SG-Crystals,Gems--1st stone: Hematite

cjtarot

Hi all,

I figured we should start looking at stones..one of my favorites is Hematite. I love the look but had no clue how to use it.

According to the book:

Folk Name: Volcano Spit
Energy: Projective
Planet: Saturn
Element: Fire
Powers: Healing, grounding and divination.

"To ancients, hematite was what waht we now know as bloodstone, so , so virtually al magical information relating to "hematite in old books refers to bloodstone. This hematite, though, when worked on a lapidary wheel, "Bleeds" and produces stains that look much like blood or so I'm told .

Magical Use:

Hematite is said to be powerful in drawing illness from the body. As with all stones, it is held in the hands while visualizing, then placed on the skin directly over the afflicted area. A necklase of samll sstones can also be worn for healing.

Hematite is worn for grounding and stabilizing purposes, and to foucs the attention on the physical plane.

A scrying: In a darkened room, light a red candle. Settle before it and hold a large piece of hematite so that the candles flame is reflected on it. Gaze at the reflection and visualize a question. The answer will come to you."

WoW..maybe I should read this book cover to cover..lol when...

The quote is from the book I mentioned when I said I wanted to start the group "Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystals, Gem, and Metal magic" by Scott cunningham.

So what is your feeling on Hemetite and how would or do you use it.

cj
 

Fiona Blackwolf

Hematite is fabulous for grounding. It absorbs negatie energy. I usually use a large peice to meditate on when I am feeling bad and focus on putting my negative energy into the stone.

One caution. I have been told by a reputable stone afficionado that hematite can lower blood pressure, so anyone with low bp to begin with may want to be careful.

Also, much of what is sold as hematitenowadays isnt true hematite. Mostly it is hematine. looks the same but i am not 100% sure on the property differences. If I have gotten any it seems to have worked fine for me.
 

jema

i also like hematites a lot.
like black silver:)

but, i once had one in my coat pocket for a whole winter and found out later that it might have been one of the reasons i was so very sad and slow and moody and tired. it is a very grounding stone and i don't think i will ever wear it for any long periods of time again.

some extra info on lore:
In Egypt it is said it was used to reduce inflammation and treat hysteria.

Use for: Healing, grounding, divination, calming to the emotions, strength and favorable legal judgements

and a reminder to cleanse this stone often since it does pick up a lot of energies.
 

lunalafey

cjtarot said:

"To ancients, hematite was what waht we now know as bloodstone, so , so virtually al magical information relating to "hematite in old books refers to bloodstone.
cj

I have never heard this before, also this statement confuses me. According to the statement we are NOW calling Hematite, bloodstone AGAIN? HUH? I'm sorry.
Here is my 2cents on Hematite. Currently as far as I know the dark silvery stone is being called Hematite. There is another stone that is called Bloodstone, it is an agate type and is a nice emerald color green with specs of bright blood-red.

Fiona Blackwolf: you are right to caution people about the quality of commercial Hematite. True Hematite is very heavy and almost feels like metal. There are beads out there these days that look exactly like hematite, but they are GLASS. There is the Hematine as you mentioned as well as reconstituted Hematite( ground up & pressed back together)
I know about stones from the scientific side and not so much the metaphysical...sorry for not including anything per it's healing properties and magical uses.
 

the hermit

Re: Re: SG-Crystals,Gems--1st stone: Hematite

lunalafey said:


I have never heard this before, also this statement confuses me. According to the statement we are NOW calling Hematite, bloodstone AGAIN? HUH? I'm sorry.
Here is my 2cents on Hematite. Currently as far as I know the dark silvery stone is being called Hematite. There is another stone that is called Bloodstone, it is an agate type and is a nice emerald color green with specs of bright blood-red.
:) Welcome to the wonderful and confusing world of rocks and minerals.
Hematite was sometime called blood stone because it sometimes 'bleeds' when it is polished and leaves a red streak when scratched against a pale surface (a quick way to test to see if your rock IS hematite). Rouge, as in the powder sometimes used to polish rocks, is ground-up hematite and has a reddish hue, hence the name. All of these properties are a result of the red iron ixode in Hematite. The word hematite comes from the greek 'haima' which means blood.

By the way, carnelian is often also called bloodstone because of it's red color.
 

napaea

CJtarot, once again you rock! (lol)
Thanks so much for starting this discussion group!!!
I have been collecting gems/rocks for a while now, not really knowing what all of them are or why i have chosen them.
I just bought a hematite (i hope!! now i'm not so sure it's the real thing) about 3 weeks ago. good timing for this discussion. i haven't really used it at all, just cleansed it, so i'll be excited to read more about everyone's ideas.

thanks BlackWolf, for your info on Blood Pressure. I do tend to be low, so that was a helpful piece for me!! :)
 

the hermit

a little more hematite geological info

Hematite comes in lots of forms. It's one of the most common 'rocks' on earth because it is an iron ore. It can be black, gray, brown, red. It isn't magnetic, but will become so if heated to a high enough temperature. I've found that many rocks sold as hematite are actually magnatite, which won't leave the red streak and IS magnetic.

Most of hematite's shapes are brittle and/or scaley, but two forms are quite interesting and are collected more often for their metaphysical qualities.
They are, respectively, 'iron roses' from the Alps (who's form is almost identical to the 'desert rose' because the crystals form into petal and flower shapes) and 'kidney ore' from Cumberland, England who's shape is the familiar lumpy, rounded, kidney shaped stone seen in some shops. The latter is most often the beginning form of many of the polished hematite rocks sold.

None of the U.S. deposits of this plentiful mineral are as spectacular as the 2 mentioned above.

And again, if you aren't sure it's real hematite, it will leave a red streak (no matter what color the rock itself) if you scrape it. If you don't have anything else, try the patio concrete. Just be gentle so you don't scratch the rock too badly.
 

the hermit

more hematite folklore both magickal and medical

Fiona Blackwolf points out that hematite is believed by some to lower blood pressure. In fact, in 1609 Anselmus De Boot, court physician to Rudolph II of Germany, writes “… we have proof of this power in the carnelian, the hematite, and in the jasper, all of which when applied, check hemorrhage…” (all of these were at one time or another referred to as bloodstones).

Jema mentions the use of hematite by ancient Egyptians for hysteria and inflammations. Another very common use that they put many stones and minerals to was amulets, with certain stones being used for a specific amulet or amulets. Hematite amulets were apparently most often of the ‘heart’ type, called an ‘ab’, and are found in museum collections in numbers that are only surpassed by the carnelian hearts. In Egyptian lore, the heart was not only responsible for blood flow, it was also believed to be the seat of the soul. The symbolic representation of the heart was the ‘scarab’ and many hematite scarabs have been found in the various tombs of Egypt.

The virtues of hematite are also sung by Mithridates the Great, King of Pontus about 70-60 b.c. as written in a gem-treatise for him by Azchalias of Babylon. Azchalias taught that human destinies were influenced by certain precious stones and asserted that hematite, when used as a talisman, would bring favorable hearings before kings and in lawsuits and judgments.

As an iron ore, it was associated by the romans with Mars, the god of war, and was considered invaluable to a warrior in battle and as with the lodestone, was believed to bring invulnerability when rubbed over the whole body (but if you miss a spot…).

The Pueblo tribes of the southwestern u.s. also used (and still do) hematite. Very often it was/is the base stone for many of the amulets that showed their greatest inlay work, especially with turquoise. ‘Thunderbird’ amulets (one of the ‘sky’ gods) have been found in the abandoned pueblos with the turquoise bird inlayed around a cylinder of hematite, which has an apparent ‘blood of the earth’ symbolism for them.

As cjtarot mentioned, scrying is another long time use of hematite. In both raw form in the past and in polished spherical form more recently—including in Japan, where hand polished spheres of hematite have been used by village shamans for at least 2 or 3 centuries—hematite was used for meditation and divination.

lunalafey mentions Hematine which is not a mineral that I’ve ever heard of (geology is my college field of study), but I have seen this so called ‘rock’ in shops. On examination and after questioning several shop owners I believe that this is often what lunalafey refers to as ‘reconstituted’ hematite. The ones I looked at streaked red as hematite should.

‘Reconstitution’ is a controversial gem process only when the buyer is not made aware that is what the stone is and what it means. This process is most often seen with turquoise, where leftover or normally discarded (because of flaws or small size of bits) turquoise bits (or other mineral) are crushed and then basically heated and glued together to form a stone. There is nothing wrong if the buyer understands. This often allows the purchase of a very nice looking turquoise ‘stone’ or piece at a much lower price. I personally have a turquoise bear that is carved from reconstituted stone. If it had been made from a single ‘true’ turquoise rock, it would have cost a fortune. For me, it was the magick of the carver that I wanted. I would have bought it if it had been sandstone. But I was able to by a beautiful turquoise standing bear (as opposed to a ‘fetish’ bear which is normally walking on all fours) carved by a Zuni artisan at a reasonable price for me.

Whether reconstitution effects the magick properties of a stone is for each to judge.

One last word… you will sometimes see ‘haematite’ in some older European field guides, gem stone and gem lore books. Same mineral, just spelled more closely to the Greek root word.
 

catlin

Thanks, hermite, for all this precious information.

I just want to add that ppl should avoid wearing haematite when an inflammation is at hand as it will increase it. I usually put a haematite in my amulette bags for protection and to absorb negativity. All my ritual jewellry is made of haematite.

You can use haematite chips to cleanse your gems and jewellry but do not forget to charge the jewellry in a bowl of rock /clear quartz afterwards.
 

cjtarot

so where do we find good stones

The Hermit,

"They are, respectively, 'iron roses' from the Alps (who's form is almost identical to the 'desert rose' because the crystals form into petal and flower shapes) "

This stone sounds lovely...do you have a source that you can recommend for "the real deal"?

OH,

Thank you everyone for making this such fun and informative

Cj