A few months ago I posted part one of a two part article for Crystal Wednesday about the use of crystals for grids and layouts.  In part one we talked about working with crystal girds in the home or office.  This can be a great way to channel and project certain energies into our environment and our lives.  Working with crystal layouts, which involve placing crystals and stones on or around the body, can be a great way to promote healing as well as a sense of balance and well-being.  Crystal layouts are very easy to work with and it’s up to you how involved they will become.

Depending on who you ask there are either hard and fast rules to how to work with layouts or it’s all about going with what seems right to you on an intuitive level.  I tend to take a bit of a balanced approach between the two.  I think that it’s good to go with what you feel intuitively drawn to do when working with layouts, but I also feel that creating a system to use as a framework for how you’ll do your layouts helps with the overall process.

Crystal layouts can be used for just about anything; you can use them for directing healing energy to specific areas of the body that are experiencing illness or pain, to balance the chakras, and for healing emotional and spiritual energy around the body and in the aura.  When you’re just getting started and trying to get a feel for how layouts work a simple chakra balancing layout is great to start with.  This is a layout that uses eight stones, one for each of the seven chakras as well as a quartz point as a balancing stone.  If you have been collecting stones for a while chances are you have all you need to get started with already.

Simply pick a stone for each of the seven chakras.  Here are some suggestions and stones I like to use with the chakras, but if you have other stones you have found work well for you, use those.  This is where you can get creative and work with the stones that you personally resonate, so experiment with different stones and crystals; even if they seem really “off” to you there’s a reason that a black stone is calling you and wants to be used on the heart chakra, so give it a try.  You can also refer to this past article on picking stones for specific purposes.

Root: red jasper, garnet, bloodstone
Sacral: carnelian, orange calcite, topaz
Solar Plexus: citrine, tiger’s eye, golden beryl
Heart: rose quartz, jade, rhodonite
Throat: lapis lazuli, kunzite, aquamarine
Third Eye: amethyst, sodalite, azurite
Crown: selenite, celestite, angelite

This layout is just as you would assume; the stone you pick for each chakra is placed on that chakra point on the body.  If you are using this layout for someone else, have them lay down, place the stones on their body, and give them a few moments to let the energy settle in.  Check in with them and see if there are any particular stones that feel hot, cold, heavy, etc.  This will often help to indicate areas that are in need of extra energy and attention.  After determining these areas, if there are any, take the clear quartz point for balancing and hold it in your dominate, projective hand.  Hold it like a wand and point it at the root chakra stone and send the intention through the quartz that the energy from the quartz and the energy from the chakra stone balance and clear the energy of this chakra.  See the energy and the color of chakra coming into balance and growing bright and clean.  When you feel as though you no longer need to direct energy to this chakra move on to the next one.  When you have come through the full chakra system, visualize the energy running through all the chakras, from the crown to the root and back again, and see if all working together with ease.  Check in again with the person you are working with and see if they have felt any changes and if they feel anything different now.  If there are areas that they still feel stand out in some way, take a few extra moments to do this and check in again.

If you want to use this on yourself the process is essentially the same; lay down and place the crystals in their appropriate places, but then you can either simply hold the quartz in your projective hand while directing the intent and energy to each of the chakras or, if you’re comfortable enough to do it, you can raise your hand to hold the quartz over the individual stones and chakras as you work.

Layouts for specific needs..
It’s quite easy to create layouts for just about anything.  There are two factors to take into consideration; placement and stones to use.  Picking stones can be as simple as using color correspondences (pink stones for love, blue stones for healing, black stones for banishing, brown stones for grounding, etc) or you can use a crystal bible or book to help you find stones to work with.  Placement can mean placing stones on the body at the chakra points or on specific areas that need healing, or you could place the stones around the body to create a shell of energy to surround yourself or someone else.  Decide on what your specific need is and this will help you determine where to place your stones.

Let’s say that you have a friend dealing with terrible stress and pressure at work.  They are feeling tired, anxious, and are having problems sleeping and eating because of the stress.  You might want to begin by placing onyx and quartz stones around the body in an every other stone pattern; this will creating an energy circuit with one stone (black) drawing out energy and the next one (clear or white) replacing that void with new energy.  You can place as many or as few of the stones as you wish around the body, however I would recommend no less than four so there is one at each side and one each at the head and feet.  Next you may want to place a rose quartz on the forehead and one on the heart, both to help calm the anxiety.  Then place some red and/or green jasper on the abdominal area for the digestion issues.  Once the stones are in place check in with your friend and see how they are feeling and what stones might be feeling particularly heavy, cold, warm, etc.  Allow them to lay in quite meditation (you may wish to guide them through a relaxation and grounding meditation if necessary) and simply send the intention that the stones will do their specific jobs.  After about 15 minutes or so, check in again with your friend and see how they are feeling.  When they’re feeling things are balanced and when you feel things are clear, simply remove the stones.

Here are a few tips:

• If you have Reiki training, or training in another modality of energy healing, you can certainly add that to the process of crystal layout work.  If you use Reiki you can place appropriate Reiki symbols into the stones before placing them in your layout to add Reiki energy to your healing work.
• Place your stones with intention.  You can either state the purpose of each stone as you put it in place, either out loud or to yourself, letting it know what you need it to do.  Sometimes vocalizing this so the person your working on can hear will help them with any nervous feelings they may have about the crystal healing process and it can also help direct their own focus, energy, and intention during the session.
• Cleanse your stones before and after using them whether it’s on yourself or someone else.  These stones are going to be absorbing, clearing, and balancing energy that is out of whack, so to speak, so you don’t want to carry that into other work or other sessions.  Use whatever method you usually use or that is appropriate for each stone (check out this post on crystal cleansing and charging for suggestions).
• If a stone falls or rolls off the body during a session do not return it to the place it was.  When a stone is ready to stop working or when an area no longer needs that stone’s energy, it may likely fall off the body for no apparent reason.  The person may unknowingly twitch and the stone may roll off which is another subtle way of the body saying it no longer needs to energy of that stone in this session.
• If a stone wont stay on the body at all to begin with try using a different stone.  For example, you’re planning to use a rose quartz for emotional healing at the throat chakra because the person is using hurtful words with others and you place it on their throat but it keeps rolling off you might want to try using another stone for emotional healing and speech, like blue lace agate.  You may also want to considering using something specific to the exact case of the problem.  If the person is using these words because of a problem with their personal sense of safety and courage (i.e. they say hurtful things to others to make themselves feel better) you could try using black agate instead.  You decide to try the black agate and it stays put and feels good to your friends.  You’ve got a winner!
• When all else fails, use clear quartz.  If you don’t have enough stones for something or you feel you need to fill in the blanks somewhere, or if you just don’t know what to use, clear quartz is your catch-all.  Simply place it with intention for what you need done and it will do the trick.

Many books on crystals cover the process of layouts, many even offer a few suggestions of different layouts to use.  Creating your own as you need them is simple.  You can’t do it wrong and you aren’t going to make anything worse if you use one stone over another or place it a little too far to the right or left of a chakra or an organ or body part that you’re targeting.  It’s all about your intention when placing and working with the stones.  The crystals and their natural energies will do the rest.