Sulis

Hi
This is something which bothers me. I used to use crystals in my magic a lot but then I started to wonder about where they actually come from. Crystals are available in loads of gift shops these days, the demand for them must be huge. My daughter wants me to buy her a tumble pollished stone every time we go to our local magic shop and I feel awful saying no but the owners of the shop don`t know whether or not their stones have been obtained in an enviromentally friendly way.
I look on the Earth as my Mother, my Goddess and as such I can`t buy into her destruction by buying crystals which have been ripped or blasted out of her.
Recently I became attuned to Reiki and discovered that my Reiki Master runs an ethical crystal business (all of the crystals which he sells have either been found or harvested without the use of explosives or invasive mining techniques) so now I can safely buy crystals knowing where they have come from. I have a wand with an amethyst tip; the amethyst was found on a beach in Cornwall.
I hate to sound as if I`m preaching and I`m sure that most of you are aware of this anyway but to those who aren`t please think or even ask your local crystal supplier where their stones come from.

Love and light

Crystalmynx xx

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Sulis xx

'Be excellent to each other and party on dudes' - President Abraham Lincoln in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
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Avatar image used with the kind permission of Mike Maihack from Cow Shell Graphics (with a little added by me).

Lady Skye

Hello Crystalmynx,
I must say I haven't given too much thought as to where my crystals come from, however, I buy most of them from a woman at the annual Renaissance Festival each summer. She mines them herself in Arkansas, U.S.A. She is very particular and her crystals are of the finest quality. These mines are open to the public and for a fee you can go in a tap them out of the earth yourself. In order to release them from where they are growing I would imagine it would be a very delicate procedure. I plan to mine some of my own next summer and I will be treating each one I take from the earth with utmost care and sincerity. I believe their loving energy was meant for us to find....as a tool for us to use to grow and mature spiritually. It's like taking fruit from a tree...the tree bears its fruit in order that we may thrive. The one thing I do when choosing a crystal is to look for damage to it such as a chipped terminated end or other visible chips or cracks that have been caused by human handling....a damaged spot on a crystal can ruin or distort its metaphysical effects. In that case, I do not choose one that has been carelessly handled....although they, too, need to be handled with love.

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Blessings, Lady Skye

Soft words win hard arguments!

IsisUnveiled

I have personally let my intuition let me know if it is a "happy" stone or not. If it is a fairly vindictive one I will sense it and let it be.

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May all your ups and downs be under the sheets!

DeLani

As it was mentioned earlier, the area around Hot Springs is a great place where you can dig the crystals yourself. There is no greater connection you can have, and the crystals there are really full of energy. I really recommend people go there to get crystals - it's very inexpensive.
Good luck!

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Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely
in a pretty and well-preserved body. Rather, one should skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, "WOW--what a ride!"
--Anon

zorya

i go to a 'rock shop' set up in an elderly man's garage. he travels all over and harvests them himself. his driveway is filled with stones he has tumbled than rejected. it's all i can do not to scoop them up, lol.

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live life

Minderwiz

My wife is our crystal buyer and tends to use a wide range of sources - sometimes directly from the mine (we've been down countless mines!) sometimes from gift shops/magic shops, sometimes from ebay but wherever she gets them from she goes through a cleansing ritual with each.

Whether this is a sufficient action, I'm not sure, I've not considered the issue before - its an interesting question for a collector.

However would not knowing the source of the stone prevent you from buying - assuming that you don't pick up any adverse feelings from it?

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Minderwiz

Wer meines Speeres
Spittze furchtet
durchschreite das Feuer nie!

Wotan, Die Walkure, Act III, Scene 3

HudsonGray

I don't know. SO many stones/crystals come from South America or outside the US, and the mining practices would basically be blast & pull. If you can feel a wounded energy in a crystal, this might be the case. But if you know it's been taken by the person who's selling it to you, that would give more peace of mind.

Or finding them yourself would be best, if that's feasable.

Trust your gut instinct when you first hold the stone & abide by that. It may be the only information you can go on.

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You can give a cat a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Or you can teach a cat to fish, and he'll sit in his boat pouting all day because nobody gave him another fish.

Astraea

I have given this issue a lot of thought, because I find it personally distasteful to think of crystals being blasted out of the earth just so that I can feel better or use them in some way -- to me, this is a distasteful form of exploitation. However, in reality it is very difficult to know where crystals come from, and how they are obtained, unless one gathers them oneself (just as people usually don't know where their food comes from, unless they personally grow it). So the way I think of it is this: I try to buy rocks and crystals from environmentally sensitive sellers, but if I don't know where the crystals come from or how they were obtained, I view their purchase as rescue work -- I know they will have a good home with me, just as an animal from a shelter would. Even if the crystals have been shocked or harmed in some way, they can still recuperate in a positive environment, and we will have much to offer each other.

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Thoughts are things
And words have wings

(Rosicrucian maxim)

Minderwiz

What a great way to look at the situation!

__________________
Minderwiz

Wer meines Speeres
Spittze furchtet
durchschreite das Feuer nie!

Wotan, Die Walkure, Act III, Scene 3