Citrine is the sunny member of the Quartz family, ranging from pale lemon yellow through golden shades to deep orange and brownish orange. It is a variety of Quartz, with its colour linked to colour centres within the crystal and the presence of trace elements. Natural Citrine is actually quite rare, which makes some of the Citrine you see in crystal shops a little more interesting than it first appears.
And here's the bit that surprises a lot of people: most Citrine on the modern market is made by heating Amethyst. Under the right conditions, heating Amethyst can change its purple colour into yellow, orange or brownish tones. This can happen naturally underground through geological processes, but commercially it is also deliberately done after mining. The resulting material is still Quartz, but it isn't naturally coloured Citrine in the strict mineralogical sense. Natural Citrine does exist, however, with important sources including Bolivia, Madagascar, Mexico, Spain and Uruguay.
Heat Treated Amethyst most shops sell as Citrine.
The name Citrine is generally connected with the French citron, meaning lemon, which makes perfect sense when you see some of the paler varieties. The name was being used for yellow gemstones in English by the late fourteenth century. Before modern gemology could properly distinguish different minerals, Citrine was frequently confused with Topaz because of its similar colouring. Yellow Quartz was even sold under names such as “Spanish Topaz” and “Madeira Topaz”, despite Quartz and Topaz being completely different minerals.
Citrine has been used in jewellery for centuries, although it's difficult to know how much historical “Citrine” was actually naturally coloured Quartz was because people did not have modern methods for identifying gemstones. We do know that Citrine appears in Roman jewellery, and it became particularly fashionable during the Victorian era. Victorian jewellers loved colourful gemstones, and Citrine found its way into brooches, rings, pendants and other jewellery. Its warm golden colour also fitted beautifully with the rich, ornate style of the period.
There are also plenty of older beliefs surrounding yellow Quartz. Because Citrine was historically confused with Topaz, some of the traditional properties attributed to Topaz were also attributed to Citrine. These included calming anger and soothing tempers. Later traditions increasingly connected the golden stone with prosperity, abundance and good fortune, which helped create the modern reputation Citrine has as a “merchant's stone” or stone of wealth. Some of these claims appear in historical folklore, while others belong much more firmly to later crystal traditions, so it is worth being a little suspicious when you see claims that a particular belief dates back thousands of years.
Pictured Above: Natural Topaz
Pictured Below: Natural Kundalini Citrine
In modern crystal and spiritual practices, Citrine is strongly associated with abundance, confidence, creativity, motivation and personal power. It is commonly connected with the Solar Plexus Chakra and is often used when working with intentions around prosperity, self-belief and turning ideas into action. Citrine is also popular in manifestation practices, with people placing it on altars, in workspaces, near cash registers or wherever they want a physical reminder of their intentions around growth and abundance.
Citrine has also developed a reputation for being a particularly cheerful crystal. Its golden colouring lends itself naturally to associations with the Sun, warmth, optimism and vitality. Modern practitioners may use it when they want to encourage a more positive outlook, build confidence or move themselves out of a stagnant period. These are modern metaphysical associations rather than ancient, universal beliefs, but they have become a major part of Citrine's identity within contemporary crystal culture.
One of the most fascinating places to find natural Citrine is the Anahí Mine in Bolivia, which is famous for producing both Citrine and Amethyst, as well as the naturally occurring combination of the two known as Ametrine. Ametrine is particularly gorgeous because one crystal can naturally contain both purple Amethyst and golden Citrine. The Anahí Mine has a colourful history too, with stories connecting its discovery to a Spanish conquistador in the 1600s before the deposit was lost and later rediscovered in the twentieth century.
Ametrine
Citrine is also the birthstone for November, alongside Topaz, and is traditionally associated with the 13th wedding anniversary. With its sunny colours, relative durability and huge variety of shades, it has remained a favourite gemstone even as our understanding of it has changed.
So, the next time you pick up a piece of golden “Citrine”, there may be a whole geological story hiding inside it. Perhaps it grew naturally that colour deep within the Earth. Perhaps it began life as purple Amethyst and was transformed by heat. Perhaps it contains both colours and is actually Ametrine. Either way, that little golden crystal has considerably more going on than its cheerful appearance lets on.
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