Crystal Clarity

So I've started work again with crystals. It's been a long time and I've found my entire collection of 20-30 different types. Each one I hand selected not neccessarily for how they looked but how they felt. After spending more time with them I've chosed 3 to use to ground myself and help open myself up again where previously I've become closed off. I use them to meditate in harmony with the way I work, utilising their properties to stabilise my receptive and projective sides.

Laying down, the first crystal I rest on my forehead for clarity of mind and sight. A point of clear quartz, it has many fractures on the inside of the main body but the tip remains perfectly transparent. It helps me to focus and clear my thoughts, while facilitating the flow of energies to aid in the balance I need to maintain.

The second crystal rests in my left hand, the receptive. Rose quartz, the crystal of the healer, to focus positive energy flowing inwards and through this side. I find this one often heats up after a few minutes with the passage of energy coming towards me.

The third and final rests in the palm of my projective hand, earthing the energy leaving me from this side. I use it most to channel pain as it was designed for. It's a bloodstone, otherwise known as heliotrope, a dark green crystal flecked with red jasper. Round and flat I find it effective at absorbing pain energies and as such must be careful handling it. When used in my projective hand it quickly grows cold as it absords that which I channel through it.

Though it may seem to be a strange method to others, I find now some of my greatest balance through this triad of crystals and am trying to keep them with me at all times. Unlike some who work with crystal I do not earth them, but let them pick up on the energies around them and become more attuned to me personally. Though I may not wish others to handle them too closely as they are a fairly fine balance for me as they are right now.

Anyway, away with me to rest with them some more. I was disturbed (though not an unwelcome disturbance) by a friend calling a short while ago and had not acheived the level I had hoped for initially. Time to try again.

The Beginning

Well, I'm starting a new project. We'll have to wait and see how well it turns out! I'm looking into the spiritual side I once thought of as lost. I'm rediscovering and reattuning myself to things I had to shut myself off from because I was with someone who disapproved. I'm following an in depth study into reading the tarot and will record a few findings as I focus on each card, as well as readings I do both for myself and for others. I hope it will be useful as a reference as situations unfold, as a retrospective for looking at the accuracy of readings and the usefulness of advice. I also hope it may help those who are also learning the art in their study to have logs of readings taken. You should rely more heavily on your own intuition but do not be blind to the insights of others. I myself am learning from a variety of sources while seeking my own answers, and bought a notebook today to record as I go.

The best way to learn the cards is to know them so you don't have to use a reference guide. I intend to study each card, meditate upon the meanings and imagery, and sketch an approximation of the important parts of the image in my notebook as I go with all of the meanings that can be derived therein.

My choice of deck is the Universal Waite. A slightly more colourful variant of the Ryder-Waite deck it's full of rich imagery and is very stimulating to the intuition, aiding a clear and deep reading. I used to work with one called the witch's tarot. The images were beautiful watercolours but they lacked the detail needed for one who is learning. I also prefer to be able to discuss with the person I'm reading for the images and what they mean in relation to the reading I am giving them, I feel this helps with their confidence in my ability and dissolution of scepticism.

Be aware that the tarot will not always be accurate, it will take the questioner as seriously as they treat it. A reading is not a cheap parlour trick but a useful insight and guidance. For the sceptics, it is simply a tool for a deeper psychological understanding of your situation, but useful nonetheless because it will help you to focus on a problem often more objectively and rationally than you otherwise might.

Other than the Tarot, I intend to look at other forms of spirituality. Hopefully with some time and help from a good friend I will be able to start work with aura. I used to have a fairly good sight for it but have lost that over time and lack of use. I'll also be working in basic meditation and methods of healing. It is my natural area of expertise for want of a better word and I hope to hone and improve the techniques I have already picked up. At the moment I'm not very controlled or focused, so I tend to pick up on the pain of others around me. This can be as little as a small pain in a joint where someone is injured to a full blown migraine when someone has a headache. I have been working on ways to channel the pain and earth it again but this is where I face most difficulty. With focus I have been able to absorb and in effect relieve and heal minor pain and discomfort but often to a self detriment which is where I need more experience, focus and practice. Unfortunately I am having little success on ridding myself of my own discomfort, but that's more of a selfish act which is subject to negative "karma". That which we send out will always return to us, whether we like it or not.

Anyway, feel free to comment, though please if you are too narrow minded to be open to possibilities of things beyond your understanding keep your negativity to yourself. I'm not saying be positive, but if you have a criticism be constructive about it. I'm inexperienced and may well make mistakes in perception or in base knowledge, I don't mind being corrected if I put a foot wrong.

Currently studying: Major Arcana 0: The Fool