Black Tourmaline

About this stone

Black Tourmaline (Schörl) is the most common variety of tourmaline — a complex boron silicate that piezoelectrically charges under heat or pressure. It is the classic protective stone of modern Western practice, assigned to Saturn. In synastry it is reached for when a partner's difficult transits keep landing on your chart, or when an outside relationship (family, ex, work) is bleeding into the primary one and needs a clean boundary.

At a glance

Ruling planet

Saturn

Chakra

Root

Colour

Opaque black

Mohs hardness

7 – 7.5

Origin

Brazil, USA (Maine, California), Pakistan

Supports

Hard aspects (squares, oppositions)

How Black Tourmaline links to the zodiac

This stone is traditionally paired with Capricorn, Scorpio, Sagittarius. Each sign draws on it slightly differently.

• ♑ Capricorn

  earth · cardinal

  Capricorn pairs Black Tourmaline with Saturn for clean boundaries that hold without becoming walls.

  Ruling planet: Saturn

• ♏ Scorpio

  water · fixed

  For Scorpio, Black Tourmaline filters out what is not its own — invaluable for an empathic, intense chart.

  Ruling planet: Pluto

• ♐ Sagittarius

  fire · mutable

  Sagittarius uses Black Tourmaline to keep a wide-open chart from absorbing every stranger met on the road.

  Ruling planet: Jupiter

Put Black Tourmaline to work in your chart

Black Tourmaline is traditionally reached for when the aspect side of a bond needs support. See where that shows up in your own placements:

• Check your astrological compatibility to find which dimensions of your match could use Black Tourmaline.
• Generate your free birth chart to locate your Saturn placement.
• Browse all healing gemstones