Anachitis – Creepy Hollows

What Is Anancithidus?

Anancithidus is a fairly obscure, legendary stone that has a long history and tradition in the Renaissance, especially around the occult and lapidary literature.

Perhaps the oddest thing about it is very little has been said about what the stone looks like. Even other legendary stones or stones with magickal properties had their features outlined. But not here. Very little has been said about appearance and origin.

Camillo Leonardi, Italian Renaissance physician, astronomer and astrologer, wrote that Anancithidus was a necromantic stone. He noted claims about how the stone supposedly could call forth evil spirits and ghosts. It is a fairly brief description. No color or shape is mentioned to imagine it. And no known locale is even alluded to. There’s not even much said about how to use this stone to call forth evil spirits.

Perhaps part of the issue is that Anancithidus is sometimes confused with Anachitis, another legendary stone that is said to summon supernatural beings or divine images. However, as far as the historical record says, it definitely seems like these were two entirely different stones that just happened to have similar names.

The reason why they seem separated is that Leonardi’s work references both Anachites and Anancithidus. So, they don’t seem synonymous at all, as it seems doubtful that Leonardi himself intended that. Though, we can’t rule out the chance Anachites and Anancithidus are descendents of the same family, even if Leonardi recorded them separately.

Anachites appears among the names associated with another magical stone credited with several properties, including obtaining responses from summoned spirits.

Anancithidus, by comparison, receives its own short entry identifying it specifically as a necromantic stone.

So, with no substantial, detailed physical description, it would be pretty much impossible to link Anancithidus with a recognized modern mineral or gemstone. Even if we were to accept that it is in fact Anachites, there is no singular recognized mineral as “Anachites.”

As such, anyone who claims to have identified Anancithidus as quartz, diamond, or something else should be treated with some skepticism unless they have a strong historical reference or source.

Was Anancithidus a Real Stone?

Well, this would depend on what is meant by “real.”

Sadly, we have very little to go on for any established modern mineral known as or called Anancithidus. With such little information, the trail quickly runs cold. It is references in magickal lapidary traditions, but it is still incredibly uncertain what it refers to.

Anachitis: The Mysterious Stone of Ancient Magic

In the modern day, Anachitis is a fairly obscure stone. However, it has a long history in the ancient and medieval world, associated with rich folklore and supernatural powers.

A stone used to conjure spirits from water and trap them until the conjurer is finished with them. The stone has a long history with ancient naturalists and scientists.

Pliny the Elder dismissed the stone and its powers, though it would later be associated as a diamond-like stone under the writings of Martin Ruland the Elder, who explained it would protect one from incubi and succubi. Pliny also describes a stone called “synochitis” that would ensure these water spirits are bound.

Oddly, as time went on, synochitis and anachitis would seemingly be flipped. As Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa writes that synochitis conjures the spirits. However, anachitis would manifest godly images.

Anancitis in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History

Anachitis appears in Book 37 of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History. Pliny records, according to tradition, Anachitis was used in divination. In particular, the divination involved water and was said to cause divine apparitions to appear.

However, the stone is followed by another — Synochitis.

Synochitis was said to have a different yet seemingly complementary power: it could bind or hold the dead after they had been summoned. So, with this pair, at least according to legend, one stone would make the spirits appear and another would bind them,

However, the distinction between these two stones was not consistent across later literature.

Did Pliny Believe Anancitis Had Magical Powers?

Not at all.

Pliny was generally quite skeptical of magickal claims. Even if he recorded countless stories and supernatural legends, he generally maintained distance or didn’t accept them. Pliny’s wording on Anachitis and Synochitis is fairly intense in how he rejects them, going as far to say they are part of the false claims of the Magi, saying all these supposedly magickal stones were actually ordinary, not supernatural or magickal, and worthless for magick.

Anachitis and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa

More than a thousand years after Pliny, Anachitis would appear in Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim’s writing. Agrippa was a German Renaissance polymath and occult writer, and it is no surprise Anachitis would appear in his works, as Agrippa believed natural objects could possess hidden or occult virtues.

In his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Agrippa explains that that Synochitis has the power to summon ghosts, and Anachitis causes images of the gods to appear.

Martin Ruland and the Diamond Called Anachitis

Moving on in history, Anachitis’s meaning took another turn. This time, we can look to the work of German physician Martin Ruland the Elder.

Ruland’s Lexicon Alchemiae has an entry diamond, or adamas. He gave an account of physical observations, medical uses or beliefs, folklore, and, of course, the claimed magick said to rest with the diamond. Ruland records diamonds were wards against incubi and succubi. He also said it would make the one who holds it more courageous.

Was Anachitis a Real Stone?

Officially, we have no known modern mineral species called “Anachitis.”

We are looking at a wide variety of physical descriptions of stones said to possess magickal powers. It doesn’t help that the record for the stone is not super consistent. Plus, names could shift over time or be corrupted, or it could be a misidentification of another stone.

Tag: Anachitis

Anancithidus: The Mysterious Necromantic Stone