This week’s Crystal Wednesday is going to be a short and simple one.  We’ve talked about a number of more involved uses for crystals but sometimes simple is better, so today we’re going to talk about creating small and simple crystal bags.  Crystal bags can be used for a number of different reasons.  Some people will create a bag for protection, some for love, others for money or career related work.  The idea with a crystal bag is to put together a grouping of stones that will all work together to create a specific vibration and energy that you can then carry with you and use for a specific purpose.  I’ve seen people create really lovely but very large and heavy crystal bags that you can’t really carry it with you easily and one of the joys of the crystal bag is being able to toss it in your purse or pocket to take with you wherever you go.  So we’re going to focus on creating a crystal bag that contains only 4 stones and that can easily be taken on the go.

The first thing to remember when doing this is bigger isn’t always better, nor is having more the way to go.  So if you’re going to carry the bag with you, you might not want really large points or other larger pieces of crystal.  The size of a crystal, when used in this manner, doesn’t matter as much as the feel and quality of the piece.  Size might be a factor when we’re working with healing because want to have something substantial to lay on a person’s body or something to that end, but even a small chip of a stone carries the same energy and power as the larger piece that it came from, so don’t feel that you have to use anything big or heavy.

When making a bag, start simple and add as you personally feel called to.  The way that I make bags and the way that I recommend others start out a bag is to pick 4 stones.  You can decide if you want to use the four elements as your guide by picking a stone that will draw on specific aspects of earth, air, fire and water for your goal, or you can use 4 stones with one each representing mind, body, spirit and deity/ally.  By working with just 4 we are able to create something that is simple and portable and by working with stones with a meaning, purpose and structure rather than just any 4 stones, we have a guide to help us in picking out what we need.

Decide on your Intent
You’ll want to decide first on your goal and intent.  This is obviously the most important piece of the puzzle; what do you want to work on and what do you want to transform?  Pick a single focus and something that you can define in a simple or basic few keywords or sentences.  This helps to make your focus clear and direct now as you create the bag and also for the future as you work with the bag.

For our purposes here we’re going to work through this with an example and we’ll use the example intention of creating a bag for emotional healing.  We’re going to say that the individual that we’re making the bag for is working through the difficulties of a bad divorce and we’ll be creating a bag for healing the heart and helping this person to move forward in their life.  A few keywords we’ll work with here and keep in mind are healing, self-esteem, and self-love.

Pick your Configuration
This is simply deciding on how you want to pick your stones; do you want to use the elements method or the method of mind/body/spirit?  For our purposes with the type of bag and intent we’re working with, the mind/body/spirit approach feels best, so we’ll be using this configuration.

Pick your Stones
Now comes the fun part, picking stones.  Let yourself be creative and consider working with stones that you might not normally work with.  Don’t just grab stones that you have in your collection because they’re easily accessible; really make this an adventure of creation and look for new and different pieces that call to you.  In the same token, if things you have really and truly speak to you, use them.

Remember that with this bag no one stone works on its own.  All 4 stones will work together and generate a single intention and energy.  Picking stones that build on the energy of the others is key.  So the first thing to do is to start by grabbing a notebook or your Book of Shadows and making four columns on a single page. Here we’ll go with Mind, Body, Spirit, Deity.  On this page under reach header brainstorm what sort of energies related to your goal and intention you would like to draw on for each area.  Let’s work with this with our example; these are just some general ideas, and only a few for each point to show and example.  When working on this with your own intention brainstorm as much as you feel you need to.

Intention: Emotional healing from divorce

Mind: confidence, a sense of mental peace with what has happened, a feeling of self-esteem, release of fears for the future

Body: feeling a sense of physical independence, sexual security, desirability, beauty

Spirit: feeling a sense of personal empowerment, sovereignty

The next one, Deity, is one where you want to pick a God or Goddess, or even an Otherworld ally, whom you feel connected to with this work and intention.  You can list several and then as you narrow down your specifics in your next step you may find that one specific deity from your list really calls to you.

Deity: Lilith, Athena, Aphrodite, The Morrighan

Next reflect on what you have written.  You might even want to set this down for a bit and meditate on it, doing a little further journaling if you feel so called.  Think in what you have written and think about your goal.  What area of the four feels most important or needing the most focus.  This doesn’t mean that this is going to take some prominence over the other areas but it will be your starting point.  So, working with our example, let’s say that we decide that the thing that we are most hurt by from the divorce is the feeling of not being wanted anymore; in our example we’ll say that the woman’s husband had an affair and one of her big issues is being left for a younger, more attractive woman and feeling unwanted and unattractive.  So we’ll focus on the Body aspect and we’ll work with sexuality and beauty.

With this as our starting point we look at the other areas and find what else compliments and supports that.  In the Mind area we’ll focus on self-esteem and in the Spirit area we’ll focus on sovereignty.  As for a Deity, since we want to focus on sexuality and beauty we’ll work with Aphrodite.  So let’s make a new little list to start picking our stones from:

Mind: self-esteem
Body: sexual beauty
Spirit: sovereignty
Deity: Aphrodite

So now we have almost a shopping list, in a sense, for looking for stones.  We want to pick a stone for each of these areas and qualities and we want to try and find stones that also share some of these qualities and can work together well.  Try making a list of some possible stones for each of these qualities.

Mind: self-esteem = moss agate, pink calcite, opal, rose quartz, rhodichrosite
Body: sexual beauty = fire agate, red garnet, pyrolusite, ruby, pink thulite
Spirit: sovereignty = beryl, lepidolite, sunstone
Deity: Aphrodite = copper, emerald, moonstone, pearl, turquoise

Once you have this list start out by picking the stone you feel most drawn to from the area that you have chosen to be your main point of focus.  For our example bag we’re going to pick first from the Body category.  Let’s work with red garnet.  The color red corresponds with the root chakra which helps with feelings of security.  Red is a color of fire and sexuality as well.  Red garnet is a stone who’s main focus is sexuality as well as heart energy.  So this stone becomes a big catch all for sex, sexuality, and the issues that surround it.  From there we pick from each of the other areas and pick stones that will work with and support this one.  Go with both your intuition and with what you can find in research.  This is what I would make for this bag from what we have here:

Mind: pink calcite
Body: red garnet
Spirit: sunstone
Deity: emerald

You’ll want to next take time to cleanse and charge your stones, each one with the specific direction that you have decided on for each area.  Dedicated your Deity stone to the specific God or Goddess you have chosen to work with and ask for their energy and blessing on this stone.

You’ll then want to put your stones in a small spell bag to carry with you.  Pick a color and style that supports your goal and intention.  In this cause I would pick a pink silky looking bag.

When your bag is complete and together, cast a circle or create sacred space however you feel called to create it and sit in your space, holding your bag in both hands, and feel the energy and power that it contains.  Call on the deity you have chosen to work with and ask them to be with you and help you to feel the power of the stones.  Take time to open your chakras, specifically the one(s) that may be most connected to your issue or goal.  Draw the energy from the bag into this chakra and feel it meld with your personal energy, helping to heal and help you. Take a moment to then dedicate the bag to you.  When I say to dedicated it you, rather than a God or Goddess, I mean to specifically fill this bag with the intention to work with you, heal and help you, and respond to your energy.  You have a deity connected to it, but you don’t have to dedicate the bag to them specifically, instead dedicate it to you and your personal power, energy and growth.

This is a bit more of an in-depth process than how most people would do this.  Most people just pick a handful of stones that appeal to them for their specific goal.  And while this is fine, the process presented here can be helpful in really creating a powerful crystal healing tool.  Next time you feel you need to make a crystal bag, give it a try!