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calcite - multiplicity in stone
As one of the most common materials on earth, calcite has been gathered or mined since Paleolithic times.
Pure calcite is colorless, but even trace impurities can bring intense color to its many forms, and the correct cut can transform common calcite into a stunning gemstone.
Calcite's great variety of colors come from impurities -- it frequently contains manganese, iron, or magnesium in place of calcium.
The principal component of building stones like the limestones and marbles, calcite is also an important ingredient of cement . Marble, especially white marble, is nearly all calcite.
Far too soft for creating faceted gems, calcite is used for beads but mainly for carving ornamental objects.
Florida's world-renowned beaches have calcite to thank for their hard, fine-grained 'sand.'
Calcite is one of the minerals in lapis lazuli, along with lazurite (the primary mineral) and pyrite.
 ubiquitous and diverse

chinese golden calcite

Found in more habitats than any other mineral, calcite occurs in a myriad of diverse shapes. In fact, with more than a hundred different forms and thousands of combinations of crystal structures, calcite is one of the richest minerals on earth. It has fascinated crystallographers for generations.
Formed in many different geological environments, calcite can be found as large, transparent, colorless, complex crystals, or as prismatic crystals intergrown with other minerals. It can occur in forms known as stalactites, scalenohedrons (twelve-faced), and rhombohedrons (six-faced), in transparent or translucent form, and serves as the cement that strengthens many sandstones and shales.

assorted calcites, each colored by a specific trace mineral

Calcite's diversity is also apparent in its rainbow array of colors: although generally white, in combination with various trace elements, calcite can be colorless or a light shade of yellow, orange, blue, pink, red, brown, green, black or gray -- and it can range from soft green to brilliant gold.
With more diverse uses than any other stone on earth, over its long history calcite has been instrumental in shaping the worlds of microscopy, architecture, mineralogy, technology, physics and even the science of war. It's been used as a raw material in the chemical, glass, and cellulose industry, as well as in the smelting of iron ores.
And, because of calcite's translucency and that fact that it can be sliced into thin sheets, it even lends itself to art forms such as stained glass. It can also be sculpted and then back-lit, giving the sculpture a soft "glowing" appearance.

symbolic attributes

metaphysical
astrological gem Cancer