Green Calcite

     Green Calcite is an energy healer, cleaner and amplifier. It works to raise your vibration, cleanse your thoughts and promote mental stability. This gemstone enhances memory, speed spiritual development and intuition, especially during meditation.
     When it comes to past life or current life issues, this stone helps to rebuild trust. Green Calcite transforms negative thoughts and feelings into more positive ones, allowing one to move forward and get past their heartaches, bad relationships and traumatic events.
      This stone amplifies energy in a steady way without extreme highs or lows. It helps to combat laziness, depression, and instills a sense of safety and calmness. Green Calcite gives hope to those who have lost it and aids in manifesting prosperity and success.
     Green Calcite has many diverse healing abilities. It benefits and strengthens the circulatory system, heart, kidneys, bladder, pancreas, spleen, lungs, thymus, muscles, tissue and bone as well as helps to balance the thyroid. Have arthritis, joint pain or an inflammatory illness? Try a warm bath with this stone (it will dissolve) to aid in healing and relieve pain.
       You can also keep it in your pocket, under your pillow or make an indirect elixir. An elixir of Green Calcite can also cool sore throats, treat infections - especially of the lungs, throat and sinuses - lower fever and reduce inflammation.
       Use Green Calcite in any of the above ways to aid in overcoming addiction or to break bad habits.

Black Amber

      Okay - so technically Black Amber is not a stone but is fossilized tree resin. Amber can range in color from golden yellow to dark brown which is almost black - hence the name.
     Natural amber is more often a little cloudy or can be completely opaque. It can contain inclusions such as insects, plants, wood fragments, leaves, snails or larvae. Black Amber can be semi-translucent in areas and completely opaque in others. Patches of the “gemstone” may be golden yellow and have bright highlights. Each piece is unique and has its own appeal.
     Unlike plastic reproductions, amber will float in a saturated salt solution. When heated or it touched with a hot point, true amber will give off a sweet, honey-like smell.
     The metaphysical attributes of Black Amber are the same as regular amber. Amber is a mood enhancer, helps to dispel negativity and give a feeling of safety and security. It allows you to see the truth in situations and make decisive actions when problem solving. In meditation, amber will help you seek truth in your life and assist you in not only understanding your place in this life but allow you to take control. Black amber allows you to see the overall picture and not get stuck in the moment or small details. It helps to ground you without interfering with the process.
     Amber brings out your bodies natural healing abilities - especially when using for respiratory based allergies, heart muscles, rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. It balances and stimulates the metabolism. Black amber will balance the high energy of some gemstones like ruby or garnet and allow you to work with them on a more balanced level. Combine black amber with any stone that makes you feel lightheaded, dizzy, nauseous, or over energized in order to dull down the negative effects and bring out the more positive ones.
     Amber, especially black amber, helps to heal the wounds left by relationships. It aids in removing the hooks and cords that may have been left behind. This “gemstone” helps to rebuild confidence in one’s self, helps you to “move on” and to eventually look forward to a more positive relationship than you have had. Combined with rose quartz, black amber will help you to find a more appropriate life partner, friend and/or work situation.

Introducing Your Kids to Gemstones!

     Does your child collect rocks? Does he or she seem drawn to gemstones and you don’t know why? Or maybe they haven’t been introduced formally to the mineral kingdom but may want to learn more about them. Most kids are attracted to the colors, shapes, sizes and overall physical appeal of gemstones, not knowing there is a lot more to these beautiful rocks.

     On a scientific basis, many of these stones are used in technology, such as computers, quartz watches, MRI units as well as for medications. We even have crystals in our brains!

     At this point, if you haven’t experienced the power of gemstones for yourself, you’re probably thinking I’m off my rocker. Let me explain it in another scientific way. Our bodies need vitamins and minerals to survive and to be healthy. Gemstones belong to the mineral kingdom. If you have ever had a craving for certain kinds of foods, often it is a vitamin, mineral,  or other component that your body is needing, thus the craving. It is the same with gemstones. You are often attracted to a gemstone because of its unique characteristics. 

     Want to understand more of how they work? Try this experiment. Put a clear quartz in one glass of water, a rose quartz in another glass of water and an amethyst in a third glass of water. Leave in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, take a sip of each one and taste the difference. They are all from the quartz family, yet each one of them works in a different way and so taste different as well.

     I was a lot older when I started exploring the metaphysical end of the mineral kingdom. As a child and even a young adult, I would often find myself looking at specimens of rocks, not jewelry or fine cut gemstones, but the raw, unpolished version. I would walk away wondering what would I do with the stone and why did I want it in the first place!! I did some research, collected some gemstones from a metaphysical store and started experimenting for myself to see if what I was reading was true.

     Not long after, I found that the gemstones worked for me, but was it because of my preconceived notion or what I had read? When a co-worker at the private daycare asked me if there was something I could do for her older dog that was going deaf and blind, I made up an elixir of a combination of gemstones to see if that would help. About a week after she had started putting the elixir in the dog’s water, she saw an improvement in the dog. The dog was able to hear the car pull up in the driveway and would meet the owner at the door - something it had not done in a long time. It also was able to see treats being handed to it instead of having to sniff out  where it was. That made a believer out of me because the dog certainly didn’t know there was anything different in its water!

     I also found out how curious children can be about anything new or different. On a particularly tough day in the daycare, some of my students were arguing with each other and not listening to instructions to quiet down or to stop arguing. I happened to have a chalcedony in my pocket and remembering it was a stone of harmony, I took it out, laid it in my palm and starting talking to it, telling the stone that it wasn’t doing its job since the kids were fighting with each other. The students heard me and stopped fighting, trying to figure out why I was talking to the stone. They asked me about the stone and soon I was showing them all the stones in my pocket and telling them about each one and for what it was supposed to be used. Every day after that, the kids would ask me what stones I had in my pocket and would want to see and touch them. One particularly interested student could remember each stone’s name and what it was for, and he was only 5 at the time.

     One day as I took out a new stone, he asked what it’s name was and what it did. I told him the name of the stone and asked him what he thought it was for. Having never seen this stone, I thought for sure he would never even guess it uses, but he fooled me! He came right out with what he thought it did and he was correct! He loved the stones so much, his grandmother would take him to the metaphysical store every once in a while so he could start his own collection. In fact, that year every student received a couple of stones as part of their graduation present.

     So how do you get started. My suggestion is to bring the kids into the Herb Corner (or a new age store near you) and let them look and touch the stones. Let them decide which ones they are attracted to and then look up what the properties for those stones are on the cards we provide or in a book about gemstones. Most of the time you can identify which characteristic(s) of the gemstone that is needed or desired.

     Or perhaps you have a specific need to address. Maybe your child is having nightmares. A “pet rock” can help your child calm their night terrors. I would first recommend using Prehnite, but you can also try a Charoite, Black Kyanite, Howlite, Mookite, or even a Salt Lamp. Why so many choices? Because each of us has a different chemistry or energy and we may not harmonize with one stone that is for a certain condition. Just because Prehnite is the best stone for nightmares, it doesn’t mean everyone would find it works the best for them. They may do better with a Charoite or Mookite or even a Lepidolite that aids sleep and combats insomnia. (Dreamcatchers also work to keep nightmares at bay and you could add on of the aforementioned gemstones to one!)

     There is a stone for almost everything that ails us, energetically, physically, mentally, emotionally or intellectually. Whether we place it beside the bed, under the pillow, in our pocket or make an elixir out of it, these stones are here to aid us in almost any situation.

    Start exploring the mineral kingdom. You can collect the stones and do experiments for yourself to see how they work. You can go find places that do Geode breaking or Gold mining. This is a way that both you and your children can learn about something that is as old as the earth and yet new, at least new to you both.

Look into the how stones have been used throughout history - they are mentioned over 200 times in the Bible and through many history books. Indigenous cultures around the world used them for tools, scrying, healing and much more. Find out how are they being used in science and technology today and which ones are used in the medical fields. 

    Or may just collect them for fun and decoration! Happy collecting!

Playing for Keeps - Agate

     When I was young, just about every child carried a small sack or had their pockets filled with brightly colored round marbles made of minerals, glass or clay. At recess, a group of kids could be found kneeling around a circle marked in the dirt trying to knock an opponent's marble out of the ring. Most of the time you played for fun and you would get your marbles back at the end of the game, but if you “played for keepers,” whoever won kept all the marbles from all the players. The most prized marbles were often the agate marbles - also known as “aggie,” or “aggety” because they were denser than other marbles, making it easier to knock an opponent’s marble out of the ring.
     Metaphysically, agate is a stone for those who are “playing for keeps” because it is a stone of marital and romantic fidelity. It is a grounding stone that also provides protection, strength and harmony.
Agate balances the yin/yang energy and brings harmony to emotions, as it removes and releases resentments and bitterness allowing emotions to heal. It improves both past and future relationships by granting forgiveness to self and others.
     This stone releases chakra blockages allowing energy to flow freely. It also enhances strength, self-confidence, and dispels fears. It can also lessen feelings of envy by grounding the emotions.
Acceptance of all things is another important aspect of agate. It can be very beneficial for self-examination as well as examination of the circumstances one finds oneself in. Agates help to ease  anxiety and stress, as it can cleanse and stabilize the aura by removing and/or transforming negative energy.
     Students and artists would benefit from agate as it enhances creativity and strengthens the intellect. It is also known as a good luck stone. Agate increases energy in small amounts. It is a good grounding stone for those who just need an anchor when meditating. Agates are said to be especially useful for protecting children from falling and negativity. It strengthens the body and the body's connection to the earth.
      Physically, agate is helpful with tooth and gum issues, stomach problems, physical endurance, insomnia and headaches. Place near a computer or in a room to enhance positive emotions and eliminate positive ions.

Interesting Scientific Fact:
    Did you know that silicon dioxide is the chemical name for quartz and that pure quartz is called “quartzite?” quartz takes on impurities which gives it color and forms amethyst, citrine, and rose quartz. These form distinctive crystals that tend to be large and clear, although they may have small inclusions or areas of fracture.
     Milky quartz is called chalcedony. Chalcedony is a catch-all term for the tiny crystals of quartz that cannot be seen by the naked eye and which forms layers of dense colored material. Many chalcedony stones include many well known varieties of cryptocrystalline quartz gemstones such as agate, carnelian, sard, plasma, prase, bloodstone, onyx, sardonyx, chrysoprase, thundereggs, flint, chert, jasper, and petrified wood (just to name a few). Quartz can also appear mixed in with other geologic material, as is the case with granite and sandstone.
     So remember, even an agate or chalcedony that is not clear like a quartzite or colored quartz, it still has the properties of quartz in addition to its own unique ones!