Published May 2018  •  Updated February 2024  •  Read Time: 8 minutes
Purple Jade is among the rarest varieties of Jade.  It is a type of Jadeite and found in only two locations, Myanmar and Turkey.  The Myanmar Lavender Jade has a soft purple color, while the Turkish variety is much darker.  While other varieties of Jade are highly prized in Eastern Asia, the main market for Purple Jade is the United States.  Because demand is high while supply is low, most of the Purple Jade jewelry on the market is actually dyed from low-quality white Jade.  It is well worth the time to seek out true Purple Jade.  It has a happy spiritual vibration and is highly recommended for energy workers and empaths

Purple Jade

Purple Jade Meaning

Spiritual Healing Properties

Purple Jade vibration ripples with lightness and laughter.  It shows us the immense joy and humor that so often surrounds us.  It giggles at the many ways the Universe challenges us to become our Highest Self.   Purple Jade reveals the spiritual perfection that exists in everything, even in those things which seem less-than-perfect. Purple Jade gives us a glimpse into how life appears to Spiritual Masters who are fully awake.  It excitedly wakes us up and shows us where we can find teachers and lessons to move us forward on our spiritual evolution.  Purple Jade helps us to be grounded and awakened at the same time.  It help us to see clearly, with an open heart and a wise mind.  It strengthens our intuition and protects our aura.  Purple Jade connects us with the energy of Kwan Yin, the Bodhisattva of compassion, and gives us gifts of deep inner peace.

Metaphysical Properties Purple Jade
Chakra Root, Heart, Third Eye and Crown
Element Earth
Numerology 5 and 11
Zodiac Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Libra

Emotional Healing Properties

Purple Jade helps us to laugh more and enjoy the present moment.  It invites us to lighten up and not cling too tightly to self-imposed limitations.  It helps us to truly trust that all will be well.  If we are hurt or traumatized, Purple Jade helps us to heal and return to a place of abiding peace.  Purple Jade encourages patience and diplomacy.  It can help us to set clear boundaries and also to change deep-seated emotional habits that no longer serve us.  Purple Jade is particularly helpful for sensitive empaths who may become easily over-whelmed by all the emotional energy they feel from others.  Above all, Purple Jade inspires us to grow more emotionally mature and emotionally intelligent.

Mental Healing Properties

Purple Jade teaches discernment and helps us to assess information very carefully.  It helps us to think with love and wisdom.  It helps us to make correct choices and to stay in alignment with our values and goals.  Purple Jade shows us when we are being too-judgmental and helps us to pause and re-correct.  It is particularly helpful for when we hear new information.  It helps us to consider the new information carefully and to add it appropriately to what we already know. Purple Jade helps us to not reject new information outright, just because it conflicts with our beliefs or older information.  It invites us to be more curious and to take our ideas and turn them into practical action.

Physical Healing Properties

Purple Jade is recommended for combating stress-related illnesses.  Chronic stress overstimulates the hypothalamus, the part of our brain which governs fight or flight.  When the hypothalamus is activated, it tells our adrenal glands to pump adrenalin and cortisol into our body so that we have the physical energy we need to respond to the stress.  But with chronic stress, the body becomes exhausted because it is never able to relax and from there a variety of illnesses may arise.  Purple Jade helps us to focus directly on the root of the problem, the stress in our lives and the effect it is having on our hypothalamus.  Purple Jade strongly encourages us to reduce stress that is within our control and to learn healthy responses to the stress we can’t control.  One of Purple Jade’s most useful qualities is to help us to clearly distinguish between these two types of stress.  For stress we can control, Purple Jade helps us to set good boundaries.  For the stress we can’t control, Purple Jade reminds us to engage in mindful breathing and to release stress through movement.  It also happily teaches us that the quickest way to dissolve stress is through joyful laughter.

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Purple Jade Mineralogy

Where does Purple Jade come from?

Purple Jade is always a variety of Jadeite and is found in Myanmar and Turkey.

Mining and Treatments

Jadeite Jade is often mined as pebbles and boulders in secondary alluvial deposits.  It can also be mined at its primary location in rocks and sheets.

Many of the cheap to moderately priced “Jade” sculptures and ornaments on the market are fake (made of glass and plastic) or have been dyed. When the Jade is authentic, it is often Nephrite Jade since true Jadeite can be very expensive!

Purple Jade Placeholder
Purple Jade

The Environmental & Social Impact of Crystals

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

Mineral Family

The term “Jade” can refer to either Jadeite or Nephrite, but Purple Jade is always Jadeite.  Jadeite is 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 different ways to form various minerals and rocks.  The tetrahedrons in single-chain inosilicates share two oxygens atoms with two other tetrahedrons and form long chains, similar to how a group of people might hold hands in a long line.  With single-chain inosilicates the ratio of silicon to oxygen is 1:3.  Nephrite, by contrast, is a double-chain inosilicates with a ratio of  4:11.

Purple Jade’s energy works well with its family – other single-chain inosilicate minerals.  Try it in combination with Cat’s Eye Quartz, CharoiteDiopside, Hiddenite, Hawk’s Eye, Kunzite, LarimarRhodonite, and Shattuckite.  Try it also with other varieties of Jadeite like Blue Jade and White Jade.

Purple Jade Formation and Crystal Associates

Both varieties of Jade are most often found in metamorphic rocks, but Jadeite Jade is typically formed by high-pressure metamorphism, while Nephrite Jade is formed by low-pressure metamorphism.  High-pressure metamorphism occurs when two tectonic plates collide and one is being pushed underneath the other.  This is known as subduction.

Purple Jade’s energy works well with its “friends” – crystal associates formed in the same geological environment.  Try it in combination with Moonstone

Mineralogy Purple Jade
Chemical Formula NaAlSi₂O₆
Cleavage Good
Color Purple, lavender
Crystal System Monoclinic
Form/Habit Massive, crystals are rare
Fracture Splintery
Hardness – Mohs Scale 6-7
Luminescence None
Luster Vitreous to greasy
Mineral Family Single-chain Inosilicate
Specific Gravity 3.2-3.4
Streak White
Transparency Translucent to opaque

History of Purple Jade

Jadeite and Nephrite are two distinct minerals, both of which are commonly called “Jade.” Jade has been treasured since the dawn of history in Eastern Asia and Mesoamerica, where the two most important Jadeite deposits are found.  In China and Japan, as well as in the Aztec language, the words for “Jade” and “precious stone” are, in fact, identical.

Long before the dawn of civilization, early man was attracted to Jade, for both utility and beauty. Jade can hold an edge better than most stones, and so was made into prehistoric ax-heads, hammers, carving implements, and other sharp tools. The oldest known Jade tool has been dated between 8000-9000 BCE! Because Jade can be easily carved and polished, it has also been used to make statues and charms for thousands of years. Jade carvings often carry deep meanings, making them more than just simple decorations.

Because Jadeite and Nephrite look very similar, they were not scientifically distinguished as two separate minerals until 1863. However, master Chinese craftsmen have long noticed that some Jade (specifically that from Myanmar/Burma) is harder and denser, and also is somewhat easier to carve and takes a higher polish. As a result, it became the preferred variety, especially since it has a wider range of vivid colors. This type of Jade is now known as Jadeite. The more common variety is called Nephrite.

Jade was properly introduced to Europe by explorers returning from the New World, and it is from this period that we can trace the etymological origin of the names, Nephrite and Jadeite. In Europe, Jade was originally called by the Greek names, lapis nephriticus (stone for the kidneys) and the Spanish name, piedra de hijada (stone of the flank) since Jade was used by the Aztecs to treat kidney and bowel conditions. Over time, piedra de hijada became first l’ejade, and then simple “Jade.”  When gemologists discovered that Jade was actually two minerals in the nineteen century, they called the more precious variety “Jadeite” and used “Nephrite,” from lapis nephriticus, for the more common variety.

Purple Jade and Lavender Jade are always Jadeite.  In Eastern Asia, the two most prized colors of Jade are green and white.  Other colors like black, red, or yellow are used in Feng Shui.  Pink and Purple Jade, by contrast was largely ignored.  After WWII, Jade jewelry became popular in the United States.  Green Jade was seen as exotic and worldly.  Lavender Jade was similarly appealing, but the supply was very low.  Hong Kong jewelers saw an opportunity to export undesirable off-white Jade by altering it with organic dyes that are very difficult to trace.  Federal regulations meant that the product had to be labeled as “dyed Jade” during Customs.  But once in the United States, sellers did not have the same labeling requirements.  Today, the sheer amount of Purple Jade on the market is an obvious sign of adulteration, since this shade of Jade is one of the very rarest.  While there is no sure-fire way of detecting dyed Jade, it can often be identified by studying the piece under a microscope, since the dye often accumulates in fissures and cracks.

Turkish Purple Jade was discovered in the 1980s.  It was originally called Turkiyenite and there was debate about whether it should be considered Jadeite or a rock with a large concentration of Jadeite, somewhere between 40-60%.  The latest GIA report refers to it as a Purple Jadeite Rock, composed of Purple Jade and Quartzite, with small spots of Cinnebar.

To learn more about Jade’s historical traditions, please see the longer history article on Green Jade.

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