Description
Pyrite dragon carving, sitting upright on a round base with the crest raised in two wide fans and the wings folded down the back. 8cm tall, 200g.
The pyrite runs as bright metallic gold through a grey green host rock, so the finish is matte and granular rather than polished, with the gold catching in points across the crest, the shoulders and the base as the light moves. It reads quite different from a solid polished carving and it is worth saying so plainly.
About this pyrite dragon carving
This pyrite dragon carving was photographed on its own and the piece in the photograph is the piece that arrives.
The distribution of pyrite through the stone is different in every piece, so where the gold catches and how densely it sits is particular to this one.
Nothing is swapped for something similar. The base is flat and wide and stands unaided, and at 200g the piece has real heft for its size, which is the iron in it.
What a pyrite dragon means
The gold dragon of the traditional colour readings carries life force, sovereignty and prosperity, and above all the guarding of what has already been built. That is the hoard in the old stories, and read symbolically the hoard is not money. It is what you have made and intend to keep.
Pyrite lands squarely on that. It is worked with for drive, confidence and follow through, the stone reached for when the intention is doing rather than reflecting. Traditional practice puts it at the solar plexus, with will and self trust.
So the pyrite dragon carving is the working one of the five. A desk, a studio, a till, a workshop, the place where the thing actually gets made. On an altar it suits abundance intentions and anything to do with holding your own ground in work.
There is a quieter reading in it too. Dragons guard what they have without apology, and a lot of people find that the harder half of prosperity work.
A pyrite dragon carving also sits comfortably in a shared workspace rather than on a private altar, since it reads as ambition and steadiness rather than as anything obviously ritual.
Correspondences are traditional and are offered as part of a practice, not as a substitute for medical or professional advice.
Caring for your pyrite dragon carving
Pyrite is iron sulphide, and this is the one stone in the shop where the care advice really matters.
Keep it dry. Pyrite oxidises in damp air and can develop rust coloured spotting or a dull grey film that cannot be reversed. A bathroom, a kitchen windowsill or a conservatory in winter will all do it over time.
Never cleanse it in water and never in salt. Salt accelerates the corrosion badly. Sound, breath or a dry moonlit sill are the methods for this piece.
A dry soft brush lifts dust out of the textured surface. No cloth polishing, since the matte granular finish will not take it.
Pyrite sits around 6 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale but the host rock is softer, so handle by the base.
If the piece does dull over time that is oxidation rather than dust, and there is no safe way to polish it back, so prevention is really the whole of the care here.
Wash your hands after handling, which is ordinary sensible practice with any sulphide mineral.
What you receive
The pyrite dragon carving shown in the photographs. Wrapped and posted by Royal Mail Tracked.
See the rest of the crystal carvings, or everything currently in stock in pyrite.
For the dragon in older material culture, the British Museum China collection holds jade and ceramic dragons going back to the Zhou dynasty.
