The Green Witch: Your Complete Guide to the Natural Magic of Herbs, Flowers, Essential Oils, and More - Arin Murphy-Hiscock 2017
Using Stones: The Bones of the Earth
Live Closely with the Earth
Walking the Green Path
Although they’re not usually thought of as growing things like plants and trees, stones are sometimes referred to as “the bones of the earth.” Small, nonperishable, and convenient, stones and crystals constitute a very useful element of the green witch’s practice. Don’t overlook working with gems and crystals simply because they don’t pop up in your back garden like regular granite and clay do.
Stones have multiple uses in green magic. They can be empowered on their own and carried or left in specific areas. They can also be worn as jewelry, added to potpourris and herbal blends, powdered and added to incenses, added whole to incenses while they mature (but remove them before you burn the incense), added to oils, tucked into potted plants, and buried. The possibilities are endless.
Here are twenty stones of use to the green witch:
MOSS AGATE
Moss agate is used for healing, for calm, and for stress relief. Moss agate looks like strands of moss caught in ice or in a translucent, blurry crystal. Like most green stones, it is associated with nature.
TREE AGATE
Tree agate is much like moss agate, except instead of looking like strands of green caught in translucent crystal, it looks like strands of green twining through an opaque white stone.
AMETHYST
Amethyst is purple quartz and is associated with psychic power, truth, balance, protection, and healing.
AVENTURINE
Aventurine is a green opaque stone with tiny flecks of gold in it. It is associated with luck, prosperity, and health.
BLOODSTONE
Bloodstone is a green opaque stone with flecks of red in it. Magically, it is associated with health (especially of the blood) and protection.
CARNELIAN
Carnelian is a milky orange stone. Magically, it is associated with success and manifestation.
CITRINE
Citrine is yellow quartz and often appears as yellow ice or is yellow and white. It is found in points and as a tumbled stone. It works to calm nightmares, aids in digestion, focuses the mind, and enhances creativity.
HEMATITE
Hematite is a dull silver-colored stone (it can also show up as black, brown, and reddish-brown). In the Middle Ages, it was called a bloodstone, so if you come across a reference to a bloodstone make sure you know which stone is being referred to. Hematite has iron in it and magically is associated with grounding excess or unbalanced energy. It also deflects negativity and is thus associated with defense, healing, and justice.
JADE
Usually green, this stone is associated with wisdom, prosperity, fertility, health, and protection.
JASPER
Found in many colors, jasper is most commonly red. It is good for grounding and stabilizing energy and for protection and courage. Bury jaspers in the four corners of your garden to deepen its connection to the earth and secure its energy for more balanced growth and yield.
LAPIS LAZULI
A deep blue stone with flecks of gold, lapis lazuli is associated with leadership, communication, stress relief, creativity, joy, and harmony.
MALACHITE
A deep green stone with bands or circles of lighter green, malachite is associated with fertility and earth mysteries. Malachite is a wonderful stone for green witches to work with, for it helps strengthen your connection to the world of nature. Try carrying or wearing a piece of malachite while you communicate with the world of green, whether you are tramping through a field or digging in your backyard. See how it affects your work and your perceptions.
MOONSTONE
A milky white stone, sometimes with overtones of green, peach, or gray, the moonstone is magically associated with protection during travel, children, love, and peace. It also has a connection to the Goddess.
QUARTZ (CLEAR)
An easily obtained stone, a clear quartz crystal looks like ice, often with small inclusions (which do not affect the stone’s energy at all). Quartz crystal amplifies energy, stores power, enhances psychic ability, and absorbs negativity. It has become immensely popular and can be found in tumbled form and in point form (which is how it grows) and is often set in jewelry. Quartz crystal is an excellent all-purpose stone to work with.
QUARTZ (ROSE)
Another common stone, rose quartz looks like pink ice. Like other quartz crystals, rose quartz amplifies and stores energy. Rose quartz is specifically used to boost self-esteem and encourage self-love, for emotional healing, to foster affection, and to transform negative energy into positive, supportive energy.
QUARTZ (SMOKY)
Smoky quartz is a gray quartz used for grounding and to clear obstacles. It strengthens intuition and helps manifest thought into action, goals into reality.
SNOWFLAKE OBSIDIAN
An opaque black stone with spots that look like white or pale gray snowflakes, this stone is used for protection. Regular obsidian, which is all black, is also used for protection. I prefer to use snowflake obsidian in green witch work, as it reminds me of winter and midnight, two important parts of the natural cycle of days and seasons.
SODALITE
A dark blue stone with white or gray veins, sodalite is used for balancing emotions and enhancing wisdom.
TIGER’S EYE
A glossy, satiny, brown stone with bands of satiny dark gold, the tiger’s eye is used for strength, courage, luck, and prosperity.
TURQUOISE
A pale blue stone with fine black or gray lines running through it, turquoise is an excellent children’s stone, for it protects and strengthens gently. It also helps focus the mind and will.
CLEANSING STONES
Before you use a stone, it is important to cleanse and purify it. Cleansing is a physical removal of dirt or debris; just wash the stone in plain water and scrub it with a cloth or brush if necessary. Purifying the stone means cleaning its energy. Before you use a stone for any magical purpose, it should always be purified.
There are several ways to purify a stone:
✵ Leave it in sunlight or moonlight for a specific period of time.
✵ Bury it in a small dish of salt for one to three days. Salt is a natural purifier. Never use salt to cleanse a stone that has iron in it, such as hematite, or if it is set in metal, for the metal will rust.
✵ Bury it in a small dish of dirt for a measured period of time. Earth will accomplish the same purpose in the same way that salt does, though it may take longer.
✵ Immerse the stone in water for a measured period of time. Moving water will purify it faster, although leaving the stone in a small bowl of water for a longer period will work as well. You can add a small pinch of salt to the dish of water to speed the process, unless you are cleansing a stone set in metal or a stone with iron content, such as hematite.
How long you leave the stone to purify by your chosen method depends on how much foreign energy is clinging to it (see the following).
ATTUNING TO STONES
Before you use a stone for a magical purpose, get to know its particular energy so that when you test its energy later on, you have an idea of how much purification it requires.
When you first bring a stone home from a rock shop or from the great outdoors, cleanse and purify it using one of the previous methods for one full week to ensure that it has been completely cleared of any foreign energy. Don’t worry; you cannot remove the innate energy of an object, so it’s impossible to overpurify.
When the week is up, prepare yourself by finding a quiet space and settling down with the stone and your green witch notebook. Take three deep breaths, releasing tension and focusing on the stone in your hand with each exhalation. Begin by testing the energy of the stone by using one of the energy-sensing methods given in Chapter 3. How does the stone’s energy feel to you? Make as many observations and associations as you can. Remember to write them down. What is important is that you are making personal observations about the energy, not that you hit on the same correspondences that are traditionally associated with the stone.
Once you have an idea of how the energy of the stone feels to you while it is completely natural and unaffected by any other energy, you will be able to evaluate the stone before any future use to determine how much purification it will need. Everyone senses energy in a different way, but perhaps the stone will feel particularly heavy or negative to you, or you will gain a sense of wrongness, or simply a difference from what you expect to feel when you next pick it up to use it. If the stone feels drastically different, purify the stone for a longer period of time. If you have used the stone for a previous magical purpose, it is important to purify it, even if it was for the same intention, for as the stone is used it can collect other energies. As you become more experienced in sensing energy, you will be able to identify how much purification a stone needs by comparing its current energy with what you know its base natural energy is.
EMPOWERING STONES
To prepare a stone for magical use once it has been purified, you must program or empower it. This step aligns the stone’s natural energy with your magical intention. While the stone’s natural energies will function even if you do not empower it with your magical intention, they will function in accordance to your desire much more efficiently if you program it with your precise need and magical goal.
✵ To program a stone with your intention, hold it between your palms. Close your eyes and take three deep breaths, centering yourself and focusing on your magical goal.
✵ Visualize your goal as already achieved, which means you should take a minute or two to daydream about how terrific you’ll feel once the situation is the way you want it.
✵ Now visualize a sparkling light forming around your hands. This sparkling light is the energy summoned from within you to empower the stone. It is energy programmed with your magical goal. Imagine the sparkling light being absorbed into the stone.
✵ At this point, say aloud what your goal is and what the stone is to be used for. For example, you may say, “This stone brings me prosperity,” if you are programming it for financial success or abundance. Some people find it easier to repeat a phrase like this over and over in order to raise and focus the energy upon what they are empowering. I tend to be a very quiet green witch, so I quietly whisper my chosen phrase over and over until the words become a stream of sound. I visualize that sound being directed into the stone.
✵ Once the energy has been absorbed into the stone, the stone has been programmed with your magical intention and empowered for that use.