Crystal elixir
A crystal elixir is water in which a stone has rested, or to which it has been presented, so as to pass on, in the lithotherapy tradition, the imprint of the mineral. Medieval lapidaries already prepared such gem waters. The modern method favors indirect infusion: the stone sits in a separate glass container, because some minerals dissolve in water or release elements such as copper or aluminum into it.
A very old tradition
Steeping a gem in water or wine is a gesture found in the medieval lapidaries, and one whose recipes George Frederick Kunz cataloged in his great survey of the beliefs attached to stones. Tradition lends the elixir the quality of the stone that touched it: a rose quartz water would carry gentleness, an amethyst water the calm of evening.
The right gesture
Here it is mineralogy that decides the method. Quartz and its varieties (amethyst, citrine, rose quartz) are hard and insoluble, so they can touch the water. Many other stones cannot: selenite slowly dissolves, malachite leaves its copper behind, pyrite tarnishes. The reflex among practitioners is therefore indirect infusion: the stone rests in a small empty glass set at the center of a bowl of water, never touching the liquid. You keep the whole ritual, and your stone too.
Sources
- , The Curious Lore of Precious Stones (1913)
- , Manual of Mineral Science (2007)