When used for its healing properties onyx provides strength and support especially in difficult and stressful situations.  It can help you to be the master of your own destiny and promotes vigor, stamina and determination.

Onyx holds onto memories so they can be used to delve into past lives.  It’s a comforting crystal for those dealing with grief, can be used to strengthen self control and for stimulating the power of good decision making.  Onyx boosts self confidence, helps with phobias and balances yin and yang energies.

Onyx is a stone for the present but one that carries with it happy and positive memories from the past.

Onyx is a natural stone used for a wide variety of different purposes.  As well as for gemstones it’s used for fireplace surrounds, household furniture and ornaments.

A great deal of confusion exists regarding the correct use of the name onyx.  In the vast majority of cases it’s used incorrectly. With regards to colour, onyx is a black and white banded variety of the mineral agate.  It may also be a single coloured agate with alternating light and dark coloured bands (often black and white).

Although onyx and agate are both varieties of chalcedony which is a microcrystalline variety of quartz, the main difference is the bands in onyx are parallel whereas in agate they’re curved.

Microcrystalline describes crystals so small they can’t be seen with the naked eye.