Crystals for Energy Work

Hi everyone! I’m back from an unexpectedly long hiatus!

I took a break from blogging for a week or two and now it has been two months. Funny how that happens sometimes! Now I’m feeling refreshed and ready to tackle some new topics, so here we go!

I want to spend the next few weeks talking about crystals. I’ve avoided this topic ever since I started this blog because crystals are so trendy in the NewAge/metaphysical world and I’m not one to jump on trendy bandwagons. There are also piles of resources out there about crystals, so I didn’t feel like I had much to add to the discussion.

What changed my mind?

I’m finally willing to admit publicly that I love crystals. I'm also become more aware of how I use crystals differently than many people. Admitting that I love crystals is a statement not nearly as weird as it used to be. Crystal and rock shops are pretty much everywhere these days and are patronized by a mix of people working with the energy of crystals and people who just love the scientific side of learning about minerals, crystals, and fossils. People who love rocks and crystals are a diverse bunch. Some enjoy using crystals for jewelry while other are into decorating with various slabs of rocks and minerals. There are even people who go “rockhounding” to dig minerals and fossils in the wild rather than patronize stores. Personally, I love the geology of crystals and minerals so some of my collection is simply dedicated to interesting specimens.

However, I also love working with the energy of crystals for healing. When I started playing around with crystals, I didn’t get a book or anything. I just began experimenting with what I had around. I talked with some people who worked with crystals and visited crystal shops. Without any formal training, I learned by testing things out and seeing what worked for me. Last spring I finally took a Reiki Crystal class, which was helpful to learn more about crystals for healing. It also clarified the fact that I work with crystals differently than many people.

So, for the next few blog posts I want to tell you a little more about my experience working with crystals and give you some tools to help you start your own crystal practice (if you haven’t yet) or take your current practice to the next level.

First, when we talk about using crystals in the metaphysical sense, we aren’t really using the word scientifically. Crystals are technically created by the arrangement of atoms creating geometric lattice structures often seen to the naked eye as points, cubes, or angled edges of raw materials. You can see this in cubic salt crystals or snow crystals that most often have six points or in the points of the amethyst crystals in the picture above. Not all crystals in nature, though, are "crystals" in the metaphysical sense. At the same time, when people talk about "crystals" used for energy work they also include various stones that aren't technically crystals in the scientific sense. Some things we call "crystals" are actually mineraloids (minerals without a crystal structure). There are also “crystals” that come from something organic (such as amber) so they aren't technically crystals either. This is a bit of a rabbit hole that I don’t want to go deeply into at this moment. I just want to point out that I know I’m not using the term scientifically in this post. I’m going to fall into the dark depths of popular crystal culture and wallow in it. I'm also going to stop using "crystals" in quotes to make life easier.

The reason crystals are powerful partners in energy work is because they are stable energy sources (with or without the atomic crystalline lattice structure). Most plants, supplements, and essential oils have similar reliable energy signatures that can be used for healing. As we have talked about before on this blog, everything is energy and every health problem has an energetic root. Often that root is stuck energy causing a blockage that prevents the body from healing itself. If you can clear the underlying energy blocks, you can free your body to heal. One way to clear a block is to provide an “opposing” energy to neutralize the problematic energy, allowing the body to move it out. Healing can also be enhanced by supportive energies such as crystals, essential oils, and plants that help your body function better and improve the healing process.

Here’s an example of how this can work. If you get sick with a cold, then on a physical level your immune system goes into high gear to fight off the pathogen. Taking supplements such as Vitamin C or echinacea can support the immune system to function better, help you remove the offending pathogens, and heal the body. On an energetic level it looks a little different. Here the pathogen has it’s own energy field that disrupts your body’s natural energy field. Finding the right energetic frequency to “neutralize” the pathogen’s energy will make it much easier for your body to move the unwanted energy out, which in turn makes it easier for the physical body to fight off the illness. Since crystals are stable energy fields, they aren’t easily influenced by outside energy sources and help neutralize the illness at an energetic level.

Crystals can also be supportive energy sources. Let's say you are working on some deep emotional healing from things in your past. You have to do the emotional work of unpacking what happened and letting it go. The right crystal partners can support this work by helping that emotional energy you are releasing fully clear from your energy field. Common crystal references also suggest that crystals can be helpful for "grounding" or "finding love." There are also many claims that they can "attract" desirable finances, jobs, and more to you. The crystals themselves don't make this happen, they just work with your energy system to help release and heal whatever needs to be released and healed so you can meet your goals.

Which brings me to another misunderstanding that needs to be addressed. Everyone has very individual energy needs that can change frequently. That means no one crystal works for everyone all the time. Have you ever picked up a book about crystals at a metaphysical store or clicked on a crystal post on Pinterest? Many of these will give lists of crystals and how they can help you. “10 crystals for financial prosperity” or “5 crystals to heal your heart” are common titles you might see. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with these lists. They can be good ways to learn about crystals you might want to work with. I just think these types of posts don’t touch on the importance of selecting crystals based on how they work with your unique energy field rather than based simply on what you want out of them.

I think this distinction is important because it’s the difference between just trying to get what you want and choosing to heal the underlying issues causing your current problems. If you are experiencing financial difficulty, then there are energy blocks (probably several) keeping you from creating financial abundance in your life. Working with the correct crystals can support you in clearing out those energy blocks (probably along with other mental and emotional work). The crystals, however, cannot actually attract financial abundance to your life while the underlying issues are still there.

Some people do get good results picking crystals out of books and finding that they support their healing. I’m not knocking it as a way to start exploring crystals. There are a number of common crystals that tend to work well for a lot of people for a lot of issues. These are the ones that tend to show up in the basic books. Reading those descriptions in the books might help you pick the crystals you want to try, but that doesn’t guarantee that they will work with your energy field the way you intend for them to work.

If you really want to dive deep into crystal work, you eventually will need to walk away from the lists and popular hype with their magical promises to "fix" your problems. This involves a better understanding of how you heal. As we've talked about many times on this blog, all healing is self-healing. Crystals, essential oils, therapy, and other forms of work simply support your body's healing process. Self-healing starts by fist deciding you want to heal and believing that you can (you'd be surprised how many people skip this step). Then you need to get clear on what you need to heal. Once you've done this work, you focus on the specific energy signatures you need to help change your life. Using crystals to support you in this step takes some learning, practice, and intuition.

I believe that everyone has a unique set of crystals that work particularly well with their own body’s energy system. These crystals can be used to support your self-healing which will allow you to change your life. Although I do want to say that I don’t think that working with crystals in isolation will accomplish all these goals. As I’ve written about before, there are many ways to do the work needed to heal and change your life and there is no magic solution that will change it all at once. So, if you like crystals, then start learning how use them in your healing practice! Just be aware that you’ll likely also have to do some work with techniques other than crystals.

In the next post we’ll dive more deeply into how to choose your healing goals and select crystals to work with.

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