Celticnoodle asked: "crystalwoman, could you also discard the 'bad' salt by throwing it into a body of water that will wash it downstream? I ask this, because to me it makes some sense. water is a cleansing unit, and also it will 'carry' the bad away with it, washing it out to a larger body of water. or is this thinking wrong on my part?"
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This is a really good question, and one that I've given much thought to over the years. The biggest consideration here is not pollution from negative energies so much as it is pollution from the sea-salt. Negative energies that are exposed to Mother Nature's elements will disperse and transmute very quickly, but some sea-salts may take a long time to dissolve. A lot of sea-salts are organic and haven't had many minerals and chemicals processed out of them, such as iodine for example. You have to "think green" and ask yourself about location and how the salt might effect the habitation.
The very best location to dispose of used sea-salt would of course be in a body of salt or brine water if that is close by. But not everyone has access to an ocean or briney marshes and may only have access to a small stream or only a dry land with no running water at all. Dumping sea-salt into a small stream of running fresh water may effect the immediate inhabitants of the fresh water, i.e. spawned eggs or smolts, tiny crustaceans, salamanders, water plants, etc. A large and very swift running creek or river may be more acceptable, but one would still need to scatter the salt very widely over the water so that the salt settles to the bottom as individual salt crystals rather than being clumped together. This would allow more rapid dissolving and dispersion of the salts and minerals and be less likely to effect very sensitive inhabitants.
The same thought to location must be considered when scattering salt over dry land - rocky and gravelled areas will have less underground-dwelling inhabitants (earth-worms, insects, rodents) or plants than an area that has growing plants and softer soil. Salt won't hurt rock but it will poison soil and plant roots.
You can't flush the sea-salt down the toilet or a sink because it may effect the septic system (destroys good anaerobic bacteria) and may degrade plumbing (salt pits the pipes and pvc). It may even interact with ammonia in a septic system and cause toxic vapours to develop.
So always think "green" when disposing of salt and scatter it where it will do no harm.
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*embla* asked: "I am left with one question only, what on earth can make stones this sick? What can have happened to my herkimer? Is there a way to avoid that your stones get so sick they need intensive care?"
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There are lots of things that can cause a stone to get sick. You have to put the stone on your forehead and go into a meditative trance state with it and ask the stone to tell you it's story. Trust in the spontaneous thoughts or images that enter your mind, this will be the stone speaking to you and letting you know what it wants. However, if you start to get a really bad headache during the process remove the stone immediately and put it into salt or earth right away, then try again in 2 weeks. A headache will indicate that the stone is in pain or severe trauma. When you no longer get a headache the stone will be more ready to tell you it's story.
It may have absorbed negative energies from elsewhere before you even acquired the stone. It may have experienced something horrifying that traumatized the stone. - Sounds odd I know, but I've had stones that were traumatized and I've taken them home to heal them of their trauma and during meditation with them I've been told their stories.
It may not be getting cleansed and recharged as frequently as it should be. It may be working VERY hard at healing it's owner but not receiving any healing for itself. All stones need to be recharged, even the stones that nu-agers say don't need any recharging. I don't know where people got the idea from that stones like citrine or herkimers or selenite don't need recharging - that's a total fallacy.
It may be lonely - when stones are not being used most people keep them locked away in a dark box and stones all hate that. They don't wan't to be kept imprisoned away out of sight and out of mind, they want to be an active member of the household and they want to see the light. That's why stones come to the surface of the earth.
It may not be being used or kept for the right reasons - it could be that it has a specific purpose to fulfill which it's owner is not recognizing or is refusing to acknowledge or accept.
There are many other possibilities, each stone is individual and has a reason of it's own. And if a stone cannot be healed then it's owner may have to take the final step of giving the stone back to the earth permanently where Mother Earth takes it back to her bosom for intensive nurturing.