Only a tiny percentage of the gemstones that come from the Earth are medicinal quality. To identify them, we’ve established parameters based on their color, clarity, candescence, and cut.
Here, we’ll talk about the quality characteristics of Blue Flash Moonstone that help to make it a very special and unique healing gemstone.
Color
When describing Moonstone’s color, we have to account for three things: its body color, the color of its flash, or adularescence, and its translucency. These three criteria help us identify medicinal-quality Blue Flash Moonstone color.
A healing Blue Flash Moonstone sphere or rondel should appear nearly colorless and should fall between translucent and transparent. These qualities allow Blue Flash Moonstone’s energies to reach throughout the body and aura quickly, which is important to support the gem’s affinity with wholeness.
The color of the flash, or adularescence, is also important. Blue Flash Moonstone’s blue flash helps the gems spread their energy throughout the aura almost immediately when they are worn. This is due to the affinity of the blue coloration with the mind, whose fabric underlies most of the aura. The blue flash also calms the mind, which encourages it to let go of limiting beliefs and viewpoints so it can expand and make room for new, healthier ones.
Blue Flash Moonstone that is milky to the point of being opaque won’t be able to offer this gem’s unique healing benefits. Milkiness in Blue Flash Moonstone is okay, as long as the gems are translucent. Indeed, only a small percentage of Blue Flash Moonstone has the right combination of qualities that make it appropriate for healing purposes.
In a word, the gem must have a focus. Clear Moonstone with a white flash does not have a well-defined purpose, nor does opaque Moonstone with a blue flash. Such gemstones serve best as decorative jewelry, rather than as healing tools.
To simplify therapeutic-quality Blue Flash Moonstone’s color grading, here at the Gemstone Therapy Institute we take into account:
- The purity of its body color (colorless is superior).
- The strength of its blue flash (stronger is better).
- The extent of its blue flash (bigger is better).
- Its transparency (the more transparent, the better).
We then grade the Blue Flash Moonstone’s color as 3A, 4A, or 5A accordingly. The grade of 6A color quality represents the ideal and is usually not awarded unless other parameters are also superlative.
Clarity
A healing gemstone’s clarity describes the marks and inclusions that may be present within it. Some inclusions are a detriment and will contaminate a gemstone’s healing qualities, whereas others have a minimal effect. Of course, the clearer a gem and the freer it is of internal markings or surface blemishes, the better. Such rare gemstones have purer healing energies, which allow them to work with greater focus and effectiveness.
In order to qualify as therapeutic, Blue Flash Moonstone must be free of dark inclusions. Colorless cracks are acceptable and help determine the gem’s clarity quality, which ranges from 3A to 6A.
Here are the Blue Flash Moonstone clarity grading parameters as defined by the Gemstone Therapy Institute:
- 3A: Visible colorless cracks or minor inclusions may be present.
- 4A: Barely visible colorless cracks or minor inclusions may be present.
- 5A: Very tiny colorless cracks or inclusions, visible with magnification, may be present.
- 6A: Absence of any blemish or inclusion.
Candescence
A gemstone’s candescence describes not only how well it shines to the physical eye, but also how well it emanates its healing energies. This usually corresponds with its physical radiance, but not always. Plus, some gemstones naturally radiate their energies more visibly than others.
Therefore, a healing gemstone’s candescence is the most subjective of our four grading parameters.
Healing Blue Flash Moonstone, in general, can appear in a range of candescence as follows:
- 3A: Good
- 4A: Very Good
- 5A: Outstanding
- 6A: Superlative
Unlike most gemstones, Blue Flash Moonstone is unique in that its energies don’t radiate into the aura. Instead, they are present throughout the aura moments after the gemstone is worn.
In time, its energy moves more deeply into the aura, but its presence appears almost immediately.
Therapeutic-quality Blue Flash Moonstone with a higher candescence rating can reach greater depths sooner. If you wear 6A-quality material, it will reach as deep into your aura as your energy field will allow at that time, then gently urge the energy field to accept even more of its energy.
The energy of 5A gems would approach a similar depth but wait for an invitation to move more deeply. The energy of 4A gems would reach only a moderate depth.
If the depth described a lake, the energy of 3A candescent gems would stay in the shallow areas, but it’s work there would still be significant (assuming all other parameters are therapeutic).
Cut
Healing-quality Blue Flash Moonstone is found in sphere and rondel forms. Rondels look like flattened spheres and are often the shape of choice when the source crystals are small or particularly rare. In these cases, rondels allow the greatest economical use of the material.
Spheres are chosen when the source material is larger and more abundant, or when the cutter has machines for making them. While spheres can be cut by hand, they’re difficult to make perfectly round and of consistent size. Those who hand-cut usually make rondels only. The shape is easier to produce and more forgiving of imperfections.
Blue Flash Moonstone spheres are given a 3A grade. Since they’re shaped perfectly by cutting machines, this is the highest grade we give them.
Blue Flash Moonstone rondels do need to be graded since cutters’ work usually ranges a great deal in quality. Blue Flash Moonstone rondels that are too thin are barely therapeutic, no matter how good the gem’s color and clarity may be.
For Blue Flash Moonstone’s cut:
- Spheres: 3A
Rondels:
- 2A: Cut irregularities are easily visible.
- 3A: Cut irregularities are visible upon close inspection.
- 4A: Minimal cut irregularities.
- 5A: No cut irregularities. Rondels are even and consistent.
I hope that this exploration of therapeutic-quality Blue Flash Moonstone’s color, clarity, candescence, and cut qualities and corresponding gradings will help you choose your Blue Flash Moonstone & Blue Sapphire necklace or bracelet, or better get to know and understand the physical nature of one you already have.