Rose Rocks!

bunch of tiny rose rocks

Before dinosaurs existed, when all the continents were one giant continent called Pangea, the west half of what would be Oklahoma was covered by sea. Amphibians, fish, the ancestors of future reptiles and mammals, the coniferous ancestors of our ever-present Eastern Redcedar and our summertime friends the cicadas evolved during this era. As the waters rolled in and out, they laid down the sediment that would become the red rocks we love today. Geologists call this the Permian period. This period ended with the greatest extinction level event on earth. Science doesn't yet know what caused it, but the face of the earth also underwent dramatic changes. The waters of the sea here receded, cracks formed in the land, and in a small isolated band near the edge of where the red beds of central and western Oklahoma meet the Sandstone hills that stretch east, ground water seeped into the cracks and precipitated out barite, quartz, and hematite in a unique shape.

Permian Red Beds at Lake Draper

Scientists don't know when rose rocks began to form, or whether the process ended or is still ongoing. They also aren't certain what causes the "rose" shape. Barite crystals forming around quartz sand make the petal shape, but barite normally doesn't form rounded edges seen in rose rocks. If they formed as expected, the petals would be more square shaped, like some kind of Minecraft flower. This shape of barite crystal occurs in few places on earth, and most of them form a white-ish rose as they lack the hematite present in Oklahoma's Rose Rocks. There are only a couple other places on earth where you might find red rose rocks - next door in Kansas, and in Australia. Oklahoma's Rose Rocks really are unique.

Cluster of barite petals, baby rose rocks

But they are neither economically or scientifically important in the sense that no one wants to spend the big bucks to study them and answer the questions of their formation. Most Rose Rock deposits are on private land and there is little incentive to make them available to the public. It is possible to acquire a rose rock if you know where to look or shop. Small ones aren't expensive to purchase. But they are rare enough that few who work with crystals have studied them.

A quick internet search reveals that most mentions of "rose rock" in crystal lists refer to a white selenite rock formation and not the barite of Rose Rocks. I'm no crystal worker, but common conceptions seem to say barite is good for opening the crown chakra and facilitates meditation and journeying. Quartz, is, well, quartz. Good for storing power and doing all the things. Hematite is grounding. Seems to me it might be interesting to experiment with using Rose Rocks in journeying to see how the tiny bit of grounding influences it. Sympathetic magic might also suggest using Rose Rocks in similar situations where one might use red roses.

teeny rose rock

To sum up, not only does science not fully understand our rare and unique rose rocks, but little is written about them magically either. Magical Okies, do your things and let us know! Nobody else is gonna do it for us.

barite deposits not quite formed into roses.