Chlorite is so soft that a fingernail can often scratch it. Yet the green in a chlorite quartz bead can outlast the person wearing it, because the soft mineral is sealed inside quartz, one of the hardest common stones. The most delicate thing in the stone is the part you see.
The chlorite meaning centers on renewal, the green of new growth after a pause. It also hides inside quartz in three distinct looks, and one quick bend of a flake tells chlorite from the mica it resembles.
Chlorite quick facts
- Chakra: Heart
- Element: Earth
- Zodiac: None widely agreed
- Color: Mossy to deep green, sometimes grey-green
- Hardness: 2 to 2.5 (the quartz around it is 7)
- Commonly from: Brazil, Madagascar, the Himalayas, worldwide in metamorphic rock
- Pairs with: clear quartz, green aventurine, moss agate
Growth after a pause
Renewal. Chlorite's green is read as new life, a stone for starting again after a stretch of standing still.
Clearing. Crystal guides often name it for clearing out a stale mood and making room for something lighter.
Nature. Its mossy color ties it to gardens and growing things, a favorite for anyone who feels most at home outdoors.
The best-known chlorite quartz is the phantom. A quartz crystal grew, paused, and a thin film of chlorite coated its faces before the quartz grew on and closed over it. The green outline inside shows the shape the crystal had at that pause, and some crystals hold several, one inside another.
A heart stone with mountain roots
Green stones belong to the heart chakra, and chlorite is turned to there for kindness toward yourself and a fresh, open heart. Its element is earth, fitting a mineral that gives whole mountain belts their green.
Three ways chlorite shows up in quartz
| Look | What you see | Often sold as |
|---|---|---|
| Phantom | A faint green outline of an earlier point inside the crystal | Chlorite phantom quartz |
| Garden | Green clumps and wisps scattered like moss or underwater plants | Garden quartz, lodolite, scenic quartz |
| Dusting | Clear quartz clouded or speckled green throughout, often cut into beads | Chlorite quartz, green chlorite |
All three are quartz on the outside, so they're as tough as any clear quartz. Garden quartz takes its "scenic" name from the little landscapes people see in it.
Where a green-flecked stone belongs
- On a desk or windowsill during a new chapter at work
- Beside houseplants or on a potting bench
- Tucked in a coat pocket on the first morning of a new routine
- On a nightstand through a slower, quieter season
- As a gift for someone moving into a new home
Wearing the green without the chlorite
On the wrist. The clear quartz crystal chip bracelet is the same mineral that holds chlorite, in its clearest form. Clear quartz has its own full guide.
For a brighter green. A green aventurine crystal chip bracelet adds a lighter, leafier green, with aventurine's link to luck and fresh opportunities.
For the hand. Our moss agate statement ring has green, plant-like inclusions of its own, a natural partner for a stone tied to growing things.
Other green and pink stones for the same energy center are gathered under heart chakra crystals.
Caring for chlorite
Chlorite on its own is soft, 2 to 2.5 on the Mohs scale, and flakes easily, but sealed inside quartz it's protected by the quartz's hardness of 7. Quartz pieces wash fine in warm, soapy water. Raw chlorite and open garden quartz with green on the surface should only be wiped with a dry cloth, since the exposed chlorite can rub away. To cleanse it, ring a small bell or singing bowl over it for a minute, which suits the raw pieces that shouldn't get wet. Quick care facts for every stone we carry are in our crystal care chart. Every crystal in our shop is smudged with sage and charged in the moonlight before it ships.
Chlorite FAQ
Is chlorite chlorine?
No. Chlorite minerals contain no chlorine. The name comes from the Greek chloros, green, the same root as chlorophyll.
Is chlorite a mica?
No, though it looks like one. Bend a thin flake: mica springs back, while a chlorite flake bends and stays bent.
What is chlorite quartz?
Quartz with chlorite inside it, as a phantom, as moss-like clumps or as a green dusting.
Is chlorite quartz water safe?
Yes, when the chlorite is fully inside the quartz. Keep raw chlorite and surface-coated pieces dry.
Can you wear chlorite quartz on your wrist?
Yes. The chlorite sits safely inside the quartz, so the beads handle daily wear like any quartz bracelet.
A family of green minerals
Chlorite isn't one mineral but a group, among them clinochlore, chamosite and sudoite. They form where heat, pressure and hot water change older rock, and chlorite is so common in mildly metamorphosed rock that geologists named one rock type, greenschist, for the green that chlorite, along with epidote and actinolite, gives it. Seraphinite, the feathery green stone sold for its angel-wing shimmer, is clinochlore, one of the chlorites.
Each piece we sell is one of a kind, and the one pictured is the one you'll receive.