The curious Lore of Birthstones - October - Tourmaline

Written by Catherine Marche

Tourmaline and opal are the birthstones of the month of October. Tourmaline is the national gemstone of the United States. It comes in many shades of greens, reds, pinks and yellow to brown, including orange.

The main beauty of tourmalines is its varied and magnificent range of colors. Colors in every hue, shade and nuance grace this stone. Some tourmalines even have more than one color. The color depends on the place of origin: SriLanka possesses Rubellite which is blessed with colors of ruby ranging from pink to red. Malawi produces bright yellow tourmalines. Paraiba tourmaline is a turquoise-y blue stone, with copper and sometimes traces of gold. While Brazil is home to green and bluish green tourmaline.

This gemstone has many names: Rubellite for red, Indicolite for blue, Chromolite (rich green), Canary (bright yellow), Watermelon (green-edge and red-heart combo) Paraiba ( intense green to rich blue), Bi-color (more than one colored), Cats eye (variety of colors) and Color-change (Color changes with light from red to green ). Rest of the tourmalines are just called with the color prefix like pink-tourmaline. The color of the stone takes a different hue depending on the mineral and the proportion in which is present in it.
Tourmaline is quite a hard stone with it hardness being between 6.15 and 7.5. Tourmalines must be protected from scratches and blows.

Green Tourmaline meaning
All the tourmalines contain a wide scope of healing effects. The multi-colored tourmalines combine several qualities.

Green Tourmaline (also known as Verdelite) brings a joy for life. It promotes an appreciation for the many wonders that life has to offer. It encourages patience and openness, as well as sincere interest in fellow human beings.

The magical uses of this stone include the stimulation of creativity. It is also used to attract money and success in business.

Healing properties of green tourmaline
Green tourmaline strengthens the heart and offers detoxification effects.

Black Tourmaline (Schorl) Gemstone meaning
Rub black tourmaline for luck and happiness. This is a powerful stone and a very lucky stone. When the tourmaline is rubbed it becomes charged with magnetic electricity and the luck intensifies.
Colored Tourmaline
Tourmaline is black, but also shades of red, pink, green, blue and what is known as watermelon tourmaline, which is a crystal with green on the outside and pink in the middle. The green tourmaline brings success. The pink tourmaline will bring love and friends. Tourmalated quartz aids peace of mind. It is found in many countries including Burma, United States, Brazil and Zimbabwe.
Healing properties of Black Tourmaline
Tourmaline uses differs as its colors differ. All colors are very powerful and it must be used carefully. Each person seems to react differently to Tourmaline. It has been used with intestinal problems, but only a healer should use it. Black Tourmaline pushes all negativity away.
Pink Tourmaline gemstone meaning
Pink tourmaline is a gentle stone that directly touches the heart! The color varies widely from pale pink to deep red
Relaxing and nurturing, pink tourmaline is associated with feminine energies. It vibrates a deep resonance with the heart chakra. It has the potential to heal emotional wounds with its soft, soothinig energy to bring feelings of comfort and safety.
Pink Tourmaline opens your ability to surrender to love!
Emotional balancer and cleanser
Alleviates stress and obsessive behaviour
Assists in changing patterns to better align with spiritual growth
Radiates kindness, tolerance
The watermelon tourmaline is a rare variety that displays three different colors in the same crystal - green (the skin of the watermelon), pink (the sweet fruit) and white (the rind). As in the gem stone ametrine, the colors of the watermelon tourmaline occur 100% naturally. This is a rare occurence in nature.

What watermelon tourmaline can do for you

Attract love
Balance the male and female energies within yourself
Remove imbalances (and guilt) caused by conflicts and confusions
The green part feeds your life force, while the pink soothes and harmonizes

Healing properties of watermelon tourmaline
All of the tourmalines offer strong healing effects. The watermelon variety encourages regeneration of the nerves, helps with paralysis and multiple sclerosis.

Sources of watermelon tourmaline
South Africa, Brazil, Mozambique, Madagascar and Sri Lanka.

Dravite (Brown Tourmaline) meaning
Dravite is a brown variety of tourmaline. It is an ideal stone for self-healing, aids in finding emotional strength and self-acceptance. Dravite inspires courage and persistence. It calms and soothes, grounding and stabilizing the inner self.

Use Dravite with these compatible stones to clear and ground the root chakra and provide psychic protection:

Indicolite is the blue color variety of the tourmaline mineral elbaite (quite rare). Its typical color is a more deeper almost neon blue than other blue gems such as aquamarine and blue topaz. Other varieties include a cat's eye variety, verdellite (green), rubellite (pink to red) and watermelon tourmaline (green outside and a red center). All elbaite specimens are strongly pleochroic meaning that they show stronger or even different colors when viewed from different angles. In indicolite, this causes the blue color to appear darker when viewed down the long axis of an uncut crystal. The gem cutter must be aware of this pleochroisim in order to maximize the color potential of the stone.