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rutilated quartz - arrows of love
Whimsically, the rutiles within the quartz have been thought by some to be captured sunlight, helpful for dark moods and coughs.
Through the centuries the rutiles within quartz, perceived as hair-like substances, have engendered any number of imaginative names for this stone. Reflecting its rich 'golden' nature, rutilated quartz has been called Thetis's hair-stone, Venus's hair-stone, Venus's pencils, fleches d'amour (meaning "arrows of love"), Cupid's net and Cupid's arrow .
An ancient form of divination (still practised today), scrying is the occult practice of seeing the past, present or future in a shining surface such as black glass, a crystal ball or bowl of water.
Polished crystal balls of rutilated quartz are not ideal for 'crystal-gazing' since the object is to concentrate on reflected points of light given off from the sphere. The rutile inclusions would have the same effect as intrusive thought when trying to meditate.
 ornamental beauty
Another stone about which little historical information is available, it is known that rutilated quartz was in plentiful supply to the Greeks and Romans. One of the most attractive of the ornamental stones, they generally carved rutilated quartz into fancy goblets, amphorae and other useful and/or ornamental items.

rutilated quartz sphere

Sometimes, rutilated quartz, especially specimens that were particularly clear except for their golden inclusions. were even carved into crystal balls -- the effect being a mass of 'needles and thread' 'frozen' into a 'ball of ice' -- for the purpose of crystal-gazing or 'scrying.'
Frank Anderson, in Riches of the Earth explains the process of scrying:
scrying
"Generally the conduct of crystal-gazing sessions requires two people, one being the skryer, who should be approaching adolescence, and of a sensitive, nervous disposition.

"The other should be the diviner or interpreter, who waits quietly until the skryer has entered a trance...induced by concentrating on the points of light reflected from the sphere, Continued for any length of time, that procedure will gradually induce a state of self-hypnosis and then the act of crystal-gazing can properly begin.

"Most accounts state that [at some point] the gazer, or skryer...suddenly finds that the globe has disappeared, and has been replaced of a veil of mist upon which visions come and go...

"The other [person] should be the diviner or interpreter, who waits quietly until the skryer has entered a trance, and then after suggesting images to him, puts a series of questions to the gazer, and interprets his replies if there is any need to do so."