Fake Crystals and Minerals

The metaphysical value of minerals and crystals are big business. And faking them it seems, even more so.

I've collected bits of the earth (herbs, stones, etc) as esoteric tools for years. I'm a novice rockhound (and herbalist) in that sense, but I well remember the first time I saw an auction on Azeztulite, a stone I'd never heard before. Actually, three things caught my untrained and rather novitiate eye:

1) It looked just like a dirty chunk of not-very-impressive quartz crystal.

2) For a ridiculously high price. Let me underscore: Ridiculously.

3) Accompanied by a dubious albeit sensational 'history' that involved aliens and Love (two of my favourite things, specially when coupled btw) known as 'Azez' (ditto 'mysteries') which obviously explained the 'specialness' of the stone. Specifically, and I quote, "Azeztulite is derived from the name Azez, a race of extraterrestrial beings who created these crystals in order to help humanity reach a higher plane of spiritual enlightenment."

This at least explains the 'astronomical' price anyway. How had no one ever heard of this stone before? What was going on here? Had Aquarius finally arrived?

It isn't for me to judge the veracity of Azez or the integrity of such claims. New minerals are discovered regularly and always make me tingly (consider the recent discovery of this cache of Nebula Stones). But clearly, further investigation of a more scientifically minded persuasion was needed, which happily (or not) revealed a few facts - and which incidentally you may not have known, and in the quest for enlightened humans, I am only to eager to share:

• The International Mineralogical Union’s (IMA) Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification is the only body entitled to name new minerals and it does so according to strict scientific protocols. This is a good thing to know if, being a metaphysically minded novice rockhound mystic and such, you tend to start twitching (like I do) when something new AND sparkly with Cosmic Powers Extraordinaire comes flitting your way.
• Azeztulite, predictably, is not amongst the minerals named by the IMA
• Mindat.org lists it as "an unnecessary and unofficial trade name for a nondescript type of white quartz." With a warning: "Traders on ebay have been using the name "Azeztulite" to sell pieces of quartz, and quartz crystals at astonishingly high prices. Do not fall victim to this scam. There is no such mineral as Azeztulite, it is a made-up name for ordinary quartz (the most common mineral on earth)."

Dissapointing? Yes. I remain hopeful though - the cosmos is a vast and mysterious thisness-of-being. I personally really like the Nebula Stones. Who knows whether Azez is credible or simply incredible, after all?

That is a personal determination for the individual to concur. What was not so evident?

That a great many stones are routinely faked and this is actually a very big business, with metaphysical sorts generally being the ones taken to town. Fakecrystals.com is a blog dedicated to exactly exposing the cretins behind the industry of producing fakes for BIG profits. Routinely.

Unethical ploys include:

• A recent plethora of fabulous crystals from China listed on Ebay as of late. I know I've personally seen several of these - some bigger around than a mans wrist and as long as a forearm. Most of these are man made with oxides and other adulterants added to approximate the real thing, and are very difficult to discern as fakes.
• Baked Citrine - Brazil evidently has an abundance of Amethyst (a fine stone in its own right), and somewhere down the line someone discovered that if you heat the Amethyst, you get a burnt-goldeny tone which is then marketed as Citrine. And though I've not seen any write-ups of this, I suspect that maybe more than a few 'Ametrines' are a product of this same deception.
• Epoxy Turquoise - again, a lot of this is coming in from China, and there are two different swindles involved. One is the practice of dying Howlite with those blue toilet bowl tablets, which produces an eerily close approximation to Turquoise. The cheaper method simply involves plastic, resins or epoxies being covered with Turquoise powder.

Other anomalies I've seen referenced but which I personally would not include as deception include laminating crystals with gold, titanium or other metals and then reselling the stones as 'Aqua Aura' crystals. Generally every seller I have seen selling these points out this manufacturing part of the process.

In the end, I will never quit collecting and coveting things that sparkle and that make me feel good. Deception though tends to dull that particular patina. Let us then simply be wise: Open to the principles of mysticism and lore while grounding carefully against spurious claims that seem too good to be true no matter how nicely they shine) is a good metaphysically sound position in acquisitions and engagements of things otherworldly, and otherwise.

And perhaps a Nidstang against such deceivers is not entirely inappropriate, if you are so thusly inclined.