The Miracle of Larimar

Larimar is as rare as it is beautiful. 

The gemstone is exclusively found on a remote mountain range in Bahoruco, Dominican Republic.

According to Dominican Republic mining records, the first recorded “discovery” of Larimar was in 1916 by a Spanish priest, though requests to further explore and mine in the area were denied. It wasn’t until 1974 that two men, Miguel Mendez and Norman Rilling, “rediscovered” the stone. The men came up with the name by combining Miguel’s daughter’s name (Larissa) and the Spanish word for Sea (Mar).

Later archeologists did report that the Taino- the people indigenous to the area before the Spaniards colonized it- knew of, and utilized Larimar in jewelry and ceremonial sculptures.

Author’s note: Okay, the Geology of Larimar is pretty complicated, and I’m not a geologist. I’m going to do my best to summarize it, while still trying to do the science behind it justice.

Larimar is a rock made mostly of Pectolite, which is a fairly common mineral, the name literally means “compacted stone” in Greek. Pectolite in it’s white/grey form is a mineral composed of a few elements, the two stars of the show being sodium and calcium. Larimar gets it’s beautiful sky blue coloration from the calcium being replaced by copper, and then the copper  becoming oxidized. Essentially, the way this happens is three different types of volcanic rock erupt within the limestones of the island, and the lava gets shoved together in small little holes within the mountain. Later it erodes, travels down the mountain and ends up in the dark gravels within the Bahoruco River.

The magical combination of all of this only happens in this one place on Earth, making Larimar one of the rarest minerals on the planet. Wow.

Larimar is said to have many different metaphysical properties. Often considered a healing stone, both physically and emotionally, Larimar promotes wisdom, confidence and clarity. Traditionally thought of as the combination of sky and sea, this gemstone is used in many spiritual practices to bring both tranquility and power to the heart and mind.

Author’s note: I know it’s, like, kind of corny to have a definition in the ending statement of a blog, but bare with me, I feel like this one’s worth it. The definition of a miracle is a highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences.

The random series of basically improbable events that lead to the existence of Larimar is a literal miracle. So close to impossible, that it can only happen in one mountain range, on one island, on one planet.

One trillion is 1,000 billions, and if you started counting from the moment you were born til the moment you died, you couldn’t count to one billion in a lifetime. They say the probability of you being born is one in 400 trillion.
One of the things we like to say at Zart is “you’re a gem”, and we mean it, because similar to Larimar, the series of exact events needed to happen to facilitate your existence is also a literal miracle. And you are just as rare, and beautiful, and wonderfully precious.