Published September 2014 • Updated August 2024 • Read Time: 6 minutes
Green Tourmaline can be a Dravite or Elbaite Tourmaline. If the green is mixed with red or blue, it’s always Elbaite, but if the green mixed with yellow-brown than its most likely Dravite. The shade of green can range from deep emerald to a lovely blue-green. Sometimes the shade indicates the source, but not always! Green Tourmaline is sometimes marketed as Verdelite, this is an old term that is still used in the fine jewelry industry. Among healing crystals, it is considered one of the best for taking care of the physical body with practical wisdom. It encourages “active compassion” and taking charge of our life to make it better.
Green Tourmaline Healing Energy
Spiritual Healing Properties
Green Tourmaline sings with joy and gratitude for the wonder of life and the glory of Divine Love. It links us directly with the Earth’s own healing powers. It encourages us to bring ourselves, our community and our world into heart-balance. Green Tourmaline has a masculine-yang energy, which inspires active compassion, rather than passive/reflective compassion. It urges us to dive into this physical world, connect with others and make beautiful things happen in real life. It has a very wholesome and healthy energy that expands the heart chakra and makes our aura grow larger. It attracts long-lasting success and abundance, and transforms negative energies into positive. Green Tourmaline attracts devas and other nature spirits, making it a wonderful crystal for gardeners, herbalists and anyone who works in earth medicine.
| Vibrations | Green Tourmaline |
|---|---|
| Chakra | Heart |
| Element | Earth and Water |
| Numerology | 2 and 6 |
| Zodiac | Libra and Capricorn |
Emotional Healing Properties
Green Tourmaline has a happy and courageous energy. It encourages us to let go of our inhibitions and to be open to trying new things. It helps us to laugh at ourselves and to not take ourselves so seriously. It teasingly reminds us to get back up, whenever we fall down. Green Tourmaline helps us to see change as a call to adventure, rather than something to fear or dread. It makes us eager to learn more, grow and evolve. It also reminds us to be very kind and tender towards ourselves as well as with others. It inspires patience, trustworthiness, a sense of belonging and makes us truly interested in getting to know other people and helping everyone thrive. Green Tourmaline reduces claustrophobia and helps to decrease emotional triggers and panic attacks. It is one of the very best stones for working through issues related to fathers and other male-authority figures.
Mental Healing Properties
Green Tourmaline helps us to calm down and loosen up. It helps reduce the negative influence of our ego, while keeping the more positive aspects alive. Green Tourmaline inspires constructive thinking and creative problem-solving. It helps us to see many possible solutions to a problem, and then to choose the best option according to our current knowledge and value system. It reduces perfectionism and helps us to accept that life is a constant work in progress and to enjoy the journey. Green Tourmaline calms hyperactive minds and reduces anxiety. It highlights wonderful masculine qualities, making this stone a unique ally for feminists fighting against toxic patriarchy culture. It helps us to honestly examine our past, be encouraged by our current progress and to to be eager to create a better future for all.
Physical Healing Properties
Green Tourmaline is one of the primary stones used by metaphysical healers to treat the physical body. It is particularly useful for issues related to the physical heart. Green Tourmaline is also said to stimulate cellular health, and so is recommended for anyone with cancer or other cellular-growth disorders. Green Tourmaline moves healing energy throughout the body, bringing a sense of vitality and overall healthiness. It is used to encourage healthy sleep patterns, calm the nervous system and fight Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It is also used to support the immune system, treat eye disorders, heal the thymus and glands, and to strengthen the spine. Green Tourmaline has additionally been used to facilitate weight loss and encourage healthy elimination and detox.
Geology of Green Tourmaline
Where does Green Tourmaline come from?
Tourmaline is found around the world. Green Tourmaline can be either Dravite or Elbaite Tourmaline. Notable deposits for Green Tourmaline include Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Brazil, India, Italy, Madagascar, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Switzerland, Tanzania, and the United States.
Mining and Treatments
Tourmaline is a fairly common mineral, but gem quality crystals are relatively rare, and found almost exclusively in Pegmatite. Numerous mines exist whose primary purpose is finding gem-quality Tourmaline.
Opaque Tourmalines are natural, enhanced only by cutting and polishing. But transparent Tourmaline can be heat-treated to brighten the color. For example a dark green Tourmaline might be heat-treated to become a vivid emerald green. Such treatments primarily occur in the fine gemstone jewelry industry. Lab-created Tourmaline also exists. But it is typically used for research purposes and so is not readily available to the general public.
Green Tourmaline
Mineral Family
Tourmaline is a generic term which refers to 11 varieties of borosilicate minerals that can be any color of the rainbow. Silicates are minerals which contain the elements Silicon (a light gray shiny metal) and Oxygen (a colorless gas). Together, these two elements form a tetrahedra – a shape similar to a pyramid – with a Silicon atom in the center and Oxygen atoms at each of the three corners. These tetrahedras connect with other chemical structures, in six different ways, to form various minerals and rocks. There are six main groups of Silicate minerals, and these main groups are further subdivided into a variety of secondary subdivisions, such as Quartz and Feldspar. Tourmaline belongs to the cyclosilicate family. Cyclo means circle and all the minerals in this family form closed rings of tetrahedras. All Tourmalines are borosilicats, which are cyclosilicates that contain the element boron. Green Tourmaline can be Dravite or Elbaite Tourmaline.
Green Tourmaline’s energy works well with its family – other Cyclosilicate minerals. Try it in combination with Aquamarine, Dioptase, Emerald, Eudialyte, lolite, Morganite, and Sugilite. It also works well with other varieties of Tourmaline. Try it with Schorl.
Green Tourmaline Formation and Crystal Associates
Tourmaline is created when liquid magma from a volcanic explosion cools down and transforms into igneous rocks. During this cooling down period, borosilica acid shifts from being a gas/liquid into a solid compound, called Tourmaline. Most species of Tourmaline are found in Pegmatite, a type of ignenous rock which typically develops underwater
Green Tourmaline’s energy works well with its “friends” – crystal associates formed in the same geological environment. Try it in combination with Black Tourmaline, Muscovite, Quartz, Red/Pink Tourmaline, and Smoky Quartz
Watermelon Tourmaline
Watermelon Tourmaline is a particularly pretty crystal that combines green and pink Elbaite Tourmaline. The most prized varieties have pink in the center with a green ring around them.
| Mineralogy | Green Tourmaline |
|---|---|
| Chemical Formula | NA (Mg, Fe, Li, Mn, Al )3Al6(BO3)3Si6O18(OH,F)4 |
| Cleavage | Indistinct |
| Color | Green |
| Crystal System | Hexagonal/triagonal |
| Form/Habit | Prismatic, acicular |
| Fracture | Uneven, small conchoidal, brittle |
| Hardness – Mohs Scale | 7-7.5 |
| Luminescence | Blue (short wave) |
| Luster | Vitreous |
| Mineral Family | Cyclosilicates |
| Specific Gravity | 2.82-3.32 |
| Streak | White |
| Transparency | Transparent to opaque |
History of Green Tourmaline
Tourmaline comes in every color making it difficult to trace in early lapidaries, texts which describe gemstones and their powers. In antiquity, it was most likely confused with other similarly-colored gemstones, such as green Emeralds, red Rubies and yellow Topaz. The name “Tourmaline” reflects this multicolored splendor. It comes from the Sri Lankan word turmali, which can be translated as “stone with mixed colors” or “gem pebbles.” Sri Lanka is known for its beautiful Elbaite Tourmalines that come in every shade of the rainbow. The Dutch East India Company first visited Sri Lanka in 1602, and then took control of the island’s coastline from 1640 until 1789. Among the many imports that the Dutch East India Company brought back to Europe were sparkly gemstones. The oldest record for Tourmaline’s healing powers is from a lapidary published in 1632 which calls Tourmaline, “the stone of wisdom, that is clear and resistant to all vagaries of fate.”
Green Tourmaline can be Elbaite or Dravite Tourmaline. It is also sometimes called Verdelite. Verde means “green” in Italian, Spanish, and other Latin-based languages. Sometimes these Tourmalines may be called “Brazilian Tourmaline” or “African Tourmaline” which seems to hint at the origin. But this is not always the case! Previously it seemed that all the bottle-green gems were coming from Brazil, while vivid blue-green jewels came from various locations in Africa. So “Brazilian Tourmaline” and “African Tourmaline” may sometimes refer to the color, rather than the sourcing! For example, this Tourmaline was mined in Afghanistan and showcases that classic “Brazilian” bottle-green color at the top, but also has an “African” blue-green hue at the bottom.
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