Published May 2014 • Updated August 2024 • Read Time: 7 minutes
Red Tiger’s Eye is a popular healing crystal. Most Tigers Eye is naturally a golden-brown, but it can take on a vivid red color when exposed to high temperatures. This heat can happen naturally, but is more often done in factories. While some stones have healing traditions stretching far back into antiquity, Tiger’s Eye only dates back a few decades. It is a fantastic stone for handling the intricate problems and desires of the modern world. This can include everything from personal concerns about health, fitness and body image, to global worries about environmentalism and conservation. Red Tiger’s Eye encourages us to be practical and consider the higher good.
Red Tiger Eye Healing Energy
Spiritual Healing Properties
Red Tiger’s Eye helps us to link our physical body with our spiritual beliefs. It encourages us to “sweat our prayers” through dance, feats of athleticism, Tantric sex, and other physical activities. It teaches us to trust our bodies, especially the good instincts we can feel in our gut. Red Tiger’s Eye reminds us that how we live in our everyday lives is our true religion and how we conduct the most mundane activities is an expression of our soul’s health and strength. This shimmering stone gently but firmly dares us to live empowered and fully alive to the beauty of the present moment.
| Vibrations | Red Tiger Eye |
|---|---|
| Chakra | Root, Sacral and Solar Plexus |
| Element | Fire and Earth |
| Numerology | 4 |
| Zodiac | Capricorn |
Emotional Healing Properties
Red Tiger’s Eye brings gifts of confidence and self-awareness. It shows us how to make new friends easily and how to keep our relationships strong and healthy. It helps us to recognize and respectfully acknowledge our own wants and needs, as well as those of others. Red Tiger’s Eye is a wonderful crystal ally when we are faced with changing circumstances and feeling nervous about what the future might be hold. It soothes our nerves and encourages us to have faith in ourselves and to trust that everything will be alright. Red Tiger’s Eye is also particularly helpful for anyone suffering from issues related to body image. Red Tiger’s Eye helps us to see ourselves more accurately, assessing our natural beauty and strength and ignoring society’s current ideals. It also helps us to explore issues around guilt and shame associated with sexuality and sensuality. Red Tiger’s Eye celebrates the body and its urges us to do the same with joy and courage!
Mental Healing Properties
Red Tiger’s Eye is a wonderful balancing stone, helping us to see things clearly and not go to extremes. Its energy is exceptionally practical and full of common sense, and can help to calm down emotional excesses. Red Tiger’s Eye helps us to see the middle path, and the common ground between ideas and people, and to bridge those differences for the Highest Good of all concerned. It is particularly good for helping us to navigate the sometimes treacherous waters caused by family discords or arguments over finances.
Physical Healing Properties
Red Tiger’s Eye is said to help stimulate the metabolism and aid in weight loss. It is commonly used by metaphysical healers to increase libido and to treat physical problems which manifest as a result of sexual trauma and abuse. It is also believed to help fortify the blood and regulate hormones.
Geology of Red Tiger Eye
Where does Red Tiger Eye come from?
Red Tigers Eye is exclusively in South Africa.
Mining and Treatments
Tiger’s Eye is mined from large primary deposits, which are located in metamorphic rock. Tiger’s Eye is mined in an open pit setting, since Tiger’s Eye is found directly under the soil.
Gold Tigers Eye and Blue Tigers Eye (Hawks Eye) are fully natural, enhanced only by cutting and polishing. Red Tigers Eye can be natural, but many of the stones on the market have been heat-treated to bring out a more vivid color.
South Africa
Mineral Family
Tiger’s Eye is a rare Silicate 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. There are six main groups of Silicate minerals, and these main groups are further subdivided into secondary subdivisions, such as Quartz and Feldspar. Tiger’s Eye is a semi-precious variety of Quartz that exhibits chatoyancy, or a vertical luminescent band.
Red Tiger’s Eye’s energy works well with its family – other Silicate minerals. Try it in combination with Agate, Amethyst, Aventurine, Chalcedony, Citrine, Clear Quartz, Jasper, Opal, Prasiolite, Rose Quartz, Smoky Quartz. It also blends perfectly with Gold Tiger’s Eye and grey Cat’s Eye.
Red Tiger Eye Formation and Crystal Associates
Tiger’s Eye is formed when Quartz replaces the mineral Crocidolite. As the Crocidolite decomposes, Iron is exposed and oxidized which transforms it into limonite. Tiger’s Eye is essentially limonite fibers embedded in Quartz. Early in the process the stone is still grey or blue and may be called Cat’s Eye, Hawk’s Eye or Blue Tiger’s Eye. As the process continues, the blue is gradually replaced by gold, and the stone is then called Gold Tiger’s Eye. If the Gold Tiger’s Eye is then heated, either by natural causes or artificially by humans, the stone’s color may become red, at which point it is called Red Tiger’s Eye.
Red Tiger’s Eye’s energy works well with its “friends” – crystal associates formed in the same geological environment. Try it in combination with Hawk’s Eye and Hematite.
| Mineralogy | Red Tiger Eye |
|---|---|
| Chemical Formula | SiO2 |
| Cleavage | None |
| Color | Red |
| Crystal System | Hexagonal/Trigonal |
| Form/Habit | Fibrous |
| Fracture | Fibrous |
| Hardness – Mohs Scale | 6.5-7 |
| Luminescence | None |
| Luster | Silky |
| Mineral Family | Tectosilicate |
| Specific Gravity | 2.58-2.64 |
| Streak | White, yellow-brown |
| Transparency | Opaque |
History of Red Tiger Eye
Tiger’s Eye was generally not included in early lapidaries, texts which describe gemstones and their powers. For most of history, Tiger’s Eye was relatively rare, since the main deposits are in South Africa and Australia. In modern times, Tiger’s Eye’s distinctive flash, as well as its basic affordability and availability, has allowed its metaphysical properties to be widely explored.
Tiger’s Eye is famous for the way it reflect light when polished. This trait is known in geology as “chatoyancy.” The term “chatoyant” is a combination of the French words for “cat” and “eye.” Tiger’s Eye’s bold gold coloring elevated it above a mere kitty, to instead honor the Tiger, the largest and most powerful member of the feline family. Most Tiger’s Eye is gold, but it can also turn red if the stone is exposed to high temperatures.
Tigers are the largest cat species and highly endangered. Most wild populations live in small areas, with India home to the greatest number. During the 20th century, there were thought to be several sub-species, but since 2015 scientists agree there are only two, those who range across mainland Asia, and a different variety found only on the islands of Bali, Java, and Sumatra. Of the island tigers, only the Sumatran remains.
Tigers are typically orange, but can be white or black. The later colors are due to gene mutations and were formerly quite rare. They have more common due to inbreeding in captivity as well as inbreeding in isolated wild populations. The shade of orange tigers varies according to the terrain. Tigers that live in mainland Asia tend to be paler orange, with fur getting lighter in northern territories. Tigers that live on the Indonesian islands in the south are darker orange or even reddish.
The Balinese Tiger is thought to the most reddish colored fur of all the subspecies, but only seven furs have been preserved in museums. A few individual cats likely survived into the 1950s, but the subspecies was formally declared extinct in 2008. Its territory has been converted for human use and there are no current plans to reintroduce Sumatran Tigers to the island. Nevertheless, tigers continue to be an important part of Balinese folklore and traditional arts. Unfortunately, this includes traditional medicine using tiger parts and tiger teeth and claws as jewelry. Since the local population is gone, tiger parts are imported from Sumatra and mainland Asia and then legally sold on the open market. The combination of habitat loss and the trade in body parts puts the Sumatran tiger at critical risk. In 2022, less than 400 of these magnificent creatures are left in the wild. While trade in parts gets more press, arguably the larger threat is deforestation. The Sumatran rainforests are being cut down and replaced with pulpwood plantations, used mainly for making paper.
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