A Crystal Conundrum
For a while I've been tossing around some ideas about what to do with my ever growing collection of gemstones and crystals. I tend to keep them divided up in two large-ish wooden boxes, one for my smaller tumbles and one for my druzy crystals, clusters, and points. But after seeing some nice pictures of other people's crystals out and displayed on Facebook I thought "why not bring the kids out to play?" I usually keep them put away {with the exception of a Spirit Quartz cluster and a special palm piece of labradorite} because I don't want them to get dusty, dirty or faded. Some stones will fade from direct sunlight over a period of time {typically those that are semi-transparent, especially quartz stones}. I have a really nice piece of druzy amethyst that was in one of the windows of my office and the whole side that was facing out the window is a pale lavender and the other side a deep plum purple. So I was a bit concerned about bringing them out and putting them in a place that would be in the light, but I thought at least a little time out won't hurt.
My very heavy basket of stones...if you want to carry it be sure to use both hands and pick it up from the bottom! That sucker is deep and heavy!
When I first decided to seriously start studying crystals, leading to my becoming a certified crystal healer in 2009, I never had visions of spending my day placing crystals on and around people and taking them through guided meditations and breathing exercises. I really just wanted to get a better idea of how to work with the crystals outside of magic, which really was the only way I knew how to use them. But even there, I felt like most of what I'd learned from books and even from other magical practitioners was very lacking and in some cases just flat out wrong.I always had this feeling that there was a lot more to working with crystals than just running them under some water and then carrying them in your pocket. I mean, maybe the actual act of working with them was that simple but there was certainly more to the process than that. I also just knew that somewhere in there all the books and things I'd heard and learned was missing something. Science!! Around the time that I really got into crystals in a curious way I was getting more and more into the science side of the magic. I was reading and studying more about physics, quantum mechanics, and other geeky things that would cause most people to look at me and declare "That's not Witchcraft!""Like hell it's not!!" That's about all I could say to that! To not understand science is to not truly understand a damn thing you're doing with the practice of Witchcraft and magic. If your thing is to just do whatever it is that makes you feel warm and fuzzy, then that's fine, but you're truly missing the real how's, why's, and keys to making magic that will change your life and the world.But that's not what this post is about...that's just something I had to get out. :)Though, in a way it ties in. Whenever I bring up the subject of crystals I see a lot of people talk about these very nice and sweet new agey practices and ideas about how crystals work, but sadly many of them are just fanciful notions of crystals. Like the idea that if a crystal breaks it's "dead" and you need to get rid of it because it wont work anymore. Or the idea that a crystal must be "charged" or programmed in order to work. And {one of my favorites} that the best way to cleanse a stone is to smudge it with sage or incense.None of those things are true because scientifically they don't hold up. And as I'm always saying you can't ignore science in favor of magic because they aren't two separate things. If I was going to learn to work with crystals, really work with them, I was going to learn the science behind them and I was going to dive in more deeply. As I did that I started to take care of my stones differently as well, which is why they tend to stay tucked away or wrapped up.But today when I shared my crystal basket picture a really great question came up about how do you remember what crystal is which, especially if you have ones that look very similar. That's a great question and I have simple{ish} solution for that!Ok, first, you just simply have to really learn your crystals. Getting some books on crystals that have clear pictures of each stone that's talked about is a HUGE help. Three books that I highly recommend for that purpose:The Crystal Bible by Judy HallThe Crystal Bible 2 by Judy HallThe Essential Crystal Handbook by Simon and Sue LillyLook through them and get to know your stones. There are some stones that can look very similar to one another until you learn the subtle differences. Jet and onyx can look similar until you get familiar with the shiny finish that onyx usually has over jet. Sodalite that doesn't have a lot of white in it can look a lot like lapis lazuli if the lapis doesn't have a lot of visible pyrite in it. Raw aventurine and raw emerald can also be confused if they are both a bit on the dark side. So getting to know the subtle differences is important.I mean...if you look at this picture of these four stones, can you tell them apart? Or do they all just look like quartz crystal?
But there is a little trick, a little exercise and record keeping that you can do to keep your stones straight and avoid a crystal conundrum. {Only one is a clear quartz and only two are actually quartz.}Grab a marker, a piece of blank paper, a ruler, your crystal books or your computer, a pen, and your stones. OH, and a camera!Line out your paper to have boxes with a small line at the top. Make about 9 boxes on a page.
Now get your crystals, a pen, and your crystal books or a laptop together:
Next place once stone in each square. Depending on how many stones you have to identify you may need more than one sheet, or you could just do nine at a time and do this over a period of time.
Now it's time to start identifying those stones! Using your books, the internet, whatever you have, write on the lines above the stones what they are. Don't know or aren't sure? Put a question mark, an asterisk, or something to remind you that the name you've given it still needs researching or that you just don't know what this one is yet.
Then, in the best lighting that you can get {doing this in natural light is always best} take pictures. You can take a wide shot like this one above and then take more detailed pictures of a block of stones together.
My lightning and the method I used to take these pictures weren't ideal, but you get the idea. Do as I say, not as I do. :)
When you do this you'll have a record of not only what angelite looks like, for example, but what YOUR angelite stone looks like. Then you can crop out the individual squares in photo editing software to have individual pictures which you can add to a record keeping sheet!
I LOVE using these sheets! When I first started seriously using crystals I made something similar to this and then expanded my record keeping to this exact sheet below. You can then file them or put them in a Book of Shadows or a three ring binder to keep track of your crystal work and study!
Want to try this out!!Download the record keeping sheet and square grid sheet below!
[su_button url="http://jesscarlson.com/downloads/box%20chart.pdf" target="blank" style="bubbles" background="#f87a42" size="5" icon="icon: cloud-download" icon_color="#000000"]Download the Grid Chart[/su_button]
[su_button url="http://jesscarlson.com/downloads/Crystal%20Record%20Keeping%20Journal.pdf" target="blank" style="bubbles" background="#f87a42" size="5" icon="icon: cloud-download" icon_color="#000000"]Download the Crystal Record Keeping Journal[/su_button]
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