Shungite formed nearly two billion years ago, when microscopic life settled to the floor of a shallow Precambrian sea. Buried, compressed, and slowly transformed by heat and pressure, that organic matter became a dense black carbon rock found in meaningful quantity only in the Karelia region of northwestern Russia. Its story is one of life turned to stone.

Shungite is a non-crystalline carbon mineraloid containing roughly 30 to 98 percent carbon along with silicate minerals and trace elements. It is one of the few natural materials known to contain fullerenes, hollow cage-like carbon molecules. Elite (Type I) shungite carries over 98 percent carbon with a bright silvery sheen, while common (Type III) shungite is matte black with lower carbon content. It is naturally electrically conductive.

Peter the Great founded Russia's first spa, Marcial Waters, in Karelia in 1719 and ordered his soldiers to carry pieces of the black stone to purify their drinking water on campaign., Karelian tradition holds that the noblewoman Marfa Romanova was restored to health at the Tolvuja spring that runs through shungite bedrock, after which locals called it a healing spring., and For centuries villagers near Lake Onega lined their wells and springs with the stone, calling it the stone that keeps water clean, the practice that gave the village of Shunga, and the mineral, its name.

I am rooted to the earth and protected on every side. The noise of the day moves through me without taking hold, and what does not serve me falls away. I carry a quiet, steady clarity wherever I go.