Selenite Crystal Mountain Candle Holder

Selenite is a variety of gypsum - hydrated calcium sulfate, CaSO₄·2H₂O - and one of the softest minerals worked, Mohs 2, soft enough to mark with a fingernail. The polished pieces are usually satin spar, the fibrous gypsum whose parallel fibres give a moving, silky sheen.

That sheen is chatoyancy - light running along the fine fibres, a band of soft white light that travels as the stone or the light moves, like the sheen on satin or on still water. The body is translucent white to near-clear, so light passes into it and it glows.

Two things follow from gypsum’s softness and its water content: selenite scratches very easily, and it dissolves in water. Every selenite piece asks the most careful, driest handling - the care given for each form below is not optional.

Asked often

Why is it called selenite?
From the Greek selene, the moon, for the soft moonlike sheen that runs across the polished stone. The name is old, and the likeness to moonlight is the reason for it.

Why is it so soft?
Selenite is gypsum, Mohs 2 - one of the softest minerals worked, soft enough to scratch with a fingernail. That softness is its nature, and the reason every piece is handled gently and kept from harder things.

Can it get wet?
No - keep it dry. Gypsum dissolves in water, so damp will cloud, pit, or break down the surface. Selenite is dusted with a dry cloth only, never washed.

How do I use it safely?
Set tealights in their metal cups in the wells, on a dry, level, heat-safe surface, and let it cool before moving it. Keep the flame from prolonged contact with the stone, and never wash it - selenite is soft and dissolves in water.

1. Set it on a dry, level, heat-safe surface.
2. Place tealights in their metal cups in the wells; the translucent ridge glows along its length.
3. Let it cool fully before moving it; dust with a dry cloth only, never wash it.
4. Keep the flame from prolonged direct contact with the stone, and keep it dry - selenite is soft, water-soluble, and dislikes strong, sustained heat.

Selenite is soft, water-sensitive, and not fond of sustained high heat. Contained tealights, a dry surface, and a gentle dusting keep it well; it is never washed.

Dry cloth only, never washed. Use tealights in their metal cups, on a level heat-safe surface; let it cool before handling. Keep it from water, and from prolonged direct flame, which over time can affect the gypsum.

• Stone: Selenite · satin-spar gypsum
• Composition: CaSO₄·2H₂O · hydrated calcium sulfate
• Hardness: Mohs 2 (very soft)
• Character: Translucent white · rough peaks, polished wells · glows when lit
• Form: Carved mountain holder · wells for tealights
• Origin: Morocco
• Care: Dry cloth only · tealights in their cups · keep dry, away from sustained heat

The great selenite crystals are among the largest single crystals on Earth - the Cave of Crystals at Naica in Mexico holds gypsum beams many metres long, grown over hundreds of thousands of years in mineral-rich water. The same mineral, ground and fired, is the gypsum of plaster, and the alabaster carved since antiquity.

For its moonlike sheen selenite was named for the moon by the Greeks and read as a stone of light and calm across cultures - named here as what people believed. The sheen is fibre and light; what it quiets is the keeper’s.