Tiger's Eye: Meaning, Benefits & Metaphysical Properties

Tiger’s eye usually appears in smallish, tumbled stones, in deep yellow, brown and orange hues. The colors are often striped or banded, and it is clear from its appearance why it is named for the tiger. 

Meaning of Tiger's Eye

Tiger’s eye combines the vital energies of the sun with earth energy to create a powerful vibration that is both grounded and spiritual in nature.

Tiger’s Eye has been prized for centuries for its protective qualities and is traditionally associated with warding off curses, ill wishes and the “evil eye”. It is an empowering stone that stimulates and protects the lower chakras and facilitates the rise of Kundalini energy.

Benefits of Tiger's Eye

Tiger’s Eye brings many metaphysical benefits to the wearer. It shows the correct use of power and brings out integrity. It also assists in achieving goals, meeting obligations, and strengthening commitment to both people and projects.

Metaphysically

The immense grounding power of Tiger’s Eye makes it a wonderful stone for anchoring changes in the physical body. When you commit to a new health and fitness regime, for example, using Tiger’s Eye helps to reinforce your intention and to consolidate the healthy changes you are making. This stone is believed to help an addictive personality.

Tiger’s Eye brings benefits to your thinking too. It is useful for recognizing your own needs and also those of other people. It helps to differentiate between cerebral wishful thinking about what you want and what you really need.

Mentally

Mentally, Tiger’s Eye enhances practical perception. It brings clarity of perception and self-awareness when used in meditation, especially when you set the intention to uncover the true reasons behind your feelings of dis-ease or unhappiness. It is beneficial for those who tend to be willful or to act from arrogance and pride to the detriment of both themselves and others.

Psychologically

Psychologically, Tiger’s Eye heals issues of self-worth and self-criticism. It also addresses blocked creativity. This crystal is aligned with the Sacral chakra and placing a piece of Tiger’s Eye on this chakra, just below the navel, on the top edge of the pubic bone, can shift energetic restrictions and blockages that may be causing you to feel “stuck” in your imaginative or creative life.

Energies

Tiger’s Eye is a stone of duality. It combines Earthly and Heavenly energies and is an excellent choice for balancing the subtle body with the physical. It also has a beneficial effect on the presence of Yin and Yang energies in the body. Tiger’s Eye seeks out disharmony and imbalance and gently addresses any discrepancies in the energies flowing through the meridians so that Yin and Yang energies are evenly matched. 

An excess of Yang energy means that your energy body is dealing with too much “fire”. It is essentially Male in nature, meaning that it is active, dynamic, and forceful. It is associated with hot, dry, and light energies.  An excess of this energy can lead to agitation, anxiety, burnout, and stress. To address this, you need to stimulate the production of Yin energy, which is Female, and associated with dark, moist, cooling energies.

On the other hand, an excess of Yin energy may lead to feelings of lethargy and undue passivity. Use Tiger’s eye to bring in some warmth and light and to encourage action where this is needed.

Image: Yellow Tiger's Eye (left) and Blue Hawk's Eye (right) shown on a polished Pietersite surface - Magical! 

Cleansing and Charging Tiger’s Eye

To cleanse Tiger’s eye of surface debris and dust it can be safely immersed in water. Because of its relative hardness, Tiger’s Eye can also be left in salt water overnight, then rinsed with clear water. This process restores it vitality and original vibration. Place your Tiger’s Eye in direct sunlight after cleansing in this way to prepare it for programming.

To charge or program your Tiger’s Eye sit with it in your hand or on your lap and relax your shoulders, neck, and abdomen. Breathe down into your lower abdomen and, as you exhale, visualize the thoughts for your intention traveling down from your Third eye and Heart into the stone. Keep the intention simple, clear, and positive.

How to Tell if Tiger’s Eye is Real

Tiger’s eye is an affordable stone, meaning that there are few reasons for people to make fakes. However, some jewelers do use fiber optic glass to imitate Tiger’s Eye so it is as well to be familiar with the ways you can spot a fake.

1. Tiger’s Eye has a specific shine: Hold it up to the light and look for the “cat’s eye” effect of a silver luster on its surface. This is known as chatoyancy and is caused by the optical reflection of the convex shape of most specimens. Hold the stone under a bright light and slowly move it back and forth. Observe how the yellow band of color within the stone appears to be moving.  If you cannot see this phenomenon, it is not an authentic Tiger’s Eye crystal.
2. Check the Color Bands: The colors in Tiger’s Eye occur in distinct bands of brown, golden and yellow shades, resembling the furrows in a rock. If you see colors that are more reddish-brown you have probably got Ox Eye, whereas bluish colors indicate Hawk’s Eye.
3. Perform the Glass Test: Tiger’s eye is a form of Quartz, which measures amongst the hardest of stones on the Mohs scale. Glass is significantly softer than quartz, so it should not scratch or mark Tiger’s eye in any way. On the other hand, the Tiger’s Eye should leave marks on the surface of the glass.

Who Should Wear Tiger’s Eye

Tiger’s Eye is especially beneficial for anyone who is spaced out, flighty or has difficulty committing. It grounds spiritual energy into physical reality and is therefore of benefit to those who spend too much time in their head, or who find the reality of day-to-day life overwhelming and challenging. It teaches patience, discipline, and pragmatism.

Those who should avoid wearing Tiger’s Eye are individuals who struggle with wielding their own power in a productive or supportive way. If this sounds familiar to you, try a crystal with a gentler vibration to encourage kindness, empathy, and compassion into your dealings with others.

People who have difficulty sleeping may find the energies of this powerful crystal a little too much and should limit their exposure to it.

Generally speaking, Tiger’s eye will be of benefit to almost everyone, although you may like to consider your ruling planets and whether they clash with the Sun and Mars, the major influences on Tiger’s Eye. Aquarians, Capricorns, Taureans, Librans and Virgos should exercise caution when wearing Tiger’s Eye.

On A Final Note

In summary, Tiger’s Eye is an attractive, affordable, and metaphysically powerful stone that many people would love to have in their crystal collection. If you are unable to wear it as jewelry for extended periods of time, remember that Tiger’s eye is excellent for use in healing and manifestation grids. Its energy is balancing, harmonizing, and amplifying and works well with the vibrations of other forms of Quartz, with Amazonite and Green Aventurine.

Creating handmade jewelry from Tiger's Eye beads is a great way to take advantage of its properties during day to day tasks.