Hematite
Also Specularite, Kidney ore
Steel-grey to black with a bright metallic shine when polished; earthy and botryoidal masses are a dull red-brown. Whatever the surface colour, it always leaves a red-brown streak, and that is the test.
- Crystal system
- Trigonal
- Hardness
- 5-6 Mohs
- Handling
- This is iron ore, and iron rusts. Do not soak it, do not wear it in the shower, the sea or a swimming pool, and do not make an elixir by immersion, however often it is sold as a water stone. Standing water pits the polish and leaves orange staining that will not come off. Sweat and skin oils mark it too, so wipe it dry after handling. Note also that most cheap magnetic hematite is not hematite at all but a sintered ferrite, and it rusts faster still.
- In water
- No
What it is held to be for
The Greeks named it from haima, blood, because it bleeds: grind it or saw it and the water goes red. Pliny prescribes haematites for the eyes and for bleeding. It is iron ore, the ore Mars is made of, and it was polished into some of the earliest mirrors, so it carries both meanings, the weapon and the true reflection. Modern practice uses it for one thing above all: weight.
Pliny XXXVI, on haematites
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Mars, Saturn
- Element
- Earth
- Signs
- Aries, Scorpio, Capricorn
- Chinese phase
- Metal
- Year animal
- Monkey, Rooster
- Centre
- Root Muladhara
- Sephirah
- Geburah
How it is used
Held in the hand, one in each if you have two, when the mind will not settle. Worn as a ring or a band, or kept by the bed. Not worn in the shower or the sea, because it rusts.
Today
Sit down. Rest one in each palm, hands on your knees, and breathe until you can feel their weight and nothing else.
A longer working
Late evening, when the day has got away from you. Put the stone on the floor and stand with it between your feet. Name aloud everything still unfinished, all of it, however long the list. When you run out, pick the stone up, feel how much heavier it is than paper, and put it on top of the one item you will actually do tomorrow. Leave the rest where they fell. Dry the stone if your hands were damp.
Works with
- Herb
- Nettle
- Incense
- Myrrh