CARNELIAN PROPERTIES

 

✧ ACTION ✧ CREATIVITY ✧ COURAGE ✧ PASSION ✧
✧ MOTIVATION ✧ CONFIDENCE ✧ AMBITION ✧ STRENGTH ✧
✧ INDIVIDUALITY ✧ EXPRESSION ✧ PERFORMANCE ✧ ACHIEVEMENT ✧

Carnelian is a reddish-orange to brownish-red variety of Chalcedony that has been carved, worn and treasured since antiquity.

To me, Carnelian is unmistakably a stone of action.

Its warm, fiery appearance evokes movement, motivation and the courage to stop endlessly preparing and finally do the thing. I associate it strongly with ambition; the willingness to recognize what we want and actively work toward it.

Carnelian also represents creative expression and individuality. It is one of the minerals I most strongly associate with artists, musicians and performers: having the confidence to create something of our own and then allowing ourselves to be seen doing it.

There is also a passionate and sensual quality to Carnelian. It reminds me of the vitality found in attraction, sexuality, physical expression and the simple experience of feeling fully alive in one's body.

Fear and self-doubt can prevent us from acting even when we know what we want. Carnelian reminds me to imagine those fears burning away in its flame-like colour, leaving behind the courage and confidence necessary to move forward.

For this reason, Carnelian makes a wonderful personal symbol to carry or wear before an audition, performance, competition, interview or any moment that asks us to step forward and be seen.

ANCIENT LORE

Carnelian has been treasured for thousands of years, and remarkably, some of its ancient symbolism echoes the virtues I continue to associate with it today.

In ancient Egypt, Carnelian's fiery orange-red colour was associated with blood, power and energy. Small Carnelian hands and feet were worn as protective amulets and were believed to confer qualities such as dexterity, creative potential and speed.

Carnelian was also carved into the wedjat, or Eye of Horus; an important Egyptian symbol associated with protection, restoration and regeneration.

Across the ancient Mediterranean world, Carnelian was also prized for intricately engraved gems and scarabs. Surviving Greek and Etruscan examples depict gods, heroes, warriors, animals and mythological scenes, demonstrating the stone's long relationship with personal adornment, craftsmanship and artistic expression.

Thousands of years later, I find it fascinating that the qualities Carnelian evokes for me; action, creativity, vitality, courage and strength -have echoes in the ways earlier civilizations understood and used this fiery stone.

A symbol of action, creativity, courage, confidence and passion.