The meaning of lapis lazuli
Looking at lapis lazuli is like looking at a starry night sky: a deep blue scattered with golden sparks. For six thousand years people have held this blue as a piece of the heavens.
Not a mineral but a night sky: what lapis lazuli is
Lapis lazuli is not a single mineral but a rock made of several. Its deep blue comes from a mineral called lazurite; the white veins in it are calcite, and the small flecks that shine like gold are pyrite. Together they give the stone the look of a starry sky. The oldest and most famous lapis deposits in the world lie in the mountains of Badakhshan in Afghanistan, where mining is thought to have gone on for more than six thousand years. The Andes of Chile are another known source. Its name joins the Latin "lapis", stone, with a word of Persian origin for sky and blue: roughly, "sky blue stone".
The blue of goddesses, pharaohs and painters
Lapis lazuli was one of the most treasured stones of the ancient world. Objects decorated with lapis have been recovered from the royal tombs of Ur in Mesopotamia, and in Sumerian story the goddess Inanna wears lapis beads as she descends to the underworld. In Egypt the stone was linked with the sky and with eternity; the dark blue details on Tutankhamun's golden mask are lapis. Centuries later it was ground into the pigment ultramarine, meaning "from beyond the sea", because it reached Europe from far away. More costly than gold, it was reserved in Renaissance painting for the robe of the Virgin, and Vermeer drew his favourite blue from it.
Truth and insight
In crystal traditions lapis lazuli is associated with the third eye chakra and the element of air. In many cultures it is regarded as a symbol of wisdom, truth and insight. The root of these meanings can be seen in the stone itself: small lights shining inside a dark blue are an image of being able to make things out even in the dark. Because blue was long the most unreachable and precious of colours, lapis came to be associated with deep thought and a calm seriousness. The stone does not give you wisdom, but it can be a lovely reminder to listen to the quiet knowing already within you.
A stone of long journeys
The story of lapis lazuli is also a story of travel. Mined in the steep mountains of Badakhshan, the stone was carried thousands of kilometres by caravan and ship, to Mesopotamia, to Egypt and, much later, to Venice. When Renaissance painters bought their ultramarine, they may never have imagined that this blue had once glinted in a miner's hand in Afghanistan. A bead in a royal tomb and a robe on a church wall come from the same mountain. That long road adds a quiet meaning to the stone: precious things often arrive slowly, passing from hand to hand, from far away.
A quiet moment of reflection
You might keep lapis lazuli on your desk, beside a notebook or among your books. When your eye drifts to it while you are turning over a decision, you could, if you like, pause for a moment and look at the golden flecks inside it; your mind steps away from the question for a little while and may return a bit calmer. Some people keep lapis in a corner where they write or read at night. You do not need to think of it as a method. The stone simply reminds you that the best answers sometimes arrive in silence.
144 stones in Sakin Stones
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This text is a symbolic and cultural reading; it gives no information about health or the future.