A Walk With Moldavite, the Stone That Fell to Earth

At midnight, the full moon streams down onto a flat-top boulder ready to serve as a natural altar. An owl calls in the distance. Then silence.

My focus fixes on the glass plate atop the altar. A stone shaped like a teardrop sits in its exact center. As I attune myself to unseen vibrations, I sense the stone bathing in its silver ray of moonlight.

By morning, by moonset, the stone’s aura is clean. The rising sun lights up the bottle-green gem.

Moldavite. One of the most highly regarded natural gems of the New Age.

Later, I sit at my makeshift jewelry bench to wrap the teardrop-shaped stone in 14-karat gold-filled wire. Gold is flexible and easy to work by its nature, but I am inexperienced with my tools. I must work slowly to avoid leaving marks on the impressionable metal.

Beginners are often urged to work with inexpensive materials like silver or even copper, and sometimes I do. Not this time, and not this stone. I want — no, I need — to be invested in the process.

Slowly, slowly. To work something precious, with great care, is a form of wordless meditation. At last, the pendant is finished.

It is beautiful. And yet I do not choose to wear it that day, or the next, or the next. I wait for the dark of the moon.

Waiting, too, is a form of meditation.

I have a gold chain that allows the Moldavite pendant to fall to the hollow of my throat. Not an accident, but yet another choice. I have felt a certain blockage in my throat chakra — a certain inability to speak my truth.

Yet the time has come to speak. The block must be opened.

To this purpose, in the quiet of the new moon, I return to the night meadow to put on the pendant for the first time. The Moldavite has no sooner settled itself against the hollow of my throat than I feel a great surge of emotion.

I know what I must say.

Born from a meteor that fell 15 million years ago

Crystal workers honor Moldavite for its ability to remove spiritual, emotional, and psychological blocks. As a bottle-green gem, its color lands right in the middle of the natural rainbow — Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

That central position allows it to work especially well with the central heart chakra. I also find it useful to unblock the throat or the third eye.

According to the geologists, Moldavite is one of a few magickal gems that isn’t a crystal. Amber, the natural fossil resin, is such an item. Natural pearl, formed by irritated oysters, is a second. Obsidian, natural volcanic glass, is a third.

When the Nördlinger Ries meteor fell to Earth in Bavaria some 14.8 million years ago, it smashed into a layer of sand with great force. The sand, which melted instantly, was blasted high into the atmosphere as a liquid. Of course, gravity pulled it back, and the liquid began to fall to earth again.

Rain is almost always falling water. This rainfall was different, for it was melted sand — and melted sand cools to form natural glass.

This strange green rain must have been a dramatic event. Moldavites have been found up to 280 miles away from the original impact crater.

Legends of the Grail

The science behind the gem cannot erase our sense of wonder. As long as people have been aware of Moldavites, they have shared myths, legends, and meditations about these mysterious stones.

Note: Crystal folklore goes back to the dawn of prehistory. You can work with stones regardless of your religion or lack of religion, and it has become commonplace for crystal workers to describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” You need not be a Christian to work with Moldavite or any other stone.

That said, many Moldavite legends are linked to the Christian legend of the Holy Grail. If only from Dan Brown, you’ve likely heard some version of the story.

The Grail was the cup Jesus drank from at the Last Supper, or it was the chalice the apostle Peter used to collect the blood pouring from the crucified Christ, or — quite often — the same cup served both purposes. In any case, its connection with the sacred blood of Jesus granted the Grail the power to perform miracles, especially miracles of healing.

The trouble is the Holy Grail seems to have vanished. Centuries of noble knights riding out on quests have done nothing to bring the sacred chalice home again.

Here is where Moldavite enters the story. The Gospels do not tell us what the Grail looks like. There are even those who argue it was just another rough-hewn wooden cup. However, since Jesus was already recognized as a king, others argue the Grail would have been made of more precious material.

Down through the ages, many a storyteller has described the Holy Grail as a gold chalice set with precious stones. Others have claimed it was carved from a single Emerald. Indeed, there’s a certain logic to a green Holy Grail.

Green, the color of health and resurrection. Green, the color of spring and eternal life. It feels right.

Except the math doesn’t work. A gem-grade transparent Emerald large enough to carve into a wine glass would be more valuable than a Roman palace. One such gem could buy and provision entire armies.

Is it likely such a stone would be carelessly misplaced and lost to history? With no mention made of its existence in the extensive Roman tax records?

Or is it more likely that the Grail was made of something else?

The same substance wine glasses are normally made of?

Wouldn’t that substance be… glass?

The ancient legends offer us another clue. Some say the precious Emerald used to carve the Grail fell to earth when Lucifer fell, for it was one of the Fallen Angel’s crown jewels.

The thing is, Emeralds don’t fall from the sky. They grow in the Earth. Moldavite is the stone that fell.

A simple guide to working with Moldavite

I’m an intuitive crystal worker who believes in letting the stones speak. If you feel an urge to work with a gem differently, please follow the prompting of your heart. That said, many workers use Moldavite to clear blockages in their path, especially emotional or spiritual blockages that may be holding them back.

One of the most popular uses of Moldavite is to remove secret hurts in the heart. Often with the help of therapy, people notice how a past hurt is creating behavior that makes the heart-sore person sabotage their own success. Deep problems of this nature aren’t healed in a night, but wearing Moldavite against your heart can be surprisingly powerful.

Warning: The first time you wear the gem, you might be surprised by a rush of emotion. Memories flood back — often memories that carry strong feelings. For this reason, I strongly advise you to wear a new Moldavite for the first time in a safe, peaceful place where you’re free to feel what you’re feeling. Tears may flow.

The throat chakra also responds well to Moldavite. As a child, I went through a phase where I didn’t speak for a long period of time. Even as a young adult, I experienced many situations when I felt I could not speak my truth. Thus, I choose to invest exceptional care in keeping my throat chakra clean, open, and unblocked.

Wearing Moldavite at the heart or throat is a relatively simple process. You perform the stone purification ritual of your choice, then wear the stone on a chain of the appropriate length. I described one such ritual at the beginning of this article.

I like to clean Moldavite in a so-called moon bath. You could also clear it with running water or the smoke from a favorite incense. However, never use salt or saltwater to purify a stone. If you’ve ever seen what salt can do to stainless steel, you’d never risk it on your crystal treasures.

The more advanced seeker might consider using Moldavite to open the third eye chakra. You may see visions, be they visions of creative endeavors you will pursue — or visions of the future. It depends on the seeker.

Placing any gem on the third eye can be tricky. An old-time crystal worker suggested taping or bandaging the stone in place. I simply can’t do that and keep a straight face.

If you can meditate while flat on your back, you might try that. Place (or have a helper place) a clear quartz crystal point or polished pebble on your solar plexus, heart, and throat. Next, place the Moldavite on your “third eye” spot in the center of your forehead.

Visualize a pure light moving through the stone and into your third eye. Let visions come, but do not clutch at visions or linger on them. Let them flow.

By the way, if you don’t get any dazzling cinematic visions, you’re perfectly normal. Moldavites aren’t performing poodles who do tricks on command. The stone will speak when it has something to say.

I myself haven’t received visual impressions. Instead, I tend to get physical sensations like goosebumps. I experience moods rather than concrete messages.

And that’s perfectly fine. Regardless of whether or not you see into the mists of time, your Moldavite is calmly unblocking that chakra. Over the next few days, notice yourself having more insight into yourself and the world around you.

That, my friend, is the third eye coming open. You’re seeing beyond what you normally see.

If you want a deeper dive into Moldavite, I wrote a book called, The Moldavite Message that's available from almost any online ebook retailer you can think of as well as public libraries in the Hoopla network.

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