(Cu,Zn)3(CO3)(OH)4·4H2O
Blue fire lifting the inner eye, kundalini-bright
Claraite is named after its type locality, the Clara Mine in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) of Germany — a famous old silver and barite mine that has yielded a remarkable number of rare secondary minerals. The stone carries the name of the place that first revealed it to science.
Claraite is a rare hydrated copper-zinc carbonate, trigonal in symmetry, forming small crystals and crusts in a soft, luminous blue to blue-green — the colour of its copper content. It is soft (about 3) and water-bearing, with a vitreous to pearly lustre.
It is a secondary mineral, born in the oxidised zones of copper deposits where copper, carbonate and water meet, often beside other bright copper minerals. It is genuinely scarce, prized by collectors of rare species.
Claraite was described in the late twentieth century from the Clara Mine in Germany, one of the world's richest sources of rare secondary minerals. It has since been found at a small number of other copper localities.
It forms as delicate blue crusts and crystals in weathered copper ore, and is sought after precisely for its rarity and its gentle, sky-blue colour.
Contains copper — do not ingest, lick, or make crystal water or elixirs from this mineral. Soluble copper compounds are toxic, and as a soft, water-bearing carbonate claraite can react with acids.
Wash hands after handling, do not grind or inhale its dust, and keep it away from children and pets.
A gentle, luminous blue to blue-green — the cool colour of copper in a carbonate.
A rare species from the Black Forest mine that is one of the world's richest hunting grounds for unusual minerals.
A secondary copper carbonate formed as ore oxidises — bright new colour rising from old, broken-down rock.
"Do not be attached to the appearances of this life. Like a dream, they are vivid but lack true existence. Rest in the state where there is neither hope nor fear."— Khenpo Acho
Claraite works at the third eye — the inner eye of intuition and clear perception, the centre able to look directly at any issue and dissolve it. Its blue light is uplifting and bright, yet it is also a heavier, more grounding stone than the airy cavansite: where cavansite simply lifts the vibration, claraite is more strongly attuned to the kundalini, the deep current that rises through the body and wakes the higher centres.
So this is insight with weight behind it. As a stone of Joy and Life it brings a glad, energising lift to the inner eye, while its grounding nature keeps that opening rooted in the body rather than floating off — vision that is both elevated and stable. Its frequency is high and its power gentle, so it works finely, opening sight without strain.
"I am ever with those who practice Kriya."— Lahiri Mahasaya
And it carries Love and is Expanding: the awakened sight does not turn cold or stay small, but stays warm and widens outward, lifting a person into a larger, clearer way of seeing. It is rare, blue, kundalini-bright medicine for the inner eye — though, being a copper mineral, it is to be honoured only by presence and never taken inwardly in any form.