Personal Stones: The Sacred Trilogy

Many people seem to be feeling the ‘call of the crystals’ these days. As a crystal healer, people sometimes ask me how to explain to them how to connect with a crystal or stone; how to feel and learn of its energies and wisdom. There are, of course, many ways to attune to the stone family. The most important factor of all is your intention and focus.

Like getting to know anybody or anything, relating with the stone family is a process that takes time and patience. And since we humans are so very different than stones, it is also a process that involves shifting our vibration and perception. In this process we can come much learning, healing and transformation.

One way to help promote a deeper connection with the stone family is to develop what I call your ‘personal stone sacred trilogy’. This is a practice that serves as an initiatory gateway for LECORA™ crystal healing and helps to open up a deeper connection with rocks and crystals. It is also a helpful way to be able to more effectively carry out crystal layouts and other types of crystal healing and transformational work. While the practice involves details that cannot be conveyed in a short column, let me give you a few brief brushstrokes of what the ‘personal stone sacred trilogy’ involves.

The ‘personal stone sacred trilogy’ consists of the following:

1) A special ‘healing’ stone

2) A specific rock or crystal that seems to have been ‘gifted’ to you

3) A particular rock or crystal type

Let me explain each in more detail. A special ‘healing’ stone is a stone (or rock or crystal) that you use to help heal yourself. This is a critical first step to moving forward to help heal others, and the planet. We all have our wounds and pains. Some are probably personal, and have to do with your own life story to date. Others are intrinsic to the human condition. Yes, we all carry at a soul level the pain of the illusion of our separation and divides, especially at this particular moment in planetary history.

Many of the First Peoples around the world use stones for healing, and have a particular stone that serves as their talisman. The Mapuche of southern South America call them caucura stones, the Ojibway call them mishomis, and the Mayan in the area of Belize call them satsun. Whatever the name given, they are a special stone (or combination of stones) chosen with careful selection and guidance. This guidance may truly come (and should come) from your own guides and from spirit. You may ask spirit to help show you what stone or rock is willing to serve as a special stone for you.

When you have found this stone, then a healing ceremony should be done. It may be helpful to have a community of like-minded people supporting you in this process. While the specifics of the ceremony may differ from tradition to tradition, the most important factor is your own intention towards personal healing and transformation. Remember that anytime you heal yourself you are also healing the world, for the whole universe resides within each of us, and we are at the same time totally connected with the entire fabric of all the universe everywhere – even the black holes and distant galaxies.

Your healing stone will take your pains willingly, if you treat it in a respectful and grateful manner acknowledging the inherent wisdom and special kind of love that manifests in the stone family. Some Native Americans call the stones ‘grandfather’ for they are so ancient and in their hardness resides great resiliency and stability. It can be helpful to wash your special healing stone periodically in water, to let whatever you gave to the stone flow away. Leave it out in the elements every now and again also; let it feel the sun rays and moon beams.

The second stone of the sacred trilogy is a specific specimen. This may be a particular rock or crystal that you already feel a very special connection with or it may be one that you connect once you do your healing ceremony. Whatever the case, it is a rock or crystal or stone that somehow feels very special to you. It may even feel as if it has been gifted to you, in a mystical manner.

My special specimen is a nine-pointed quartz cluster that I saw several years ago for sale in a beach resort in northern Chile. I was just beginning to engage in crystal healing, and was visiting one of my favorite places in the world (Chile) when I saw that a man had set up on a makeshift table with a few crystals and rocks on it for sale. This was not a place where I had ever seen anyone selling crystals or rocks before. When I saw this particular quartz cluster, it seemed as if it was calling to me, and I couldn’t forget it all day at the beach. On my way back to the hostel where I was staying, I looked at it again and I felt it reaching out to me even more strongly. But I really hadn’t planned on buying a crystal, and, besides, I barely had any money on me. Without a word, the man selling the rocks picked up that one cluster in his hand and passed it to me to hold. I told him I didn’t have much money. He smiled, and told me the crystal was mine. I call it “Hope”. It stands by my bedside every night, alongside my healing stone, which is a simple looking rock that I picked up by the riverside near my house.

The last of the sacred stone trilogy is a particular type of rock or crystal that resonates strongly with you. A stone totem, in a manner of speaking. I believe that each of us has a totem(s) or guardian from the three realms of life on planet Earth – animal, plant and stone. And just as knowing your animal totem or plant guardian may help give you greater power and centering, the same can happen with a crystal or rock.

You may already know what your stone totem is. For some it is amethyst, while for others it may be rose quartz or obsidian or some other type. Learning about your stone totem and connecting with it can be extremely empowering and enlightening. It can also feel like connecting with an old friend, an ancient friend you have somehow always known but never quite consciously acknowledged before. This stone totem may be able to teach you many things.

How do you find out which is your particular stone or crystal? Like all such questions, this is one that evolves and may even change through your own life journey. You may also find that different crystals and rocks may serve different purposes for you. Sometimes, it can be helpful to undertake this exploration of “crystal connection” in the community of life-minded individuals who can create the space and energy to help facilitate your sacred crystal learning.

Skye Stephenson Ph.D. enjoys sharing with the world information about crystals and healing. She is currently developing LECORA™ crystal healing modality, and will be offering training sessions in it for interested individuals throughout 2010. A full day “Introduction to Crystal Healing and LECORA practice” workshop will be held March 27^th, 2010 in southern New Hampshire. Skye is also the founder of Jade Journeys, LLC, which offers transformational travel to connect with indigenous knowledge and wisdom. And she has just finished writing a novel Jade that involves a spiritual journey through Latin America. For more information and/or to share any crystal healing stories, see www.jadejourneys.org and/or www.lecora.net for more information. Contact at hope@jadejourneys.org.