Black Opal Crystal: Its Meaning, Healing Properties, & Uses

Black opal is one of the most mesmerizing crystals you can use for healing. Its gorgeous appearance combined with unique metaphysical properties make black opal stand out as a healing stone.

What's Inside?

Although black opal is more expensive than other crystals, its healing characteristics are 100% worth the investment.

So, if you ever get a chance to purchase black opal, don’t hesitate to add it to your crystal collection.

Personally, I got my first black opal as a gift 3 years ago and this crystal has been my absolute best friend since then.

To help you understand why it’s so powerful, let me share more details about the healing properties of black opal, its history, its symbolic meanings, and its practical uses.

Black Opal Crystal Properties

Crystal	Black Opal
Color	Dark gray to jet black body tone with rainbow or spectral color hues
Origin	Lightning Ridge in New South Wales, Australia
Rarity	Rare
Chemical Formula	SiO₂ · nH₂O
Hardness on Mohs Scale	5.5 – 6.5
Zodiac Signs	Libra, Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Element	Water
Planet	Saturn
Chakras	Root, Crown
Crystal Combinations	White Opal, Clear Quartz, Rose Quartz, Lapis Lazuli, lepidolite, Amethyst, Labradorite, Selenite

History and Origin of Black Opal

Up until the late 19th century, Australian miners were mainly focused on extracting different varieties of white opal.

However, they soon came across the black opal crystals, characterized by uniquely vivid rainbow colors.

Although the exact date of the discovery of black opal is unknown, it’s estimated to be anywhere between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Still, it’s believed that black opal began forming millions of years ago.

Nowadays, the Lightning Ridge region in New South Wales remains the major source of black opal.

In fact, geological conditions and environmental factors in Australia facilitate the production of the finest black opal crystals in the world.

Some other sources of black opal include Brazil, Mexico, and Ethiopia. However, Australian black opal is typically favored due to its vibrant colors.

While black opal was initially cherished for its mesmerizing beauty, crystal enthusiasts and professional healers soon discovered its unique metaphysical properties.

Currently, black opal is considered a precious healing crystal that boosts emotional and physical health while guiding you through your spiritual awakening journey.

Meaning and Symbolism of Black Opal

As black opal is an ancient crystal that has been used as a healing stone for centuries, it has an interesting variety of meanings and associations.

Symbolically, the black opal represents:

Mystery
Magic
Strength
Determination
Luxury
Creativity
Positivity
Peace
Divine wisdom
Balance
Resilience
Courage

While these are some of the main symbolic meanings of black opal, it has many other associations that are primarily based on their metaphysical properties.

Black Opal Healing Properties

Black opal is not only a gorgeous gemstone but also an incredibly powerful healing crystal.

Let’s take a look at some of the key healing properties of black opal.

Emotional Healing Properties of Black Opal

Black opal is a crystal of transformation and calmness, enabling you to change negative emotions for the positive.

Emotional healing properties of black opal are:

Alleviating Stress and Anxiety

I know life can be pretty stressful sometimes. However, there are a few ways to deal with your anxiety and overwhelming thoughts. One thing that always works for me is using black opal for healing.

Black opal helps you connect with your inner self, enabling you to find answers to what caused the stress in the first place.

While keeping a black opal close to you can help you deal with stress and anxiety, incorporating the crystal in meditation is even more effective.

Releasing Negative Emotions

Black opal is one of the best stones you can use for releasing emotional baggage and tension from your body.

It helps you acknowledge your feelings and gives you the strength to work through your emotional traumas from the past.

In fact, black opal teaches you how to be more expressive with regard to your feelings, making it much easier for you to get rid of any negative emotions.

Promoting Emotional Stability

Black opal is a powerful crystal that teaches you how to be deeply in tune with your emotions.

By promoting emotional stability, black opal ensures that you develop a harmonized way of reacting to the problems you face in life.

That being said, black opal helps you remain emotionally stable and even-tempered, no matter how stressful the situations you’re going through are.

Physical Healing Properties of Black Opal

Crystals have the power to improve your physical health and black opal is no exception.

When used during meditation or kept nearby, black opal can offer the following physical healing benefits:

Supporting Vision

Although I don’t have any eye problems, I’ve heard from so many crystal healers that black opal is especially powerful when it comes to vision.

It’s believed that black opal clears away energies that block your sight, treating various eye-related conditions and making your eyes function properly.

Balancing Hormones

Black opal’s highly energizing healing powers are also widely used for healing hormonal imbalances.

While black opal is generally good for balancing hormones, many healers claim that it’s especially helpful when it comes to alleviating the symptoms of menopause.

Improving Metabolism

Black opal is also associated with healing your gut health and boosting your digestive system.

From easing your digestion and improving your metabolism to reducing stomach pain and supporting proper detoxification, black opal offers a myriad of health benefits.

Spiritual Healing Properties of Black Opal

Black opal is one of the most effective crystals for divine communication and spiritual awakening.

By positively interacting with your energy field, black opal offers spiritual healing benefits, including:

Enhancing Spiritual Connection

Black opal helps you attune your energy field to a higher vibrational frequency, which in turn facilitates successful spiritual connections.

Besides, using black opal during meditation can increase your focus and spiritual insights, making it easier for you to connect with the spirit world.

Strengthening Psychic Abilities

Without intuition and certain psychic abilities, it’s hardly possible to communicate with spirits.

Black opal enables you to tap into your inner wisdom to unlock your hidden supernatural powers.

Along with enhancing your extrasensory perception, black opal boosts your spiritual senses, supporting you throughout your spiritual awakening journey.

Providing Spiritual Protection

Spiritual protection is an important aspect when it comes to connecting with higher realms.

Black opal is a wonderful stone that often acts as a shield to protect you from psychic attacks or negative spiritual energies.

In addition, black opal has unique grounding abilities, ensuring that you stay connected to the earth when communicating with spiritual realms.

Energy Healing Properties of Black Opal

Black opal is so energizing and powerful that it has helped me balance all 7 chakras in the body. However, black opal is mainly associated with the Crown Chakra.

Here’s how using black opal for healing can help you align your chakras:

Healing the Crown Chakra

By amplifying the energy flow within the body, black opal activates the Crown Chakra.

Along with facilitating a strong connection with your higher self, a balanced Crown Chakra enables you to achieve spiritual enlightenment.

The fact that black opal is so helpful for healing the Crown Chakra explains the crystal’s importance in strengthening spiritual connections.

Cleansing Your Aura

Whenever I feel like my aura needs to be cleansed, I always refer to black opal.

By removing negative energies and influences that have been contaminating my auric field, black opal provides energetic protection to easily deal with blockages or imbalances.

The way black opal cleanses and purifies your aura is truly magical!

How to Use the Black Opal Crystal for Healing

There are many different ways to use black opal crystals for healing.

Here’s how you can benefit from the healing and energizing characteristics of black opal.

1. Wear Black Opal Jewelry

One of the easiest ways to receive healing from your black opal is to use it as part of your jewelry.

As black opal is an expensive stone, tiny earrings will do the job.

In fact, there’s no need to wear huge pendants to benefit from the healing properties of black opal.

2. Keep Black Opal Stone with You

While you can place the black opal crystals in your living or working environment, we should keep in mind that these stones are quite expensive.

Therefore, keeping a black opal crystal in your pocket may be a better choice.

Along with saving some money, you can receive healing throughout the day, no matter where you go.

3. Meditate with Black Opal

Whenever I feel like black opal is the crystal I need to use for healing my emotions or spiritual aspects of life, I try to incorporate it into meditation.

I usually meditate while holding black opal in my hand or simply placing it nearby. The crystal not only improves my focus during meditation but also calms my body and mind.

As I’ve been using black opal in meditation for years, I can guarantee that it’s definitely one of the most powerful crystals you can use for healing.

4. Make Crystal-Infused Water Using Black Opal

Last but not least, you can create crystal-infused water or even an elixir by simply submerging black opal into the water.

Ideally, you should keep black opal in water for a few hours so that it transfers all its healing powers to the liquid.

While some healers suggest drinking crystal-infused water, I prefer spraying it around my house instead.

Although there’s no evidence that drinking black opal elixir can harm you, I would not recommend consuming it due to safety reasons.

Caring for Your Black Opal Crystal

While taking good care of your black opal crystals is absolutely crucial, you don’t need any fancy chemicals or equipment to keep them clean.

Personally, I use some warm soapy water and a soft jewelry cloth to make my black opal shiny again.

To protect your black opal crystals, make sure to avoid any contact with harsh chemicals, hot water, or ultrasonic cleaners. Be as gentle as you can to make your precious stones last forever.

Take a look at this article for additional information on how to care for your black opal.

FAQs

Let’s answer a few commonly asked questions to better understand how to use black opal for healing.

Q1. How to Tell If Black Opal Is Real?

As black opal is a pretty rare and expensive crystal, the stones often come as doublets or triplets, in which a genuine opal crystal has an artificial backing added to it.

While doublet and triplet black opal stones are affordable alternatives to a genuine black opal crystal, make sure the listing specifies the materials so that you know what you’re paying for.

Another way to tell if your black opal is in its natural form is by observing soot marks. A natural crystal won’t have any soot marks as they are a result of an artificial enhancement.

For additional tips on how to tell if your black opal is a genuine Australian stone, check out this video tutorial.

Q2. Does the Black Opal Crystal Require Cleansing and Recharging?

Although black opal is exceptionally powerful, it still absorbs negative energies when used for healing. Therefore, just like any other crystal, it should be cleansed and recharged regularly to maintain its healing properties.

What I like to do when recharging my precious black opal crystal is thoroughly clean it with warm water and place it under the natural sunlight to let it air-dry.

Ideally, I place my black opal crystal under the sun for a few hours, at least 3-4 times a week.

Q3. Is It Safe to Place Black Opal in Water?

Due to the physical properties of black opal, it’s totally safe to place the crystal in water. While some people use crystal-infused water for healing, others even store black opal in water.

As long as you avoid harsh chemicals and high temperatures, you can definitely submerge your black opal in water.

Q4. What’s the Difference between Black Opal and Boulder Opal?

People often confuse black opal with boulder opal and vice versa. While these two varieties of opal are pretty similar to each other, there are a few differences to keep in mind.

Black opal is more expensive than boulder opal, mainly due to its rarity.
Boulder opal is stronger than black opal.
Black opal has a higher dome shape whereas boulder opal has a flatter cut.
There’s no host rock as part of black opal while this isn’t the case for boulder opal.

This video explains how to differentiate between Australian boulder opal vs. black opal.

Q5. Can I Use Black Opal with Other Healing Crystals?

Absolutely! In fact, combining black opal with other crystals will boost its healing potential.

Some of my favorite crystal combinations for black opal are white opal, clear quartz, rose quartz, and lapis lazuli.

A few other crystals that work well with black opal include lepidolite, amethyst, labradorite, and selenite.

Feel free to test other crystal combinations to find the one that works best for you!

Summing Up

While anyone would feast their eyes on the beauty of black opal, it’s also widely appreciated for its unique metaphysical properties. If you try to use black opal for healing even once, you’ll never forget how powerful and magical it actually is.

During the last couple of years, black opal has been one of my favorite crystals to use for healing and spiritual growth.

Along with harmonizing my emotions, it has helped me connect with higher realms while granting me the ability to communicate with my spirit guides.

As long as you properly clean, purify, and recharge your black opal, you’ll continuously receive the crystal’s exceptionally energizing vibrations.

If you’ve never used black opal for healing before, it won’t disappoint you, I promise!