Stones of Sun

11 stones.

Amber Transparent to cloudy honey-yellow through orange to deep red-brown, often with insects, bark or bubbles caught inside; rare green and blue forms exist. Amber is not stone. It is the resin of pine forests that stood tens of millions of years ago, hardened and washed out of the Baltic. Pliny knew this and said so, against the poets who called it the tears of Phaethon's sisters. It has been worn as a protective amulet longer than almost any other material, and Pliny reports it hung on infants for that reason. Warm a piece of amber in your closed hand until it is blood temperature. Say the name of somebody you have lost. Put it in your pocket.
Calcite Transparent to opaque in almost any colour: glass-clear as Iceland spar, and commonly honey yellow, orange, green, pale blue, pink or chalky white. Clear pieces show every line beneath them doubled. Calcite is the commonest carbonate on earth: limestone, marble, chalk, shell and stalactite are all this one mineral. It has little old lore, because it was never rare. What practice it has is modern and follows colour — yellow and orange to the Sun, green to Venus, blue to the Moon and the voice. Clear Iceland spar doubles anything seen through it, which Bartholin described in 1669. Wipe the dust off your calcite with a dry cloth. Name one thing in the house you have been meaning to throw out, and throw it out now.
Citrine Transparent pale lemon through golden to a smoky madeira brown; most stones on sale are heat-treated amethyst and carry a faint reddish cast. Citrine is the tradition's stone of the open hand. It belongs to the Sun and, in later folk practice, to trade: dealers called it the merchant's stone and kept it in the till rather than wearing it. The lapidary line groups it with the yellow stones held to lift a heavy mood and steady anyone who has to ask other people for money. Put a citrine where you keep your money. Handle it once, name aloud one thing you intend to earn, and leave it there.
Diamond Transparent and colourless at its finest, but also yellow, brown, grey and rarely pink, blue or green; the lustre is unlike any other stone, hard and oily-bright, throwing sharp flashes of spectral colour when it is cut. Adamas means unconquerable, and that is its whole old meaning. Pliny reports that it defeats the hammer and the anvil, and repeats the story that only goat's blood will break it. The lapidaries gave it invulnerability rather than romance: proof against poison and fear. Western tables put it under the Sun, Indian astrology under Venus. Its link with betrothal is modern, built largely by De Beers advertising from 1947. Put the diamond on. Name one decision you will not reverse, out loud, once. Take it off only when the decision has been carried out.
Heliodor Transparent pale greenish-yellow to warm gold, usually very clean, and often found in long six-sided prisms. Heliodor is golden beryl, named in 1910 from the Greek for gift of the Sun. The name is new but the family is not: beryl was the scrying stone of the medieval lapidaries, gazed into for what the eye could not otherwise reach. Heliodor keeps that use and turns it outward, and is held for study, for long reading, and for staying awake to a hard thing. Set heliodor beside your work. Read one page you have been putting off, aloud and slowly. Then put the stone away until the next page.
Peridot Transparent olive to bottle green, always green and never any other colour, with an oily lustre; large stones show facet edges doubled when you look through them Pliny's topazos, mined at first light on an island in the Red Sea, is our peridot, and the medieval lapidaries called the same stone chrysolite, so the name has moved twice. Marbode of Rennes writes that set in gold it drives off the terrors of the night. It comes out of volcanoes and meteorites, and the tradition keeps it for what grows back. Wear it or hold it, and name one thing that is already recovering. Not a hope, but something you can point to. Say it out loud once.
Pyrite Opaque brassy metallic yellow, often in sharp cubes or flat radiating discs; tarnishes with age to a dull brown iridescence. Pyrite grows in cubes so square they look cut. Its name is Greek for fire-stone: struck against steel it throws sparks, and both Theophrastus and Pliny record it doing exactly that. That is the whole of its tradition, a stone holding fire in a cold form. It is kept for nerve rather than for luck, and its likeness to gold earned it the name fool's gold. Set the pyrite where the light catches it. Name the task you have been circling for weeks. Do the first five minutes of it now.
Sunstone Translucent to opaque orange, honey or red-brown, flecked with metallic copper-coloured platelets that flash as it turns; Oregon material can be clear red or green. Sunstone is feldspar shot through with tiny plates of copper or iron, so that when it turns the light inside it flashes. The tradition takes that literally and holds it a stone of warmth put back into a person, given to those who have made themselves small. Where citrine is for asking, sunstone is for being seen while you ask. Hold the sunstone at a window and turn it until the flash comes. Say one thing you are good at, out loud, and go.
Tiger's Eye Opaque golden brown in bands of light and dark, with a silky sheen that slides across the face as it turns; the blue form is hawk's eye and heated material goes red. Tiger's eye is quartz that grew through blue asbestos fibres, so a band of light travels across it as it turns. The tradition gives it to the Sun in a guarded mood: a stone for watching without being watched. Its own lore is young, because the material was only worked from the nineteenth century, and it stands in for the older eye-agates worn against the evil eye. Turn the tiger's eye until the band of light crosses it. Ask yourself one plain question about a decision you are avoiding. Answer it.
Topaz Transparent and glassy: colourless, pale blue, sherry-yellow, gold, and rare pink; the golden-orange imperial topaz is the most prized. Topaz is the hardest stone in this group and the tradition treats it as the Sun's cold side: judgement rather than warmth. Medieval lapidaries hold it to quiet anger and make the wearer plain-spoken. Pliny's topazos is a different stone, a green one from an island in the Red Sea and almost certainly peridot, so the name has moved across the centuries. Hold topaz up to the light and look through it. Say the fairest true sentence you can manage about a person who has wronged you.
Zircon Transparent and brilliant with strong fire: colourless, honey, golden brown, red, and a heat-treated blue; the back facets visibly double when you look through it. Zircon is the oldest thing a person can hold. Crystals from Western Australia have been dated past four billion years, older than any surviving rock. Under the name jacinth it runs all through the medieval lapidaries, where Marbode writes that it brings sleep and keeps a traveller safe and welcome in a strange house. It is a stone for arriving somewhere you do not know. Put zircon in the bag you are travelling with. Before you leave, say aloud where you are going and when you mean to be back.