Atlantisite to Organize and Prioritize

Read time: 5 min

Jump to Section:

• ➣ The Origin of Atlantisite
• ➣ Traditional Use
• ➣ How to Use It
• ➣ Where to Start

If you're in a season of competing passions and urgent projects and have been seduced by the idea that you can attend to all of it, simultaneously, and with equal capacity then you've found the stone to help you prioritize and organize a better system. Atlantisite can help you with both the prioritization part and the staying-committed-to-the-system part when the urge to start four more things before the first thing is finished creeps back in.

The Origin of Atlantisite

Atlantisite comes from one place on earth: Mount Dundas, a stretch of ground just south of Zeehan on Tasmania's west coast. It was found there in 1910, when railway workers cutting the Argents Tunnel broke into rock veined with green and purple. The purple mineral got a name first, Stichtite, after Robert Sticht, who managed the nearby Mt Lyell copper mine. It forms when chromite trapped inside serpentine rock breaks down and alters over time, and it only shows up threaded through green serpentine in this one Tasmanian region.

The name Atlantisite came later, and it has nothing to do with geology. Someone looked at the green and purple together and thought of the lost city of Atlantis.

Traditional Use

Serpentine has a long history as a clearing stone, something to work with when you're making room for something new instead of holding onto what's already worn out. Stichtite's traditional use sits closer to the heart. People have turned to it for staying tender with themselves during a hard change, when the easier response would be to shut down or get defensive.

How to Use It

• Carry it for the boundary work.
  Atlantisite has a long-standing reputation among people who over-give, empaths and caretakers especially, as a stone for holding a line without going cold to do it. Keep a piece in your pocket or bag to help you stay compassionate and kind without self-abandoning.
• Meditate with it, placed with intention.
  Serpentine's traditional use points to the heart: hold the stone at your chest when you're working through what needs to be cleared or let go. Stichtite's use points to staying tender under pressure: hold it at your forehead when you're trying to meet a hard moment without shutting down. For ten minutes: breathe slowly, and stay with whatever question you brought to the meditation until the time is up.
• Keep it on your desk or altar while you work with the practice from Cultivate One Thing, Not Everything.
  Having it in view works like a physical reminder to keep you focused on the one thing rather than everything else on your plate.
• Wear it if you want it with you without thinking about it.
  Atlantisite shows up often in pendants and rings because of the color, an easy way to keep it close through a full day without having to remember to carry it.
• Cleanse it with care.
  Atlantisite is soft, a 2.5 to 3 on the hardness scale. Skip the extended soak in water. Smoke from sage or palo santo works, and so does an evening on a windowsill under the moon. Keep it away from harder stones in a drawer or pouch so it doesn't get scratched.

Where to Start

If you haven't read Cultivate One Thing, Not Everything yet, start there.

Focus Your Attention

Support your prioritization system with authentic, ethically sourced Tasmanian Atlantisite.