Peridot: Meaning, Properties and How to Use It
Peridot is credited with lifting heaviness. Tradition reads it as the stone that clears envy, old resentment and the dull mood that has no name, and replaces them with plain appetite for life. Egyptian sources called it the gem of the sun and set it against night fears.
What tradition says
What is Peridot known for?
The Egyptians mined it on Zabargad island in the Red Sea and worked at night, because they said the stone only gives itself away in the dark. Crusaders brought it into European churches, where much of the emerald in old reliquaries turned out to be peridot. It has always been read as a sunny rather than a solemn stone, good for coming out of a long grey stretch and wanting things again.
The practice
How do you use Peridot?
Use it at the end of something heavy.
A pendant worn through the first week back at work, a stone on the windowsill where morning light hits it, a tumble in the pocket on the day you deliberately do one enjoyable thing.
Tradition pairs it with saying out loud what you no longer want to carry.
Read here as a language of symbols. Medical, legal and financial questions belong with a professional.
Two more
What does Peridot 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 Peridot for?
The same stone, read through the thing you came here with.
Questions
What else do people ask about Peridot?
Is peridot the same as olivine and chrysolite?
Nearly. Olivine is the mineral family, peridot is the gem quality variety, and chrysolite is the older name still common in Russian usage. The Russian trade word for the same green stone is хризолит, which confuses people shopping across two languages.
Why does peridot look different under lamps?
It is one of the few gems that keeps its colour almost unchanged in any light, which is why it was called the evening emerald. What shifts is the yellow undertone, warmer under bulbs and greener in daylight. Nothing is wrong with the stone.
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