Blog about Baltic culture and amber

What is amber and baltic amber?

Amber is neither a stone nor a crystal.
Baltic amber is fossil resin, which age is about 40 million years. It is warm to touch and very well known for its healing abilities. Baltic amber works not only energetically, but also because of amber acid, which is excluded in small amounts when is near your body (because of your body warmth). That is why amber is valued stone in most expensive SPAs around the world.

Amber has been used since the stone age, from 13,000 years ago. Amber ornaments have been found in Mycenaean tombs and elsewhere across Europe

Baltic amber from my shop amber4you.etsy.com

Amber differs from the stones, because long time ago it was a part of living thing - tree. It was excluded as a healing resin, which helped a tree to defend and heal itself. It took 2 millions of years to become a hard, fossilized resin.

So amber has born as a defensive/healing material, born from energy of sun, earth and water (trees are using sun energy and earth materials to grow). It laid down in earth for 40 million years, was touched by sea water (witch is also healing) and now is used by humans. Ironically, many people use amber in a way as it was created. Trees created resin, from which amber came, to heal and defend themselves, in the same way we are using it now.

Baltic amber from my shop amber4you.etsy.com

Is fossilized tree resin found just near Baltic sea?
No. But in each amber differs. Baltic amber is the most valued amber among all other Amber.

Copal
Copal is a type of resin produced from plant sap, often from members of the genus Copaifera. The term is particularly identified with the aromatic tree resins used by the cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica as ceremonially burned incense and other purposes. More generally, the term copal describes subfossil resinous substances in an intermediate stage of polymerization and hardening between "gummier" resins and amber. The word copal is derived from the Nahuatl language word copalli, meaning "incense". (Wikipedia)

Amber
Fossil resins from Europe fall into two categories, the famous Baltic ambers and another that resembles the Agathis group. Fossil resins from the Americas and Africa are closely related to the modern genus Hymenaea
Molecular polymerization, resulting from high pressures and temperatures produced by overlying sediment, transforms the tree resin first into copal. Sustained heat and pressure drives off terpenes and results in the formation of amber. (Wikipedia) .. and that process took few milion years.
Pieces of amber torn from the seafloor are cast up by the waves, and collected by hand, dredging or diving. Elsewhere, amber is mined, both in open works and underground galleries. The nodules from the blue earth have to be freed from matrix and divested of their opaque crust, which can be done in revolving barrels containing sand and water. Erosion removes this crust from sea-worn amber.
Dominican amber, especially Dominican blue amber, is mined through bell pitting, which is dangerous due to the risk of the tunnel collapse. (Wikipedia)

Baltic amber belongs to the highest class (1st) among other 5 classes of ambers.
Only 2 or 3 types of amber belong to this class. So when I speak about healing amber abilities in this blog, I speak about Baltic amber. Becouse only this amber is sold in my shop.. And is the only amber I know all my life.

My other articles:
How Baltic amber can be used for healing and what is amber acid?

Literature:
Very big article by Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber
List of types of amber:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_types_of_amber

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