Brassy metallic cubes that grow as though cut. Fool's gold, and not fooling anyone.
The aesthetic
Pyrite is an iron sulphide with a pale brassy metallic lustre, and it is remarkable for growing in crystals so geometric they look machined: perfect cubes, twelve-sided pyritohedra, and in Spanish material, cubes intergrown at right angles. It is harder and paler than gold and brittle where gold is soft, which is how the two were always told apart by anyone paying attention.
The dynamic
Pyrite is associated with abundance, drive and protection, and is the stone kept for prosperity more often on account of looking the part than any other reason.
Some variations
- pyrite cubes
- pyrite suns
- pyrite on matrix
- framboidal pyrite
- marcasite