apache tears...grief work and heart healing
Crystal meaning
Black Velvet, its subtle male energies attract the spiritual adventures, it keeps energy well grounded, clears subconscious blocks and brings an experience and understanding of silence, detachment, wisdom and love. A powerful healer for those it recognises, not to be used unconsciously.
Magical Uses
Divination, grounding, peace, protection, scrying, mirror magic.
Healing Uses
Stomach, intestines.
Physical Properties
Obsidian is a natural glass ( a silica rich volcanic rock), with glass as its main component. It is sometimes defined as being a glassy volcanic rock, with less than 1 per cent water content in its structure. It is formed from volcanic lava that cooled to quickly for significant crystallisation to occur. Hence it is amorphous, with no cleavage; fracture is conchoidal. Obsidian is usually black, but brown, grey and more rarely red, blue and green material is found. The colour may be uniform, striped or spotted. It may contain rare phenocrystals of quartz and feldspar.
Some inclusion give obsidian a metallic sheen, while internal bubbles or crystals produce a snowflake effect (hence snowflake obsidian) or an iridescence seen in flashes of colour.
Apache tear drop is a form of black obsidian. It is a calming translucent stone,
found in Arizona and other parts of the U.S. It is composed of feldspar, hornblend,
biotite and quartz. It was formed by rhythmic crystallization that produces a
separation of light and dark materials into spherical shapes, and is a form of
volcanic glass.
There is a haunting legend about the Apache tear drop. After the Pinal Apaches
had made several raids on a settlement in Arizona, the military regulars and some
volunteers trailed the tracks of the stolen cattle and waited for dawn to
attack the Apaches. The Apaches, confident in the safety of their location,
were completely surprised and out-numbered in the attack. Nearly 50 of the band
of 75 Apaches were killed in the first volley of shots. The rest of the tribe
retreated to the cliff’s edge and chose death by leaping over the edge rather
than die at the hands of the white men.
For years afterward those who ventured up the treacherous face of Big Pacacho
in Arizona found skeletons, or could see the bleached bones wedged in the crevices
of the side of the cliff.
The Apache women and the lovers of those who had died gathered a short
distance from the base of the cliff where the sands were white, and for a moon
they wept for their dead. They mourned greatly, for they realized that not only
had their 75 brave Apache warriors died, but with them had died the great
fighting spirit of the Pinal Apaches.
Their sadness was so great, and their burden of sorrow so sincere that the Great
Father imbedded into black stones the tears of the Apache women who mourned
their dead. These black obsidian stones, when held to the light, reveal the
translucent tear of the Apache. The stones bring good luck to those possessing
them. It is said that whoever owns an Apache tear drop will never have to cry
again, for the Apache maidens have shed their tears in place of yours.
The Apache tear drops are also said to balance the emotional nature and protect
one from being taken advantage of. It can be carried as an amulet to stimulate
success in business endeavors. It is also used to produce clear vision and to increase
psychic powers.
Black obsidian is a powerful meditation stone. The purpose of this gemstone is to
bring to light that which is hidden from the conscious mind. It dissolves
suppressed negative patterns and purifies them. It can create a somewhat
radical behavior change as new positive attitudes replace old, negative,
egocentric patterns.
- Phyllis Galde Truth about Crystal Healing
