In divination, an anachitis, or anancitis, meaning "stone of necessity" is a stone used to call up spirits from water. It was described as a type of diamond by Martin Ruland the Elder.
The stone was used in classical antiquity by the Magi, being described by Pliny the Elder as one of their "dreadful lies". Its use had fallen out of favour by the Middle Ages.
References
- ^ Rulandus, Martin the Elder (1612). A Lexicon of Alchemy or Alchemical Dictionary. Frankfurt.
- Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius (1993) . 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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