Crystal Meanings

* Amethyst: change is coming

* Black agate: monetary gain

* Red agate: long life and health

* Aventurine: new horizons and positive growth

* Blue lace agate: the need for spiritual and physical healing

* Citrine: the universe offers enlightenment

* Diamond: stability

* Emerald: lushness

* Hematite: new prospects

* Jade: everlasting life

* Red jasper: the need for grounding

* Lapis lazuli: heavenly fortune

* Quartz: clarity where there was none

* Rose quartz: love is in your life

* Ruby: deep passion and personal power

* Sapphire: truth

* Snowflake obsidian: your troubles are at an end

* Tiger’s eye: the situation is not as it appears

* Snow quartz: major changes

Prompt Prophecies: Crystal Divination

Give your tarot cards a rest and create a one-of-a-kind divination tool: a bag of crystals you can use to do readings. It is very easy to do. Collect together the stones you have picked up on your travels, and keep your eye out for crystals as you go about your daily business. You can also acquire relatively inexpensive stones, such as garnets, agates, amethysts, and tiny citrines, at your favorite metaphysical shop or you can buy them online. Ideally you would have all the stones listed opposite, but if you don’t, you should have at least a dozen to start with.

I have used this divination tool for matters ranging from career, wealth, health, love, and travel. Once I asked about staying at a job where I was increasingly unhappy and pulled out tiger’s eye, amethyst, and quartz. The crystals were telling me that dishonesty was involved on some level and a shift would soon be revealed. That was all I needed to initiate a new job hunt as quickly as possible. Happily, and with the help of prosperity magic in this book, I landed a more lucrative new position. Shortly after I left, a former colleague contacted me to say that bankruptcy was in the works because of years of financial chicanery. Listen to the messages of crystals!

Select a favorite velvet bag, and when the need arises, turn to crystal visions for your enlightenment. Most of us cannot afford diamonds in our bag of crystals, so substitute with clear quartz here; for emeralds, switch to peridots, and garnets can substitute nicely for rubies. Some New Age stores and online sources also have “rough rubies” and “rough emerald” pieces for just a few dollars each, so it is possible to find these spiritual stones at reasonable prices.

Casting the stones is as easy as one, two, three:

1. Shake the bag well.

2. Ask a question.

3. Remove the first three stones you touch, and then interpret them with the following guide.

 

Darning Your Aura: Crystal Combing

We have all encountered psychic vampires, who tear away little pieces of your chi, or life force, leaving holes in your aura (etheric body). You can identify the places that need patching because they will become noticeably cold as you pass a crystal over them.

Pick your favorite stone from amethyst, citrine, or any quartz and run it all around you at a distance of about 3 inches (7.5cm). Make note of the cold spots and lay the crystal on those places for about 5 minutes, until the spot feels warmer. This repairs the holes in your aura and you should begin to feel a pleasant sense of renewed wholeness once again.

Another wonderfully soothing technique is crystal combing. Take a piece of pink kunzite and brush it in gentle, slow, downward strokes from the top of your head, the crown chakra, to the bottom of your feet. The next time you feel overwhelmed by anxiety, try this and you will feel more relaxed and in control afterward.

Kunzite is also a heart mender, which works with the heart chakra to bring inner peace, clear away old romantic wounds, and get rid of emotional baggage. While lying down you can place a chunk of kunzite upon your chest, meditate with it, and feel the healing energy flow in.

Energy-clearing Spell

My friends probably start rolling their eyes when I enthuse about the latest crystal discovery, fossil find, or glamorous geode. I truly can’t help myself as I simply love crystals and will never stop getting excited about these jewels that I consider to be major gifts from our Mother Goddess. She is endlessly generous and shows her love of us with the beauty and power of these sacred stones. Nevertheless, I do urge cleansing any and all new acquisitions so no unknown energy is allowed to permeate your home or impact your life or spellwork in any potentially negative way. All you need is a bowl of salt and you can cleanse your crystal and add it to your witch’s toolkit.

Simply place the crystal in the salt, making sure every surface or facet is touched by the salt, and chant this charm:

    Bones of our Mother,

    Stone of this Earth,

    Now your energy is clear.

    Now your energy is clean.

    Now your energy is here.

    Blessed be.

Your new prize is now ready.

Activate Your Third Eye: Labradorescence

Labradorite is a stunning stone with a lovely iridescence. As a magpie who is attracted to shiny objects, it grabs my attention every time. It can look as dull as dirt until you give it a closer examination; then you can see the glow under the surface. When cut and polished, it is fascinating and gorgeous, with an impressive light show of yellows, oranges, blues, and violets. In fact, the special play of light and color across the surface is called labradorescence. The effect is caused by lamellar intergrowths, produced inside the crystal while the crystal formed. Named after the place it was first found, Labrador, this loveliest of shiny objects can also be found in India, Finland, Russia, Newfoundland, and Madagascar.

As you might guess, this bluish feldspar is a soul stone with a very powerful light energy. It abets astral travel and connecting with the higher consciousness and is a favorite of mystics. It brings up nothing but positivity for the mind and excises the lower energies of anxiety, stress, and negative thoughts. It is an aura cleanser and balancer. Labradorite also protects against aura leakage wherein your personal energy drains out, leading to mental exhaustion and a case of the blues. This is a crystal to hold and keep with you during meditation, to enable psychic flashes, much like the flashes of light from within the stone.

I had no idea that it is also a stone that awakens psychic powers and activates your third eye until I learned this from the great teacher Scott Cunningham. Even a small piece of this special crystal will work. Take the crystal and hold it to the center of your forehead with both hands. Speak aloud:

    Artemis, Astarte, Athena, Circe—fill me with your power,

    On this day, I ask you lend me your seer’s vision.

    I stand at the threshold in this holy hour.

    And so it is. Great goddesses; I am grateful.

Crystalline Calm

You can create a sense of blissful and composed calm with the following spell.

Timing: The spell works best during early morning or twilight, when the light is half sun and half dark.

Sit with a turquoise stone for grounding in your left hand and with clear quartz in your right hand for calm and clarity. Feel the cool stones begin to warm to your hand and meditate in the quietude of half-light. Then speak this spell:

    Fear and doubt leave me now.

    Serenity and strength, come to me now.

    In these stones, I feel the earth, the mountain.

    I receive my vitality from Nature, grounding now.

    Now and in the future, all joy will enter.

    Harm to none, only good. Blessed be me.

Keep the two stones on your nightstand for whenever you need to regain calm and clarity.

Crystal Feng Shui

Gems and statues positioned in strategic places around your home can help accelerate the positive vibrations you are activating by practicing crystal and gem magic.

Using what I call crystal feng shui, you can place a crystal or a geode or an appealingly shaped rock in the appropriate position in your home to facilitate change. For example, amethyst will promote healing and release any negative energy that is clinging. Clusters of citrine will activate vibrations of abundance and creativity.

So, if you want to bring more money into your home or office, place a big chunk of citrine on the left side of your desk, and the money will begin to flow! If you have a dark hallway that feels spooky or an area in your home or office where the energy feels very static or low, place an obsidian ball there, perhaps on a pedestal, to absorb this negative energy. If you want your bedroom to be a place of bliss and unconditional love, rose quartz will create this all-important atmosphere.

Ceremonial Crystal Knife

Athames, as you know, are not for cutting but for raising and managing energy. Athames that have been carved from crystals have become popular in recent years and can be very pretty. Consider these stones to be carved and polished and used as your sacred tool:

    * Amethyst opens up psychic abilities.

    * Celestite brings angel-powered insight and advice.

    * Selenite is a stone of good fortune in the future.

    * Azurite with malachite incites brilliance.