The Ultimate Guide to Crystals & Stones: A Practical Path to Personal Power, Self-Development, and Healing - Uma Silbey 2016
Reading a Crystal or Crystal Ball
Working with Higher Dimensions
Crystal gazing and crystal ball reading refer to the process of using the crystal as a focusing device or as a starting point through which we develop and maintain an altered state of awareness in order to access certain information. This altered state of awareness, or trance state, allows us to delve deeply into the stored material of our subconscious to answer specific or general questions or to receive specific information. This trance state can also sensitize us to certain etheric vibrations so that we can see the future or the past. It can be used as a method to begin to view the astral plane and travel on it. As a by-product of our work with crystal gazing or crystal ball reading, we tend to develop our powers of concentration, willpower, visualization, and telepathy.
There are many mediums we can use for gazing. These include gazing in water, black ink, tea leaves, magic mirrors, and glass balls. The easiest to use, however, are clear quartz crystals, because their amplification properties help expand our awareness so that we are aware of the higher plane realities, and so are able to gain information in other ways besides using our intellect. Because clear quartz tends to energize us, it can be especially helpful in developing the strength of will needed to maintain the clear focus we need to be successful in our gazing. There are also veils and inclusions we can use to enter a crystal or that will offer suggestions or clues leading us to subconscious information. Clear quartz crystal balls are even better, since the circular shape tends to easily pull us into its center, enabling us to gaze with even more focus. Colored crystals or stones can also be used as long as they are clear enough to see into. Each color has its own energy associated with it, which can add to our reading. If we are trying to access information about healing, for example, a clear amethyst will be good to use, especially if it is in sphere form. A clear rose quartz or green calcite can be useful when attempting to find information about relationships.
There are many types of clear crystal balls people like to work with. Some prefer to work with crystal balls that are absolutely clear, feeling that anything else will be distracting. These are the hardest to work with. Others prefer crystal balls with veils and inclusions, feeling that it is easier to enter through doorways or windows or to find interesting areas that draw us inward. Rainbows add value and color dimension to our readings. Replicating the colors of the astral world to some extent, they can help draw us to that plane. Ultimately, however, when choosing our crystal ball, besides being able to see into it, we should select the one we seem to be the most attracted to or the one that seems to draw us to it.
As with our other crystal and stone work, to be the most effective, we need to develop our will and be able to clear and calm our mind. A harried, unfocused mind will not be able to see beyond the screen of thoughts that mask the perception of the subtler impressions. If our mind is calm and clear, we will more easily increase our ability to visualize or view mental pictures so that we can see them in the crystal ball. A weak and untrained will won’t allow us the ability to concentrate or maintain a focus for any length of time. We need to be able to detach ourselves from our everyday concerns and develop a sense of ourselves apart from what we think or feel, as well as develop our ability to be aware of sensations or thoughts that may have come through the astral or mental planes. It is also helpful if we pay attention to incidences of precognition and intuition in our daily lives instead of automatically dismissing them. These abilities will tend to develop naturally the more we work with our crystals and stones.
Methods of Seeing into a Crystal or Crystal Ball
In order to crystal gaze successfully, it is important to be focused without straining in any way, looking into the crystal with relaxed attention. If our mind wanders, we need to just gently bring it back. With relaxed focus in this way, we then gaze into the crystal ball using diffused or unfocused vision. Though this tends to happen automatically as we enter the trance state that is induced through our gazing, we can also learn to do this by slightly pulling the outer corners of our eyes slightly toward our ears while looking straight ahead. Once we have pulled the corners of our eyes, notice the slightly hazy way our vision is as we look through our eyes. Now, we have only to maintain that vision as we look into the crystal. With practice we can shift to this way of seeing automatically when we gaze. Our vision, however, will automatically become diffused as our concentration centers ever more completely on a point within the crystal ball, thereby causing us to pass into an altered state of consciousness.
Gazing into a quartz crystal ball can help us become aware of the etheric bridge through which we can “travel” to become aware of both the astral and physical worlds. Do you see the angel guide in the center?
There are many ways of seeing when we gaze into a crystal ball with our altered state of consciousness. One way is to actually see visions. Usually with this method the crystal or crystal ball will seem to get grayish or cloudy. Next, a hallway will seem to open or curtains may part. Then we see our visions. Another method uses the crystal or crystal ball as a starting point from which an astral tube opens, much like a telescope, leading to the astral plane. As we look through this tube we see our visions. Using this technique, because we only see what appears through the end of the tube as opposed to the surrounding aspects, we can learn to aim the tube in all directions using our focused will and then see the total vision. Alternatively, as we pass more deeply into a trance state, we can will ourselves to travel through the tube to actually enter our vision, viewing it in its entirety.
Another method is to gaze into the crystal or crystal ball and receive impressions or pictures in our mind’s eye rather than actual pictures within the crystal. If we are working with this technique, it is important to reserve our initial judgment, just noticing them, however slight they may be. It is important not to dismiss anything as being irrelevant or unimportant, for upon later reflection it may make more sense to us.
One method or another may be easier for us to work with. One is not better than another. As with all our work with crystals and stones, the more we pay attention to our intuition, trust it, and work with it, the more it will increase in strength. As we begin to report our impressions, they will feel stronger and flow through us more easily and completely. As we work with crystal gazing we are building a psychic muscle system. Like any muscle system, the more we exercise and use it, the stronger and more trustworthy it becomes and the more our accuracy will improve.
Often, the bridge between the psychic realms and physical is not yet built, so, as with our dreaming, we often can’t remember what we saw or experienced. As we gain the information we are seeking through our gazing, it is helpful to report it to another person or into a recording device so we will remember what we learned. As with all our work, it is important to check our results for accuracy. It is helpful to keep a notebook so we can see our improvement, which will help increase our confidence. This, in turn, will create an even greater facility for successful crystal and crystal ball reading.
CRYSTAL BALL READING TECHNIQUE
1. Darken the room around you. Put the crystal ball on a dark surface that won’t reflect distracting light. Have a candle or other form of light shining into the crystal ball to illuminate it. The light source can be reflecting up from beneath the crystal ball or behind the sphere. Clear the crystal ball before using it.
2. Sit comfortably with your spine straight. This enables you to channel energy that flows through your body as you do the reading. Ground and center yourself. Calm your mind.
3. Placing both hands on the crystal ball, rub it with both hands, charging it with your energy. On your inhale feel as if you are drawing the vitality of the crystal ball inside of you, mixing it with your own vital energy. Then, exhale completely through your mouth into the sphere, sending vital force from your body to mix with the vitality of the crystal ball. Visualize or feel this vital force being exchanged and joined. Continue until you feel that both you and the crystal ball vibrate in harmony and that the ball is “alive.”
4. Now, if you would like to charge the crystal ball even more, retain your focus and point a single-terminated quartz crystal or crystal wand towards the ball until you feel the subtle connection between the two. Once the connection is established, circle the single-terminated crystal or wand in a clockwise direction until you feel the sphere pulsate. When it’s pulsating strongly, lay your single-terminated crystal down or continue to hold it in your left hand with the tip pointing inward.
5. Diffuse your vision and find an area in the crystal ball that interests you. Focusing on it more and more completely, allow your intellectual mind to relax, leaving yourself open to any impressions. Don’t allow any preconceptions or judgments to enter your consciousness. Remain relaxed, open, and focused.
6. Releasing any tension, continue to look at that area in more detail. As you do this, the crystal ball seems to begin growing in size. The more you lose your sense of yourself and are only conscious of the detail in the crystal ball, the larger the sphere seems to become. Eventually, feel yourself opening, as if you have no edges or boundaries, until you lose awareness of your separate self apart from the crystal ball.
7. Your eyes may or may not close at this point. You will be able to read the crystal ball either way, either seeing images within the sphere or within your mind’s eye.
8. At this point you may find that your breath changes in a certain way, or that energy begins to move in particular patterns, or you begin to utter sounds. If this happens, it is because energy is moving upward into your higher centers.
9. Now, either silently ask specific questions or use your will to guide you to a specific location that you mentally view. If you don’t have a specific question and only want the crystal ball to reveal information to you that is pertinent at this time, relax and let yourself be guided. Let impressions come and go, not hanging on to any one of them, letting them pass through your consciousness, reporting what you experience.
10. When you feel that you are finished, or if you get tired, remain with the crystal for a few minutes, relaxing any residual tension and just enjoying the space within the crystal.
11. Next, using your focused will, back up out of the crystal ball, starting to feel edges around yourself as you separate from the sphere. If you followed a certain route into the sphere, follow the same route out. Continue until you see the edges of the crystal ball, and then see the ball in front of you. Become aware of the surface upon which you sit. Become aware of your breathing. Open your eyes. If your eyes are already open, let go of your diffused vision and bring it back to normal. Stretch and move your body until you feel completely grounded in your everyday consciousness.
12. After extinguishing the light shining into the crystal ball, clear yourself, the room or environment you are in, and the single-terminated crystal or crystal wand. Cover your crystal ball with a natural fiber cloth, any color cloth that seems right to you, or store it in a pouch, keeping it in a special place until its next use.
Communicating Information During a Crystal Ball Reading
As we relay information during our crystal ball reading, we are just a tool in the process. Our mouth automatically speaks of what we see without any personal involvement. Our awareness isn’t centered on what we are saying. If we find that we begin speaking from our intellectual mind rather than our intuitive or higher mind, we are no longer in the trance state. If we continue to speak while not in a trance state, our information will no longer be accurate. One way to keep this from happening is to remain nonjudgmental. As soon as we judge, we are speaking from our intellectual mind rather than from a higher state of mind. If our mind wanders or if we start listening to what we are saying, we have only to gently pull our mind back to our vision in the sphere. If we revert back to our intellectual mind, we will start losing the vision. If we lose the vision entirely and are unable to revert back to our original trance state, we can repeat the process of entering into the crystal ball and begin again, communicating whatever comes to view. If we begin again, we may find that what we see is quite different than what we saw before. If so, start communicating that.
When we first begin this work, it may be difficult to sort through all of the impressions we start receiving to focus only on those that apply to our purpose. If we start becoming confused with too many impressions that seem to be irrelevant, concentrate more on our purpose or on the initial question we had when we began our reading. With a strong focus and with practice, our impressions or visions will more closely reflect only those in which we were interested when we began the reading.
LIKE A DREAM, THE CRYSTAL BALL IS A DOORWAY
BETWEEN THE ASTRAL AND PHYSICAL PLANES.