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  Front cover photography © 2016 Suzanne Clements

  Back cover photography © Shutterstock.com and iStock.com.

  Interior photographs © Alamy/The Natural History Museum, p. 249; iStock/only_fabrizio, p. 258; iStock/KatarzynaBialasiewicz, p. 262; Getty Images/Ron Evans, p. 265; iStock/joannabrouwers, p. 266; Getty Images/fullempty, p. 268; iStock/Nastya22, p. 303; iStock/Nastya22, p. 313; Getty Images/Ron Evans, p. 320; iStock/Epitavi, p. 329; Alamy/Science Photo Library, p. 332; 123RF/Andy Koehler, p. 343 All other images, Shutterstock.

  ISBN: Print 978-1-62315-675-6 | eBook 978-1-62315-676-3

  Contents

  INTRODUCTION

  chapter one THE BASICS OF CRYSTAL HEALING

  It Starts with Energy

  What Are Crystals?

  The Power of Crystals

  How Crystals Bring About Change

  Crystals & Chakras

  Crystal Grids

  chapter two SHOPPING FOR CRYSTALS

  Inside the Crystal Shop

  Common Shapes

  How to Choose a Crystal

  Choosing Multiple Crystals

  Buyer Beware

  chapter three PREPARING TO USE CRYSTALS

  Cleansing Your Crystals

  Charging & Programming Your Crystals

  Preparing Your Space

  Preparing Your Mind

  chapter four CRYSTAL REMEDIES FOR MIND, HEART & SOUL

  Abandonment

  Abundance

  Abuse

  Acceptance/Surrender

  Addiction

  Anger

  Anxiety

  Boundaries, Setting

  Centering

  Change, Accepting

  Change, Bringing About

  Cleansing, Space

  Cleansing, Spiritual and/or Emotional

  Comfort

  Communication, Improved

  Compassion

  Confidence

  Confusion

  Connection, with the Divine

  Connection, with One’s Spirit

  Contentment

  Courage

  Creativity

  Denial

  Depression

  Despair

  Discernment

  Eating Disorders

  Emotional Balance

  Emotional Blockage

  Emotional Trauma

  Empathy

  Empowerment

  Faith

  Fear

  Forgiveness

  Goals, Achieving

  Gratitude

  Grief

  Grounding

  Hope

  Indecisiveness

  Insecurity

  Insomnia/Sleeplessness

  Inspiration

  Intuition

  Irritability

  Joy & Happiness

  Kindness

  Laziness

  Letting Go

  Loneliness

  Love

  Luck

  Meditation, Enhancing

  Mood Swings

  Motivation

  Negativity

  Obsession/Compulsion

  Opening the Heart

  Overindulgence

  Passion

  Peace

  Phobias

  Positive Energy, Increasing

  Prosperity

  Protection, Spiritual

  Relationships

  Repression

  Resentment

  Self-Control

  Self-Esteem/Self-Worth

  Self-Harm/Self-Sabotage

  Shadows

  Shame

  Shyness/Social Anxiety

  Stress

  Trust

  Willpower

  Worry

  chapter five CRYSTAL REMEDIES FOR OVERLAPPING AREAS

  Addiction & Self-Control

  Anger & Forgiveness

  Denial & Acceptance

  Despair & Hope

  Fear & Courage

  Goals & Motivation

  Grief & Comfort

  Grounding & Spiritual Protection

  Guilt & Shame

  Insecurity & Self-Confidence

  Inspiration & Creativity

  Loneliness & Contentment

  Opening the Heart & Relationships

  Releasing Negativity & Increasing Positive Energy

  Resentment & Letting Go

  Stress & Peace

  chapter six CRYSTAL PROFILES

  Agate

  Agate, Blue Lace

  Agate, Moss

  Alexandrite

  Amazonite

  Amber

  Amethyst

  Ametrine

  Angelite

  Apache Tears

  Apatite

  Aquamarine

  Aragonite

  Aventurine, Blue

  Aventurine, Green

  Aventurine, Orange

  Azurite

  Bloodstone

  Boji Stones

  Calcite, Blue

  Calcite, Green

  Calcite, Orange

  Calcite, Pink (Mangano Calcite)

  Calcite, White

  Calcite, Yellow

  Carnelian

  Celestite

  Chalcedony, Blue

  Chrysoberyl

  Chrysoprase

  Cinnabar

  Citrine
/>   Danburite

  Desert Rose (Gypsum)

  Diamond

  Dioptase

  Emerald

  Epidote

  Fluorite, Blue

  Fluorite, Green

  Fluorite, Purple

  Fluorite, Rainbow

  Fuchsite

  Garnet

  Hematite

  Herkimer Diamond

  Howlite

  Iolite

  Iron Pyrite

  Jade

  Jasper

  Jet

  Kunzite

  Kyanite, Blue

  Kyanite, Green

  Labradorite

  Lapis Lazuli

  Lepidolite

  Lodestone

  Malachite

  Moldavite

  Moonstone

  Muscovite

  Obsidian

  Obsidian, Snowflake

  Onyx

  Opal

  Peridot

  Prehnite

  Quartz, Clear

  Quartz, Rose

  Quartz, Rutilated

  Quartz, Smoky

  Rhodochrosite

  Ruby

  Ruby in Fuchsite

  Sapphire

  Sardonyx

  Selenite

  Sodalite

  Spinel, Red or Pink

  Sugilite

  Sulfur

  Sunstone

  Super Seven

  Tanzanite

  Tigers Eye, Blue

  Tigers Eye, Red

  Tigers Eye, Yellow

  Topaz

  Tourmaline, Black

  Tourmaline, Green

  Tourmaline, Pink

  Tourmaline, Watermelon

  Turquoise

  Unakite

  Vanadinite

  Zircon

  Zoisite

  GLOSSARY

  RESOURCES

  REFERENCES

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Introduction

  Using crystals for spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical healing is an age-old practice dating back thousands of years. Today, crystal healing is still used in our modern world, relying on the vibrations of ancient stones as a remedy for what ails us.

  As a Usui Reiki Master, energy healer, and ordained metaphysical minister, I have incorporated crystals into my healing work for years. In my healing practice, I use them to focus emotional and spiritual energy to affect positive change.

  Crystals have been important in my own healing journey, as well. I work with them daily to focus my meditation, improve my connection with the spiritual and my higher self, and make adjustments when I experience mental, spiritual, or emotional blockages. For example, I’ve used crystals to achieve forgiveness, as well as to move through grief after the recent death of a loved one. I often work with them to stimulate inspiration and creativity and to focus my intuition.

  A deep connection exists between body, mind, and spirit. Imbalance affects every aspect of life, including relationships, career, hobbies, emotions, and even physical health. I learned this the hard way as a young adult. I was out of balance because I was too cerebral, spending so much time in my mind that I neglected my body and soul. This imbalance led to illness and unhappiness, and I spent most of my twenties adrift, with numerous broken relationships, job changes, unfinished projects, and different addresses to prove it.

  I was in my early thirties when everything changed. I’d just gone through the breakup of another relationship and had recently lost a job I enjoyed. In the midst of this, I developed a sore throat that persisted, no matter what I tried. I visited several doctors, each unable to treat it because they couldn’t find a physical cause. As the severity worsened and the duration stretched from weeks to months, I decided to try alternative therapy. I found a medical doctor who also practiced energy healing techniques.

  I WAS MENTALLY CLEAR, & I FELT A CONNECTION TO SPIRIT THAT HAD ESCAPED ME FOR YEARS

  With deep skepticism, I went to my appointment. After a consultation, the doctor had me lie supine on her treatment table with a green rock on the middle of my chest and a blue rock on the center of my throat. She cupped her hands gently on the crown of my head. I felt a rush of energy, and for reasons I couldn’t understand, I burst into tears. I continued sobbing for the remainder of the treatment and all the way home in my car. I cried for the rest of the day until I went to sleep that night.

  When I woke up, I felt fantastic. My throat pain was gone, and I felt more alive and enthusiastic than I had in ages. I was mentally clear, and I felt a connection to spirit that had escaped me for years. My throat pain, it turned out, didn’t come from any physical source, but from a spiritual and emotional one that had to do with speaking and living my truth. By clearing the energy blockage that existed in my throat, I was able to release the spiritual and emotional pain I’d been carrying, which then caused a release of the physical pain.

  That single visit was the start of a host of positive changes in my life that have led me to a place of great joy, peace, and creativity that has lasted thus far for nearly twenty years. Despite my initial skepticism, my first appointment in an energy healer’s office brought me to crystals and energy healing, and it empowered me to live the life my soul wanted. That’s why I’m so excited to share crystal healing with you. It’s a wonderful tool for finding your own spiritual, mental, and emotional empowerment so that you, too, can lead a life that truly invigorates you and brings you joy.

  How can a rock bring about healing? After all, crystals are just pretty stones, aren’t they? While it’s true that crystals are stones, each has a unique structure that imparts its own energetic properties. Healers, holy people, and shamans have known about these properties for millennia. As a result, cultures throughout history have incorporated crystals into their spiritual and healing practices, and references to and the use of these energetic objects have been found in various holy texts and at archeological sites. The use of crystals for healing continues today, and with the information you will learn in this book, you can begin putting this practice to use in your life.

  It Starts with Energy

  According to physicist Nikola Tesla, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.” Energy is where the secrets of crystal healing lie.

  ENERGY & VIBRATION

  In 1905, Albert Einstein demonstrated the relationship between matter and energy in his special theory of relativity. Over a century later, French physicist Laurent Lellouch completed calculations verifying this important relationship on a subatomic level, showing that mass could be converted to energy. Perhaps the best real-world demonstration of this relationship is nuclear energy, which results from the conversion of matter into energy.

  As Einstein and others have proved, locked within each object in the universe lies some form of energy. Cyndi Dale, in her book The Subtle Body: An Encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy, describes swirling subtle energies underlying all of physical reality and forming the basis of all matter. You, and everything around you, Dale notes, are made up of energy. This is true of living objects, such as human beings, as well as objects that are perceived to be inanimate, such as crystals. This is where humans and crystals intersect: energy and vibration.

  All energetic objects vibrate, although that vibration is typically undetectable by our five senses. Nevertheless, science shows that the vibration exists and that each object has its own unique vibrational signature. In humans, this energetic signature exists in the form of our subtle energetic bodies, which include:

  CHAKRAS the energy centers in the body (explained in more detail here)

  MERIDIANS the energetic pathways running through the body

  AURAS energy fields surrounding the human body that enable us to detect our own energy and the energy of others; they are detected by special cameras in a process known as Kirlian photography

  Crystals, like our bodies, have auras and vibrations of their own, an
d the interaction between the energy of crystals and the energy of humans can affect our vibrations. Using crystals helps us modulate our energetic signature, which can bring about various types of healing. Crystal therapy is one of a number of energetic energy healing techniques that can change the frequency at which we vibrate.

  ENERGY HEALING THROUGH THE AGES

  Our current understanding of energy as a constant force in the universe that is ever changing wasn’t articulated until the late nineteenth century. Although people lacked a way to express how energy affects the body in a molecular sense, energy healing modalities were popular across many cultures and eras.

  In ancient India (as well as today), practitioners of Ayurveda described the life force that everyone possesses, called prana. Weaknesses and illness result from a lack of prana flowing throughout the body, and so restoring the flow of prana is essential for health. In ancient Chinese medicine, practitioners worked with Chi (or Qi), a life-force energy similar to prana. When the two opposite forces of Chi—yin and yang—were out of balance, illness could result, so therapy sought to rebalance these important forces. (Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners continue to practice using these principles today.) Ancient Egyptian healers used stones and other energy techniques to diagnose and treat illness, and in ancient Greece, healers believed the body had five humors (types of fluid or temperaments) and that healing involved balancing these humors through medicine and energy work.

  In modern times, Mikao Usui, who developed the energy healing technique of Reiki, believed that holy people such as Buddha and Jesus tapped into a universal energy for their healing work. Chiropractic care is also a modern form of energy work, although those in the profession state they are clearing bony blockages (subluxations) so that nerve energy can flow freely throughout the body. However, the fact that the nerves conduct energy signals shows just how significant a part of our anatomy energy is. Other modern forms of energy healing include Chios, Quantum-Touch, Deeksha, aura cleansing, acupuncture, and many other types of energy medicine that bring about balance and healing emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

  What Are Crystals?

  Gemologists and geologists define crystals as solid objects with atoms organized in a repeating pattern known as a crystal lattice. There are seven distinct lattice patterns that can be found in crystals. If it doesn’t have one of these lattices, a stone is not a crystal. For the purposes of this work, healing crystals may also be defined as minerals, rocks, and gemstones with energetic properties that can influence the human energy field.