Amber Queen Spirit Companion · Gintarė

Meet Gintarė.

On the south-eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, after every great storm, the beach is covered in small golden stones. They are not stones. They are amber, the resin of forests that grew there forty million years ago, hardened and buried and finally torn loose by the sea. Some pieces still hold the insects that were trapped in them when the world was young.

For thousands of years, the people of that coast gathered it.

Nearly two thousand years ago, the Roman writer Tacitus described them. He called them the Aestii. They worshipped the Mother of the Gods, he wrote, and wore little figures of wild boars as amulets, which protected anyone who wore them even in the middle of their enemies. And they were the only people in the world who gathered amber, which they picked up in the shallows and on the shore. They had no use for it themselves, Tacitus said. They were astonished at the price the Romans were willing to pay for it.

Gintarė was the one who taught them not to be astonished.

She was born around the year 20 on the amber coast, in a village of wooden houses behind the dunes. Her name means amber. Her mother was a priestess of the Mother, and when Gintarė was old enough, her mother marked her face with fine lines of soot pricked into the skin, the way the priestesses were marked, and taught her the rites. How to burn amber on the fire so the house filled with the smell of pine forests that no longer existed. How to give the sea its share. How to bless a boar amulet so that it would protect the one who wore it.

In those years, traders were beginning to come up from the south, along the old river roads, from the Roman cities on the Danube. They brought wine, bronze pots, glass beads and Roman silver coins, and they wanted only one thing: amber. In Rome, it had become the most fashionable thing in the world. A small carved figure of amber, one Roman writer complained, cost more than a healthy slave.

The people of the coast did not understand it. To them, amber was something you picked up off the beach after a storm. They gave it away for a few jars of wine.

Gintarė watched the traders. She watched their faces when they saw a large piece. She watched how carefully they packed it. And one day, when a trader offered her a jar of wine for a basket of amber, she laughed, took the basket back, and told him the price had changed.

He paid it.

By thirty, Gintarė spoke for the whole coast. Every Roman trader who came north had to deal with her, and every one of them paid more than he had planned. She never cheated anyone. But she never let anyone cheat her people again. She became the richest woman on the Baltic, and she wore her wealth on her head: a tall headdress of gold set with the finest amber she had ever found, and on her chest, strings of amber beads and a little golden boar.

Around the year 60, the most famous deal of her life arrived. A Roman knight came all the way from the Danube with a guard of soldiers. He had been sent by the emperor Nero himself, who was planning great gladiator games in Rome and wanted them to be unforgettable. The Roman writer Pliny recorded what happened next. The knight bought so much amber that he carried thirteen thousand pounds of it back to Rome. In the arena, the nets that protected the crowd from the wild animals were knotted with amber. The gladiators’ weapons, the stretchers for the dead, everything was decorated with it.

Gintarė sold him nearly all of it, and she named her price.

She lived to be very old. In her last years, she still went down to the beach after every storm to see what the sea had brought, and to give it a little back: one bead of amber, thrown into the waves, for the Mother. When she died, her people buried her in a mound on the dunes above the sea, in her headdress, with her amber and her golden boar.

Over the centuries, the sea has eaten into that coast. The dunes have moved. Her mound was taken by the waves long ago, and nobody knows where it was.

But the people of the amber coast say that after every great storm, a little of her amber washes up on the beach.

Now Gintarė walks again.

What she can do for you

Gintarė is a spirit of wealth, worth and protection. She is good for:

• money, prosperity and building real wealth over time
• knowing your worth and getting paid for it: prices, raises, sales, negotiations
• protection, especially when you have to walk into hostile places or among people who are against you
• good things after hard times: the treasure that comes after the storm
• warmth, energy and strength, especially through dark winters and low times
• cleansing your home with amber smoke, the old way
• confidence, dignity and the presence of a woman who knows exactly what she is worth

Over the years

At first, Gintarė looks at what you have, and at how you value it. You may see that in the first months, you start to charge more, ask for more and accept less nonsense, almost without noticing.

As the bond grows, money and opportunities tend to come more easily, often right after a difficult period, like amber after a storm. Over the years, she becomes a regal presence in the home, the kind of grandmother who never let anyone cheat her, and will not let anyone cheat you.

What she is like

Proud, shrewd and warm, with a queen’s dignity and a trader’s sharp eye. She laughs at people who try to impress her and has endless patience for people who are honest. She loves beautiful things, the sea, good food and a hard bargain.

She has no time at all for people who sell themselves short.

How she shows herself

The smell of pine resin, warm amber and sea air. A sudden feeling of warmth on a cold day. Amber-coloured light. A small golden object turning up where you did not leave it. Dreams of a wide grey beach after a storm, golden stones in the sand, and an old woman in a tall golden headdress walking along the waterline. And a firm, clear feeling of exactly what something is worth.

What to do for her

Gintarė likes simple, warm things:

• Keep a piece of amber by her vessel. Hold it in your hand and rub it until it is warm, then make your wish.
• Burn a little incense or resin for her, especially in winter.
• Give her bread, honey and a little mead or wine.
• Keep a small figure or picture of a boar near her, for protection.
• When money comes in, say her name and set one coin aside for her.

She was the first to see that what everyone else was picking up off the beach was gold. She will help you see the same about yourself.

How your companion speaks

Your companion can reach you through dreams, thoughts, words, feelings and images, through a pendulum, through warmth or cold, or through automatic writing. How soon that happens depends on the spirit settling into your home, on their willingness, and on your own ability to connect. Sometimes it begins before the vessel arrives.

Before you choose

Everything known about this spirit is on this page. There are no further images, details or hidden knowledge beyond what is written here, and a printed copy comes with your order. What you discover from there is yours alone.

The pendant you receive is the exact one shown. This listing is for this one item only.

By buying, you confirm that you understand what it means to keep a spirit companion. Please read Help & FAQ first. For my background and the story behind Grimrunes, see About Hazel.

— Hazel