Entry № 051
Black Shiva Lingam
Cryptocrystalline Quartz with Basalt and Iron
River-shaped stone gathered by hand.
Chakra
Root · Sacral · Crown
Element
Water · Earth
Zodiac
Scorpio

I. The Metaphysical Reading
How the stone has been held.
Black shiva lingams are gathered and hand-shaped from the Narmada river and are worked with as devotional objects long before they are described as crystals. In modern practice they are held as stones of union, whole-body prayer and the balance of active and receptive forces.
- Chakra
- Root · Sacral · Crown
- Element
- Water · Earth
- Zodiac
- Scorpio
- Keynote
- River-shaped stone gathered by hand.
II. The Scientific Reading
What the lattice actually does.
Shiva lingams are polished river cobbles from the Narmada in central India, composed of a mixed cryptoquartz and basaltic matrix with veins of iron oxide and clay. The characteristic ovoid form is shaped partly by river tumbling and partly by hand by artisans on the ghats near Omkareshwar and Maheshwar. The stone is culturally significant as the sacred lingam of Shiva; its geological identity is a naturally cemented volcanic sediment of the Deccan trap complex.
- Formula
- SiO₂ + basalt matrix with iron oxide veins
- System
- Cryptocrystalline aggregate
- Hardness
- 6 – 7 (Mohs)
- Provenance
- India (Narmada River, Madhya Pradesh)
References & Sources
Independent mineralogical references used to verify the scientific details above.
Mineral Profile
Fact Sheet
- Chemical Formula
- SiO₂ + basalt matrix with iron oxide veins
- Crystal System
- Cryptocrystalline aggregate
- Mohs Hardness
- 6 – 7 (Mohs)
- Density
- 2.60 – 2.90 g/cm³
- Refractive Index
- 1.530 – 1.540
- Provenance
- India (Narmada River, Madhya Pradesh)
- Color Origin
- Dark grey to black ground with russet and cream veins
Related Crystals
Stones that share this lattice
Next in the Atlas
Black Spinel
Small hard stone that takes no colour but its own.




