Published April 2021 • Updated August 2024 • Read Time: 7 minutes
Sapphire and Ruby are different colors of the mineral Corundum. Virtually all Corundum have tiny inclusions of Rutile known as “silk.” In fact, if a Ruby or Sapphire is missing Rutile that’s one of the most obvious clues that the jewel was lab-grown! Some natural gems display an asterism or “star,” a silvery shimmer that seems to move across the gem when it is rotated in the light. This asterism is caused by the light reflecting off the Rutile inclusions. If the Corundum is red, it is called a Star Ruby. If it is any other color, including pink, is called a Star Sapphire. Energetically they are happy and wise, and can help us to live our best life!
Star Sapphire Healing Energy
Spiritual Healing Properties
Star Sapphire inspires within us a deep love of truth and a profound desire to live in alignment with our personal integrity. It is a mystical stone that encourages us to explore the full depth and breadth of our spiritual lives and to cultivate our spiritual gifts. It opens the intuitive and psychic mind, facilitates energy channeling and clarifies communication between this realm and others. Star Sapphire helps us to better understand human nature and to look on humanity with a cheerful and hopeful gaze. It encourages both practical common sense and far-flung dreaming, helping us find the correct balance between those aspects so we can achieve our goals. Star Sapphire attracts prosperity and good luck and gives us the discipline to maintain this prosperity throughout the course of our lives.
Vibrations | Star Sapphire |
---|---|
Chakra | Throat and Third Eye |
Element | Earth and Wind |
Numerology | 2 and 6 |
Zodiac | Gemini, Virgo, Libra and Sagittarius |
Emotional Healing Properties
Star Sapphire has a cheerful and peaceful energy that can gently dispel depression and anxiety. It brings relationships into greater harmony and encourages clear communication between individuals. Star Sapphire reminds us that we must be true to ourselves and let our Light shine! It helps us to recognize that we don’t need anyone’s permission or approval to live our own lives. Star Sapphire strengthens our instincts, helpings us to better anticipate other people’s reactions and intentions.
Mental Healing Properties
Star Sapphire increases our discernment and powers of critical thinking. It celebrates a thirst for knowledge and wisdom in all forms. Star Sapphire’s calm energy that helps us to look at situations logically and to clearly understand causal effect. It helps us to work through our own thoughts and emotions, and to make decisions that serve our Highest Good. Once decisions have been made, then Star Sapphire can help guide our actions so that we can realize our intentions as quickly and efficiently as possible. Star Sapphire is particularly good for helping us take lofty and so-called impossible dreams and finding a practical way to bring them into reality.
Physical Healing Properties
Star Sapphire is recommended for anyone who wants to harness the full power of the mind-body connection. It is not for people who casually hope for miracles, but rather for individuals who are willing to actively work to understand their own physiology and the impact of mental and physical habits. For those with the courage to look closer, Star Sapphire can help us decide to get better and then actually do it. Conversely, Star Sapphire can also help us to accept physical misfortune when there is nothing that can be done to stop it. It reminds us that while the mind, heart and soul may be willing, the physical brain or body cannot always conform to our desires. This doesn’t mean we’ve done something “wrong”, it is a reminder that we are mere mortals and subject to forces that are beyond our control. In such cases, Star Sapphire helps us to comfort our mind and our body, and to have realistic expectations.
Geology of Star Sapphire
Where does Star Sapphire come from?
Star Sapphire and Star Ruby are varieties of the mineral Corundum. Both gems are found in Afghanistan, India, Kenya, Laos, Madagascar, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand and Vietnam. Additional deposits of Ruby are found in Cambodia, Malawi, and Mozambique. Additional deposits for Sapphire are found in Nigeria and the United States (Montana and North Carolina). Star gems can be found in any of these locations.
Mining and Treatments
In a few locations, Ruby and Sapphire may be mined at their primary deposit, tunneling directly into the rock, but it is generally not profitable. Most Corundum is mined at a secondary deposit, located along rivers downstream from where they were formed. Because of its heavy weight, Corundum is easy to separate from river gravels and can be picked out by hand. In many locations production methods are still primitive and done using hand tools such as pans, baskets and shovels. Very few, sometimes as little as 1%, are good enough to be used in fine jewelry. Star Sapphire and Star Ruby may be transparent fine gems, but the affect can also be seen on some opaque stones if cut and polished correctly.
Lab-created Ruby and Sapphire are widely available in the fine gemstone market, but all Star Sapphire and Star Ruby are natural. In fact, the effect is one of the easiest ways to identify natural gems vs lab-grown.
Corundum
Mineral Family
Ruby and Sapphire are different colors of the mineral Corundum, which is an Oxide mineral. The Oxide family has closely-packed Oxygen atoms with tiny bits of metal or semi-mental atoms occupying the space between. There are two forms of Oxide minerals, “simple Oxides” which only have a single type of metal or semi-metal, and “complex Oxides” which have multiple metals and/or semi-metals. Star Sapphires are created with Corundum contains tiny inclusions of Rutile, another Oxide mineral.
Star Sapphire’s energy works well with its family – other Oxide minerals. Try it in combination with Chrysoberyl, Hematite, Lodestone, and Merlinite. Try it also with other varieties of Corundum like Blue Sapphire, Ruby, and Yellow Sapphire or with Rutilated Quartz.
Star Sapphire Formation and Crystal Associates
Corundum is a crystalline form of aluminum oxide that grows in metamorphic rocks. It is naturally colorless and transparent, but usually contains trace minerals which change the transparency level and gives the gem its vibrant colors. Ruby and Pink Sapphire get their color from chromium, while Sapphires get their various color from iron, titanium or vanadium. All Corundum have tiny inclusions of Rutile needles, known as “silk.” In fact, the absence of Rutile is one of the easiest ways to identify lab-created Rubies and Sapphires. Sometimes the gems will display an asterism or “star,” a silvery shimmer that seems to move across the surface of the stone when it is rotated in the light. This asterism is caused by the light reflecting off the Rutile inclusions.
Star Sapphire’s energy works well with its “friends” – crystal associates formed in the same geological environment. Try it in combination with Moonstone and Tourmaline
Mineralogy | Star Sapphire |
---|---|
Chemical Formula | Al2 O3 |
Cleavage | None |
Color | All |
Crystal System | Hexagonal-trigonal |
Form/Habit | Pyramidal, prismatic barrel-shaped |
Fracture | Small conchoidal, splintery, brittle |
Hardness – Mohs Scale | 9 (second hardest, after diamond) |
Luminescence | Red (long and short wave) |
Luster | Viterous (glassy) to adamantine (brilliant shine) |
Mineral Family | Oxides |
Specific Gravity | 3.97-4.05 |
Streak | White |
Transparency | Transparent to opaque |
History of Star Sapphire
Star Sapphires have been one of the most highly prized gemstones for centuries. They are included in some of the ancient and medieval lapidaries, texts that describe gemstones and their powers, and are sometimes given their own distinct section in modern lapidaries. They come in every shade of the rainbow, although red ones will be called Star Rubies instead. The name refers to a curious phenomenon that results in a vivid white six-pointed star in polished transparent gemstones. Polished opaque star-stones, have a silvery shimmer instead of a distinct star.
Star Sapphires were thought to have special powers, stronger and more unique than that of regular Sapphires. In cultures flanking the Mediterranean Sea, Star Sapphires were thought to be love charms and magical talismans. Helen of Troy was said to derive her beauty and power, in part, because she owned a star-stone. According to Arab lore, Star Sapphires give their owner the power to speak in the language of the genii and thus command the jinns to perform feats of magic. In one 17th century German lapidary, Star Sapphires were described as siegstein, or “victory stone”. While among Christian populations, Star Sapphire has been called “The Stone of Destiny” for centuries, with the crossed lines symbolizing faith, hope and charity. In Sri Lanka, where many Star Sapphires have been found, they are believed to offer powerful protection against the evil eye and other forms of witchcraft. Star Sapphire command a higher price than regularly Sapphires and so miners link them with good luck and financial abundance.
The most famous Star Sapphire, is the “Star of India” which belongs to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Mined in Sri Lanka and virtually flawless, this Star Sapphire weighs 563 carats and is a little larger than a golf ball. It was given to the museum in 1900 by the banker tycoon JP Morgan (1837-1913). In 1964, it was stone in a fantastic jewelry heist. The thieves, led by Jack Murphy (1938 – 2020), a Californian surfer, climbed through an open bathroom window in the museum’s upper floor. Once inside, they discovered there was only one alarm installed in the entire jewelry collection, and it was attached to the Star of India. Much to their delight, the alarm’s battery was completely dead and hadn’t been replaced in years. The thieves were eventually arrested in Florida while trying to ransom their stolen goods. The gemstones were found in a nearby phone booth. The trial that followed received wide-spread attention. In part because it was a gemstone heist, and in part because Jack Murphy was a handsome villain who made the ladies swoon.
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