Published May 2018 • Updated February 2024 • Read Time: 7 minutes
Sapphire is famous for its blue color, but it actually comes in every shade of the rainbow including a merry canary yellow. For centuries. Yellow Sapphire was confused with other yellow stones such as Topaz. Only in the last 200 years has it been properly identified scientifically and energetically. It is one of the best stones for financial prosperity and abundance. It reminds us that money should be generously used for pleasure and goodness, rather than hoarded and jealously guarded. Yellow Sapphire invites us to be happy and explore all the delicious possibilities of life! It helps us to notice what “sparks joy” and to surround ourselves with it.
Yellow Sapphire Meaning
Spiritual Healing Properties
Sapphire inspires within us a deep love of truth and a profound desire to live in 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. Sapphire drives us forward relentlessly in the pursuit of wisdom and understanding. It opens the intuitive and psychic mind, facilitates energy channeling and clarifies communication between this realm and others. Sapphire encourages both practical common sense and creative dreaming, helping us find the correct balance between those aspects so we can achieve our goals. It is one of the most powerful stones for manifesting our desires. Yellow Sapphire is particularly powerful for attracting prosperity, both financial and emotional, and gives us the discipline to maintain this prosperity throughout the course of our lives. Sapphire has a very regal and elegant quality, that increases our appreciation of beauty and the finer things in life.
| Metaphysical Properties | Yellow Sapphire |
|---|---|
| Chakra | Sacral, Solar Plexus and Throat |
| Element | Fire |
| Numerology | 4 |
| Zodiac | Leo |
Emotional Healing Properties
Sapphire has a peaceful energy smoothly dispels depression and anxiety, leaving us feeling calm and collected. It brings relationships into greater harmony and encourages clear communication between individuals. Sapphire reminds us that we must be true to ourselves, and that we need no one’s permission or approval to live our own lives. While the opinions of others can be taken into account, ultimately Sapphire teaches us to trust ourselves and our decisions. Yellow Sapphire has an especially happy and positive vibration, which makes the future seem exciting and full of delicious possibilities. Yellow Sapphire brings a more playful tone to our communication and can help us communicated about difficult topics in a way that makes everyone feel more comfortable and safe.
Mental Healing Properties
Sapphire increases our discernment and powers of critical thinking. It celebrates a thirst for knowledge and wisdom in all forms. Sapphire’s calm energy that helps us to look at situations logically and to clearly understand causal affect. Sapphire 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 Sapphire can help guide our actions so that we can realize our intentions as quickly and efficiently as possible. Sapphire helps us to look at ourselves and our own life very closely and to keep whatever is good and to discard whatever is no longer needed or desirable. Yellow Sapphire helps us to be courageous in our thinking and to be willing to take creative risks. It stimulates a personal love for truth and a desire to acquire real wisdom.
Physical Healing Properties
Yellow Sapphire is recommended for helping us look and feel our best! It encourages us to get up and move our body, particularly in ways that require endurance and create joy. For example, activities like dancing, cross country sports, or games that make us dash around. It reminds us that we look amazing when our heart is pounding and a smile is on our face. Yellow Sapphire encourages us to give life our all. It is an ideal crystal to represent a personal commitment to getting well and to using everything in our power to make it so. It is also a good talisman for the skin, the spleen and the digestive system.
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Yellow Sapphire Mineralogy
Where does Yellow Sapphire come from?
Sapphire is mined in Afghanistan, India, Kenya, Laos, Madagascar, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, United States and Vietnam. Most Yellow Sapphires come from Sri Lanka.
Mining and Treatments
In a few locations, Sapphire may be mined at the primary deposit, tunneling directly into the rock, but it is generally not profitable. It is often mined at a secondary deposit, located along rivers downstream from where they were formed. Because of its heavy weight, it 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.
Lab-created transparent, vivid and eye-clean Sapphire is widely available in the fine gemstone market. A lot of jewelry-quality Sapphire has been treated in some form, most commonly a heat-treatment to enhance the color vividness. High-quality, untreated Sapphire is more expensive and commands a premium price. By contrast, opaque Sapphire is reliably natural.
Sapphire
Mineral Family
Sapphire and Ruby 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. Most Oxide minerals are found in igneous rocks. The most famous Oxide mineral is Corundum, which comes in a rainbow of colors. When it is red, it is called Ruby. When it is blue, yellow, pink, or any other color, it is called Sapphire.
Sapphire’s energy works well with its family – other Oxide minerals. Try it in combination with Chrysoberyl, Hematite, Lodestone, Merlinite, and Rutile. Try it also with other varieties of Corundum like Blue Sapphire, Ruby, and Star Sapphire.
Yellow Sapphire Formation and Crystal Associates
Corundum is a crystalline form of aluminum oxide that grows in metamorphic rocks. Pure Corundum’s hardness is a 9.0 on the Mohs hardness scale, which means its can scratch any mineral besides Diamond and Moissanite. It is naturally colorless and transparent, but usually contains trace minerals which change the transparency level and gives the gem its vibrant colors.
- Blue and Green Sapphire gets their color from Titanium
- Yellow Sapphire get its color from Iron or from irradiation
- Ruby and Pink Sapphire gets their color from Chromium
- Purple Sapphire get its color from Vanadium
- Padparadscha Sapphire get its interesting orange-pink-yellow color from Chromium and Iron
Sapphire’s energy works well with its “friends” – crystal associates formed in the same geological environment. Try it in combination with Dravite Tourmaline
| Mineralogy | Yellow Sapphire |
|---|---|
| Chemical Formula | Al2 O3 |
| Cleavage | None |
| Color | Yellow |
| 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 Yellow Sapphire
Sapphire has been one of the most highly sought after gemstones throughout history. It is included in all major lapidaries, texts that describe gemstones and their powers. The word Sapphire comes from the Latin sapphirus, Greek sappheiros and Hebrew sappir, all of which most likely come from the Sanskrit sanipria, meaning “dear to the planet Saturn.”
In the oldest lapidaries, the name Sapphire was used to denote any brilliant blue gemstone. As a result, Blue Sapphire has detailed history. For centuries, Yellow Sapphire was confused with other yellow stones such as Topaz. In 1796, French mineralogist René Just Hauy (1743-1822) published a scientific paper announcing that Ruby and Sapphire are different colors of the same mineral and furthermore the mineral comes in every color including yellow. Jewelers continued to use the traditional names of Ruby and Sapphire, but within a decade scientists were using the name Corundum. The division remains today. Scientists are most likely to use the name Corundum, but sometimes call the mineral Ruby or Sapphire because those names are more popular. Jewelers continue to call the red gem Ruby, Sapphire for blue stones, and all other colors are considered “Fancy Sapphires.”
Yellow Sapphire is a relatively rare variety found mainly in Sri Lanka. The color can range from greenish-yellow to orangish-yellow, but the top quality is a bright canary yellow. Unlike other fancy varieties, high-quality Yellow Sapphires are easier to come by and more likely to be natural. As a result, there isn’t as large a price difference between treated vs natural Yellow Sapphires. In some cases, it is difficult to tell if a jewel has been treated, but in the case treated Yellow Sapphire tend to have a distinctive color reflection that can be seen with the naked eye. For natural gems, the yellow color comes from iron or irradiation and is more likely to have a true yellow color like a Citrine. Treated gems get their coloring from Beryllium and tends to have a golden-yellow color, like an Imperial Topaz.
