The Wilde AltarA developing queer pagan library
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Crystal cabinet

Pyrite

Pyrite, iron sulfide (FeS2), often called fool's gold.

Fresh pyrite is pale brassy yellow with a metallic shine, often in cubes, pyritohedrons, or flat suns of radial crystals. The streak, if you were testing a scrap you can afford to mark, is greenish black, unlike gold's yellow streak, but do not gouge a good specimen to prove a point. Tarnish, dark films, and a white or yellow powder are signs of decay, not patina to be proud of.

What it actually is

Material identity
Name used herePyrite
Mineral or materialPyrite, iron sulfide (FeS2), often called fool's gold.
HardnessAbout Mohs 6 to 6.5, brittle, and chemically less durable than the number suggests.
How it formsPyrite grows in many settings: hydrothermal veins, sedimentary rocks, and the replacement of fossils, wherever iron and sulfur meet in the right conditions. The cubes are a crystal habit of iron sulfide, not a minted coin.

Trade names and mix-ups

Fool's gold is the miners' joke, and it is still pyrite. Marcasite jewelry in vintage shops is often pyrite; true marcasite is a different, less stable iron sulfide and a poor thing to wear in the damp. Healer's gold usually means pyrite with magnetite, a rock mixture with a sales name; brass, chalcopyrite, and plastic gold cubes all imitate the look.

Care

Keep pyrite dry. Humidity helps it oxidize, and the decay, called pyrite disease in museums, produces sulfuric acid and powdery iron sulfates that can damage the specimen and stain or etch whatever it touches. Do not soak it, do not store it in salt or in a sealed damp box, and do not display it above a shelf of calcite, pearls, or paper you love. If it smells of sulfur or grows a pale crust, isolate it in a dry tray and do not rinse the crust down a sink onto other minerals. Dust with a dry brush only if the piece is stable and not powdery.

Provenance

Pyrite is common, and sulfide minerals sit at the center of acid mine drainage, the acidic runoff that follows when mining exposes them to air and water. A cube on your shelf did not create that runoff, but it is a reason to refuse any seller who tells you to soak it, and a reason to buy the specimen as an object rather than as a wealth charm.

Symbolism

  • a joke about haste
  • keeping a thing dry
  • spark as history
  • checking for decay

Folklore, only where it exists

The name is Greek in origin, from fire, because pyrite will strike a spark against steel, and people really did use it that way. Polished pyrite and pyrite-mosaic mirrors turn up in Andean archaeology, which is a specific material history and not a license to invent an Inca sun rite for a shop cube. Fool's gold is a warning label that became a pet name: it looks like wealth and it is not wealth. Modern money-magnet lists complete the joke without noticing. The Wilde Altar keeps the spark and the mirror as history, keeps the cube dry, and asks you to look once a month for the pale powder that means the sulfide is coming apart. That inspection is the whole working. It is more interesting than pretending a brass-colored mineral can alter a bank account.

Cautions

An original practice

The Dated Cube

  • A dry pyrite specimen
  • A dry tray or dish that is not metal you mind staining
  • A slip of paper and a pen
  • A calendar you already use
  1. 1Set the pyrite in the tray away from sinks, windowsills that sweat, and any bowl of salt or water.
  2. 2Write today's date on the slip and put the slip under the tray, not under a damp glass.
  3. 3Look at the specimen in good light. Note, on the slip, whether you see metallic faces or any white, gray, or yellow powder.
  4. 4Add a monthly reminder on the calendar called pyrite, dry check. The reminder is the ritual.
  5. 5If you ever see fresh powder or smell sulfur, stop handling it, move the tray away from other stones and from paper, and do not wash it.
Fool's gold stays fool's gold, and it stays dry. I will look once a month. A spark in history is not a solvent.

Wash your hands. Leave the tray where condensation will not drip on it. No moonlight bath, no salt, no coin jar full of humidity.

A practical action. Put the monthly check on the calendar now, and if the piece is already crumbling, bag it dry and keep it off your other minerals.

Substitutions

  • A brass paperweight clearly understood as brass, for the habit of a monthly look at something that can tarnish
  • A gold-foil chocolate wrapper smoothed flat and dated, if you want the joke without the sulfide

Beginner questions

  • Can pyrite go in water to charge it? No. Water and humidity help it break down into sulfuric compounds. Keep it dry, and never make an elixir.
  • Is marcasite jewelry the same mineral? Often the jewelry called marcasite is actually pyrite. True marcasite is less stable. Either way, keep it dry and do not soak it.
  • Will fool's gold draw real gold or money to me? No. The nickname is the lesson. Budgets remain arithmetic.
HematiteHematite, iron oxide (Fe2O3).SodaliteSodalite, a sodium aluminum silicate chloride, a feldspathoid.AmazoniteA green variety of microcline feldspar, sometimes intergrown with albite.