Published May 2014  •  Updated February 2024  •  Read Time: 7 minutes
Blue Lace Agate is a rare natural blue crystal found only in Namibia.  It has a lacy pattern of light blue and dark blue.  It was discovered by a prospector in the 1960s and has been mined continuously ever since.  In recent years, rumors suggest that the mine has played out.  New veins are occasionally found, but it is likely that this crystal will soon be fully extracted. Blue Lace Agate is a stone of patience and communication.  It is a wonderful choice for parents who need to listen to what their children are saying, both verbally and unconsciously.  It is also a wonderful stone for anyone learning to “use your words” better when experiencing difficult emotions.

Blue Lace Agate

Blue Lace Agate Meaning

Spiritual Healing Properties

Blue Lace Agate teaches us that words create reality and so we should strive to use words that are kind and wise. It is a stone of peace, encouraging us to be tactful and to see both sides of every problem.  Blue Lace Agate helps us to communicate with the angelic realms and our own spirit guides. It is a wonderful stone for helping us to calm and center our thoughts, making it an excellent tool during meditation and prayer. It inspires us to live with remarkable grace and serenity.  It is also an excellent tool for yogis and reiki practitioners.

Metaphysical Properties Blue Lace Agate
Chakra Throat
Element Wind and Water
Numerology 5 and 7
Zodiac Gemini, Libra and Pisces

Emotional Healing Properties

Blue Lace Agate is an incredibly soothing and nurturing stone, with an energy reminiscent of a loving and wise mother or grandmother. It dissolves negative feelings, especially anger and despair caused by feeling judged, repressed or rejected. Blue Lace Agate gently encourages us to let go of of old patterns and baggage and to be true to ourselves. It reminds us that we are love-able as we currently are and that who we are is “enough.” This is a particularly good stone for anyone working through parent-child relationship issues or wanting to be more emotionally expressive.  Blue Lace Agate is especially helpful for men who are learning to accept and express their emotions. It is also very helpful for anyone who is exploring emotional issues related to loyalty, trust, and anything which is a “secret” between two people or a small group.

Mental Healing Properties

Blue Lace Agate is a wonderful communication stone, helping us find the right words to express ourselves. Equally important, it encourages us to truly listen and hear what others are telling us. It can also be used to examine our own inner dialogues, helping us to think more positively and become more mentally kind to ourselves. It teaches us that when we communicate accurately and lovingly, we are moving along a pathway which leads to peace of mind.  Blue Lace Agate helps us release mental stress and to neutralize feelings like anger or fear which can cloud the mind.  Blue Lace Agate helps us to clearly see what is true and what is false, and to respond accordingly.

Physical Healing Properties

Blue Lace Agate is a comforting healing stone to keep nearby when suffering from a cold, flu, strep throat, or other common illnesses.  It’s calm, cooling energy is a balm to the spirit, helping us to stay calm, tolerate bravely, and take sensible action to sooth and heal.  Blue Lace Agate encourages us to take time off and truly rest.  If necessary, it motivates us to visit the doctor and take our medicine like good girls and boys.  Its energy gives us around-the-clock self-soothing care, in the same tradition of countless generations of loving mothers and grandmothers.  Blue Lace Agate is also a comforting talisman for situations involving broken bones or bone disorders, as well as for problems with the pancreas, shoulders, neck and throat.

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Blue Lace Agate Mineralogy

Where does Blue Lace Agate come from?

Agates are found all over the world.  The variety called Blue Lace Agate is found mainly in Namibia, with a few deposits across the border in South Africa.

Mining and Treatments

Blue Lace Agate is mined in it’s primary deposit in association with the igneous rock in which it formed.  Unusual for an Agate, it is the primary focus for a few small mines.  Agates are common minerals that not valuable enough to be the primary focus of any large-scale mining operation.  Normally Agates are mined in tandem with other precious metals and minerals in small-scale and artisanal mines, especially if the stones are particularly colorful or distinctive.  Blue Lace Agate are particularly attractive and the deposit is large enough to make it economically worthwhile.

Blue Lace Agate Placeholder
Blue Lace Agate

The Environmental & Social Impact of Crystals

Your crystals should have a healing energy that is clean, powerful, & makes a positive difference.

Mineral Family

Blue Lace Agate is a silicate mineral.  Silicates are minerals which contain the elements Silicon (a light gray shiny metal) and Oxygen (a colorless gas). There are six main groups of Silicate minerals, and these main groups are further subdivided into secondary subdivisions, such as Quartz and Feldspar. Quartz is divided into two main groups, macrocrystalline and microcrystalline.  Macrocrystalline quartz has well-formed crystals that are large enough to be seen by the naked eye, for example, Amethyst or Clear Quartz.  Microcrystalline quartz has crystals so small they can only be seen through a microscope.  These are typically grouped together under the name Chalcedony, or it’s subcategories Agate and Jasper.  Microcrystalline quartz can be colorless or appear in every shade of the rainbow.

Fire Agate’s energy works well with its family – other Agates.  Try it in combination with Apricot Agate, Botswana Agate, Crazy Lace Agate, Dendritic AgateFire AgateGray AgateMoss AgateSardonyx, and Tree Agate

Blue Lace Agate Formation and Crystal Associates

Agates are created after a volcanic explosion has transformed magma and lava into igneous rock. During the cooling down period, various gases form bubbles, which then become hollow spaces in the igneous rock.  Agates are formed long afterwards, when silica-bearing water permeates the rocks and begins to fill the hollow spaces.  Sometimes the hollow fills quickly and the resulting Agate is a solid color or has a random scattering of trace inclusions.  Depending on which inclusions are added, the Agate will take on a variety of different colors, patterns and transparency levels.  Banded Agates are formed more slowly, with one layer of silica-water solidifying, before another layer is deposited on top.  This sequence is repeated over and over until the hollow is filled.  Some of the layers will have picked up different trace elements or different quantities of the same element, resulting in bands of different colors.  In the case of Blue Lace Agate, later geological activity heated and soften the original agate and pushing and bending the bands into lacy pattern.

Blue Lace Agate’s energy works well with its “friends” – crystal associates formed in the same geological environment.  Try it in combination with Blue Chalcedony and Snow Quartz

Mineralogy Blue Lace Agate
Chemical Formula SiO2
Cleavage None
Color Blue
Crystal System Hexagonal/trigonal
Form/Habit Cryptocrystalline
Fracture Conchoidal
Hardness – Mohs Scale 7
Luminescence Green (long wave) / Yellowish-white (short wave)
Luster Vitreous
Mineral Family Tectosilicate
Specific Gravity 2.
Streak White
Transparency Translucent to opaque

History of Blue Lace Agate

Agate has one of the oldest historical traditions of any healing stone and can appear in every color of the rainbow.  A vivid pure blue is rare, and is often a sign that the Agate has been dyed.  Gorgeous bright blue Agates are occasionally found, with notable examples coming from Mexico and Mongolia.  But when most people in the healing crystal industry think of natural blue agate, Blue Lace Agate, a pale blue variety from Namibia and South Africa is what most often comes to mind.

Indigenous peoples may have known about Blue Lace Agate for centuries, but its modern “discovery” is credited to Willy Preiss.  Preiss was a prospector and lapidary who lived in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. In the 1960s, he made a prospecting trip and discovered a narrow seam of blue and white agate. Unfortunately for Preiss, the seam was located approximately 600 km away from his lapidary shop, making it difficult for him to mine. In 1969, George Swanson staked a property, Ysterputs Farm, near the seam and Willy Preiss offered to give him the mine if he would bring 50 tons of agates to Windhoek. The deal was struck and George Swanson took control of the seam.

Swanson called the blue crytal, the “Gem of Ecology” because he thought the swirling lacy patterns of blue and white resembled clouds as seen from space (this was, after all, the era of the US-Soviet “Space Race”). Today, it is more commonly known as Blue Lace Agate. While a few other deposits have been found, most notably in South Africa, the most exquisite Blue Lace Agate still comes from the same narrow seam on Ysterputs Farm.

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