A Crystal for Every
Season: Tourmaline

Charlie Rainbow Wolf

This is the second of the three harvest festivals. The first, Lammas, is the festival of grain; this is the festival of fruit. It’s the time when the day and the night are of equal length, and it’s the perfect sabbat for finding balance in your life. It’s the time of the cutting of the last grain, the final culling of the god, while the goddess is in all her glory in her role as the Harvest Queen. In the northern hemisphere things are winding down for the winter, but there’s still plenty to do to preserve food for the cold season.

It’s no surprise that the colors of the season echo those of the harvest; gold and warm yellow, mossy green, shades of rust and russet. Look for stones that echo these colors, either in your favorite metaphysical shop or just while you’re out in nature. Traditionally, some of the stones that are associated with this time of year include amber, hematite, lodestone, mookaite, petrified wood, two-toned shiva lingam, and topaz.

My favorite Mabon stone is tourmaline. Its energy signature represents protection, grounding, and focus—qualities appreciated by the farmer in the fields and the back-to-school student alike. When I first started working with crystals nearly three decades ago, tourmaline was the stone that brought discipline and development to my efforts. In fact, in my first crystal divination readings when I only had five stones, black tourmaline—also called schorl—was the stone that I used to indicate where the querent needed to pay attention, and bring back some balance and order.

Tourmaline doesn’t just come in black, though. It’s also found in blue, green, pink, red, and a blend of several colors in one stone. They all have their own nuances, but all tourmalines are good protectors and conductors of energy. It’s fairly hard—7.5 on the Mohs scale—and is often carved into jewelry, healing wands, and more. It’s versatile and reliable, and those are two of the qualities that it imparts to people who choose to delve into its personality.

Black Tourmaline

I’ve started with the darkest because this was the first tourmaline to introduce itself to me. I was taught that the shamans and magicians of old used this stone to protect them as they did their rituals and traveled between worlds. It’s a root chakra stone, and useful to have around when you’re working to overcome fears and insecurities about your physical needs. Healers believe that this stone helps to deflect negative energy, from both environmental influences as well as psychic attack.

Black tourmaline is also found growing as inclusions in quartz and other stones. Clear quartz acts as an amplifier in this instance. The tourmalated quartz blends the qualities of both minerals, and is thought to be quite powerful when used in crystal healing. It’s said to balance the yin/yang energies. Wear this stone if you are apprehensive about a situation, or carry one instead of a fidget spinner to give yourself something to do when you feel anxiety creeping up on you.

Blue Tourmaline

This stone looks so very tranquil and peaceful, and that’s the energy that it brings to your Mabon activities. If you’re rushing around trying to get everything done, use blue tourmaline to help you relax and unwind. It resonates with both the third eye and the throat chakra, helping you to think before you speak, and to make sure your words are kind and helpful. Like all tourmaline, it’s also a protective stone.

Green Tourmaline

You might also hear this stone called verdelite, echoing vert—the French word for green. It comes in all shades, from the palest lime to the deepest olive, and this is the tourmaline that is most associated with nature spirits and dryads. It’s the color of life, and a very important crystal to healers. It’s a heart chakra stone, and is used for balancing emotional issues as well as physical ones.

Pink or Red Tourmaline

Even though there’s a slight difference in the energy between the pale rose and the deep magenta, both of these colors resonate on the same frequency. They’re both heart chakra stones, with the red being more intense than the pink. The red color is called rubellite, but don’t mistake it for a ruby! This is another energy neutralizing stone, protective like all tourmalines, and a valuable crystal when working to replace fear with love. Many people think that hate is the opposite of love, but it’s not; fear is. Pink and green combined in the same stone is called watermelon tourmaline, and is thought to be a impressive healer when it comes to matters of the heart.

Mabon Reflections

Journaling is a wonderful way to mark the passing of Mabon, and it can be done as a solitary practice or group activity. Record your thoughts, then either keep them in your Book of Shadows or share them with others around a fire, or both! I’ve shared many a ceremony where we’ve written what we wish to see die and expire with the last breath of the Corn King as he gives up the final harvest and then fed those papers to the fire as we discussed what we hope to change.

Tourmaline is a sturdy ally on this journey of reflection. If you’re fearful of change, write about that, and allow black tourmaline to protect your energy as you explore new ideas and concepts. If the summer saw relationships fade, work with pink, green or watermelon tourmaline to heal the hurt from this separation so you’re able to lose the attachment and replace it with compassion and understanding. Blue tourmaline will help you leave the past behind without regret, making room in your life for new beginnings.

If you don’t keep a journal and want to make this into more of a ritual than a reflection, try writing down your thoughts on something that is related to the harvest. Corn husks are large enough to hold several words and phrases. When your writing is finished, offer the husk to the fire. Another idea is to get a flower bulb and write onto it what you wish to bury, then plant the bulb. In this way, you give that energy to the earth, so that it might grow anew in the spring.

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