Connecting with Rocks & Crystals

The secrets of accessing

The spirit of any rock or tree

Is to believe that it does exist

Beyond the imagination and your needs

We are here all the time in any rock and tree

Each has a purpose, none is better than the rest

Together we help to keep balance and harmony on Earth

This is our test

The connection you develop with a special rock and/or crystal is the most important part of crystal therapy work, whether you are focusing on personal healing and growth, using it as a healing modality and/or working with rocks and crystals for group and, even, planetary transformation. Thus, learning how to establish and deepen your connection with members of the Stone Family is key and, like any good relationship, this one takes time, patience, respect and - most importantly - love to nurture and grow.

I’d like to offer a few simple suggestions regarding how to deepen your ability to connect with a rock or crystal, which is indeed a learning process. To do so, both you and the rock or crystal must change vibrations since we manifest energy in such different ways. In our present culture, we are not taught much about how to do this, although in many shamanistic practices, rocks and crystals are believed to have spirits (some refer to them as divas) that can accessed through intentional practice and maintained through ritual and ceremony.

A critical step before connecting with a rock or crystal is to make sure that you first connect with yourself, and are grounded, balanced and in a state of openness and serenity. You must calm your busy mind, open your heart and center yourself in an intentional and mindful way. You should focus upon opening your senses more fully: with your eyes, you need to see more obliquely and change perspective; with your ears, you need to engage in “receptive hearing” by hearing not just the words, but the mind and heart behind them. There are many different ways that this can be done, exactly how is up to you.

The importance of having an attitude of respect and gratitude when working with your rocks and crystals can not be overemphasized. Always remember to thank a rock or crystal when you begin to work with it, and then again when you finish. Exactly how you do this is up to you, what is significant is that you do it.

The concepts of key, voice and name can be helpful ways to conceptualize how to engage with your ECA rocks and crystals. Key is the idea that you can actually enter a rock or crystal if you get yourself in the right frame of mind, and if the rock and crystal is willing. It may be helpful to imagine, or visualize, that there is some type of “key” that helps you to open up the entrance to the rock or crystal. What exactly this “key” may be can and will vary from specimen to specimen and from person to person. It may be something that actually seems to be like a real key, or maybe something quite different such as a sound, an image, a breeze, or even the sensation of heat or coolness on a specific spot of a rock or crystal. Sometimes the key may even be a taste, or a smell, or perhaps something else.

You will probably notice that some specimens may seem relatively easy to find the key and enter, while with others it may take longer and seem more difficult. This is normal and to be expected because some rocks and crystals are actually shier than others, and some have songs that are harder for humans to perceive. There may even be a few rocks or crystals that you are never are able to enter. That too should not be surprising either, if this does occur.

Once you find the key and enter the rock or crystal, you may find that the rock or crystal actually seems to have a voice. Sometimes this “voice” may seem like a real voice that you can actually hear while in other cases the “voice” may be conveyed through images or other means, or maybe just via deep intuitive knowing that seems beyond the senses. In whatever way that you may, or may not, hear it, remember that even if your extremely limited human senses doesn’t perceive a rock or crystal’s voice, that doesn’t mean it is not relating to you. There are many ways that rocks and crystals (and all of nature and the cosmos for that matter) communicate, most of which us humans never pick up because our senses are blind to so much.

See if you can engage it in a dialog of sorts with the voice. Ask it specific questions, such as what word or phrase may capture its healing energies and/or what it likes and/or what it wants you to know at that particular moment are ways to help bring its “voice” our more fully.

Finally, naming a rock or crystal can be a powerful way of deepening your connection. Whether the name “pops” into your head, almost as if the rock or crystal was telling you, or you seem to invent it on your own, it can be helpful to write the name down, along with any other comments or information that you receive about the rock or crystal that may be useful. Sometimes, you may even find that a particular specimen likes certain music, or drinks, or even food that can be incorporated into ceremonies and/or rituals.

Another reason that it can be helpful to name a rock or crystal is because a name can serve as one way of identifying it in the future. You may want to keep an actual notebook to record the names of your rocks and crystals, along with any other distinguishing characteristics such as size, shape, degree of regularity, color, etc. that will help you remember it in the future. There are other methods as well that can help you keep track of your rocks and crystals.

Importance of Ceremonies and Rituals

Ceremonies and rituals are another important way to maintain and deepen your connection with your rocks and crystals. While the idea of having a celebration for a rock or crystal may seem rather strange to you, remember that this is common in many spiritual and shamanistic practices where rocks and crystals are important objects of veneration. In many of these practices, rocks and crystal are actually given offerings of various types as a way to honor them. Remember that many offerings are not material in form; an offering may be a song, a dance, or a prayer, for instance.

It is good practice to thank and bless your rock and crystals every week, when possible. This doesn’t have to be long or complicated process - a simple prayer, a candle lit, a drumbeat, some smoke – whatever you feel works best and your crystals would like. Just follow your heart! In this weekly blessing, remember to thank not only the crystal spirits, but also the other forces that help and guide you – your ancestors, your personal guides, any people incarnate that you work with, the angelic realm, and/or other elements of nature and the cosmos. Crystals and rocks understand that they are embedded in a web of intricate interconnections with all life forms and forces.

In addition to the weekly blessings, once a year or, even better, at the changing of the seasons, it is a good idea to carry out a more complete ceremony for the rocks and crystals. At this time, you may want to wash your rocks and crystals with blessed water, infusing them with powers as you pray and sing over them. You may even want to give them some offerings of food, drink and/or incense or whatever you feel is right. Most important is to be joyous and radiate love, for isn’t that what you feel for the beautiful, powerful, and so supportive Stone Family?

Skye Stephenson Ph.D. is currently developing LECORA™ crystal healing. A full day “Introduction to Crystal Healing and LECORA practice” workshop will be held March 27^th, 2010 in southern New Hampshire. Two full scholarships to attend that workshop are available, if interested in applying contact hope@jadejourneys.org.

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.