Amber

Amber is tree resin that has fossilised. Over long ages, buried under sediment, the resin hardens first into copal and then, with sustained heat and pressure, into amber; because it started out soft and sticky, it sometimes holds trapped insects or scraps of plant. It is usually yellow, orange or brown, though pieces range from whitish to nearly black, with rare red, green and blue amber. People have made ornaments of it since prehistory, and about nine tenths of the amber that can still be extracted lies on the Baltic coast of Russia's Kaliningrad region. Rubbed, it holds a static charge, and its Greek name, elektron, gave English the word electricity. Cunningham gives amber a projective energy, the Sun and fire, and lists luck, healing, strength, protection, beauty and love as its powers. He treats amber necklaces as protective, especially for children, and uses amber for fertility, business success and attraction spells, and to make other magic more effective. Hall points out that it is not a crystal at all, and associates it with grounding, cleansing and protection, and with healing, memory, peace and wisdom.