Garnets are widely varied stones that can be very different from one another in composition, but they share similar silicate structures. The Andalusite crystal is a hard and durable member of the garnet family which makes it ideal for everyday jewelry, but many prize the stone instead for its metaphysical properties.
Colors
Andalusite is pleochroic, meaning it shows different colors across different sections of its structure. Many precious and semi-precious stones share this trait, but gem cutters often play down this feature when they cut stones, orienting the cuts to highlight the dominant color and hide the secondary color.
Andalusite cutters play up its pleochroic properties by faceting the stones to show off its color variations. Andalusite is often compared with alexandrite, another stone that shows color variations, but unlike alexandrite, andalusite displays multiple colors at once in the different facets. Color-change stones like alexandrite actually appear to be a completely different color when viewed from different angles.
Andalusite colors are earthy and warm, leaning more toward the amber and brown than the deep reds of the more famous garnets, though some mined from mica deposits are more wine-colored.
Mineral And Structural Composition
Andalucite's chemical composition is simple, consisting of aluminum, silica and oxygen. Its molecular weight is 162.05 g, according to Mineral News, a mineral collector's newsletter, resulting from approximately 33 percent aluminum, 17 percent silica and 49 percent oxygen.
Andalusite is in the orthorhombic dipyramidal class of stones, meaning it has three axes with three perpendicular planes, according to gemologist Betty Bray, founder of Mystic Minerals. A model of the structure at the molecular level would look roughly like two pyramids attached to one another along the flat base.
Metaphysical Properties
Andalusite is often called "the seeing stone" as it helps to clearly think through problems and see all sides of an issue, according to Lee Stevens, a Reiki master and teacher of crystallography with Spirit of Isis. It is close to the earth and grounded in the first and sixth chakras, or the "root" and "third eye."
Andalusite is commonly used during meditation to unlock past-life memory and aid in past-life regression, which is the process of mentally going back to a time before birth to uncover past traumas that may be interfering with current-life balance. It is used as a confidence aid that helps combat phobias and reduce anxiety. Crystal healers use the stone to treat conditions as varied as AIDS, calcium deficiency and poor eyesight, though there is no medical literature to support such use.
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