root chakra
The Ideal Starting Crystals For Beginners
Crystals and gemstones are a popular resource in modern metaphysical practices, mysticism, and alternative spirituality. It can be used in various powerful ways, including healing, energy protection, meditation, prayer, manifesting, divination, psychic reading, and channeling.
Crystals are versatile and useful in enhancing one’s spiritual practice or energy work, but there are so many to choose from that it can difficult to know where to start.
Three of my favorite crystals that I recommend for beginners to get started with are amethyst, rose quartz and black tourmaline. These three crystals are affordable and easy to find, so they are ideal to start with if you wish to explore using crystals to expand your spiritual practice.
Amethyst
Amethyst is the ideal stone to start with because it has a gentle energy that almost anyone can tolerate without being overwhelmed by its influence. It is a fantastic stone to help you get in touch with your intuition and find your calm center. Amethyst’s calming energy especially enhances meditation and dreamwork.
Amethyst is associated with the crown chakra. It heightens our spiritual and personal awareness, which in turn helps us to self-reflect and evaluate more honestly where we need to make adjustments in our beliefs, behavior, and perspectives. Amethyst thus supports us in maintaining clarity in our self-reflection, which is a vital first step in a spiritual journey of higher consciousness and personal enlightenment.
Chakra Clearing Using Stones
Clients often want to know what methods I use in my psychic readings. With the assistance of my spirit guides I usually pick up the energy around the person I am reading for. Sometimes names or events can come in, depend on what my guides are telling me. I also use meditation and stones to connect and keep my chakras open to receive message from the spirit world.
From a very young age I have been collecting crystals and gemstones to help keep my chakras clear and improve energy flow around me. Keeping your chakra system open and your energy field grounded is very important to obtain accurate inuitive information from your inner guidance system.
Speaking to my clients I aslo tend to find that people who do meditation and take care of their spiritual well-being often have happier lives and less stress. It also contributes to a longer life span.
To keep your seven chakras open I recommend the use of some of the following gemstones and crystals.
The Root Chakra is the base and grounds the spirit force that is in your body. A strong, clear base chakra ensures the ability to work more lovingly on the physical planes. Recommended stones: Red Garnet, Smoky Quartz.
The Sacral Charka is a conduit for creative utilization of forces leading into all aspects of the inner being and high soul procreation. It direct the self towards devotion. Recommended stones: Tiger Eye, Orange Calcite.
The Solar Plexus Charka expresses our personal power and helps us to manifest our goals. Recommended stones: Topaz Citrine
Keeping The Seven Chakras In Balance
When your energy centers or chakras are in balance, you feel in alignment, happy, fulfilled and able to achieve most anything you set your mind to. You are able to achieve your goals without stumbling and letting things get in your way. When your chakra energy is out of balance, you can feel, lost, floundering, with no direction and even hopeless.
Each of the seven main chakras are associated with certain physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual states of being. It is essential that we keep these energy centers open, balanced and in flow. If one or more of our chakras are blocked or unbalanced, energy flow is restricted.
The chakras can be balanced and realigned through meditation, Yoga practice, breathwork, nutrition, natural remedies, and various energy healing methodologies, such as Reiki, acupuncture, Qigong, sound healing, prayer, reflexology and so on. If you suspect one or more of your chakras are poorly balanced or blocked, it is recommended to include some balancing energy work in your daily spiritual practice.
Crown (Purple) Chakra
Located at the top of the head it is the center of our higher state of consciousness and divine connection. A balanced crown chakra empowers us to trust that the God, Source, the Universe supports and direct us. When it is out of balance, we tend to disregard what is sacred, leading us to cynicism and becoming closed off to spirit and mindful living. Blockage of energy flow in this chakra causes disconnection from our higher self, spirit, our faith and leads to loss of hope, and loss of direction.
Third Eye (Indigo) Chakra
Located at the center of the eyebrows, it represents intuition, self-awareness, foresight, openness and imagination. When it is out of balance we lack imagination and mental clarity. This can also lead of breakdown of communications and distance in relationships.
De-Cluttering For Body, Mind & Spirit
For me the average household chore is only temporarily rewarding, because before you know it, the serenity which comes from the cleanliness and order you’ve just created is short lived. Dust and chaos return in a flash!
On the other hand, I find ‘de-cluttering’ much more rewarding, and more so knowing that a lot of ‘stuff’ not used in a while is either going to someone who can use it, or to help in raising funds for one of the animal charities I support.
More frequently these days, people are adopting a minimalist feng shui approach to furnishing their homes – and also in other areas of their lives – because somewhere deep down we all long for the space and lack of gadgets and stuff that our forefathers managed quite happily without.
Much has been brought to our TV screens these days in the way of reality shows about compulsive hoarding, bringing awareness about how the obsession of accumulating a vast amount of things is actually an emotional issue, rather than one of material usefulness.
Advances of modern civilization are generally limited to the material. So, our spiritual and mental progress hasn’t kept up with the material, hence people’s anguished stories, which I feel is accentuated because their spiritual development hasn’t kept up with their worldly achievements.
The benefit of clearing out that which no longer serves us helps in two major ways:
Essential Oils For Energy Work
Essential oils can be a powerful resource when used in energy work and related spiritual and metaphysical practices.
Grounding. Using Sandalwood, Patchouli, and Frankincense oils, for example, can help keep us grounded while meditating or doing energy work. You can use just one, or you can mix them, then simply diffuse the oil according to your preference.
Romance. To attract love and romance combine 2 parts Rose or Rose Otto with 1 part Lavender, Honeysuckle, or Ylang Ylang. Use in a diffuser or as a perfume oil on pulse points on your body. The Rose oil makes us feel more desirable, the Lavender, Honeysuckle or Ylang Ylang gives us confidence.
Memory. Using Rosemary, Peppermint, Lemon Grass, and Ginger in any combination will help with studying and memory retention. Dabbing a small amount on your third eye will enhance your ability to recall information later too.
Depression. For mild depression use 2 drops each Clary Sage, Ylang Ylang, Geranium and Sandalwood in any diffuser. Clary Sage helps promote the feel-good hormones, Ylang Ylang helps with anxiety, Geranium helps clear the debris in our heads and Sandalwood helps keep us grounded.
Energy. To recharge or refuel your energy, mix 12 drops Lavender, 6 drops Peppermint, 4 drops Pine, one drop Cinnamon essential oil. You can mix this in 1 cup of bath salts and enjoy a relaxing bath, or use in an oil diffuser, or both.
Cleanse Your Chakras With The Water Wheel
The chakras are the energy centers of the body and they sometimes become imbalanced or blocked due to toxic energy influences and negative emotions like fear, envy, anger or lust. When this blockage occurs we tend to feel ‘bogged down with no energy to get to where we want to be, be it mentally, physically or emotionally. A chakra cleansing helps to open the door for that built up energy in the affected chakra areas to dissipate.
Working with clients who request chakra readings I like to use an energy cleansing technique I invented that I call ‘The Water Wheel.’ Water is a great cleanser. Its fluidity and continuity makes it one of humanity’s most formidable allies or our worst enemy, depending on how Mother Nature chooses to express herself. Our bodies consist of 98% water and similar to the cycle of the ocean’s tides we are subconsciously also very ‘moved’ by the power of water.
The Water Wheel exercise signifies motion. It goes in a circle, but it also goes forward within that circle. The Water Wheel cleanses the chakras with the motion of water and the movement of the wheel. The Water Wheel is a visualization exercise in which you go from one chakra to the next and mentally see the colors of each as colored water. The key is create vivid visualizations and to practice, practice, practice!
The base or root chakra is associated with the color red, the sacral or naval chakra with orange, the solar plexus with yellow, the heart with green, the throat with blue, the third eye or brow chakra with indigo, and the crown chakra with violet. It is these colors one has to focus on during the Water Wheel chakra cleansing.
The colored water that you see at each chakra point should reflect the color that corresponds to that chakra. For example, when you start at the root chakra you would visualize bright red water and as you move to the sacral chakra the water would turn to a brilliant orange.
Crystals And Stones For Your Spiritual Practice
Crystals and stones have grown in popularity in recent years, to aid in healing, protection, divination and wellness.
They can be worn as jewelry, placed under a pillow, infused in water, set around the home, or used in prayers, meditations, spells and rituals.
It is important, however, to purchase only ethically sourced crystals and stones from businesses that respect their high vibrational qualities, because they are precious metaphysical tools from Mother Earth that should not be taken for granted.
Here are some popular crystals and stones I recommend for use in your spiritual practice.
Amythest
This is one of the most popular crystals and aids in enhancing one’s spiritual vision. It is also great for recovery, sobriety and calming down anxiety. If dreams during sleep are intense, you can place this under your pillow to get a good night of rest.
Black Tourmaline
This stone works with the root chakra to ground one’s energy and cleanse the aura from negativity. It also promotes inner strength when dealing with difficult people and adversity.
Blue Calcite
A wonderful crystal for encouraging rest and relaxation. It is a gentle stone and assists in soothing emotional trauma and gain a positive perspective.
