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In divination, an anachitis, or anancitis,[1] meaning "stone of necessity"[2] is a stone used to call up spirits from water.[3] It was described as a type of diamond by Martin Ruland the Elder.[1]
The stone was used in classical antiquity by the Magi, being described by Pliny the Elder as one of their "dreadful lies".[4] Its use had fallen out of favour by the Middle Ages.[5]
References
edit- ^ a b Rulandus, Martin the Elder (1612). A Lexicon of Alchemy or Alchemical Dictionary. Frankfurt.
- ^ Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius (1993) [1531]. Tyson, Donald (ed.). Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Freake, James (tr.). Llewellyn Worldwide. p. 42. ISBN 0-87542-832-0.
- ^ Smedley, Edward; Taylor, W. Cooke; Thompson, Henry; Rich, Elihu (1855). Encyclopædia metropolitana; or, System of universal knowledge. London and Glasgow: Richard Griffin. p. 350.
- ^ French, Roger (1994). Ancient Natural History: Histories of Nature. Routledge. p. 227. ISBN 0-415-08880-1.
- ^ Evans, Joan (2004). Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Particularly in England. Kessinger Publishing. p. 31. ISBN 0-7661-8224-X.
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