Green Opal gives us a fresh perspective on life whenever we are feeling stuck in a rut. It can point us towards our “calling,” whether it is one which lasts for our entire lifetime, or only for an important season in our life. Green Opal reminds us that life is beautiful and to actively, consciously notice that beauty in our everyday lives. It stimulates our creativity and originality and encourages us to be our dynamic, wonderful self! Green Opal deepens meditation and can also be used to align the Chakras and balance male/female energies.

Common Opals are fairly widespread and can be found in most types of rocks, wherever silica-bearing waters are found. Opals are especially abundant near hot-springs and Opal often is part of the fossilization process for Petrified Wood as well as fossilized seashells and bones. Precious Opals, by contrast, are much more rare and can only be found enclosed within a rock, where over time the water is slowly removed from the silica gel, a process which can take thousands of years. The silica left behind settles down and, if it settles in the correct formation, it results in the iridescent color which plays across the gem’s surface.

Green Opal’s energy works well with its “friends” – crystal associates formed in the same geological environment.  Try it in combination with Fluorite, Snow Quartz, Topaz

Opal is included in virtually every known lapidary, texts which describe gemstones and their powers. Most of the legends associated with Opals refer specifically to the Precious Opals that contain a flashing “fire” of color inside them. Tumbled Opals, by contrast, are known as Common Opals, and have a flat color. The name Opal most likely derives from the the Sanskrit upala, meaning “precious stone.” It has also been suggested that the name may also come from Ops, a Roman Earth Goddess associated with fertility and the harvest.

At one time, Opals commanded a higher price than any other gemstone, far higher than Diamonds or Rubies. Pliny the Elder (CE 23-79), a Roman author, naturalist, and philosopher described Opal in his lapidary, The Natural History of Precious Gemstones. He related that a generation before him, there had been an enormous Opal, as big as a hazelnut, which was worth more than a villa. It was owned by a Roman Senator named Nonius. Marc Antony, the most powerful man in the Roman world at that time, demanded that the Senator give the gemstone to him. Nonius refused and fled, leaving all his worldly possessions behind, taking only the Opal.

Today, the vast majority of Opals come from the outback of Australia. The “Opal Capital of the World” is the small desert town of Coober Pedy, in Southern Australia. Opals were discovered in the desolate Stuart Mountain range in 1915, by a 14-year-old boy named Willie Hutchinson. He and his father were searching for gold but instead found a mother-lode of pale white sparking gems.  An Opal Rush began, and hundreds of men seeking their fortune poured into the “Stuart Range Opal Field.” This name was deemed too boring, and was replaced with kupa piti, Aboriginal words that meant “the boy’s watering hole,” a nod to Willie Hutchinson. In a bizarre turn of events, Willie died in 1920 while swimming in a water hole. Kupa piti gradually become Coober Pedy, which local residents now claim means “white man in a hole.”

Australia occasionally produces Precious Green Opals, typically these are white or black Opals that have a green iridescence.  Black Opal from Lightening Ridge, Australia often has particularly vivid shades of green and blue.  Precious Green Opals also come from Ethiopia.

Sunrise over the Coober Pedy “golf course”

Common Green Opals can be found in a variety of locations, with each area often showcasing a distinctive hue  In Peru, olive-green Opals and gorgeous blue-green Opals may be found in the Andes.  The mountains are also famous for producing some of the best Pink Opals in the world.  The blue-green Opals are sometimes called “Incan Opals” and are celebrated as the National Gemstone of Peru.  In Europe, Green Opals often have a lovely pastel color, while in Madagascar the Opals may be a vivid emerald green or a yellowish lime green.  The global demand for Common Opals in any color is relatively new.  Prior to the late 20th century, only Precious Opals were actively mined and traded.  Opals current popularity is partially due to the rise of the healing crystal industry, which prizes these pretty little gems and considers them anything but “common.”

There are numerous myths associated with Opal, some romantic and others gruesome.  For more information, please see the longer history article on White Opal.