Crystals

Crystals Rock!
Crystals can be used to heal ourselves or others, they can be worn as jewelry for protection or good luck, they can be used in gridding to protect a home or make space sacred, you can even protect your pet with crystals or divine the future in a crystal ball. In magick crystals can be used to lend power to a spell or to store a spell and keep repeating it while you are free to attend to other matters! They make great talismans and can be added to charms as well.

These are just a few of the many possible uses of crystals. Their versatility and beauty has made crystals very popular nowadays. I believe everybody can benefit from working with crystals - however, there are a few things you should know to get the most out of your crystals.

What are Crystals?
Crystals are condensed consciousness. They are conscious beings and can make wonderful allies for our spiritual growth and on our journey to wholeness. Crystals are beyond time and space, and thus are free of many of the limitations that we are subject to. Crystals gather, transmit and amplify energy which makes them wonderful allies in healing, magick and more.

When you see crystals as conscious beings, then it follows logically that they need to be treated with respect.  When they are treated incorrectly crystals can become damaged, not just physically but also in their energy. The crystal is then “traumatised” and needs healing. Crystals can even die, though it is rare. So far I have come across only one dead crystal. If a crystal has died its physical shell will stay behind but be empty of spirit and useless in healing or magick.

Mining
The way crystals are being taken out of the earth is often very traumatic for the crystals. Ideally they should be harvested by hand, by people who are attuned with the crystal consciousness, but this is rarely the case. Instead, they often get blasted out of the earth with explosives. Crystals thus harvested get traumatised, even if they aren’t physically damaged. Often crystals get torn off their cluster or partner, which also traumatises the crystal. These crystals need healing before they can heal you, or be used by you in a mutually beneficial way.  On my Crystal Power Workshop you will learn how to heal traumatised crystals.

Carving
Once harvested many crystals are then carved into optically appealing shapes. Sometimes they are just polished to “enhance: their natural shape, at other times they are being shaped into something completely different. Sometimes the carving and polishing does in fact suit the crystal and make it both more beautiful and more powerful as well.

Violated crystals…
But at other times the crystal is carved in a way that doesn’t suit it at all. One example, not every crystal wants to become a crystal skull! There are many crystal skulls out there that shouldn’t have been shaped into skulls. A crystal has a mission, a life-task, if you will, and to make it into something different from what it wanted to be, violates the spirit of the crystal.

Ideally, the crystal carver should be so attuned to crystals that he/she will know what each crystal’s “mission” is and shape it accordingly. But again, many carvers lack this sensitivity, and carve purely for commercial reasons - the end result being traumatised and violated crystals.

Quartz crystals have a natural axis, and power flows along that axis. If a piece of quartz crystal is carved into a wand shape, not along the natural axis but at an angle to it, the crystal will be traumatised, and on top of that it won’t be able to channel much energy. It will definitely need a lot of healing, and even then it will most likely not be as powerful as a healthy natural quartz point.

Mineral Oil
Sometimes during carving or during drilling heavy mineral oils are used to lubricate the tool tips. From an energetic point of view such mineral oils are very harmful. The mineral oil creates an energetic barrier, clogging up the crystal pores, and slowing energy flow.

(As an experienced beauty therapist I can also tell you that mineral oil is bad for your skin, though most leading brands will use it, for commercial reasons – it’s cheap and won’t go rancid. It will however clog your pores, promote acne, and hinder your skin from “breathing” and functioning properly.)

Likewise a crystal coated with mineral oil will be unhealthy and not be very useful in healing - unless it receives extensive cleansing and healing. Under no circumstances should you make a crystal elixir with a mineral oil treated crystal! It is also not very good to place such crystals on your naked skin, such as during crystal healing or wear them directly on your skin as jewelry.

Until recently I had only heard of crystals being coated with mineral oil, but hadn’t actually seen one yet.  Then I had my first direct experience with a “polluted” crystal: I had bought some crystals on EBay, among them a beautiful garnet sphere from a trusted seller. When I unpacked the crystal sphere I immediately felt there was something wrong with it. The energy was heavy and the crystal felt VERY unhappy, dull and polluted. At first I didn’t realise the slight stickiness was due to a coating – I thought my hands were sticky. I placed the crystal sphere in salt water for cleansing, together with some other crystals. (This is the first thing I usually do with new crystals, before clearing, healing and empowering them by other methods which you can learn on my Crystal Power Workshop.

When I took it out several hours later it didn’t feel much better. At this point I noticed the stickiness. Mineral oil isn’t water-soluble at all. And it has a high melting point, so putting the crystal under hot water wouldn’t have helped much, besides that I definitely didn’t want to put it through that trauma as well. I was forced to remove the sticky oil with dish washing liquid neat (I did apologise to the crystal for that), then I cleansed the sphere under running water, and finally I gave it another salt water bath and rubbed it dry.After that the crystal felt a lot better but it still needed extensive healing later on. It is now happy in my home, having got over its trauma.

So when you buy crystals, especially spheres, check carefully whether they have been coated with something – it will usually be mineral oil. I think sometimes the sellers want to make the crystals and gemstones “shinier” and optically appealing, so they will sell better. However, that doesn’t suit the crystals at all and will be detrimental to their healing or other powers.

How do I know whether a crystal is traumatised?
Well, this needs some experience and sensitivity. Some problems are quite easy to feel, others can only be detected by someone who is very attuned to crystals and or has developed their psychic senses to a high degree.

Here are a few tips to check crystals for damage:

• Check for sticky mineral coating. This is very easy to detect if you know what you are looking for. The stickiness may be very slight, but you might be able to detect it. I believe in some cases the crystals were already cleaned up so one can’t detect any stickiness anymore, but the energetic effect will still be there.

• When buying a quartz wand, be cautious with crystals which are too symmetrical and perfect. Beware if you have a whole basket full of crystals before you, all of even size and shape. You can be quite sure that many of them will have been cut in the wrong way, disregarding their natural axis! If you are sensitive you may feel where the real axis is, or find one in the bunch that was shaped correctly. Otherwise keep your hands off those “perfectly shaped” crystals.

• With special shapes, such as spheres, skulls, etc, only somebody very attuned to crystals, and with a high degree of sensitivity and vision will know whether the crystal was meant to be cut into this shape. Go by your feeling in this case.

• Generally a traumatised crystal will feel different. Hold the crystal in your Goddess hand (the left hand) and try to feel its energy. Is it alive and tingly, full of energy? Or does if feel heavy (energetically), dull, almost dead or depressed? If you feel any of the latter, you can be sure the crystal has been violated or traumatised and needs healing. Unless you are proficient in healing crystals, it is best not to buy such crystals, but look instead for one which is healthy, happy and ready to work with you.

• Some crystals may feel okay, but still have some trauma, even though not as severe as those with noticeable damage. This is not easy to detect, but the crystal may at some point communicate to you that it needs healing. If you keep it as it is, it will be able to work with you, but you won’t be able to unlock its full power.

Your New Crystal
The first thing on bringing your new crystal home with you should be proper cleansing. There are various ways of cleansing crystals, which you can find in any good crystal book. Personally I find the salt water method very good, and most crystals like it. But some crystals don’t like salt (their surface can get dull and damaged by it!), amber being one good example, while others don’t like immersion in water. Please refer to a good crystal book to find out how to cleanse different types of crystals.

Quartz crystals are fine in salt water, and really seem to enjoy their bath. Natural sea water is best for that, and if that can’t be obtained, you can dissolve sea salt in water. Make sure you dissolve the salt well before immersing the crystals. Do not use commercial salt which contains anti-caking agents (chemicals)!

Once the crystal has been cleansed, it should be welcomed to your keeping. Then it can be programmed and given its task, be it healing, protection, gathering of energy or any other task. There are various ways of programming a crystal, some more powerful, others less so. You can find instructions on this in most crystal books and I won’t go into it in detail here. 

On my Crystal Power Workshop you will learn a powerful method of programming crystals, as well as many other aspects of working with crystals, such as how to cleanse them, welcome them to your keeping, program them, how to find out what a crystal’s life purpose is, how to heal crystals, and more.

The Crystal's Mission
The important thing to know is that the programming you choose for your crystal should be in tune with the crystal’s life purpose or mission. If it is contrary to the crystal’s life purpose, the crystal will feel violated. It will in time get damaged by the constant rape of its nature and will become very unhappy, dull and most probably go dormant, which makes it quite useless to you. It may also find a way to escape from your keeping!

Always remember that a crystal is a sentient being, though it doesn’t have “nerves”, it has consciousness, it has a life purpose, and it has feelings. To make a crystal do something contrary to its life purpose or “mission” is to violate it! Your crystals are your allies, so treat them well!

The “Lazy” Crystal
On the other hand, if you take your crystal home, put it on a shelf, where everyone can admire it, and never give it any task to do or if you do not use it for a long time, the crystal won’t fulfil its destiny either! Crystals aren’t just pretty decorations. Crystals don’t like to be “lazy”. They are happy when they are working in accordance with their life purpose. If unused a crystal often goes dormant. It becomes unhappy and dull. You can feel the energy of a dull crystal, if you are sensitive enough and/or have developed your psychic powers sufficiently.  Often the crystal will change its physical appearance as well and lose its sparkle. Even a highly-polished crystal will suddenly look duller. You can see that quite easily if you have the sight.

Therefore do not let your crystals be idle! Program them and use them in healing, for protection, or whatever may be the crystal’s life purpose. Use your crystals as your allies, and let them do the work they came to do, then they will be happy and serve you well!

When Your Crystal isn't Yours...
Crystals quite often choose their “owner” (ally would be a better word!). Sometimes a crystal will call out to you from a distance. And you will have to go find it and/or buy it. Often when this happens the crystal has a very strong reason for being with you. It may need you to heal it, or it shares karma with you, maybe it has something special to teach you or it wants to work with you in a unique way.

Occasionally a crystal uses you as a “bridge”. It is really trying to be with somebody else, often one of your friends or somebody you have contact with.

Crystals are beyond time and space, so they can connect with people over a long distance and foresee the future outcome. You find yourself drawn to buy the crystal, take it home, and after some time begin to feel that it isn’t really yours. Or you suddenly get the idea that this crystal would be the perfect birthday gift for your good friend, or maybe somebody comes to visit and falls in love with the crystal and absolutely wants to have it and you too feel it should be with that person. If this happens it is best to let the crystal go. Whether you sell it to the new keeper or give it as a gift, make sure the crystal can fulfil its life purpose and work with the person it was meant for. Don’t be sad, there will be another crystal for you that will fit your needs and has a purpose in common with yours.

Keeping Your Crystals Healthy
Firstly, to keep your crystals happy and healthy make sure they are working in accordance with their life purpose or mission.

Also, do not let your crystals gather dust, both metaphorically speaking and virtually! Keep them busy and give them a regular bath to cleanse them. After cleansing it is best to expose the crystals to sunshine or to moonlight. This will recharge your crystals and make them more powerful in healing, as well as keep them happy.

And finally, be careful your crystals don’t get physically damaged. With quartz crystals, chipping of the tip or edges significantly affects the energy transmission of the crystal, and thus its healing powers as well.

Do not let small children play with your precious crystals! Crystals aren’t toys! Children may damage your crystals, traumatising them, or they could hurt themselves with the hard points. With small tumble stones and crystals you may even stand a risk that your child swallows them!

Pets can also be a danger to crystals. In my house I have many lovely cats. They are generally very wise and careful with my things, but accidents do happen. When playing wild they could possibly knock crystals over and cause them to break. So I often use Blue Tack to hold my crystals in place on furniture and high shelves. Blue Tack ensures that the crystals won’t be knocked over by playing cats, possibly getting chipped or broken, or falling down on a cat possibly hurting it.

Whenever you have to transport crystals, especially points, wrap them very carefully in thick padding so they won’t break or be chipped. Blue Tack can be useful to protect the delicate points during transport. Crystals don’t seem to mind Blue Tack and it is easily taken off again, leaving no marks. However, it is logically that one shouldn’t use Blue Tack on spirit (aka faerie) crystals, or any crystals that have tiny baby crystals attached, nor on matrix that may come loose, or on uneven (crystal) surface with crevices! Blue Tack could tear off loose parts of the matrix or baby crystals which aren’t very firmly attached. It could clog up the uneven surface and be very hard to remove. It really is suitable only for solid sturdy crystals with a smooth surface. Carved standing points are perfect to fix to a surface that way, or clusters with a smooth, firm base.

Remember always your crystals are conscious beings and allies who co-create with you in magick and/or healing. Treat them with due respect and keep them well. Your crystals will thank you by doing wonderful things for you!

I have been working with crystals since 1990, mostly in healing but later also in magick. I may, at a later point tell my story how I came to work with crystals.

Also, I’ll soon be adding more information on the metaphysical properties of various types of crystals, as well as on the uses of gemstone / crystal elixirs.

In my Magick Shop you can buy crystal and gemstone elixirs that have been prepared in a traditional and sacred way, with the help of healthy, happy crystals. You’ll also find pictures of some of my crystals in the Magick Shop as well as info on the use of different crystals. I will later expand on this topic on this page.

Thank you for visiting and please visit again soon!

Avalon