Here we are in March, and the clover garlands are already up around town! I’ve actually written a brief post on clovers, four-leafed and otherwise, before. But collecting plants isn’t the only way to get a little luck . . .

Aventurine is a translucent, colored kind of quartz. Natural quartz is clear, but tiny inclusions can give the stone a color–hematite for pink or red, lepidolite for purple, fuchsite for green. Green aventurine is the most common, and the most associated with luck.

If you like green jewelry, you’ve probably run across aventurine before. It’s often used for beads or pendants, sometimes as a cheaper substitute for jade. Because it’s associated with luck and healing–and also simply because it’s pretty–it’s become very popular. That popularity has a price: these days, some “aventurine” is in fact dyed quartz. The difference is visible, though. The truly special quality of real aventurine is its aventurescence, which is the geological term for “cool shiny rock!” 😉 Basically, it means that true aventurine isn’t just green–it’s also got a subtle sparkly quality because of all those inclusions.

Now, the writer in me wants to wrap this up into a perfect ending: something along the lines of, like aventurescence, maybe luck is something that comes from within! 😀 Buuuut I get the feeling that might be pushing it a little, haha. Suffice it to say, aventurine is lovely–even when it’s dyed–and I wish you lots of good luck this month . . . no matter where it comes from. 😉

Selected Sources

If you’re looking for concise geological information on aventurine, this entry from Geology.com is helpful (scroll about halfway down for their discussion of aventurescence). For more on the folklore and lucky associations of aventurine, my go-to is always Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem, and Metal Magic (2nd ed, Llewellyn, 2020).

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