Crystals & Gems

The key to enjoying life and continuing soul growth is balance, especially when we achieve it at the energy level. Metaphysical sources in the west and east have recommended crystals and gems to re-pattern our energy balance. I don’t sell them, but point people to them since they are very overlooked. Their benefit has a huge advantage over other forms of natural medicine or healing — when kept on the body their benefits are perpetual.

On this page I am using a general description of these stones to assist you. The Crystal Bible is the most complete permanent guide for further exploration. The Essential Guide to Crystals is a color coded guide you may find easier to navigate to get started.
Here is the color spectrum. Notice what span of color(s) you find most soothing or likable. It is very likely that you’ll find your ‘home’ gem/crystal in that color range. At least this could help you narrow down your choice.

If that one doesn’t do it for you, try this color gradient with more saturation zones at the bottom. Some stones are darker, even black.

Here are some other tools for selection of an appropriate stone:

1. Flipping through The Crystal Bible. See if one jumps out at you. I use it like shuffling cards to land on an appropriate stone.
2. Dreams. Don’t underestimate the power of your dreams to speak in answer to your persistent question. Use a notebook by your bed and make your request out loud before you go to sleep.
3. Muscle Response Testing (Applied Kinesiology). If you already have access to stones, even in a shop, you may hold the stone or touch it while testing in this fashion. Understand that this is a tool that taps into subtle energy (bio-electric) and may require some practice. It may not be reliable until you are comfortable and practiced enough that it feels natural.

Protective Stones

These stones help create an etheric/psychic shield and/or stimulate aspects of human immunity. They cover a wide range of protection needs, so look into them more specificially.

Fire Agate, Amber, Amethyst, Angelite, Beryl: Chrysoberyl, Bloodstone, Boji Stones, Carnelian, Chiastolite, Fluorite, Iron Pyrite, Jade, Jasper, Jet, Kunzite, Labradorite, Malachite, Obsidian, Petalite, Prehnite, Quartz: Smoky, Sardonyx, Staurolite, Tiger’s Eye, Tourmaline: Black, Turquoise.

Personal Experiences With Crystals & Gems

Larimar – Queen of Healers (Dolphin Stone, Blue Pectolite)

This was not the first stone I used. I didn’t get it until around 2007. However, it is such a powerful healer that I want it at the top of this list. In November 1916, Father Miguel Domingo Fuertes requested permission to explore and exploit the mine of a certain blue rock he had discovered. Pectolites were not yet known in the Dominican Republic, and the request was rejected. He was alone in his discovery until 1974. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larimar#History

What the Crystal Bible says about Larimar is right on the money. I would also say that it is especially healing for those who did not get enough mother love, or who need emotional healing. It allowed me to heal a broken heart from a relationship that could not happen. It allowed me emotional healing through a sensation of transcendence of the physical body, not an out of body experience, but an expanded body experience. In the deepest meditative effects I felt my body as the energy body, expanded outside the boundaries of skin to feel myself as the energy body that creates it.

It is good for everyone to keep a piece of Larimar, even nothing else than to serve as reminder that you have this power to heal should need arise.

Agates

Banded Agate

My health and well being first benefited from gems/crystals with the use of large Agates recommended by my chiropractor for neutralizing some bad pathogenic zones (Earth Radiation) causing some serious health deterioration (1998-99). Four large Agates (type unknown, unsliced) placed at the four
corners of my room did the job and within about 7 months I was very active again after many months of chronic fatigue.

Smokey Quartz

Smoky Quartz, thanks to wikipedia user/author JJ Harrison

One time, while house sitting alone for a week in 2006, I used Smoky Quartz points in my pants pockets to overcome depression, a feeling of just wanting to let go of life. Smoky Quartz is the most available and reliable grounding stone for those having trouble getting along with their bodies and physical/material life.

Ruby

Ruby

In 2007-08 I used Ruby to pull out of stagnation after a period of deep depression. I began wearing it in a front pocket near the heart area during a time when I began working a new job. It helped kick-start my confidence and assertiveness and send a different (improved) signal to women. It worked. For the first time since high school I was getting noticed.

Obsidian

Black Obsidian Arrowhead

During this same period I had a rather dramatic experience with Black Obsidian. I am not normally accident-prone. I had started playing tennis and went off to the court with a Black Obsidian arrowhead hanging around my neck. I don’t recall what benefit I was hoping for, but I nearly sprained my ankle playing and as I got out of the car at home I banged my knee hard against the metal edge of the car door. The pain left me limping and growling loudly into the house. Not a pleasant catharsis! I re-read the Crystal Bible’s warnings about the power of Black Obsidian and tossed that arrowhead into the closet. I threw it into the woods months later after I got sick and noticed it had been left pointing at an area I frequented. I recommend Snowflake Obsidian as a kinder, gentler alternate that gives the benefit of insight and therapeutic support, but without the harsh dynamic.

Kyanite

Dark blue Kyanite, thanks to wikipedia user/author Teravolt

In 2008-09 I used Kyanite very effectively for relief of pain in my back and to tranquilize a very irritable nervous system during a time of major life transition. Kyanite helped me hold my balance and keep a spiritual perspective in tune with my inner guidance as I made the transition from Texas to Oregon. This is a stone that I feel helps re-polarize a body that is too subject to bio-electric polarity reversal, particularly when used in large quantities. It can also act in preventive fashion for this issue. If you find yourself too sensitive to surrounding electric fields or broadcast frequencies like me, then Kyanite could help you.

Prehnite

Green Prehnite, thanks to wikipedia user/author Yaxx

During that train trip to Oregon I got to enjoy the benefits of Prehnite. I had a small light green piece of it that I held as a meditation stone as I sat in the viewing car looking out at the various scenes we passed through the southwest and into the Cascade Mountains. It facilitated this wonderful experience of the noise of the train fading and the boundaries dissolving. I think I gave this one away, but now I think I should get another. This stone is said to be the healer of healers and is too good to not have around.

Hematite

random web screen shot of hematite ring

After arriving at my new home in Portland in 2009 I used Hematite rings to bolster my body under the increased stress of an environment filled with far more electromagnetic fields (EMFs) than I was used to. (Riding buses filled with fluorescent lights and cell phones, etc.) The strength of just a couple Hematite rings was so pronounced that I noticed I could only wear them during the day and only for a couple weeks at a time. Longer than that and I started to come on too strong like an arrogant SOB. It strengthens will power and the masculine yang principle. So it is good for wilting personalities who over-value being ‘nice’ — and the under-assertive female at any age.

Amethyst

Amethyst points in cluster, thanks to wikipedia user/author JJ Harrison

There is a lot of good beer here in Portland. Its pretty much the beer capitol of the world. We brew it, import it, build festivals around it. It is everywhere. At one point I had to carry a small piece of Amethyst with me to overcome the desire to sample the beer everywhere I went. Amethyst did what the ancient Greeks named this stone for. It cut the craving for the fermented brew and allowed me to discover kombucha, a lot healthier. Today my wife and I still keep Amethysts at the four corners of our bed to enhance dreams and connection to Spirit while we sleep. I believe if you don’t know what stone to use – use Amethyst. It enhances intuition, so start there and see what comes next.

Aquamarine – calmer for the sensitives

Aquamarine

I use Aquamarine for overall balance. Aquamarine keeps me calmer than I normally would be in modern environments polluted with electronic smog. However, it has to be touching my skin to be effective. The Crystal Bible says it helps create a personality that is upright, persistent, and dynamic; helps break old self-defeating programs.

Moss Agate

Moss Agate pebble

Moss Agate was very helpful in making the transition to a moister climate with more pollution, mold and mildew. It is also a great stone for keeping the feeling of nature close when I’ve not been able to be out in it as much as I’d like — especially in winter.

Peridot

Peridot pebbles

Peridot works very well with the Aquamarine. It also has to be touching my skin so I use body tape to fasten the tiny stones over my liver area. Peridot seems even stronger at smoothing out the rough edges of irritation and abrasiveness that I have often felt being in the city with less time to myself in nature. It has been especially valuable for keeping me feeling like a healer and processing things spiritually rather than acting them out in arrogance or annoyance. Peridot is also a healer of healers. Both it and Aquamarine seem especially helpful for sensitive people who wear out or become irritable in environments full of noise or dissonant vibrations.

Iron Pyrite (Fool’s Gold)

Iron Pyrite, thanks to wikipedia user/author JJ Harrison

At key times Fool’s Gold has helped boost my confidence, re-energize me mentally and physically — basically boosting the masculine (solar) principle when it was weak. It was especially helpful at times when I was in a hotter EMF situation in others’ homes, on planes, etc., so that my energy stayed strong and I did not fall to fatigue from these influences. In fact, I am using it now (Feb 2014) in place of all other stones as I recover from an accident (December 2013) in which my wrist was broken. According to the Crystal Bible, Iron Pyrite treats bones, which follows the benefit of Snowflake Obsidian I first used following the accident.

The Snowflake Obsidian was especially helpful in overcoming
hesitance in getting out again as a pedestrian around cars after I had been hit by one in December 2013. Both have been worn in a pouch around my neck.

Chrysoprase

Polished Chrysoprase stone

Chrysoprase has more recently (March 2014) taken the place of Aquamarine for me with great results. It is calming and subdues ego, allowing me to stay on track better day-to-day with my true purpose and keep in better tune with my spiritual nature. Mundane annoyances fade. It has helped me return to a real feeling of compassion and a long-range view of things, remembering the eternal nature of life. It has helped renew my mental focus and communicative ability. I also understand from the Crystal Bible that it is a good meditation stone. I wear 4 small square beads or keep them somewhere on my body. The advantage is this is a stone that does not have to contact the skin to be effective.

Carnelians

Polish signet ring in light-orange Carnelian

I’ll tell you a little story about Carnelian, a very important stone to have since it also serves the purpose of cleansing other stones; just keep a small one in your stone bag. When I was still new to Portland five years ago (2009) my now wife made her move. Unfortunately, I had just been recovering from a bad bout of food poisoning that had me sick for a couple weeks. I was still a bit weak and recovering my strength. So I just was not feeling it. I taped a tiny piece of Carnelian near the pulse point of one wrist (taking it off in the evening). Within two days I had gone for a long walk up Mt. Tabor and was feeling my vigor again. I told Heather and the rest is history. We’ve been loving and laughing ever since.

Important: Cleanse Your Stones

For years I relied on keeping a Carnelian or two in my bag of stones to keep them from absorbing dissonant vibrations. In the end I have not found that a reliable method. It may depend on the size and/or number of Carnelians relative to the number of stones you keep with them.

Many stones can be cleansed quite well by soaking them in salt water for two days. If your stones seem to stop working cleanse them in this manner. However, this is not a good method for stones that are friable (loosely bound or flaky); those should be placed in the sun for a day or two (or in moonlight) or in dry salt. Putting Amethyst or Citrine in the sun can cause them to fade, so you may not want to use that method for them.

The key is to use whatever method does not damage the stone and which fully reactivates the power you know it has.

Here is an excellent guide on cleansing and charging your crystals: https://astrologicalgemblog.com/2019/01/11/how-to-bless-clear-activate-charge-gems/

Gems & Astrology

One thing to understand is that this is not a matter of simply choosing a so-called birth stone or one that a book says correlates to your sun sign. This is practically useless for most people in that it will not produce healing or balancing effects for you.

Fire

Generally speaking the red-orange range of colored stones is Fire-enhancing (Mars, Sun), enhancing confidence, vigor, assertiveness, directness, vitality, etc. Examples are Rubies, Garnets, Carnelian, etc.

Earth

Light blue, green and sometimes dark colored stones are Earth-enhancing (Venus, Saturn), strengthening groundedness, earth-connectedness, practical sensibilities, physical healing, moderation, detoxification, etc.

Air

Yellow to green colored stones and often blue ones enhance the Air element modes of clear thinking, communicating and relating (Mercury, Venus, Uranus).

Water

The Water element of feeling, creativity, spirituality and life transformations (Moon, Neptune) is generally enhanced by gems in the blue to violet range.

I don’t think it is beneficial to create tight and rigid correlations in formulaic fashion between specific gems and specific astrological elements. If you know that you lack confidence and assertiveness and you are wanting to develop this then you’d look to the Fierier, orange-red range of stones to see what options you have there. Also consider a bolstering, grounding stone like Hematite (black-silver), particularly if you are a timid female or highly sensitive male with physical health issues.

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Feel free to add your gem/crystal testimonials as comments.