Labradorite
Labradorite is a grey feldspar that flashes blue, green and gold. An Inuit story from Labrador says the colours are northern lights trapped in the rock, partly freed when a hunter drove his harpoon into the stone.
Meaning
Labradorite is named after the coast of Labrador, where, the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica records, Moravian missionaries found it as boulders about 1770 and sent specimens to London. It is a feldspar, like Moonstone, and GIA notes that it can show the same play of light. Its story belongs to the Inuit of Nunatsiavut, on the Labrador coast, who still tell it.
Origin and history
Labradorite reached Europe only after 1770, too late for the classical and medieval lapidaries. By 1913 George Frederick Kunz could list it as the phenomenal gem for Saturday, as moonstone was for Monday. Madagascar is one of the places it is mined today, The Guardian has reported.
The northern lights in the stone
Jason Sikoak, an artist from Rigolet in Nunatsiavut, set down the story in 2019 for Inuktitut Magazine, published by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, as it had been told to him. A powerful angakok wanted the northern lights for himself, so he stole them from the sky and shut them in the rocks by his home on the northern Labrador coast. The people nearby lived in darkness. A great hunter who knew the angakok took his harpoon and ran to him, and when the angakok would not give back the lights, the hunter killed him, hoping the spell would die too. It did not. So he found the place where the lights shone brightest in the rock and drove his harpoon into the stone. Some of the lights escaped back into the sky. The rest stayed in the rock, “giving us what we call Labradorite today.”
Read next
- Next in Crystal and gemstone loreGarnetGarnet is a group of minerals, best known as a deep red gem. Its name comes from the pomegranate, and for most of its history a red garnet was a “carbuncle”, the glowing red stone of Pliny and of dragon legends.
- The same shape in Adinkra symbolsBese SakaBese Saka, a bunch of kola nuts, is the adinkra symbol of affluence, abundance and unity.
See also
Moonstone, Amethyst, Rose quartz, Clear quartz, Citrine, Carnelian.
Sources
- The Northern Lights of Nunatsiavut, Jason Sikoak, Inuktitut Magazine, issue 125 (Summer 2019), Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, The whole story
- Labradorite (1911 Encyclopædia Britannica), Frederick William Rudler, Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition, vol. 16, Wikisource, Labradorite
- Moonstone (GIA Gem Encyclopedia), Gemological Institute of America, About moonstone
- The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, by George Frederick Kunz, 1913, J. B. Lippincott (Project Gutenberg edition), ch. 11 (phenomenal gems for the days of the week)
- Dark crystals: the brutal reality behind a booming wellness craze, Tess McClure, 17 September 2019, The Guardian, Madagascar
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles or curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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