Unakite

Unakite is a metamorphic rock, which means two minerals grew together under pressure over a very long time: epidote, which gives the green, and orthoclase feldspar, which gives the pink. The two are interlocked in a way that makes every piece unique — no two slabs of unakite share the same pattern. The green runs from deep forest to pale sage; the pink surfaces in soft clouds and bold veins.

It takes its name from the Unaka Mountains in western North Carolina, where geologists first described it in the 1870s. Before that it had been sitting in riverbeds and outcrops for considerably longer, polished smooth by water. It is not a rare stone, but it is a distinctive one — the two colours together make it unmistakable, and that particular green-pink pairing has kept it in jewellers' trays and collectors' hands for a hundred and fifty years.

The tradition places it with the heart chakra, the centre that yoga associates with the chest rather than the lower body. Scorpio is its zodiac companion, alongside the earth and water elements — a combination that speaks to depth, stillness and the slow work of growing roots. In the intention register it gathers around healing and wellbeing, love and romance, and calm — which is a wide spread, but the tradition has a way of giving a stone one clear home and letting it do the wider work from there.

The suggestion, as with most stones, is to keep it close enough to become familiar. A piece in the pocket, on a desk, or worn at the wrist — somewhere the hand can find it. Let it be the physical place you return to when the intention you set in the morning has drifted out of reach by noon. Objects work best alongside practice, not instead of it.

Below: our catalogue's gathering of unakite — tumbled stones, jewellery and rough pieces, each one a different map of green and pink.