Known as the “Genius Stone,” Fluorite represents the highest state of mental achievement, boosting aptitude and discernment, absorbing new information, and helping one work through complex issues. Its energy stimulates the electrical charge of brain cells, drawing in more life force (prana) as it encourages both hemispheres to work harmoniously together in balance. Expanding consciousness advances the mind to greater mental, spiritual, and psychic awareness. It stirs creativity and provides a limitless range of avenues for exploration. Fluorite forms in many color varieties, and while each manifests its abilities in different ways, all serve the mental body, brain, and energetic levels of being.

While some of Fluorite’s magical properties may have been overlooked or labeled in early texts as other stones, its value in many cultures of the world is evidenced by its use, dating back thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians used Fluorite for carving scarabs and statues of the gods, while green and other fluorites were carved into vessels by the Chinese and, at times, used as a substitute for Jade. The Romans, Celts, Britons, French, Germans, American Indians, and others all prized the beauty of Fluorite, carving it into figurines, deity statues, art, totems, amulets, and talismans, as well as decorative bowls, cups, dishes, and vases. 

Fluorspar vessels were highly prized by the Romans for their rarity, intricate banding, and for special flavor given to the wine drank from them, a result of the resin used to help hold the crystals together during the shaping process. Pliny the Elder, Roman historian, naturalist, and author of the first encyclopedia of stones and their powers speaks of at least one Roman noble who enjoyed chewing the edge of his vessel. He also notes that Emperor Nero is reputed to have paid over a million sesterces for one Fluorspar cup ($240,000 today). Pliny considered Fluorite “a most precious substance,” and in referring to the delicacy of this stone, he wrote, “It came to be deemed the proof of wealth, the true glory of luxury, to possess something that might be destroyed in a moment.”

Roman sources also speak of an incident where Julius Caesar’s predecessor, “Pompey the Great,” took six Fluorite vases from Mithridates’ treasure and had them installed in the temple of Jupiter. There is also the mention of a valuable Fluorite vase taken by the Roman Emperor Augustus from the Pharaoh’s palace in Alexandria, Egypt.

Rare artifacts of Fluorite have also been unearthed in America, in cultivated fields and burial sites of the southern Illinois-western Kentucky Fluorspar region. These remarkable carvings date from the Mississippian Moundbuilders era, between 900 and 1650 A.D., and reflect the native peoples of the Mississippi Valley. A large number of colorful Fluorite beads, pendants, and ear ornaments have been found, as well as four complete, or almost complete, Fluorite statues of figures in the seated position. They range in size from nine to twelve inches tall. The head of what would be a fifth statue was found in Tennessee, and the head and shoulders of a sixth statue from southern Illinois represent the total known Mississippian Fluorite statues. Illinois, whose state mineral is Fluorite, has a museum dedicated to Fluorspar that sits on the site of an actual mine last worked in 1954. The Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum in Marion, Kentucky, houses the world’s largest Fluorite collection.