Amethyst is quartz in its purple form, and its name comes from the Greek for a stone against drunkenness. Here it shares the ground with hematite, the iron oxide that lends these crystals their red sparks and their darker cast. Collectors call such pieces alien for how strange they look, and prize the deepest color most.
This one is from Hyderabad, India. What holds the eye is how it grew: a whole surface of small, sharp terminations packed edge to edge, the pale seams between them running like a map, and then, at the margin, a few great crystals breaking through, matte and dusted, as if the stone had paused and gathered itself.
In old lore amethyst was a stone of clear thought and calm, long said to guard against excess and to quiet a restless mind. In crystal traditions it is kept close for protection and for peaceful sleep, a violet watch kept through the dark.
