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Gemstone Crystal System Density Hardness Refractive index Treatments
Albite triclinic 2.57-2.77 6.0-6.5 1.527-1.590 none




moonstone

Color:
Colorless, white, cream, peach, brown

Durability:
Good, but well-developed cleavage

Localities:
World-wide

albite

Albite crystals, Crete, Greece

Moonstone
(K, Na) AlSi3O8

Moonstone is a variety of albite feldspar, which is a sodium aluminum silicate. Moonstones can occur colorless,white,blue white,and pale shades of peach and apricot. The rarest and most expensive will be colorless with a floating blue color that seems to hover above the stone. This phenomenon is termed adularescence. In India it was believed that moonstones placed in the mouth during a full moon would allow you to correctly envision the future. Until the 19th century, moonstones were thought to make people invisible, allowing only their spirits to wander about. A variation of that belief still persists today. It's been claimed that moonstone can lead to psychic immortality because it fortifies the spirit to stand alone from the body.