Pyrite, “Fool’s Gold
Pyrite is most noted for its nickname, “Fool’s Gold,” the glittering rock notoriously mistaken by naïve prospectors as real gold. It was also used by dishonest mine owners to salt their mines for the purpose of convincing people they were still gold-producers. Although similar in hue, Pyrite is lighter in color than Gold, and is harder and more brittle. It can’t be scratched with a fingernail or knife. Pyrite is also referred to as Iron Pyrite, and in Germany, “Cat’s Gold.”
An iron sulfide mineral, Pyrite is commonly found around the world in a variety of geological formations, from sedimentary deposits to hydrothermal veins, and as a constituent of metamorphic rocks. It forms in masses, stalactites, grains, globes, striated cubes or twelve-sided pentagonal dodecahedral crystals. Before the 1800’s, it was favored as a decorative stone, carved into rosettes, shoe buckles, rings, snuff boxes and other ornaments, and was extremely popular in England during the Victorian Age for its use in jewelry. Pyrite’s biggest use occurred during World War II when it was mined as a source of Sulfur for producing sulfuric acid used in industry.
Pyrite is particularly stimulating to the Third, or Solar Plexus Chakra, the energy distribution center and the chakra of relationships.
The Incas of Peru as well as the Aztecs of southern Mexico were known in antiquity to polish large slabs and rare sizable crystals of Pyrite into mirrors for gazing and scrying.
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