Cat’s eye moonstone

cat's eye moonstone

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Cat’s eye moonstone meaning

Cat’s eye moonstone is a sodium potassium aluminium silicate and belongs to the feldspar group.

Its name comes from its visual effect, or sheen. It comes by light diffraction within a micro-structure consisting of a regular of feldspar layers.

Cat’s eye moonstone has been used in jewelry for millennia, including ancient civilizations. The Romans admired moonstone, as they believed it was born from solidified rays of the Moon.

Both the Romans and Greeks associated moonstone with their lunar deities. In more recent history, moonstone became popular during the Art Nouveau period, French goldsmith René Lalique and many others created a large quantity of jewelry using this stone

The most common moonstone is of the mineral adularia, named for an early mining site near Mt. Adular in Switzerland, now the town of St. Gotthard. The plagioclase feldspar oligoclase also produces moonstone specimens. Moonstone is feldspar with a pearly and opalescent schiller. An alternative name is hecatolite.

Two species of feldspar make up the cat’s eye moonstone. Orthoclase and also albite. The two species are intermingled.

Then, as the newly formed mineral cools, the intergrowth of orthoclase and albite separates into stacked, alternating layers. When light falls between these thin, flat layers, it scatters in many directions producing the phenomenon called adularescence.

Moonstone cat’s eye chatoyancy

Chatoyancy or cat’s eye effect, is an optical reflectance effect. It is visible in certain gemstones. Cat’s eye arises either from the fibrous structure of a material, as in tiger’s eye quartz, or from fibrous inclusions or cavities within the stone, as in cat’s eye chrysoberyl.

The precipitates that cause chatoyancy in chrysoberyl are the mineral needles. Furthermore, examined samples have yielded no evidence of tubes or fibers.

The needles are all align perpendicularly with respect to cat’s eye effect. It is reasoned that the lattice parameter of the rutile matches only one of the three orthorhombic crystal axes of the chrysoberyl, hence resulting in preferred alignment along that direction.

Cat’s eye moonstone metaphysical properties

The following section is pseudo scientific and based on cultural beliefs.

In its pure and natural form, cat’s eye stone relieves you from anxiety and stress. It gives you hope and a positive attitude towards life. Cat’s eye can also bestow you with self confidence and creativity. It enhances the memory and broadens your perspective in life.

Cat’s eye moonstone

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