Pyrite Cluster (Fool's Gold, Raw)

Sinderella's note

Pyrite is fool's gold, my child — sharp metallic cubes growing out of black rock, looks like a treasure chest in your hand. Folk practice puts it on the desk where you handle money. Sinderella keeps a small cluster in the drawer of the folding table next to the cash. Doesn't *make* money. Reminds you to be sharp about it.

The long version

Pyrite (iron sulfide, *fool's gold*) grows in striking metallic-gold cubic crystals — sometimes in clean cube shapes, sometimes in clustered specimens of jagged crystals fused to a base rock. It is the classic folk-magic *money stone* — placed on a desk, in a register drawer, in a wallet, or near a place where money changes hands. The folk practice does not claim it *creates* money. It claims it sharpens your *attention to* money — your willingness to ask for it, count it, value it, not give it away too easily. (Old Sicilian woman version: *it puts iron in your spine when somebody tries to short you.*) Sinderella keeps a small cluster in the drawer of the folding table, next to the cash she takes for readings. Pair pyrite with a green candle (folk Catholic prosperity) or with citrine (the sun money stone). Care: pyrite tarnishes if exposed to humidity for long stretches. Keep it dry and away from steamy bathrooms. Wipe with a dry soft cloth. The 'small cluster' size — about palm-sized — is the practical desk specimen. Avoid the jewelry-grade polished pieces; you want the rough, the raw, the ugly-pretty. Saint Joseph (the worker, the household provider) for the man who taught his son a trade. Saint Anthony for the wallet you swore you put in the *other* coat.