Mohs hardness scale: 7
Love, Rose Quartz teaches, is the ability to transcend yourself and merge with another. Another person, or plant, or stone. An animal or the sky above. The dirt beneath your feet, a volcano, the endless roll of the ocean. All are one. Rose Quartz knows that you can soften your edges ’til you blend and blur — weaving yourself into the web of the world, healing the bits of you that life has broken. Blend and blur and then come back to self-ness. You are you and you are we, Rose Quartz whispers. Allow moments of Rose Quartz-style love to infuse your awareness of your singular reality.
Ritual 
In the Taoist tradition, after you work with Rose Quartz, you clear it by passing it through the steam of boiling water sprinkled with rose petals. All four elements are used in Rose Quartz’s purification: Steam is a marriage of fire and water. Fire requires air or else it suffocates. Petals from plants represent the earth element.
You can replicate this process for refreshing and renewing yourself. Using herbs and spices from your kitchen or nontoxic plants from your garden, create a steam bath. Steam your face or your feet or pass your hands over the mist. Think about what you want to cleanse and use the symbolic meaning of different flowers, herbs, and spices to add some oomph to your process!
Reflection
Rose Quartz’s blush is caused by a combination of manganese, which feeds the heart; titanium, which lends unbreakable strength; and iron, which grounds and centers. We too are made up of different parts. What different parts make up your being and how do they play out in your personality?
The ancient poet Amergin wrote a poem made of “I am” declarations. There are many translations of this poem (originally written in Gaelic). You can use this model to declare who you are.
