The Crystal Workshop: A Journey into the Healing Power of Crystals - Azalea Lee 2020

Ways to Work with Crystals

THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT WAYS to work with crystals for healing, and now that you have learned about the different kinds of metaphysical crystals and how to cleanse and charge them, you are better able to understand why you would choose one crystal over another depending on the kind of healing work you intend to do. Following are ways you can work with crystals to support you in your healing journey.

JEWELRY AND POCKET STONES

One of the most helpful ways to get crystalline support is to wear crystals as jewelry. Not only does this keep the crystal well within the space of your energetic bodies, but having it touch your skin heightens the connection between you and the crystal. And because you can wear jewelry constantly, it allows you to work closely and consistently with a crystal’s energy over long periods of time.

Crystal jewelry can be as simple as a drilled stone worn around your neck or as elaborate as an exquisitely cut gemstone set in platinum and worn on your finger. As discussed in chapter 6, the most important factor determining the healing power of a piece of jewelry is not its cost but the energy with which the jewelry has been made. If a piece has been thoughtfully made with care and love, the stones will respond to the energy of mindfulness and respect, resonating more vibrantly than if they were unconsciously put in a design without much thought and care. But even if the jewelry has been made haphazardly, you still have the power to make any stone come energetically alive simply by honoring it with your attention, presence, and care.

A great way to pick out healing jewelry is to find a piece that matches the intention of the chakra that you want to heal. And if you can, choose a piece of jewelry that can be worn closest to the chakra the stone is associated with. For instance, if you need help with communication, find a stone related to communication that can be worn around your neck, near your throat. If you need help with creative inspiration, find a stone that facilitates this in earrings, which are placed closer to the chakra of your third eye.

That said, wearing any stone in the form of jewelry will keep the energy of the stone close to you, which is far more important than finding jewelry with perfect placement. So don’t worry if you fall in love with a healing stone that isn’t worn near the chakra it most helps. For it may be more beneficial for you to wear the stone as a ring because each time you glance at it, it will remind you why you chose to wear it while also reaffirming your connection to it.

Because of their size, pocket stones can energetically function a lot like jewelry because they can be kept somewhere close to your body. One way of staying energetically in close range of your pocket stone is by . . . putting it in your pocket. (Ta da!) If you wear a bra, another great way to keep the crystal close to you is to put your crystal in it. (If you choose to do this, make sure you pick a sturdy stone that is unlikely to break, as I have heard many stories of people forgetting about them, then later taking off their bras and only remembering they had a stone in there when they heard a loud thud as it hit the floor.)

Your goal with healing jewelry and pocket stones is to get them as close to your skin as possible. It’s like kissing someone’s clothed shoulder versus laying a kiss directly on their skin—the more contact your stone has with your body, the stronger its energetic connection will be. Therefore, I don’t recommend putting pocket stones in anything you take on or off throughout the day, like jackets or purses, because the stone will not stay consistently in your energy field. Purses are particularly problematic because crystals will intermix with the energies of all sorts of other items that are also in the purse, including cell phones, whose EMF energies can interact with a stone’s metaphysical energies in a detrimental way. (See a refresher on EMFs.) Not to mention that purses are often black holes that swallow objects for very long periods of time, so when crystals fall into them, they often don’t come out until well after they need to be cleansed! Meanwhile, you’ve been lugging around a heavy bag filled with rocks and getting no energetic benefit. So it’s best to avoid putting crystals in your purse altogether.

Anytime you wear or carry healing stones, the stone will be worked with intensely and thus will likely need to be cleansed frequently. So you may want to consider getting multiple stones of the same kind and carrying them in rotation so that you can always have one that is cleansed and ready to support you.

MEDITATION

Another valuable way to work with crystals is to meditate with them. Not only is it one of the best ways to get a crystal’s energetic benefits, it’s one of the best ways to learn about the stone’s metaphysical properties.

There are many different types and styles of meditation, but all help to quiet your mind, allowing you to become more aware of the emotional, physical, and spiritual sides of yourself. From this place, you are better able to sense the energies produced by the crystals and feel how they are affecting you.

This practice can be as simple as meditating with a stone next to you. You can hold the stone in your lap or hands, or place it anywhere else that is close to you, and then meditate, without putting any focus on the stone. Whether you become aware of it or not, the stone will add its energy into your meditative space and influence your energies during the meditation.

If you happen to know the crystal’s metaphysical properties, there are more involved meditations you can practice that can better direct the energy of the stone. For instance, if you are working with a stone like lepidolite, which helps calm anxiety from panic, worry, or indecision, you can tune in to the energy of the stone and see if you can feel its specific support by paying attention to any changes in the way you feel as you meditate with the stone. Or you can visualize lepidolite’s energy traveling from the stone into your mind by imagining what its calming energy looks like in texture, shape, color, and movement. In your mind’s eye, see the stone projecting this energy, and then have this energy surround and imbue you. Or, instead of clairvoyantly imagining what lepidolite’s energy looks like, you can empathically reach out and feel lepidolite’s energy radiating out of the crystal and then influencing yours.

Another crystal meditation you can do is to create an energetic affirmation related to the properties of the stone. Again, if you are working with a stone like lepidolite, you could create a verbal affirmation like “I am calm and collected in all situations” that you repeat to yourself during your meditation. Another meditation technique is to imagine placing yourself in different scenarios that would normally make you feel anxious and then imagine how different your reactions would be if you had the calming energy of lepidolite surrounding and supporting you. By reaffirming these feelings of strength in each of the visualized scenarios, you create an energetic affirmation of lepidolite’s energy that you emboss onto yourself, which helps you access the energy of the crystal without it needing to be on you!

If you don’t happen to know the metaphysical properties of a crystal, you can still do a meditation with it, especially now that you’ve completed the exercises in this book. Your now-heightened awareness makes it easier for you to pick up and sense the energies being produced by the crystals. Continuing to practice deciphering new crystals and meditating with them only serves to hone your intuitive abilities, which make you more connected to the crystals than you were before.

Another very healing way to meditate with the crystals is to lie down while the crystal is in contact with your body. This kind of meditation gives you an opportunity to place the crystal directly on the chakra it most resonates with, creating a profound connection between the healing energies of the crystal and your chakra. So for instance, if you had a pink stone, you would place it over your heart chakra; if you had a green stone, you would place it over your solar plexus chakra. You would then meditate with the stone while it is on top of your body.

While the chakras along your torso can handle heavier crystals, like mineral specimens, being placed on them, pocket stones and cabochons are ideal for all areas of the body, particularly those sensitive to weight or areas that do not have much space on which a stone can rest, like your forehead. If you have a stone that is too large or too heavy for your body, you can still get it to energetically connect with its respective chakra by placing the crystal to the side of you, next to the chakra you want to support. So, for instance, if you were meditating with a large crystal for the third eye, instead of placing it between your eyebrows, you could place the stone next to your head, at the level of your third eye.

However, know that placing crystals on their corresponding chakra is not a firm rule. If you get the hunch or the desire to place a crystal at a different chakra or location of your body, go with it. For as I have said many times before, working with crystals is a process of personal discovery. Many aspects of a crystal’s energy will be found only through personal exploration and experimentation—and meditation is an excellent way to do this.

While meditating with crystals is a very powerful way to interact with crystalline energy, it’s best to take things slowly, for you may need only small increments of a crystal’s energy to receive significant benefits. If, on the other hand, you come into your meditation desperate for healing energy or with a desire to force changes within yourself, you will put yourself in a situation where you are likely to unbalance yourself energetically. In your attempt to impose drastic changes in a single sitting, you will push your energy too far before you are truly ready for the energetic shifts the crystal will bring you. This results in a kind of energetic havoc that can upset your life until your energies can balance themselves out again. Thus I strongly encourage you to start slowly and gently with these kinds of meditations until you have a strong sense of how crystals affect you.

In the beginning, I recommend meditating with a single crystal for only ten to fifteen minutes at a time. Be aware that when you first do this kind of crystal meditation it may make you feel restless. That’s because the crystal is surfacing misaligned energetic patterns that need to be healed. But as you acclimate to the crystal’s energy, you will start to feel more comfortable and at ease when meditating with the stone. You can then gradually increase the amount of time you meditate with it—but be conscious of the intensity of what you are experiencing. With crystals that are inclined to catalyze change (as opposed to stones with more soothing properties) it is beneficial to experience a bit of energetic tension while you meditate with them. Like working out to strengthen your muscles, being challenged means that you are pushing against your limits. But always remember—healing is not a race. There is no end to the amount of healing you can do, so there is no reason to rush through the process. As you become aware of how each stone interacts with your energy, you will be able to figure out the energetic “dosage” of each crystal that is right for you. Then, as you become more experienced with each of your stones, you can begin meditating with multiple stones in combination. Again, do this slowly and gently. You have the rest of your life to discover what these stones can do.

While meditating this way with crystals, you will often find that the crystals will “turn you off” for a bit so you can better receive their healing energies. Sometimes your mind will want to act like an overenthusiastic security guard, questioning all the energies that are passing through you. In that case, the best way to accept a crystal’s healing energies is to avoid the resistance that comes from the mind wanting to question and control everything by falling asleep. That way the crystal can work on your healing energies from a subconscious level first and allow the mind to get comfortable with it before approaching it directly again.

So remember, like cooking, meditating with crystals is a creative experience. How you decide to meditate with crystals is up to you. And as long as the meditation is helping you, you are doing it “right.”

A gem elixir made with rose quartz, black tourmaline, spring water, and sunlight

GEM ELIXIRS

Water is a powerful energetic medium. Not only is it essential for physical life, but it also serves as a medium to hold and transport subtle energies. Its ability to hold resonance is exhibited in healing modalities like homeopathy and flower essences, where specific energy patterns are imprinted into a water-based solution. In the same way, water can also hold the vibrational pattern of crystals. The resulting crystal-infused water is known as a gem elixir.

Gem elixirs can be made by simply placing a crystal in a clear glass of water. Ideally, the crystal should be put in an unmarked glass of spring or distilled water and placed in sunlight (or moonlight, depending on the light sensitivity of the stone—see Moonlight) for a period of time. The energy of light activates the water while the crystalline energy imbues it with its unique resonance of healing.

Before I get into specifics about working with gem elixirs, it’s very important to know that working with them can be quite tricky and requires research and extreme care. For although crystals have healing benefits energetically, some crystals are poisonous physically. That means touching, inhaling the dust or fumes of, or ingesting particles of some crystals can be harmful to your health. So depending on its chemical makeup, a crystal can be mildly to extremely toxic depending on how it is handled. Touching certain crystals and then eating a sandwich or rubbing your nose can transfer potentially toxic particles into your body. While displaying crystals in dry air is unlikely to be toxic, inhaling rock dust can expose you to harmful chemicals or cause microscopic crystal particles to embed in and damage your lungs. And picking up unknown crystals with sweaty hands can also cause water-soluble chemicals to leach through your skin. This is why it is extremely important to wash your hands, especially after handling crystals you don’t know the toxicity of. Unless you are handling a wide variety of crystals on a regular basis or working with them in a way that frequently exposes you to particles (as in lapidary work), it is unlikely that you are working with the crystals in a way that will cause problems. But it is something to always be mindful of, especially when handling crystals you are unfamiliar with.

Since gem elixirs are a water-based medium, it is imperative to understand that stones that are negligibly toxic to pick up can become extremely poisonous when placed in water. But many people don’t know this. So I cringe when I see photos on social media of homemade gem elixirs made for drinking using poisonous stones like malachite.

While malachite is a beneficial stone metaphysically, and touching it is not a problem, soaking malachite in water will cause it to leach copper. Drinking malachite gem elixir on a regular basis can expose you to copper poisoning, which can make you very sick and potentially damage your liver and kidneys, among other health issues. A mineral like fluorite contains within it the relatively soluble chemical fluorine, which in large enough doses can cause bone and joint damage, among other things. And minerals like orpiment and realgar are made of arsenic, which can kill you.

Unfortunately, there is not a comprehensive resource for potential mineral toxicity that can help you determine what crystals are safe to use in gem elixirs. Medical geology is an extremely niche specialty with little funding, so the last thing scientists are interested in is testing all of the over five thousand known minerals found on Earth so that people who drink gem elixirs don’t hurt themselves. So though you can find some information online about minerals to avoid in gem elixirs, it is far from complete and is sometimes even contradictory. Do your research, and when in doubt, refrain from making gem elixirs unless you are absolutely sure the stone you intend to use is not poisonous.

Generally speaking, quartz stones are nontoxic when exposed to water, so they are great choices for making gem elixirs, especially for a beginner. Amethyst, citrine, smoky quartz, and green aventurine, as well as many jaspers, agates, and chalcedonies, can be used for gem elixirs without any issues. However, it’s still vital to research any stone you intend to use, quartz included. This is because quartz specimens may have other minerals attached to their surfaces, while other quartz-based stones like jaspers, agates, and chalcedonies might be intermixed with other minerals that may be toxic to you. Also, some stones have misleading names: For instance, bumblebee jasper is not a true jasper, for it does not contain any quartz but was misidentified by the person who named the stone. (It also happens to contain poisonous arsenic!) So don’t just go by a crystal’s name to determine if it’s nontoxic. Take the time and do your research, or use other methods to interact with the stone’s energy.

Also know that even if your crystal is nontoxic, there might be issues around using it in a gem elixir. If you’re using a mineral specimen, there may be subordinate minerals attached to or holding the different crystals together that may be toxic when put in water. Second, immersion in water may provide enough lubrication to cause the individual crystals in your mineral specimen to split apart. This is why it’s best to use polished stones or individual crystal points for your gem elixirs. Another benefit to pocket stones is that they won’t get easily damaged if they happen to bump up against the sides of the glass when you pick it up to drink it.

You also want to make sure that the crystal itself does not dissolve into the water. Some crystals will become dulled when placed in water. For example, selenite is a water-soluble crystal, though it takes a very long time for it to dissolve into water. While this does not happen quickly, exposure to water will dull the selenite. Other minerals are highly susceptible to dissolving, like halite, which is a wonderful crystal for healing, but whose chemical formula is NaCl—salt. So if you made a gem elixir of this stone, your stone would completely dissolve, leaving you with no crystal and a very salty glass of water!

Gem elixirs may now seem a daunting way to work with the healing energy of your crystals—and they are to an extent. But as long as you stick with safe crystals, in forms that won’t damage you or the crystal, gem elixirs are a wonderful way of interacting with crystalline energy.

If you are interested in working with gem elixirs, I recommend beginning with the Essential Three. Not only are black tourmaline, hematite, and rose quartz helpful in a wide variety of ways, they are all nontoxic in tumbled and polished form. So if there has been a lot of negativity in your life, you can make a gem elixir with black tourmaline; if life has been a little frenetic, then a gem elixir of hematite can support you; if you need a little boost for your heart, you can put rose quartz in your water. More information about these specific stones and the challenges they support can be found in chapter 4.

To make a gem elixir, energetically cleanse your crystal and then place your tumbled or polished crystal or crystal point in a glass of water. Distilled or spring water is best, though filtered tap water will work too. Though you may opt to drink from the glass immediately, the elixir will be stronger if you let the stone sit in the water in direct sunlight or moonlight for at least a half hour before drinking. And though your gem elixir can be infused under artificial light, using natural light will make for an exponentially stronger infusion.

Here’s a little experiment you can do to prove to yourself the power of crystal- infused water: take two glasses of water and place a crystal in just one of them. Cover the glasses so no dust gets in and put them in sunlight for eight hours or more. Then do a taste test. You will discover the gem elixir tastes noticeably different from, and better than, the plain water!

As long as the crystals you use are nonsoluble, you can also leave them in water indefinitely so that you have a continual supply of crystal-charged water. Place a crystal in a pitcher of water that you perpetually top off, and it will produce a steady supply of gem elixir to have on hand. Also know that you can use multiple crystals in your gem elixir to create combinations of energies that can support you. Again, if you want to try this out, I suggest using a mix of any of the crystals in the Essential Three, since the energies of these crystals work very synergistically with each other.

You can also make gem elixirs for the bath. By placing crystals in your bathwater, you can infuse the water with healing crystalline energy. This method is especially ideal for times where you wish to “wash away” energies. Make a bath with your chosen crystals and some sea salt. You can also brew herbal tea to add to your bathwater or add drops of essential oil to bring healing plant energy into the bath. Before you step into the water, make an intention for what you would like the crystals to help with. Give thanks to the water, crystals, and any plant allies you are using for the bath. Step into the bath and be present with the process. This may mean doing some sort of meditation, which could involve identifying the situations that you want energetic support with. When you finish your bath, imagine all the old energies you no longer need going down the drain with the water. Then rinse your crystals and thank them for their service.

SLEEPING WITH YOUR STONES

Like a comforting teddy bear, a crystal is often my bedtime companion. Large hunks of rose quartz, spheres of hematite, or a tumbled stone of black tourmaline in my pillowcase have all been my bedmates at some time or another.

Crystals love you and want to support you in any way they can, so they are happy to do their job while you’re sleeping. In fact, this is one of the best ways to get crystalline support because with your conscious mind turned off and without the interference from your thoughts, worries, and concerns, your subconscious is more open to receiving the healing energy of the crystal.

Hardy crystals, in particular tumbled stones, are best to use while sleeping, as they can handle the rougher treatment of a squirmy human being who might remember they even have a crystal in their bed only when they wake up and the stone hits the floor, or when a stone accidentally left in a pillowcase goes for a ride in the washing machine and then the dryer too. Delicate crystal points and mineral specimens can chip, fragment, or shed, leaving uncomfortable bits to poke you while you’re sleeping. However, if you do have a more delicate stone, you can still work with it while sleeping by placing the crystal close to your bed but in a location where it won’t be accidentally bumped while sleeping, like on your bed stand, behind your bed, or underneath your bed.

Don’t forget the important information from chapter 3 (see here): If you are sleeping with crystals, do not keep electronics near them! Remember that quartz magnifies all energies, including those of electronics, so keeping your cell phone or other electronics by your bed next to crystals means potentially enhancing your electronics’ subtle EMF energies, resulting in more disruptive sleep. Though it’s far better to keep any electronics outside your bedroom, I know in this day and age it can be difficult, so if you have to sleep with your phone nearby, do your best to keep it on the farthest side of the room away from your bed, and definitely away from any crystals. You want the crystal to be vibrating healing energy for you, not resonating and increasing any stressful energies emanating from your phone! This goes for laptops too.

You also have to be careful in choosing which stones you sleep with, for not all crystals are conducive to healing while sleeping. I have a funny personal story to share about this. Early in my work, when I was first learning about the nuances of crystal energies, I was having a terrible time sleeping. I had historically been a very good sleeper, but for several months I had been tossing and turning, unable to get a sound night’s rest. I couldn’t figure out why I was having so much trouble. Nothing unusual was going on my life, nor was I drinking or eating anything new that would keep me awake. But I did sense a disruptive energy outside my bed and thought that maybe some weird portal had opened up, because I could feel a spiraling draft of energy emanating from next to the bed. Then, I happened to learn that one should be careful about what crystals one sleeps next to, because some crystals, being activating and energizing, would impair one’s sleep.

I immediately knew who the culprit was.

A cheerfully energetic red quartz had been sitting on my bed stand, doing her thing. I suddenly realized that the timing of when I placed the crystal next to my bed coincided exactly with when my sleep began getting restless. When I had initially placed the crystal by my bed, I had been ignorant of how powerfully a simple crystal could affect me. But the experience taught me an important lesson that I would never forget, for as soon I moved the crystal I began to sleep soundly again.

Another note when sleeping with crystals: Pay attention to your dreams. In addition to bringing you healing energy, sleeping with a new crystal often shifts the tone and content of your dreams. Not only does this offer you insight on how the stone influences you metaphysically, but your dreams also can reveal information or courses of action that can bring about greater healing. As you have learned by doing the exercises in this book, to understand your dreams you must first do your homework to understand how your intuition speaks to you. And by further understanding your intuition, you will be able to decipher the valuable information that is hidden in plain sight within your dreams.

Selenite star upon a mini altar alongside sage

ALTAR SPACES

When crystals and mineral specimens are too delicate or large to be carried around, creating an altar space for them is an excellent way to help direct their healing energies toward you.

Through my crystal intuitive readings, I have discovered that crystals often want to be placed wherever their people get ready for the day. Frequently, this means in the bathroom, on the dresser, or in any other area where a person spends time grooming and giving attention to themselves. If you want to try this approach, choose a crystal with metaphysical properties related to what you would like help with. Place the crystal in your preferred “special” area. This may be in a corner, on a shelf, or in any other place that feels a touch more exalted. You may wish to feature the crystal in a way that makes it stand out from the objects around it, for example in a bowl or on a raised pedestal. Next, write down on a piece of paper what you would like the crystal to help you with. As explained in exercise 3, the most important thing is to capture the feeling of the result you are seeking rather than a specific outcome. For example, if you’re working with a crystal to help you have a better relationship with yourself, you could write down, “Crystal, please help me to feel nurtured and cared for. Help me to understand how to have strong boundaries and not overextend myself to others in spite of myself. Help me to love myself so I can find joy and happiness without feeling guilt about taking care of myself.”

Then do a ceremony with your crystal. Smudge your crystal with sacred smoke and have the intention of cleansing the crystal and sanctifying the ceremony. Hold the crystal, close your eyes, and ask the crystal to please partner with you to support you in your journey of healing. Transmit the feelings and intentions you wrote in your note to the crystal so it can energetically understand what you would like its help for. Hold the crystal until you feel a subtle bonding connecting you to the crystal. If you don’t sense this, simply hold the crystal until you feel you have clearly and succinctly communicated your feelings. Then thank the crystal and place it on top of your note in its special spot.

Every morning take a moment to be present with your crystal. Touch and/or look deeply at your crystal and reiterate what you wish the crystal to help you with. Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and then exhale. Then imagine applying the energy of the crystal on you. You can imagine the energy of the crystal being transmitted to you, or you can literally sweep the air around the crystal over your head and down your back, distributing the crystal’s energy on yourself. This ceremony attunes you to the crystal, which helps you carry the energy of the crystal with you throughout your day. Just like applying your lipstick or fixing your hair before you step away from the mirror, this action becomes part of your daily grooming routine, preparing you for your day.

At the end of your day as you get ready to go to bed, check in with your crystal again. Notice if the crystal’s energy has helped you by recollecting if there was any change in how you interacted with your life that day. And again, apply the energy of the crystal on you before you go to sleep.

Doing this practice every day embosses the stone’s energy into you. And each day you continue to do this ceremony further embosses the energy into your energetic body. As you become even more connected to the crystal, you will better notice and feel its healing effects. You will begin to see that the crystal is more than a tool for healing. You will begin to feel how your crystal cares for you as you feel its energy supporting and working with you. You will begin to realize that the crystal is your friend.

Continue using your crystal as your altar stone until you have reached a desired result or until you intuitively feel the need to take a break, then put the crystal aside. However, this does not necessarily mean that you are finished working with the stone. In fact, most of the time it doesn’t. After working with a crystal for some time and resolving a layer of energetic patterning, you may find there are other energetic patterns that have taken front stage and that need more attention to be resolved. At that point, you would change the crystal you’ve been working with for another crystal that better matches the metaphysical support you then need. After working to heal those patterns, you may find that the next layer of patterning needing to be worked on is a deeper iteration of the energies you previously worked on. At that point, you would return to the crystal you worked with before.

As you go through your life, you will find that it continually touches upon certain themes. These are the themes that you, as a soul, have decided to extensively explore in this lifetime. Perhaps one these themes is learning to loudly and boldly speak up for yourself, or being more vulnerable and open, or understanding the responsibility that comes with having power. These themes may simply appear to be recurring problems you have with your life, but the reason they show up again and again is to help you to gain proficiency with the energies that are contained within the theme. Thus it’s never exactly the same situation twice, for each scenario gives you the opportunity to experience a different iteration, aspect, or deeper lesson of how the dynamics of the energy within each theme work.

This is also why you will find yourself returning to the same stone again and again as you continue with your healing journey. Though you may work with many other crystals, you will have certain core crystals whose energies will help you the most. Thus, recognizing when you need to work with a particular crystal again is part of your learning process with the crystals. Over time, with experience, you will understand when it is the right time to work with a crystal again.

OTHER SIGNIFICANT SPACES

In addition to altar spaces, you can put crystals in any space that belongs to you for energetic support.

If you have a crystal you want to work with in this way, think about what the crystal metaphysically supports and then place it in an area where its energy can best help. For instance, pyrite is helpful for getting projects manifested and completed into the physical dimension. It also has the benefit of grounding disruptive subtle electromagnetic energies coming from electronics. Pyrite is therefore an ideal candidate to be placed at your desk, by your computer, for if you are working at a desk with a computer, it’s likely you are in the process of getting some sort of project manifested and completed!

You can also approach this the other way around: If you have a space that needs a certain kind of energy, figure out what it is that you want to achieve, and then find a crystal to support it. For instance, if there have been disagreements within the home and you would like to shift them into harmony, you can bring black tourmaline in to help recycle the negative energy into positive energy. You may want to place the black tourmaline where family members spend the most time together—for instance, at the dining table or upon a shelf where it can be seen by the whole family. Or perhaps you will place it in the living room, where the family gets together to watch TV. The important point is to place the crystal where the energetic issue most often happens.

One of my favorite stories regarding crystal placement is from one of my workshops. A mother asked if her bedroom was a good place for a citrine crystal. Since citrine is about manifestation, I asked if she wanted to have more children. Her eyes widened and a look of horror crossed her face as she tried to imagine fitting another child into her already busy life. She immediately and emphatically shook her head no while the class smiled and laughed. The bedroom, she realized, was the last place she wanted manifesting energy. But she did have some work projects she was hoping to manifest, so I suggested she place the citrine somewhere in her office, as it was a better place for the crystal’s energy to be to help her toward her goals.

When determining the best space for a crystal to go, think symbolically. Because each room has particular activities associated with it, each room will cultivate certain energies. A living room can be a place for socialization, while an entryway is a place for welcoming or sending off energies. Perhaps you want your child’s room to support nurturing and safety, or fun and growth. Crystals can be placed in each location to support the energies of that particular space. If you try this and discover the crystal does not give you the kind of support you need, you can always move it somewhere else and try another one in its place. Again, a lot about working with crystals is experimenting and seeing what happens. It’s like trying out a new ingredient when cooking: You can read every book and article you can get your hands on and research a hundred recipes using the ingredient, yet nothing will replace what you will learn just by cooking with it. It’s the same way with crystals.

Make the placement of the crystal a ceremony. Use some smudge, share your intention with your crystal, and thank it for helping you. Check in on the crystal and keep it regularly cleansed. Your attention will help it to understand where its energy needs to go and keep it working optimally to support you.

CRYSTAL GRIDS

The practice of putting crystals in significant spaces, sanctifying them, reenergizing them, and then taking note of their results is important to understand if you want to work with crystals in crystal grids. Crystal grids can be powerful tools to harness the energies of different stones working in conjunction with each other to affect a space or situation. However, you do need to have some experience before you can work with them effectively.

With the resurgence of interest in crystals, I have seen many photos, especially on social media, of crystal grids. Unfortunately, many of these grids are simply stones put into pretty patterns without much thought given to what each of the stones’ energies do and how they work together. This is why I encourage you to repeatedly practice working with the same crystal so that you understand it energetically inside and out. Arranging a bunch of crystals together without understanding their properties is the energetic equivalent of cooking random ingredients together and expecting to make a delicious meal. Even if you arranged your ingredients prettily on the plate, it still wouldn’t mean what you made would be tasty to eat.

When cooking, knowing how individual ingredients work helps you to create a better meal on the whole. You understand which flavors can work together and in what ratios they work together best. In the same way, working with crystals individually helps you understand which crystals have the potential to work well together and in what proportion you want their energies in order to get the result you seek.

Like all crystal work, which crystal grids work best for you is dependent on what your energy responds to, and you’ll learn this only by working with the crystals in a diligent and patient way. Until then, you will get a lot of benefit working with crystals individually, and though they may not look anything like the overly ornate ones you see online, you’ll naturally begin to find yourself making crystal grids.

CRYSTAL HEALING FOR OTHERS

This book is meant to be a beginner’s guide for working with crystals. It has been structured to help you build a strong foundation in working with crystalline energies so that you may bring strength and healing into your life. But as you begin to benefit from the crystals and experience the profound healing they can bring, you’ll naturally want to help others, especially the people you love. The more you work with the crystals, the more you will understand their potential to bring strength and support to those who have been struggling and suffering. You will want to help others, for you will be able to see hope where others have none.

However, as you journey on your own path of spiritual development and healing, you will learn the importance of not impinging on other people’s energetic space. To ignore this is in direct violation of spiritual law.

This is the guideline: Do not send energies to anyone without their permission.

I cannot stress how important this is. You wouldn’t want someone to barge unannounced and without permission into your home and start rearranging your belongings, throwing out all the things they think you don’t need and putting stuff you don’t want in their place. This would be a violation of you and your space. It would demonstrate a lack of respect for you, your decisions, and how you choose to live your life.

In the same way, everyone has an energetic space. How they live within that space is their own choice. Even if it’s starkly clear that someone is damaging their own life with the decisions they make or what they do to their body, it is not up to you to change it for them. You must let them live their life. Even if they are on a path of self-destruction, you have to let them go there. This is spiritual law. It is not your journey to take; nor is it your choice to make.

As well-intentioned as you may be, you can’t be sure that you’ll be able to make the best decisions for someone else. Heck, you probably have challenges making the best decisions for yourself. So when it comes to any form of energetic healing, including crystal healing, you must not send any healing energy to anyone else unless you have their explicit permission to do so. If you send them healing without it, I guarantee it will backfire. Out of resistance, the person you want to heal will not get the healing, and you’ll get karmically scorched too.

The only exception to these guidelines is if you are a parent or guardian to a child or someone who is fully dependent on you. When a child is young, they are under your care and you are responsible for guiding them in all matters of life. They do not yet have the capacity to accurately weigh certain kinds of decisions. And though young children may be more open to your spiritual help, as they get older you may encounter resistance from them. It’s very important not to force any energetic healing on them, for they need their own space to discover what is spiritually right for themselves. If you force healing on them, it will give them a negative experience and a bad taste in their mouth that only serves to make them resist any kind of healing energy now and into their future. But if you allow them to discover the healing energies in their own way, you actually promote the chance for them to heal, for you have given them the energetic space to explore the potential of these energies.

If a teenager or an adult declines crystals or crystalline energy, be respectful of their wishes. Like attempting to give tasty food to someone who doesn’t want to try it, it’s pointless to bring healing energy to someone if they don’t want to accept it. Forcing them to interact with any energy will cause them to doubly resist and further condition them to respond negatively to the healing energy.

But if they look at you incredulously and say, “This is stupid,” “What a joke,” or “You’re crazy,” but say, “Yes” to accepting the crystal, then you are karmically in the clear. By saying “Yes” or “Okay,” even with a tone of derision, they have offered consent. Despite any outer skepticism, something inside of them is allowing for just a little opening of healing to come in and help them.

If you wish to bring crystal healing to your loved ones, you can give them a crystal or stone that you feel would support them. You can share what techniques have worked for you, give them some simple instructions on what they can do with the crystal, or even encourage them to read this book. But don’t expect they will be as enthusiastic as you are about the crystals. Although they may show interest, they may not be ready to fully commit to the healing work involved and may not do anything with the crystal you give them. This is fine. When they are ready, they will interact with the stone. Don’t put any expectations on them, and give them the space to come around on their own. Though your intent is to help them become healed specifically with crystalline energy, your patience itself is an act of healing love.

Though laying crystals on someone’s body doesn’t seem to be a very big deal, since it appears quite gentle, beautiful, and serene, the actual experience of having many crystal energies interact with one’s energy is far more dramatic. While it’s one thing to place crystals on your own body, laying crystals on others means that you are using crystals to actively affect someone else’s energies. You are causing the person’s energy to react to the crystalline energy and open up deeper, more complicated layers of themselves all the way to their soul. This process reveals all the icky energetic stuff that has been holding a person back, and to complete the process you are required to guide them through very intense places that wouldn’t necessarily be defined as “fun.” In fact, these places can be quite scary, so if you are intending to perform this kind of healing you have to make sure you are fully prepared to encounter these energies and not be scared by them, while making sure the person you are helping is fully protected too. So laying crystals on a person’s body is not something you do in a casual or flippant way for “fun.” In the same way that you wouldn’t perform major surgery without years of medical training, you wouldn’t facilitate the more powerful forms of crystal healing without extensive training. While people recognize how complicated surgery can be, many people don’t understand the seriousness of energy healing and just how delicate, complicated, and grave it actually is.

Unskilled or misguided people trying to work with crystals in this way can easily harm others with their incompetence, causing damage both to the person having their energies worked on and to themselves. Not only will the person wanting to be healed be harmed, but also the person attempting to facilitate the healing then must carry the energy of their mistakes until they take responsibility for their ignorance and repair the damage they have done. So, until you have training and experience in laying crystals on others, you want to avoid doing this kind of healing. Either get training (there are resources for crystal healing training listed in the back of the book) or practice only on yourself until you do. If you don’t want to go through training and still want to lay crystals on someone other than yourself, just be aware that you will face the repercussions of any harm you’ve caused, even if your intent was innocent or the result accidental.

If you want to help others with crystal healing, a powerful way to do it is to share your experiences of the crystals with them and teach them what you know. Honestly answering their questions is one of the best ways you can help others understand and develop their own relationship with the crystals. However, if you want to know the most powerful way you can help others with crystalline energy, I’ll let you in on a secret: The most powerful thing you can do to help a loved one—more powerful than giving them a crystal or sending them healing energy—is to shift your own energy.

As you heal, your energy changes, and a ripple effect is created where the dynamic of every relationship you are connected to automatically shifts in response. Every relationship you have will change to some degree, and all for the better. In my own experience I have seen acrimonious relationships dissolve instantly into love through the powerful healing energy of the crystals. I’ve seen whole families heal just because one person shifted and healed their own energy. I’ve seen people suddenly find their life partner shortly after they find themselves. In my metaphysical history I’ve seen some pretty wild things, but I’m still astounded by the crazy miracles that happen as the result of someone healing themselves first.

So don’t worry about giving crystals or healing energy to those who don’t want it. Focus on your own deep healing and you will find that the energy of others will naturally change around you.

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”

—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Cubic Pyrite