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.

Walking the Pagan Path: Stepping Stones

For centuries, in group rituals and solo spells, witches have walked specific paths in the form of symbolic shapes that hold potent spiritual meaning. All you need for this ritual is a stone that brings you special inspiration.

Maybe it is your birthstone; perhaps it is your jade talisman or calming quartz or intuition-boosting amethyst or labradorite. Put the stone in your pocket and you are ready. You may find one walking pattern to be especially enriching for you. I recommend walking the figure eight, the “eternity” symbol from the magician card in the tarot deck. Otherwise, choose from among the universal shapes below. I suggest always walking sunwise, or clockwise. It can be a distance of your choice, in your living room, a bigger shape in your own backyard or whatever feels right to you, intuitionally. For the more complicated patterns you can draw them on paper and place it where you can see it to use as a guide:

    * Oval: The shape that designates the spirit and divine being.

    * Circle: The shape of the sun and moon, designates the whole, the complete, that which never ends and     encompasses all.

    * Cross: The form of a human figure with arms outstretched from the center. The importance of this             symbol predated Christianity by millennia.

    * Hexagram: In the Jewish tradition, the beloved. It is two triangles intersecting, the meeting of heaven     and earth.

    * Five-pointed Star: This resembles the human form with arms and legs outspread—Leonardo Da             Vinci’s favorite.

Prepare for your pagan pilgrimage, your walking meditation, when the moon is in Sagittarius, Aquarius, or your natal moon sign. These prayer walks represent a journey to our own center and back again out into the world, some of the inner work we witches need to do now and again. Keep your eyes closed for the first step, then open your eyes and pray aloud:

    Guide my steps; help me to walk in wisdom.

    What I seek on this day, I shall find as I go

    With an open heart and mind.

    Today, I receive the blessings of the sun.