OPAL PROPERTIES

✧ REFLECTION ✧ INTENSITY ✧ LIGHT ✧ JOY ✧
✧ SELF-AWARENESS ✧ EXPRESSION ✧ CREATIVITY ✧
✧ PASSION ✧ TRANSFORMATION ✧ NEW BEGINNINGS ✧

Opal is a hydrated form of amorphous silica, famous for the extraordinary play-of-colour displayed by precious varieties. Opal occurs in many forms, including precious opal, fire opal and common opal, each possessing its own distinctive appearance and character.

To me, Opal is above all a stone of reflection and emotional intensity.

I have always experienced Opal almost like a mirror. Joy can seem brighter in its presence, while sadness, anger or discomfort can become more difficult to ignore. For this reason, I associate Opal with self-awareness: recognizing what we are feeling, understanding our triggers and learning when an emotion should be expressed, examined or simply given time to settle.

For thousands of years, Opal has inspired associations with mystery, good fortune, beauty and the extraordinary. Its shifting colours make this easy to understand; few stones demonstrate quite so visibly how dramatically something can change depending upon the light through which it is viewed.

FIRE OPAL

✧ PASSION ✧ CONFIDENCE ✧ MOTIVATION ✧ INDIVIDUALITY ✧

Fire Opal has always spoken a very simple message to me: “I can and I will.”

I associate it with passion, confidence and the determination to move forward without constantly comparing our journey with someone else's. We each have our own way of creating a life, and Fire Opal reminds me to fiercely walk my own path with dedication and glory to God.

Its fiery appearance naturally evokes vitality, romance, creativity and ambition; the willingness to rekindle enthusiasm when something within us has grown stagnant.

OWYHEE BLUE OPAL

✧ PEACE ✧ REFLECTION ✧ COURAGE ✧ ACCEPTANCE ✧

Owyhee Blue Opal has a considerably quieter character. I associate it with stillness, contemplation and examining difficult emotions without immediately running from them.

Fear often becomes easier to understand once we can identify where it is coming from. To me, Owyhee Blue Opal symbolizes creating enough internal quiet to examine those fears, distinguish what is within our control and consider how we wish to respond.

Its soft blue appearance also evokes tenderness during periods of grief, loss and emotional change; a reminder that some experiences cannot be hurried and simply need to be felt.

PRECIOUS OPAL

✧ SELF-REFLECTION ✧ TRUTH ✧ GROWTH ✧ LIGHT ✧ TRANSFORMATION ✧

Of the Opals, Precious Opal has always felt the most intense to me.

Its extraordinary flashes of colour emerging and disappearing with movement remind me of the complexity within ourselves. We contain qualities we readily embrace and others we would rather avoid seeing.

For this reason, I associate Precious Opal with radical self-reflection. Growth sometimes requires confronting our own behaviour honestly; including moments when we have been wrong, acted from insecurity or projected our pain onto others.

It is not always comfortable to see ourselves clearly, but self-awareness gives us the opportunity to choose differently.

To me, the spectrum of colour within Precious Opal beautifully symbolizes this process: bringing what was hidden into the light and learning to accept the whole of ourselves while continuing to grow.