Published May 2017  •  Updated February 2024  •  Read Time: 6 minutes
Hiddenite is the gemological name of the mineral Spodumene.  Most Spodumene are a dull grey, in fact the name means “ash grey.”  On rare occasions this grey mineral becomes a brilliant gemstone.  If the crystals are pink or purple they are called Kunzite, if they are green they are Hiddenite.  The green crystals were first discovered when the inventor Thomas Edison hired a geologist to search for plutonium in the Appalachian mountains.  Hiddenite has a very sweet, happy, wise and loving vibration.  It helps us to love people as they actually are, rather than assuming they will change, or expecting them to remain the same.

Hiddenite green kunzite meaning

Hiddenite Meaning

Spiritual Healing Properties

Hiddenite inspires us to rejoice in our many blessings and in all the way that the Universe has already showered us in abundance and love.  It invites us to open our minds and hearts as wide as we can so that we can continue to receive wonderful gifts and so that the flow of positive abundance keeps growing in our life over time.  Hiddenite teaches us to live from the heart in a state of gratitude and happiness and to making gratitude practices (such as counting our blessings) a part of our daily life.  It also encourages us to be kind and generous to others.  Partly because being good to others is a joy in and of itself.  Partly also because by being good to others we raise our own energetic frequency and better align ourselves with the Law of Attraction.  Hiddenite encourages us to be true to ourselves – meaning our most real self as we are right now as well as our Highest Self, the potential that we contain within us.

Metaphysical Properties Hiddenite
Chakra Heart and Crown
Element Water
Numerology 7
Zodiac Taurus, Leo, and Scorpio

Emotional Healing Properties

Hiddenite vibrates with an incredibly loving energy that helps us to love with our whole heart and soul.  It asks us to accept people for who they are and not try to change or manipulate them.  Hiddenite helps us to see the real beauty in other people and to find the place where we can best meet and grow.  It helps us to resist the lure of power games, control and other ugly relationship habits which kill love and liking.  Hiddenite dissolves negative feelings and thoughts and helps us to let go of any regrets we might feel about our own past conduct.  Hiddenite asks us to either make peace with the past or make positive changes now.  Hiddenite is also very useful to work with when we are mourning an old relationship which didn’t last “forever.”  Hiddenite reminds of the many ways our past relationships have helped us to grow and whispers that new relationships are right around the corner.  Hiddenite is also very good for reducing anxiety and depression related to being single or fear in social situations.  It helps us to greet the world in an open, spontaneous and loving manner.  t reminds us that we are amazing humans with a great capacity for love and that we deserve to be happy.

Mental Healing Properties

Hiddenite helps us to stay calm and collected, regardless of our circumstances.  It combines our intellect with intuition, and logic with our heart’s “inner knowing.”  Hiddenite can help us to accept constructive criticism as a helpful gift, rather than a rejection of who we currently are   It also helps us to remove mental blocks and obstacles that seemingly prevent us from moving forward towards our goals and along our path.  Hiddenite helps us to think of solutions, rather than dwell on problems.  It asks us to always think, “what would Love do?”  Hiddenite is also very useful for countering anxiety related to money or our sense of self-worth.

Physical Healing Properties

Hiddenite eases stress and is said to support the parasympathetic nervous system. It is most often used by metaphysical healers to treat the physical heart.  It is also believed to help balance the hormones that affect our emotions

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Hiddenite Mineralogy

Where does Hiddenite come from?

Spodumene is relatively wide-spread, but brightly colored crystals are rare.  Hiddenite, the green variety, is found in Afghanistan, Brazil and in the United States.

Mining and Treatments

Spodumene is usually a grey or colorless, dull, opaque mineral are mined industrially as a source of lithium. Brightly colored crystals known as Hiddenite and Kunzite are typically from artisanal and small scale mines.

Green Hiddenite may be irradiated to bring out a brighter, more intense color.  Pink/purple Kunzites is more likely to be natural and enhanced only by cutting and polishing.

Hiddenite Placeholder
Hiddenite

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Mineral Family

Hiddenite is the gemstone crystals of Spodumene, a single-chain inosilicate mineral.  Silicates are minerals which contain the elements Silicon (a light gray shiny metal) and Oxygen (a colorless gas). Together, these two elements form a tetrahedron – a shape similar to a pyramid – with a Silicon atom in the center and Oxygen atoms at each of the four corners. These tetrahedra connect with other chemical structures, in six different ways, to form various minerals and rocks. One way the tetrahedra can connect is in long single chains, and it is to this group that Hiddenite belongs.

Hiddenite’s energy works well with its family – other single-chain inosilicate minerals.  Try it in combination with Cat’s Eye Quartz, Charoite, Diopside, Hawk’s Eye, Jadite, Larimar, Rhodonite, and Shattuckite.  Try it also with the pink variety of Spodumene, Kunzite.

Hiddenite Formation and Crystal Associates

Hiddenite grows in lithium-bearing granite pegmatite.  Pegmatite is an ingenious rock with a very course texture.  Many of the world’s largest crystals are found within pegmatite, including a Spodumene crystal found in South Dakota, USA that was 47 feet (14.3 meters) long and weighing over 100 tons!

Hiddenite’s energy works well with its “friends” – crystal associates formed in the same geological environment.  Try it in combination with Amethyst, Black Tourmaline, Clear Quartz, and Emerald.

Mineralogy Kunzite
Chemical Formula Lia(Si2O6)
Cleavage Perfect
Color Pink, Purple, Gold, White, Yellow, Gray, Green
Crystal System Monoclinic
Form/Habit Prismatic
Fracture Subconchoidal to splintery
Hardness – Mohs Scale  6.5-7
Luminescence Orange (long wave) / Pink (short wave)
Luster Vitreous
Mineral Family Silicate (Single-Chain Inosilicate)
Specific Gravity 3.0-3.2
Streak White
Transparency Transparent to Translucent

History of Hiddenite

Kunzite is the gemstone variety of the mineral Spodumene. It is a relatively “new” stone to the metaphysical community and so is not included in any old lapidaries, texts which describe gemstones and their power. Spodumene was first described in 1800 by the Brazilian naturalist, Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva (1763-1838). The original mineral was opaque and grey, and came from a deposit in Sweden. It came to Andrada e Silva’s attention while he was working as professor of geology at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. He named it Spodumene, from the Greek spodumenos, or “burnt to ashes,” on account of that particular mineral’s ash-grey color.  Kunzite, the pink and purple variety of spudumene, wasn’t found until over a century later, in California, USA.

Hiddenite, the green variety of Spodumene was actually found before Kunzite in 1879.  The gems were collected by a young man named Lackey, who sold them to J. Adlai D. Stephenson, a local merchant who had a large mineral collection.  Stephenson knew that Emeralds had recently been found in the area, so he was eager to buy any green gems that local people found.  At first, Stephenson thought Lacky’s green crystals were gemmy Diopside.  He showed the minerals to William Earl Hidden (1853-1918), a geologist who was exploring the North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains during this time.  Hidden lived in New York, but had traveled to North Carolina under the direction of the inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931).  Edison had sent Hidden on a mission to locate plutonium deposits in the Appalachians.  That search was unsuccessful, but it did give Hidden an opportunity to study many minerals form North Carolina, among them Rhodolite Garnet which he named for its rosy pink color.  Hidden also named a variety of Rutile, Edisonite, in honor of his employer.  Hidden sent the unique green gems to his colleague, J. Lawrence Smith, (1818-1883), a chemist and mineralogist, for chemical analysis.  Smith identified the mineral as Spodumene, and named it Hiddenite as a compliment.  Today, Hiddenite is mined alongside Emeralds.  In fact, the only Emerald mine in the world that is open to visitors, is in Emerald Hollow Mine in North Carolina and visitors are allowed to dig for gems, including Hiddenite.

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