Lapis Lazuli is a beautiful celestial deep blue stone and is considered a semi-precious stone with its intense color display. It consists of deep blue Lazurite, sparkly Pyrite, cloudy white Calcite, and other minerals.
It is considered to be a protection from psychic attacks, brings deep peace and harmony, reveals inner truth, honesty, compassion, self-awareness, and self-expression. Because of its healing powers, Lapis Lazuli is celebrated as being The Wisdom Stone. Having its classic type, it was loved by the pharaohs from Egypt thousands of years back. Lapis Lazuli crystal welcomes most of the truth, wisdom, and spiritual wonder and makes it into your inner peace.
Lapis has a very lengthy history, dating back to biblical times. Some biblical scholars believe Lapis Lazuli’s spiritual meaning has its reference from the Old Testament to “sapphire” which indicates Lapis Lazuli. The meaning came from the Latin word Lapis which means stone and from the Persian word Lazhward meaning blue. The color meaning of Lapis Lazuli was also used in several languages including Spanish and Portuguese Azul. Lapis Lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines in Shortugai and found in Bhirrana, which is the oldest site of Indus Valley Civilization dated to 7570 BCE and has been valued from that time by the community. This stone was declared one of the oldest opaque gemstones in history, more than 6,500 years.
It was used as the finest art through the ages especially when it was used in ancient Egypt, beloved by the Babylonians, Minoans, Chinese, Greeks, and up to the time of the Romans. It was historically used in the death mask of King Tutankhamen, where they inlaid it with Turquoise and Carnelian in bright gold. It was also being used as cosmetics by Cleopatra and was a subject from a well-known writer Marco Polo way back in 1271. Michelangelo ground up Lapis Lazuli to create a blue paint called ultramarine that brings color to the robes of Mary of Nazareth painted on church walls.
Written by Luca Jessop, Yr 10 Intern
Lapis Lazuli photo by Geert Pieters on Unsplash
Tutankhamen photo by valentin ciccarone on Unsplash