Abalone or abalone shells
Benefits of Pawa or Paua shells for purification

What does it mean?

In Polynesia, she's known as Pawa or Paua. A great ocean goddess, it is a symbol linked to the element of water, femininity and fertility. For the Maori people, it is also a powerful symbol of wisdom and distant vision. So its fertility also has spiritual significance.

What are its benefits?

Abalone is a great help for emotional healing, developing intuition, opening up and honoring feminine energies.
Abalone also has powerful protective and purifying virtues, notably in strengthening the aura and etheric body in lithotherapy.

Ritual use for purification by fumigation

Abalone is used by Native American peoples for purification rituals through fumigation: herbs(sage, sweetgrass, juniper, cedar, etc.) are burned in the shell and the smoke is diffused using a feather. In this way, the 4 elements are represented: water by the shell, earth by the plants, fire by the combustion, air by the feather and the smoke.

It can also be used for healing rituals for one's female lineage, for a birth, to symbolize the element of water on one's altar or for fertility rituals.

What are its physical properties?

Abalone is renowned for its healing energy, which benefits the womb, ovaries and uterus, as well as the eyes, kidneys and water retention.

Abalone in mineralogy

Abalone is the shell of a marine mollusk; its interior is covered with mother-of-pearl made up of a stack of regular layers of conchyoline (a protein secreted by mollusks) and aragonite (calcium carbonate) crystals.

Abalone, Ormeau and Pawa (or paua) are the "same" shellfish, but from different origins. Other names you may hear are: ear shell, Muttonshell or Muttonfish, Oreilles de mer, Ormer, sea opal or "Loco" in the far south of the American continent.

The Abalone
(or red abalone shell Haliotis rufescens is characterized by a particularly shiny, iridescent and colorful mother-of-pearl. These peculiarities are due to the modification of the atomic structure of calcium carbonate during its formation. Its shimmering colors come in shades of green, blue, violet, pink and gray.

Pawa or Paua
is the Maori name given to three species of abalone Haliotis iris (Paua), Haliotis australis (Queen paua) and Haliotis virginea (Virgin paua) native to New Zealand.

Abalone
is found in shallow coastal waters and is harvested for consumption in Brittany, Normandy, the United States, Mexico, Australia and the Indo-Pacific regions.