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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

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          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. 













                         Last amended June 11, 1989  --  Page NEXTRECORD 



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