As anyone that has visited our stall at the Surfers Paradise Beachfront Markets will tell you, we’re not known for stocking crystals found right here in Australia. And it’s not that we don’t love them - in fact we think some of the most beautiful crystals in the world are from the wonderful land of Oz (and no, we don’t just mean our Opals). Tigers Eye from Western Australia, Smokey Quartz from the Northern Territory, Agate from northern Queensland.... However there is one Australian crystal we can never go past, and that’s our own official form of Jasper, the ’stellar beauty’ known as Mookaite.
For those who don’t know, Mookaite is a crystal found only in Western Australia, near Mookah Creek just west of the Kennedy Range National Park. It is a somewhat collectible crystal, due to both its single location and its unusual formation. Mookaite is technically classified as a mineraloid, a rock with very little to no organised crystal structure to speak of, if at all. Mookaite is a crystal though, being what’s known as cryptocrystalline, where the crystal formations inside are so small that they’re hard to observe, even under extreme microscopic examination. A big part of what makes Mookaite such a weird crystal to assess is that the silica in its makeup isn’t from any geographic source (like most Quartz/Jaspers), but from tiny single-cell organisms named Radiolaria, which develop intricate silicate skeletons and were left by a receding ocean covering Australia some 500 million years ago. In this way Mookaite might seem like a tough sturdy stone, but being ‘only’ a little over 100 million years old it is quite young and soft compared to most Quartz, but older and more developed than most Jaspers. Mookaite sits somewhere in the middle - it’s both old and young, and that’s where the power in this interesting crystal lies.
Like most Jaspers Mookaite can greatly help to ground and get you back to your default state, but in particular it’s for when you’ve reached a point where you feel old. Like... really old, tired and beat. When you’ve become too accustomed to seeing your life as a series of numbers ticking down, instead of the wonderful moments making it up. When we stay like this for too long we become rigid, and forget how negative an impact living this way can have on us. Mookaite is a tonic for these feelings, a great companion when loneliness and sadness start to overtake us, when we (mistakenly) think there’s nothing left for us. It pushes you to remember that you were a kid once, to a time when it was okay to unashamedly feel joy, hope, or excitement. It can be quite a cheeky crystal too - Mookaite wants you to have fun, to remember that it’s okay to live a little. It also provides a much more realistic - and we want to say, palpable - sense of grounding than other Jasper’s, pulling you to stay in the here and now, to be more mindful of the present. It’s all good to remember and appreciate the miles behind you, but it’s important to live in the moment too, to enjoy it. Otherwise the future just becomes another thing that we don’t look forward to. Mookaite provides that stability when you need it most, when you feel like you’re giving up inside. It can help fight laziness and procrastination, and can help cultivate more of a sense of self-esteem and encouragement. It is an overall very positive crystal, one that can help you feel inspired again, and to see the world with renewed optimism. Mookaite has also been reported to help renew you in a physical sense, with many users reporting their immune system being affected, as well as blood-sugar levels being stabilised when Mookaite has been worn consistently close to the body. Though we couldn't say exactly how, Mookaite seems to be anti-ageing both metaphysically and physically (though you know what they say, you're only as old as you feel).
Mookaite is just one of those rare crystals that really jumps out at you. It has a constant, almost childlike energy, and holding or having it nearby almost feels like a more living, fluid crystal than others you’re used to (raw forms actually have a nice clay-like feel to them). And at its core Mookaite is all about fluidity, being able to roll with change, to remember that there’s nothing wrong with ageing and just moving along with the currents of time (not surprising, as it’s named after the Aboriginal word for ‘running waters’). A bold but still earthy crystal, Mookaite is an excellent little pal to add to your collections, and one that we’re so glad calls Australia home.
Country of Origin: Australia.
