Onyx Meaning

Onyx teaches us the importance of self-mastery, or the ability to harness our own strength and focus, in the pursuit of our most important goals. It is a wonderfully grounding, centering, and balancing stone for anyone with great spiritual aspirations, as self-mastery is one of the most important aspects of self-realization. Attaining Enlightenment, or any other high spiritual state, takes enormous dedication and a willingness to look deeply at ourselves and our world. Onyx provides that strength, and also the steadiness of vision to see the truth and align ourselves accordingly. Onyx also provides a deep root connection, allowing us to draw energy from the wider world and universe to augment our own energy pools.

Onyx 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.  The rocks also shift and break, creating empty cracks, fissures and other hollows.  Chalcedony is formed long afterwards, when silica-bearing water permeates the rocks and begins to fill these hollow spaces.  As the space fills, the water evaporates leaving the silica behind to harden into a Chalcedony. The silica-water may have picked up trace minerals along the way, which result in different colors and patterns in the new stone, including Onyx.

Onyx’s energy works well with its “friends” – crystal associates formed in the same geological environment.  Try it in combination with Carnelian, Clear Quartz, and Sardonyx

While today most people think of Onyx as a pure black stone, in ancient times the name Onyx was used to refer to a wide variety of light colored Agates. The name Onyx comes from the Roman onux, meaning “claw or nail,” which is thought to be a reference to a group of relatively common stones such as Alabaster, Pink Chalcedony, and Onyx Marble, all of which have a soft pinkish-white color, similar to the luster of polished fingernails. In Hebrew, onux means “shining stone.”

According to one Roman myth, Onyx stones had a very unique origin story. When the world was still new, Venus, the Goddess of Love and Beauty, was sleeping on the banks of the sacred Indus River, in India. Her son, Cupid, god of desire, kindly gave her a manicure, using one of his enchanted arrows to do the work. As the nail parings fell into the water, they sank to the bottom and were transformed into Onyx!

Today Onyx is usually thought of as a black stone.  It has the rare distinction of being known for mainly negative qualities, rather than positive! According to one medieval lapidary, a text which describes gemstones and their powers, “[Black] Onyx… has bad virtues because he who wears it at the neck or on the back will see devils; it causes many frivolities, brings anger and disagreement, but it gives hardiness.” People were advised to instead wear Sardonyx, or if they intended to wear Black Onyx, to wear Carnelian as well.

Other lapidaries offered more positive traits, suggesting that Onyx calmed lust and otherwise cooled emotional passions. Camillus Leonardus, an Italian physician, astronomer, and author of Speculum lapidum (1502), described Onyx in his work, stating that Onyx helped quicken labor and bring about the safe delivery of infants, as well as preventing epilepsy falls. Throughout Europe, Onyx was widely believed to be one of the best stones for pregnant women. A fist-sized Onyx was once part of the lost silver reliquary in the Abbey of St. Alban in England. It was reportedly engraved with an image of Asclepius, the ancient Greek god of healing. This large Onyx was left unset and was taken to the homes of nearby women so that they could hold it during labor and thus ease the pain of childbirth. It is thought that this stone was probably an old pagan amulet that was later given to the shrine and assigned Christian meanings.

Asclepius, God of Healing