Selenite Beaded Bracelet

Selenite is very soft (Mohs 2) and water-soluble. Keep it dry, cleanse it without water, and handle it gently to avoid scratches and flaking.

Selenite takes its name from the Greek word for the Moon, a nod to the cool, luminous glow that seems to move within its translucent blades. It grows where mineral-rich water evaporates and leaves gypsum behind, gathering into clear blades and twinned fishtails, while its gypsum relatives satin spar and desert rose are sold alongside it under the same name. Long treated as a stone that sits between light and matter, it has been used for windows, meditation, and the clearing of space across many cultures.

Selenite is the transparent-to-translucent crystalline variety of gypsum, a hydrated calcium sulfate with the formula CaSO₄·2H₂O. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system, most often in evaporite deposits where mineral-laden water dries, forming bladed, tabular, and twinned fishtail crystals; in the Naica caves of Mexico, slowly cooling groundwater grew selenite beams more than ten meters long. Satin spar, the fibrous gypsum variety with a silky sheen, and desert rose, a sand-filled rosette of gypsum blades, are commonly sold under the selenite name. At 2 on the Mohs scale it is soft enough to mark with a fingernail, and it slowly dissolves in water.

• Named for Selene, the Greek goddess of the Moon, the stone was called selenites lithos, the moonstone, because its pale sheen was believed to wax and wane with the lunar cycle.
• The Romans cut translucent gypsum known as lapis specularis into thin panels and set it into windows, letting a soft, filtered light into homes and temples.
• Folk tradition held that placing selenite in the corners of a dwelling wove a quiet shield of light around it, keeping unwanted influences from crossing the threshold.