How to activate a beacon in minecraft without a pyramid

The beacon is a block you can make after defeating the Wither and getting a Nether Star. It provides a highly visible beam of light to mark its location, and ca also provide you with powers similar to potion effects, which are largely useless because they only act when you are close to the beacon.

Crafting

The beacon block is crafted from glass blocks, obsidian and a Nether Star.

Placement

Place the beacon block atop a pyramid of some combination of iron, gold, diamond and emerald blocks.

The pyramid can be 1—4 layers high; you’ll need 9 blocks for the top layer, 25 for the second, 49 for the third and 81 for the last.

The more layers you build, the larger the area of the beacon’s effects and the more effects you will have access to.

The beacon must have open sky above it.

Effects

The beacon shoots a beam of light up into the sky that is visible from a long way away.

It can also provide the following effects when you are nearby:

Operation

Right click on the beacon to get the GUI.