Blog

This month’s featured crystal is one you’ll all be familar with, Citrine. Let’s see if I can surprise you with a few facts about this beautiful Quartz variety that you didn’t know!

Table Of Contents

• GEOLOGICAL
• COLLECTING
• METAPHYSICAL
• FOR SALE IN THE SHOP

REMINDER!

ORDER YOUR ECO-FRIENDLY CRYSTAL CRACKERS NOW!

Don’t forget to get your ECO-FRIENDLY CRYSTAL CRACKERS for the festive season!

Our fun crackers were a HUGE hit last year.
STOCK IS LIMITED!

• Made of fully compostable natural Kraft paper
• Includes the ‘cracker’ pull
• Star confetti made of seeded growing paper, plus pretty organic rose petals for colour. Plant the confetti in your garden to grow beautiful flowers!
• Each crystal cracker has a crystal treasure, with a corresponding crystal healing info card and a geological info card with fascinating facts! 
• No waste, no plastic! All the fun!
• Cost the same as – or less than – standard crackers filled with plastic junk

Geological Properties

Along with Amethyst (purple Quartz), Rose Quartz (pink Quartz) and Smoky Quartz (brown to black Quartz), Citrine is part of the Quartz crystal family. It’s the name for yellow-coloured Quartz – ‘citrin’ is old French for ‘yellow’.

The colour can vary from a barely-there tint of yellow to dark smoky brown. 

These variations in colour are a result of formation conditions. For example:

When Quartz has just the right amount of metal inclusions (usually Hematite, Goethite or Aluminium) and gets heated to just the right temperature by geothermal heat (i.e. heat generated inside the earth), an awesome transformation happens. The tiny metal particles scatter through the Quartz, and it turns the characteristic yellow hue.

So the shade of yellow to brown is determined by things like the number of inclusions in the Quartz, temperature, duration of heat exposure, and so on.

Unfortunately for those who (like me) enjoy having clear answers, Citrine is actually still a bit of a mystery to us. While the above process does describe how it can form, it’s been found that it doesn’t apply in all cases. Sometimes it seems the colour forms unrelated to trace elements, and geologists aren’t sure why.

Beautiful cascading points from Llwena, Congo

Collecting

With it being such a popular stone, you’d think there must be an abundance of it. While in fact, naturally occurring Citrine is actually one of the rarest varieties of Quartz in the world!

The DR Congo produces two types of highly sought-after Citrines. One being Smoky Citrine points and clusters, and the other being a mostly paler cascading Citrine. The cascading Citrine is known as Kundalini Citrine.

The large majority of Citrine on the market is from Brazil, and is artificially heated above ground, copying the geothermal process. This results in very bright yellow to orange colour variations.

If you’re curious about the difference between heated and natural, you can read an article I wrote on it a while ago here: IS HEATED CITRINE FAKE?

Metaphysical

Metaphysically (energetically) speaking, this crystal is associated with joy, warmth and golden abundance. It’s an attractor and magnifier of these energies.

It’s also an excellent stone for cleansing and regenerating, being one of the few crystals that never needs to be cleansed. It just doesn’t hold on to negative vibes – nothing sticks. Instead, Citrine dissipates and grounds negative energy.

Citrine is a powerful cleanser & re-generator. It brings the sun’s power, warming, energizing & highly creative. It’s a rare crystal that never needs cleansing. It absorbs, dissipates & grounds negative energy – making it extremely protective in the environment. It can energize every aspect of your life.

Since Citrine is known to be a stone of success and prosperity, I keep a tiny Citrine in my wallet, and I like to have a nice display piece in the Feng Shui wealth corner of my home (the far left corner from the formal front door). It’s also great to have on your work desk and can be fantastic for creatives who are feeling blocked.

Citrine For Sale In The Shop