Boulder Opal

For Clear Thinking and Problem Solving

➤ By Liz Oakes

Boulder Opal are beneficial to use to stimulate clearer thinking as well as aiding decision making and problem solving when required.

Also called Yowah Nuts, they are excellent crystals for friendship as they enhance peace, understanding and harmonious interactions.

They are an amazing stone that can help you to let go of old ways of thinking in order to allow you to embrace the new.

These lovely stones are quite useful healing crystals, that balance your energy field and heal you in a number of ways.

Opal is the national gemstone of Australia and there are a number of types of opal found in this country.

Why Would You Use Boulder Opal? 

Boulder Opal have a beautiful energy that resonates within the heart chakra to create emotional balance and enhance the joy of life.

They are good crystals for friendship that help you to let go of old ways of thinking and may enhance trust and belief in others.

They are crystals for clarity of thought that may assist you to think more clearly, as they seem to remove old extraneous thoughts, and allow a new way of thinking. 

They have a good healing action in many areas of the body, and may help to root out old issues that you have been hanging onto.

Although Boulder Opal are often blue colored crystals, they can occur in a variety of colors, this does not have much of an effect on the metaphysical properties of the stones.

The vibration of these stones relates to the way they were formed in the earth over a long period.

They have a strong action to aid the release of negative energy from your aura and this may assist the flow of positive emotions.

They resonate within the base or root chakra, which creates a strong grounding action to connect you to the earth.

Keeping one of these crystals within your energy field may boost its brightness and clarity and make your aura seem to be reflecting light.

How To Use It: Wearing Boulder Opal

It is reasonably easy to obtain Boulder Opal jewelry and this is an advantageous way to use these stones.

It is a highly protective stone that is beneficial to keep within your auric field to encourage good fortune, bring good luck and to trigger flashes of intuition.

Wearing any type of crystal on your body is a good idea as it is advantageous to aid your healing.

Shop for Boulder Opal at Exquisite Crystals, a most reliable crystal seller.

Beautiful solid opal jewelry items in vibrant colors, such as Boulder Opal pendants may be found set in sterling silver to showcase their inner beauty, and they are quite lovely.

While the value of a Boulder Opal piece of jewelry will vary, in recent years many can be bought at fair prices, compared to the past.

While large gemstones are uncommon, it is possible to obtain free-form shapes made into cabachons as well as loose boulder opal stone to use for metaphysical purposes.

It is possible to buy jewelry items such as Boulder Opal pendants and many of these are high quality stones that are crafted into beautiful pieces to wear.

Note that due to how the stones are generally cut to use the beautiful bright areas of the stone, the back of the stone will not be colored but is usually a brownish shade.

This means that when they create a Boulder Opal Ring it is only the front that is colored, but this does not really matter as this area behind is not usually seen.

If you are unable to obtain jewelry that suits your budget, pieces of rough opal can be worn on your body in a macrame crystal holder. 

It is easy to buy a macrame crystal holder and this is a perfect way to keep them close if you are using them for healing and is an inexpensive alternative.

How Will It Help You? Healing Properties

Boulder Opal has a number of good healing properties to aid the physical body and can be used by crystal healers as part of their practice.

They are known to be beneficial due to their helpful healing properties and are said to help to calm panic attacks and create emotional security.

This is a powerful stone to use for emotional healing as it balances your emotional body which is effective to help your overall emotional state.

They are purported to aid the healing of painful issues in the back, such as lower back problems and may also have a good spiritual healing action in many areas of the body.

They may help to root out old issues both physical and spiritual that you have been hanging onto from the past, and help to ensure a better future.

They are said to be good healing crystals for depression, and may assist your eyesight and aid those who are in pain.

These crystals are known to assist the immune system and are said to also help common problems within the physical body such as colds and influenza.

They are also known to assist issues in the stomach and are purported to aid issues in the intestines and stomach as well as aiding water retention.

They are good crystals for aging that may assist older people who feel vulnerable due to weakness or shakiness.

They are an excellent stone to use to make into a crystal elixir to aid healing (but always use the method where the stone is separate to the water.)

Meaning Of Boulder Opal 

The Boulder Opal meaning has two parts, with the first word being boulder and the second being the word opal.

The meaning of the name opal is not known for sure, but it is thought to have come from the word in Latin "opalus". 

This may in turn may have originated from a Sanskrit word meaning precious stone.

The meaning of the full name Boulder Opal basically relates to the fact that it commonly occurs as rounded or elliptical shaped nodules or small ironstone boulders containing opal inside.

Large ironstone boulders are uncommon, and their size ranges from quite small up to around four to five inches.

Stones with cracks in them are known as matrix opal, as the opal occurs in an ironstone matrix.

What Is Boulder Opal? Mineral Makeup

Boulder Opal nodules are commonly a brown color on the outside and many have growth rings, as they form in the earth over a long period.

Be aware that if you buy a nodule that has not been cracked open, you have no way of knowing the crystalline structure within, and you may find that it may not be bright and sparkly, just brown colored.

The major mineral they are made of is hydrated silica, and both precious opal and common opal have a high water content up to 21 percent. 

Silica or silicon dioxide is the mineral that quartz crystal is made of, and natural opal could therefore be said to be a quartz variety.

Similar to many other types of Opal, Boulder Opal embodies many beautiful colors.

Sometimes these opals contain areas where there are bright fiery inclusions in the stones, known as Fire Opal.

The stones that occur in these bright colors are extremely popular and many of the colors are beautiful green, blue, red, milky white or purple on a brown background.

These are the most common colors that the natural gemstone comes in. Pieces known as Yowah Nuts may have a small inclusion of brownish red or red colors in them.

Most Australian Boulder Opal is quite beautiful stone with bright sparkly or fiery inclusions.

Boulder Opal gemstones are quite unique stones that can be crafted into quite lovely Boulder Opal jewelry.

Where Is Boulder Opal From?

The major opal fields where high quality Boulder Opal stones come from are located in outback areas in Central Queensland in Australia.

The fossicking area stretches from the Quilpie field in South Western Queensland through to the Winton field in the north of the state.

Many pieces of rough opal have cracks in them and the opal forms with beautiful veins of colour, and you can see how that looks in the pictures.

The veins of opal are said to be caused by the shrinkage of the natural host rock due to changing weather conditions over the period of their formation.

When the cracks reopen they may fill with liquid silica, creating the thin seams of opal in the stones.

Similar to many other types of Opal, Boulder Opal embodies many beautiful colors.

You may also see these stones selling as Yowah Nuts, which are exactly the same stone, except that they come from a small outback town called Yowah in Queensland Australia.

They are the same as other types of this stone except that they specifically come from this small town, who have made a point of promoting them.

My Final Thoughts

Although theses stones can occur in a variety of colors, this does not have much of an effect on the metaphysical properties of the stones.

These stones were formed in the earth over a long period, and they have a good action when used in meditation.

Used at the third eye chakra, they may boost your intuitive abilities, and are said to help you to be able to make a connection to star people.

In summary: Boulder Opal is said to have a good energy to assist you to speak diplomatically to others when required.

When used in meditation they may help you to connect to your spirit guides and are even said to help you to connect with animal guides.

They may assist past life investigation and are said to boost your trust, belief and strong faith in what you discover.

They are said by some to be karmic stones that may enhance your present life by aiding you to release negativity around situations that occurred in the past.

They also have a good action to boost good luck and can help you to release any beliefs you may have that any bad luck is associated with events from the past.  

Is Black Opal The Same As Boulder Opal?

The name Black Opal is well known as these stones are very popular. If you are wondering if Black Opal and Boulder Opal are the same, they definitely are not.

Black Opal is a popular stone that is very well known as it is a quite valuable type of precious opal.

It is a precious stone that looks quite different to Boulder Opal and although both are Australian opal varieties the locations where they come from is a long way apart.

Both Boulder Opal and Yowah Nut stone are found only in North Queensland in Australia.

Black Opal is found in a couple of locations including Lightning Ridge in New South Wales and Coober Pedy in South Australia.

These stunning gemstones are what's called dark opal, as they have a dark body tone with gorgeous play of color across the stone.

They have bright patches of opal on a dark background, so you can imagine that this type of opal is very popular.

These opals are made into gemstones that are stunningly beautiful, and are generally sold to be used by jewelers and are classified as precious gems.

To discover more about opals and how they are classified, check out this section in my article about Peruvian Pink Opal to learn more.

Best Crystals To Use With Boulder Opal

What are the most beneficial crystals to combine with Boulder Opal?

This stone is known for how it assists your ability to make decisions.

But if you feel you need more help you might also like to combine it with other stones for the same purpose.

Stones that also might assist you to make decisions include Hypersthene, Apophyllite, Aventurine, or Grandidierite.

This is a useful stone to aid you to think more clearly, and may be combined with other stones that aid clarity of thought.

There are a number of crystals that you could choose for this purpose including Magnetite, Mariposite, Lapis Lazuli or Yellow Apatite.

If you feel that you could benefit with further help with problem solving, you may like to combine it with other crystals that aid you to solve problems.

Stones for this purpose includes Tourmilated Quartz, Purple Scapolite, Sphene and Thenardite.

They are good grounding stones, as the ironstone has a strong action to connect you to earth and all of these stones contain an ironstone base.

You may like to combine them with other grounding stones to boost how they work, including Black Tourmaline, Dravite Brown Tourmaline, Smoky Quartz and Larvikite.