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

Why Crystals are Important

IN PAST LIVES, you have worked with crystals and stones as tools of healing, at a time when the power of these mineral beings was accepted and commonplace. Because of this, you came into this life with the persistent hunch that crystals are more than inanimate objects dug out of the earth. You have a vague sense there’s something more. This is why you are so compelled by them.

But there’s a reason why you don’t remember much of the information.

You have had hundreds, or more likely thousands, of past lives. If you were able to recall the details from all these lifetimes, you would be overwhelmed. Every day you would find yourself dwelling on the memories of love and loss from millions of past relationships. The sheer volume of information you would remember would be so preoccupying that you wouldn’t have any mental space to spare for your present life. All your fears would carry over, and your life would be filled with constant anxiety and dread.

Thus, in order to function in your present life, you are given a fresh start with a seemingly blank memory to allow you to explore and play in the dynamics of your life without being bogged down by constant flashbacks. Though your past life history stays permanently recorded, memories from these lifetimes remain cloaked so that you may have the mental and emotional space to maximize the lessons you have come to learn now in your current life.

But your past lives bleed through. You may have an unexplained interest in a specific historical time period or a passion for a subject unrelated to the environment you grew up in. Civil War reenactors, Renaissance fair enthusiasts, and even a doctor from Japan fanatical about American bluegrass music—all point to past lives influencing a current life. You also bring talents, big and small, from past lives. A person may have a gift for an unusual sport when no one else in their family has any athletic ability. An artistically gifted child can be born into a family with absolutely no history or interest in art. You may visit a foreign city for the first time and somehow immediately know your way around. You may not remember specific memories but may find that you have a connection to and knowledge about things you have had no prior experience with in this lifetime. And there are other ways your past lives will echo into your current life. You can meet someone for the first time and immediately and profoundly like (or dislike) them before even knowing their name because of a relationship you had with them in a past life.

And so too it is with your past lives with crystals. Though you don’t remember the specifics, you know there is something special about them. You have a sense they are powerful, but you don’t know how or why. You find yourself continuing to collect them, even when you’re not sure what to do with them. This is all because of your past lives working with crystals. Your memories with them are shrouded, but your interest in them follows you into this lifetime.

CRYSTALS ARE PART OF YOUR SOUL’S HISTORY

The greatest period in our crystal history was during the time of Atlantis. This ancient civilization intimately understood the power of crystalline energy and used crystals as a key form of technology to power their culture. Much as petroleum is used to generate energy for our modern world, crystals and other subtle energy technologies were used to generate energy in their world. Knowledge of crystals was widespread and commonplace among all of humanity because of the influence of this powerful ancient civilization.

But as time went on, Atlanteans began using crystalline technology with darker motives. As many crystals are inherently neutral and can be manipulated to produce negative energy, people began using crystals to feed their growing materialism, greed, and power, steering the crystalline energy to manipulate and control people instead of benefiting humanity. It reached a point where Atlantean society became so corrupted that in order to save humanity the Universe had to put a dramatic halt to its misguided trajectory.

You are most likely familiar with the biblical story of Noah and the great flood. But the Hebrews weren’t the only ones with a flood story: The Dogon of Africa, the Norse, the ancient Egyptians, the Inuit, the Greek, the ancient Chinese, the Sumerians, and the Aborigines are among the nearly two thousand other cultures that tell of a great flood that came and decimated the world. With a giant sweep of water the planet flooded and the Universe buried, among other knowledge, the accumulated encyclopedia of crystal understanding. The few who survived the tragedy lost everything. Lacking the collective information to re-create the technologies that had made the Atlantean civilization so great, the survivors were thrust back into a primitive existence. All they had left to share with the generations they bore after them were fantastical stories of an almighty culture that had once existed before the terrible flood came to wash them back into the Dark Ages.

You may have been one of those who misused crystals during this time. But fortunately, you have had many lives since then to resolve your past karma. In facing the consequences of misusing crystals, you had many experiences of struggle and pain, but through all these hard knocks, you learned many lessons of love and compassion. During these lifetimes of learning and healing, you were purposely distanced from your soul’s own crystalline knowledge because you were not yet ready to work with its power in a disciplined and loving way.

But humanity’s energy has been evolving and growing. Over time, we have moved farther away from our fearful tribal pasts to a more understanding and holistic global worldview. Overall, humanity has become more spiritually evolved. We’ve become more inclusive not only of other human beings but also of animals, plants, and the Earth we live upon. There are still plenty of people playing out their last desperate vestiges of greed and selfishness, but there are a great many of us, many more than ever before, who have been opening to the light of consciousness and are holding space for healing energies to be here on Earth. As our hearts have become more evolved and as we collectively become a more compassionate species, we, now more than ever, are becoming responsible enough to hold and use the healing energies of the crystals for the benefit of our planet. This is why you have been finding yourself increasingly drawn to crystals. It means you too have a role to play in helping to heal our world.

CRYSTAL GRIDS HEAL THE WORLD

Since the cataclysmic flood that submerged Atlantis, the world has significantly changed. Human civilization has become increasingly global. You can easily fly to a country halfway across the world or instantly share information with remote parts of the globe through the magic of the internet. As intellectual information increasingly moves from place to place, intellectual energy moves with it and connects humans in the modern world with one another.

Also being moved is crystalline energy.

Not only do crystals hold healing vibrations associated with the kinds of minerals they are, but they also hold an energetic resonance connected to the specific place that gave birth to them. With the global economy, a mineral that was once isolated to one part of the world can now be moved to a new location along with its unique metaphysical energies. As people awaken to the crystals, find themselves drawn to them, and begin collecting and taking care of them, they help facilitate the energies being produced by the crystals. And whether they are aware of it or not, people who truly love crystals have become participants in elevating the energies of the world.

This is because people who collect crystals are inadvertently creating crystal grids. Each crystal has a different energy, which can be combined with those of other crystals to coordinate their healing energies. Like different musical notes played together to create a harmonic chord, combinations of crystals can also be created to produce an energetic synergy, or “grid” of energy. Harmonics created by a crystal grid can act as an energetic “key” unlocking previously closed portals of energy and causing them to open.

Energetic portals are located all over Mother Earth, and as more people acquire crystals and learn to work with them they are both consciously and unconsciously activating crystal portals around where they live. As these portals open, the energy of light and consciousness is able to come through from the subtle spiritual realms to be grounded in the physical world. The combined opening and activating of these portals allows the giant crystalline grid energetically surrounding the whole Earth to increase in its ability to hold spiritual light, which then lifts the energy of the entire world!

When we speak of elevating our energies or the energies of the Earth, we are talking about resonating in a higher frequency. The higher the frequency, the more evolved the energy is and the closer/deeper it is to universal divine energy. Since spiritual growth is an ongoing process into infinity, there is no actual final destination and no ultimate frequency to attain. Rather, your goal is to constantly raise this frequency.

Anything that moves you toward love and compassion will raise your frequency. Thus things like violence and hatred are low frequency, while things like benevolence and humility are high frequency. Spiritual healing includes anything that heals one’s pain and suffering, whether in this current life or in lives past. Therefore any spiritual healing will bring you closer to love, thus raising your frequency.

Crystals are one of the many modalities that raise one’s frequency by helping to bring healing and elevate one’s energies. And as everyone is connected to one another, raising one’s own individual frequency helps to raise the collective frequency of the world.

THE TIPPING POINT

Every thought you have creates a vibrational resonance. Every idea or concept has a vibrational resonance too. As people begin thinking, talking, or working through an idea, it causes that specific vibrational resonance to magnify. At first, this resonance is perceived only by a few. But over time, as more people think about the same thing, the specific vibrational resonance increases, like the volume knob of a stereo being turned up. As more and more people join in, the intensity of this resonance becomes exponential. Suddenly it hits a critical mass and the idea ripples out to the rest of the collective.

This is what is happening with crystals. The collective vibration of many people thinking, talking, and working with crystals is suddenly infiltrating the collective consciousness of humanity. As human beings we have been putting a significant amount of energy into heart-centered healing. We are far more accepting and compassionate of other human beings who are different from us than we have ever been in our history’s past. Now that we can easily communicate and hear firsthand stories from our brothers and sisters all over the world, we are better able to understand their lives without being hindered by the racism, sexism, and the classism of the past. And despite all the madness in the world, we have made incredible progress opening our hearts. As our hearts become more open, our ability to be compassionate and kind increases, allowing love, the highest vibration in the Universe, to manifest through us. And now, because so many of us are generating, practicing, and contributing to this high vibration, the crystals, already emanating a high vibration, are harmonically able to work with us again, to assist us in healing ourselves and the whole world.

Quartz egg with rutile and other unknown inclusions

Pyrite with quartz

Popular Misconceptions about Crystals

Because crystals are so effective at healing, they get an exalted status as metaphysical tools. But the way crystals are popularly presented oversimplifies them into a kind of metaphysical “drug.” One is “prescribed” a crystal for whatever symptom ails them, and the healing effects of each stone are turned into petty generalizations of material outcome. (“Want to attract a romantic relationship? Try this stone! Want to make more money? Try that stone! Want to lose weight? Try some other stone!”)

Not only does this kind of information lead to the misinterpretation of a crystal’s benefits, it also leads to a misunderstanding of how crystals work. The overwhelming focus on crystals for their specific metaphysical properties demeans crystals and shrouds their true powers in a convenient “quick-fix” package. This causes crystals to be treated like the kinds of objects that are used then disposed of without afterthought once they no longer seem useful. For this reason, much of the popularly disseminated, overly facile information about crystals and their metaphysical properties is detrimental both to the person seeking crystal healing and to the crystal itself.

This is not to say that metaphysical descriptions of crystals are completely unuseful, for they can be helpful in orienting yourself to a crystal’s general purpose. But like two different people playing the same instrument, the interaction of your energy with a crystal creates a unique harmonic resonance that generates a different range of specific healing effects than it would on someone else. This is one of the things most misunderstood about crystal energy and is why it’s unhelpful to rely solely on a description of a crystal’s metaphysical properties to determine which crystal is best for you and your situation.

The oversimplification of these properties also extends to another popular misconception about crystals. Crystals are often promoted as objects that will miraculously fix whatever problem you have just by your owning them. This is false. Simply having a crystal does not confer healing benefits. Like screwdrivers, paring knives, or paintbrushes, crystals are tools—and the results you get from them depend on how well you use them. When working with any tool, you will learn techniques and gain skill and experience that help you better use your tool to create your desired result. It’s the same with crystals.

Crystals are beings with feelings, wants, and desires. They absolutely love helping people. But the process of being able to access their powerful abilities and allowing them to help you lies in connecting to the crystals in a deep and profound way. It also means understanding how they work and working in conjunction with them rather than treating them like some kind of energetic appliance that puts in all the effort of fixing your life for you.

Through this book, you will develop skills that will help you personally understand crystals in an intimate and meaningful way. By discovering and developing your intuitive abilities, you will be able to learn far more about the crystals than you would from reading about their metaphysical descriptions in some book. By empowering yourself with crystals in this way, not only will you be able to maximize the healing benefits you get, but you will also bring a much-desired honor and respect to the crystals by being able to work with them as the sentient, compassionate, and healing beings that they are.

EXERCISE 2

A Warm-Up

The steps below are a simple warm-up exercise to get you in the practice of observing.

1. Get a notepad and set a timer for ten minutes.

2. Find a window with some kind of view to look out of.

3. Start the timer and begin writing down everything you see, hear, and feel. (You can write your observations longform in a stream of consciousness, or in a bulleted list.)

4. Be as detailed as possible with what you write down. Especially write down the things you would think are insignificant.

How did it go? Did you feel like you wrote down a lot? If you didn’t, it’s okay. Again, this exercise is about getting into the practice of observing.

5. Now take a second pass. Read the questions opposite and repeat the exercise to see if you can be more detailed in what you observe. This time, imagine you’re using the zoom on your camera. Observe the big items first and then “zoom” into the details (or vice versa).

If you happen to be looking at a tree, here are some points of observation to note:

• How small or large is the tree?

• Do you know what species of tree it is?

• Is the tree young or old?

• If the tree is green, what color green is it? If it’s not green, what other color (or colors) is it?

• Describe the tree’s shape. Perhaps straight and long, or shaped like a Christmas tree?

• What kind of textures does the tree have on its bark; on its leaves?

• Is wind or anything else moving the tree?

• Are there any animals, plants, or other objects in or around the tree?

Is there a particular person you are noticing? Describe this person:

• Are they young or old?

• What is their gender?

• What are they wearing? What kind of occasion are they dressed for? What do their clothes represent?

• What colors are they wearing?

• What is this person doing? What kind of movements are they making? Are they sitting? Are they walking slowly or quickly?

If you see buildings, observe:

• What kinds of buildings are you looking at (e.g., a high-rise office, a restaurant, a hospital, a modern house)?

• Are the buildings large or small? What kind of shapes do they form?

• What colors are the buildings?

• Do they remind you of any time period? In what decade or era do they seem to have been constructed?

• What are the buildings’ windows like? Are there many windows? What are their shapes?

• What details do you notice on the buildings?

• Is there any movement associated with the buildings (e.g., people coming in and out or smoke rising from a chimney)?

Observe the sky:

• What color is it? Try going into more depth than just writing down a color like “blue.” Is the sky a light blue or a deep blue? Is there a pink tint from the sunset?

• Do you see clouds? Describe their texture. What do the clouds look like?

• What is the weather like?

Other things to notice:

• With all colors, try to best identify what specific color you see. If something is red, is it cherry red, burgundy red, rust red, or some other hue? Is something navy blue, baby blue, aqua, cobalt, or another color?

• Are there any sounds coming from the environment? Traffic outside, a plane going by, people talking, a dog barking?

• What is the movement you’re noticing most? Is it the clouds drifting by, people walking, birds flying?

• Are there any signs you notice: street signs, signs on buildings, billboards?

Here is an example from someone who has done the exercise:

I see a street with two-way traffic. I hear the sounds of vehicles as they approach, pass, and move in the distance. I especially notice the sound of air brakes on trucks. The traffic light alternates between bright red and green.

There are trees lining the sidewalk on both sides. Their foliage is full and deep green and they are old enough to crack the sidewalks in many places with their multiple roots. I see a self-parking sign in red and white. I see many muted gray parking meters with parked cars. The cars are mostly small and compact. A small white purse dog is on a leash with an older woman in medium-blue denim capris and tennis shoes.

The sky is hazy and colored in a combination of blue and gray. I see many redbrick buildings the color of terra-cotta clay. One awning has its name written in white. The apartment building has a sign that is mostly in red and black. But white is always found in all the signs. Both the signs and the buildings are rectangular or square.

I see a bistro. There are multiple small circular tables. The tables are brown on top with gold on the edge. The legs of the tables are ornate. The chairs are thatched and woven.

There is a soft breeze. A wide variety of people are walking by. I notice their age, race, gender, and clothing are all different. I can hear them speak in multiple languages and accents. A small black-and-white dog on a leash is being walked by their owner in a bright red-print dress. Upon closer observation, I notice the dog is a terrier mix. The dog is middle-aged and calm.

Keep your list of observations. You will be reviewing them again later.

Sand Dune Jasper