Crystal · Struck spark
Pyrite
Also called fool's gold
- Chakra
- Solar plexus
- Element
- Fire
- Planet
- Mars
- Tarot
- King of Wands
Crystal correspondences are traditional; the descriptions are original to this site.
What Pyrite means
Iron and sulphur make pyrite, and its brassy shine fooled prospectors often enough to earn it the name fool's gold. Long before matches existed, people struck it against flint to throw the spark that lit a fire.
Emotional properties
Natural pyrite cubes come out of the rock at Navajún, in Spain, with faces so flat and square that people assume a machine cut them. Hold one when you need to ask for something outright, a raise or a straight answer, instead of softening the request into a hint. Pyrite has never once rounded off a corner to be liked.
Spiritual properties
Museum curators keep pyritised fossils in dry cases, because the same shine that lasts centuries in a dry drawer can crumble to dust in a damp one. Ambition needs its own dry drawer, a few people who take it seriously and some hours kept free of other people's urgencies. Mars rules pyrite, and Mars spends its fire fast; guard the conditions that feed yours.
Physical properties
Fine grooves score the faces of many pyrite cubes, set at right angles from one face to the next, so each side feels different under the thumb. Close a fist around one in the minute before a burst of effort, then pocket it before you move. Its edges can nick a careless thumb, so keep the grip firm but brief.
Care and cleansing
Pyrite oxidises in damp air and can slowly decay, crumbling or dulling if kept humid, so keep it dry and skip water; keep it out of elixirs and wash your hands after handling it. Incense smoke is the cleanse for it, and a short spell of direct sun the charge, otherwise it lives in a sealed box with silica gel.
A question to sit with
Whose permission are you still waiting for before you ask for what you want?
Stones that share a chakra
- Rutilated quartzLight-caught golden threads
- SunstoneSparks under the skin
- Tiger's eyeGolden vigilance
- TopazSunlit honesty
- AmberFossil warmth
- AmetrineTwo minds joined
- CitrineStored sunlight
- HaliteSalt's slow surrender