Hematite: Meaning, Properties and How to Use It
Hematite is the stone of coming back into your body. Tradition credits it with grounding a scattered head, with steadiness through overwhelm and with deflecting other people's moods. It is heavy for its size, and practitioners treat that weight in the palm as the whole point.
What tradition says
What is Hematite known for?
The name comes from the Greek for blood, because hematite leaves a red streak when scratched and grinds into red ochre, the pigment of cave painting. Ancient soldiers rubbed it onto their bodies before battle. It is iron ore, the source of most of the world's iron, and the lore reads that literally, as the mineral of the physical world. Writers call it the stone for people who live in their heads.
The practice
How do you use Hematite?
Hold one in each hand, sitting with both feet flat on the floor, and count ten slow breaths when the day has got away from you.
Wear a ring or a bracelet on the non dominant hand for continuous contact.
Keep one in a pocket for crowds, stations and open plan offices.
Read here as a language of symbols. Medical, legal and financial questions belong with a professional.
Two more
What does Hematite pair with?
Stones are kept in small sets rather than alone, and these two are the usual company for this one.
What it is kept for
What do people reach for Hematite for?
The same stone, read through the thing you came here with.
Questions
What else do people ask about Hematite?
Why is my hematite bracelet magnetic?
Because it is almost certainly hematine, a manufactured stand in made from iron oxide powder and a binder. It is sold everywhere and often labelled magnetic hematite, which is a contradiction in terms. It is not dangerous and plenty of people like it. It simply is not the mineral.
Can hematite go in water?
A brief rinse and an immediate dry will not hurt it. Anything longer starts rust, because this is iron, and the mirror polish is the first thing to go. Salt water is worse still. A night in a bowl of earth is the traditional cleanse and it suits the stone better.
Next in the library
The stones beside this one.
Two ways on
One stone is a reminder, a library is a map.
A hundred and four stones and sixty four everyday uses, sorted the way a week arrives. If you came here through the body rather than the mineral, the seven chakras are the other way in.
- 104
- stones, each with what tradition says
- 64
- everyday uses, six stones under each
- 7
- centres, the same set read through the body