Serpentine: Meaning, Properties and How to Use It
Serpentine is named for snakeskin and read the same way, as the stone of shedding what no longer fits. Practice credits it with slow renewal, with kundalini work in Indian influenced traditions, and with a grounded patience that is not passive. It is one of the oldest carved stones on earth.
What tradition says
What is Serpentine known for?
Chinese carvers used it for centuries as new jade, and a great deal of antique jade in collections is serpentine. Mesoamerican cultures buried it with the dead. European folk names call it snakestone and tie it to healing bites, which is where the protective reading comes from. Modern practice keeps the shedding image above everything else, a stone for the person who has outgrown a role and has not yet stepped out of it.
The practice
How do you use Serpentine?
Use it over a season rather than a day.
People keep a piece where they get dressed and handle it while deciding what the next version of their life looks like.
In seated practice it sits at the base of the spine or in the lap.
Tradition asks you to name one thing you are done with.
Read here as a language of symbols. Medical, legal and financial questions belong with a professional.
Two more
What does Serpentine 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 Serpentine for?
The same stone, read through the thing you came here with.
Questions
What else do people ask about Serpentine?
Is serpentine dangerous to own?
A finished polished piece is not. Fibres become a hazard when they are airborne, which takes cutting or abrasion, not handling. Keep raw chunks out of a child's reach, do not tumble it yourself in a dry machine, and wash your hands after handling rough material.
How do I tell serpentine from jade?
Serpentine is noticeably softer, around three to five, so a steel point scratches it where jade resists. It also feels slightly greasy and is often more translucent in thin sections. Price is the loudest signal. Jade at serpentine money is serpentine.
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