crystals

Crystals, Rainbows and Healing Thoughts

64 Arts

So we’ve talked about crystals and we’ve discussed meditation, now it’s time to combine them and add a third element: chakras.

Chakras are energy centers that begin at the based of your spine and extend up to the top of your head, totaling seven (though there are minor chakras up into the twenties that correspond to other areas of the body). These centers correspond to areas of the body, have assigned colors and have been matched with certain stones. There are diets based on chakras and healing modalities focused on targeting damaged centers. Chakras are very big in New Agey woo-woo, but even in the non-woo they’re pretty interesting.

Here’s the cliff-notes version:

Name Part of the Body Color Crystal
1st Root Skeleton, lower body Red or black Jasper or hematite
2nd Sacral Bladder, circulation Orange Carnelian
3rd Solar Plexus Adrenal glands, stomach Yellow Tiger eye
4th Heart Immune system, lungs Green with pink Malachite
5th Throat Lymph nodes, neurological Blue Turquoise
6th Third Eye Pituitary glands, central nervous systems Indigo Lapis lazuli
7th Crown Pineal gland Violet Amethyst

And that really is a nutshell-summary, but you get the picture, right?

Notice how the colors from the root to the crown follow the acronym for the color spectrum? Good old ROY G. BIV, learned it in childhood and find that it’s still useful!

One of the first guided meditations I participated in used this color progression and visualizing a staircase as it’s main vehicle. It was a lengthy meditation, nice and slow so that each color had time to become fully materialize in the mind’s eye before moving on. One of the more amusing parts of the meditation was at the end, in the 8th level (pure white light and the destination of this particular meditation) when the guide mentioned that once you were comfortable with the stairs you could hurry the process up–use the escalator or elevator on future trips.

This turned out the be useful because future sessions, on my own this time, I would move faster through the colors to my destination.  Sometimes, though, I would get stuck on a certain color. It wouldn’t materialize or I couldn’t hold onto the color with my mind and I’d slip into a different color, usually the one just before the troubled one.

Turns out, this is a way of finding chakra imbalances and, some believe, pinpointing areas of disease (sometimes mentioned and thought of as dis-ease to highlight the out-of-whack-ness of the body). Knowing where the problem is can help you work through it and resolve any imbalances or ailments.

Which is where the crystals and colors come in. Skilled chakra therapists can pinpoint issues, apply the right crystals and bring things into alignment through energy manipulation. Depending on your self-awareness (which, hey, you’re considering your chakras and travelling through them–that’s pretty well on the path!) you can begin to align your chakras, yourself, or at least have a clue where to start when you visit your regular doctor for a persistent issue.

Charms for the Easy Life

64 Arts

(no, not the movie, though it is delightful…)

Can we get one thing straight? There isn’t one. A charm that will ensure easy life, I  mean.

If life were always easy, we’d never appreciate it. At least not enough.

No, what I’m thinking of are those things that make us feel better, that put our minds at ease, that give us a focal point for our tension so we do not direct it at others.

3 Cars, 3 Crystals

I got my first car the month I turned 22. It was out of necessity–my husband at the time had asked for a divorce on Easter Sunday and I was going to need a car to get around in as we’d been sharing his. It was a gently used 97 Geo Prism, dark blue, and it was my freedom.

Over the next 7 years she and I would be involved in just as many accidents (only one of which, for the record, was my fault–the rest was just unfortunate luck, a fact my insurance company will back up). My friends dubbed her Cher from the amount of body work she’d had done. The last incident, after I’d duly paid off the note and had survived my second failed marriage, was what did her in. A 17-year-old ran a stop sign coming up a slight hill and spun Cher and I around in the intersection. She was totaled.

Next came Phoebe, a 3-year old Saturn Ion that had been a lease before me. Not one month after signing the papers a college student decided to make a left out of an apartment complex, ignoring the 2 lanes of oncoming traffic he’d have to cross before reaching the safety of the median, and I was unable to avoid him. I joked that they were only supposed to transfer the tag, not the hit me sign, too!

All jokes aside, I decided it was to be a bit creative. Defensive driving can only get you so far.

Phoebe only lasted a year before her computer systems started acting up. After 4 repairs in as many weeks, Electra entered my life (so named because she had a nasty habit of shocking me every time I’d get out of the car for several months). Electra was a brand new, 16-miles-on-her-including-my-test-drive, Saturn Ion 2, and the first thing I transferred to her was the amulet I’d made after Phoebe’s first (and last!) accident.

After 4 1/2 years with no accidents, I’d say the jade, quartz and amethyst crystals are doing their job!

Animism, Energy or Something Else?

Natural stones and crystals derive, some believe, a certain amount of power and influence as they are formed from and within the earth.

To me, it brings into play the Thermodynamic Laws (named the first one which says energy is neither created nor destroyed, it merely changes form). Stones, in this way, are merely potential [metaphysical] energy waiting to be utilized. The hows and whys are more mental or emotional as opposed to chemical. (Though, it should be noted, light-workers probably consider stones as having kinetic energy.)

Whether this counts for animism is up for debate–animism considers everything has a soul… but you believe souls *are* energy, well, then, let’s call it that, too!

At any rate, if you choose to use crystals for anything besides their shiny, pretty properties, you’ll want to know a few things about them.

Jade, quartz and amethyst

My Travel Buddies

My travel amulet consists of a piece each of jade, quartz and amethyst.

  • Quartz is a universal stone–it’s good at everything! Kinda like salt in cooking, it amplifies and enhances whatever you want it to. It’s incredibly versatile as a facilitator.
  • Jade is, among other things, great for protection. In the case of travel it prevents accidents. As a side note, the little elephant figure happened to be what I had around at the time but it was even more fortuitous–Ganesha* is the Hindu god known as the Remover of Obstacles–how’s that for defensive driving!
  • Amethyst is a calming stone. In this case it’s a defense against road rage.

Now, I know a lot of folks consider this a whole lot of woo-woo New Age hooey. And that’s fine. It’s not for them. But after being rear-ended twice, having this little bag to concentrate on helps relax me when I’m stopped in traffic and the person coming up fast behind me makes me think back to that trapped feeling just before impact. I take it with me when I fly as something to hold and concentrate on during take-offs and landings and it gives me something to do instead of worry. And I haven’t been in an accident since I started keeping it in the car. It’s enough for me.

To find out more about a particular stone you’re drawn to or interested in, check out the lists over at Crystal Energy Works or Emily Gems, they seem fairly complete. And if you want to learn how to make a little gauzy pouch for your own crystals or other uses, check out my new tutorial, Drawstring Pouch with French Seams, through the Projects tab.

*Ganesha is generally depicted as a man with an elephant’s head, sometimes riding a mouse. I didn’t know this until after I picked my little jade elephant dude, but I still the the synchronicity is nice.