Onyx: Meaning, Properties and How to Use It
Black onyx is read as the stone of holding the line. Tradition credits it with endurance in a long hard stretch, with keeping other people's moods off you, and with self-control when reacting would cost you something. Roman soldiers carried it engraved before battle.
What tradition says
What is Onyx known for?
Where obsidian is read as a mirror that shows you things, onyx is read as a wall that simply does not let them in, which makes it the quieter of the two dark stones. Indian tradition adds a note about grief and about the year after a loss. Victorian mourning jewellery used it for the same reason. The whole reputation is about staying upright through something that takes longer than you expected.
The practice
How do you use Onyx?
Carry it on days with a difficult person in them.
Many people hold it in a closed hand under the table during the conversation itself and let the cool weight be the thing they react to instead.
As a bracelet it suits long projects, worn for the whole stretch and taken off the day the thing is finished.
Read here as a language of symbols. Medical, legal and financial questions belong with a professional.
Two more
What does Onyx pair with?
Stones are kept in small sets rather than alone, and these two are the usual company for this one.
What it is kept for
What do people reach for Onyx for?
The same stone, read through the thing you came here with.
Questions
What else do people ask about Onyx?
Onyx or black tourmaline for protection?
Tradition splits them by situation. Black tourmaline is the stone for an environment, a room, a doorway, a general sense of static. Onyx is the stone for a person and for your own reaction to them. Many people keep tourmaline at home and onyx in the pocket.
Is onyx heavy to wear every day?
Some people find a constant dark stone flattening after a few weeks, which tradition describes as too much wall and not enough window. The usual fix is to alternate it with a bright stone, or to wear it only on the days that need it rather than by habit.
Next in the library
The stones beside this one.
Two ways on
One stone is a reminder, a library is a map.
A hundred and four stones and sixty four everyday uses, sorted the way a week arrives. If you came here through the body rather than the mineral, the seven chakras are the other way in.
- 104
- stones, each with what tradition says
- 64
- everyday uses, six stones under each
- 7
- centres, the same set read through the body