Ultimate guide to crystals and stones - Uma Silbey 2016
Basic Stone and Crystal Healing Techniques
Crystal and Stone Healing
Though the healing techniques given here are for healing work with another, the same techniques can be used on ourselves. However, it is much easier to work with healing on another than ourselves. Because we are attempting to be both the giver and receiver, at the same time ourselves and separate from ourselves, it is hard to have the necessary objectivity in order to determine what we need to do. That being the case, we need to make sure when working with our own healing that we are able to separate our own desires and thoughts from what our inner voice is saying. In fact, this is often the primary thing that needs to be done when healing ourselves, not only when starting the healing work, but constantly during the healing itself.
Beginning the Healing
The first thing to do in any healing situation is the same as with any work we do with our stones and crystals. Before beginning, we first need to clear the room, clear ourselves, and clear our tools. Next, we need to ground ourselves and balance our own energies. From this state of being grounded, centered, and balanced, we will be able to develop an intuitive sense for the vibrations we will be working with. Next, we need to sensitize our hands to physically feel the vibrations of the crystals and stones, as well as the aura or electromagnetic field around the body we are working with. (All of these techniques have been explained previously in this book.) It is only once we have done these things that we are ready to do the healing work with another.
The next thing, when working with another person, is to be sure they are centered. After intuitively checking, if the other person is not centered, then center them using one of the centering techniques described earlier in this book. Similarly, check to see if their energy seems grounded and balanced; if not, guide them through any necessary adjustments. Once we and the other person are both centered and grounded, we are ready to begin the healing work.
Basic Healing Method
This healing method works with any healing that is needed in the physical body. Like all crystal work, using this method, we work on the etheric bodies to make changes on the physical. Since many forms of negativity may be released into the surrounding room, pulled into your subtle body, or arise within the other person’s aura during the healing, you may want to keep a bowl of salt water handy to dip your crystals into to constantly clear them. You may also want to keep a smudge pot, incense, or some other form of smoke going during the healing so you may constantly clear the other person, yourself, or your stones. I do this myself with great success. There are four basic parts to this healing technique: the initial preparatory energy grid and energy balancing, sweeping the aura to gather information, active healing work with the subtle body, and the closing.
PREPARATION: HEALING ENERGY GRID AND BASIC ENERGY BALANCING
1. Have the other person lie down on their back, legs uncrossed, with their arms resting down by their sides. Have them take a few long, deep breaths, and on every exhale feeling more relaxed and receptive to the healing taking place.
2. Surround their body with an amethyst stone healing grid, either creating a circle around the body out of many smaller amethysts or placing four amethysts in the four directions around the body: one over the head, one on each side, and one below the feet. If the amethysts have tips, either point them inward or point the one beneath feet outward, allowing unwanted energy to leave the body, and the one over the head pointing upward, discouraging unwanted energy from entering. Both forms of creating a surrounding energy field will work, so do as you are guided to do. Take a moment to visualize the violet healing energy creating a protective violet circle around the body. Then visualize that the violet energy moves into the body, relaxing it more and more as it does. If you are working with another person, you can guide them to visualize this violet aura.
3. Next, place a rose quartz or any soft pink stone on their heart chakra, visualizing that its soft, gentle energy opens the person’s heart center, transforming any fear, doubt, or other such emotion to one of total acceptance. This will further relax the person’s mind and body. Before moving on, let the person rest with these stones, letting them do their work.
4. Now, using the basic energy balancing technique presented earlier in this book, place stones over each chakra. Then use a wand or single-terminated clear quartz crystal to trace the main subtle energy pathways in the body, also opening the chakra points and energy meridians on each hand and foot. Sometimes this alone will suffice for the healing. If you sense that more is needed at this time, take the next step.
SWEEPING THE AURA—BASIC INFORMATION GATHERING
5. Hold a single- or double-terminated clear quartz crystal in your left hand to both energize you and act as a receiver crystal. Then, using a single- or double-terminated crystal in your right hand, sweep your right hand and crystal through the person’s subtle field of energy, about six inches from their body. With the crystal in your left hand energizing you and amplifying your subtle awareness as you remain calm, centered, and focused, sweep through their field or subtle aura from their head down to their feet. Sweep at a speed that best enables you to feel or sense the subtle body, noticing any discrepancies in their subtle auric field. These discrepancies include anything different, a sudden hot or cold spot, a break or dip in the aura, or areas that seem dense or thick. Also take note of any related images, thoughts, or bodily sensations you receive when sweeping over the various areas of the body.
6. Be sure to sweep through the entire field, left to right, up and down. You may sense that you should move closer or further away from the surface of the body. After you have swept the front of the body, you might have the person turn over so you can sweep the back and both sides in a similar manner. If there is something specific bothering the person, you may want to pay particular attention to that area, seeing what you can discern. If you don’t feel anything, you might try sweeping more closely to the body or taking a few moments to re-center yourself. Don’t do anything other than note discrepancies right now—just gather information.
7. Retain your relaxed state of concentration as you continue this process. During this process it is easy for your concentration to waver, your mind wandering into such thoughts as, “I wonder if this will work,” or “Nothing is happening, I feel silly,” or “Am I doing this right?” … on and on and on, chatter, chatter, chatter. If so, just note the thoughts, let them pass, and regain your focus. It is natural for your mind to do this, especially when you first start doing healing work. Since this kind of healing doesn’t always make the kind of rational sense on which the mind thrives, the best mental state to have while doing this is the meditative state of no-mind, a state of pure awareness.
ACTIVE WORK WITH THE SUBTLE BODY
8. Once you have gathered the information you need with your auric sweeping, begin this next step after clearing the crystal you used to sweep the auric field. Have the person once again lie on their back, hands at their sides, legs uncrossed. Using the same or another cleared wand crystal in your right hand, return your attention to an area of discrepancy, either starting from head to toe, or from the strongest discrepancy to the weaker, more subtle ones. Find the first place you want to work. If it is any form of blockage or a subtle bump or mound in the energy field, or an area of excess heat, point the crystal towards this area and start circling clockwise around it, surrounding it with the crystal’s energy. As you do this, feel the crystal drawing your hand around in a spiral to a place right in the center of the blockage, heat, or mound. When you reach the center, you will feel a slight or obvious pulling sensation. Once you have hooked the center in this way, pull what you have hooked with your crystal, feeling as if you were pulling something out of the subtle body with your crystal. Then, toss what you have pulled out, off of your crystal, and into the earth. You may see this in your inner eye or feel it in your body as tossing off a gray glob of negativity. Once this is tossed into the earth, the negativity is transmuted into positivity. Continue to work on this same location until you sense that all of the negative energy is pulled out, the mound or bump is level with the surrounding auric energy field, the heat is dissipated, or the blockage is released. The area in which you worked should feel similar to the surrounding energy field.
9. If you felt a dip or hole in the aura, excess cold, or other such change in the energy field, reverse the process you used when drawing out and tossing. Circle around the identified area with your crystal as before, but instead of drawing out, send in energy, visualizing it as filling the hole or dip, warming the area or sending in any other input that is needed. Continue to do this until you sense that the hole, dip, or other similar discrepancy is the same energetically as the surrounding aura.
10. We may sense that certain colors are needed to provide further revitalization or rebalancing to the areas of discrepancy that we worked on with our clear quartz crystals. If so, we can use a single-terminated crystal of the color that is needed to rebalance and revitalize and send in its energy. For example, if sensing cold, we may want to send in some heat or fire using a red or yellow crystal.
11. During this healing work, we may sense that more attention is needed for a particular area than we can provide with our sending and receiving technique, or we may want to continue to provide some type of energetic stimulation while we continue with the technique on other parts of the body. If so, we can place a clear quartz crystal or rounded stone directly upon that area of the physical body. Likewise, if we sense that this area needs the influence of certain color, we can place a colored stone directly upon the body in the suitable area, or we can place colored stones directly on specific areas of the body once we have finished our pulling and sending work, letting them rest on the body to send their energetic attributes into the subtle body.
12. While doing the drawing out and sending in process with your crystal or wand, you may find that your crystal starts heating up or appears somewhat dull and in need of clearing. It is not unusual for the stones we are using to get very hot as we continue with our work. If so, we can dip them in salt water to cool them down. If we keep the salt water near us and keep the smoke going, we can both clear and cool our stones many times during this process.
13. Sometimes the auric field may have areas where the vibratory rate seems slower or feels speedier. Use your crystal and focused intention to even out the vibrational rates in all parts of the subtle body where you feel this is happening.
14. As you engage in this healing technique, there is an intuitive interaction between you, the crystal, and the body you are working on. You will start to feel guided as you work, which will increase in intensity if you stay focused. You will likely feel yourself drawn to work on a particular area in certain ways. As you hear or sense these things, listen to your intuitive voice and go where you are drawn.
15. Continue these two techniques, using your crystal to treat each discrepancy you noticed until the entire aura feels smooth and even, with no area protruding or sinking inward, and with the temperature the same throughout, with nothing else calling your attention. You should feel a sense of peace within you.
CLOSING THE HEALING
16. After you are through, the person is very open, without the natural filtering mechanisms in place that prevent the indiscriminate and inadvertent reception of the various vibrational energies with which they may come into contact. Since we all need some degree of necessary shielding, you need to close the person off so that their filtering mechanisms are back in place. To do the final closing, use your hand and crystal to sweep horizontally, from side to side, across the heart chakra. Since we are working with the subtle body, do this about six inches above the physical body. You can also use your breath to blow across the heart chakra. Some Native American medicine people use a feather for this purpose. Whatever tool you use, your intent is most important. You can move from right to left, left to right, or both directions. You only have to do this a few times until the person is properly set for everyday life outside of the healing space, their heart center open but shielded.
17. Once you have closed the person, rapidly sweep the body again, about six inches above the skin, from their head down to the feet and into the ground. Visualize that as you are doing this any negative energy that might be lingering on their body or in their mind is swept off into the ground to be transmuted positively. For this technique, you can use your hands, your breath, crystals or stones lying sidewise in your hands, or feathers. Sweep with vigor.
18. After sweeping, have the person continue to lie peacefully on their back for a few minutes in order to allow the healing to fully integrate. This is a good time to report back to them anything you have realized or learned while doing the healing that may be helpful for them. It is also a good time for them to share any realizations they may have had with you. You may want to record these so they can be worked with further if needed.
19. Clear yourself, the other person, the room about you, and your stone and crystal tools. Be sure that the other person is well grounded before they leave.
Though this is a very effective healing method, there are a few other things to know in order to be that much more successful. First, if a person is experiencing a specific illness, we shouldn’t automatically assume that is the only place we will find discrepancies in their energy field. Since no symptom exists alone but is part of a larger matrix, the specific illness that we may have been told about may instead be only a secondary manifestation of another more primary cause. If we immediately focus just on the area that aligns with the illness described to us, we may miss the more serious underlying disturbance. Rather than dismissing what is being described to us, however, it is important to take note of it and still cover the entire body when sweeping or doing our other work. We may find that we end up working directly on the aura in the area described to us, or we may find that something entirely different is happening and needs attention.
Also, it is important that we pay attention to what our own body is feeling during the healing. As we heal, an empathetic connection is developed between us and the other person, so these feelings can also guide us in knowing what the other person is feeling and how to proceed with the healing. For example, we may feel our shoulders tighten and thus realize the other person is experiencing that same tightness, so we might then want to work in their shoulder area. We may feel our own body going through some of the same changes as theirs as we continue our healings. As their upper centers open, so do ours. As they become energized, so do we. If we have released repressed feelings, we may feel them within ourselves and need to channel or clear them out of ourselves. It is important that we realize what is originating from us and what is originating from the other person so we can clear the one and heal the other. For example, if we are feeling sadness, it may be our emotional reaction to their illness and so needs clearing away in order to continue our work. However, if upon investigating the feeling of sadness we determine that it is not our emotional reaction, but an emotion we are empathically experiencing that originates from the person being healed, we may want to focus on it more deeply as a clue that helps us understand how to proceed with our work. (As we continue to do our healing work, we tend to develop increasing empathetic connections with all people, not just with those with whom we are engaged in healing work.)
When working with the subtle body during our healings, it is important that we pay attention to some of the other important areas that may be missed. At the navel point, there are seventy-two thousand subtle nerves joining, mixing, and redistributing subtle energy throughout the subtle body, which directly affects the physical body. It is important that we tune in to that area and work with it, releasing any unexpressed anger that is often stored in the navel area, or other blockages that may be impeding the subtle energy to be properly distributed through the body. It is also important to be sure that energy is flowing freely from the tips of the person’s fingers and toes, something that is often missed during healing work. If that energy is blocked, we may feel a small ball of energy in their hand and no energy flowing through to the fingertips. The same is true of the bottoms of their feet and the top of the head. All of these should be open, with energy flowing both in and out. We can only be completely balanced when all of these centers are open and in harmony with each other. Using our crystals, we can open these areas, drawing out the subtle energies that should be flowing.
We each work differently with regard to verbal feedback from the person we are working with. Some like to have feedback from the other person, finding it helpful when guided by such words as, “I really feel that,” “That hurts,” or “I don’t feel a thing there.” More often than not, however, offering such feedback necessitates that the other person leave the relaxed, meditative state that is needed to receive the healing. Listening to the feedback can also bring us out of the meditative, concentrated focus we need to be successful. Therefore, we may prefer to work in silence, reserving verbal feedback until the end of the healing or until we reach a natural break.
That said, we might find that information naturally flows through us to be communicated while we work. It may put the other at ease when hearing what we are doing, or they may feel relieved to know that we are finding out what their problem may be, or they just may like to be informed as we go rather than waiting for the end of the healing. Nonetheless, if we are offering information, it must flow naturally without turning our concentration away from what we are doing.
As we work, we may find that we work differently depending on what flows naturally in response to what is needed. When working with some parts of the body, we may find ourselves feeling calm while working very gently. At other times, we may find ourselves being very energetic, flinging away lots of negative energy with great gusto. We should feel free to let ourselves go, even if we find ourselves dancing around the person or creating sounds, saying prayers or mantras, breathing in patterns, or even assuming certain body positions in response to the channeled energy.
Finally, we need to be able to stay courageously and firmly centered within ourselves while doing this work. Even though we may understand that it is the guiding spirit working through us, and all healing will turn out how it was meant to be, others often place much different expectations on us. Generally, people expect to see certain results when they come to us and probably won’t react favorably if they don’t see them. Not understanding that healing may not happen immediately or may not take the form that is expected, people can blame the healer, seeing us as incompetent or worse. We must still remain vulnerable, even when criticized, so that we can remain open to the healing flow that comes through us. Remember, we are still who we are in spite of the projections other people aim towards us.
It helps with this process if, before we begin our work with the other, we communicate clearly with them before we do any healing work, explaining that we are offering ourselves to be a channel for the healing and that it may not happen in the way they expect. We cannot promise what we cannot ultimately control. Instead, we can merely offer to try the healing and see what happens. This will not only serve as a reminder for us, but will also help others put it in the proper perspective so they may be more open for the healing in any form. Also, it is important to be aware of our approach when healing. If we in any way suggest that by using our services it implies that the other obviously can’t heal themselves, it not only inflates our ego, but serves to disempower them. Our inflated ego and the other person’s disempowerment both work to lessen the healing effect. What actually makes the healing more powerful is when the other person participates with us as an equal partner in the process.
HEALING IS MOST POWERFUL WHEN BOTH THE HEALER AND THE ONE BEING HEALED PARTICIPATE AS EQUAL PARTNERS IN THE HEALING PROCESS.