Crystals: How Do They Work And Why Is Everyone Buying Into Them?
Courtesy of Energy Muse
Depending on who you ask, crystals are either tools to help unlock your great, untapped power or they’re just rocks. Spencer Pratt will likely tell you the former, skeptics the latter. But no matter what your initial impressions of the stones may be, we can all agree they’re pretty interesting and at the very least, simply pretty.
Before last week, my experience with crystals began and ended with a small variety pack of stones I acquired when I was 10. They were smooth and colorful with names like Jasper and Tiger’s Eye and didn’t do much of anything besides sit on my cluttered dresser top. They were all ultimately lost never to be thought of again. Until a galley of Crystal Muse landed in my email earlier this month.
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The forthcoming book from Energy Muse co-founders and crystal experts, Heather Askinosie and Timmi Jandro, Crystal Muse: Everyday Rituals to Tune into the Real You (Oct. 2017, $22; [tempo-ecommerce src="https://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Muse-Everyday-Rituals-Tune/dp/1401952380" rel="sponsored" target="_blank">I’m generally open-minded so I opened the attachment. As I scrolled through the galley, I unexpectedly came face to face with the stones I’d abandoned over a decade ago. The Jasper and Tiger’s Eye I’d long since forgotten sat alongside 46 other vibrant rocks, some of which I recalled from my original set, arranged by color on a page from the book. Each one accompanied by text that read the stone’s name and three qualities, like clarity, manifestation, and focus.
Courtesy of Energy Muse
Something about the connection to these childhood trinkets struck me as a sign and I made an appointment to meet with Askinosie and Jandro the following week. Through their company Energy Muse, the two crystal pioneers have worked for almost 20 years to educate and reconnect the world to the healing properties of crystals. Their crystal jewelry has even garnered a celebrity following with fans like Lena Dunham, David Beckham, and Molly Sims. So, I knew I’d get some real answers to what crystals are and how the heck they’re meant to be used.
Less than a minute after sitting down with Askinosie and Jandro, I asked my most pressing question, “How do you explain crystals to someone who thinks they’re just pretty rocks?” only to be shocked by the response.
“Well, they are just rocks,” said Askinosie. “We’re the first to say that if anyone thinks a crystal is going to change their life, they’re going to be really disappointed.”
Huh?
“We wish that just like anyone else, but what a rock or crystal can do is help you get grounded, centered, or empowered, if you use it as a tool,” she explained.
Still a bit baffled, I pressed her until I finally started to get it. In the most basic terms, Askinosie, who has studied crystals and their energies for over 25 years, explained that crystals can work as touchstones or talismans we can hold or look at to re-center and inspire ourselves. For example, the crystal Pyrite, often called Fool’s Gold because of it’s resemblance to the glitzy element, is said to inspire abundance, luck, and wealth. That doesn’t mean if you have Pyrite in your vicinity, you’ll automatically score a promotion or win the lottery. It means someone who hopes to make more money or find a new job may put a piece of Fool’s Gold on their desk, look at it, and say to themselves “I’m going to work harder today” or, more literally, “I’m going to send out three more job applications today.” And that’s the energy part, Askinosie says.
You might say you don’t need a rock to work harder, and you may be right. But there's likely something else a crystal could help you with. Finding a crystal that resonates with you is a personal experience because each crystal comes with its own energetic blueprint which will feel different from person to person. So, what you gravitate towards, someone else may not and vice versa. It's all about not thinking and feeling.
Courtesy of Energy Muse
During my visit with the new authors, Askinosie performed a mini crystal reading, which entailed me selecting crystals from a collection of maybe 25 they brought with them.
“Just pick. There’s no right or wrong number, just pick whatever you like and lay them in front of you,” I was told. Askinosie and Jandro apply that same “just pick” strategy to everyone that comes into their crystal warehouse in California
“People come in and say ‘well, what crystal do I need?’ And I tell them I don’t know,” says Jandro. “Come, touch, and pick them up. Is it vibrating with you? Do you feel energy? Do you just gravitate towards it? Any of that could be possible. You just feel it.”
So I just picked and ended up with three stones, one of which, a sharp, dark grey stone with a Game of Thrones vibe, stood out to me the minute she laid out the crystals.
“That one is Black Kyanite,” Akinosie told me. “That one’s good for overall balance, space clearing, and sort of letting go of things that no longer serve you.”
She explained that it could apply to anything from changing my diet, like removing sugar, to my relationships, like moving away from toxic or stressful friendships. Her full reading really did hit the nail on the head for me and my 25-year-old life of transitions and adjustments. So, I keep my Kyanite close as a reminder to align myself with things that serve my highest good. And suddenly Spencer Pratt is making a little more sense.
