Agate (quartz)

Appearance:

Translucent/opaque; layers, circlets or banded varying colours including browns, yellows, whites, blues, greys, blacks and shades of orange-brown.

Common variations...

Variations of Agate include: Fire Agate, Eye agate, Dendritic agate, Enhydritic agate, Fortification agate, Orbicular agate, Moss agate, Scenic agate, Pseudo agate, Tubular agate, Sard stone and Brecciated agate.

Esoteric beliefs and associations...

Associated with the God Aesculapius. White agate encourages protection, purification and inner peace. When any hint of light blue is present, it helps with patience, contentment and happiness. Dark blue often attracts changes of circumstances and psychic ability. Stones containing strong traces of brown are often used for the healing of sick or injured animals. Yellow agate is associated with the zodiac sign of Virgo.

Other useful information...

The central cavity can contain other crysals, such as rock crystal (quartz), smoky quartz, calcite, hematite, chalybite or zeolite.

Physical properties...

Chemistry	Silicon dioxide
System/Structure	Hexagonal (microcrystalline aggregate)
Refractive Index	1.544 - 1.553
Specific Gravity	2.60 - 2.65
Mohs' Hardness	6.5 - 7.0