Everything You Need To Know About Using Healing Stones

In this episode, I talk about healing stones and crystals with Samantha Fey. Samantha is an intuitive medium, a Reiki healer, and co-hosts her own popular podcast called the Psychic Teachers with Deb Bowen.

She really believes that if we can awaken the divine light of love inside us, then we can truly heal and ignite the world. So often we’re taught to be of service to others, which is wonderful, but we also need to practice sacred selfishness and learn how to take care of others as well as love ourselves.

What Are Healing Stones and Crystals?

Honestly, there isn’t a huge difference between crystals and rocks. You can actually Google metaphysical properties of Micah and granite and come up with some really cool stuff that those rocks do.

But crystals are basically solids that are formed in the earth by repeated patterns of molecules.

And some of them have these beautiful, bright colors by different things happening to them in the earth.

Sometimes you have volcanic ash has a certain impact on sediment and minerals, which creates a beautiful stone, such as Helenite, also known as Mount St. Helens obsidian thanks to the volcanic activity of Mount St. Helens. Other healing stones that come from volcanoes include Emerald Obsidianite and Ruby Obsidianite. These are basically artificial glass made of fused volcanic mineral and rock dust and marketed as a gemstone.

Sometimes different oxygen makes cool things happen, too. Emeralds, for example, are made up of beryllium, aluminum, silicon, and oxygen.

A gemstone, healing crystal, or healing stone is really just super condensed clumps of different elements and minerals.

What I know to be true is that when you start working with crystals, they start working with you.

And so I’m more concerned with the spiritual attributes and healing properties of these crystals rather than the geological attributes of how they’re formed. 

Crystal Healing Has Been Around Since Ancient Times

Though crystal healing is popular in the modern yogi scene, crystals have been around since ancient times. You can even find references to crystals in the Bible. In fact, you can read about references to crystals have in all of our different ancient, sacred texts.

The ancient Greeks wrote about them. The ancient Egyptians wrote about the use of crystals. Egypt would bury their dead with certain crystals that they believed helped them cross over more easily. So crystals have always been used from time immemorial.

Cleopatra, for example, would take the beautiful blue stone lapis lazuli and shatter it to use as eyeshadow.

St. Hildegard of Bingen is another example of how crystals were used in the past. Saint Hildegard of Bingen, who was born in 1098, was one of our first female healers and she recommended crystals for many healing things.

She would put them into water for tonics or she’d put them into poultices too. There’s a whole book just on Saint Hildegard’s use of crystals for healing.

Different stones have been used for different purposes for as long as humans have roamed this earth.

So crystals aren’t specifically for spiritual practices and they’re not the only path to spirituality. But they are definitely a historical part of human spirituality.

Where Do Crystals Come From?

There is a reason why people are drawn to crystals for spiritual connection.

They are formed in the earth and you have to think about what they go through in order to be formed, what they have to survive and the elements they have to endure. And every time you get a crystal, you have to think about the fact that the crystal you’re holding in your hand, that maybe you got at a random gift shop in DC, may be millions and millions of years old.

Charoite from Siberia

For example, there’s a beautiful stone called Charoite that’s formed in Siberia and it’s this beautiful swirling of purple and white and black. And that stone is said to help you survive traumatic times of isolation. You know, when you have those dark nights of the soul and you feel like you’re all alone, Charoite is a really good stone to hold onto for that reason.

It’s because it’s been able to survive and flourish in such difficult elements as Siberia. The purple is meant to represent our spirituality here on earth and the white is meant to represent our spirituality on the other side. The black is meant to represent that connection between the two, that grounding connection. We need to link those two sides of ourselves, ourselves, and our higher self.

So each stone has its own story in how it was created and what it went through to get to the earth and out of the earth and into your hands. That’s the gift that it brings to you is partly the story and what it represents.

Lemurian Quartz from Brazil

Another interesting type of quartz crystal is the Lemurian Quartz crystal. They are mostly found in Brazil but have a metaphysical legend that is absolutely beautiful.

It is said that Lemuria, a peaceful advanced ancient civilization similar to Atlantis, set these stones into the earth with hidden messages. They etched their messages of oneness and healing into the sides of the crystals and then buried them deep into the earth, which is where their common name “seeded crystals” come from. The crystals were not to reappear on the earth’s surface until the people of the earth were ready to receive the messages etched into the crystals.

The crystals were planted into the ground in a grid pattern over the entire globe that was intended to connect the earth’s energies with the energy of the stars and entire cosmos.

Well, after centuries had passed, the crystals began to surface and you can now find them in online shops and crystal shops all over the world.

So to use Lemurian quartz in your own spiritual practice, you need to activate it and the messages that were etched into its side. As you meditate, rub your finger along the “bar codes” on the side of a Lemurian Quartz Crystal to activate and download Lemurian knowledge and connect to the Lemurian energy grid.

Lemurian Quartz crystals teach us oneness, that though we are all individuals, we are also a part of one cosmic energy.

How to Choose The Right Healing Crystal For You

With SO many different stones to choose from, it can be quite difficult to know how to choose the one that is best for you.

Do you want the one that promotes positive energy or the one that brings emotional balance? Is the Selenite the best option or the Moss Agate? Do you focus on the Solar Plexus Chakra or the Sacral Chakra? Or perhaps the elusive eighth energy center; Soul Star Chakra?

My friend Samantha shares with us in this podcast interview that it’s not so much about the healing properties of each stone that we should be focusing on but what our intuition guides us to.

When shopping for any kind of stone or crystal, we’re really letting our intuition guide us in terms of what stones we’re attracted to. That’s why it is so important to go to shops in person and feel which stones you’re called to.

If you give yourself the opportunity to shop for a crystal in person, then you’ll be led to an area of the store where the right crystal is waiting for you.

It might just be because your favorite color is pink and you’re led to the pink stones. Don’t overthink it. Just go where you’re led.

Once you’re led to a certain area of the store where the stones are, rub your hands together to awaken your hand chakras and hold your hands over those stones. Try to see what sensations arise.

I’ve done this with so many people, people who are highly skeptical of all of this stuff. And whenever I get to that part where they hold them over the stones, they always feel something.

And it’s so cool to see that little glint in their eye where they’re like, “do you feel that too?” And then wherever your hand is tingling, or it might heat up or it might get cold, that’s a sign that that’s crystal is meant for you.

How to Care For Your Gemstone

So when you bring your crystal home, the first thing you want to do is cleanse your crystal because that crystal has so much mojo on it from its journey to you, to all the people that held it before it got to you. What most crystals do is absorb energy for you, so they’re little sponges.

And so they’re going to be absorbing other people’s stuff.

So the first thing you want to do is cleanse your stones. There are so many ways you can cleanse a stone. The safest way to cleanse your stone is to simply put it in a bowl of rice and let it sit overnight.

The quickest way to cleanse your stone is with intention. You can simply imagine white light coming into your crown chakra and feeling down your arms and coming out of your mouth and your hands, and just breathe white light onto that stone and intend white light to come out of your hands to cleanse that stone.

Or you can burn some Sage smoke and just run the crystal through the Sage. So lots, a lots of different ways to cleanse the stone. No one way is right or wrong, except that some stones that don’t like water.

Once you cleanse your stone of any negativity that it’s incurred in its creation or its journey to me, thank it for coming to you and ask it to reveal to you how to work together.

Whether you’re using your crystals for your meditation practice or to combat negative feelings, let your intuition be your guide.

The Colors and Meanings Behind Healing Crystals

One of the biggest questions that most people have about crystal healing is, what does it all mean?

Am I attracted to certain crystals because of maybe certain chakra imbalances and what does it mean to work with the stone?

Well, an easy place to start is with the colors of the crystals, which correspond to the different chakras.

So if the sacral chakra is the seat of creativity, then any orange stone you find is going to help you with creativity. For example, Carnelian definitely helps to awaken our creativity and it also helps to cleanse old stuff away. Because it’s a second chakra stone, I highly recommended for people working on sexual abuse issues or childhood abuse issues.

Any pink or green stone is going to help you with your heart chakra. Rose quartz, for example, is a really gentle stone. It awakens your heart to receive more love. It allows you to feel worthy of receiving more love.

Other pink stones do the same thing, but in a very different way, like help your heart to awaken to more love. But it also allows you to hold on to your sense of empowerment. I think a lot of people get blocks to receiving love because they’re afraid to let go of power. They’re afraid if they let go of their anger then they won’t be in control anymore and they’ll get hurt again.

Those two stones may help you realize that forgiveness is essential and that anger is a motivating force, but it’s temporary.

Then you take Malachite, which is a green stone with all these lovely swirls in it. It is known for going straight to your heart chakra and taking the pain away. So you use Malachite when you’re ready to let go of the pain and move on.

So all of the colors work in connection with the chakras. In the same way you would use certain yoga postures to support the chakras, you use different crystals. But it’s a little bit different for each crystal, depending on the origins and story behind it.

Helpful Resources:

• 5 Healing Ways To Balance Your Chakras
• Chakra Colors and Meanings: The Ultimate Chakra Color Guide
• What Are The Chakras and Kundalini Energy Flow? Here Is My Complete Breakdown
• How the Chakra System Works (And What Makes Them Spin)

How to Use Healing Stones In Your Daily Life

When working with a particular healing crystal, you can tie together whatever your intention is when you come to meditate with the physical stone. And I like to use the stones in a similar way that yoga looks at feminine and masculine energy, where the left side of the body is associated with feminine energy or the Ida energy channel, and the right side is associated with masculine energy, or Pingala energy channel.

So if you think about the feminine being the moon and water and being more receptive, and if you think about the right side being connected to the masculine and being connected to the sun and putting out the energy. So if I’m trying to receive love, and I need to feel loving energy from people, I’ll wear a Rose quartz bracelet on my left wrist. But if I’m going to visit someone in the hospital or I’m going to have dinner with a friend who just needs to talk about a really bad week, I’m going to wear my Rose quartz on my right wrist.

For example, one of my favorite stones is clear quartz because it’s just a stone that can be anything you want it to be. And its main job is to amplify your energy. They’re quite cheap so you can buy a dozen or so for about a dollar each. Get a handful of them and put them in a circle or an oval all around your yoga mat with the points pointing into you.

I promise you, you will have an amazing workout and amazing meditative experience in a wonderful yoga practice because clear quartz just amplifies the intention and the energy that you bring to anything. And when you have all those points pointing into you, it’s reminding you that you have access to all this universal energy.

Darker stones, on the other hand, are going to ground energy. They’re connected to the ground or base chakra below your feet. So they’re connected to the earth energy and their job is to pull negative energy from you. Negative energy like fear, anxiety, worry, or self-doubt. And since the left side of our body receives energy and the right side of our body gives off our energy, I always tell people to put a dark grounding stone, such as Hematite, in your left pocket or wear it in a bracelet on your left arm to protect yourself of the negative energy of others.

It acts as a shield or armor as it deflects any negativity coming towards you. So I like to recommend that people wear Hematite because it reminds you and subconsciously helps you put up a shield all around you to deflect negativity coming towards you.

Another dark stone that can be used in daily life is smoky quartz, which looks like clear quartz that has been filled with smoke or cloud. It is a beautiful stone for anyone dealing with depression or sadness or a lack of self-worth and doubt. Smokey quartz absorbs negative energy from within you, versus the way Hematite absorbs stuff coming at you.

However, if I need to give off certain energy when I’m speaking, then I’ll use stones that support the Throat Chakra, which is connected to speaking our truth. So any light blue stone is going to help you speak your truth. So Blue Lace Agate is my go-to throat chakra stone.

Let’s say I have a meeting with a boss and I have to ask for a raise or I have to state my case for why I deserve a promotion or a raise. I’m going to wear a Blue Lace Agate bracelet on my right wrist. So I’m sending out that energy. But if I have a boss who is always telling me what to do, but isn’t very clear on exactly what she wants me to do or how she wants me to do it, or when she needs me to do it by, then I’m going to wear that Blue Lace Agate on my left wrist.

So I receive and hear her communication more clearly.

Do Healing Stones Really Work?

I believe in the placebo effect. I believe that when we work with these crystals, it sends a subconscious reminder to ourselves like, Oh, that’s great. I’m wearing this because I’m working on setting better boundaries. I’m wearing his Hematite bracelet because when I go into see my angry boss today, I’m not going to let her energy affect me.

A lot of people will say to me, do you really think a stone that grew in the ground is energetically sending up shields that are protecting this person? I do, but if you don’t that’s okay. And I respect that.

If you are still resistant to it, just think about the powerful impact of having that visual reminder on our body or in our hand or in our pocket. Because sometimes we just need reminders that we’re on a spiritual path and that we have access to universal energy. We don’t have to be on this hamster wheel of life. Crystals are just another reminder of how to do that. The dark stones, the grays, the Browns, the blacks are really, really good at that.

Final Thoughts

There is SO much more goodness in this podcast than I could fit into the blog post here, so give it a listen the next time you’re washing dishes, commuting to work, or going for a walk. Let me know your favorite parts by dropping a comment or sharing it in our Uplifted Facebook group!

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