Do crystals really have energy? I thought today I would face a topic I’ve sort of been avoiding. I say sort of because you can see in a lot of my product descriptions that I often casually mention what a stone is known for energetically or metaphysically–but I haven’t really shared too much about my beliefs on this. And when I have a booth set up at an event I will often get asked about the properties of stones. So, shall we?
I’ll start by saying that everything in this world is a swirl of atoms and energy bouncing about endlessly, nothing is static. Everything has a vibration, even your stapler, and this is science! But crystals and gems are also made up of different chemical compositions with their own properties and ways that they interact with the human body or other elements. So just from this very basic picture I think we could see that crystals….might have energy? There are also many examples of crystals being used in electronics to conduct or amplify electricity.
Back in the day I worked in the San Francisco Bay Area selling crystals at gems shows, psychic fairs, and other new age expos so I was exposed to people with a wide range of esoteric beliefs. The majority of our customers didn’t blink an eye about crystal energy–in fact they were amazed I could “handle” being around this many crystals all day because they sometimes felt the energy was too intense! I would get asked again and again to help select crystals for certain ailments or meanings and I did my best to repeat what I’d been told or read in books. But to be honest, I often felt like a phony because I didn’t feel anything when I held a crystal in my hand….
It’s not entirely true that I felt nothing though. Walking into the crystal gallery where I worked, I felt great! It felt like a breath of fresh air actually and even if that was in part just being surrounded by the beauty of all these gems–that’s not nothing! It took me until recently to realize that just because I don’t feel a crystal heating up in my hand as some people claim, I certainly do feel an emotional response and I’ve learned to trust that.
Gazing at an aquamarine or blue chalcedony I notice a sense of soothing calm. A glittery rainbow opal makes me feel total joy when I’m working with one. The moonstone around my neck emits inspiration and creativity when I feel into it. My favorite answer to those customers who ask me at my booth which stone is right for them is, the one that draws you in! That’s it, and only you need to know why. And to the people who love gems but don’t believe in energy–you might be resonating with certain stones without even realizing it has to do with their energy.
I do have a couple books worth mentioning here too. If you’ve ever flipped through a crystal energy book or website and noticed that many of the descriptions are very different for the same stone–that’s because everyone is just telling things from their own perspective so why shouldn’t you? (or the opposite can be true with everyone copy and pasting eachother word for word!) That said I have always liked Crystal Power, Crystal Healing by Michael Gienger because he compiled energy attributes by passing out stones to large groups of people, recording their experiences, and finding the commonalities. The other is Stone Medicine by Leslie J Franks–this is written from the perspective of Taoist stone medicine which has been around since 206 BCE, and offers a unique perspective based on the qualities and elements of stones and how to use them for healing.
When I’m writing my product descriptions I peek at these books but also note what comes up for me, how a stone seems to make me feel. I think many people are in the camp of not reaaally believing but thinking it’s just fun to have that meaning behind a stone or piece of jewelry and that’s totally okay! We love assigning meaning to things through flowers, symbols, tattoos, story-telling, why should stones be any different?
What do you think–have any crystal energy stories to tell? I’d love to hear!
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