Citrine

        Citrine is one of my favorite stones first and foremost. Not only for its spiritual properties but also for its scientific properties. Before we dive into these blogs, I will say that they are completely subjective and based on my own spiritual knowledge with a little research splashed here and there. Diving into the science, Citrine is a silicate mineral that has the chemical formula of SiO2, who else has this…..QUARTZ!! This is because citrine is a form of amethyst which in turn is a form of Quartz. In most cases, Amethyst has impurities of Iron in its ferrous state of Fe+3 and is irradiated in earth to gain its beautiful purple color. In some other cases, the metal impurity can be switched out for other transition metals. Now, citrine arises because of heated up amethyst. The temperature to achieve this is above 440 degrees Celsius (824 F) whereas before that, the prasiolite stage, occurs between 420 and 440 degrees Celsius. During this stage, the color center is completely unstable and thus eventually morphs into what we know as citrine. Now, human intervention has allowed us to perfect the deep orange to almost rust color we see in most market Citrine but, natural citrine is a beautiful yellow to champagne color. I personally have an affinity towards natural citrine, but both do play their spiritual roles the same. It just depends on if you care for human intervention or not. 

        Now, let’s get into the metaphysical side of things on this crystal. Citrine ultimately works on the solar plexus chakra. This chakra focuses on past emotions and traumas, and by past I mean even what happened to you an hour ago. Your emotions immediately get stored in this chakra to be dealt with later if the brain deems it detrimental for the survival of the whole system, meaning you. Interestingly enough, the area the chakra is located in is the womb where we can see the depictions of mother earth holding our planet in care, comfort, and love. This is where we spew out our emotions and where we can really feel everything. Every human, not just those with wombs, have this chakra and can feel it just the same. Usually depression, anger, frustration, etc. all leave a bottomless pit feeling in your stomach and some people react in a way that causes them to get sick. This is due to past traumas not worked on and generally speaking, it is spirit, the universe, god, etc. telling you it is time to work on them. I like to think of it as a room-to-hallway-to-outside the house. Where the solar plexus is the room in which the emotions are stored like a battery, the hallway is the heart chakra where the emotions are carried in and out, and the throat chakra is the doorway to the world where we speak our emotions with hopeful clarity. As long as we follow this path we can’t go wrong, right? Wrong! W5e all know people who speak purely from an emotional stance and do not think it through. This is the result of not working on one of these few chakras and they are clearly out of balance. Now no one is perfect, but we can always make an effort to stay in balance not only for the outside world but, most importantly for ourselves. 

        Now how can we work on these emotions? Meditation, therapy, talking, and revisiting are a few good methods to begin with. There are a multitude of ways to work on these, it's just a matter of finding what is best for you. Citrine as a crystal will be a tool to help you along this journey. It will help open the solar plexus so you can start healing all these past emotions and focus on the good you have now. I recommend meditating with this stone, for some I know they have found fortune in keeping it by their bedside but, it always keeps me awake so I do not recommend that. Although if you find yourself in the same fortune, who am I to tell you no? Do what is right for you. Remember, in any spiritual practice, yes there may be some rules and some rituals to abide by and some absolutes of the universe but, in general, a lot of what you can do to start healing anything is widely subjective. You will know when this chakra is aligned because of the pattern changes you will see yourself go through. Your usual way of going about emotional situations will become different and clearer to where you can navigate life with significantly less anxiety.