Yes. Crystal practice counts citrine among the stones that take nothing on, so it never needs clearing and can stay on through a hard day as easily as a good one.
Think of the day that goes wrong, the meeting that turns sour and the call you did not want to take. With many stones, the custom is to take the piece off that evening and clear it, because a stone worn through a day like that is held to have picked some of it up. Citrine is held to pick up nothing, and crystal writers call it self-cleansing. In that reading it comes through the bad day as it went in, and it can go straight back on in the morning without a bowl of salt or a night on the windowsill in between.
Crystal writers link citrine with warmth and optimism, a little sun on a grey day. GIA traces its name, tentatively, to citron, French for lemon, and its November birthstone page says the month’s two stones are known for bringing fortune and warmth to whoever wears them. Citrine has been worn for a long time. GIA notes it has been reported in Roman jewellery and was particularly popular in colourful Scottish jewellery in the Victorian era.
Bolivia’s Anahí mine comes with a story. GIA tells how the mine, an important source of natural, unheated citrine, was discovered by a Spanish conquistador in the 1600s and given to him as a dowry when he married Anahí, a princess of the Ayoreos people of Paraguay. The mine was then lost for three centuries. It was found again in the 1960s.
Through a hard day
Chakra charts place citrine at the solar plexus, the yellow centre below the breastbone, so it is worn on the upper body, as a pendant on a chain long enough to rest there or as a tumble in a shirt pocket. Crystal writers like citrine set in gold, the warm metal, and see no harm in silver.
For a ring, crystal practice reads the right hand as the giving side, where a citrine is pictured sending its warmth out to the people you deal with, and the left as the receiving side, where the warmth comes in.
According to GIA, citrine has a history of being mistaken for topaz, so people credited it with topaz’s powers and believed it could soothe tempers and calm the wearer. On a day you know will be hard, put it on and leave it where it is.
It also suits days that need some nerve rather than comfort, crystal writers say, a first morning somewhere new or a conversation you have been putting off. Carnelian, the orange stone set just below it at the sacral centre, makes a warm pair with it in a pocket for those days.
Joy and creativity are on citrine’s list in crystal writing too, for the blank page as much as for the hard meeting.
In winter, when the light goes early, a stone the colour of sunshine is a warm thing to catch sight of.
GIA lists citrine as the gift for a thirteenth wedding anniversary, so a piece given for that, or as a November birthstone, is an obvious one to wear every day. In crystal writing citrine is the merchant’s stone, kept in a till for a business’s luck alongside pyrite and green aventurine, and if you wear a piece daily you take that reading into your working day. Keeping it for money is a different use from wearing it, and does citrine attract money covers that.
Keeping its colour bright
GIA calls citrine the transparent yellow to brownish orange variety of quartz. Choose the shade by eye, and let the one that looks warmest to you be the one you wear.
Watch the colour first. Some citrine fades with long exposure to strong light, so when it is not on you, keep it off a sunny windowsill and somewhere dim, a drawer or a box. Sudden heat or cold can crack it, so do not take it from a cold sill straight to a hot tap, keep it away from steam cleaners, and wash it in warm, soapy water. It can be worn in a ring, as long as you remember it can still scratch.
If you like giving your stones a night out now and then, moonlight suits citrine better than the sunny sill, and clearing it anyway is fine if you want to.
After months of daily wear, a fortnight off is a pleasant way to see it fresh. Put it away, then wear it again one morning and look at it properly, the way you did the day you chose it.
Even on the greyest morning of the year, the citrine on its chain is the colour of a lemon in the sun.
Sources
- Gemological Institute of America, November Birthstones: citrine “believed to derive from the French word for “lemon” (citron)”, given for the thirteenth wedding anniversary; the transparent yellow to brownish orange variety of quartz; one of the November birthstones; citrine “has shared a history of mistaken identities” with topaz, “As a result, people thought citrine had the same powers as topaz. They believed the citrine birthstone could soothe tempers and calm the wearer.”; “citrine has been reported in Roman jewelry. It was particularly popular in colorful Scottish jewelry from the Victorian era.”; Bolivia’s Anahí mine, “an important source for natural, unheated citrine”, “Discovered by a Spanish conquistador in the 1600s, it was given to him as dowry when he married Anahí, a princess from the Ayoreos tribe of Paraguay. The mine was lost for three centuries until it was rediscovered in the 1960s.”; topaz and citrine “known to have calming energies while bringing fortune and warmth to the wearer”.
- Gemological Institute of America, Citrine Care and Cleaning: abrupt temperature changes can cause citrine to fracture; some citrine colour can fade with prolonged exposure to intense light; warm, soapy water is safe; steam cleaning is not recommended; suitable for rings as long as the wearer understands its limited hardness.
