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           The Care and Feeding of Crystals 
           by Matrika 
           co-sysop of PAN - the Psychic Awareness Network 
            
           Crystals  have been in the  lime-light ever since  celebrities such as
           Shirley Mcleane and Cher have come out of the closet and admitted they
           were  "New-Agers".  However, along with this public scrutiny, has also
           been  a whole bunch  of misconceptions.   The most common  of which is
           that a person just wears  a crystal like jewelry or carries  it and it
           works  like  some kind  of  instant  stage-magic or  prestidigitation.
           This, of course,  is not the case.  To get the full effect of "Crystal
           Power" in  your life means,  as with so  much else, that you  must put
           into it what you take out of it.  So here are a few  simple guidelines
           for those of you who plan on taking this subject seriously. 
            
           1.  Selecting your Crystal 
           To select  a Crystal is not  all that much different  from selecting a
           pet or a  work of art.   When you go into  the store to purchase  your
           crystal - or  any other stone used  in healing or Psychic  work - just
           pick the one that "calls" to you.  Handle the various stones and place
           them, one by one, in  your receptive hand.  (the one that  is not your
           dominant  hand;  if  you   are  right-handed  or  ambi-dextrous,  your
           receptive hand is your  left.  If you are completely  left-handed your
           receptive hand  is your right.)  The stone  that is right FOR YOU will
           "pull" you to it.  This may  not be the stone that looks the  clearest
           or the most impressive, either.  Our societies materialistic values 
           and our conditioning to  accept them must not enter into our decision,
           which is very hard for most of us at first.  Our first tendency  is to
           judge the stone -as we always judge ourselves and everything else in a
           constant  stream  of thoughts-  by what  we  have been  conditioned to
           believe is "good" or "bad". 
             
           If  the piece  you are choosing  is for  a specific  purpose; i.e. for
           healing, or to enhance  your psychic abilities, or for  meditation; it
           will help if you keep that purpose in mind while you are selecting the
           stone.  An interesting phenomena often happens to people who are  just
           going into the  gem and mineral healing or psychic  work.  Most people
           start off with  clear quartz,  because it has  the most  applications.
           They go into a store or a gem show to purchase a clear quartz and find
           themselves drawn to all kinds of other "rocks" (as the collectors call
           them) too.  Many times  they bring a bag of various  mineral specimens
           home with them.  Later they look up the stones in one of the many
           reference books  on this  subject, only to  find the stones  they were
           drawn to  are  exactly the  ones  they need  to  deal with  issues  or
           illnesses that they need to work on. 
            
           The very first thing you need to do when you first get a crystal is to
           "clear it" from the imbalanced energies of anyone else who has touched
           it.     Crystals  "work"  because  of   their  piezoelectrical  field.
           Researchers in Kirlian photography and  other subjects have long shown
           us  that the  body  is  surrounded  by  a  field  of  electro-magnetic
           energies, which psychics call the AURA.  People who have  studied this
           subject  tell   us   that  Crystals   help   us  by   attuning   their
           piezoelectrical  charge to the charge of our  auras.  So we must first
           remove the charges  from the stone that come from  other's handling of
           it.   This  is done  by leaving  the stone  in sea-salt  (available at
           almost any health-food store) for 3 days.  The only time you will have
           to use  this technique -  which is drastic -  to cleanse the  stone is
 
                          Last amended June 11, 1989  --  Page NEXTRECORD 
 
 
                                                                              413
 
           when you  first buy it.  The reason I  say the technique is drastic is
           because it erases ALL of your energy from the stone too, so  the stone
           has  to be rebonded.  (explained later) This piezoelectrical effect of
           the  stone is  the  same  reason  that  quartz  is  useful  in  making
           computers, telephones, watches, and in other electronic devices. 
            
           2.  the regular maintenance of your stone 
            
           The regular care and maintenance of your stone is really quite simple.
           First of all a gentler method of clearing the piece should be used  at
           least once a week and after any uses in either physical or inner 
           (mental/emotional/spiritual)  healing  work.    This can  be  done  in
           several  ways.  First of all, you can  run it under COOL - no extremes
           of temperature PLEASE - water in your sink for several minutes,  while
           visualizing (intensely imagining in vivid detail, from a meditative or
           extremely  relaxed state) all imbalanced energies leaving it.  You can
           also  leave  it  in  mugwort  (an herb)  for  2-3  days  buried  it in
           carefully.   You  can also  place it  in a  flowerpot with  an african
           violet plant, but you should know that if it has been used to heal any
           severe  conditions, the  plant will  die.  The  stones should  also be
           re-charged  about once a month or after  every use.  For other stones,
           direct sunlight is  not such a  good idea as it  can fade the  colors.
           You can  get the reflected  energy of the  sun by placing  them in the
           moonlight during the waxing of  the moon.  (from one day after the new
           moon through the  night of the full moon)  They can also be charged by
           surrounding them in a circle  of quartz points that have  been charged
           by  the sun, with the points of  the crystals facing inward toward the
           stones being  charged.  Another method  is to purchase an  amethyst or
           quartz cluster and place  the stones on it.   A cluster is a  specimen
           with several individual  crystals on it.   Oh, and  if you charge  the
           stone by  a circle  of crystals,  be sure they  have been  cleared and
           charged themselves before  using them  to charge anything  else.   The
           circle  should consist  of at least  4 points,  but 8 is  best.  These
           stones used for charging do NOT have to be large at all. 
            
           3.  Using your stones
           Stones are tools in our psychic work and, as in any other object used,
           work by focusing the mind's powers.  To get the best use out  of them,
           more than just wearing them or carrying them is required.  They should
           be  used from a  state of meditation,  while visualizing  the goals we
           wish  to accomplish  with them  - such  as healing,  increased Psychic
           perception, etc.    A good way to do this for to help you focus  and a
           self-hypnosis tape that relates to your goals and use  it.  And if you
           are using the crystals in healing, be aware that they are NOT meant to
           replace the care of a competent health  professional - but many people
           find them a useful adjunct to it. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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