Hematite Ring

A solid, weighted band with a mirror-dark polish — the kind of ring you feel on your hand all day. Ours run mostly domed, with some flatter profiles in the mix, all carrying the cool metallic shine that gives hematite its name. It is the ring people buy to keep something grounding on them through an ordinary day.

What Makes This Piece

• Solid magnetic hematite band with a mirror-polished finish
• Mostly domed profile — some flatter pieces in the mix, as batches vary
• Ten sizes, 4 through 13
• Runs a smidge small — we suggest going up a size, especially if you are normally a half size. ~Vero
• Magnetic — and we will tell you exactly why, below

About the Magnetism

Straight answer, because we would rather you know than find out later: hematite is not magnetic in nature. Hold a magnet to a natural hematite specimen and nothing happens. Pieces sold as "magnetic hematite" get their pull in manufacture — it is made, not mined. The only stone that is a magnet in nature is lodestone, a naturally magnetized form of magnetite. Plenty of minerals are attracted to a magnet; lodestone is the one that acts as one.

It is still a beautiful, weighted, mirror-dark band. We would just rather be straight with you about where the pull comes from.

In Tradition

Tradition holds that a hematite ring breaks when it has taken a hit for you — that it absorbed or deflected something aimed your way and gave out rather than let it through. Where that story is kept, the practice is to give the ring back to the earth: bury it in a houseplant or out in the ground, and thank it. Many people take a break as a nudge to step back from whatever they were standing in.

We will say the plain thing alongside it: these are slim, hard bands at a small price, and slim hard bands can break. Which story you keep is yours.

As Felt by Vero

Hematite is a tricky one, as his coloring does not match his assigned chakra. He is a Solar Plexus stone and a guardian of trusting your gut instincts.

He is the most important ore of iron. I call him the Crystal form of Iron, and he is a very close relative to the cast iron skillets our fore mothers used. He is mined to be made into iron, and from there into steel. Without him, life as we know it would not be. Can you imagine the industrial revolution without steel?

Luckily he is abundant — so abundant that he is why our neighbor Mars is called the Red Planet. He can be red, reddish brown, black, grey or silver, but his common trait is that in the raw state he leaves a red streak on what geologists call a streak plate. It does not matter what color he is. The streak is always red.

His relationship with us goes back far before steel. He was used as a pigment — the red ochre in the oldest symbolic art we have found — and the earliest securely dated evidence for that pigment use sits at around 164,000 years ago, at Pinnacle Point in South Africa.* His name comes from the Greek word for blood, though he has no relationship to the modern Jasper we call Bloodstone.

Working in the Solar Plexus, the center of our instincts and our will, hematite can create balance where what we know and what we want are in conflict. That balance can ease an anxious mind and bring calm to body, mind and spirit. He is especially useful in relationships, adding stability by finding the middle ground between what is and what is wanted.

Finally, as a stone of the sacred masculine living in the solar plexus, he takes practical action. Add him to your grids and potions when things need to get done — with no nonsense. He will bring powerful action to the table with no fuss.

*Researchers find earliest evidence for modern human behavior in South Africa. Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University / AAAS, 17 October 2007.

• Chakra: Solar Plexus (some traditions place Hematite at the Root)
• Element: Earth, Fire
• Properties: Grounding, protection, balance in self, transformation, practical creation, trusting the gut

A Note on Your Selection

Choose your size at checkout and we will send that size. Finish and profile vary a little piece to piece, as they do with anything polished in batches.

Important Note

This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition. Please enjoy it as a beautiful, meaningful, and symbolic piece.