Please indulge me this one, last crystal question; I won’t ask any more, I promise!
What do followers of New Age practices “do”, exactly, with crystals? Are the crystals simply left lying around the house (in strategic locations, perhaps), or are they used in some more focused manner (say, for meditative purposes)?
(I’m not looking for arguments about whether or not crystals are efficacious, along New Age lines [which I believe Cecil has covered]; just want to know what people actually do with them once they have them.)
One new-age type (my wife’s hairdresser) explained in great detail how hyperactive her son was, and how much better he’d been since she found a great ‘calming stone’ and made him carry it around in his pocket all day.
I’d guess that since none of this has any basis in reality, that the numbers of ways people use these crystals is limited only by imagination.
Let me preface this by saying that, as a Wiccan, I don’t do crystals.
That is, I don’t believe crystals hold any particular power (except for the piezo-electric properties of some).
But pick up any book on Paganism, witchcraft or spellcasting rituals, and there’ll be a list of what crystals have what properties. Some are for healing, some for love, some for protection. The list is pretty encompassing.
Some people will carry a bit of crystal on themselves. Others will incorporate different crystals into their rituals. Wands - an altar tool - often have crystals tied on to them.
If I use a crystal in a ritual, it’s because I think it’s pretty and makes a good focus point for meditation. Not because it have “vibes” or powers.
“I’m surprised that you’ve never been told before, that you’re lovely, that you’re perfect, and that somebody wants you.” - Semisonic, f.n.p
I’m surprised: does no one on this board know what New Age practitioners themselves actually do with crystals? Surely they must come with prescriptive advice (instructions?) about how they are to be used, no?
(“Comfort stones” – which I remember from the 70s as “worry stones” – are a different matter, I would think. If they give a child a sense of comfort, or serve as something onto which anxieties can be projected, so be it. It makes no sense to say they have no basis in reality; that’s like saying a Teddy Bear has no basis in reality.)
Uh, I’m not even sure the kid knew he had them. The hairdresser told the story in the context of describing all the different crystals that she uses to enhance her life.
I know some people who swear by crystals, although I prefer to laugh at the little rocks. I’ll give you what little I have bothered to retain about their uses so far:
Activation/personalization: it’s not enough that you get charged for buying the world’s most common mineral at an inflated price of 1000% (Cecil’s info), but once you have a stone in your hands, you have to prepare it, or activate it. Depending on what crystal you bought, you have to wash it a certain way, let it dry a certain way, carry it around on your skin a certain number of days (presumably the crystal wil be infused with your body heat, aura, whatnot), lay it on a windowsill a certain number of days, expose it to the sun a certain number of days, and so on. Once the crystal is “prepared” it stops being a common piece of mineral and becomes a magical mystical rock with all sorts of powers.
What you do with them: Supposedly there are crystals for almost every single use you can think of. If you have high blood pressure, you can get crystals to help you. If you have loud hyperactive kids, Crystals will be there for you. If you suffer from AIDS, there are crystals to help you. It’s pathetic. More generic crystals can be carried around to purify your body and your aura, or a number of them can be placed in strategic locations to purify a room, remove bad energy, and so forth. I am sure there are even toilet crystals that act as air fresheners by purifying the air. If there aren’t there definitely should be, because this is the sort of thing that new age noodleheads are going to love.
Each stone has different properties. generally you use them by carrying them around on a necklace or something like that. many crystals are actually very pretty, it’s a shame that they have to be marketed in the ignorant way that they are. I’d much rather go out and buy a crystal because it looks good than have some advocate of witchcraft try to sell me a common mineral for its nonexistent powers.
I don’t subscribe to the notion that a crystal per se has powers. However, crystals do come in several types, and the species thereof can be associated with a magickal usage (in the same way as a particular herb, colour, moon phase, etc.) So, the act of gathering the materials with the appropriate correspondence is a means of gathering the power used in the spell; knowing that you used an appropriate type of crystal can help to focus your mind on the spell you are working.
I’d agree with you, Peyote, but one must tread lightly. Remember that there are those who believe perfectly daffy things as a part of their religion. Crystals don’t happen to be one of them, but there are others of which one must be aware/sensitive/careful.
Dear matt_mci:
Yes, you are certainly right about the need to step carefully when discussing religion. I would not make that comment about Christian sects, Islam, Hinduism or any other religion of the world.
However, every it seems to me that the New Age movement swipes whatever it wants from all the world’s religions, and ignores the rest. I refuse to consider that mismash a religion.
I had a crystal, I have books etc, and this was my experience:
I bought this crystal, the stone itself should not be damaged to make the setting, so usually you get them with the setting as a band around the end. on the flat end of mine, inside, you could see an image of another crystal, a stone within a stone so to speak.
I never took it off.Fast forward a year or so… Some bad things began to occur in my life (early shitboy crap) , and the chain got broke or something, anyway I stopped wearing it. A few years later, I got it fixed ( it was the setting- I remember now
and everytime I put it on I was plagued by unhappiness, a strong feeling of sadness that I couldnt shake. I put my crystal in a box, and I dont wear it anymore.
Its not my religion, and I am not a new ager, but I do think there might be something to the theory that inanimate objects can hold the energy or vibes of the people around it.