Amethyst and Smoky Quartz from Diamond Hill, South Carolina

Diamond Hill Smoky/Amethyst Cluster  photos by Peachfront Press

Today I want to take a quick look at an unusual quartz that can be mined in Diamond Hill, South Carolina.  A rock club from Louisiana visited the Diamond Hill Mine, and one of the rock hounds found and brought back this beautiful crystal cluster.  It weighs over 50 pounds so it's a heck of a specimen.  But what's really interesting about it is that it usually looks like Smoky (Blackish) Quartz.

Yet from some angles, in some light, you can definitely see the purple cast of true Amethyst crystals among these stones.  

It is not an easy effect to photograph but maybe you can get a glimpse from this close-up: 

Detail of giant Diamond Hill cluster by Peachfront Press

Hmm.  Or maybe not.  But the smaller crystals in the center bottom have a distinctively purple cast in person.

To me the Diamond Hill crystals are a perfect example of the close relationship between Smoky and Amethyst. In my opinion, they both have a soothing, spiritual, and anti-anxiety kind of energy.  I don't offer healing advice -- that's way beyond my pay grade! -- but personally I think these two stones work very well together and that they have similar (or at least very compatible) energies.


Note:  The particular cluster in the picture may be for sale but only to someone who can arrange to pick it up in southeast Louisiana.  It is too heavy to ship.  But if you'd like more information, please contact Elaine Radford at Peachfront Press.

Know Your Prosperity Stones # 7: Coins, Coins, Coins!

Foreign coins photo by Amethyst Qu

Strictly speaking, coin magick isn't crystal magick.  But, in practice, you're going to find out that the same person who likes to get out and hound for crystals is often the same person who likes to pull out the metal detector and search for coins.  Whether you're seeking minerals or money, you're hunting for treasure -- an ancient instinct that goes back to our dragon ancestors.

What?  Did I hear somebody say they don't have any dragon ancestors?  Don't be too sure.  Or maybe it's somebody you were in a different life.  I sometimes think I was a dragon with its jeweled tail curled around and around a hoard of gems.  Or maybe I was a pirate.  

In any case, when I think about stone magick, sometimes I think about coin magick too.  The lore is very ancient.  Anyone who has ever read a book on mythology -- or even a modern urban fantasy -- probably knows about the coins put on a dead man's eyes.  But coin magick doesn't have to be dark and grim. 

Here's an easy way to draw good fortune using coin folklore from Japan.  Simply choose a Japanese coin with a hole in it and wear it on a cord or ribbon.  

I also keep one of these "hole-y" coins in my change purse to help draw good luck to my own personal money bag.  I like the symbolism, don't you?

Photo credit: Japanese coin by IvanWalsh.com via Flickr under a CC 2.0 license

There's a more challenging exercise in coin magick out there based on the old saying, "See a penny pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck."  There's a guy called Stuart Wilde who pretty much wrote the classic essay on his experience with this.  Here a Penny, There a Penny.

He preaches that if you want to draw more money into your life, you have to be open to take the money the universe sends your way.  So if you see a penny on the ground, you're supposed to pick it up instead of sending the universe the message of, "Eh, I don't need that."

You know the concept of the magical sacrifice?  Sometimes what gets sacrificed is your dignity.  Wilde's story involves a white satin suit in front of the opera house on a muddy day while the friends in the limo look on in astonishment at this dude chasing down a penny in the gutter.  Definitely worth the read.

Anyway, for a few years, I practiced picking up pennies as a way of being mindful that the universe is trying to throw money at me.  One day a light bulb went off in my head.  You only have to pick up the penny.  If it makes you feel cheap to hold onto the penny, it's OK to put it right back down for the next person to take it.

Try it.  I think you might like the results.  

Know Your Prosperity Stones # 6: Copper, Metal of Venus

Copper & Calcite photo by James St John via Flickr under a CC 2.0 license

I talked about copper, the ancient metal associated with the Roman goddess Venus, in my book Crystal Cash.  We may not always think of the goddess of love in association with wealth and luxury, but without love, the birds don't sing and the grass doesn't grow and the planet as a whole ends up in a pretty sorry state.

So there seems to be a logical association in the ancient mind that links prosperity, agriculture, love, and beauty.  Maybe not a billionaire's level of prosperity.  But the concept of enough and just a little more so that you feel luxurious.

I have several slabs of Michigan copper cut from rough stone like you see in the top photograph from James St. John.  It's a beautiful material even if you just collect it for its looks.  But you could also use it as a sort of mini prosperity altar.  Put a Arkansas quartz crystal on top or maybe even a small grid of tiny quartz crystal pebbles and points -- and let the magick multiply.

I also like to keep bowls or jars of copper pennies.  Whenever I find them, I add them to the jar.  Even though a penny -- or even a whole jar of pennies -- is not a lot of money on the material plane, I find that it acts as a magickal magnet to draw more unexpected money.  

Give it a try and see how it works for you.

Old copper pennies photo by Nic Mcphee via Flickr under CC 2.0 license

Know Your Prosperity Stones #5: Crazy Lace Agate

I talked a lot about Green Moss Agate in my book Crystal Cash: Fast Easy Money Magick Using Popular Stones (Exploring Crystal Magic Book 1). But there's another stone, Crazy Lace Agate, that I've done a lot of work with on the physical plane. I wasn't ready to talk about it in my book, because I haven't done enough metaphysical work with it. But I've done a lot of work with it in my polishing and art projects. And I've been getting some questions about it. So let's talk. All photos on this page courtesy Peachfront Press.

It's hard to put exactly into words what Crazy Lace is. It's usually more of a banded (and sometimes orbed) Chalcedony, usually from northern Mexico, that comes in a variety of distinctive colors and patterns. Yes, there are whites and greys. But there are also pinks, reds, browns, and golds. Sometimes there are a few pieces that are translucent -- I have some Crazy Lace that's truly a pink and white candy-colored Agate. Often it's a more opaque material and the beauty comes from the patterns you find within.

Here is a gold Crazy Lace Agate sphere from the Peachfront Press personal collection. The material came from Chihuahua, Mexico, possibly the La Fortuna mine. Please note that Peachfront's photo is copyrighted and used by permission. Ask before you republish it elsewhere. This item is not for sale.

I'm rather cautious with suggestions for metaphysical crystal work until I've tried them out. But I do know that patterned Agate and Chalcedony has a long-standing history of being associated with wealth and power. I've been happy with Green Moss Agate for my money-drawing purposes, but I should probably branch out a little and give my Crazy Lace Agates their shot. At this time, I've been using it mostly as an inspirational material for my art. I'll be honest. For me, it's one of those stones that grabs me with its personal beauty. But it makes sense that surrounding yourself with beautiful things is a great way to feel wealthy. And, by the law of attraction, if you feel wealthy, you can draw more wealth.

I'd be thrilled to hear about other people's experiences with this stone. Tweet me Follow @AmethystQu to share your stories.

For now, let's visit the photo album. Here's a collection of polished baroque Crazy Lace Agates in brown, pink, red, and white/gray:

Here's a nontypical Pink Crazy Lace:

Here's a nice hand specimen with a more typical pattern:

Three pieces of brown Crazy Lace Agate -- two polished cabs and one tumbled wire-wrappable:

One of the favorite cuts from the Peachfront Press Collection:

Know Your Prosperity Stones #4: Arkansas Quartz Crystal

Arkansas Quartz Crystal

What if you could only own one crystal for your prosperity work?  It would be tough for me to choose between Lodestone and Quartz, but I could make a very strong argument for Arkansas Quartz Crystal.  It's beautiful, abundant, and affordable.  

All of the Arkansas Quartz crystal clusters on this page were given very minimal (read amateur quality) physical cleaning.  We don't own a soda blaster, folks!  But they still look gorgeous.  

I featured Arkansas Quartz first and foremost in my book Crystal Cash: Fast Easy Money Magick Using Popular Stones.  Many people think only about the spiritual when they consider this stone.  No doubt about it, the stone has been used down through the ages for meditations, scrying, contact with alternate realities, and more.  

But it's also a practical stone that was used in early electronics, particularly during World War II.  It's a stone that doesn't shy away from material as well as spiritual truths.

I firmly believe that every serious student of crystal lore should have Arkansas Quartz crystal somewhere in their tool kit.

Arkansas Quartz comes in many forms. Here's a light smoky--


Here's one with some speckled inclusions, I call this cluster "freckles"--

Know Your Prosperity Stones # 3: Bloodstone

Bloodstone

When you read Crystal Cash: Fast Easy Money Magick Using Popular Stones, you're going to notice that I've got a lot of things to say about Bloodstone.  It's inexpensive, affordable, and powerful. 

The best Bloodstone features what looks like drops of fresh blood on dark green jasper, like so:

It has been used for tens of thousands of years.  Here's a Bloodstone Paleolithic stone ax collected in India: 

The close-up shows you the characteristic pattern created by flint knapping Bloodstone and other similar materials including Jasper, Quartz, and Flint.  We can't carbon date stone, so I can't tell you how old the stone ax might be.  It could be a couple thousand years old, it could be 60,000 years old.  This material was a working stone for thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years. 

Why isn't Bloodstone more popular in this world of online sales?  Well, it's hard to photograph. I  don't know if our digital cameras have a tendency toward red/green colorblindness or what.  But many times Bloodstone doesn't photograph as well as it looks in person, which means that sellers may not have the same incentive to feature the stone.  Too bad, because it's great stuff both on the material and the metaphysical level. 

Experiment with one Bloodstone pebble just to see.  I'm betting you'll be back for more.  

Know Your Prosperity Stones # 2: Ruby

Ruby

Ruby is one of the most honored of the ancient stones.  Yet many rubies you buy in jewelry stores are  lab-grown synthetics. Yes, I realize they have the same chemical structure, and that's why it's legal to sell them to people in mall jewelry stores everywhere. But I wonder how many people who get them as gifts are really all that happy in the great if and when they find out they have a synthetic.  

To be sure I have a genuine ruby grown in the earth, I find it's often most practical to go with ruby crystals that aren't considered gem-grade.  Nobody's going to fake rubies of the quality in that photo.  There's no money in it.  They're a few dollars a gram instead of many hundreds or even many thousands of dollars a carat: 

The hexagonal crystal at the top is a typical non-gemgrade Ruby.  I particularly like that stone because it does show the hexagonal form so well.  

The other two stones are non-gem Ruby growing in a green matrix called Zoisite.  They don't show the hexagonal crystal structure very well.  But they do have some nice red color.  

I really like Ruby in Zoisite for prosperity meditations, crystal grids, and medicine bags.  Try it for drawing unexpected gifts -- not just of goodies but of cash too.  Red and green.  Reminds you of Christmas, right?  

This is a large unpolished specimen of Ruby in Zoisite with lots of red Ruby crystals growing in the green matrix.  You can also buy carvings made of this material, which is found in Tanzania.

In my book  Crystal Cash: Fast Easy Money Magick Using Popular Stones I mention a low grade Ruby in matrix material from North Carolina sometime in the late 1960s.  Here's a piece of that material: 

It's extremely porous and won't really take much of a polish.  But it's another possibility for the mineral cabinet or the metaphysical grid.