Tourmaline has the widest range of colors out of any gemstone species known to man - so wide, in fact, that you could find Tourmaline in basically any shade of any color! Many color families of Tourmaline typically have their own trade name. The name Tourmaline comes from the Singhalese word “tura mali” which means “stone with mixed colors.” Some shades of Tourmaline are often mistaken for Fluorite because both can have the same multi-colored banding in the same piece of stone. All Tourmaline stones display pleochroism, which means the color will shift and change when you look at the stone from different angles. Some stones display this phenomenon very strongly while other stones, it is hardly noticeable. Nonetheless, gem cutters take this into account when cutting the stones so they will be the most beautiful they can be!
Composition
Different colors of Tourmaline directly effect healing properties because their chemical and mineral composition are different from each other. All Tourmaline is made up of silicon, aluminum, and boron, but each color could also contain a different level of a mixture of different elements. Gemologists use these varying compositions to define each species. Tourmaline is a hard and durable stone; it rates 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs Hardness Scale. It is also a pyroelectric material. It attracts dust and other particles when it is warmed!
Types of Tourmaline
Pink Tourmaline:Also known as Rubellite - this name also associates with red, purple-red, orange-red, and brown-red. Some of its healing properties include promoting love, self love, emotional healing, and peace.
Black Tourmaline:Black Tourmaline is very iron-rich, causing its dark color. It is a part of the Schorl stone species. Schorl is the most common form of Tourmaline. It is always opaque, never transparent, which is exclusive to the specific color. One of its main healing properties include protection from negative energy.
Blue Tourmaline: Also known asIndicolite - this name also associates with dark violet-blue and green-blue. Some of its healing properties include promoting honest communication, emotional healing, courage, love, and harmony.
Green Tourmaline:Chrome Tourmaline associates with an intense green color of the stone. Lighter green stones are often called Verdelite. The element called Vanadium causes the green color and that same element is what colors many Emeralds! Some of its healing properties include promoting emotional healing, calmness, confidence, and manifesting dreams.
Yellow Tourmaline:Yellow Tourmaline is very magnesium-rich. Yellow and brown colored Tourmaline stones are part of the Dravite species. Some of its healing properties include promoting purity of energy, protection from negative energy, emotional healing, and progress.
Multi Tourmaline:Also known as Parti-colored Tourmaline, it is part of the Elbaite species, which is the most well-known and most valuable form of Tourmaline. Multi or Part-colored Tourmaline is formed when trace elements’ concentration or composition changes during the stone’s early stages. Some of its healing properties include promoting balance, honest communication, and anxiety relief.
I live in Los Angeles, and some 55 years ago (after my Army Security Agency discharge) I visited the Tourmaline mines around the Pala Indian reservation, and Lithia rich Pegmatite district, in northern San Diego county (California). We were climbing around on the piles of discarded rocks, and we found a few wonderful, colorful, specimens, and we also found that the “trash” piles were covered with Black Tourmaline. When I asked about it, I was told that Black Tourmaline is considered to be worthless trash of no value, and nobody wanted it.
Then the Metaphysical practitioners found it, and wrote about its metaphysical and healing properties, and all of a sudden Black Tourmaline (Shorl) had great value.
Tourmaline has the widest range of colors out of any gemstone species known to man - so wide, in fact, that you could find Tourmaline in basically any shade of any color! Many color families of Tourmaline typically have their own trade name. The name Tourmaline comes from the Singhalese word “tura mali” which means “stone with mixed colors.” Some shades of Tourmaline are often mistaken for Fluorite because both can have the same multi-colored banding in the same piece of stone. All Tourmaline stones display pleochroism, which means the color will shift and change when you look at the stone from different angles. Some stones display this phenomenon very strongly while other stones, it is hardly noticeable. Nonetheless, gem cutters take this into account when cutting the stones so they will be the most beautiful they can be!
