Violet stones: list, shades, symbolism, treatments and care

Violet, between red and blue

Violet is the visual mixture of blue and red. In stones, it often comes from iron in irradiated quartz (amethyst), from manganese (sugilite, lepidolite, lilac kunzite) or from a two-colour effect (tanzanite and iolite show blue, violet and brown depending on the angle). This property is called pleochroism. So violet is found in solid quartz, soft micas and rare silicates. For paler shades, see pink stones.

The main violet stones

A few details

Amethyst is a violet quartz, whose name is said to derive from the Greek amethystos, “not intoxicated”: the ancients believed it protected against drunkenness, which has no basis. Ametrine combines violet and yellow in a single crystal. Charoite, with its violet swirls, comes from a single deposit, in Sakha (Siberia). Sugilite, an intense lilac, is rare and expensive. Lepidolite is a soft lithium mica, which splits into layers. Tanzanite, discovered in 1967, is found only at Merelani (Tanzania); almost all stones are heated. Iolite, a cordierite, changes colour with the angle. Kunzite is a pink-lilac spodumene, sensitive to light.

What violet suggests, across cultures

In antiquity, purple was extracted from a shellfish (the murex), at a very high production cost: it was reserved for the gods and ruling classes, and only Roman imperatores wore entirely purple garments. The Church took up this colour of dignity: around 1200, Pope Innocent III made it a sign of penance; violet is the liturgical colour of Advent and Lent, and of bishops. In the 16th century, the kings of France wore it for mourning instead of black. 19th-century Symbolists saw it as an in-between colour, and esotericism made it the colour of initiation. In modern crystal healing, violet is linked to the third eye and crown chakras. These are recent conventions, not established knowledge; see the third eye chakra.

Treatments and imitations

• Amethyst: the colour can be lightened or turned yellow by heating (this is how citrine is made). Violet glass and dyed quartz also imitate amethyst. See amethyst.
• Tanzanite: heating of brown zoisite, common and accepted if disclosed. Very cheap “tanzanites” are often glass or synthetic spinel.
• Sugilite: imitations in glass or dyed stones.
• Lepidolite: reconstituted stones made from powder.
• Fluorite: surface treatments and dyes exist.

Read real or fake stone for simple checks.

Care and pairings

Prolonged sunlight fades amethyst, kunzite and fluorite: keep them in the shade (see stones that fear the sun). Lukewarm water suits amethyst and iolite; lepidolite and fluorite are wiped. Violet pairs with yellow, its complementary colour (yellow stones), white and grey.

Frequently asked questions

Also read

The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to Guide to stones by color.