.5 Moh's hardness, and as such is rarely used for jewellery. Celestite is a primary ore for Strontium, which used to manufacture fireworks and pyro as it creates a bright red flame.
It is sometimes claimed that Angelite is compressed Celestite, however chemically this is impossible. Angelite is a variety of Anhydrite, which is an anhydrous calcium sulphate (or in simpler terms, it's ingredients are calcium, silicon and oxygen). Celestite, being a strontium sulphate (made up of strontium, sulphate and oxygen), cannot simply convert its Strontium atoms to Calcium atoms by pressure - they are completely separate minerals.
The popular blue coloured Celestite has been the subject of many thoughts and theories over the years, which include inclusions of gold, Vivianite or other organic matter. However after further study, it is now thought to get it's colour from radiation and colour centres within the crystal, possibly connected to trace amounts of potassium or calcium within the crystal. As colourless Celestite without larger amounts of these trace minerals does not change colour under radiation, this makes sense. Orange Celestite is believed to get its colour from copper inclusions, and green Celestite from sulphur inclusions - this is due to the mixture of the natural blue of the Celestite mixed with the yellow sulphur inclusions that can be seen under a microscope.
Celestite holds the record for the largest geode in the world – measuring a staggering 35 feet wide with crystals up to 3 feet wide. It is located 30-40 feet below the surface on South Bass Island in Ohio on Heineman winery that they discovered in 1897 whilst drilling for a well. 12,000-15,000 years old. You can go and visit it, Crystal Cave, although it's smaller than it initially was as some crystals were taken out to create fireworks. Tours of this cave actually saved the winery from closure during Prohibition.
Madagascar has yielded some of the best Celestite crystals for over 50 years, in a village called Sakoany in the northwest of Madagascars coast. They form in cavities in the sandstone, producing bigger geodes the further they did. They're hand dug in lots of small pits between 5-10 metres wide, and they can only dig during the dry season (May – October), otherwise the pits just fill with water.
In Crystal Healing, Celestite is frequently used in angelic and higher realm communication, it has a very gentle but powerful energy. It is said to be able to summon your guardian angel and heightens your spiritual awareness.
Celestite Metaphysical Properties include:
- Calming and balancing
- Communication aid, speech and clear thought
- Remember dreams
- Access to the angelic realms and summon guardian angels
- Psychic healing
- Helps relieve stress and tension, despair
- Helpful with creative expression, music and art
Find our Celestite collection here.