Monday, February 29, 2016

Peek Inside Some Crystal Books for Free



My books are meant to be short, actionable guides aimed at the prosperity worker.









But there are many other good books out there with a more general focus. Here are some of my favorites:






Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Topaz: Stay the Course

A little while ago I got tweeted one of those stone magick tips which informed me that Imperial Topaz is a good choice to wear or carry if you are meeting a lot of resistance and you need courage to stay the course. There's no doubt that this is a traditional use of this stone.  Topaz has always been there to support your courage and your determination on the path to ultimate victory.

If you are certain that your path is righteous, then go ahead. Slip this stone in your pocket, or wear it in a ring, and stay true to your course.

But what if...?  Sometimes, the reason we're getting a lot of roadblocks in our path is because fate or higher spirit is trying to tell us that we're on the wrong road to begin with. Sometimes your best move to find your good is to get off the wrong road and start heading in a more positive direction. How do you know?

I'm not a big believer in just "programming" a stone to do what you already have in your mind is the right thing to do. Sometimes you need to calm your mind, put your pre-conceived ideas out of your head, and let the stones (or another magickal tool) suggest what you should be doing.

I've tried a lot of different techniques to get insight and direction from the universe outside of me. Tarot, astrology, the Ruins, etc... some of these work better for me than others. Again and again, I have returned to the Tarot. Try resting your cards with a small Amethyst and a small Quartz crystal on top of their box for a few days before you do a reading. You might be amazed.

I've also put together a stone Tarot kit that I use from time to time for quick readings. Maybe in a future post I'll photograph my kit and show you how it works.

Photo Credit: Imperial Topaz photo by Karen Neoh under a CC by 2.0 license

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Neon Blue Apatite-- The Experiment Begins



If you're read my book Crystal Cash: Fast Easy Money Magick Using Popular Stones-- and if you haven't, what are you waiting for? -- then you know that my special gift seems to be prosperity workings. Maybe not "win the lottery" levels of abundance, but I seem to do OK with drawing in unexpected sources of money. I've had a lot of fun playing with the old stone folklore. It just seems to come naturally to me.

However, there's a lot of old stone folklore. Drawing financial security and prosperity is just one part of a balanced life. There's also a lot of folklore that deals with drawing love or health or long life. As it happens, someone sent me a big package of Neon Blue Apatite. As far as I know, it isn't a prosperity stone. So I'm open to insights and experiences about what people are doing with this stone.

As far as I know, Neon Blue Apatite wasn't identified as a separate crystal during ancient times. Any stone worker cutting it would quickly figure out it was much softer than sapphire, but that doesn't seem to mean that anybody knew what it was. In fact, I just read that the word "apatite" came from a Greek word for cheating stone, since evidently apatite was sold as a more valuable stone and thus just succeeded in getting the buyers/stonecutters really peeved off. Uh oh. Doesn't mean the stone is no good. It's beautiful. Just means that people got burned, and thus they formed some unpleasant associations with it.

If you have any information about positive ancient uses of this stone, please give me a shout on Twitter
But for now, I'm going with the assumption that the positive uses of this beautiful teal-colored stone were discovered by workers in the 20 and 21st centuries.

Here are some of the uses people have reported for their Neon Blue Apatite:

*Meditate with the stone on your "third eye" chakra or keep it on your desk when you're working or studying online to help you focus. I've used flourite (an even softer stone that comes in purple, blue, and yellow) for a similar purpose, but haven't yet tried it with apatite.

*Throat chakra for speaking truth. "Speaking" in modern times can, of course, include writing or blogging. Anything you use to get the word out. You could wear it on a chain at your throat. Or, again, meditate with the stone on your throat chakra.

*Psychic development. Really need to communicate with someone at a distance? In the era of the smartphone, you may question why we "need" telepathy to send mental messages when we can instantly send a text. Trust me. There are situations where you really, truly can't send a text for whatever reason. It could be cool to experiment with this one. Hey, you never know.

*Some people say it helps with lucid dreaming too. I've tried to get away from lucid (controlled) dreaming and let my dreams "happen" a little more than I was doing in the past, but I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on that too.

*Weight loss. I've read of people using it as a pocket stone, but I'd put it in a little protective silk or velvet bag first, since it's fairly soft with a Mohs hardness of 5, so it's possible to scratch it.