How do you know that the crystal you are buying is what the label says? With this rapidly expanding market, it can be difficult to know what you are buying is what the seller says it is, especially when shopping online. We are developing a blog series to help you with exactly this, starting with heat-treated crystals.
Misleading Minerals
The crystal market is rapidly growing with a drastic increase on demand, some crystals have surfaced and are misleading the market. Sometimes crystals are incorrectly named at the source, causing it to get mislabeled down the entire supply chain until we buy it and find out at a later date that it's not what we wanted at all!
This is a very broad topic and there are so many scenarios surrounding crystals. Whether we have bought something to later find out that name isn't a real crystal name and we need to find its real name, or we have purchased a crystal to discover it is in fact a very similar looking but different mineral. Maybe we believe we are buying a genuine crystal, only to find out it is a man-made version, or we buy a crystal to find out later that it has been heat-treated. All of these scenarios can be frustrating.
Some of these crystals are incredibly beautiful and there is nothing wrong with buying them, but if it's not what we wanted, it is easy to feel duped. Believe me when I say this has happened to me on more than one occasion! It is far better to know for yourself what you are buying so you can make empowered choices.
In this blog, we are going to look at heat treated crystals, the effect this has and the subsequent change in colour. But keep your eyes peeled for more blog posts covering the other topics.
Citrine
First up let's take a look at Citrine, a fairly rare crystal found naturally which is why it has been artificially created to satisfy public demand and budgets.
Natural Citrine
Natural Citrine is a member of the Quartz family. It is Clear Quartz with iron inclusions and is a beautiful warm honey yellow colour and can range from very pale to almost brown in colour. Due to its rarity, this is a pricey crystal.
Heat Treated Amethyst Citrine
The most common type of crystal available as Citrine currently on the market is actually heat-treated Amethyst. By heat-treating Amethyst (a purple variety of Quartz) the colour of the crystal changes and a yellow one can be created. Typically a bright orange/yellow to deep burnt orange, with opaque white at the base of the crystals. This type of 'Citrine' tends to be found in individual crystals or clusters, just like you would find Amethyst.
Heat Treated Quartz Citrine
A yellow crystal can also be artificially created by heat-treating Clear Quartz. This creates a very different coloured 'Citrine' that is very yellow and often quite bright. This is a more recent development and might be due to supplies of Amethyst running low as so much of it is made into 'Citrine'!!
Natural Heat Treating
Now, what we need to bear in mind here before we get all hot under the collar about this happening to our beloved crystals is that Mother Earth naturally heat treats (irradiates) her own crystals with remarkable effect. An example of this would be Clear Quartz being irradiated to create Smoky Quartz, one fabulous and incredibly powerful crystal!
Now natural Smoky Quartz is again quite a rare beast. It is a stunning crystal that varies in colour from a very pale tan to deep chocolate brown. So to create more Smoky Quartz and at a cheaper price, Clear Quartz has been heat-treated in a laboratory to satisfy demand.
The end result isn't the same in terms of colour though, which is a good thing as it means we can easily determine the difference between the real thing created by Mother Earth and one that has been adapted by man. The man-made version has a much harsher and darker colour and can actually be quite black in colour as opposed to smoky brown.
Natural VS Treated Crystals Is It Fair?
So if humans are just replicating a natural process to create cheaper and more accessible crystals, is this a problem? Well, that's for each of us to decide, but I do think it's important that they are labelled correctly so we know what we are buying.
Are natural crystals superior to ones altered by man? More powerful? More anything? Well, I think that the best way we can each decide for ourselves is to work with these crystals and compare their energies, feeling the energy rather than thinking about the process and whether we approve of it or not.
What we feel in this now moment might well change anyway, so I always use the phrase 'never say never' because you can guarantee if you don't, you might just have to eat your words!
It's nice to know what you are buying. When you know you know. It's when you don't know and then find out that it can be upsetting and frustrating. So are these types of manipulated crystals fake or fraudulent? Maybe not if you have the right information, it is still a crystal with a particular colour, but maybe just not as Mother Nature designed. Sometimes, this allows us to add a crystal to our collection which we might not otherwise be able to afford.
Use Your Guidance
Personal preference is one thing, but if you are drawn to a crystal it doesn't matter what it is or how it was made, the chances are that you need it in your life at this point in time.
All yellow crystals have an effect on the Solar Plexus chakra and share a core set of influences, but they each have something unique that they bring to the table due to the different minerals included within them. We only have to think about Clear Quartz being mined in different parts of the world and having very recognisable energies to understand that any differences, however subtle can alter the energy.
So, if you are drawn to a crystal it will be because it is exactly what you need, no matter the journey it has travelled to reach you. Stand in your power, listen to your heart and don't be influenced by other people's judgments.
Love and crystal blessings,
Tiggy xx
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