Golden Rutile 7X15mm Smooth Pear

Clear stone, gold needles, cold in the hand.

On a strand, clear quartz looks like water that has been cut and held still. Each faceted bead throws small white sparks, and the drill hole shows as a bright line through the middle. Rutilated quartz is the same clear stone with fine gold needles running through it, some in loose parallel bundles, some crossing at angles. Turn a bead and the needles catch light one at a time. Pick one up and it stays cold in your palm. Glass warms.

Rutilated quartz has been called Venus' Hair Stone, after the fine gold threads suspended in the clear body. That name has traveled with the stone for a long time, and the inclusions are what people talk about first: the same needles a cutter would remove from another gem are the reason this one gets picked up. In crystal tradition, rock crystal is given the title "master healer." It is a folk name, offered here as tradition and nothing more. People have long kept clear quartz close, and the old names stayed attached to it as it passed from hand to hand.

Beliefs about stones are tradition, not advice. Read the full story.