What Are The Healing Properties of Agate?

Agate is a variegated type of chalcedony and can form in multiple forms of host rocks. Much of the harvested agate in the world is found in volcanic lava. Since lava is pushed up frequently due to geological activity, it was possible to harvest agate for the manufacture of jewelry.

Agates have a conchoidal fracture, a cryptocrystalline crystalline formation and come in different colors from green, gray, white, blue, and so on. The translucent quality of each agate differs from one specimen to the next, but they can be opaque to extremely translucent. This makes agate gemstones interesting as pendants and other forms of jewelry because they have so much variety.

Healing Properties of Agate

Agate has several metaphysical and healing properties that make it an excellent addition to anyone’s collection, either for jewelry or energy practice.

1. Agate is the most nourishing and protective of gemstones. It is a transformative stone that can help people suffering from multiple spiritual and physical illnesses to recover. If you have been looking for a gemstone that can kick start your journey to better physical and spiritual health, agate would be an optimal choice.

2. Suffering from a heavy and negative aura? You may be suffering excess negativity from your environment. Agate can help drain the negativity from your spiritual self and cleanse your aura at the same time. A person’s aura can be felt by others and can affect people’s health, too. Cleansing your aura can easily help you and those around you if you are the source of the negativity.

3. Agate is a mental gemstone, meaning it can be used to enhance the user’s mental clarity, focus, intelligence, and creativity. If you need help with fixing your muddled perception of reality, agate is a good choice, too.

4. People suffering from excessive anger and frustration can use agate to balance out these negative emotions. What agate does is it helps people heal from the inside from the ill effects of uncontrolled anger. Tension is whiled away, and the person ends up feeling more secure of himself.

5. Agate is used to remedying issues with the eyes, reproductive organs, and organs in the abdominal region (those influenced by the solar plexus chakra). Novice crystal healing practitioners can use it to regulate and drain the lymphatic system and improve the function of the cardiovascular system.

Agate Types

1. Fortification – Fortification agates are distinct because of the way the color bands follow a central, concentric core. The layers follow the shape of the core in minute detail, making fortification agates look like aerial shots of land formations.

2. Water-line – Water-line or water-level agates are theorized to be naturally rich in silica, which would explain why there appear to be linear water bands forming horizontally, layer by layer, in the agate. It is said that the silica entered the agate slowly over some time, and as the water drained, the silica deposits created the beautiful, ephemeral design inside the agate. Due to gravity, the stacks of linear agate are perfectly parallel to each other, as if painted by an artist.

3. Shadow – Shadow agates are notable for having concentric bands emanating from a central core. When you move a shadow agate back and forth, the insides of the agate seem to be moving. This optical illusion is possible because the concentric bands in shadow agates are made of both opaque and translucent crystallizations. Light is not reflected as expected when it goes in, creating the optical illusion that the concentric, alternating bands are moving.

4. Tube – Tube agates are notable for having ‘scratches’ or hair-like projections cutting the solid color. These projections are mineral rods that form alongside the silica in the early phases of the natural development of agates. In some cases, weathering causes the mineral projections to become hollow, but then again, silica fills the gaps eventually.

5. Eye – Eye agates are the most mysterious-looking of all agates because they have circular projections that look a lot like eyes. A single eye agate can have multiple projections, usually at different points in the structure. It is theorized that this happens when silica gel drains from points in the agate and only a droplet or bead remains. The droplet forms a casing that covers the space where the silica used to be.

6. Plume – Plume agates are remarkable due to the presence of mineral feathers that run parallel to each other. Plume agates are colorful but look a little rougher in composition compared to other agate types. It is said that the feather or fern-like projections exist because, before the deposition of chalcedony, there were already mineral projections in the gemstone. The chromic layering is due to two or more depositions of chalcedony, which changes the appearance of the agate.

7. Geode – Geode agates are often found in areas where there was a former abundance of silica-rich water. Geode agates are easy to identify as they have parallel bands of silica but a large, hollow cavity in the middle. The banding may not be seen in other specimens, but a good number of harvested geodes do have them. The inner bands or layers of geode agates may have multiple types of minerals encased within them.

8. Moss – Moss agate is striking because of the aesthetic inclusions and projections that resemble objects in nature, like trees and grass. The beautiful natural designs that we see are due to mineral projections that are usually identified as manganese oxide, or in some cases, iron. The addition of these mineral bands often prevents the more regular striations of chalcedony to form.
9. Seam – Seam agates develop within the seams of host rocks, which would explain the smoother layers. Seam agates differ from the other agates in a sense that they are never found in large, round pocket formations.