The Quartz Crystal is a beautiful, perfect form. It contains within it harmony, balance,
clarity and perfection. A quartz crystal takes over 10,000 years to form. They
come from deep within the Earth's core, and were formed when the earth was
evolving. Natural quartz crystals, often referred to by the ancient traditions as
the "veils of the earth", frozen water or frozen light, combine the elements
silicon and water throughout a lengthy process involving heat and pressure. They
are buried in the Earth, or sometimes in streambeds where they have washed
down from higher ground after being dislodged.

Ninety percent of the Earth's crust is made up of the mineral group known as
silicates, a combination of silicon and oxygen, plus other elements. The simplest
silicate is silicon and oxygen-quartz crystal. Chemically, it is the oxide of the
element silicon, and its chemical formula is SiO2. It has a hardness of 7 on the
Mohs scale. The crystal structure of quartz is hexagonal with void spaces in
geometric trails throughout the crystal.

The name crystal comes from the Greek work crystallos meaning "clear ice", for
the ancient Greeks thought that these transparent rock crystals were in face
frozen water turned to stone. Another legend has it that Holy Water was
poured out of the Heavens by God and frozen to ice in outer space on its voyage
to Earth. Angels petrified the "holy ice" to preserve it as a protective blessing
for humanity.

Quartz is the most commong mineral found on the earth. In the world of
gemstones, quartz supplies more different varieties than any other mineral.