The Meaning Of Pyrite
Pyrite has a bright metallic luster. Because of its gold color and metallic luster, it’s often mistaken for gold, which is how it earned the nickname of “Fool’s Gold.”
The name Pyrite comes from the Greek word pyr, which means fire. This is because Pyrite creates sparks when it’s struck forcefully by iron.
The richest Pyrite deposits are found in Peru, Spain, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Norway, Russia, Greece, Sweden, and the Czech Republic.
The Properties Of Pyrite
Physical Properties
Pyrite is a brass-yellow mineral and is the most common sulfide mineral.
It occurs in high and low temperatures and forms in small quantities. It also has a high specific gravity.
It’s harder than other yellow-colored metallic minerals, and its black streak is usually tinged with green.
When Pyrite forms, it’s often in the shape of octahedrons, cubes, or pyritohedrons, which usually have striated faces. It also forms as flat, and radial disks called dollars or suns.
Pyrite’s chemical classification is sulfide. It is mostly found in gold/yellow colors, sometimes with brown or black streaks.
It measures 6 – 6.5 on the Mohs hardness scale, has an isometric crystal system and a chemical composition of iron sulfide FeS2.
Metaphysical Properties
Pyrite encourages new ways of thinking and looking at the world. If you continue to do the same things, you will get the same results, so if you want to achieve different outcomes, Pyrite will help you change your thoughts and behavior.
Pyrite is a protective stone and will act almost like a personal bodyguard, deflecting negative energies and keeping your auric field free from negative or harmful vibrations.
It will protect you from energy leaks, and it can help mend auric tears.
Pyrite will enhance your willpower during challenging times, and it will support you in actions and decisions that are necessary for your success and growth.
This stone will make you feel inspired more often. You will remain grounded, even if many things are happening in your life that are draining your energy. That inspiration will feel like you’re striking gold for real at times! If you work in an environment where ideas are crucial, Pyrite can do much to help get your creative juices flowing.
Better still, Pyrite can help you to articulate and communicate these new ideas clearly and concisely. Better yet, they more often than not lead to recognition, acclaim, or financial gains as they come to fruition.
This stone can also help you enhance your powers of persuasion and make you more magnetic to people overall. People will be drawn to you and willing to listen to your ideas and opinions when carrying a piece of Pyrite with you.
Don’t be surprised if people seem somehow far more interested in you and your ideas, be it professional or personal, once Pyrite is part of your life.
What’s even better here is that the added responsibilities that often come hand in hand with bringing exciting new ideas and concepts into the wild won’t weigh you down.
Instead, you’ll feel both excitement and remarkable mental clarity when taking these things forward, and that can only lead to further benefits the further you explore them.
Likewise, this stone can ensure that the more tense moments of life don’t sap your energy altogether, leaving you mentally exhausted.
Pyrite will give you energy and vitality during stressful times.
Pyrite will boost your intelligence, learning, and perception. It will also improve your memory and mental stability.
This stone will also guide you in unlocking your channeling abilities and in developing your psychic development.
Varieties Of Pyrite
Pyrite occurs in a range of varieties, each with slightly different properties. In addition to the generic metaphysical attributes of Iron Pyrites, the variants can help with various issues.
Snakeskin Pyrite
Excellent for anyone undergoing energetic change or for anyone stuck in the past, Snakeskin Pyrite helps you shed your old energy imprints and protects you as you metamorphose into a new you.
Snakeskin Pyrite stimulates beneficial change and brings the necessary motivation and vigor needed to move forward. Keep one in your workspace if you are chasing promotion or looking for new opportunities.
Iridescent Pyrite
This variety of Pyrite is believed to be over 350 million years old. It enhances your metaphysical abilities and provides a protective shield during journeying.
Use it if you find returning to your physical body difficult after shamanic or astral journeys or intense meditation. Iridescent Pyrite is an excellent shield against psychic or emotional vampires.
If you find that certain people exhaust you, try wearing jewelry made from Pyrite near to your heart. It creates an energetic “interface,” which allows you to see what is going on without taking the other person’s issues onboard. It then gently turns the situation back around, so the other person is aware of what they are doing.
Pyrite In Magnesite
This combination is powerful and is excellent for protecting and grounding the physical body, holding the subtle bodies safely attached.
It provides a route back to the body during metaphysical working. Psychologically, this combination boosts feelings of self-worth and confidence. It alleviates fears and anxieties, supports people who are naturally shy or nervous, and helps overcome irritability and intolerance.
Pyrite In Quartz
This powerful combination blasts through entrenched ideas or attitudes that are causing energetic blockages and intransigence. It provides protection from danger or threat, increases vitality, and overcomes fatigue.
It acts to plug holes in the auric field, preventing leakage of energy from the subtle bodies. It is helpful in cases of melancholy and deep despair. Pyrite in Quartz is exceptionally fast-acting as a physical healing stone, bringing emotional causes of dis-ease to the fore very swiftly so that they can be addressed.
Pyrite With Sphalerite
Another powerful combination, this variety of Pyrite, is especially good at removing entrenched emotional responses or mental blockages. It blocks out geopathogens and pollutants at all levels. Pyrite with Sphalerite increases blood supply to the brain, aiding mental clarity and the ability to plan carefully to achieve the best possible outcome from a situation. It can also heighten your intuition and help you see to the heart of the matter, especially where there is a possibility of deception or manipulation.
Using Pyrite
The Benefits Of Using Pyrite
Pyrite, in all its forms, is a good, heavy grounding stone. It can bring you back down to earth if you are prone to over-indulge in flights of fancy.
Pyrite also protects you on all levels, and its associations with both the precious metal gold and the element of fire make it an optimistic stone that can lift your spirits and lighten your mood.
How Best To Use Pyrite
During meditation, position your Pyrite stones on top of white cloth and put a lit candle nearby.
This will energize, inspire, cleanse, and purify you. You can also add a sage stick to remove the negative energies in the space.
If you wish to use this stone to attract money and good luck, meditate with this stone. Focus on yourself and on attracting all the energies that will help you make this intention a reality.
Let the energies of this stone wash over you, and open the door to your energy fields so that the good energies will start flowing in.
Pyrite can also be used as a protective talisman. Jewelry made from Pyrite glitters and shines like gold. Wearing a necklace or pendant containing Pyrite protects your heart from those who seek to hurt you.
You can use Pyrite to protect yourself from harm by carrying a piece around in your pocket or purse. You can place pieces of the stone in a bowl on your desk to keep your motivation high when you are working or use the larger pieces as paperweights.
If you work outdoors, Pyrite is an excellent companion to keep you safe, and if your work involves caring for others, it will prevent energetic cross-contamination.
The Healing Powers Of Pyrite
Emotional Healing Powers
With the connection between physical health, mental health, emotional health, and even spiritual health so high, Pyrite can work wonders at bringing all of these aspects of yourself into harmony.
That means that when your emotional state is at its best, so too is your health and vitality more often than not – and vice versa.
In addition to healing illness and injury as and when it occurs, Pyrite can also help to thwart it before it can overtake you in the first place.
This stone brings clarity of mind and also heightens intuition, so listen to your heart (or gut) when it comes to eating certain foods or avoiding certain areas where disease or illness is likely to occur.
You won’t explain these primal gut feelings when they arise, but trust in them – it’s often Pyrite helping to guide you to your safest and best self.
Physical Healing Powers
Pyrite is believed to have many healing powers. It can promote overall physical wellness and good emotional well-being.
This stone has the power to cleanse the oxygen that circulates in your body, which will enhance the function of the entire cardiovascular system.
It can also purify your body and fight off all kinds of infections. It’s known to be useful with arthritis, bronchitis, and even DNA repair. Pyrite can help speed up the healing process by supporting cell regeneration and bringing powerful new energies into a depleted system.
Pyrite can strengthen the bones, brain, and lungs.
It can be used to help with learning disabilities and cognitive disorders. It can also improve memory.
There are so many Pyrite uses as far as health is concerned that there is simply no reason not to welcome this stone into your life with open arms.
Pyrite And Wealth
Pyrite is an excellent stone to increase prosperity and attract wealth and abundance into your life. This is because Pyrite is also known as a stone of luck.
Pyrite should never be absent from your office or workspace because it’s a great symbol of wealth and good fortune!
Even if it’s known as Fool’s Gold, there is nothing foolish about its wonderful energies.
If you lack physical strength, mental clarity, or motivation, having this stone in the room will infuse you with vigorous and inspired energies.
This stone will positively influence you in your business decisions. It will inspire you to reach for greatness and to get things done.
It will aid the flow of money and increase the amount of abundance in terms of financial opportunities in your life.
This stone will bring revitalizing energy to your workspace, which will help you overcome laziness, procrastination, or lack of discipline.
Without energy and a fit bill of health, your big ideas for making money and seeking financial comfort are no more than pie in the sky.
Yet because there are so many pyrite healing properties backing you up here, you’ll find instead that you have plenty of physical energy to work with.
Likewise, you will be a little more inclined to shrug off ailments and aches that would otherwise slow you down. Indeed, when Pyrite’s energies are very strongly attuned to your own, you’ll find that these issues barely register in your conscious mind at all.
Naturally, this is not to suggest that this stone, or indeed this advice, means you ignore issues that require professional and medical attention.
However, having the energy and means to accomplish the goals we set ourselves is always welcome!
This stone will also teach you how you can make more practical choices and decisions.
Pyrite stone has long been associated with having a clear head and a strong connection to the decisions you make and their longer-term ramifications.
That means that, even as you become more ambitious, you also have some perspective on how your ideas will look six months, one year, even five or ten years from now.
That’s valuable wisdom to have, as far too many people fall foul of get rich quick schemes that only prove damaging in the long run.
Instead, you will have the ideas your company needs to push ahead of the competition, often by venturing into whole new territories or market sectors you’ve not encountered before – just like the prospectors of olden times, seeking their fortune in the hills!
And if your company doesn’t believe in your ideas? The energies of Pyrite inspire your inner entrepreneur, powerfully. Don’t be surprised if you shrug, quit your job, and go into business for yourself instead!
Pyrite is all about fiscal wisdom.
It will show you how to be more mindful of your finances, and it will keep you optimistic about your financial prospects.
Pyrite will help you release negative energies and restricting patterns of behaviors. It will also show you how to attune yourself to the energies of wealth, prosperity, and abundance.
Pyrite For Love And Relationships
Pyrite is a very protective stone. When it comes to love and relationships, Pyrite will protect you from all kinds of negative emotions, thoughts, words, and actions.
It will protect you from people who want to meddle in your relationship, from so-called friends who talk about you behind your back to people who judge you and your relationship.
The energies of Pyrite will help you be the bigger person. It will show you how you can respond with honor and dignity. It will inspire you to turn this kind of negative energy into a positive force.
These metaphysical properties of Pyrite are useful to anyone who cares to embrace them and work wonders in relationships.
It’s all too easy nowadays to neglect our relationships without meaning to, and this is because we are often so busy that these significant concerns fall by the wayside.
There are only so many hours in the day, and we only ever have so much energy to give to what is before us, and sometimes – despite our best efforts – our love lives take a back seat before we realize what has happened.
Yet, through allowing the energies of Pyrite into your life, you’ll find that more practical concerns almost seem to take care of themselves from time to time.
Better still, there will be moments of synchronicity and positive connection between you and your partner that seem to bubble up more and more naturally, all in a lowkey yet healthy way.
It will give your relationship that much-needed boost of relaxation, revitalization, and even restraint.
This stone will help you release your frustrations healthily and positively. It will not allow you to self-destruct or implode.
Pyrite will allow you to talk about your feelings with the person you love so that you can be heard. It will foster honest communication and respectful discourse.
When it comes to Pyrite, it’s always better to talk about issues and conflicts calmly instead of letting your emotions run riot. Pyrite will show you how you can see behind facades and understand what lies beneath your partner’s actions and words. It will help you know what’s real and what’s not.
It will make you more observant about your relationship and how your partner is behaving towards you.
You will pick up on the smallest changes and the smallest nuances. This stone will also teach you how you can use your intellect to achieve emotional well-being.
Sometimes it’s not always the best thing to let your heart rule all the time. Sometimes you will need to use your head, especially when there a lot of people involved.
Your Pyrite crystal will help you to see things clearly, all while remaining as good as gold and letting kindness, rather than cruelty, shape how you move forward with the sometimes uncomfortable truths that you unearth.
In matters of the heart, it’s often challenging to distinguish who is in the wrong or why you feel so deeply hurt and agitated by certain things your partner says and does.
These are often deep-rooted defense mechanisms or old karmic patterns in need of healing, and knowing that is all well and good. Yet, the severity of the emotions that come with these moments of discovery can be intense and overpowering.
Reach for your Pyrite in times like this and let it roll over in one hand while you think – or hold it close as you meditate.
You’ll find that not only do cooler heads prevail, but you’ll be able to clearly see the best path forward and follow it with confidence and conviction.
Pyrite will also infuse you with the spirit of assertiveness and boldness.
There will be occasions when you need to be forceful or aggressive. You don’t need to be so nice and let others win all the time. All is fair in love and war, after all!
Pyrite will guard you against manipulation, criticism, or control by your partner. It will help you change the balance of power so that no one will have the upper hand in your relationship.
It will give you strength, courage, patience, and understanding. All relationships are challenging, but you will be discerning enough to know when a relationship is unjustly so.
With the help of Pyrite, you will be strong and inspired, and you will be loving and affectionate. You will strike a healthy balance with your partner, and you will always be game for anything.
It’s a very empowering stone, and it will always steer you in the direction where you will benefit the most!
Chakras And Pyrite
Pyrite carries a vibration that is especially beneficial for the Solar plexus chakra. This chakra is responsible for holding and governing our feelings of both fear and bliss, and as these two cannot co-exist in the same space, a clear Solar Plexus means that we live in bliss and let go of fear.
This chakra is also the chakra of relationships on an emotional plane. On the physical plane, the Solar Plexus controls the immune and digestive systems. When we are physically balanced in this center, we have the strength to fight off infections, shake off allergies, and get the most nutrition from the things we eat.
Using Pyrite to cleanse, clear, activate, and stimulate the working of this chakra is an excellent way to maintain physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
Pyrite also resonates with the Sacral chakra. This center controls creativity and sensuality. It is also the center of gravity in the body and thus is responsible, along with the Base chakra, for keeping us grounded and connected to the world. Pyrite has a beneficial effect on this chakra and can bring it into harmony with both the Base and the Solar Plexus.
When the Sacral chakra is out of balance or blocked, this manifests for us as feeling dependent on others, fearful of sensuality, repression of feelings, and an inability to experience joy. Use the powerful vibrations of Pyrite to heal, clear, cleanse, and activate your Sacral chakra during metaphysical work.
The Best Crystals To Combine And Use With Pyrite
You can combine Pyrite with several other crystals depending on what you want to achieve or manifest. Its creative energies, accompanied by the energies of Atacamite, will also help you manifest your desires and encourage you to chase your dreams.
Combine Pyrite with Citrine, Jade, or Clear Quartz for a supersized dose of good luck. Each of these stones amplifies the others’ power, so combining them in a grid for meditation or healing is an excellent way to bring your dreams to life.
If you pair it with Amethyst, the birthstone for February, Pyrite will bring order to chaos, serenity to stressful situations, and vitality to tired body, heart, and mind.
Chakra Crystal Combinations
Combine Pyrite with Obsidian or Black Tourmaline for working on the Base chakra and any grounding exercises.
You can use Pyrite alongside Carnelian to balance and harmonize the energies of the Sacral chakra.
Combine Pyrite with Citrine and Yellow Calcite if you want to cleanse and activate a sluggish Solar Plexus chakra.
Other Crystal Combinations
Combine Pyrite with Citrine to increase money and financial abundance in your life.
Jade and Pyrite will attract an abundance of other things to you, such as love, happiness, or peace of mind.
Magnetite and Pyrite is a good combination for working on physical health as this combination purifies the blood and boost immunity.
When you pair Pyrite with Opalite, you create the perfect manifesting conditions. If you are about to give up, try these two crystals together and see how they encourage you to keep pushing for your goal.
Opalite is the stone of personal power and endowment. It helps you see your own worth and value, and Pyrite keeps you on the right track for manifesting your dreams.
Cleansing And Charging Pyrite
Even though Pyrite is a relatively hard crystal, it should not be cleansed in water because of its high iron content. Instead, cleanse your Pyrite in salt by burying it in coarse sea salt for 12 hours, then brushing off any residue.
If you do not want to get any salt on your crystal, place it on a bag of sea salt (use muslin or linen, not plastic) for 24 hours.
Because Pyrite is associated with the lower chakras, it works through the energy we encounter in the physical world. These are the dense earth energies.
You can cleanse and reset the energies of your Pyrite by placing it directly onto the ground. Leave it outside, on the earth, on grass, or even on rock, for about 30 minutes. The crystal will then be returned to its original vibrational state, and you can use it again from a place of neutrality.
How often you cleanse and charge your Pyrite will depend on how often you use it, but all crystals will benefit from cleansing and charging once a month at least.
Pyrite As A Birthstone
Pyrite is the natural birthstone of those born during summer. It is not a traditionally recognized zodiac birthstone, although Leos (July 23 to August 22) may find that they are drawn to its sunny appearance. Pyrite may help Leo to overcome laziness and stubbornness.
Pyrite In Legends And History
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. While one side was usually polished flat, the other was highly convex and frequently carved with unique symbolic markings.
Crystals of Pyrite were considered stones of power and great magic, frequently used by the medicine people of the North American Indians in amulets, for divination, and in the attire and objects used during their healing ceremonies and incantations.
How To Tell If A Pyrite Is Real?
Pyrite is often referred to as Fool’s Gold because it’s a mineral that looks just like gold. But there are some pretty simple ways to tell if a Pyrite stone is real.
For starters, if you found it just sitting right on the ground, then it’s most likely a Pyrite.
You almost never find gold in the ground without digging because it’s very heavy. Over time, gold tends to rest in the lowest place because of its weight.
The best way to tell if Pyrite is real is to examine its shape, structure, and physical properties.
Pyrite is made up of crystals and has sharp edges, while gold has smoother textures and rounder edges.
If you look closely and see that its structure consists of what looks like small and sharp cubes, then what you’re looking at is Pyrite.
Pyrite also smells of sulfur. Gold doesn’t give off such an odor. If you smell any trace of sulfur on the stone that you’re holding, that’s Pyrite right there.
Pyrite is also brittle. It shatters easily when hit.
You can test whether the stone you have is a Pyrite by sticking a pin in it. Gold should just be dented, whereas Pyrite should crumble at the spot where the pin has been stuck.
If you want to know the difference of a real Pyrite from a fake Pyrite, you can also perform a rub test. Rub real gold against white porcelain and it will leave a yellow mark.
Pyrite, in contrast, will leave a mark that is dark green or black in color. You can also do the scratch test with copper.
Copper is softer than Pyrite. Therefore, if you try to scratch a piece of copper with Pyrite, it will leave a mark on the copper as well.
Pyrite glitters when exposed to light. When it is darker, however, Pyrite will not have any shine. Pyrite has sharp edges and its shape is a lot more angular.
All Pyrites have a unique crystalline cubic shape. Their colors can be the same colors with gold, but they will shine differently under shade or sunlight.
Pyrites will also show distinct planes of cleavage. They are not malleable and will crack, shatter, and cleave when struck with an object.
It can be hard to determine a real Pyrite basing only on picture off the internet. But always remember that they should look a little dull and not have a golden color when it’s in the shade.
With enough practice, you’ll be able to tell if a piece of jewelry is made of real Pyrite just by glancing at it.
Final Thoughts On The Power Of Pyrite
Even if it’s called Fool’s Gold, there’s nothing foolish about this stone! Within its dazzling beauty is a stone of concealed fire that can be sparked to life with just a strike.
In exploring precisely what Pyrite is used for, you’ll find that this stone is remarkably versatile, and it is indeed worth its weight in gold to crystal collectors and those perfecting their spiritual growth for this reason.
In affairs of the heart, Pyrite can help you to see through illusions or the lies we tell ourselves to keep love close by, to ensure that we are not on the road to heartbreak in the long run.
Better still, you can use it to help you understand your partner better, and they will understand you – all in deep and stirring ways that sometimes defy verbal explanation.
Furthermore, Pyrite is very useful in enhancing your career progression or expanding your horizons when it comes to going into business for yourself. Be brave, be bold, and seek that fortune!
Diana Houston
Diana Houston is a respected crystal expert and the author of 'A Beginner's Guide to Healing Crystals: Getting Started With Crystal Healing – A Complete Guide.' Her passion for crystals and their healing properties made her a leading authority on the subject.
Diana's expertise and passion for crystals have inspired countless readers and practitioners, and her book has received rave reviews on Amazon. With her clear and insightful guidance, Diana is a trusted guide for anyone seeking to unlock the transformative power of crystals.
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