94 g Tiger Iron Eye Skull – Ogun – 5.1 x 3.9 x 3.3 cm Skull- 94 g
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Description from the seller
In Yoruba West African mythology, Ogun is among the oldest and most revered Orishas — his epithet “Osin Imole” roughly means “First of the primal deities.” When the gods once descended to Earth, an impenetrable primeval forest blocked their path. Tools made of wood, stone, and soft metal failed in succession, until Ogun stepped forth with an iron blade and, in the blink of an eye, carved a path through the thicket. The other deities, astonished by this hard, gleaming metal, allowed themselves to be schooled in his craft. Since then Ogun has been known as Lord of the Forge, of War, and of all who work with fire and iron — a god who creates as well as destroys.
A material could hardly fit better: Tiger Iron is not a single mineral but a metamorphic rock composed of three intertwined layers — golden-brown tiger’s eye, dark, almost black hematite, and occasional reddish jasper. This striped pattern formed about 2 to 2.5 billion years ago at the seafloor of ancient oceans, when dissolved iron in the water met the first traces of oxygen released by photosynthetically active microorganisms, and layer after layer settled on the seabed. The most significant deposits lie to this day in the Hamersley Basin in western Australia.
This specimen shows the material’s range in extraordinary depth: along the middle honey-colored bands, a lively, almost playful gleam of light travels as the piece is moved. On the darker, hematite-rich areas at the sides near the back of the skull, a completely different image appears — when the skull is rotated, a light circle from the back of the head toward the center closes in. Under the rather caramel-colored area, with a steeper viewing angle, the continuation of the middle banding becomes visible. The cause in all cases is the same: once fibrous crocidolite crystals, during rock formation completely replaced by quartz, yet their parallel fibrous structure remained. Because the orientation of these fibers changes from zone to zone, light breaks differently at every point. Another, usually overlooked difference lies in the weight itself: since hematite is noticeably denser than tiger’s eye or jasper, the darker portions of this skull actually carry more mass than the lighter ones.
A skull that bears the double nature of its namesake inside it — light and dark, tool and weapon, united in a single piece of bedrock.
Mineral / Trade name: Tiger Iron Eye (Tiger’s Eye, Hematite, and Jasper)
Origin: Australia
Dimensions: 5.1 × 3.9 × 3.3 cm
Weight: 94 g
Special features: Exceptionally pronounced, multi-zone chatoyance effect — shifting light gleam across the middle band, circular light movement on the darker hematite-rich areas, angle-dependent continuation of the stripes in the caramel-colored region
Seller's Story
Ich lasse mich immer wieder von der Schönheit der Natur überraschen und berühren. Mineralien und Edelsteine empfinde ich als Verkörperung jener Perfektion und Harmonie, die allem Sein zugrunde liegt. In ihnen verdichtet sich die Essenz der Erde – kristallisiert für die Ewigkeit und doch in jedem Stück einzigartig.
Jedes Mineral, das ich anbiete, ist von mir persönlich ausgewählt. Nicht nach bloßem Glanz, sondern nach dem Gefühl von Wahrhaftigkeit, das es in mir hervorruft. So findet nur das seinen Weg in meine Hände – und weiter in Ihre –, was ich selbst als würdig empfinde, in seiner Schönheit weitergereicht zu werden.
In meinem Handeln leiten mich Ehrlichkeit, Sorgfalt und die Freude am Teilen dieser Schätze. Ich verstehe mich dabei weniger als Händler, sondern vielmehr als Vermittler zwischen der Natur und den Menschen, die bereit sind, ihre Geschenke mit Achtsamkeit anzunehmen.
In Yoruba West African mythology, Ogun is among the oldest and most revered Orishas — his epithet “Osin Imole” roughly means “First of the primal deities.” When the gods once descended to Earth, an impenetrable primeval forest blocked their path. Tools made of wood, stone, and soft metal failed in succession, until Ogun stepped forth with an iron blade and, in the blink of an eye, carved a path through the thicket. The other deities, astonished by this hard, gleaming metal, allowed themselves to be schooled in his craft. Since then Ogun has been known as Lord of the Forge, of War, and of all who work with fire and iron — a god who creates as well as destroys.
A material could hardly fit better: Tiger Iron is not a single mineral but a metamorphic rock composed of three intertwined layers — golden-brown tiger’s eye, dark, almost black hematite, and occasional reddish jasper. This striped pattern formed about 2 to 2.5 billion years ago at the seafloor of ancient oceans, when dissolved iron in the water met the first traces of oxygen released by photosynthetically active microorganisms, and layer after layer settled on the seabed. The most significant deposits lie to this day in the Hamersley Basin in western Australia.
This specimen shows the material’s range in extraordinary depth: along the middle honey-colored bands, a lively, almost playful gleam of light travels as the piece is moved. On the darker, hematite-rich areas at the sides near the back of the skull, a completely different image appears — when the skull is rotated, a light circle from the back of the head toward the center closes in. Under the rather caramel-colored area, with a steeper viewing angle, the continuation of the middle banding becomes visible. The cause in all cases is the same: once fibrous crocidolite crystals, during rock formation completely replaced by quartz, yet their parallel fibrous structure remained. Because the orientation of these fibers changes from zone to zone, light breaks differently at every point. Another, usually overlooked difference lies in the weight itself: since hematite is noticeably denser than tiger’s eye or jasper, the darker portions of this skull actually carry more mass than the lighter ones.
A skull that bears the double nature of its namesake inside it — light and dark, tool and weapon, united in a single piece of bedrock.
Mineral / Trade name: Tiger Iron Eye (Tiger’s Eye, Hematite, and Jasper)
Origin: Australia
Dimensions: 5.1 × 3.9 × 3.3 cm
Weight: 94 g
Special features: Exceptionally pronounced, multi-zone chatoyance effect — shifting light gleam across the middle band, circular light movement on the darker hematite-rich areas, angle-dependent continuation of the stripes in the caramel-colored region
Seller's Story
Ich lasse mich immer wieder von der Schönheit der Natur überraschen und berühren. Mineralien und Edelsteine empfinde ich als Verkörperung jener Perfektion und Harmonie, die allem Sein zugrunde liegt. In ihnen verdichtet sich die Essenz der Erde – kristallisiert für die Ewigkeit und doch in jedem Stück einzigartig.
Jedes Mineral, das ich anbiete, ist von mir persönlich ausgewählt. Nicht nach bloßem Glanz, sondern nach dem Gefühl von Wahrhaftigkeit, das es in mir hervorruft. So findet nur das seinen Weg in meine Hände – und weiter in Ihre –, was ich selbst als würdig empfinde, in seiner Schönheit weitergereicht zu werden.
In meinem Handeln leiten mich Ehrlichkeit, Sorgfalt und die Freude am Teilen dieser Schätze. Ich verstehe mich dabei weniger als Händler, sondern vielmehr als Vermittler zwischen der Natur und den Menschen, die bereit sind, ihre Geschenke mit Achtsamkeit anzunehmen.
Details
Main mineral
94 g Tiger Iron Eye Skull – Ogun – 5.1 x 3.9 x 3.3 cm
Mineral form
Skull
Weight
94 g
Country of origin
Australia
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