The Apache Tear crystal is a form of a black obsidian pebble. With a legend of being created from the tears of Apache families after 75 Apache warriors lost their lives in battle, the Apache Tear meaning is powerful to use. Benefits of the crystal include finding the strength to fight through past trauma or suppressed pain, providing support to have difficult conversations, and properly healing over time as one grows.
In this Apache Tear profile, we go through:
- Apache Tear Properties
- Apache Tear Meaning
- Apache Tear Metaphysical Properties (Chakras + Healing Properties)
- Cleansing, Recharging, and Cleaning
Apache Tear Properties
Apache Tear is an Obsidian pebble, also called Obsidianites, that are black-colored natural volcanic glass made of a Rhyolite composition and conchoidal fracture structure.
These crystals are generally 2 inches or less in diameter with a non-uniform structure that has pits, indents, and crevices on the surface of the stone.
The chemical makeup of Apache Tear Obsidian Crystals is usually 70-75% Silicon Dioxide mixed with Magnesium Oxide and/or Iron Oxide impurities.
Apache Tear Chemical Formula: SiO2 + MgO and/or Fe3O4
Apache Tear Hardness: 5 – 5.5 (Mohs scale)
Apache Tear History
The Apache Tear got the name from a legend that came from the Apache tribe where around 75 Apache warriors and the US military fought in 1870 on a mountain that is known today as Superior, Arizona. The group of Apache warriors was outnumbered and facing defeat. Instead of being killed, the remaining warriors rode on their horses off the mountain cliff. The Apache Tears are said to have been created from the tears hitting the ground shed by the families of the warriors after hearing news of the tragedy.
In 1964, Johnny Cash wrote a song in tribute to the fallen Apache warriors titled “Apache Tears” on the Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian album.
Apache Tear Meaning
Said to be born from the tears of the Apache people after a brutal attack on their tribe, Apache Tear stones are one of the best crystals to help you process grief, especially after the loss of a loved one.
A form of obsidian, Apache Tears are found as small, misshapen pebbles but they pack a big punch when it comes to helping you release negativity from your physical body and emotional body.
It’s a stone that can uproot and relieve long-held pain and sadness, but it does so in a gentle way that encourages you to move through the emotions with honesty and compassion towards yourself.
Apache Tear is a stone of grounding and protection, offering emotional healing and stability. It’s a stone to lean on during hard times, during your darkest and most painful moments, as it holds the energy and understanding of your grief, trauma, and shadows and how to let them go and keep moving forward on your soul’s journey in this life.
Apache Tear Metaphysical Properties
Chakras
Apache Tear can clear heavy or negative energy from your entire aura and all your chakras. Place it on any chakra where you feel grief or emotional heaviness, whether in your heart, your gut, or your mind, and it’ll help absorb the painful emotions so you can gain perspective to move forward.
As a form of obsidian, this bumpy little pebble is incredibly stabilizing for your root chakra and can help you heal grief and trauma from the past not only from this life, but from your ancestry, from your unconscious memory, and even from your past lives.
It’s also a great emotional cleanser and balancer, bringing harmony to the imbalances often held in the sacral chakra from repressed, stuck, or overwhelming emotional energy.
Grief is felt in many ways and can be felt in all parts of the body, but the apex of pain is always at the heart. Apache Tear is a stone that understands a heavy, angry heart full of pain and can bring solace, calming, and healing to some of the hardest experiences of human life.
Healing Properties
Emotional:
A potent crystal to help you heal through grief, Apache Tear is a supportive and nurturing stone for your tenderest and most broken moments. It can help you move through the emotional pain with acceptance and grace, and not get stuck in despair.
Also as an absorber of negative energy, Apache Tear is protective of your emotions helping you ground and protect yourself from absorbing the energy of those around you, and be more discerning about what relationships and activities you’re willing to put your energy into.
Mental:
Apache Tear helps you remember and process through old wounds so you can release them for good, rather than storing them in your subconscious. It does this in a gentle, manageable way, allowing the past that needs to be dealt with to trickle back into your consciousness slowly, rather than all at once.
It’s a great tool to bring with you to any type of therapy or wellness practice, to allow you to open up more easily and have a steady sense of underlying support beneath you. It helps quiet your judgemental inner voice and critical self-talk and open to more acceptance and gentleness towards yourself.
Physical:
A wonderful recovery stone, Apache Tear helps you heal through all sorts of trauma, including physically. It helps absorb and hold some of the pain for you bringing you back into strength and balance.
This stone is especially helpful for any grief-induced physical issues, such as high blood pressure, inflammation, fatigue, or vulnerability to illness that you may be experiencing as an effect of loss.
Spiritual:
Apache Tear has a strong connection with the lessons you’re meant to live here on Earth. As a grounding, supportive, and strengthening stone, it helps pull you out of your mind, floating through all the what-ifs and worries, and brings you back into your body, into your heart, and into the pain and beauty of being a human.
This is a wonderful stone to remind you that there is an innate balance and harmony in nature which means the sun always comes after the clouds break, love always returns after heartbreak, and healing can always happen after loss.
What is Apache Tear Good For?
- Moving through grief and trauma
- Processing long-held pain
- Supporting emotional stability
- Having a hard conversation
- Accepting yourself on deeper levels
- Releasing negativity and darkness
- Healing slowly and gently
- Overcoming difficult life challenges
- Consoling during crisis
- Grounding turbulent or heavy emotions
- Opening to compassion and forgiveness
- Finding strength and resilience
Cleanse & Recharge
As an emotionally charged stone, water is a great element to cleanse Apache Tear with. You can simply run it under some water for a quick rinse, or leave it outside in the rain, on the dewy morning grass, or in a glass of spring water overnight for full cleansing.
Recharge your Apache Tear by setting it on the Earth, on top of the soil, or buried beneath it, leave it under the light of a full moon for a night, or on top of a slab of selenite or quartz cluster to charge it up with light.
