Jet Stone
When I am exploring active energetic spaces, I always carry a piece of jet with me. I have one piece that has been my companion for about 12 or 13 years.
When I first discovered it at a local rock shop, I was immediate drawn to it. I loved it's texture and how it was so incredibly light in weight. It had a lovely energy that I immediately connected with. When I went home, I did some research on this stone, and found that it was known as the "Witches protection stone", which sounded perfect to me! When I first started doing healing work in my practice, my jet was always in my pocket. And the first time I did a house clearing exploration, I knew it was the stone to accompany me and give me some sort of grounding in the earthly plane.
Jet is a type of lignite. Regular lignite is often called "brown coal" and is a stone that was formed from compressed peat. Ignite is a combustible stone, meaning it can burn and is sometimes used in a way that coal might be. Lignite is said to be potentially toxic to burn, due to the possibility that it contains heavy metals and natural radioactive materials.
What is interesting about Jet is that while it is a type of lignite, it is actually derived from wood that has changed due to extreme pressure that it was under.....for millions of years from the compression of carbon and salt water (although soft jet is from Carbon and fresh water). It is usually from trees in the Araucariaceae family, which are an ancient family of trees dating back to the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
Jet is also known to sometimes emit an electrical charge when rubbed. When Jet is placed in a flame, it will burn like coal and emit soot.
Jet is said to be extremely protective and grounding with strong Earth energy - which makes sense given how it is formed. I found it fascinating when I learned that it came from trees, which explained the energetics of it which never felt quite like other black stones to me. Jet is said to help with pain. It is also said to help with meditation work and releasing old patterns, and can be combined with other stones (Jet loves to play with Moldavite).
This is a stone that I feel was placed in my path for a specific purpose and it has always served me well.
If shopping for jet, make sure you are purchasing from a reputable source, such as a local rock shop where you can actually go and chat with the people there, so that you know what you are getting is really jet.