Entry № 336
Purple Aura Quartz
Silicon dioxide with metal vapour coating
Quartz dressed in a violet metallic sheen.
Chakra
Crown · Third Eye
Element
Air · Fire
Zodiac
Aquarius · Pisces
I. The Metaphysical Reading
How the stone has been held.
Purple aura quartz is worked with as a stone of elevated perspective — favoured in meditation, energy work and altar arrangements where practitioners want lightness rather than gravity. Because it is a made object, many treat it as an intentional collaboration between mineral and human hand.
- Chakra
- Crown · Third Eye
- Element
- Air · Fire
- Zodiac
- Aquarius · Pisces
- Keynote
- Quartz dressed in a violet metallic sheen.
II. The Scientific Reading
What the lattice actually does.
Purple aura quartz is natural quartz that has been coated in a vacuum chamber by vapour deposition of metals such as gold, titanium or niobium. The vaporised metal bonds to the heated crystal surface as a film only nanometres thick; the violet colour is a thin-film interference effect, not a bulk property. The coating is surface-only and can be scratched or worn away, so the stone should not be tumbled or cleaned abrasively.
- Formula
- SiO₂ with Au/Ti/Nb surface film
- System
- Trigonal
- Hardness
- 7 (Mohs, substrate)
- Provenance
- Treated material; quartz from Brazil, Arkansas, China
References & Sources
Independent mineralogical references used to verify the scientific details above.
Mineral Profile
Fact Sheet
- Chemical Formula
- SiO₂ with Au/Ti/Nb surface film
- Crystal System
- Trigonal
- Mohs Hardness
- 7 (Mohs, substrate)
- Density
- 2.65 g/cm³
- Refractive Index
- 1.544 – 1.553
- Provenance
- Treated material; quartz from Brazil, Arkansas, China
- Color Origin
- Violet to magenta iridescence over clear quartz
Related Crystals
Stones that share this lattice
Next in the Atlas
Purple Chalcedony
Quiet violet botryoids of grape-like quartz.
