TURQUOISE PROPERTIES

✧ TRUTH ✧ COMMUNICATION ✧ REVELATION ✧ DISCERNMENT ✧
✧ COURAGE ✧ STRENGTH ✧ FAITH ✧ DEVOTION ✧
✧ RELATIONSHIPS ✧ BELIEFS ✧ HOPE ✧ PROTECTION ✧
✧ WISDOM ✧ LONGEVITY ✧ MATURITY ✧ POWER ✧

Turquoise is a hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mineral, treasured for its remarkable shades of blue and green for thousands of years. It is one of humanity's oldest ornamental gemstones, appearing in ancient Egyptian jewellery, Indigenous cultures of the American Southwest, and throughout the historic trade routes of Asia and Europe.

To me, Turquoise is foremost a stone of truth.

TRUTH & REVELATION

My experiences with Turquoise have often coincided with moments when something previously hidden became impossible for me to ignore.

Hidden motives.
Secrets.
Dishonesty.
The reality of a relationship or situation that I may not have completely understood before.

In one particularly ironic experience, a piece of Turquoise was actually gifted to me by someone who was lying to me. Eventually, the truth surrounding that person and situation was revealed to me in a way I found undeniable within days of receiving the stone.

I don't claim that carrying Turquoise guarantees that secrets will magically expose themselves.

But because of my experiences with it, Turquoise has become a powerful personal symbol of revelation and discernment; the courage to see something as it actually is, even when the truth is inconvenient.

Sometimes revelation is finally becoming willing to recognize what was already in front of us.

COMMUNICATION & RELATIONSHIPS

Truth and communication are inseparable.

Relationships cannot mature without honesty, and honesty requires courage from both sides: the courage to speak truthfully and the courage to hear something we may not want to hear.

Turquoise reminds me that good communication is being honest in your heart and with your word.

It requires discernment.

Is it true?

Am I communicating because I want understanding? Or because I want to manipulate, hide or win?

Turquoise represents communication that seeks truth & reconciliation rather than victory.

FAITH & BELIEF

I also associate Turquoise deeply with faith and devotion.

Faith inevitably asks us questions about truth.

What do I believe?
Why do I believe it?
Am I faithful in my heart, my actions, my words?

What is my belief based upon?

For me, faith has become stronger when I am willing to ask difficult questions rather than being afraid of them.

Discernment refines faith. 

Turquoise reminds me to seek truth within my relationship with God, to remain devoted without becoming intellectually passive, and to have enough humility to admit when my own understanding may need correction.

Faith and truth should not need to be enemies.

POWER & MATURITY

There is another kind of strength I associate with Turquoise: the ability to remain standing when truth changes our circumstances.

Discovering the truth does not always feel liberating immediately.
Sometimes it dismantles a relationship.
Sometimes it changes our understanding of another person.
Sometimes it reveals something about ourselves.
Sometimes it requires us to make a decision we would rather avoid.

Truth carries responsibility.

Once something has been clearly recognized, we must decide what we are going to do with what we know.

That is where Turquoise represents maturity and personal power to me.

Not the ability to control circumstances or other people.
 Power as the courage not to abandon what we know to be true.

INDIGENOUS TRADITIONS OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST

Turquoise has held profound cultural and spiritual importance among Indigenous peoples of the American Southwest for centuries.

Its significance varies between nations and traditions, so it would be inaccurate to assign one universal “Native American meaning” to Turquoise.

Among the Diné (Navajo), Turquoise is a sacred material with longstanding associations with the heavens and protection. Smithsonian material describes it as having been regarded for centuries as a protective talisman. Turquoise also appears throughout Southwestern Indigenous jewellery, ceremony, trade and artistic traditions.

Across Southwestern traditions, its blue-green colour has also carried powerful relationships with sky and water, while historical traditions have connected Turquoise with protection, health and abundance.

I find these traditions worthy of particular respect because Turquoise is not simply an aesthetic material within these cultures. Its significance exists within living cultural and spiritual traditions that long predate the modern crystal industry.

MEDIEVAL LORE

Turquoise also developed an extraordinary reputation in medieval Europe.

Its modern name emerged during the Middle Ages from terms meaning “Turkish stone,” reflecting the routes through which the gemstone reached Europe.

By the thirteenth century, Turquoise had become particularly famous as a stone of protection.

One medieval tradition claimed that a true Turquoise set in gold would protect its wearer from injury during a fall, whether the person was walking or riding. Later traditions became particularly associated with horsemen, who carried Turquoise as protection against falls and accidents.

Other medieval mineral writings similarly recorded the belief that Turquoise protected its wearer from misfortune and preserved the sight.

Whether or not those old lapidary virtues were literally true, I love the symbolism that developed around the stone:

Remain standing.

Protect what matters.
Have the courage to face what is true.
And when life knocks you from your position, possess the wisdom and strength to rise again.

THE VIRTUE OF TURQUOISE

For me, Turquoise ultimately represents the relationship between truth and courage.

Truth requires discernment to recognize.
Communication to express.
Courage to accept.
Wisdom to understand.
Maturity to act upon.
And faith when we cannot yet see the entire picture.

My own experiences with Turquoise have taught me that revelation is not always comfortable, but knowing the truth gives us the opportunity to choose what we will do with it.

Seek truth. Speak it with wisdom. Have the courage to hear it. And remain faithful to what is good.

A symbol of truth, revelation, communication, discernment, faith, protection and the courage to remain standing.