Sunstone
(suhn - stown)What is Sunstone?
Sunstone looks like it has many little suns inside it, which is why the ancient Greeks named it so. The name comes from the Greek word “Helios,” meaning Sun.
With over 15 varieties in red, orange, yellow, green, black, and colorless hues, not all Sunstones show optical illusions. The visual effects come from the mineral inclusions of Pyrite, Goethite, Copper, or Hematite in the Sunstone crystal.
Most people don’t know this, but Sunstone has been a favorite in most religions for ages. Legends say the Vikings used it as a compass for navigating the seas, though it’s debated because historians say Vikings must have used Calcites rather than Sunstones, as they’re more accurate for seafaring. That said, who can say the Vikings never used Sunstones for spiritual guidance?
Did you know Sunstone shows multiple optical illusions? Sunstone shows many optical illusions like Schiller Effect, Aventurescence, Asterism, and Chatoyancy.
Sunstone may look glittery, bright, white, iridescent, or light up into a four-legged star.
Sunstone Healing Properties and Benefits
Health and Vitality
- Sunstone balances hormones detoxifies negativity and promote wellness by tapping into your lower chakras.
- The best way to activate Sunstone for lower body healing is by placing it on your lower chakras. But before placing the crystal on your body, activate it with healing affirmations.
Pain and Healing
- Did you know Sunstone was used in ancient times for arthritis? Because Sunstone opens chakras associated with lower body organs, it accelerates the effects of medicines and alleviates pain.
- It’s best to activate Sunstone for pain and healing with fire charging. Hold a Sunstone before a lit candle or campfire for a minute before placing it over the affected area or carrying it in your pocket.
Work Success
- Sunstone is powered by the Sun, and that’s why it paves your path to successful opportunities. You’ll also experience better mental clarity, creativity, and productivity.
- I find it best to activate Sunstone for success in work and life by charging it for five minutes in the early morning sun.
Leadership Skills
- Sunstone makes leaders out of wearers by enhancing your critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It’s also good for tapping into confidence, motivation, and inner power.
- To activate Sunstone for leadership skills, repeatedly chant the mantra YAM into the stone slowly. You can also meditate on your intention at this time. Wear the charged Sunstone on your body.
Emotional Balance
- Did you know Sunstone helps you find stability in the worst chaos? Keeping Sunstone close to you helps you build a support system, and it’s great for realizing independence and freedom.
- I use Sunstone for emotional balance by smudging it with Sandalwood or Lavender incense. You only need to light the incense and waft the smoke over the crystal with your hand.
Sunstone Spiritual Properties and Benefits
Kundalini Awakening
- Vouched by Tantric Vedas, Sunstone enhances sexuality, libido, fertility, and passion in wearers. For this, use dark orange Sunstone varieties as they quickly tap into the Sacral Chakra.
- Use Sunstone for Kundalini awakening by lying down and placing the crystal on your abdomen. You can meditate for five minutes and repeat this ritual daily.
Abundance and Luck
- Sunstone was used to attract good fortune in ancient times. Because Sunstone attracts lucky opportunities and success, it automatically attracts prosperity.
- You can attract luck with Sunstone crystals by placing them in the feng shui direction of the east. Before setting up crystals according to feng shui, charge them. Read this article on how to charge crystals.
Aura Cleansing
- Did you know Sunstone clears negativity? The solar energy crystal also cleanses your aura and spreads good vibes, peace, and positivity.
- Take a Sunstone wand with a single termination and aim it toward your Root Chakra for a few seconds. Visualize cleansing action and move on consecutively to the higher chakras.
Grounding and Protection
- Sunstone absorbs vibrations from the sun and raises your own to create protective energy shields around you. It’s also good for grounding fears and stresses away.
- Bury a Sunstone crystal in each of the four corners of your house after charging it with chants, affirmations, or meditation. This will help the crystal build a protective shield around your home.
Intuition and Wisdom
- You can tap into your dormant psychic abilities by getting a Sunstone Iolite. It’s the only type of Sunstone capable of connecting you to higher powers and angels.
- Use the Iolite Sunstone variety for intuition by setting it as the central stone in crystal grids. Using other compatible higher chakra crystals, like Amethyst and Clear Quartz, is also good.
Sunstone Side Effects
- Exhaustion: Prolonged use of Sunstone may drain your energy or make you blindly optimistic. If you overuse Sunstone, keep it away and reset for a few days with a support crystal, like Moonstone.
- Astrological Mismatch: Do you know who shouldn’t wear Sunstone? If your zodiac sign is ruled by an enemy planet of the Sun, Sunstone isn’t good to wear.
What Does Sunstone Symbolize?
The meaning of Sunstone is abundance.
Because Sunstone is a natural gemstone, originating from around the world, it represents numerous things. That’s why inner power, health, inspiration, success, abundance, kundalini, and protection are also Sunstone benefits.
Did you know Native Americans traded and even buried their dead with Sunstone nuggets? They believed the blood of ancient warriors colored Sunstone crystals. Archaeologists also say Sunstone was used medicinally throughout the Americas.
Ancient Greeks and Egyptians believed Sunstone contained the energy of creation from the Sun God Ra.
Sunstone represents the masculine energy of yin in most cultures, so it also stands for strength, harmony, and passion.
Varieties of Sunstone
- Orange Sunstone: Sunstone crystals are generally pale orange stones with streaks of yellow, white, or red colors. They’re excellent for awakening the kundalini energy by balancing the Sacral Chakra.
- Oregon Sunstone: The official gemstone of Oregon, this type of Sunstone shows the Schiller effect due to copper inclusions. It’s perfect for opening the Sacral and Root Chakras.
- Oligoclase Sunstone: This variety of Sunstone bends light into sparkles due to its Hematite plate inclusions that enhance your intelligence. This type of Sunstone is called aventurescent feldspar or aventurine feldspar for optical effects.
- Indian Sunstone: A type of aventurescent feldspar from India with bright orange colors, glitters, and sparkles, this crystal is often used as a good luck charm. It’s ideal for improving self-confidence, charisma, and wisdom.
- Orthoclase Sunstone: Usually originating from Russia, this type of Sunstone has short plates. They also show beige, gray, and white colors with blotches of black, yellow, or red and work well for grounding.
- Confetti Sunstone: Sunstones from Tanzania and Canada have colorful inclusions that look like confetti inside the crystal. This type of Sunstone easily opens all the lower chakras.
- Rainbow Lattice Sunstone: An Australian variety of Orthoclase Sunstone, Rainbow Lattice also has long plates of Magnetite with Hematite. They show a rainbow flash and open the Heart, Sacral, Solar Plexus, and Root Chakras.
- Bi-Color and Tri-Color Sunstones: Another popular Sunstone variety, this shows up with a mix of two colors – red and green – or more colors, such as red, green, brown, and yellow. While they’re rare and expensive, this Sunstone crystal is calming.
- Green Sunstone: This variety of Sunstones shows olive and forest green shades. It brings patience, confidence, motivation, healing, abundance, and wisdom.
- Deep Red Sunstone: Resembling Garnet in appearance, this type of Sunstone shows inclusions of black and red. It’s good for enhancing your sex drive and fertility.
- Golden Yellow Sunstone: The yellow variety of Sunstone is a crystal for luck and success. They may look like Citrine, Imperial Topaz, or Yellow Sapphire. This Sunstone variety opens the Solar Plexus Chakra and heals the lower body organs.
- Black Sunstone: A mix of gray and black colors, this type of Sunstone has silver streaks. It works excellently for awakening the Crown and Third Eye Chakras.
- Pink Sunstone: This Sunstone variety looks like Rhodonite with sparkles due to its salmon pink or peach hues. It’s a great crystal for self-care, support, and love. In some cases, Sunstones may look pink from the Moonstone crystals inside them.
- Colorless Sunstone: Some types of Oregon Sunstones are transparent or colorless. They’re great for intuition and psychic powers, as they open the Third Eye and Crown Chakras.
- Bloodshot Iolite Sunstone: When Iolite forms with Sunstone, the latter shows purple, red, yellow, white, black, and orange inclusions. They’re good for higher powers because they heal the Crown, Sacral, and Root Chakras.
- Star Sunstone: This type of Sunstone shows asterism or the shape of a four-legged star. The star-shaped Sunstone is great for psychic abilities and higher consciousness.
How To Cleanse Sunstone?
- Fire – Because the Fire element rules Sunstone, it’s the best way to cleanse it. You can do this by holding a Sunstone before a lit candle or a fire for a minute.
- Seed Mantra – To appease the ruling element of Air, chant the associated Seed Mantra “YAM” slowly. It’s better to hold the crystal in front of your lips and chant into it to cleanse Sunstone.
- Clear Quartz – As a self-cleansing crystal, Clear Quartz easily removes negative energies stuck to Sunstone. For this, circle a Clear Quartz wand thrice over your Sunstone in a clockwise direction.
Question and Answer
No, Moonstone and Sunstone are not the same crystal, but they’re from the same mineral category of Feldspars. They’re a good combination for yin-yang balance.
There are two feldspars, and one of those with potassium creates three different gemstones:
- Moonstone
- Orthoclase Sunstone
- Amazonite (Microcline)
Yes, Sunstone crystals are water-safe. You can clean, cleanse, and charge Sunstone with water for a short period, thanks to its good hardness score on the MOHS scale.
Yes, Sunstone is safe in the sun. It’s the best way to cleanse and charge it. While Sunstone has a stable color that doesn’t fade when left out in the sun, you shouldn’t leave it out for hours on end.
Yes, you can wear Sunstone every day because of its good MOHS score. Although it’s often worn as daily jewelry, you should avoid wearing it in rough workspaces.
Yes, Sunstone crystals can break easily because they have cleavages in multiple directions. Although it’s strong on the MOHS scale, Sunstone gets easily scratched with Quartz and Chalcedony crystals.
You can see the aventurescent sheen on real Sunstones even if they have only minute inclusions. You can also do a scratch test with Turquoise, as it has a lower MOHS than Sunstone.
The best feng shui direction to keep your Sunstone is the southern corner of your bedroom or house. It’ll attract fame, reputation, love, and harmony to your house with the power of the Sun Gods.
No. Though there are no natural Blue Sunstone crystals, Blue Sandstone or Goldstone is often called Blue Sunstone.
Yes and no. You can get Sunstone for $20 to $300 per carat. Did you know Sunstone was a costly gem once? That was before the Sunstone deposits in Norway and Siberia were discovered.
The most valuable variety of natural Sunstone is the Bi-Color variety with red and green shades. Bi-Color and Tri-Color Sunstones can fetch up to $1,000 per carat!
As Sunstone isn’t damaged in salt, you can bury it in a bowl of Halite or rock salt crystals overnight before wear. Even a quick salt rinse is good for activating Sunstone. Avoid soaking the crystal for a prolonged time in water and salt water.
Interactions with Sunstone
Sunstone vs. Citrine
| Crystal | Sunstone | Citrine |
| Chakras | Crown, Third Eye, Heart, Sacral, Solar Plexus, and Root. | Sacral and Solar Plexus. |
| Ruling Planet | Sun | Jupiter |
| Ruling Element | Fire and Air. | Sun |
| MOHS | 6.5 to 7.2 | 7 |
Sunstone vs. Moonstone
| Crystal | Sunstone | Moonstone |
| Chakras | Crown, Third Eye, Heart, Sacral, Solar Plexus, and Root. | Crown, Third Eye, Heart, and Root |
| Ruling Planet | Sun | Moon |
| Ruling Element | Fire and Air. | Water |
| MOHS | 6.5 to 7.2 | 6 to 6.5 |
Sunstone vs. Labradorite
| Crystal | Sunstone | Labradorite |
| Chakras | Crown, Third Eye, Heart, Sacral, Solar Plexus, and Root. | Crown, Third Eye, and Throat |
| Ruling Planet | Sun | Jupiter |
| Ruling Element | Fire and Air | Water |
| MOHS | 6.5 to 7.2 | 7 |
Most viewed articles from Sunstone Crystal
