Citrine: Meaning, Physical Traits, and Healing Properties

Citrine is one of of several Zodiac birthstones associated with Leo, as the sign has a strong affinity with the sun, its planetary ruler. Although, it is also associated with the sign Cancer, as it is a summer stone and as such, it has a strong connection with those born in the summer months. It is also one of the two traditional birthstones of November, the other one being Yellow Topaz. 

While it does not hold the same position as diamonds and rubies in today's precious gems industry, it is one of the most popular yellow gemstones in the market. 

Citrine Physical Characteristics

Behind the Name

The name Citrine comes from latin word "citrina" or "citrinus" which means yellow. Citrine is also a variation of the French word for Lemon, Citron. It was referred to as yellow quartz up until the 1500s when German metallurgist, George Bauer, renamed the stone "Citrine". 

While Citrine comes in darker hues of yellow, orange, brown, and sometimes, red, the name is used for all different colors of Citrine, not just Citrine of the yellow variety.  

Use of Citrine Throughout History

Modern Day Use of Citrine as a Healing Crystal

As I mentioned earlier, unlike Amethyst, Rose Quartz, and other quartzes, Citrine was mostly used for adornment, although the ancient Greeks believed it held the power of the sun and Scottish warriors believed it boosted courage and luck, it really wasn't until recent decades that Citrine has gained its reputation as one of the most powerful manifestation stones and healing crystals.

As a fire stone and a stone of the Solar Plexus Chakra, Citrine is known to help boost your innate positive traits and help with various issues, particularly issues relating to how you see yourself. It is also a powerful healing crystal that helps with a wide-range of issues. 

Prosperity

Depression

As a manifestation stone, Citrine doesn't just bring prosperity in money matters. Its bright disposition also brings light to the darker areas of life. It is an excellent cure for depression and for turning negative thoughts into positive ones. Whenever you feel like you need a little brightness in your life, turn to Citrine to welcome positive vibes into your life. 

It is often referred to as the Vitamin D of crystals and just like how exposure to sunlight boosts our brain's production of Serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical in our brains, often called the "happy chemical" because it boosts happiness and general wellbeing. It also regulates our moods. Citrine, much like the nutrients we get from the sun, also emits strong positive vibrations that allow us to see past the dark clouds of depression and negative thoughts and look at life with a sunnier disposition. 

How to Use:

Wear a Citrine necklace or meditate with a tumbled stone on top of your Solar Plexus to ease feelings of sadness. When you're feeling particularly lethargic, wear Citrine to boost its energizing effects. 

Negativity

Citrine is an excellent stone for warding off negativity. If placed strategically in the home, especially on a shelf near a window, this golden yellow stone absorbs negative energy and allows for the free flow of vital energy or universal life force (called Chi or Qi in Chinese traditional medicine). 

Qi or Chi means "air" and its concept in spiritual healing is important, as allowing for the free flow of this vital force is essential to one's wellbeing, happiness, and stability. This concept applies not just to the flow of energy in a place to match the vibrational frequencies of every object inside it, but also to the flow of energy throughout the body's energy centers or chakras. 

If you want to learn more about the concept of energy and its relation to spirituality, read our blog post "Everything is Energy".

Citrine also cleanses the home of negative energies. It is one of the few stones that is self-cleansing. Unlike most crystals that need to be cleansed after use, Citrine absorbs all unwanted energy and grounds it back to the earth.

How to Use:

To take full advantage of Citrine's ability to promote harmony and balance in your life, wear a Citrine necklace as it can be worn near your Solar Plexus. Wear Citrine jewelry whenever you feel too much negativity or when dealing with extremely negative people or difficult situations.

Place Citrine clusters or tumbled stones on shelves near windows. There is one caveat to placing Citrine crystals near windows, however; just like other colored quartzes, when directly exposed to the sun, Citrine can lose some of its natural coloration, as sunlight causes the stone's color to fade overtime. 

When placing Citrine crystals near windows, place it strategically where some natural light can reach the stone, but make sure it is not completely exposed to the sun. You can use an ornamental bowl to place Citrine inside or make sure something else shades stone from the sun especially when it is at its strongest

The same caution should be exercised when wearing Citrine jewelry. Don't expose your Citrine jewelry under direct sunlight. Protect it as you would your skin when walking under the sun during a hot summer day. Some exposure is okay, but not too much. 

Self-Esteem and Self-Worth

Any issues in the way we see ourselves are often an issue of the Solar Plexus Chakra. 

Yellow stones like Citrine are excellent for establishing a healthy sense of self. As a crystal of the Sun, it shines bright light into our lives and helps us see past our negative traits and focus on the positive ones. 

It also helps in facilitating self-love and letting go of past hurts and traumas. Oftentimes, people who have low self-esteem or self-worth have gone through bad experiences in the past- whether it's an issue of having an overly-critical caregiver as a child, a fear of failure in general, or having experienced several failures in one's personal relationship, career, or any other venture, how we see ourselves today is always a result of our past experiences.

How to Use:

Wearing Citrine in the form of jewelry is an excellent cure for clearing issues of the Solar Plexus Chakra. Wear Citrine whenever you feel the seeds of doubt planted in the past beginning to sprout again or place a raw crystal or small tumbled stone on your Solar Plexus area (below the chest) to heal this chakra.

Meditating with Citrine allows us to let go of the past, accept ourselves for who we are, and look forward to the future with optimism and self-confidence.

Generosity and Establishing Boundaries

While I mentioned earlier that Citrine does not only attract wealth, but also helps you preserve your assets, it is also a stone that encourages generosity. Whether it's to help someone out during times of financial need or to give your time and energy to help someone out emotionally, Citrine is a stone that enhances generosity of all kinds.

On the other hand, it is also a stone that helps people establish healthy boundaries and assert one's personal will. Most of us don't know how to establish boundaries, especially when it comes to helping out friends and family. While some might describe you as a generous person, your inability to say "no" when necessary can, sometimes, make people think they can take advantage of you. 

Even close friends and family can unintentionally fall into the habit of taking advantage of your generosity, and it can be taxing both financially and emotionally if you always keep yourself open to people. 

While Citrine helps us to be more generous, it also helps clear our minds and act logically when it comes to helping people out. Instead of letting emotions rule our decisions, Citrine guides us towards a clearer path. 

How to Use:

If you have problems with establishing boundaries or asserting your personal will when dealing with particularly assertive people, carry a Citrine crystal with your, or better yet, wear a Citrine necklace to activate your Solar Plexus Chakra. 

Meditate with a Citrine stone placed near or on your Solar Plexus when making decisions involving boundaries and asserting your personal will. 

Productivity and Creativity

As repeated all throughout this post, Citrine is a very powerful manifestation stone. Just like the sun and the nutrients we get from its rays can make us more energetic, so does Citrine. This is what makes this yellow variety of quartz a great crystal to use for boosting productivity in all aspects of life- whether in your professional career or personal endeavors. 

It also enhances creativity, which is why it is a crystal commonly used by artists, especially creative writers and those who work in the visual arts. Its vibrations is also known to stimulate the imagination as well as boost energy in children who show signs of lethargy. 

How to Use:

As a productivity stone, it is an excellent crystal to wear while studying and while working especially if you work in the creative field or if your work requires physical exertion. Citrine not only boosts energy but also enhances cognition, memory recall, and motivation to succeed. 

If you have kids, have them wear a Citrine bracelet or necklace when going to school or have them carry a Citrine tumbled stone with them especially during the winter when the nights are long and the days are short. Quartzes, unlike other minerals, are generally safe for children as they don't contain trace elements that may be toxic for children in their raw forms. 

Physical Ailments

Citrine is not just a powerful healing crystal for dealing with emotional issues, its healing vibrations can also help with certain physical ailments as well. 

Yellow stones like Citrine helps with any issues of the spleen, an organ that filters blood and supports the immune system against infections. Citrine is an excellent stone for boosting the immune system, just like a healthy dose of Vitamin D. 

Citrine aids digestion and helps any issues with digestion. It also stimulates the endocrine system, which is responsible for producing hormones and chemicals in the body. It helps regulate our body's metabolism. As such, it is a great stone for weight loss/control, especially if you need to watch your weight for health issues.

Citrine is also a motivational stone, it gives you that extra boost of energy and drive you need, to follow a workout plan and to keep active even during the colder months.

DISCLAIMER

Please note, however, that you should not stop any medication or medical treatment without the advice of your physician. Citrine and other healing crystals are not meant to replace traditional medicine especially in patients with serious medical issues.

Pairing Citrine with Other Crystals

Crystal pairing is an excellent way to boost the healing powers of certain healing stones and crystals. 

Citrine is part of the quartz family and as such, it works well with other kinds of quartzes, including Amethyst, Clear Quartz, Smoky Quartz, and Rose Quartz. When paired together, whether placed beside each other as clusters or raw stones or worn together as jewelry, they amplify each other's vibrational energies. 

Clear Quartz amplifies the healing energies of practically all crystals and is a suitable stone to pair with Citrine. Another excellent crystal to pair with Citrine is Amethyst- even nature agrees with this as can be seen in the naturally occurring crystal called Ametrine- a combination of the two quartzes. 

Apart from quartzes, Citrine also works well with Black Tourmaline, as they both block out negative energy. Citrine pairs well with other yellow/brown stones like Tiger's Eye, another powerful manifestation stone. 

As we always say when we recommend crystals for personal healing, intention and intuition are vital. Before using a crystal, setting an intention makes all the difference. 

As all crystals possess a variety of metaphysical traits and helps with more than one issue (often several, in fact), it is important to set an intention so that the crystal can work with you to achieve your desired goals.

It is also important to follow your intuition. We recommend Citrine for anyone starting a crystal collection as it is a very powerful stone for manifestation and for counteracting negativity. 

If pairing crystals is too overwhelming for you, just stick with one at a time or simply choose what calls out to you. If you are attuned to the energy surrounding you, then it'll be easy for you to choose the crystals you need when you need them most. 

If you are looking for the perfect crystal to boost the highly-charged energy of summer, however, then you cannot go wrong with Citrine. It is a powerhouse of a crystal when it comes to manifesting goals, facilitating new beginnings, and for capitalizing on the high energies of summer. 

It's also useful to have Citrine crystals (both in raw forms and as jewelry) ready for when the seasons change, and the nights become longer for your daily dose of sunshine even during the colder seasons.