Turquoise Meaning: Properties, Chakra, How to Use and How to Cleanse

Turquoise is the blue-to-green copper phosphate carried as a stone of protected speech and safe travel across Persian, Tibetan and Southwestern traditions. This guide covers turquoise meaning, its color range, the throat chakra link, how practitioners wear it, the water-free cleansing a porous stone requires, and how to spot dyed howlite sold as turquoise.

What does turquoise mean in crystal traditions?

Turquoise meaning centers on protected speech and safe passage. Across the traditions that have used the stone longest, turquoise is what you wear when you are going somewhere or saying something and both carry risk. Persian riders set turquoise into bridles and saddle fittings so the horse would not stumble. Medieval European lapidaries repeated a belief that a turquoise ring absorbed a blow meant for its owner, cracking or dulling as a warning, and that a stone which lost its color had spent itself protecting the wearer. Tibetan practice treats turquoise as a living stone that greens as it takes on the illness or misfortune of the person carrying it. In Navajo, Zuni and Hopi use, turquoise is tied to sky and water in dry country, offered at springs and worn as a marker of standing rather than as a generic good-luck charm. Modern crystal work inherits all of this and compresses it into one idea: the turquoise crystal is the stone of the honest word spoken at the right moment. Practitioners reach for it before a difficult conversation, a public talk or a long journey, and treat any change in the stone as feedback rather than damage.

The name records its trade route rather than its origin. Turquoise reached Europe through Turkish hands from Persian mines around Nishapur in Khorasan, and Old French called it pierre turquoise, the Turkish stone. That accident of shipping is why a mineral mined in Iran, Sinai and the American Southwest carries a Turkish name in English. The Shakespeare reference practitioners like to cite is checkable: in The Merchant of Venice, Shylock grieves over the turquoise ring Leah gave him before they were married, which his daughter has traded away for a monkey. That inheritance shapes how turquoise meaning is read today. Where amethyst is treated as a stone you sit with and clear quartz as a stone you program, turquoise is treated as a stone you are accountable to. The lore of the stone breaking to save its wearer sets up an expectation that turquoise is spending itself on your behalf, which is why traditional handling emphasizes gratitude and careful keeping rather than constant recharging.

Why is turquoise called the Turkish stone when it is not mined in Turkey?

Turquoise is called the Turkish stone because of the route it traveled, not the ground it came from. Persian turquoise from the Nishapur mines moved west through Turkish markets before reaching France and Italy, and Old French named it for the merchants who delivered it.

Is turquoise a birthstone?

Turquoise is a December birthstone in the modern list, sharing that month with zircon and tanzanite. That places it alongside Sagittarius in the way crystal writers usually map birthstones onto signs, and turquoise suits the sign thematically too, since Sagittarius is associated with travel and blunt speech. Turquoise is also the traditional gift marking an eleventh wedding anniversary.

What does it mean when turquoise changes color?

A turquoise crystal that shifts from blue toward green has usually absorbed skin oils, soap, perfume or sweat through its porous surface, and strong sunlight can also fade it. Tibetan and Persian traditions read that change as the stone taking on what the wearer was carrying, and treat a greened stone as one that has done its work. Practically, the same fact means turquoise should be the last thing you put on and the first thing you take off.

What is turquoise made of, and why does it range from blue to green?

Turquoise is a hydrated copper aluminum phosphate, and the copper in its formula is what makes it blue. It forms as a secondary mineral in dry country, where surface water carries copper down through aluminum-rich rock near weathering copper deposits and leaves turquoise in seams, veins and nodules. That is why the great turquoise districts sit in deserts: Nishapur in Iran, the Sinai peninsula, Hubei in China, and the copper belts of Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. The color range comes from what substitutes into the crystal structure. Copper alone gives the sky blue collectors call robin's egg. When iron takes the place of some of the aluminum the stone runs green, which is why Nevada and Tibetan material is so often described as jade green or avocado. Zinc pushes it toward yellow green, and the vivid apple-green Nevada stones from that chemistry are prized precisely because they are unusual. Turquoise sits at roughly 5 to 6 on the Mohs scale at its hardest, but low-grade chalk turquoise is softer and more absorbent than that suggests. It is opaque, cryptocrystalline, and takes a waxy to vitreous polish only when the material is dense enough.

Matrix is the second half of a turquoise stone's identity. The dark webbing running through most turquoise is host rock that never dissolved away, and its color announces what the stone grew in. Limonite gives the golden and rust-brown webbing associated with Nevada material, pyrite adds metallic silver flecks common in Morenci stones from Arizona, and quartz or ironstone gives black and gray lines. When that webbing forms a tight, even net, the trade calls it spiderweb, and a well-defined spiderweb can be worth more than a clean stone. Old European grading ran the other way, treating uniform matrix-free Persian blue as the top of the market, and that split in taste still divides collectors. Sleeping Beauty in Arizona became shorthand for clean, matrix-free light blue and its turquoise production ended in the 2010s, which is why old stock now trades at a premium. Kingman produces bright blue with black or silver web, Bisbee is known for deep blue with a chocolate-brown matrix, and Nevada mines such as Royston and Carico Lake supply the blue-to-green blends. Chinese Hubei material fills much of the current market across the full range.

How hard is turquoise and can it be worn every day?

Turquoise is about 5 to 6 on the Mohs scale, softer than quartz at 7, so a turquoise crystal scratches against sand, dust and most other stones in a jewelry box. Dense high-grade material handles daily wear in a bezel setting, while chalky or heavily stabilized turquoise chips more easily. Store turquoise separately from harder stones and take rings off before cleaning, gardening or lifting weights.

What is the difference between spiderweb turquoise and clean turquoise?

Spiderweb turquoise carries a tight net of host rock running through the blue, while clean turquoise shows an unbroken field of color with no matrix. Neither is a defect. Persian-style grading prizes clean sky blue, and Southwestern collecting often prizes a sharp spiderweb from a named mine more highly. In practice, matrix tells you where the turquoise grew and how the seam formed.

What stones are confused with turquoise in the ground?

Variscite and chrysocolla are the two minerals most often mistaken for turquoise by people digging or buying rough. Variscite is a green aluminum phosphate that forms in similar settings and can pass for green turquoise. Chrysocolla is a copper silicate with a brilliant blue-green color but much lower hardness, and it is frequently sold bonded to quartz so it survives cutting.

What properties are attributed to the turquoise crystal?

Turquoise properties cluster around communication, protection in motion, and the repair of what has been said badly. The first and most consistent claim is that turquoise steadies the voice. Practitioners describe it as a stone that slows speech enough for truth to survive the trip from thought to mouth, which is why it is handed to people who either say too much or say nothing at all. The second claim is travel protection, inherited from the Persian custom of setting turquoise on bridles and the wider habit of giving a traveler a turquoise before a long road. Modern practice keeps the shape and changes the vehicle: a turquoise crystal in the car, in a flight bag, or on a keyring. The third property attributed to turquoise is reconciliation. Because the stone is associated with the honest word, it is used after arguments as much as before conversations, held while writing an apology or naming a boundary. Turquoise is also treated as a bridge between spiritual insight and ordinary speech, which practitioners describe as the difference between knowing something and being able to explain it. Turquoise carries a strong reputation as a stone of standing, worn to signal that the wearer keeps their word.

What separates turquoise from the other blue stones in a working kit is direction of flow. Lapis lazuli is read as a stone that pulls insight downward and sharpens what you understand, while turquoise is read as the stone that gets it out of your mouth in a form another person can accept. Aquamarine is often described as softening speech and cooling conflict. Turquoise softens nothing. Readers consistently describe turquoise as the stone that makes a hard truth sayable without cruelty, and practitioners who work with clients on boundaries and difficult disclosures tend to keep it closer than any other blue stone. Turquoise properties also include a strongly relational quality that the lore states outright. Traditional handling in several cultures holds that turquoise is at its most potent when given rather than bought for yourself, which is why turquoise passes down through families and moves as a gift between people who owe each other honesty. When someone asks which stone to give a person leaving home, turquoise is the traditional answer.

Is turquoise a protective stone?

Turquoise is treated as a protective stone specifically for movement and exposure rather than for the home. Black tourmaline and obsidian are the stones practitioners use to hold a room or a doorway. Turquoise protects the person going out into the world, which is why the historical uses are horse tack, traveler's gifts and rings worn in public.

What does turquoise do for emotional healing?

Turquoise is used for the emotional work of saying the thing that has gone unsaid. Practitioners give turquoise to people carrying resentment they have never voiced, grief they have not named, or an apology they owe. The stone is not described as calming the way lepidolite or blue lace agate are; turquoise is described as clarifying, and people often report that holding it makes them more direct rather than more comfortable.

Is turquoise good for the workplace or public speaking?

Turquoise is one of the most commonly recommended stones for public speaking, interviews, teaching and negotiation. The usual practice is to wear the turquoise crystal at the throat or on the hand that gestures, so the stone sits in the field of the voice. People who talk for a living tend to keep turquoise where it can be touched during a pause rather than out of sight in a pocket.

What chakra is turquoise associated with?

The turquoise chakra association is the throat, Vishuddha, the center governing speech, honesty and self-expression. That match is made on both color and function: the stone's blue-green sits exactly where the throat center is pictured, and its traditional meaning of protected, truthful speech is the throat center's own job description. Practitioners place turquoise at the hollow of the throat during a lie-down session, or wear it on a short chain so it rests between the collarbones. Turquoise is also widely described as a bridging stone rather than a single-center stone. Because the material runs from blue toward green depending on its iron content, greener turquoise is often assigned partly to the heart center, and practitioners use it when the thing that needs saying is tender rather than merely factual. Some traditions extend turquoise upward to the third eye as well, on the reasoning that turquoise connects what is perceived to what can be articulated. When the throat feels blocked in the way crystal practice describes it, meaning tightness before speaking, a swallowed complaint, or a habit of agreeing out loud while disagreeing inwardly, turquoise is one of the standard stones brought in.

A common turquoise chakra layout pairs the stone with a second center to give the speech somewhere to come from. Turquoise at the throat with amethyst or lapis lazuli at the brow is used when the aim is to explain an insight clearly. Turquoise at the throat with rose quartz or green aventurine at the heart is used when the conversation ahead concerns love, forgiveness or a boundary inside a close relationship. Turquoise at the throat with hematite or smoky quartz at the feet suits people who get scattered when they have to speak in public. Because turquoise is porous, a chakra layout is one of the safest ways to work with the stone; it stays dry, sits against clean skin for a short session, and never touches oil or salt. Twenty minutes at the throat is the usual length, and the standard instruction is to speak out loud at the end, even a single sentence, so the work has an actual voice attached to it.

Where do you place turquoise on the body?

Turquoise is placed at the hollow of the throat for the standard chakra application, either on the skin during a lie-down session or worn as a short necklace or choker. For everyday work, practitioners wear turquoise as a ring on the dominant hand so it moves with speech and gesture. Turquoise is also worn as earrings by people who want the stone associated with listening as much as speaking.

Can green turquoise be used for the heart chakra?

Green turquoise is regularly assigned to the heart center as well as the throat, since the green tone comes from iron and reads as warmer than sky blue. Practitioners use greener Nevada or Tibetan turquoise when the work involves a tender disclosure, and reserve clean blue Persian-style or Sleeping Beauty material for clear, factual speech. That dual assignment is one reason turquoise is described as a bridge.

What crystals pair well with turquoise for throat work?

Lapis lazuli, amethyst, blue lace agate and clear quartz are the usual partners for turquoise in throat work. Lapis adds precision to what is being said, amethyst pulls the source of the insight upward, blue lace agate takes the edge off when the conversation is with someone fragile, and clear quartz amplifies whatever intention the turquoise is carrying.

What benefits do practitioners attribute to turquoise?

Turquoise benefits, as reported in practice, fall into four groups. The first is voice: people describe turquoise as making them more willing to say the difficult thing and less likely to over-explain afterward. The second is safe travel, and here turquoise has the longest track record of any crystal, carried by Persian riders, Tibetan traders and Southwestern travelers long before anyone put one in a suitcase. The third is repair, meaning the stone is used to reopen conversations that ended badly and to hold a person steady through an apology. The fourth is standing, the sense of being someone whose word can be relied on, which is why turquoise appears so often in jewelry marking status, initiation and belonging. In folk medicine the stone was also associated with the throat and lungs, and older sources credited it with easing swelling and settling the nerves, claims that belong to the history of the stone rather than to any modern evidence. Present-day practitioners usually frame turquoise benefits in behavioral terms instead: wearing a turquoise crystal is a physical reminder to slow down, keep your promises and finish the sentence you started.

The turquoise benefit people report most often is unglamorous and specific: the stone is a cue attached to a decision they have already made. Someone who has resolved to stop agreeing to things they do not want to do puts on a turquoise ring, and every time their thumb finds the stone during a conversation, the resolution surfaces again. The travel benefit works the same way. A turquoise on a keyring or in a bag is a checkpoint, and the old habit of giving a traveler a turquoise is really a habit of sending someone off with a token of the people expecting them back. Because turquoise lore says the stone is strongest when given, its benefits are often described as social rather than personal. A turquoise handed over at a graduation, a departure or a reconciliation carries the relationship in it, and gifted turquoise is the piece people keep wearing after the novelty of a new crystal wears off.

Should you buy turquoise for yourself or receive it as a gift?

Tradition holds that turquoise carries the most power when it is given rather than bought, a belief recorded in Persian, Tibetan and Southwestern practice alike. That does not make a self-purchased turquoise crystal useless; practitioners who buy their own often mark it with a small ceremony of intent, or gift a second stone to someone else to complete the exchange. Inherited turquoise is treated as the strongest of all.

How long does it take to notice anything from wearing turquoise?

Practitioners generally suggest wearing turquoise daily for a full lunar cycle before judging it, because the effects people report are behavioral and cumulative rather than immediate. The pattern usually described is that the first week feels like nothing, the second brings an awareness of how often you soften or avoid what you meant to say, and the change in speech follows from that noticing.

Which zodiac signs is turquoise recommended for?

Turquoise is most often recommended for Sagittarius, matching its position as a December birthstone and the sign's association with travel and plain speech. Crystal writers also give turquoise to Aquarius, whose fixed-air nature is linked to voicing unpopular positions.

How do you use turquoise in daily practice?

The dominant way to use turquoise is to wear it where it participates in speech. A turquoise ring on the dominant hand rides along with every gesture and can be touched mid-sentence, which is why silversmiths across the Southwest have set turquoise into heavy rings for generations. A short necklace or choker keeps the stone at the throat center. Earrings put turquoise beside the ear for people who want the stone attached to listening. Beyond jewelry, the common practices are compact. Practitioners keep a turquoise worry stone or tumbled piece in a pocket on the day of a difficult meeting, hold it while rehearsing what they intend to say, then carry it into the room. A turquoise crystal in the car, on a keyring, or tucked into a passport case continues the traveler's tradition. On an altar, turquoise is placed at the center when the work concerns truth-telling or a promise, and beside a photograph when the promise involves a particular person. Turquoise is also used as a witness stone in agreements, held by both parties or set on the table while terms are discussed, mirroring how the stone has long been used to seal betrothals.

There is a specific turquoise practice worth naming because it is not shared with other stones: speaking to the stone before speaking to the person. The routine is simple. Hold the turquoise, say aloud the sentence you are dreading, listen to how it sounds, and revise it until it is true without being a weapon. Practitioners describe this as the stone's actual job, and it works whether or not you attribute anything to the mineral, because turquoise gives you an object to attach the rehearsal to. A second practice is the travel handover. Before someone leaves, the person staying behind holds the turquoise, names the return, and passes it over. That is the ancient use stripped to its bones. A third is the repair placement: after an argument, the turquoise is set somewhere both people will see it until the conversation is finished properly. Grids are less common with turquoise than with quartz; when practitioners build one, turquoise takes the center and the intention is stated aloud rather than written.

Which hand should you wear a turquoise ring on?

Practitioners usually wear a turquoise ring on the dominant hand, because turquoise is a stone of expression and the dominant hand is the one that gestures, writes and signs. The general convention of receiving on the left and projecting on the right applies loosely, so a right-handed person doing outward work such as speaking or negotiating wears turquoise on the right. Comfort and setting security matter more than the rule.

Can you sleep with turquoise?

Turquoise is not a common sleep stone, and practitioners tend to take it off at night for two reasons. Sweat and skin oils are the fastest route to a greened, dulled surface, and turquoise is associated with active speech rather than rest, so it fits poorly in a bedside kit built around amethyst or moonstone. If you want turquoise nearby overnight, place it on a dish rather than under a pillow.

How do you program or set an intention with turquoise?

Turquoise is programmed out loud. Hold the cleansed stone, state the intention as a full spoken sentence rather than a single word, and repeat it once. Practitioners keep turquoise intentions specific to speech and movement, such as naming a conversation you intend to have or a journey you intend to complete safely.

How do you cleanse and charge turquoise without damaging it?

Cleanse turquoise dry. Turquoise is porous, hydrated and often resin-stabilized, so water, salt, ultrasonic cleaners, steam and household chemicals all cause real damage: water soaks in and can loosen a stabilized surface or lift dye, salt is abrasive and draws moisture, and prolonged sun fades the copper blue toward a chalky green. The safe methods are the ones that touch nothing. Sound cleansing with a bell, singing bowl or tuning fork works well and suits a throat-center stone. Smoke from sage, cedar, palo santo or incense is the traditional method in several of the cultures that use turquoise. Resting the piece on a selenite slab or in a bed of dry rice overnight is a common contact method that stays dry. Burying turquoise in dry earth for a night returns it to its origin setting, but keep the soil dry and never do this with damp garden soil. For a physical clean, wipe the stone with a soft dry cloth and nothing else; a chamois is ideal for silver-set pieces. To charge turquoise, use moonlight rather than sunlight, and a couple of hours on a windowsill is plenty.

Frequency matters less with turquoise than with stones treated as absorbers. The traditional view is that turquoise shows you when it needs attention, since the stone visibly greens, dulls or crazes as it takes on oils and wear. Practitioners treat a change in the stone as the cleansing prompt and otherwise run a quick smoke or sound clearing weekly. The bigger risk to a turquoise crystal is everyday contact rather than accumulated energy. Perfume, hairspray, sunscreen, hand sanitizer and dish soap are the main culprits, and hand sanitizer in particular has ruined a great many turquoise rings, since alcohol strips wax and attacks the epoxy in stabilized stones. Put turquoise on last, after lotion and scent, and take it off before washing up. For silver settings, be careful with commercial silver dip, which will destroy turquoise on contact; polish the metal with a treated cloth and keep it off the stone.

Can turquoise go in water?

Turquoise should not go in water. Turquoise is a hydrated phosphate with an absorbent structure, and most turquoise on the market is stabilized with resin, so soaking can discolor the stone, loosen the stabilizing agent, lift dye from treated material and damage the glue in a setting. Never use ultrasonic or steam cleaners on turquoise. Wipe it with a dry soft cloth instead, and keep it out of the shower, the pool and the sea.

Can turquoise go in sunlight or salt?

Turquoise should be kept out of both. Prolonged sunlight fades the copper blue toward a pale, chalky green and dries the stone, so charge turquoise in moonlight instead. Salt is abrasive against a stone of Mohs 5 to 6, draws moisture, and works its way into pores and matrix where it stays. Dry salt beds and salt water are equally unsuitable, so use smoke, sound or a selenite plate.

How do you store turquoise?

Store turquoise separately, wrapped in a soft cloth or in its own pouch, away from quartz and other harder stones that will scratch it. Keep it out of direct sun on a windowsill and away from heat sources such as radiators, since heat dries the stone and can craze a stabilized surface.

How do you spot fake or dyed turquoise?

Most fake turquoise is dyed howlite, dyed magnesite or plastic block, and price is the first tell. Genuine natural turquoise is scarce, the American mines that produced the famous material are largely worked out or closed, and no honest seller offers a large, evenly colored, matrix-free blue stone for a few dollars. Start with color and pattern. Dyed howlite carries a distinctive gray-to-black web that is thicker and more uniform than natural matrix, and the blue often pools darker in the veins where dye collected rather than sitting in the body of the stone. Plastic block, sometimes sold as reconstituted turquoise, looks unnaturally consistent, feels light and warm rather than cool and dense, and shows no variation between beads that should have come from different parts of a seam. Check the drill holes on beads, since dye frequently fails to reach the interior and you will see white or gray inside a blue bead. Rubbing a hidden spot with an acetone-dampened cotton swab is the trade test for surface dye, and blue transferring to the swab settles the question. A hot needle touched to an inconspicuous area smells of plastic on block material.

Treatment is a separate question from fakery, and the honest middle ground is where most of the market lives. Natural untreated turquoise is a small fraction of what is sold. Stabilized turquoise is real turquoise impregnated with resin to harden porous material so it can be cut and polished, and it is legitimate when disclosed. Color-shot turquoise adds pigment to that resin and should always be disclosed. The Zachery treatment is a named process that hardens turquoise and deepens color without added resin, and it is difficult to detect outside a laboratory. Reconstituted turquoise, made from turquoise powder bonded with plastic, sits at the bottom, and block turquoise contains no turquoise at all. Two more names cause confusion on purpose. African turquoise is not turquoise but a spotted jasper, and white buffalo is a white Nevada stone marketed under the turquoise umbrella though gemologically it is not turquoise. When buying seriously, ask for the mine name, the treatment status and a return window, and buy from a dealer who answers all three without hesitation.

How can you tell howlite dyed to look like turquoise?

Dyed howlite shows a heavy, uniform gray-to-black web with color concentrated in the veins rather than the body of the stone, and it is softer than turquoise at about 3.5 on the Mohs scale. Look inside the drill holes of beads for undyed white cores. An acetone swab on a hidden area often lifts blue color from dyed howlite, while natural turquoise does not surrender pigment to acetone.

Is stabilized turquoise real turquoise?

Stabilized turquoise is real turquoise. The stone is genuine mined material impregnated with clear resin to harden porous or chalky rough so it survives cutting, drilling and wear. Stabilization is standard practice for the majority of turquoise sold and is entirely acceptable when the seller discloses it. What is not acceptable is undisclosed dye, reconstituted powder, or plastic block sold as turquoise.

Does stabilized turquoise work the same in crystal practice?

Most practitioners treat stabilized turquoise as fully usable, on the reasoning that the mineral is unchanged and only the pores are filled. Those who prefer untreated material do so for feel and for the way natural turquoise ages with the wearer, which is central to the stone's lore of taking on what you carry. Dyed howlite is a different matter, since it is not turquoise and carries none of turquoise properties.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does turquoise mean spiritually?

Turquoise means protected, honest speech and safe passage. The stone's oldest recorded uses are Persian bridle fittings meant to keep a rider from falling, traveler's gifts, and rings believed to crack in place of their owner. Tibetan practice reads turquoise as a stone that greens as it absorbs illness or misfortune, and Navajo, Zuni and Hopi use ties turquoise to sky, water and standing within a community. Modern crystal work compresses those into one meaning: turquoise is the stone of the true word said at the right time.

What chakra is turquoise?

Turquoise is a throat chakra stone, matched to Vishuddha by both its blue-green color and its association with truthful speech. Greener turquoise, colored by iron, is often extended to the heart center for tender conversations, and some traditions link turquoise to the third eye because the stone is said to bridge what you perceive and what you can articulate. The standard turquoise chakra placement is at the hollow of the throat, worn on a short chain or laid on the skin for about twenty minutes.

Can turquoise get wet?

No, turquoise should not get wet. Turquoise is a hydrated copper aluminum phosphate with a porous structure, and most turquoise sold has been stabilized with resin, so water can discolor the stone, weaken the stabilizer, lift dye from treated material and loosen the glue in a setting. Ultrasonic and steam cleaners are especially damaging. Cleanse turquoise with smoke, sound or a selenite plate instead, and take turquoise jewelry off before swimming, showering or washing dishes.

How do you cleanse turquoise?

Cleanse turquoise using dry methods only. Sound from a bell, singing bowl or tuning fork suits a throat-center stone, smoke from sage, cedar, palo santo or incense is the traditional approach, and resting the piece on a selenite slab or in dry rice overnight works as a contact method. Dry earth for a night is another option. Skip water, salt, sunlight and any chemical cleaner. To charge turquoise, put it in moonlight for a few hours, then restate your intention out loud.

How can you tell if turquoise is real?

Real turquoise is cool and dense in the hand, varies from piece to piece, and carries matrix that runs through the body of the stone rather than pooling as dye in surface veins. Fakes are usually dyed howlite or magnesite with heavy uniform gray webbing, or plastic block that feels light and warm and looks too consistent. Check bead drill holes for white undyed cores, test a hidden spot with an acetone swab to see whether blue transfers, and be suspicious of large flawless blue stones at low prices.

What are the benefits of wearing turquoise?

Turquoise benefits reported in practice are a steadier voice in difficult conversations, protection while traveling, help in repairing relationships after an argument, and a felt sense of being someone whose word holds. Practitioners wear turquoise as a ring on the dominant hand so it moves with speech, or as a short necklace at the throat, and carry it before interviews, presentations and negotiations. Historical folk medicine additionally credited turquoise with easing throat and lung complaints, a claim belonging to the stone's history rather than to evidence.

Why did my turquoise turn green?

Turquoise turns green when its porous surface absorbs skin oils, sweat, soap, lotion or perfume, and sunlight can fade blue toward green as well. The chemistry behind naturally green turquoise is iron replacing aluminum in the crystal structure, but a stone that changes on your hand is reacting to what you have exposed it to. Tibetan and Persian tradition reads that greening as the turquoise crystal absorbing what the wearer was carrying. To slow it, put turquoise on last and take it off before washing.