About Gemstones and Crystals - True Nature Gems.

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GEMSTONES & CRYSTALS

Gemstones and crystals have always been regarded as having special properties, to be used in healing, or worn as talismans and amulets. They have been sought after by kings, queens, emperors, warriors and priests, as symbols of power and protection and they play an important part in folklore and folk medicine throughout the world.

Crystals and gemstones are loved today for their beauty, for their meaning and symbolic value and for those who have studied them, for their many special properties. They are perfect gifts of love and friendship and lasting keepsakes, to be passed on through generations.

What is Crystal Healing?

Crystal Healing is an ancient art and involves the skilled use of gems and crystals to enhance and balance the subtle energies of the body.

Find the gemstone that has the properties you desire (often you will be instinctively drawn to the one with the properties and colour you need) and wear it close to the body energy centre or area you want to bring healing to. Read our Chakra page or see our chakra chart for guidance on the associations for each chakra.

There are lots of books available on the subject of crystal/gem healing and it can be combined successfully with colour therapy. Many of the stones were originally named in association with their properties, ie: bloodstone for the blood and spinel for the spine. It is said that both humans and animals are naturally and instinctively attracted to the gems that have the properties they need and it is those particular stones that will give them the most benefit.

Crystals and Gemstones

Please click on the crystal names to go to their pages

Some Traditional Associations

AGATE: A stone of good fortune, health and long life. Said to attract the love of others, increase courage, intelligence, strength and modesty and to benefit the heart. The blue lace variety is used for its calming effect. Colour: Comes in many colours and usually has a banded or striped appearance.

ALEXANDRITE: known as the “stone of good omen.” Used to bring inner peace and magnanimity of heart and to benefit head, spine, neck, eyes and memory.

AMAZONITE: For soothing the nervous system, strengthening the meridians and improving thinking abilities. Colour: blue green and white.

AMETHYST: For meditation, soothing the mind and re-balancing the spirit. For protection from negative vibrations, healing and easing pain, purifying blood and encouraging sleep. Also said to tone down drunkenness. Traditionally associated with St Valentine, a stone of love and friendship and a fortunate gem for lovers and friends. When worn with Carnelian, said to restrain those who are domineering and highly strung. Colour: from deep to light purple/violet, sometimes banded with white.

AMBER: A stone of sympathy and understanding, healing and attracting. Used for making and breaking spells, for calming and healing, uplifting and absorbing negative energies from the body. Said to give children strength if hung around the neck and also to help rheumatism, toothache, headaches, goitre, bleeding, intestine and bladder problems, earache, asthma, bronchitis and throat irritations. Often carried for luck. Amber is believed also to benefit the performances of actors and actresses, when worn with amethyst. Colour: golden yellow to orange.

AQUAMARINE: A stone of joy, hope, love and spiritual vision. Used for calming the mind, lifting the spirits and preserving innocence. A good stone for seers and mystics and those seeking intelligence and self knowledge. Soothes emotions and nerves and is healing for eyes, liver, stomach, glands and swollen feet. Colour: Pale aqua blue.

AVENTURINE: Green - healing, blue - upliftment, congestion, circulation.

AZURITE: Believed to reveal to the owner the purpose of life and open pathways to truth. To aid psychic development and help open the third eye centre. Encourages sympathy, understanding and intuition. Used in meditation. On the physical level, helpful for rebuilding cells, dissolving diseased tissue and for arthritis, knee problems and hip pain. Colour: Rich deep blue, sometimes with areas of green as it grows with malachite.

BLACK ONYX: Helps in changing bad habits, grounding, ideal as a necklace.

BLOODSTONE: (A variety of Jasper). For idealism and for strengthening the will to do good. Helps those inclined to extremes, wards off harmful vibrations, calms negative emotions and encourages a pleasant disposition. Also used to purify blood and detoxify organs (especially liver, kidneys, and spleen) and to help stop bleeding. Colour: black/red, flecked.

BLUE JOHN: Helpful for overworked mediums and other sensitives. Colour: Indigo and white

BOWENITE: (Korean Jade) Helps depression, insomnia and indigestion. Sharpens spirituality and vision when worn with Chrysoprase. Colour: Light green

CALCITE: For mental clarity and allaying anxiety and to aid awareness and intuition. (Many colours)

CARNELIAN: (or Cornelian) Believed to encourage friendship and cheerfulness and to protect from evil, to ground energies and concentration and strengthen fming negativity, bringing wisdom and combating depression and sluggishness. Family love. Also used for understanding and vigour, for lower spine problems checking bleeding, rheumatism, infertility or impotence. Said also to strengthen the voice. Colour: Orange/deep orange red (sometimes with darker flecks, sometimes pale).

CHRYSOCOLLA: For psychic development, meditation and healing. Colour: turquoise blues/greens.

CHRYSOLITE: (a kind of topaz). The stone of astrologers and fortune tellers, believed to attract occult powers, encourage inner vision, tranquillity of mind and ability to see into the future.

CHALCEDONY: For peace, confidence, and cheerfulness and to minimise over sensitivity and protect against the evil eye. Said to help reduce fevers.

CITRINE: For improving confidence and self image, for clarity of thought, cheerfulness, fairness to others and emotional control. Helpful for circulation, toxic conditions, purifying the blood and for diabetes.

CONNEMARA MARBLE (Celtic green from Ireland) – Inner peace/ freedom from worry.

CRYSTAL (Quartz) stone of mystics, psychics and healers. Helps focus, awareness and meditation, calms mind and eases anxiety and pain. Also helpful for diarrhoea, dizziness, kidney problems, spasms, vertigo, haemorrhages. Amplifies the effects of other stones. Has many important uses. Colour: Clear or milky white.

CHRYSOPHRASE: For psychic development, meditation and healing. A talisman used to bring victory. Aids clear thinking: Colour: Bright green.

CORAL: Believed to protect against witchcraft and the evil eye and to draw away melancholia. Also said to dim when the owner is ill, as it absorbs the effects of illness. For anaemia, bladder conditions and joint problems: Colour: White or orange/pink, blue/green.

DIAMOND: Symbol of Christ, for invoking love and fidelity and bringing courage and longevity. Also helpful in overcoming enemies. Amplifies the energy of other stones. The diamond is worn on the “heart” finger in marriage to encourage faithfulness and purity of heart - an ancient folk charm that we still use today. Colour: clear.

EILAT STONE: (a form of chrysocolla) A stone highly valued by King Solomon. Believed to aid intuition, wisdom and psychic power.

EMERALD: For intelligence, prophecy, business success, emotional stability and understanding. Promotes love and is believed to be a link with divine forces. Used in healing for eye troubles, skin ulcers, insomnia, epilepsy, colds, headaches, asthma and the pains of childbirth. Colour: Bright, clear or mossy green (clarity and hue depending of quality of stone).

FLUORITE: For encouraging positivity, balancing the energies, opening chakras and strengthening bone tissue. Colour: usually clear, green, blue or purple shades.

GARNET: Believed to help in the development of clairvoyance and to help the mind to be pure, hopeful, cheerful, confident, honest, frank, faithful and sincere. Stimulates the imagination, calms the mind and helps depression and laziness. Believed also to aid skin problems and strengthen the base of spine (when worn as beads of carried in the pocket, is said to calm, over-activity and restlessness, especially in the young). Used as a symbol of remembrance between parting friends. Colour: deep claret red.

HEMATITE: For courage and endurance, strengthening heart, regulating pulse, and for ulcers, cramps and blood disorders, i.e., anaemia, plus inflammation of joints, fatigue and melancholy (especially during pregnancy). For increasing libido and for grounding. Colour: metallic silver grey.

JADE: Believed to be a lucky charm. Used for warding off spirits, safe journeys, wisdom and long life and for slowing down ageing. Brings peace and serenity and is a good for high blood pressure, heart and circulation problems, diabetes and kidney and bladder problems. Colour: Green - shades of green vary according to type of jade and jade can also be dyed various shades.

JASPER: Believed to have magical properties and protect against the evil; eye, witchcraft and phantasms. Encourages the person to do good deeds. Also used for improving the sense of smell, calming emotional problems and guilt feelings, lowering blood pressure and helping kidney, stomach and bladder complaints, biliousness, and epilepsy. Has the power to console. Colours - can vary with many colours and variations. (see Jasper page).

JET: General magical and healing properties. For quietening fears, aiding the grieving process (hence its popularity in the mourning jewellery of the Victorian period) and protecting from violence and illness. Used for headaches, toothache, glandular swelling, stomach pains, epilepsy and hysteria. Considered in the past to be a powerful magical talisman to ward off negative influences. Colour: black.

LAPIS LAZULI: Said to help in the development of psychic abilities. Aids depression, builds hope and self confidence and improves health. Believed to encourage fidelity in love. Helps one to find the inner truth and elevates consciousness. In healing used for heart, spleen, blood and digestive problems and brain diseases such as epilepsy. An “emotional sanctuary” Colour: Deep blue, sometimes with tiny metallic flecks of silica (even gold) or streaks of white calcite.

MAGNETITE: (lodestone) for honesty, wisdom, and integrity. Used to help postural imbalances, (of spine and related headaches, rheumatics, neuralgia, liver and eye diseases. Colour: grey/black.

MALACHITE: For raising the spirits, increasing hope, health and happiness, attracting prosperity and removing blocks to spiritual growth. The copper in malachite is said to help irregular menstruation and this stone is also valued for toothache, asthma, eyesight problems and rheumatism. Colour: green, banded.

MARBLE: For protection against witchcraft. (many colours)

MERLINITE: A spiritual stone used for accessing wisdom. In healing used for cleansing blood and lymph, and said to be benefit smokers, a healer for lymph, skeletal system, veins and arteries. (grey/black/white with dendrites)

MEXICAN ONYX: To aid sleep.

MOONSTONE: For success, inspiration and calmness, for reconciling parted lovers, uplifting and balancing emotions and attracting good things, (believed to ensure a good crop if hung from a fruit tree). A good stone for travellers. In India this was regarded to be a lucky gem if given to a bride by her groom. Helpful for dropsy and water retention. Peach, for comfort, white for balance, the blue variety is considered best.

MOSS AGATE: Attunement with nature and growing things. Colour green/clear/mossy

OPAL: Believed fortunate for Librans, also helpful for lung conditions: Colour: varies (multi).

OBSIDIAN: Can be used for removing blocks to the healing process. Good for divination. Reflects flaws in one’s own nature and reveals subconscious, hidden truths, sharpening external and internal vision, helping stomach and improving muscle tone. Colour: Usually black or black with white blotches. (snowflake).

ONYX: Aids thinking, imagination and decision- making. Also said to promote fidelity and attract fortune: Colour: usually green, brown or black.

PERIDOT: Believed to be favoured by the inhabitants of Atlantis. Said to help psychic vision and protect from delusions, to help the timid, balance and uplift the mind and encourage serenity and trust. Aids muscle function, counteracts some of the effects of alcohol and is useful for stomach acidity, digestive problems and calcification: Colour: Golden green.

POPPY JASPER: For happiness and positivity.

RHODOCROSITE: For integrating physical emotional and mental fields, reducing depression and retarding ageing. Inspires forgiveness and helps owner face reality and new situations. Colour, pinks, banded.

RHODONITE: Helps lessen worry, depression irritability, confusion and inconsistency, eases foreboding and disturbing etheric influences. Ideal for mediums. Helps thyroid function, central nervous system, digestion and muscles and when worn on third finger of left hand is believed to induce compassion and sensitivity to higher values. Colour: Pinks with grey or white streaking.

ROSE QUARTZ: The pink colour is due to the manganese. This stone is used for enlivening the imagination and calming emotions. Promotes love, friendship and an appreciation for beauty, hastens recovery, gladdens the heart and brings inner peace. Believed to ward off harmful vibrations by absorbing them, helpful for aching bones and bruises and for encouraging recovery from illness. Colour: Soft rose pink.

RUBY: A Buddhist stone, believed to being intuition and initiative, loyalty and courage and to protect against loss, unfaithfulness of partner, envy or nightmares. Forewarns of danger. For pains, spasms & fevers.

RUTILE QUARTZ: Rebalances the different levels of consciousness and also the endocrine glands. Increases tissue regeneration. Good for bronchial sufferers. Used as an aid to mental and psychic activity. Colour: clear with gold threads or fibres throughout.

SAPPHIRE: Symbol of truth, associated with saints, yogis, mystics and healers. Stimulates imagination and brings devotion, faith and peace, curbs impulsiveness and encourages sympathy. If soaked in water, makes healing eye lotion, also helpful for nervous complaints and asthma. Colour: blue (but comes in other colours also)..

SMOKEY QUARTZ: Purifies energy centres and has stabilising effect, especially in material matters where it encourages frugality. Heals and lifts depression and is used to aid psychic ability and meditation. Said to benefit the abdominal areas, kidneys, pancreas and sexual organs. Colour: transparent Smokey brown.

SODALITE: For courage, endurance, open-mindedness, logic and rationality and for bringing light-heartedness, youth and freshness. Used to lower blood pressure and fever. This stone is believed to have a healing effect on animals if placed near their domain. Colour: Dark blue

SERPENTINE: To protect from snake bites, also for ulcers, swelling and rheumatism. Colour: Green.

SELENITE: For clarifying thoughts and expanding mental powers. Colour, milky white. Colour

SPINEL: Used to strengthen character, brings idealism and harmony and decrease stress. Also to promote nerve and muscle function and aid stomach acidity and depression. Good for spine. A stone favoured by musicians as it is said to inspire them. Colour: red, pink and other colours.

SUGILITE: Uplifts and brings energy, absorbs garbage. Colour: Pinkish purple.

SUNSTONE: For contemplation, helps in remembering dreams. Colour: Peachy Orange.

TANZANITE: helps with change, uplifts the heart . Colour: blue/violet.

TIGER'S EYE For good luck and protection against witchcraft and the evil eye. Brings insight into one’s own faults and guides seekers towards right path. Used to help hypochondria and asthma. Colour: Golden brown, in bands or stripes of varying shades. Has translucent sheen associated with the cat’s eye, hence the name.

TOPAZ: Believed to bring happiness, wealth and honour, improve intellect, calm the mind and aid psychic development. For mental balance, for strengthening the blood vessels, helping circulation, varicose veins, menstrual pains, liver problems, nervousness, insomnia and for improving appetite. Colour: Golden yellow or aqua blue.

TOURMALINE: Green - helps balance and healing, best for males. Pink, helps balance and protection, best for females. Used in meditation. Possesses many healing properties. For cheerfulness and reconciliation, intuition, protection form enemies, negative vibrations and misfortune. Allays nervousness and brings confidence and calm. Helps clear the chakras. Used for lymphatic problems, anaemia, indigestion, neuritis, weight problems and for helping muscles and nerves. A stone favoured, by artists, musicians, authors and those in showbusiness. A lucky stone. Colour: Comes in many shades.

TURQUOISE: (Turkish stone). A lucky stone associated with the Buddha. Also beloved by the American Indians. Brings wisdom and protection against misfortune or harm. Considered fortunate for horses and their riders. Reminds us of our spiritual nature and of earthly beauty. Used in meditation and for helping intuition. Good for throat chakra, higher abdomen, muscle weakness, eyes, headaches, fevers, foot and leg problems. Encourages positivity. Regarded as a powerful talisman. Colour: Turquoise, in clear or mottled (matrix) varieties.

UNAKITE: Balances body and emotions

ZIRCON: Promotes development of higher mind and prophecy and reduces melancholia. In healing, used for lungs, liver, brain, venereal diseases and skin problems. Colour: clear or white.

Crystal Therapy and Choosing your Gemstones

To gain the greatest benefits using gemstones for healing, some training and knowledge are recommended. However, you can experiment with the healing effects of gemstones by testing them out for yourselves. Some people are more sensitive to their properties than others, and a stone which has a strong effect on one person may not do so for another.

For this reason it is often a good idea to choose your gemstones for yourself. When possible, try holding different rocks and gems in your hands and notice whether you feel tingling, or just a sense of peace and calm. According to your own individual needs, the stones will vibrate differently with your energy field and you will feel intuitively drawn to certain ones. When buying on this site, you may feel particularly drawn to certain gemstones and this can be a good indicator that they may be beneficial for you (also, do not forget to look up their associations in the gift guide).

Crystal therapy can be used in a variety of ways. As a complete therapy, it is a complex subject requiring much knowledge and study and involves the placing of gemstones on various parts of the body in various combinations and sequences, in order to balance the subtle energies.

Using gemstones for yourself, you may meditate, lying down with the crystal placed on the appropriate chakra or energy centre of the body, or you may place the gemstone in a clear glass container in purified water and leave in sunlight for a day (check with your crystal therapist which gems are OK for this). The water will then be infused with the properties of the gemstone and can be drunk over a period of time for its healing effects (remember to refridgerate where necessary).

Wearing gemstones is a wonderful and age-old way of benefitting from theri effects. In chakra healing you can choose gems of the appropriate colour for their benefits. Try to wear colours of the corresponding chakra, for example: purples and blues, in the upper part of the body, as earrings, necklaces etc., yellows and greens towards the centre of the body and the oranges and deeper reds, lower down on the body or as rings, in belts and bracelets or carried in the pockets (although gemstones are best worn next to the skin where possible).

CLEANSING YOUR GEMSTONES

To enjoy the harmonising properties of gemstones and crystals or jewellery containing them, it is a good idea to ‘cleanse’ them every so often (more often if you wear them regularly) and here are a number of ways you can do it:

1) Leave in salt water overnight (sea salt if possible), then rinse for a minute under clear flowing water and allow to dry naturally (recommended more for gems than jewellery itself).

1) Burn sage (or special smudge stick) or natural incense and pass the stones through the smoke. This is called “smudging”.

3) Leave on windowsill in moonlight overnight.

4) Place on an amethyst cluster overnight

5) Hold under clean running water for 60 seconds - stream or fountain water even better. (For jewellery with elastic, avoid excessive contact with water). The running water is a good way of charging and energising the stones generally.

6) Use the energy of sound, as with a Tibetan singing bowl or similar instrument.

When you have 'cleansed' your crystal jewellery, imagine it being filled with cleansing light and love.

Soft stones:

Please note that some stones are soft and should not be exposed regularly to water. Soft stones are those like malachite,(which can be toxic when dissolved and is given a protective coating to help with this), also turquoise, calcite, aragonite etc, but do ask if not sure.

With soft stones, care should be taken not to scratch them Also, with bead bracelets, or any beads which are threaded on elastic, please remove when showering or bathing as repeated exposure to water can soften the elastic (use the dry methods of cleansing if possible) . Also, please remember that power bracelets can be adjusted via the toggle button (where present).

Model photos by Kemp Muhl, featuring Eden Fae Rice.

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"A gemstone is a naturally occuring crystalline form of a mineral, desirable for its beauty, valuable in its rarity, and durable enough to be enjoyed for generations"

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