Green Tourmaline Healing Properties
Ancient traditions in India, China and Japan, as well as modern alternative medicine, have used green tourmaline as a curative gem. Members of the tourmaline family of minerals display a large spectrum of colors, from yellow and red to green, blue and black. Green tourmaline, also called verdelite, owes its color to deposits of ferrous iron, chromium or vanadium in the mineral.
Benefits
The Vedic astrology system, one of the oldest and most comprehensive practices in the use of gems, associates green tourmaline with the planet Mercury, believing it to have an effect on memory, speech and intellect. The gem is used to improve memory and help with anxiety, insomnia and even addictions, according to the American Institute of Vedic Studies.
In New Age traditions, tourmaline is used to amplify positive psychic energies and neutralize the negative ones. Verdelite is believed to be energizing and rejuvenating and to stimulate creativity. It also is used to detoxify the body.
Chakra therapy, derived from the yogic philosophies, assigns green tourmaline to the heart chakra and uses it to heal the heart, lungs and thymus gland.
Green tourmaline also has been touted as a natural enhancer of athletic performance because of its ability to boost strength, endurance and mental focus.
Methods
Vedic systems recommend wearing green tourmaline on the body, either set in a ring or hanging on a necklace, as long as it touches the skin. In the chakra therapies, the stone is placed on the heart chakra for several minutes to achieve healing. Other treatment methods include ingested gem powders, cream formulations or elixirs obtained by letting the tourmaline sit in diluted alcohol or water to infuse the liquid with its healing properties.
Electrical Properties
Tourmaline has pyroelectric and piezoelectric properties, meaning that it becomes electrically charged, with a positive charge at one end and negative at the other, when exposed to heat or pressure. The gem also has been known and used for emanating far-infrared radiation and negative ions, which some practitioners believe enhance its healing properties.
History
Different types of tourmaline often were mistaken for other gems whose colors they imitate. After its electrical properties were observed, the tourmaline family of minerals was recognized in 1801.
Considerations
Minerals vary widely in size, composition, cut and effects. Practitioners of gem therapy should remember that these remedies don't work for everyone or for all diseases. Healing depends on the underlying causes of an illness, and alternative methods shouldn't replace traditional medicine or a doctor's advice.
Tags: green tourmaline, also been, family minerals, Green tourmaline also, Green Tourmaline Healing, healing properties, heart chakra