Lapis lazuli

Due to its metamorphic formation, Lapis lazuli is a stone that encourages transformation. With it, you are invited to reign over your inner kingdom, without imposing your own tricks and lies, without letting yourself be drawn into the vicious circle of your unconscious or unconscious fantasies. With it, you're encouraged to take back your own power, your creative and transformative power, to finally initiate the changes needed to reveal yourself as queen or king of your inner kingdom.

With a Lapis Lazuli as your companion, you'll never be judged by others. You learn to recognize your shortcomings, your needs, your limiting behaviors, your self-judgment and everything that prevents you from being that king or queen. With it, you learn to be guided by your own wisdom and not by the symptoms of your own wounds (competition, desire for power, shyness, Caliméro syndrome, greed, jealousy, etc.).

A stone of truth, it helps you to show yourself as you are, without masks, with all the beauty of your authenticity and to express whatever is stuck in your throat, in order to free this area from knots and tensions that block the circulation of energies.

A guardian stone with links to the subtle planes, Lapis lazuli is a wonderful guide for all those involved in shamanic journeys, trances or astral travel. It helps to avoid getting lost by instilling the necessary mapping for these experiences and to avoid being "hacked" by disguised energies. It helps you develop your clair-senses and teaches you to listen to your intuition.

Lapis lazuli's physical benefits

It improves mental alertness and helps develop creativity, ingenuity and imagination. Its aluminum content makes Lapis an excellent stone for improving memory, regulating the nervous system and soothing certain brain disorders.

It's great for anything to do with the throat, larynx or vocal cords. It can also help reduce tinnitus and lower fever.

It is indicated in cases of skin disease, rashes and eczema caused by excess nervousness and can help lower blood pressure.

How to use a Lapis lazuli?

For headaches related to mental overwork, lie down with a Lapis lazuli on your forehead.

Do you have a lump in your throat? A feeling of choking or strangulation? Wear a Lapis lazuli pendant directly on this area to understand the cause of the tension and help free it.

If you're feeling unwell or depressed, wear Lapis lazuli on you to help you understand and heal what's causing your discomfort, to help you move forward and take charge of your life and stop suffering from your condition.

Use Lapis lazuli to guide and protect you whenever you enter altered states of consciousness, whether through shamanism or drug use. You can combine it with Smoky Quartz or Black Tourmaline to keep you grounded.

Wear this stone around your neck when you need to speak, as it can improve your voice, your way of communicating and become a muse.

Where to place a Lapis lazuli?

Lapis lazuli in your home brings spiritual energies that invite open-mindedness, justice, balance, authenticity and coherence.

Place it in your bedroom, under your pillow, or on your bedside table if you want to remember your dreams more clearly, or on your desk to give yourself a nice creative energy boost while stimulating your intellectual capacities.

It's perfect for a healthcare environment or any place where communication is important.

In a meeting room, on the desk of a teacher, boss, politician or anyone who needs to communicate information fairly and clearly.

Lapis lazuli in mineralogy

Sar-e-Sang, at an altitude of 3,000m in the Afghan mountains, is the main deposit of Lapis lazuli. This is where the best quality is found. It can only be mined for 4 months a year during the summer months. The second (lower-quality) deposit is found in Chile at "Flor de Los Andes", at 3,600 m altitude. Lapis lazuli is also found in Russia near Lake Baikal, in Colorado, in Burma and in Canada.

It's a metamorphic rock of tertiary formation, composed of aluminum silicate containing sulfur, sodium and traces of various minerals, with frequent inclusions of marble or calcite (white zones) and pyrite (golden incrustations). Its crystal system is cubic, but crystals visible to the naked eye are very rare.

Lapis lazuli counterfeits are widespread, especially when it comes to higher-grade quality. Lapis lazuli of lower quality is often simply dyed. There are also many imitations made from blue-tinted Calcite, Magnesite or Jasper, or in synthetic materials, glass or porcelain.

The history of Lapis Lazuli

Thanks to archaeological excavations, we know that Lapis lazuli was used as early as 8,000 years ago in the Indus Valley as an ornament and for the manufacture of ritual art objects.

In the Bronze Age, Lapis lazuli was considered a precious stone and was as valuable as diamonds are today. The Sumerians built the palace of the Great Goddess under a mountain containing a large quantity of Lapis lazuli. The tombs of the Royal Ur cemetery in Iraq contain Lapis lazuli intended to guide and protect the souls of the dead.
Lapis was said to have supernatural power and to ward off evil forces and protect against the evil eye. It played a key role in many ceremonies, places of worship and places of power.
23 kg of raw Lapis were found in the palace of Elba in Syria.

For the Hebrews, this stone symbolized heaven and the sun. Some biblical scholars believe that Moses' Ten Commandments were carved into Lapis lazuli tablets.

The Egyptians considered it the stone of the gods, a symbol of infinity and immortality. They placed it inside tombs to protect the soul of the deceased during its journey. It was used in the manufacture of numerous objects such as amulets, cult objects and sculptures. Tutankhamen's funerary mask is inlaid with Lapis lazuli around the eyebrows. Ground into powder, it was used as eye shadow and pigment.

In Roman times, lapis lazuli cost more than gold! It was shipped from afar and used to make prestigious jewelry. Stone of the goddess Venus, the Romans attributed aphrodisiac virtues to it and used it as a remedy for snake bites.

The Celts associated it with the goddess Dana and used it as an amulet or for rituals.

It was used by the Mongols to make numerous objets d'art and to decorate the Taj Mahal in India.

In the Middle Ages, it was powdered and mixed with milk to cure boils and ulcers.

In Europe, from the 15ᵉ to the 19ᵉ century, Lapis lazuli was used as a pigment for painting and particularly appreciated for its longevity and the exceptional quality of its ultramarine blue, which does not change color in air and humidity, unlike Azurite pigments. It was nicknamed "blue gold" for its very high cost. The great painters of the Renaissance used this pigment mixed with oil. The sky on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the painting "The Girl with the Pearl" were painted with this pigment.

In Russia, the Tsars were very fond of Lapis lazuli and there were many specialized lapidaries who designed monumental objects carved from this stone. To decorate the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, 500 kg of lapis lazuli from Afghanistan were used.