Crystals: How to Use Crystals and Their Energy to Enhance Your Life (Hay House Basics) - Judy Hall 2015

Crystal divination
Crystal Applications

The art of using crystals for guidance goes back 5,500 years in written history but many more thousands in practice, as the pouches of stones, polished crystal mirrors and spheres buried with their prehistoric owners attest. Oral tradition tells us that they were used to ascertain and influence the future. To those who are sensitive, holding these artefacts can reveal the distant past.

Early Mesopotamian sources mention an elmeshu stone that functioned as an oracle, which makes the following few lines in an ancient Assyrian private letter rather intriguing: ’To my father say, thus saith Elmeshu: Shamash and Marduk fill with wellbeing the days of my father perpetually. My father, be thou well, flourish; the God that preserves my father direct my father’s source of grace.’

’Elmeshu’ is usually interpreted by archaeologists as a woman, but as Shamash (the Sun) and Marduk (Jupiter) are planetary gods, perhaps they, through the stone, had been consulted as to the future of the writer’s father.

Crystal divination continued down the ages. In ancient Greece, Axinomancers placed Agate or Jet onto a red-hot axe to seek out the guilty party in a crime. In the sixth century BCE the Ratnapariksa of Buddhabhatta set out the divinatory meaning of stones. Diamond then, as now, indicated faithful love. In the more recent past, Doctor Dee scryed with a crystal ball to advise Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Methods of divination include drawing crystals or spilling them onto a board, crystal gazing and laying out cards. To obtain the best guidance, use these methods in conjunction with your intuition.

Scrying

Scrying is the art of divining with crystals, or more specifically crystal gazing. In ancient times it was used to reveal the will of the gods. It cannot tell you exactly what your future will be, but if you’re at a crossroads, it can show you the outcome of choices and point to which would be most beneficial for you. Always bear in mind that the future is not fixed and unyielding but is being created every moment by your thoughts, beliefs, actions and emotions — and crystals can help you to remain positive and focused on what you wish to manifest.

The accuracy of scrying depends on the skill of the seer, but with a little practice you can soon master this art. It’s worth trying several scrying methods to see which suits you.

If the definitive answer to a question is sought, a crystal pendulum, divining gems or crystal oracle cards may be more effective than using a crystal ball or its flatter equivalent, a scrying mirror, as you get a yes or no answer plus timing and guidance. Combining several stones together on a scrying board gives you the bigger picture (see below), but my Crystal Wisdom Oracle cards give you the deepest insight of all.

Choosing a crystal ball or a scrying mirror

When you gaze into a crystal ball or scrying mirror, your rational mind no longer operates and you focus your intuition. So, when purchasing a crystal ball or scrying mirror, do so when you are in a relaxed and receptive mood.

Exercise: Choosing a crystal ball

✵ Open your palm chakras (see Exercise: Opening the palm chakras).

✵ Handle several balls, but cleanse them first or you’ll pick up the vibrations of everyone who has handled them (put some crystal cleanser on your hands).

✵ Feel how heavy they are, how comfortable you are with them.

✵ Look into them and decide whether you prefer a perfectly plain sphere or one that has angles, planes and inclusions within that may help you to see images.

✵ You’ll probably find yourself drawn to one in particular — your eyes and hands will keep coming back to it. This is the ball for you.

Practical crystal scrying tips

✵ First clear your mind — a hidden agenda, fears and doubts or an answer you really want will all contaminate scrying, while calm, objective focus produces clear guidance.

✵ Formulate your question carefully. Keep it simple. Get to the essence — ask yourself, ’What lies behind this?’ Keep asking until you have reached the core of the question.

✵ Cleanse your crystals before use (see Exercise: Cleansing a crystal).

✵ Harmonize with your crystals. Hold your crystal(s), breathe gently and allow your energies to come into harmony with the stone(s).

✵ Ask your crystals to show you truth. Crystals are living beings that want to cooperate with you, so all you need do is ask. But you might need to remind them that you need clear, unambiguous answers and a timescale!

✵ Try several crystals, especially if you’re using a crystal ball, until you know exactly which feels right to you.

✵ Keep your divining crystals in a bag when not in use.

✵ Use the same crystals each time to imbue them with a deeper connection to your intuition.

✵ Keep an open mind! Scrying is notoriously subtle and things are not always what they seem. Don’t jump to conclusions too quickly.

✵ Hindsight is the most accurate tool of all, so keep a note of your ’misinterpretations’ and consider how they occurred. There is no such thing as a mistake, only a learning experience.

Exercise: Crystal gazing

✵ Have the light source off to one side so that you can see into the crystal. You may like to use candlelight.

✵ When you are in a relaxed state, hold the ball for a few moments to attune it to your vibrations.

✵ Frame your question and consider possible solutions without giving them too much attention.

✵ Place the crystal ball on a black silk or velvet cloth.

✵ Gaze at it with gently focused eyes. It will often appear to mist over. Within the mist, images will form. Don’t force them, let them arise naturally.

✵ Watch for pictures appearing either in the crystal or in your mind’s eye. The meanings can be positive or negative (see below).

✵ When you have finished your session, disconnect your eyes from the ball, briefly cover your third eye with your hand to close it and make a note of what you saw.

✵ Cover your ball with a cloth when not in use.

Do keep a note of what you see, even if it seems to be meaningless. If you persevere, you will understand. Notice the feelings you have, the thoughts that come into your head, the insights that emerge about your life. The crystal can work on a very subtle level to guide you into a more fulfilled future.

Symbolism

The following table includes a list of traditional symbols and their meanings:

Case history: Seeing true

Clergyman Andrew Lang, president of a psychical research society, wrote a fascinating treatise on crystal balls at the start of the twentieth century. He recorded the following story:

’I had given a glass ball to a young lady, Miss Baillie, who had scarcely any success with it. She lent it to Miss Leslie, who saw a large, square, old-fashioned, red sofa, covered with muslin (which she afterward found in the next country-house she visited). Miss Baillie’s brother laughed at these experiments but took the ball into his study, and came back looking “gey gash”. He admitted that he had seen a vision — somebody he knew, under a lamp. He said he would discover during the week whether he saw right or not. This was at 5:30 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon.

’On Tuesday Mr Baillie was at a dance in a town 40 miles from his house, and met a Miss Preston. “On Sunday,” he said, “at about half-past five, you were sitting under a standard lamp, in a dress I never saw you wear, and a blue blouse with lace over the shoulders, pouring out tea for a man in blue serge, whose back was towards me, so that I only saw the tip of his moustache.”

’“Why, the blinds must have been up,” said Miss Preston. “I was at Dulby.”’

Crystallomancy

A handful of tumbled crystals can also be used for crystal divination. Select your tumble stones from those listed under ’Traditional crystal meanings’ below. Semi-precious stones work just as well as precious gems.

The simplest way is to put the crystals into a bag, shake them gently, ask your question and either take out the first two or three that your fingers touch or spill them onto a board (see below for meanings). This gives you your ’what’ answer. ’Timing stones’ give you ’when’, as crystals are traditionally associated with days of the week and months of the year (see below). As they are also linked with countries, they give you ’where’ too (again see below, adapted from my Earth Blessings). Before you look up the meanings, however, take time to softly focus on the crystals and see if the answer emerges spontaneously, as this helps you to develop your own intuitive understanding.

If you are spilling the crystals out onto a board, this table shows the layout of the oracle:

Traditional crystal meanings

✵ Agate: worldly success, a journey

o Black Agate: courage and prosperity

o Red Agate: health and longevity

✵ Amber: a voyage

✵ Amethyst: life changes and shifts in consciousness

✵ Aquamarine: new friends

✵ Aventurine: growth and expansion

✵ Bloodstone: distressing news is on the way

✵ Blue Lace Agate: healing is needed

✵ Cat’s Eye: beware treachery

✵ Chalcedony: friends reunited

✵ Chrysoberyl: a time of need

✵ Chrysolite: exercise caution

✵ Coral: recovery from illness

✵ Diamond/Quartz: permanence, love, victory over enemies

✵ Emerald/Peridot: much to look forward to

✵ Garnet: the solution to a mystery

✵ Haematite: new opportunities

✵ Jade: immortality and perfection

✵ Jasper: earthly affairs are successful, love returned

✵ Lapis Lazuli: divine favour

✵ Milky/Snow Quartz: profound changes occurring

✵ Moonstone: watch out for self-deception or illusions

✵ Moss Agate: an unsuccessful journey

✵ Onyx: a happy marriage

✵ Opal: great possessions

✵ Quartz: clarify issues, speak out

✵ Rose Quartz: love and self-healing

✵ Ruby/Garnet: power and passion, unexpected guests

✵ Sapphire: truth and chastity, escape from danger

✵ Snowflake Obsidian: the end of a challenging time

✵ Tiger’s Eye: all is not as it seems

✵ Topaz: no harm shall befall you

✵ Tourmaline: an accident

✵ Turquoise: prosperity, a new job

✵ Unakite: compromise and integration are needed

Gems for days of the week

✵ Sunday: Ruby

✵ Monday: Moonstone

✵ Tuesday: Coral

✵ Wednesday: Emerald

✵ Thursday: Cat’s Eye

✵ Friday: Diamond (Quartz)

✵ Saturday: Sapphire

Gems for months of the year

✵ January: Garnet

✵ February: Amethyst

✵ March: Bloodstone

✵ April: Diamond (Quartz)

✵ May: Emerald

✵ June: Agate

✵ July: Carnelian

✵ August: Sardonyx

✵ September: Sapphire

✵ October: Aquamarine

✵ November: Topaz

✵ December: Turquoise

State stones and national crystals

A state or national stone supports the energy of that area. As well as being useful indications in divination, such connections can be incorporated into Earth healing layouts (see Earth healing), whether placed on the actual ground or on a map.

The Crystal Wisdom Oracle

My Crystal Wisdom Oracle card and book pack offers you a way to divine with crystals without needing the stones themselves. The cards help you to know yourself and can guide you on your life path. Exploring past, present and future influences, the pack draws on crystals used for divination and healing for thousands of years and introduces new high-vibration stones to expand your consciousness and access different dimensions. The cards can also be used to bring wellbeing to your body.

Illustrated with superb photographs that radiate the very essence of the crystals, this deck is designed to help you speak to your soul for guidance and the answers are at two levels: self-understanding and divination.

The Crystal Wisdom cards are divided into four Vibrations: Earthy, Healing, Cosmic and Integration. Earthy crystals work well at the material level of being, the physical body and the world around you, while exceptionally high-vibration Cosmic ones operate at the level of the soul and open your intuition. Healing Vibrations assist you in understanding the effect of your mind and your soul’s needs on your body and show you how to return to a state of wellbeing. There are also crystals that bridge the material and subtle worlds. These are Integration crystals and their job is to step down higher frequencies and step up your vibrations so that you integrate the guidance.

Case history: What will help me recover?

After several years in a successful but highly stressful career and a traumatic relationship break-up, Kylie plunged into deep depression. She set out the Oracle in a Square lattice:

Intention/situation

Card: Malachite — the subconscious mind

Self-understanding: Unconscious programs or beliefs are running your life and may cause psychosomatic dis-ease. Go willingly into the depths — therapy may be needed. Your deepest fears become your greatest gifts as hidden abilities come to light.

Divination: Stand firm in your power. You will survive. Spread your wings.

What’s holding you back

Card: Ajoite — Compassionate being

Self-understanding: Find your core of ultimate peace and universal love. Let the crystal transmute toxic emotions and old grief, replacing them with forgiveness, compassion and serenity.

Divination: Put down your burdens, knowing you are a being of light. Resolve conflicts and forgive those who have wounded you. Let go of the pain of the past or betrayal. Let your compassion encompass everyone. Charity or volunteer work is indicated.

Action required

Card: Lavender Aragonite — Environmental healing

Self-understanding: Lavender Aragonite says, ’Become comfortable in your own body and in your environment.’ You incarnated with a specific purpose in mind, which was to be a guardian for the Earth. But you also need to pay attention to where you live within yourself.

Outcome

Card: Garnet — Constancy

Self-understanding: Recognize that you have a passionate soul with a strong, courageous heart. It is time to be confident and constant. Let go of your inner demons, taboos, inhibitions and fantasies, recognize where you sabotage yourself and expand your awareness into all that you can be. Virtue matters to you and you are capable of great devotion to a cause and have a strong survival instinct.

Divination: The time for action is now. Turn a crisis into a learning challenge. Be emotionally honest with yourself and others. You attract a partner for sexual healing.

Kylie decided to attend college to retrain and also undertook a course of cognitive behavioural therapy that brought a different perspective into her life. She realized that the environment that she had to heal was her own inner one. She found a relationship with a man who was fun and didn’t ’do my head in’. She volunteered at a dog rescue centre and found a home that nourished her. Now her college course has been a success and she intends to go on to university. She is well on the way to healing her depression and changing her life.

SUMMARY

✵ Methods of crystal divination include drawing crystals or spilling them onto a board, crystal gazing or laying out cards.

✵ To obtain the best guidance, use these methods in conjunction with your intuition.