Crystals for Energy Protection - Judy Hall 2020
Creating Safe Spaces
Eliminate the Negative
Making sure that the space around you is safe and secure is one of the most important aspects of energy protection after securing your inner space. There are various space invaders, with other people’s energies or emotions, electromagnetic emanations or geopathic stress being the major factors.
As we’ve seen, electromagnetic pollution arises from computers, mobile phone masts and the like. If you suddenly find you’re not sleeping, for example, check whether a new mast has gone up and grid your space with suitable crystals. Geopathic stress arises from ley lines, underground water and so on, and again can be diverted by suitably placed crystals. Amazonite, Black Tourmaline, Herkimer Diamond, Quantum Quattro, Shungite or Smoky Quartz will protect you against such stress (remember to cleanse them regularly) and gridding around your house or workplace with these crystals usually affords excellent protection, but if the stress is particularly strong, you may need to call in an experienced dowser to check the property and divert the lines.
The energy that you, your family, friends and strangers bring into your home, leisure or workspace or when you’re travelling, for example, also needs cleansing. Too much fear or anger, too many pessimistic thoughts, or envy, jealousy and similar negative emotions can generate a toxic soup. So, the first step is to cleanse your space and to protect it.
Space Clearing
Your own strong emotions, hopes or fears, other people’s emanations and the events of the day can energetically ’pollute’ your home or workplace. Even the programmes you watch on television can change the vibrations for better or worse, as do the attitudes of your co-workers. Space pollution can also come about through deliberate targeting or simply from a spirit who has passed on but forgotten to depart. Space clearing is also useful if you share space used by other people or you have to enter a new space — I always take Clear2Light, a Petaltone space-clearing essence (see Gem Essences, and Resources), in a spray with me when I travel, for instance, so I can ensure that I sleep in an energetically clean bedroom, and it’s essential for me to clean the space and protect the room I am working in with crystals and a golden pyramid before starting a talk or a workshop. Crystal Cleanser also clears space.
While in no way engendering fear or anxiety about it, scheduling regular space clearing is essential, say once a week, as is being alert to subtle changes in atmosphere — if you suddenly feel overwhelming tiredness or anger it can be a sign that some space clearing is needed.
~ Treasure Chest ~
Chlorite Quartz
A profoundly detoxing crystal, Chlorite Quartz rapidly absorbs negative energy and toxins and clears a build-up of negative energy anywhere in the body or environment. It has strong associations with Mother Earth and facilitates healing journeys through nature. This supportive stone assists with self-realization and cleanses the past. It helps with the removal of energy implants or thought forms, accessing their source in this or any other lifetime and sealing the aura after removal. A calming stone, Chlorite Quartz ameliorates panic attacks and stabilizes mood swings.
Chlorite Quartz (left)
TRY THIS
Place a large Chlorite Quartz point down in a lavatory cistern to cleanse the energy of the whole house.
Additional Tools
Crystal Layouts (Tool 2), Cleansing with Smoke (Tool 19).
TRY THIS
As you step through your front door, consciously monitor the energies in the house. Notice if your energy rises or drops, or if you suddenly become tired or shiver or begin to feel vaguely unwell after you’ve been in the house for a short time. If you do, have a Halite shower in case you’ve picked up any adverse energy on your way home and check the energy again. (You may also need to grid the house, see page 93 and 129).
Space Invasion
Space invasion occurs when an energy that isn’t conducive to your well-being or emotional equilibrium enters or is left behind in your space. You can easily tell if it has happened, as one and probably more of these symptoms will be present:
✵ insomnia or panic attacks
✵ excessive yawning or a choking cough
✵ constant small infections and colds
✵ unpleasant or unusual smells
✵ cold patches
✵ feeling vaguely out of sorts and ill at ease
✵ formerly clear crystals look murky
✵ a child or animal is disturbed
✵ light bulbs blow frequently
✵ electrical apparatus malfunctions
✵ the energy feels like walking through treacle.
Of course, if you’ve already strengthened your auric boundaries, you won’t be as badly affected, but nevertheless regular energetic house cleaning is essential if you’re to live safely and be well protected.
Your first line of defence against space invasion, and the way to maintain a safe space thereafter, is to cleanse the energies thoroughly, for which there are several tools available (see below).
’Out of My Space!’
Something may need banishing from your space, such as an energy imprint someone has left behind. It may be someone living who is showing undue interest in what is going on there or someone who refuses to move out even though they’ve passed on. It may be someone who has lived or worked in the space with you, such as a former partner, who now needs moving out, or it may be someone from the spirit world who is stuck. (Spirit rescue work usually needs professional handling, but there are emergency measures you can take. It can also be someone who is living in your space legitimately but who is putting out strongly negative vibes — in which case you first need to decide whether you want to go on living within their energy field and what you’ll do about it if you don’t, or to find a way to discuss neutralizing it if you want to go on living together.
The following exercise uses the most basic stones there are — pebbles picked up from your immediate surroundings. Flint pebbles are particularly good for this exercise, as they readily absorb and hold energy. As with all exercises, this one is immeasurably more effective when carried out with strong intention.
TRY THIS
For each room to be cleared you will need four pebbles. Flint is particularly effective for this exercise.
✵ Hold the pebbles in your hand and dedicate them to clearing your space of this particular energy imprint. Say whatever words come to mind such as ’Out of my space’, ’Be gone’, ’It’s time to leave’ or whatever is appropriate.
✵ Now place a pebble at each corner of the room (if the room is still occupied by the person, you may need to position the pebbles under furniture where they won’t be noticed and cannot be moved). In your mind’s eye, see them connected by a shining grid of light or connect them up with a crystal wand. Leave them in place for one week. Adding Petaltone Astral Clear or Special 8 can strengthen the effect (see Resources).
✵ After a week, gather them up and throw them entirely out of your space — into a stream, river or the sea is ideal, but a puddle at the side of the road does at a push. As you do so, say out loud: ’Be gone from my space and stay out.’ If you can send forgiveness and unconditional love with the stones, so much the better.
✵ Go back into the room and say out loud: ’I reclaim my space.’ Cleanse with smoke or spray with a cleansing spray such as Green Man Earthlight, Living Tree Soul Shield or Petaltone Clear2Light and, where possible, grid each corner of the room with Selenite to restore the light. Mentally fill the room with pink light, love, forgiveness and a big smile.
The ’Kick-Ass’ Combination
If someone is in your space and you don’t want them to be — guests who have stayed too long or an ex-partner who won’t move out, for example — you could try the ’kick-ass crystal’ combination, so called because these crystals have proved to be so effective in getting people out — fast. Friends of mine had, uninvited, visitors from Australia who turned up and announced they had a return ticket for six months’ time. They ate my friends’ food, used all their facilities, monopolized their TV, didn’t offer to pay anything, drove — and damaged — their car, and hung around whenever people called. Although my friends are generous people, after three months it was a nightmare scenario. I took over the kick-ass crystals, suitably programmed to help them get their space back, and we placed them on a table in the hall. Within a week the visitors announced they’d changed their flight and were off home.
The crystal combination involves quite a rare stone, Red Feldspar with Phenacite, but you could use any red stone such as Red Jasper or Carnelian, together with a more easily obtained stone, Smoky Quartz. The particular Smoky Quartz I use looks like a hand pointing out the exit and the Red Feldspar with Phenacite looks like a boot. Another of my friends used the same crystals to persuade an ex-boyfriend to finally move out almost three months after the relationship had finished. She placed the boot-shaped stone at the foot of his sleeping bag (yes, he really did keep his sleeping bag rolled up and stashed behind the couch) and the ’way out’ sign went into the hall. He was gone in a couple of days.
In both cases no animosity accompanied the use of the crystals; they were programmed with the intention that the people would go of their own accord to something better, which was what happened. The ex-boyfriend found a flat and the couple went home for the birth of a grandchild. The combination had an unexpected benefit for my friend, too, as she met the love of her life and is now happier than she has ever been.
Space-Clearing Tools
The following tools work well whether for simple space clearing of murky energies or for more in-depth cleansing such as clearing the energies left behind when someone moves or as the result of ill-wishing. The effectiveness of all the space-clearing tools is heightened when they are used with intention.
Cleansing with Smoke
Purpose-made herb bundles (see Tool 19) are available in many outlets, but you can make your own from dried sage, sweetgrass or artemesia sprigs bound tightly together with wool or string, or burn frankincense resin or essential oil to cleanse your space.
TRY THIS: USING A HERB BUNDLE TO CLEANSE WITH SMOKE
✵ Light the herb bundle (or joss, incense or frankincense) until it is smoking well.
✵ Face each of the four directions — north, south, east and west — in turn, and either gently blow smoke into them or guide it there with a feather.
✵ Let the smoke fill the whole room, paying special attention to the corners and behind furniture.
✵ To extinguish the herb bundle, place it in a tin and put the lid on.
Sound
Sound is both an excellent way to check out whether there are any negative energies around and a particularly effective — and rapid — way to cleanse space.
TRY THIS
✵ Clap your hands loudly. If the sound is flat and lifeless, the space needs clearing. If the sound rings out true and clear, your space is clear.
✵ Clap all around the house, paying particular attention to ’dead’ areas in the corner or behind furniture.
Cymbals or tingshas, drums, gongs, Tibetan bowls and other instruments such as the voice can also be used for space clearing. Walk around the room slowly, again paying particular attention to the corners and to the quality of the sound. A chanting or drumming CD quickly revives energies, but you can use music of any kind so long as it feels good to you.
Space-Clearing Essences
There are some excellent space-clearing essences available from health stores or via the internet (see Resources) or you can make your own (see Tool 5). Essences are made by immersing flowers, trees or crystals in water, often with oils and alcohol to preserve them. The Petaltone Clear2Light (formerly Crystal Clear), and Z14 (etheric levels) essences have been specially formulated to protect your energies and clean the space around you, as have other space-clearing essences such as the excellent Living Tree Orchid Essence Soul Shield, Bush Space Clearing and the Alaskan, Green Man and Crystal Balance essences sprays. Petaltone also make the extremely useful Astral Clear and Special 8 essence for moving on stuck spirits — those departed, and often bewildered, souls who have become trapped in a room they once knew. These space-clearing essences are extremely powerful in their own right, but your focused intention nevertheless boosts their innate energy.
Space-clearing essences can be used in three basic ways:
1. For personal clearing, if the essence is not already in a spray bottle, place a few drops of it in the palms of your hands and disperse it around your body about a hand’s breadth out from your skin, or spray it from a misting bottle. Remember to do both your front and back. This protects your aura and prevents you from absorbing energies from the environment or from other people. It should be used when you feel tired or drained, as it clears energies you’ve inadvertently picked up.
2. For space clearing, spray the room or put a few drops of the essence on a crystal and place in your pocket or near your bed, desk or meditation place.
3. For personal or space clearing, if the essence is not already in a spray bottle, place three or four drops in a mister or spray and top it up with water. Either spray this around yourself to clean your energies of anything negative you may have picked up, or spray the space around you. This is particularly useful for working spaces, hotel rooms or bedrooms and it’s beneficial when travelling, especially on crowded planes or other public transport. (Do not take internally). If you are spraying a room, remember to do all the corners and behind furniture.
Petaltone Astral Clear or Special 8 is used slightly differently, as it works best when placed on a Quartz crystal and left to clear the room and send a stuck spirit to the light (which is part of its purpose). As you place the crystal, hold the intention that the spirit will find the help and healing that it needs.
Z14 is dropped onto the floor or an Amphibole Quartz or Selenite at your feet, while at the same time invoking the assistance of Archangel Michael. Crystals soaked in Z14 can also be left in a room to keep the energies clear for several months.
Note: A spray bottle of Clear2Light, when left standing in a room, quickly absorbs negative energies and may smell ’musty’ when sprayed. If this happens, empty the contents away and boil the spray bottle before refilling.
Mineral Essence Protection Protocol
Crystal essences may be applied in consecutive layers to create longer-lasting auric protection, rather than being mixed together and applied all at once. Disperse the individual essence by spray, or from your hands, into the aura or the environment once a day for three days, then move onto the next essence. The combination is effective for several weeks before needing to be renewed.
1. Black Tourmaline to protect your energy field.
2. Black Amber to cleanse aura or environment.
3. Anandalite (Petaltone Angel of Attunement) to further cleanse and recharge with light.
4. Shungite to protect cells or the space.
5. Petrified Wood to seal the aura or the environment.
Note: Petaltone Essences (see Resources) now include a set of these essences for personal or environmental protection, or you can make your own.
Accumulated Psychic Protection
David Eastoe, creator of Clear2Light, Z14 and Astral Clear, made his essences to deal with what he calls ’accumulated psychic pollution’. I personally never move far without David’s essences; they are absolutely essential to my psychic and crystal work and I always have a bottle in my handbag, to the amusement of friends — many of whom have benefited from the essence in times of need.
I find that, once a room has been cleared, it can be useful to place a crystal imbued with the essence in an unobtrusive place. I used this technique to clear an old house which was used as a workshop centre and which had a particularly nasty ’black energy spot’ in one of the rooms. Each time I went there, the negative energies had built up again, despite earlier clearing. As it happened, David Eastoe came to one of my workshops to demonstrate his new Z14 essence, which definitely helped with the build-up of old energies, but it didn’t hold beyond a month, as I found when I returned. But what did work was repeating the Z14 essence, dripped on Amphibole (Angel) Quartz, in one of his singing bowls on the floor and then placing a Selenite crystal imbued with Clear2Light and Z14 in the (disused) fireplace. That held until I returned again the following year. If David’s essences had not cleared that black energy spot, visitors to the centre could well have picked up the angry and negative energies around it. This could have manifested as faintness or coldness, or sudden disagreements. Not everyone would have recognized it was the energy of the room that was making them feel ill or angry. But everyone on my group noticed the difference when the spot had been cleared.
It is possible to be badly affected by the energies on the site of an old battle, even when it’s unknown as a battlefield, or the site of similar trauma. Sometimes the feelings picked up psychically masquerade as something entirely other. Indeed, there are people who have visited such sites and tuned in to entities still there, or simply the energies of the place, and reported past lives based on what they have picked up (which isn’t to say people haven’t been reminded of a genuine past life at such spots).Visitors have been haunted by nightmares of the battle, or carried away the psychic energy of the place, leading to a depression that was most probably not even recognized as linking to that visit. The same thing happens at old grave sites and wherever there have been ancient dramas or traumas that have left a psychic residue behind.
For sensitive people, standing on a ley line or place where geopathic stress is strong brings about similar symptoms. For this reason, it’s always worth checking the earth energies before meditating or ’working’ at a sacred site. Such sites hold the energy imprint of all that has gone before and you cannot assume it was all good — see my earlier example about the energies at Glastonbury.
It is also wise to bear in mind that some people may not want to have the energy around them cleared. People can actually be attached to their negativity and to uninvited guests. I find that if someone is carrying something negative with them, they can have a strong reaction when I spray. I once went to the London Book Fair to meet a publisher. The energy at Olympia was thick and turgid, and there were hundreds of people there. Feeling unable to breathe, I sprayed Clear2Light liberally around myself. As it landed on the publisher, he jumped violently and shrieked, rubbing at himself as though scalded. I thought this rather strange, as the rest of the people on the stand were commenting on how much better the atmosphere felt, but I paid it no further attention. Some time later, I was on the receiving end of a particularly nasty phone attack from that same publisher — an attack which left a foetid odour hovering around the corner of the room where the phone was, like extremely stale socks. Ti essence on the phone sorted that and I placed a piece of Black Obsidian there to soak up any negative vibes and had no more trouble. But when I recalled the incident with the Clear2Light, someone commented it must have been like applying garlic to a vampire!
I always spray Clear2Light in my workspace or in workshops, or as a completion to readings, past-life or crystal work that releases negative emotions or energies. I also use it after we have done tie-cutting of any kind. It clears the air miraculously. People often ask to be sprayed all over, as they can feel the change of energy instantaneously. Nevertheless, I’ve noticed that a few people still find the use of Clear2Light unpleasant. These people usually have more work to do, which can include soul retrieval, detaching an entity from their aura, or lifting a curse or vow that has been placed on them. But, as David Eastoe says, it can also indicate someone who is more comfortable remaining the way they are and I’ve learned I must respect that.
TRY THIS
You can make a space- or crystal-clearing essence by soaking a Black Tourmaline, a piece of clear Quartz and a few grains of frankincense in spring water in the sun for several hours. Add five drops of rosemary or lavender pure essential oil. If the essence is to be kept for more than a day, add one-quarter vodka or 12 drops of glycerine to the spray bottle as a preservative. (Do not take internally.)
Visualizing for Safe Space
The golden pyramid (Tool 7) can be adapted to cleanse, energize and protect your space. It only takes a few moments to picture putting the pyramid in place around a building and light filling a room and transmuting the energies into positive ones. You can also use cleansed and dedicated crystals, cleanse with smoke, or spray with protective essences. If, in an emergency, there are no other tools available, you can use the focused intention of your own mind to purify and protect the space by visualizing symbols or shapes such as the pyramid.
Crystals for Safe Space
Crystals are particularly effective for neutralizing the subtle physical and energetic dis-ease and electromagnetic disturbances created by televisions, computers, phones, power lines and such like. A crystal placed outside the house will deflect such negative energies from reaching you at all. Place the point facing away from your space and cleanse it frequently. Inside the house or your workplace, a large Smoky or Elestial Quartz in the hallway, placed point-out, will repel such energies and a large crystal sphere moves on stagnant energies. Remember to cleanse the crystals used to create safe space regularly.
Specific crystals work well for particular needs. Blue, Brown or White Aragonites are powerful earth healers that can be gridded around your house to keep the environment healthy and the neighbourhood vibes good. Brown Aragonites often look like little sputniks. A beautiful Pink Aragonite sphere radiates joy, love and serenity into your home. Atlantasite can be buried in the earth wherever there has been death and destruction on the land, as it clears and restructures the Earth’s energy field, filling it with positive energy.
However, it’s wise to remember the rule ’like attracts like’ when working to create safe space. It’s no good creating a safe space for yourself if your motives, emotions and behaviour (or those of anyone else who shares the space) are not in alignment with your stated intention. Say you want to lay out a grid to protect against petty theft. You choose Sardonyx and lay out your grid, but the pilfering continues. You need to ask yourself, ’Where in my life am I not scrupulously honest?’ You may find you don’t always pay meticulous attention to your own integrity, or you’re not honest about your emotional feelings or reactions to other people. You may cheat the taxman or fail to pay your bills on time. You may steal time from people or indulge in some petty pilfering yourself if given the opportunity. If so, the grid won’t work.
Similarly, if you live with an irritable or pessimistic person or someone who is not scrupulously honest, you cannot keep that energy out of your space. Everything has to be in perfect alignment if safe space is to work for you. The same applies if you take anger into your space, especially if you project it or displace it onto other people rather than dealing with it at source. You cannot protect your space from your own negativity or that of anyone who shares that space, you must clear it from yourself first and then your space.
Bear in mind too that ’as you think, so you are’. Think positively, think clean safe space and you’ll create it. I always know when I’m getting angry or frustrated because my computer crashes or a light bulb blows. Staying calm means staying safe.
Crystal Tips to Prevent Crime
Kyanite, Sardonyx, Selenite. (Grid around the outside of the house or the corners of a room.)
Crystal Tips to Prevent, Clear and Heal 2 Environmental Pollution
✵ Amazonite, Black Tourmaline and Shungite block radar/mobile phone mast emanations.
✵ A Black Tourmaline rod in Quartz, Smoky Quartz, Super 7 or Tourmalinated Quartz guards against terrorist attack or can be used to heal the effects of violence or trauma.
✵ Malachite is particularly efficient at soaking up nuclear radiation.
✵ Smoky Quartz and Shungite are excellent for blocking electromagnetic smog of any kind.
✵ Turquoise is an all-round environmental healer and cleanser.
Crystal Tips to Prevent Space Invasion
Black Tourmaline, large Elestial or Smoky Quartz points, large Quartz cluster, Rose Quartz, Selenite, Shungite.
(Place at the corners of the room or grid in a pentagram or hexagram.)
Additional Tools
Positive Thought (Tool 14), Believing in Yourself.
Gridding for Safe Space
Gridding is placing crystals in a specific pattern in your environment to move energy in a certain way or to cleanse and purify it. All stones laid in grids should be cleansed and dedicated before use, but remember to allow the crystals to do what they do best rather than what you feel they should be doing.
When gridding crystals in your environment or around yourself to enhance and contain energies, you can use traditional patterns such as a pentagram or hexagram (see Tool 17), a zig-zag or a figure of eight. Each moves the energy in a different way.
TRY THIS
To protect the energies of a house or room, place an appropriate crystal in each corner. If you have a garden, place the crystals at the outermost corners. Remember to cleanse and dedicate the crystals before use and to cleanse them regularly afterwards (see Tool 1).
The Pentagram
The pentagram is excellent for rebalancing and containing your energetic field and for creating safe living space, but the effect varies according to the crystals used. Experiment with different crystals to see the effects they have, and remember they may need changing over time.
TRY THIS: THE SAFE SPACE PENTAGRAM
✵ Choose 10 tumble stones or use pebbles that particularly appeal to you. Your crystals can be all the same type or a mixture, whichever your intuition tells you is best.
✵ Having cleansed your stones, hold them in your hands for a few moments and ask them to work with you to create a safe space.
✵ Now lay a stone at the top point of the pentagram and three more stones evenly spaced down to the bottom right-hand point of the pentagram.
✵ Lay three more evenly spaced stones going up to the top left-hand point of the pentagram.
✵ Lay a stone at the first intersection and out at the place of the top right-hand point (you’ll already have a stone laid at the intersection of the first line you laid).
✵ Now lay a stone at the bottom left-hand point and take your hand back up to the top point to complete the pentagram.
The Figure of Eight
A figure of eight grounds and balances spiritual and earth energies into your body or into your space to help you feel positive. It draws spiritual energy down and melds it with earth energy to create perfect balance. This layout can be left for several weeks to create safe space.
A figure of eight
✵ Following the direction of the arrows on the diagram, place high-vibration stones such as Amphibole, Brandenberg Amethyst, Danburite, Kunzite, Selenite, Spirit Quartz or Super 7 on points in the top half.
✵ Then place brown and red grounding stones such as Red Jasper and Smoky Quartz in the lower half.
✵ Remember to complete the circuit back to the first stone placed.
Crystal Tips for Gridding for Safe Space
✵ Amethyst: Protects, draws in spiritual energy and encourages relaxation.
✵ Aragonite: Earth healing.
✵ Atlantasite: Heals the site of trauma or death.
✵ Aventurine: Protects against electromagnetic smog or geopathic stress.
✵ BlackTourmaline: Protects, turns back ill-wishing and crime.
✵ Bloodstone: An immune system stimulator.
✵ Blue Chalcedony: Protects during political unrest.
✵ Chlorite: Cleanses energy and repels disembodied spirits.
✵ Dendritic Agate: An earth healer and crop enhancer.
✵ Eye of the Storm: Creates a calm safe haven.
✵ Labradorite: Raises the vibrations and protects (can be used in large raw chunks).
✵ Malachite: Protects against radiation.
✵ Sardonyx: Prevents crime.
✵ Selenite: Raises the vibrations, draws in spiritual light.
✵ Shungite: Draws off electromagnetic pollution and geopathogens and transmutes negative energy.
✵ Super 7: Calms racial unrest and heals the Earth.
✵ Tree Agate: An earth healer and shamanic protector.
Crystals to Enhance Your Workspace
Crystals are discreet tools for enhancing your workspace and for encouraging cooperation between co-workers. You can use a crystal as a paperweight, slip one into a plant pot or place one on your computer. A small crystal can have just as powerful an effect as a large one. A small Orange Carnelian, for instance, energizes a whole room and a Spirit Quartz brings in cooperation and harmony.
It’s also beneficial to spritz the area with suitable gem essences:
Crystal Tips for the Workspace
✵ Blue Lace Agate: If there is discord within your working environment, Blue Lace Agate quickly restores peace and harmony.
✵ Green Aventurine: Highly effective for absorbing electromagnetic smog and environmental pollution and for creating prosperity, Green Aventurine also promotes empathetic leadership. This crystal defuses negative situations and turns them around. Place one at each corner of your desk, or in the drawers, if you have a co-worker who leaches your energy.
✵ Labradorite:The iridescent energy of Labradorite enhances group energy and improves cooperation. It encourages the acceptance of new ideas and the sharing of insights, which benefits the whole and creates a harmonious working environment.
✵ Orange Carnelian: The vibrant energies of Orange Carnelian keep your workspace as energetic as possible, not in a frenetic way, but rather in a manner that optimizes effort. This stone attracts abundant good fortune into your working life, helping you achieve maximum success and getting things done as quickly as possible.
✵ Shungite: soaks up electromagnetic pollution in the workplace and is particularly useful in a computer- or phone-heavy environment.
✵ Smoky Quartz: Protecting against other people’s stress and frustration as well as blocking electromagnetic smog and geopathic stress, a Smoky Quartz quickly clears your workspace of negative vibes. This stone alleviates communication difficulties — keep one near your telephone and spray the room regularly to clear negativity.
✵ Sodalite: If your workspace suffers from ’sick building syndrome’, Sodalite essence sprayed around the building or placed in the four corners of your room neutralizes the effect. Sick building syndrome is often linked to an hermetically sealed building that has no natural light or air and that suffers from electromagnetic pollution and static electricity. Sodalite also absorbs the emanations of fluorescent tubes and computers. This stone enhances the workings of a group, instilling a sense of trust and solidarity of purpose. It promotes good companionship and harmony between co-workers and its ability to bring things into the open non-judgementally is useful if any kind of assessment or appraisal has to be carried out.
✵ Spirit Quartz: ensures that the whole working environment is harmonious and that everyone works as a cooperative team for the good of the whole.
Creating Sacred Space: Setting Up an Altar
Altars have traditionally been used with a religious figure or icon and offerings to delineate a sacred or protected space, but even in a secular society they can be created to mark significant places or events, or to create harmonious relationships. Spontaneous altars often arise these days at places where the death of a public figure or victim has occurred. Alternatively, a shrine may be set up within a room. Such places carry an inherent power that you can harness to create and maintain a sacred space within your home. They also make an ideal focus for visioning or contemplation.
You can use altars for various purposes. Setting up an ’ancestor altar’ helps you to honour and remember all the gifts you’ve received through your family line. This is a particularly powerful altar to set up when you feel badly let down by your family and need to practise forgiveness and gratitude (see Tool 20), as it can help you to find the blessing in your experience.
An altar does not have to be elaborate or showy to be effective. It can be on a shelf or table with just a few treasured items and fresh flowers. My electricity meter is above the stairs and used to face me every time I walked downstairs. I put up a shelf above it, stapled a Tibetan tankhga painting of female deities to it to cover the meters and placed some Spirit Quartz, Serpentine Quan Ying and Green Tara statues on it, and now every time I walk downstairs I honour the feminine divine principle — more pleasing to the eye and the soul than the god of electricity!
Your altar does not need to be indoors either. I also have a corner of the garden where a Buddha quietly contemplates a bowl of flowers and where a full-moon candle is lit each month. I place cleansed and dedicated crystals on the Buddha to be charged up in the light of the sun and moon. This transforms the whole garden into a sacred space.
TRY THIS: SETTING UP AN ALTAR FOR SACRED SPACE
✵ If you’ve a religious affiliation you can use an associated symbol or figure as the centre of your altar. Otherwise a candle, crystal (a large Elestial Quartz or Selenite tower makes it special), a photograph of a loved one or some other object that has personal meaning to you — even a plant — can become sacred when it is imbued with intent.
✵ Choose a space that won’t be infringed upon by other activities. A small shelf or table is ideal. You can cover it with a special cloth. Silk or velvet is best.
✵ Place the figure in the centre of the altar and surround it with suitable ’offerings’. Some cultures use oranges or wheat, for instance. The ancient Egyptians used beer. Other people like to use flowers, photographs, crystals, joss sticks and tealights.
✵ When the altar is complete, contemplate it for a few moments and dedicate it to the highest good of those who live within its sphere. State that it makes the space around it sacred and peaceful. If you’ve a specific purpose for it, state that out loud.
✵ Remember to cleanse with smoke, spray, sound-cleanse or otherwise purify your altar regularly.
Can You Say ’No’?
Being able to say ’no’ when being put upon, emotionally manipulated or asked to do something inappropriate for your highest good is an excellent means of protection.
✵ Ask yourself how easy you find it to say ’no’ and write the answers in your journal.
✵ Picture yourself in various scenarios and with different people such as family, friends, employers, employees and so on, and see how saying ’no’ feels with them.
✵ Make a list of who makes you feel vulnerable, where it’s difficult to say ’no’ and the emotions or feelings behind that inability to stand your ground. You’ll be able to work on transforming these later in the book, but if you cannot wait turn to page 145 or 207.
~ Treasure Chest ~
Bloodstone
Bloodstone is one of the most ancient of the protective stones. An excellent grounding shield, it defends against subtle pathogens as well as deflecting bullying or threatening situations. The stone imparts courage and teaches how to avoid dangerous situations through strategic withdrawal. Facilitating adjustment to unaccustomed circumstances, Bloodstone recognizes that chaos often precedes transformation and assists with having to act in the present moment. Calming the mind, it dispels confusion and clarifies decision making.
TRY THIS: SAYING ’NO’
✵ Now practise saying ’no’. This is where a helpful friend comes in handy again. Ask your friend to walk towards you trying to manipulate, sweet-talk, wheedle, bully, badger and hector you into saying ’yes’. (If you don’t have anyone to take this part, use a mirror and your imagination.)
✵ Stand with your hands firmly in front of you, palms out and elbows bent, at chest height or shoulder height, whichever is more comfortable. Push your hands forward, saying ’no’ firmly but quietly until they are a comfortable distance from your body.
✵ Keep saying ’no’ firmly for as long as necessary.
Additional Tools
Psychic Shields (Tool 16).