STONES & METALS · LESSON 6 OF 7 · 15 MIN
Quartz & the Crystal Ball
The family of quartz, the ancient idea of crystal as eternal ice, crystal balls from Anglo-Saxon graves to John Dee — and what piezoelectricity does and doesn't mean.
Quartz is one of the commonest minerals on Earth — silicon dioxide, grown into six-sided crystals with a point. It is also the most important stone in the magician's cabinet: the crystal ball, the scrying stone, and the family that gives us amethyst, citrine, agate and flint.