Folk Names: Crystal, Witch?s Mirror, Star Stone, Iris (from the prismatic effect of quartz crystals), Zaztun (Mayan)
Energies: Projective, Receptive
Planets: Sun, Moon
Elements: Fire, Water
Deity: The Great Mother
Associated Metals: Silver, Copper, Gold
Associated Herbs: Copal, Mugwort, Chicory, Sage, Sweetgrass
Powers: Protection, Healing, Psychism, Power, Lactation
Magical/Ritual Lore: Long thought by ancients to be solidified water or ice, quartz crystal has been used in religious and shamanistic systems for thousands of years. Because of its connection with water it has been utilized to magically create rain in many parts of the Pacific, including Australia and New Guinea.
Traditionally, quartz was utilized in the Eleusinian mysteries to produce the sacred fire by concentrating the heat of the sun to ignite wood chips.
Quartz was in common use among North American Indians in rite and spell, and ceremonial wands topped with quartz crystals have been found in southern California. Cherokee shamans, acknowledging the crystal?s power, kept it wrapped in buckskin when not in use. At regular intervals it would be ?fed? deer?s blood. It is a common component of shaman?s power bags or medicine bundles.
Contemporary Wiccans wear quartz, often combined with silver, during Full Moon rituals. Because it is also Goddess-symbolic, quartz crystal spheres are often placed on the altar during lunar rituals. Its icy cold temperature represents the sea.
Two quartz crystals can also be placed on Wiccan altars to represent the God and Goddess, the two primal, creative powers of the universe. Some place a natural crystal to represent the God and a sphere for the Goddess.
In shamanistic terms the quartz crystal is the shaman, and the shaman is the crystal. There is no difference between the two. As such it is the perfect tool of the shaman and is utilized in rituals throughout the world.
Mystically, quartz crystal is symbolic of the spirit and intellect of human beings.
Magical Uses: Quartz crystals are currently very popular. Their use in healing, altering consciousness and magic have linked them to the spirit of the New Age. Long neglected by people in most of the world, save for their industrial applications, quartz crystals are today a huge commercial business.
Clear or ?white? quartz crystal is perhaps best known to the general public for stimulating psychism. Though most crystal spheres sold today are plastic or glass, true quartz crystal spheres are also available, at fantastically expensive prices. Though well worth the cost to those who can afford them, crystals need not be worked by human hands to be magically effective, nor must they be pure, or free of inclusions.
In fact, many crystal scryers or gazers utilize the inclusions, veils and tiny prisms within crystals to entrance themselves. And simply gazing into any crystal point, i.e., a natural crystal, can produce psychism.
In the Renaissance most ?skrying stones?, or crystal balls, were fashioned of beryl, not clear quartz crystal. However, crystal was used in magical operations. It was sometimes half-covered with pure gold and set on a base of ivory or ebony wood. This was used as an instrument of contemplation to awaken the psychic mind.
In 19th-century European magic, the crystal sphere was placed beneath the pillow to create a rapport with the scryer, enhancing its effectiveness.
A crystal sphere can be exposed to the light of the Full Moon to strengthen its powers. Before scrying, a tea of mugwort or chicory is sometimes drunk, and fresh mugwort rubbed on the crystal.
Attach a quartz crystal to a silver chain with its point downward, and you?ve fashioned a fine pendulum. This is a tool which links the arm holding it with the intuitive, or psychic, mind.
Though there are many different systems of determining the pendulum?s answers through its swing, here are two common ones:
Circling, either clockwise or counterclockwise: yes, or favorable conditions. Side to side: no, or unfavorable. Or: Circling clockwise: yes, or favorable. Circling counterclockwise: no, or unfavorable. Side to side: no answer.
Ask the crystal how it will respond to questions and work with it. It is a powerful tool of the subconscious mind.
In the Yucatan a special class of diviners, consulted to ascertain the ?will of the Gods? and the spiritual nature of illness, utilize quartz crystal for divination.
The sphere is first cleansed by passing it through the fumes of smoldering copal (a gum resin collected in Mexico and Central America for magical and religious use). Additionally, or sometimes instead of this cleansing, the crystal is dipped into a bowl of rum to cleanse it and to awaken its powers. The diviner then studies the reflected flame of a candle within the crystal to determine the nature of the illness or problem.
A quartz crystal point carried or worn increases psychism. Placed beneath the pillow it offers psychic impulses in the form of dreams, which are the language of the deep conscious mind. It also
ensures peaceful sleep.
Tumbled and polished quartz crystal stones are inscribed or painted with runes and used as divination stones, and divinatory objects such as tarot cards are often stored with quartz.
Once known as ?star stones? in early Britain, they were used in folk magic. Here?s an old example: Gather nine quartz pebbles from a stream. Boil them in a quart of water from the same stream. Allow the liquid to cool naturally. Drink a small amount of this liquid each morning for nine days to help cure illnesses.
A similar technique involves placing a quartz crystal in a clear glass of fresh spring water. Let the glass sit in the Sun for a day, then drink the water to subtly improve your health.
Quartz crystal is also worn to relieve headache, and a small crystal is placed against the gum to give relief from toothache until dental treatment is obtained. It is also held in the hand to reduce fevers.
Throughout the British Isles crystal spheres of an inch in diameter were mounted in silver and worn as amulets against illness. In shamanic healing sessions, as well as home treatments, crystals are rubbed onto the afflicted part of the body to remove disease. When the session is over, the crystal is cleansed before reusing.
The crystal can be placed on a painful part of the body and left there to re-balance bodily conditions and to remove blockages of energies, which many say result in illness.
Though expensive, cups made of quartz crystal were considered the finest for drinking herbal medicines, and a small quartz crystal or tumbled stone can be safely added to any infusion or tincture to increase its effectiveness.
Throughout the world, crystal was considered a ?milk? stone. It was either placed on babies or worn by their mothers to increase lactation and to ensure their babies? assimilation of this basic food.
For protective purposes this stone is worn, carried or placed in the home. In the 14th century the quartz crystal was engraved with the image of a man in armor holding a bow and arrow. The stone guarded its wearer and the place where it was situated.
Quartz crystal is used as a power amplifier during magic. It is worn or placed on the altar for this purpose. Wands of crystal or containing crystal are also quite popular at this time.
Thirteen crystals (representing the lunar year) or twenty-one crystals (thirteen Full Moons plus the eight ritual occasions of Wicca) can be used to physically construct the magic circle, in which Wiccan rituals and magical rites are held. Situate the crystals with the points facing inward for religious ritual, meditation or general magic, and with the points outward for defensive or protective magic. Quartz pebbles or tumbled and polished stones may also be used.
A ?crystal garden? can be easily fashioned if you have several crystals. Fill a large wooden or white earthenware bowl with white sand. Then set the crystals in the sand with their points upward. There are no other particular directions as to how to place the crystals, so use your imagination.
You may wish to trace a pentagram (five-pointed star) on the sand using a crystal, then place one at each point and one in the center. This confers magical protection.
Workers utilizing the power of the elements may use five stones, four aligned with the directions (which relate to the elements) with the fifth in the center, representing Akasha, or the fifth element. This will empower your elemental magic.
Crystals maybe set up in spiral formation for use as a focal point during meditation. The spiral is symbolic of spiritual evolution and reincarnation.
The crystal garden is a place of power, an altar of stone magic, a meditative device, and a protective ward for the home.
In image magic performed in salt, earth, or damp sand at the beach, runes or images can be traced with the tip of a quartz crystal. While drawing, send energy through the crystal to the image.
Of the colored forms of quartz, many are treated separately here, like agate, amethyst, carnelian, chalcedony, citrine, jasper, onyx, sardonyx and others, but those more commonly known as quartz are:
Blue Quartz (Energy: Receptive) is a fine peace and tranquility stone.
Green Quartz (Energy: Receptive) is utilized in prosperity workings to increase money or to provide an ?easy life.? It is also worn to stimulate creativity.
Herkimer Diamonds (Energy: Projective) are miniature, double terminated quartz crystals. They are fine substitutes for diamonds in magic.
Rose Quartz (Energy: Receptive) is used to stimulate love and to ?open the heart chakra?. To attract love, wear a heart-shaped rose quartz. Its magical applications include promoting peace, happiness and fidelity in established relationships.
Rutilated Quartz (Energy: Projective) is an energy stone. Wear during magical rituals or place on the stone altar to increase the effectiveness of your magic.
Smoky Quartz (Energy: Receptive) is another mood elevator and is worn as a grounding stone. It overcomes depression and other negative emotions.
Tourmalated Quartz (Energy: Projective), quartz penetrated by black tourmaline crystals, is often worn to stimulate astral projection.