Gemstones. Crystals. Stones. These things all have something in common, and no, it is not that they are all from the earth. These things are used to cure ailments; to protect against illness, disease, and injury; to provide mental balance and stability; and for spiritual purposes.
I will admit that using gemstones, crystals, and other stones for medicinal purposes sounds a little hooky. But I got to admit, if Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest minds regarding electrical and mechanical engineering and physics, believes that all things in existence have energy with their own frequency and vibrations and that those things can affect another’s energy, I’m intrigued by it.
Now, when the ancient cultures of the earth were using stones in healing, protection, and spiritual practices, they obviously did not know the physics behind it. The second known culture to use crystals was the Roman culture, which used them enhancing health, attracting desirable people or things, and for providing protection in battle. There are crystals that can be used specifically for health, and even mental health. Perhaps crystals can still be used to provide protection in battle, just a different kind of battle. If you have a mental illness, every day can be a battle, especially if it is a mental illness like PTSD. Perhaps crystals that were traditionally used for protection during battles of war can also be used during the battle we have inside of ourselves.
If you don’t feel that the Ancient Romans had it right, though, look towards India. This where crystals have had a long history of fixing the invisible: the emotional and metaphysical. People from India, and particularly those of the Hindu faith, have put so much faith in crystals that there is a special tree made out of crystals and precious stones that is for wish granting, the Kalpa tree. The ancient Hindu text, the Hindu Vedas, documents healing crystals’ properties. For example, astuteness, clarity, and mental balance can be brought by using sapphires.
There’s a lot of other gemstones, crystals, and regular stones that can do a lot of work. Jade is a stone that has widespread usage across many cultures. In China, jade was known for its kidney healing properties and love essence. In New Zealand, jade represented the ancestral spirits and was lucky. Turquoise is another stone that has value worldwide, for when worn, turquoise gives strength and health.
Since my birthstone is the sapphire, I have a lot of sapphire jewelry. I’ll start wearing my sapphire earrings. Hopefully, I remember to put them on every morning. We will see how it goes. Maybe I will gain some clarity about where I want my life to go. I am a senior in college; it would be nice to have some sense of clarity about my path. I am hoping that wearing my sapphires will bring me mental balance, but this property of sapphires will not be accurately tested since I just went on an anti-anxiety. This also means that I won’t be starting my sapphire testing until next Monday. I want to give my anti-anxieties to settle into my system before I try anything out.
I honestly don’t think wearing my sapphires will change anything in my life, but I am going into this with an open mind since I already have a gemstone with healing properties. If I feel more balanced after a week, maybe I will try buying a different type of crystal and testing it out. Who knows? I may turn into one of those people who wears countless bracelets of different gemstones, crystals, and stones. I wonder if any of them counteract each other. Maybe I will have an answer for you next week.
The idea of gemstones helping “provide mental balance and stability” is an interesting concept. I think that gemstones probably work in the same way that our superstitions and good luck charms do. For example, when I was a kid I used to have a mood necklace that I wore for luck in stressful situations, and all athletes have pregame rituals to help them concentrate and relax (I used to go off and stretch by myself before ice hockey or soccer games). As long as we believe in the properties of the gemstone, the gemstone could provide the same mental focus and relaxation that our other superstitions provide. A blog post for Huffington Post talks about if healing stones really work, and one thing the blog said was that the stones can have an effect, even if it's just a placebo effect, because the stones provide a way to cope with stressful situations (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sonimacom/do-healing-crystals-reall_b_12117920.html).
ReplyDeleteWhile I am a firm believer that the placebo effect is real for everything in our lives, even if chemo-radiation works as a cancer treatment, I can't be convinced that healing stones only work by sheer power of will. I've had reiki sessions, which are designed to fix your spiritual energy with stones and the like, done numerous times. Every session has started with hanging a crystal pendant from their hand and holding it over my chakras. My reproductive chakra, or sacral chakra, has historically been very closed, meaning the crystal pendant doesn't really move at all. My first few sessions were during the time that I was still getting sexually abused. It makes sense that my chakra would be closed. I've also had this done during my time of ovulation. The crystal was swinging back and forth like a wind chime in a hurricane. I didn't believe that the person performing the reiki wasn't moving the pendant even though his hand was completely still, so I asked if I could hold it over myself. I held my hand completely still, and the pendant still swung like crazy.
DeleteThat was a really long way to get to my point, and I know I still haven't made it. There are some things that, to my dismay, cannot be explained. I think reiki, chakra energy, and healing stones are some of those things. There is no scientific reason why that crystal pendant should have been moving like that when hanging from a still hand in a room with no breeze, but it was.
I believe in science, but I can't just dismiss things that have no scientific explanation and I have experienced first hand. I have my doubts about healing stones, but if chakras are real things, why can't healing stones have an impact?
Something that is done in the Wiccan faith, and in general with crystal usage, is making sure they are cleared and charged regularly. Crystals and gemstones lose their healing powers over time and need to be cleared out of any harmful energies and recharged with positive energies to continue to be healing. You might find that wearing the sapphires are helpful in the beginning, but may start to wane when they are losing their charge. Having fully charged gems will keep this healing power going. I'll link a site that's really helpful in figuring out which method of recharging is best for each crystal/gemstone type.
ReplyDeleteI'm a practicing Wiccan, so I tend to carry around different stones in order to help me with certain ailments (Depression, sleep, and headaches are my main ones). I'm also a firm believer of science and don't depend on crystals to cure anything and everything. I believe that crystals and gemstones, at the least, can provide a comfort in knowing that a different energy may be helping alleviate some of my pain or problems. Just as in other faiths where one might carry around a rosary, cross, or other blessed item, carrying crystals provides me comfort in feeling that some other energy is helping me along.
Here's the link on how to keep your gemstones charged!: https://exemplore.com/misc/Why-you-should-Recharge-Your-Crystals-and-Practical-Methods-To-Do-So
I did know about having to have your crystals charged. For some reason, I didn't think about the fact that I need to charge my sapphires as well. The website will be really helpful in times to come since I am going to start trying out different gems and stones.
DeleteThis is really interesting. I knew of the concept of healing crystals and gems, but I didn't know that each type of stone had a different purpose. One of my clients makes products with crystals and raves about the effects of them. She makes stylists, headbands, jewelry, and good luck charms with crystals in them. She is into holistic medicine and the healing power of nature, but she is also on anti-depressants, so perhaps there is a way the two forces can amicably interact in your body. I must admit I'm not putting much faith into the exercise, but I am very interested in seeing how it turns out for you. If it works, I would be interested in seeing long term affects. Does this have a connection to the traditional cleansing ideology of burning sage?
ReplyDeleteGemstones, crystals, and stones have a connection to the traditional cleansing ideology of burning sage only because it is a holistic method.
DeleteSage is a very powerful herb and can be used to cleanse or purify your crystals before charging them for whatever your desired effect may be.
Cleansing ceremonies, at least for crystals, that involve sage are considered to be "smudging" ceremonies. I don't really know all that much about sage and its properties because I just looked it up in order to answer you.
http://www.thehoodwitch.com/blog/2014/9/18/crystal-cleansing-101
That's the website on crystal cleansing that I found that mentions sage.
http://foodfacts.mercola.com/sage.html
That's a website link that talks about sage. It would be interesting to see what came first. Naming sage, which in Latin means "to be saved," or people using sage to cleanse their homes and other areas.
Let me just say that I think that your tone straddles the line between somber and jovial nicely. At one point you are telling us how your PTSD is affecting you day-to-day. At another, you are cracking jokes about mystic gemstones. This is an effective way to incorporate your hardships in manner that keeps me in an emotional "sweet spot" that is equally light-hearted as it is pensive.
ReplyDeleteSo the case seems to be that many different cultures, some completely isolated from the rest of the world, have relied on/revered gemstones as a commodity with supernatural qualities.
Should this supposition be false and you not notice any difference after wearing one for a week, what do you think the underlying psychology reason is for this ubiquity? Is it simply that gemstones are rare, so it makes sense that the scarcity associated with them evolved into thinking that the gems possessed powers beyond our understanding? Or is it something more?
I would say that the commonness of crystals, gemstones, and healing stones today comes from not wanting to put man-made medicine in our bodies or man-made medicines not doing enough.
DeleteI would say that the vast majority of gemstones, crystals, and healing stones aren't rare. Of the top 10 rarest gemstones in the world in 2015, only 4 have healing properties. All of the healing properties that those gemstones possess are also possessed by more common gemstones and the like. So this leads me to believe that the healing properties attributed do not have anything to do with rarity, at least not today. Perhaps when they were initially discovered, there were beliefs that were related to the discovery of it. Finding a sapphire, for example, would be a miraculous thing. A object that looks like a rock, glistens, is the color of the sea. There would have probably been special powers attributed to it for that reason.
However, going back to today. Any crystal can be used for healing purposes as long as they are properly charged. So that also reiterates my idea that the healing qualities are not attributed because the ______ is rare. I think it has to be something more.
I hope that answered your questions. I'm not really sure if it did or not.