Selenite Crystal Wand (10cm)

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 look after a selenite wand?
Dust it with a dry cloth and keep it dry - gypsum dissolves in water, so it is never washed. Store it apart from harder stones, which scratch it easily; it is very soft.

1. Held in the hand, or rested on a desk or shelf.
2. Turn it in the light - the satin sheen travels down its length.
3. Dust with a dry cloth only; never wash it.
4. Very soft and water-soluble - keep it from damp and from knocks, and store it apart from harder things, which will scratch it.

Selenite is the softest, most water-sensitive material in the house. Kept dry and gently handled, the sheen holds.

Dry cloth only, never washed. Keep from all water, damp, and abrasion; store it apart from harder objects. A piece to handle gently.

• Stone: Selenite · satin-spar gypsum
• Composition: CaSO₄·2H₂O · hydrated calcium sulfate
• Hardness: Mohs 2 (very soft)
• Character: Translucent white · satin sheen along its length
• Form: Polished wand · a smooth rod
• Origin: Morocco
• Care: Dry cloth only · keep from all water

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.