More and more people are paying attention to how the food they eat has been treated. Is this tomato local, or was it grown and shipped from far away? Are the eggs from free range chickens and my milk from cows that can roam around outside? Do the lemons and oranges have colored dye on their peel to make them look ‘perfect’?
There is one important planetary family, however, that is often ignored in these considerations. And that is the rock and stone family. So in this article, I want to raise some questions about how some of the crystals and stones we may purchase have been treated.
But first, let me share with you a story. Seven years ago, a Quero shaman from Peru was visiting this area, offering Quero initiations and healing sessions. I signed up for the latter. I was instructed to bring along a heart stone.
On the day of this session, I was heading out my house when I suddenly recalled that I was supposed to bring a heart stone along. So I went inside and grabbed the first stone that called out to me. It was a stone I had pulled up from the Dead Sea in Jordan, during a trip there. My foot had stubbed it underwater and I sensed it wanted to come with me.
When I arrived to the Quero session, the initiations were still going on. Since I know Spanish, I offered to help with translation, if needed. The host asked me to assist a woman who had come from Canada for an initiation. I agreed.
The Quero shaman asked her for her heart stone. The woman immediately produced a beautiful, large, and obviously expensive rose quartz specimen. It was something she had surely purchased in a store. She seemed quite proud of it. In crystal healing book, rose quartz is typically cited as the ideal heart stone.
The Quero shaman told me, in Spanish, that what the woman had was not an appropriate heart stone. This surprised me, but I translated his comment nonetheless.
Then the shaman asked for my heart stone. I was a bit embarrassed, since he had summarily rejected hers. I showed him the greyish stone I had brought along, sheepishly. His face lit up. “That, he said, is a heart stone. It is shaped like a heart” (which it was, actually).
Shamans and healer in many indigenous cultures around the world prefer found stones for use and practice. By this I mean stones that have either come to you, or that you have gone searching for and find on your own.
Which circles back to crystals and stones purchased from stores or fairs or whatever source. Do you know how that stone or crystal mined? Was it done so in a respectful way, or clawed out of the earth for commercial purposes solely? What part of the world is it from, and how are the miners treated there?
For instance, Brazil is a popular site for rose quartz. I have personally seen well heeled Brazilian with vats upon vats of stones at the famous Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. I have also personally seen the living conditions and treatment of many Brazilian miners who often toil without any insurance, job security, and such. Some count themselves lucky to have three full meals a day.
Another such question about the treatment of crystals and stones is how the specimens are treated after they are extracted from the ground. Increasingly, many types of crystals are enhanced through various means – including heat, dying, and even, in some cases, radiation. In some ways, this is not that different than dying lemons to look better commercially.
And while irradiated food, ostensibly, is safer and not radioactive after treatment – the same may not be true for crystals such as blue topaz that are commonly subjected to radiation and heat to make their color that blue we associate with blue topaz.
A few years ago, I purchased a specialized type of pendulum that can detect both positive and negative energy vibrations in all the color spectrum. The most noxious negative energy was called ‘negative green.’ When I used the instrument on a golden topaz I bought years ago in Salvador, Brazil, it did not spin. But when I used it on a blue topaz purchased at the same store, on the same day, it began to spin like crazy.
That made me realize so clearly that how we treat a crystal or stone affects its energies, and may affect us as well.
SKYE'S WRITING 