Hematite.

Hematite is iron oxide, the same chemistry as ordinary rust but compacted into dense crystalline form. Polished pieces show a striking metallic sheen, often almost a black mirror, while the powder is the famous red of natural ochre, used as pigment from the Palaeolithic onward. The name traces to the Greek haima, blood, for the red streak the stone leaves on a porcelain plate.

The mineral has a long industrial life as the principal ore of iron, supplying everything from medieval armour to the modern steel industry. The cosmetics history runs in parallel, with red ochre serving as paint, body decoration, and grave goods across many traditions. The grounding meaning carried in modern crystal practice draws on both threads: hematite is a stone of the body, of weight, of the literal iron in the blood.

In modern crystal practice hematite sits with the root chakra. It is the piece people choose when the day is scattered and the body needs reminding of its own substance. A polished palm stone or tumbled piece in the pocket is the traditional placement. One honest note worth saying: most magnetic hematite jewellery sold under that name is not real hematite but a sintered ferrite ceramic called hematine, which is industrially manufactured to be magnetic. Real hematite is only weakly responsive to a strong magnet. Either material is fine to wear, but they are not the same stone.