Metaphysical and Magic shops have always been around - hidden in quiet tree lined street in most cities!
In the last few years, they seem to have stepped out into collective sight and have multiplied, in my city at least!
When I started working with crystals, it was many years ago and talking about the work and experiences with them in public was like announcing “I see dead people”. But, thankfully it’s way more accepted and appreciated now.
I’m not really sure why or even when exactly I started using them. I was unwell at the time and was told by medical folks that I was just going to have to deal with being that way. I think I just walked into a metaphysical shop of magical delights once and straight into a crystal healing circle. After weeks only feeling heaviness, misery and this cold dampness that would take over my mind and body, I remember sitting inside this circle feeling warmth and relief from within for the first time in a long time.
I wasn’t entirely convinced though and so it was a long time before I purchased my first crystal.
I did spent a lot of time with teachers and guides inside crystal grids, learning something I couldn’t describe.
There’s a lot of information out there on how and why crystals work and don’t work for people. I appreciate that and yet, I tend to want to figure out my own relationship.
There’s a real simplicity to working with crystals, if they call to you and you answer.
It’s like any relationship - it works when there is presence, commitment, curiosity, allowance and openness.
Of course googling things is also helpful. Like, if you google images of our bones, you will fin crystalline patterns very similar in structure and formation to crystals found at a metaphysical shop - like apatite. When you study how minerals of the Earth form certain patterns and structures that give birth to crystals, there is a similarity to how our bones are formed and they repair.
To ‘know something in your bones’ has a whole new meaning.
If you’re anything like me, you feel a strong resonance with the mineral layer of the planet. Some folks are dog or cat people, others have human babies or plant babies. Well, crystal people are a category too!
To say I have a favourite crystal is definitely weird for me.
Each one holds a specific frequency which can amplify or dissipate a specific type of energy. So, why pick one, when we have so much help in so many forms!
Recently, I acquired this Clear Quartz.
I’ve have had others in the past, but my work with them wasn’t very deep - we were acquaintances at best.
I saw a photo of this Clear Quartz on a seller’s website, and felt an immediate fear around it. Over the next few days I kept seeing it with my inner eye in prayers or meditations, or randomly while walking about my day. The fear was still there, but also an attraction.
When I sat with my fear, I felt a hesitation to opening up more of my intuition. Memories and ideas of feeling unsafe, or becoming really egocentric or arrogant came up. One of my greatest fears is abusing my gifts and causing harm when I intended good, and being misunderstood in the process.
Every feeling, memory, sentiment, thought and belief that was tied to this fear came up with crystal clarity (pun intended).
This happens. When you work with good quality, ethically sourced, crystals, their vibration serves as a mirror, showing us what we like to hide from within.
It seems intense, and it is. Yet, there is also a gentleness.
I find with crystals, quartz in particular, that time - in the way that we humans perceive it - is irrelevant.
So, whether it takes me an hour or a month to come to a place where I can garner courage and face my fear, the Quartz holds a sense of timelessness with it.
I wonder if this is why quartz was used in the making of watches - reminding us of the gateway in our perception between time and timelessness.
Eventually, when my fear gave way to wonder, I did procure the Quartz. Before the crystal even arrived in the mail, things started to open up. It was like I was working with it in the ethers. When it did arrive, I felt like it had always been mine, there was something familiar about it.
We feel that way with strangers too. A couple of weeks after the quartz arrived, I met a coworker for brunch. We had never met before and had only spoken a few times, but we both felt like we had to hang out! And we did, we chatted for hours!
It was that same familiar feeling I had with the Quartz.
It’s a beautiful thing to work with the gifts of the earth - Crystals or whatever it is that calls to you. Whatever gifts you choose to receive, to work with, to engage with, that allow you a loving depth into yourself and the world around you… it’s all perfect.
There is a joy and intimacy we get to revel in when we allow openness and play within ourselves.
Certainly crystals are aesthetically beautiful and can elevate any space. They seem to come to me when I need them; sometimes their visit is short and I either return them to the earth, or gift them (after cleaning them) to someone else who I feel could benefit from the interaction. Others, have been with me for years.
One of my biggest learnings was not to ‘use’ crystals.
When I tried to ‘use’ a crystal, it was because I felt bad, confused or horrible and I wanted to hold the piece and have it make me feel better. I would get annoyed that ‘it didn’t always work’.
When I finally realized how awful it feels when I am ‘used’ by other people, I saw what I was creating in my relationship with the crystal. I got to see how I was ‘using’ people and things in my life and in turn was ‘being used’. Sometimes, without realizing it, we dance (perhaps begrudgingly) in a pattern that we cannot see.
Here, I saw how I placed unconscious and un-communicated expectations on people, on life, and on myself and felt betrayed when I was let down, often creating the situation of betrayal in the first place.
It took a while for me to get out of my way and see this pattern. I hated it, because I felt called to work with them, but when I did, they “didn’t work” for me.
I got to see and feel first hand, how my mental constructs, attachments and stories get in my way!
It’s a bit like bringing a victimhood story into sacred empowerment work and wondering why we feel triggered and defeated all the time.
Eventually, with a lot of help and a lot of repeating this lesson, I eventually dropped into my heart field (partially from exhaustion) and actually listened and allowed myself to learn from the experience and believe in new ways forward.
I got to learn about the frequency of different emotions and of the crystals that came to be my alliances. New ways to work with and integrate crystalline energies came through and still do! In this way, there is evolution instead of attachment, and a playful resonance instead of ‘using’.
People who are unfamiliar or new to working with crystals, often ask how to work with them, what does it mean ‘sit with a crystal’, and they awkwardly laugh when they ask ‘do they speak to you’?
I think the better question is: What is speaking to you?
Is it your doubts and your limits? Is it your openness and curiosity? Is it fear or is it love?
As with anything that doesn’t speak your native language, the work requires patience, trust and openness to relate. It requires the quietening of the mind, so that we listen with our most powerful resonant organ - our hearts.
Where & How to Start
If you are new to this work, a great place to start is where you currently live, and the mineral content of your lands. Find out what crystals come from there and see if you can find a honest seller; better yet, maybe you can go to the mine itself! It’s a great way to come into natural alignment with where you live.
Alternatively, if you have a favourite place on Earth, maybe a piece from there may resonate.
If you wish to walk into a crystal shop filled with dazzling pieces, it is important to centre, ground the Self and know your intention first. This is also important if you’re shopping online, as it is easy to get distracted.
There is literally a crystal suggestion for any problem you may be experience in life. But working with resonance is about pulling in the pieces that vibrate in the solution or healing-consciousness, not the problem-consciousness.
Think about that it is that you want to feel - maybe you want to feel calm, peaceful or wealthy (because you feel anxious, erratic or in lack).
Feel that feeling before you enter the shop (online or physical) and let that feeling wash over you completely, as if you are drenched in it. It is not a permanent feeling, but that is the resonance you are calling in.
Breathe and take as much time as you need. No-one will rush you in a crystal shop.
When you become the vibration you are seeking, you will naturally be ‘called to’ what will work for you.
Beauty is important here as it nourishes the soul, so if something catches your eye, that’s a great start.
Make sure you are conscious of your breathing and when you hold a crystal, what your body feels like - you may feel pulsing or tingles in certain parts of your body, which may tell you where the energy is being activated.
Check in with your intention, does it align? Do you feel that same beautiful feeling you felt before?
One of my favourite ways to see if a crystal is ‘for me’, is to first stand straight and still with my eyes closed for a few minutes while breathing deeply.
Then, I place the crystal gently in my left hand (since the left side of the body is receptive) while holding it out a little away from my body. This is an old energy trick. With my eyes still closed and my mind still, I can notice slight and subtle changes in my body. Either I lightly move towards the crystal in attraction, or I move away from it which tells me that ‘this piece is for another’.
It’s actually quite fun, and it works beyond crystals, with clothes and furnishings and even while looking at a restaurant menu!
Wherever you are on your crystalline journey, may you be held in absolute joy!
Cautionary Notes:
There are crystals and there are crystals.
Due to their popularity, there has been a noticeable increase in fake crystals made of glass or plastic. It is important that you learn to trust your intuition and do a little research on where and how the crystals are sourced from.
Often, an easy way is to find a reputable and ethical seller, like CrystalEnergetix.
Cost is certainly a factor.
If you find a crystal you know to be expensive because it is rare and you found it for very cheap, ask the seller where it came from and how it was mined. If you are entering into a healing relationship with a crystal, and it was sourced with greed, cruelty and violence, that will likely bleed through in your experience. Purchase with care, love and consciousness.
This is a journey, start it like you would like a truly loving and beneficial relationship where you get to know and love yourself while enjoying every moment of the experience!