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ISBN: Print 978-1-62315-675-6 | eBook 978-1-62315-676-3
Contents
INTRODUCTION
chapter one THE BASICS OF CRYSTAL HEALING
It Starts with Energy
What Are Crystals?
The Power of Crystals
How Crystals Bring About Change
Crystals & Chakras
Crystal Grids
chapter two SHOPPING FOR CRYSTALS
Inside the Crystal Shop
Common Shapes
How to Choose a Crystal
Choosing Multiple Crystals
Buyer Beware
chapter three PREPARING TO USE CRYSTALS
Cleansing Your Crystals
Charging & Programming Your Crystals
Preparing Your Space
Preparing Your Mind
chapter four CRYSTAL REMEDIES FOR MIND, HEART & SOUL
Abandonment
Abundance
Abuse
Acceptance/Surrender
Addiction
Anger
Anxiety
Boundaries, Setting
Centering
Change, Accepting
Change, Bringing About
Cleansing, Space
Cleansing, Spiritual and/or Emotional
Comfort
Communication, Improved
Compassion
Confidence
Confusion
Connection, with the Divine
Connection, with One’s Spirit
Contentment
Courage
Creativity
Denial
Depression
Despair
Discernment
Eating Disorders
Emotional Balance
Emotional Blockage
Emotional Trauma
Empathy
Empowerment
Faith
Fear
Forgiveness
Goals, Achieving
Gratitude
Grief
Grounding
Hope
Indecisiveness
Insecurity
Insomnia/Sleeplessness
Inspiration
Intuition
Irritability
Joy & Happiness
Kindness
Laziness
Letting Go
Loneliness
Love
Luck
Meditation, Enhancing
Mood Swings
Motivation
Negativity
Obsession/Compulsion
Opening the Heart
Overindulgence
Passion
Peace
Phobias
Positive Energy, Increasing
Prosperity
Protection, Spiritual
Relationships
Repression
Resentment
Self-Control
Self-Esteem/Self-Worth
Self-Harm/Self-Sabotage
Shadows
Shame
Shyness/Social Anxiety
Stress
Trust
Willpower
Worry
chapter five CRYSTAL REMEDIES FOR OVERLAPPING AREAS
Addiction & Self-Control
Anger & Forgiveness
Denial & Acceptance
Despair & Hope
Fear & Courage
Goals & Motivation
Grief & Comfort
Grounding & Spiritual Protection
Guilt & Shame
Insecurity & Self-Confidence
Inspiration & Creativity
Loneliness & Contentment
Opening the Heart & Relationships
Releasing Negativity & Increasing Positive Energy
Resentment & Letting Go
Stress & Peace
chapter six CRYSTAL PROFILES
Agate
Agate, Blue Lace
Agate, Moss
Alexandrite
Amazonite
Amber
Amethyst
Ametrine
Angelite
Apache Tears
Apatite
Aquamarine
Aragonite
Aventurine, Blue
Aventurine, Green
Aventurine, Orange
Azurite
Bloodstone
Boji Stones
Calcite, Blue
Calcite, Green
Calcite, Orange
Calcite, Pink (Mangano Calcite)
Calcite, White
Calcite, Yellow
Carnelian
Celestite
Chalcedony, Blue
Chrysoberyl
Chrysoprase
Cinnabar
Citrine
Desert Rose (Gypsum)
Diamond
Dioptase
Emerald
Epidote
Fluorite, Blue
Fluorite, Green
Fluorite, Purple
Fluorite, Rainbow
Fuchsite
Garnet
Hematite
Herkimer Diamond
Howlite
Iolite
Iron Pyrite
Jade
Jasper
Jet
Kunzite
Kyanite, Blue
Kyanite, Green
Labradorite
Lapis Lazuli
Lepidolite
Lodestone
Malachite
Moldavite
Moonstone
Muscovite
Obsidian
Obsidian, Snowflake
Onyx
Opal
Peridot
Prehnite
Quartz, Clear
Quartz, Rose
Quartz, Rutilated
Quartz, Smoky
Rhodochrosite
Ruby
Ruby in Fuchsite
Sapphire
Sardonyx
Selenite
Sodalite
Spinel, Red or Pink
Sugilite
Sulfur
Sunstone
Super Seven
Tanzanite
Tigers Eye, Blue
Tigers Eye, Red
Tigers Eye, Yellow
Topaz
Tourmaline, Black
Tourmaline, Green
Tourmaline, Pink
Tourmaline, Watermelon
Turquoise
Unakite
Vanadinite
Zircon
Zoisite
GLOSSARY
RESOURCES
REFERENCES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Introduction
Using crystals for spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical healing is an age-old practice dating back thousands of years. Today, crystal healing is still used in our modern world, relying on the vibrations of ancient stones as a remedy for what ails us.
As a Usui Reiki Master, energy healer, and ordained metaphysical minister, I have incorporated crystals into my healing work for years. In my healing practice, I use them to focus emotional and spiritual energy to affect positive change.
Crystals have been important in my own healing journey, as well. I work with them daily to focus my meditation, improve my connection with the spiritual and my higher self, and make adjustments when I experience mental, spiritual, or emotional blockages. For example, I’ve used crystals to achieve forgiveness, as well as to move through grief after the recent death of a loved one. I often work with them to stimulate inspiration and creativity and to focus my intuition.
A deep connection exists between body, mind, and spirit. Imbalance affects every aspect of life, including relationships, career, hobbies, emotions, and even physical health. I learned this the hard way as a young adult. I was out of balance because I was too cerebral, spending so much time in my mind that I neglected my body and soul. This imbalance led to illness and unhappiness, and I spent most of my twenties adrift, with numerous broken relationships, job changes, unfinished projects, and different addresses to prove it.
I was in my early thirties when everything changed. I’d just gone through the breakup of another relationship and had recently lost a job I enjoyed. In the midst of this, I developed a sore throat that persisted, no matter what I tried. I visited several doctors, each unable to treat it because they couldn’t find a physical cause. As the severity worsened and the duration stretched from weeks to months, I decided to try alternative therapy. I found a medical doctor who also practiced energy healing techniques.
I WAS MENTALLY CLEAR, & I FELT A CONNECTION TO SPIRIT THAT HAD ESCAPED ME FOR YEARS
With deep skepticism, I went to my appointment. After a consultation, the doctor had me lie supine on her treatment table with a green rock on the middle of my chest and a blue rock on the center of my throat. She cupped her hands gently on the crown of my head. I felt a rush of energy, and for reasons I couldn’t understand, I burst into tears. I continued sobbing for the remainder of the treatment and all the way home in my car. I cried for the rest of the day until I went to sleep that night.
When I woke up, I felt fantastic. My throat pain was gone, and I felt more alive and enthusiastic than I had in ages. I was mentally clear, and I felt a connection to spirit that had escaped me for years. My throat pain, it turned out, didn’t come from any physical source, but from a spiritual and emotional one that had to do with speaking and living my truth. By clearing the energy blockage that existed in my throat, I was able to release the spiritual and emotional pain I’d been carrying, which then caused a release of the physical pain.
That single visit was the start of a host of positive changes in my life that have led me to a place of great joy, peace, and creativity that has lasted thus far for nearly twenty years. Despite my initial skepticism, my first appointment in an energy healer’s office brought me to crystals and energy healing, and it empowered me to live the life my soul wanted. That’s why I’m so excited to share crystal healing with you. It’s a wonderful tool for finding your own spiritual, mental, and emotional empowerment so that you, too, can lead a life that truly invigorates you and brings you joy.
How can a rock bring about healing? After all, crystals are just pretty stones, aren’t they? While it’s true that crystals are stones, each has a unique structure that imparts its own energetic properties. Healers, holy people, and shamans have known about these properties for millennia. As a result, cultures throughout history have incorporated crystals into their spiritual and healing practices, and references to and the use of these energetic objects have been found in various holy texts and at archeological sites. The use of crystals for healing continues today, and with the information you will learn in this book, you can begin putting this practice to use in your life.
It Starts with Energy
According to physicist Nikola Tesla, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.” Energy is where the secrets of crystal healing lie.
ENERGY & VIBRATION
In 1905, Albert Einstein demonstrated the relationship between matter and energy in his special theory of relativity. Over a century later, French physicist Laurent Lellouch completed calculations verifying this important relationship on a subatomic level, showing that mass could be converted to energy. Perhaps the best real-world demonstration of this relationship is nuclear energy, which results from the conversion of matter into energy.
As Einstein and others have proved, locked within each object in the universe lies some form of energy. Cyndi Dale, in her book The Subtle Body: An Encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy, describes swirling subtle energies underlying all of physical reality and forming the basis of all matter. You, and everything around you, Dale notes, are made up of energy. This is true of living objects, such as human beings, as well as objects that are perceived to be inanimate, such as crystals. This is where humans and crystals intersect: energy and vibration.
All energetic objects vibrate, although that vibration is typically undetectable by our five senses. Nevertheless, science shows that the vibration exists and that each object has its own unique vibrational signature. In humans, this energetic signature exists in the form of our subtle energetic bodies, which include:
CHAKRAS the energy centers in the body (explained in more detail here)
MERIDIANS the energetic pathways running through the body
AURAS energy fields surrounding the human body that enable us to detect our own energy and the energy of others; they are detected by special cameras in a process known as Kirlian photography
Crystals, like our bodies, have auras and vibrations of their own, an
d the interaction between the energy of crystals and the energy of humans can affect our vibrations. Using crystals helps us modulate our energetic signature, which can bring about various types of healing. Crystal therapy is one of a number of energetic energy healing techniques that can change the frequency at which we vibrate.
ENERGY HEALING THROUGH THE AGES
Our current understanding of energy as a constant force in the universe that is ever changing wasn’t articulated until the late nineteenth century. Although people lacked a way to express how energy affects the body in a molecular sense, energy healing modalities were popular across many cultures and eras.
In ancient India (as well as today), practitioners of Ayurveda described the life force that everyone possesses, called prana. Weaknesses and illness result from a lack of prana flowing throughout the body, and so restoring the flow of prana is essential for health. In ancient Chinese medicine, practitioners worked with Chi (or Qi), a life-force energy similar to prana. When the two opposite forces of Chi—yin and yang—were out of balance, illness could result, so therapy sought to rebalance these important forces. (Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners continue to practice using these principles today.) Ancient Egyptian healers used stones and other energy techniques to diagnose and treat illness, and in ancient Greece, healers believed the body had five humors (types of fluid or temperaments) and that healing involved balancing these humors through medicine and energy work.
In modern times, Mikao Usui, who developed the energy healing technique of Reiki, believed that holy people such as Buddha and Jesus tapped into a universal energy for their healing work. Chiropractic care is also a modern form of energy work, although those in the profession state they are clearing bony blockages (subluxations) so that nerve energy can flow freely throughout the body. However, the fact that the nerves conduct energy signals shows just how significant a part of our anatomy energy is. Other modern forms of energy healing include Chios, Quantum-Touch, Deeksha, aura cleansing, acupuncture, and many other types of energy medicine that bring about balance and healing emotionally, spiritually, and physically.
What Are Crystals?
Gemologists and geologists define crystals as solid objects with atoms organized in a repeating pattern known as a crystal lattice. There are seven distinct lattice patterns that can be found in crystals. If it doesn’t have one of these lattices, a stone is not a crystal. For the purposes of this work, healing crystals may also be defined as minerals, rocks, and gemstones with energetic properties that can influence the human energy field.
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