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sunshine_challenge prompt, neither stone is something that I know much about, so expect even more wandering afield than usual, and neither is a Steven Universe character, either. It also seems prudent to state up front that a lot of what I'll be talking about is from the perspective of a nonpractitioner with a lay scholarly interest. So I might screw something up, and if I do, let me know, please.
The bonus gem is hematite, which drives its name from being the color of blood (that's the name, "blood-stone") and being an iron oxide (which gives you additional blood associations.) Doing a quick wiki dive about both stones, it turns out that they sit well on a spectrum on ends far away from each other. Kyanite's use in our world is as a stone that resists high heat, is electrically resistive, and is selectively hard (there's an alignment of its crystalline structure such that you can scratch it with a steel needle if you draw the needle parallel to the alignment, and you can't if you draw the needle perpendicular), and so is extremely useful in the production of ceramics, which need high heat to come into existence. Hematite, on the other hand, doesn't do so great in very high heat, is electrically conductive, and a lot less tough on principle. Primarily, hematite-infused clay (as ochre) is useful for pigmenting things red.
And if you went looking for hematite's primary magical application as a gemstone, you'll find all sorts of things, of course, but many of the results are about balancing energies in the body and as I've seen on at least one search engine result, passion and handling blood-related issues. Which is conveniently cherry-picked to help my narrative point, of course. If I do it right, you won't notice at all that I'm helping to frame and guide how you think and feel about these things.
( Dualism in many of its forms. Contains religion, philosophy, A:tLA and LoK, and a little Steven Universe )
Yeah, that one went places, didn't it? And that's without really leaning into exploring man-woman dualism at all, either through the philosophical, religious, or Avatar and Steven Universe lenses.
sunshine_challenge prompt, neither stone is something that I know much about, so expect even more wandering afield than usual, and neither is a Steven Universe character, either. It also seems prudent to state up front that a lot of what I'll be talking about is from the perspective of a nonpractitioner with a lay scholarly interest. So I might screw something up, and if I do, let me know, please.Kyanite typically ranges from light to dark blue (which gives it its name, from the Greek kyanos) and usually appears in sprays of bladed crystals. It is usually associated with calming, grounding energy, and sometimes linked to clarity and logic as well. It's a lesser-known gemstone that you won't often see in jewelry stores, but can be a beautiful, steadying presence among flashier stones.
The bonus gem is hematite, which drives its name from being the color of blood (that's the name, "blood-stone") and being an iron oxide (which gives you additional blood associations.) Doing a quick wiki dive about both stones, it turns out that they sit well on a spectrum on ends far away from each other. Kyanite's use in our world is as a stone that resists high heat, is electrically resistive, and is selectively hard (there's an alignment of its crystalline structure such that you can scratch it with a steel needle if you draw the needle parallel to the alignment, and you can't if you draw the needle perpendicular), and so is extremely useful in the production of ceramics, which need high heat to come into existence. Hematite, on the other hand, doesn't do so great in very high heat, is electrically conductive, and a lot less tough on principle. Primarily, hematite-infused clay (as ochre) is useful for pigmenting things red.
And if you went looking for hematite's primary magical application as a gemstone, you'll find all sorts of things, of course, but many of the results are about balancing energies in the body and as I've seen on at least one search engine result, passion and handling blood-related issues. Which is conveniently cherry-picked to help my narrative point, of course. If I do it right, you won't notice at all that I'm helping to frame and guide how you think and feel about these things.
( Dualism in many of its forms. Contains religion, philosophy, A:tLA and LoK, and a little Steven Universe )
Yeah, that one went places, didn't it? And that's without really leaning into exploring man-woman dualism at all, either through the philosophical, religious, or Avatar and Steven Universe lenses.
