What is Opal?
A gem made of silica-rich fluids is called an opal. Its name, Upala, which means valuable stone in Sanskrit, is where it gets its origin. In the future, during the Roman era, it would be known as Opallios. Opals come in two varieties: common opal and valuable opal. Amplification, hope, and purity are the meanings of opals.
If Opal doesn’t make your heart want to dance, look through our indispensable gemstone guide to healing crystals to choose a different stone that does.
The Gemstone of Amplification
- A stone of light, purity, and play
- Opal mining dates back to 400BC
- Has a high water content
The Opal stone is a mysterious play of light, purity, and a thousand glittering colours, with the dance of fire blazing beneath its surface. With its spectral colors gleaming and its cool weight resting in the palm of the hand, this jewel is true eye candy. It is a powerful amplifier stone that is also well-known for its association with myth and folklore.
When opal was discovered in Queensland, Australia, a century ago, it once again entered our contemporary world. The shining treasures were discovered by a small boy who was out looking for gold and quartz with his father. He filled his sack with fistfuls of the scattered stars. Few men were lured by the promise of Opal collection to brave the difficult conditions of Australia’s interior; those who did often wrote accounts of desperation, intense heat, dehydration, piercing thorns, and enormous bugs. Opal, however, was a reward that was quite valuable. Opal is also mined in Mexico and Brazil outside of the remote regions of Australia.
Yet, the Opal stone predates this relatively recent Australian find. The first records of opal mining date back to the twisting Carpathian Mountains about 400 BC, and the ancient Greek philosopher Plato even wrote about the gem in his stories. Pliny the Elder, a Roman historian, also mentioned Opalus possessing the garnet blaze, the amethyst’s purplish essence, and the emerald’s glistening sea greens. It was a magical treasure.
When Sir Walter Scott wrote his 18th-century book Anne of Geierstein, opal began to lose its appeal. His fictional Lady Hermione is reported to have an opal, which finally causes her death in these pages. Following this, the opal came to be associated with bad luck and the market for them collapsed as people lost interest in the valuable stone’s iridescent beauty and began to be afraid of its eerie powers. Opals were instead given to Queen Victoria’s daughters on their wedding days, and over time, Opals came to be regarded once more as a lovely and uplifting gem.
Opal is classified as a mineraloid because it is amorphous, or lacking in crystalline structure. It is comprised of water and silicon dioxide and has a high water content. Water picks up silica particles as it travels through the earth’s fissures and cracks. This results in closely packed silica spheres. Opal is the rain, the tears of the sky, and the storms. It has a great color play and is softer than quartz. Opal is undoubtedly motion poetry.
The amplifying mineral is opal. Because it is reflective and absorbent, it gathers ideas and emotions, amplifies them, and then transmits them back to you. This activates the law of attraction by bringing clarity, energy, and high vibrations.
Opal comes in a variety of designs, each having its own color, charm, and patterns. There are a few additional types of opal in the mix, and each links to a different chakra and delivers its own therapeutic characteristics under the umbrella of opal. Common opal may be the one that comes to mind with its milky white luster or priceless opal with its spring of hues.
- Black Opal/Boulder Opals – For the Root Chakra. This helps us to feel grounded, stable, and safe in the world.
- Fire Opals – For the Sacral Chakra. This helps us boost our sense of sexuality, boosts our passion, and can help improve fertility issues.
- Ethiopian Opal – For the Sacral Chakra. This helps to bring high vibrations, ancient wisdom, and sheer ecstasy and joy.
- Mostly Yellow Opals – For the Solar Plexus Chakra. This helps us ground into our warrior spirit and also helps to treat any liver, stomach, and gallbladder issues too.
- Mostly Green or Pink Opals – For the Heart Chakra. Open your heart, learn to love and trust with ease, and rid yourself of negative energies like jealously and resentment.
- Mostly Blue Opals – For the Throat Chakra. Let’s your truth flow, eases and improves communication, and helps all kind of throat and thyroid issues too.
- Mostly Violet Opals – For the Third Eye Chakra – Tap into your inner wisdom, strengthen your intuition, and find faith in your own guidance.
- White Opals / Common Opal – For the Crown Chakra – For spiritual wealth and higher consciousness. Also eases headaches and migraines.
Opal Healing Properties
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The Opal stone, which gleams with healing abilities, is packed with high vibrational energy, amplification abilities, and a perfect sense of balance. In addition to igniting your creative spirit, it can also inspire newfound optimism, good fortune, vibrant balance, and order. The owner of an opal can also use it as a good luck charm to draw wonderful things into their aura.
It is a fantastic jewel for rousing lightness and spontaneity thanks to the infusion of color and light, and it also provides a hand when it comes to all kinds of creative undertakings. As a rare stone, it carries with it a certain status, as well as elements of wealth, extravagance, and live a special life. This need not be about money; it could also be about other material comforts. the comfort of knowing and believing in oneself. luxuries of good fortune and luck. The indulgence of desire, love, and seduction. Opal wants you to taste every hue there is, as suggested by the dancing light that dances across its surface.
Physical Healing
- Can treat infections and reduce fever
- A good elixir for the eyes and renewing skin cells
The Opal Stone is thought to be flush with health when it comes to bodily healing. This gem can strengthen the immune system and treat infections by bringing down fevers. Opal can also assist in releasing any pressure that has built up in your chest or respiratory system and restoring the breath’s lightness. The opal stone can be a reliable travel companion for those who have been battling a long-term sickness or chronic disease as they make their way back to optimal health.
Moreover, the Opal Stone can improve liver health, lessen labor and PMS discomfort, and support healthy liver function. It’s a good elixir for enhancing eye brightness, regenerating skin cells for supple freshness, and preserving the health of the nails and hair. Opal can also assist in flushing the system for people who have trouble with water retention.
Mental & Emotional Healing
- Brings balance and harmony
- Known as a hope stone
Opal is a shrewdly helpful stone that constantly seeks to bring total harmony and balance into your being. With its strong internal energy, this diamond inspires you to dig deeply within yourself rather than to avoid doing so. Opal is also about amplification, which means that it will make even the slightest concept or emotion crystal obvious by shining a light on it. It takes these emotions and magnifies them, delivering messages to the cosmos and assisting you in clearing your mind and heart of any debris that could have been obstructing your vision.
Opal urges you to let go of the connections, habits, and scars from the past that no longer serve you. Yet, it also challenges you to learn those lessons without remaining bound to the suffering. Opal is regarded as a stone symbolizing pure optimism and change. You can work through the emotional difficulties so that you can balance your emotions and discover your full potential waiting on the other side without being guided down any pathways that would set you back.
Opal invites you to accept accountability for your choices and doesn’t only hint at emotional recovery. This is crucial in life because it enables us to recognize our actions and, when required, make amends. Relationships are profoundly healed by this maturity, which works like pure magic without invalidating our own emotions.
Metaphysical Properties
- Can clear all the chakras
- Connected to higher communication
There are a variety of opal colors available, and you can pick one that corresponds to each chakra. Opals are filled with light and color, and because of their high vibrational energy, they work well with many different chakras as well as clearing any blockages in the body. It is a magnificent mineral for delivering spiritual light to the aura and ensuring that you remain shielded and protected on your journey along any shamanic path you are certain to travel, even while you are bathed in a heavenly glow.
Opal is associated with higher communication and the spirit world since it is a stone of light. Opal can help with all of these things and more, whether you’re looking for angelic connections, wish to communicate with the spirit world, or just want to hone your psychic abilities.
This mineral also adds soft fluid energy to the table because it has a substantial water connection. Its vibrations resonate nicely with water, and as we are largely composed of water, we may employ our water energy in harmony with the stone. Opal allows you to stay calm, clear, and in contact with water whether you want a burst of energy, a gentle lapping flow, a purifying dive, or to be tugged in the correct way by the light of the moon.
Zodiac Birthstone
- An October gemstone
- Good for Scorpios and Libras
Opal is a birthstone for October and is associated with both Libra and Scorpio birth signs. If you were born under the sign of Libra, the autumnal equinox, which marks the height of harvest and the point at which day and night are in harmony and equality, coincided with your birth. This makes perfect sense considering how much Librans value harmony and balance in their lives. Due to Venus being their ruling planet, Librans excel at working in teams and are also deeply ingrained with the virtues of love and loyalty.
When worn by Librans, opal strengthens all of the aforementioned. This jewel can take all that balance, harmony, and love and turn it up a notch because, as was already explained, it is a massive amplifier. For those with the Libra birth sign, in particular, you might discover that fire opal is a wise choice since it gives dazzling energy and a burst of vigor, calling on love and harmony without crossing your own boundaries or engaging in people-pleasing activities.
Scorpios will gain from the grace and beauty of the opal stone as well. Scorpios can be courageous, tenacious, and incredibly loyal, among their many other amazing qualities. Moreover, they may be reticent and prone to jealousy, which is where Opal might be of assistance. You can draw on the therapeutic properties of this gem to provide support when you are unsure of yourself because it is an emotion balancer and works on the heart chakra with green and pink opals. Scorpios are renowned for having a rather contradictory disposition at times; for instance, they can be fiercely independent and then suddenly experience clinging moments. Let Opal to calm you down and keep you from feeling out of control during the performance.
How to Use Opal Stones
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- Wear for chakra balancing
- Use in yoga and meditation to amplify spiritual energy
Usage to enhance spiritual energy during meditation and yoga
Wearing opal is among the best methods to access its therapeutic properties. When pushed against the skin, opal jewelry can deliver its powerful vibrations exactly where they are required. Opal is not only a stunning gem that enhances various styles, but it also functions as jewelry since it ensures that you always have those amplification abilities on hand. Even just having Opal nearby at all times will increase your ability to materialize your desires and keep your chakras open. Opal can be worn as a bracelet, where it will sit against your pulse and learn your heartbeat. You can also wear an Opal ring to maintain your tactile connection to the outside world while having a play of color flash before your eyes. You can wear it as a pendant to keep it close to your heart, keep that chakra open wide, and keep it always available to receive love.
Opal enjoys socializing, and because it amplifies the energy of other crystals, it works well when combined with other stones. For those occasions when you wish to feel more anchored, opal works well when combined with black tourmaline and hematite. These root chakra stones can assist you in staying shielded when engaging in higher spiritual activities or venturing beyond of the realm of the mortal body because they also have extremely strong and protective powers.
Moreover, stones that correspond to the lower chakras, particularly the solar plexus and the sacral chakra, can be used with yellow and orange opals. When you wish to awaken your warrior energy, locate your source of creativity, and also connect to your sexuality, Carnelian, Sunstone, some earthy Agate stones, and Garnet are excellent choices.
Opal’s blue and white hues can also be combined with other stones that have a similar color, such as Moonstone and Quartz or Blue Lace Agate. These gems clean the throat, third eye, and crown chakras as they act on the upper chakras, allowing for a clear flow of energy. This facilitates effective communication, in-depth learning and insight, and a connection to the larger cosmos. It prepares you to accept the treasures the universe has to offer.
Opals can be utilized in crystal grids for reiki therapy because of their energy that amplifies other crystals’ powers. Opal may also be brought inside. Place Opal in your studio, on your writing desk, or wherever you do the majority of your creative thinking if you want to tap into its creative zeal. If you wish to create a more harmonious environment where love, listening, and a cheerful attitude toward life are keeping the vibrations nice for all, you may also use this magical mineral in communal spaces.
Opal can also be used for meditation and yoga exercises. Opal is a great talisman to keep near your mat since it offers equilibrium (both physically and mentally). When it comes to being a meditation tool, it also functions well because it promotes in-depth explorations of that inner work and can amp up spiritual energy thanks to its amplifying abilities.
How to Cleanse Opal Crystals
- Cleanse with water or smudging
- Charge by rubbing together in palms or by moonlight
If you wish to maximize the healing properties of your healing gems, it is crucial to keep them cleansed and charged. In life, overworking a crystal or mineral can cause it to accumulate so much energy that it loses some of its ability to heal. However, maintaining them is very simple, and you only need to do them once per month, after a particularly intense energy session, or as often as the calling requires.
Give your Opal a brief rinse under the faucet or with fresh water to clean it. Opal shouldn’t be exposed to either hot water or saltwater, so be careful. Opal reacts very well to the presence of water due to its high water content. Opal is one of the more fragile minerals out there having a soft constitution, therefore it needs to be handled with a certain amount of caution. You can also choose to smudge your Opal for a very secure manner of purification. Merely burning a sage bundle and passing the smoke over your precious Opal for a short period of time will help clear any unwanted energy and purify it once more.
You can charge your opal by rubbing it together in the palms of your hands, as was customary among Native Americans. Leaving your Opal in the moonlight will also aid in recharging it. Avoid leaving it in the sunlight because it can fade and crack due to the sun’s harsh rays. Be aware that Opal can be affected by sudden fluctuations in temperature, and that it values harmony and constancy above everything else.
Geological Properties
| Chemical Classification | Silicate mineral |
| Chemical Formula | SiO2 |
| Crystal system | Trigonal |
| Color | White, gray, blue, brown, pink, red, orange, yellow, green, black, and more |
| Streak | White |
| Luster | Waxy |
| Transparency | Transparent to translucent |
| Occurrence | Found worldwide, especially in hydrothermal veins, geodes, and nodules in sedimentary rocks |
| Formation | Forms from silica-rich solutions that precipitate in cavities and fractures in rocks |
| Diaphaneity | Translucent to opaque |
| Cleavage | None |
| Mohs Hardness | 6.5 – 7 |
| Specific Gravity | 2.58 – 2.64 |
| Diagnostic Properties | Waxy luster, often banded or patterned |
| Chemical Composition | Silicon dioxide (SiO2) |
| Crystal System | Trigonal |
| Optical Properties | Uniaxial (+) |
| Refractive Index | nω = 1.530 – 1.539 nε = 1.532 – 1.540 |
| Birefringence | 0.004 – 0.007 |
| 2V angle | 60° – 90° |
| Dispersion | 0.013 |
| Other characteristics | Occurs in many colors and varieties, including agate, jasper, and onyx |
Final Thoughts
One of the most seductive minerals is opal. You can’t help but be lured to the dancing light and fire of this aquatic magnificent diamond because it is captivating, captivating, and has a thousand stories to its name. Opal has captured the imaginations of cultures for centuries, from the Ancient Greeks who thought it to be the tears of Zeus to the Hindus who consider it to be a rainbow caught in a rock.
Despite its captivating, dream-enhancing splendor, it also makes a fantastic amulet for anyone who need a little support and assistance regaining their equilibrium. It can be challenging to stay on our feet in the face of strong emotions, shifting circumstances, and many forms of turmoil. Yet Opal helps out and sends its energy to keep our feet firmly planted, hearts wide open, throats singing, and crowns clear and drenched in brightness. Opal is always a wonderful addition, whether you decide to use it as a standalone amulet to provide balance and light or if you decide to use it to boost the effects of your other stones.
What do you think of the captivating opal stone? Do you like the costly Opal’s shimmering dance or the ordinary Opal’s milky sheen? Opal is calling to you in what color? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.
Opal FAQ’s
What color is Opal?
Opal often has a milky white or pearly appearance, but imperfections beneath the surface give it flashes of brilliant brilliance and rainbow shades. White Opals will exhibit the whole spectrum of pastel or rainbow colours, whilst black Opals prefer to reflect blue and green tones. Red and orange hues will be more prevalent in Fire Opals.
What is the cost of an opal?
Opal’s cost might vary greatly. The price of this lovely and priceless stone is typically determined by its weight and carat, with cut and clarity also playing a role. There are numerous types of opal with various grades available due to the world’s numerous opal mining locations. The price of opals can vary from $10 to $6,000 per carat.
How do you recognize raw opal?
Rough or raw Opal can have a dull, vitreous, or pearly-looking sheen. It will typically stand out from the surrounding rocks by having a particular hue or acting differently in the light. These colors can range from milky white to black and can be either transparent or opaque.
How does an opal form?
When silica-rich waters seep into deep cuts and cracks in the earth’s crust, opal is created. Even one centimeter of opal might take millions of millions of years to create. The microscopic silica spheres in the opal, which is a non-crystalline form of the mineral silica, scatter light to produce colored prisms. The spacing of the silica spheres inside each opal determines how much color it has.
What is Opal’s job?
The properties of opal include amplitude, hope, and purity. This lovely jewel is all about vibrant color and powerful energy. Opal may quickly enhance your immune system, support your entire being with balance and harmony, and depending on the color scheme, it works with many different chakras. With its higher energy, opal is a stone that can assist in spiritual growth and shamanic work while taking you to greater heights.
How can you know whether an opal is genuine?
There are a few ways to determine whether your opal is genuine. Check the country of origin first; although they can also be mined in Mexico and Brazil, Opals are typically mined in Australia. You may also hold it up to the light to see the color spectrum. A genuine Opal stone will not have a perfectly even pattern and may have multiple layers of color.
Where can one find opal?
Even Plato wrote a few stories about this priceless diamond. Opal is thought to have been mined for the first time in the Carpathian Mountains. Since then, mines have also been discovered in Mexico and Brazil, as well as in Queensland, Australia.
Where do opals originate?
Opals have been discovered in Queensland, Australia, more recently than other locations across the world. Since Opal was discovered a century ago, the number of miners in the backcountry has greatly increased. Opals have been mined since 400 BC in the Carpathian Mountains, making them older than rubies. Moreover, Brazil and Mexico both mine opal.
How does Opal appear?
Opal is a stunning stone that flashes a rainbow of colors beneath the surface in vibrant tones. Typically, the stone is white or milky, though black Opal is occasionally possible. Depending on the sort of opal you have, the appearance will be iridescent with a lot of light and color play in hues ranging from blues to greens and reds.
What uses does opal have?
Opal is a wonderful stone for harmony, balancing, eradicating negative patterns, and enhancing your good qualities. The physical, emotional, and spiritual are all affected by it. Due to its high frequency, this light dancing diamond is excellent for transforming thoughts, patterns, and energy. It encourages self-awareness, and those who hold it close experience fluidity and emotional intelligence.
OPAL: Is it unlucky?
According to a 19th-century story in which the main character had an Opal that finally caused her death, the Opal was formerly thought to be unlucky. People were later distrustful of the jewel for a while before Queen Victoria handed them to her daughters on their wedding days. Opal is the antithesis of a bad luck stone because it is a stone of joy, happiness, and hope.
What stands for an opal?
The opal stone is a symbol of amplitude, greater hope, and heavenly purity. These luminous, twirling jewels are meant to increase your sense of harmony and tranquility while also assisting you in sorting through your thoughts and emotions and getting rid of everything that doesn’t serve you. The Opal also speaks to a more profound spirituality. It may be a stunning guiding gem when combined with shamanic connections, chakra clearing, and a sense of clarity.
What does opal stand for?
Opals are primarily about play, light, and color. Combined, these ideas promote equilibrium, harmony, and a vibrational uplift that will enable you to go to the next level. The spirit of hope, good karma, fortune, luck, and realizing your higher bliss are all present in the opal. Opal may help you get stronger in countless ways thanks to its high vibrations, rainbow of hues, and shamanic healing energy.
How are opals cleaned?
Holding your Opal briefly under flowing water is one of the simplest and fastest methods to clean it. This is sufficient to allow the stone to release any stored energy that might be impairing its perception or obstructing its vibration. You can also cleanse your stone with smudging, singing bowls, or tuning forks if you’d rather keep your precious Opal out of water.
What does an opal represent?
The opal stone represents purity, hope, and enhancing your own special abilities. This stone has a lovely purifying function that aids in sprucing up every shadowy crevice of your spirit so you can emerge into the light. It invites you to maintain calm, cool, and ever in flow because of its high vibrations and spiritual links, which help with balance and connections to other realms.
What material makes up opal?
When silica-rich water ebbs and flows into fissures in the earth’s crust, opal is produced. The gem is made up of tiny silica spheres. Together with water, which contributes to the fluid energy and the opalescence, which helps the stone flash and play with light, these silica spheres are arranged in a pattern within the stone.
What are the uses of opal?
Opal has numerous applications. Physically, it strengthens the immune system and can be used to treat fevers. On an emotional level, it can aid with harmony, enhance good vibes, clarity, and overcoming obstacles. In terms of the spiritual sphere, it can be employed for opening up channels to higher dimensions, enhancing psychic abilities, illuminating the aura, and purifying different chakras.
What is the value of black opal?
One of the most expensive gemstones available is the black opal. Blak Opal can range in price, but some of the highest-grade specimens can fetch as much as $10,000. Due to their rarity and often even more delicate composition than diamonds, black opals are more expensive.
Is purchasing an opal for yourself unlucky?
Although there is a myth that you should never purchase Opal for yourself and should only get it as a gift, we contend that “gifting” oneself something you enjoy is unquestionably a form of self care that deserves to be praised. These stones have no negative energy at all; instead, they are centered on harmony and hope.
Where is Opal located?
Any reputable gemologist or crystal dealer should be able to provide you with an Opal if you want to pick one up and turn the energy amplifying dial up. To guarantee that your opal is the actual deal, always use crystal dealers who have a good reputation.
How are opals created?
In the natural world, opal is created when silica-rich water seeps into fractures in the crust of the earth. The silica from the sandstone is carried by the water as it flows downward and penetrates into those fissures. The silica deposit is left behind when the water evaporates, and over the course of millions of years, it starts to harden and transform into the priceless Opal that we know and love.
What is the value of white opal?
One of the varieties of opal that is most prevalent is white opal. Variables including body tone, color, thickness, brilliance, and the pattern that shimmers beneath the surface might affect the price of white opal. A high-quality white opal may cost up to $200.
How can Opal color be recovered?
Humidity, excessive water contact, extreme heat, and other conditions that having to do with changes in the water content of the gemstones can sometimes cause opal stones to lose their color. By soaking it in water and letting it dry, having the gem polished, and applying a little mineral oil to the stone to restore its sheen, you might attempt to restore its color.
Describe Fire Opal.
A type of Opal is a Fire Opal. The red and orange hue that shimmers beneath the surface of this stone gave it its name. It is well known that Fire Opal has a connection to the sacral chakra, which supports concerns with conception as well as enhancing our sense of passion and libido.
How do I take care of Opals?
Beautiful gemstone opal vibrates at a high frequency. While having a Mohs hardness rating of 5 to 6, it can also be a somewhat delicate stone. You must regularly keep your opal charged and cleansed in order to take good care of it. You can smudge or use flowing water to cleanse, and you can charge by exposing your gem to the moonlight. Be aware that opal does not appreciate sudden temperature changes.
What is a piece of opal?
The stunning gemstone known as the opal was created in silica-rich seas. When silica water seeps through fissures and crevices in the earth’s crust, it forms this stone. The opalescence and light-playing qualities of these stones are well-known. Opals come in a variety of forms and hues, but the white, black, and fire varieties are the most common. The stone symbolizing harmony, amplitude, and hope is the opal.
How is opal polished?
To smooth out any rough edges and get a polished, smooth gem that shines, polish your opal with fine sandpaper. If your Opal is hazy, you may also revive it by wetting it with a soft cloth and rubbing it to bring out that lovely glowy brilliance.
Opal—is it a color?
Opal is not a color; it is a gemstone. The opal gemstone can be translucent or opaque, as well as white or black. Opals have an Opalescence because of their chemical composition, which means they can reflect light and have a wide range of colors hidden beneath the surface. The name Opal even means to ‘notice a change in hue’ and originates from the Greek word Opallios.
Is Opal a creation of man?
Opals can be manufactured artificially or naturally. Although opal is a stone that can be discovered in nature, you can also buy artificial opals that have been made in a lab. They are comparable in qualities and appearance, and have the same internal structure and chemical makeup.
Is opal a birthstone for October?
Opal is, in fact, the birthstone for October. The people born in this month might have a great connection with this calming and regulating stone, and Libra and Scorpio are also good matches. Keep the opal stone around for Librans and Scorpios who yearn for harmony, vitality, and radiance.
What month was Opal born?
Since opal is the birthstone for October, it makes a lovely gift or a perfect match for anyone born during those harvest months. It is the ideal talisman for people who were born under the signs of Scorpio and Libra as well.
How does raw Opal appear?
A fascinating stone to gaze at is raw opal. It can almost appear chalky, but it contains pieces of opal that are in the Opalescence style. The silica spheres are frequently too big or too small in raw opals dug up from the ground to diffract light. To get to the good stuff, those minute fractions that do interact with the light, part of the mining procedure for opal involves removing the sand and imperfections.
Describe Black Opal.
An Opal variation with a darker body tone is known as a Black Opal. This alters the appearance of the gem and changes how the colors caught below the surface show out. In addition to clearing the root chakra and giving us a sense of security and grounding, the Black Opal is still a stone that is focused on amplification and harmony.
Opals can they be wet?
Opals should not be left submerged in water, despite the fact that their high water content gives them their fluid energy. Opals do have a Mohs hardness rating of between 5 and 6, which means that while they can tolerate being wet, repeated or continuous contact may cause them to become brittle or have other long-term effects.