Crystals for Everyday Living E-Book

Philip Permutt

• Herausgeber: CICO Books
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 173

Beschreibung

Simple ways to make the power and energy of crystals work for you every day. Philip Permutt has brought health, happiness and harmony to many through his years of experience with crystals. With his most accessible guide to date, it is easy to incorporate the magic of crystals daily to enhance your everyday life. From selenite lamps in the living room to balance the energy of technology and screens, to carrying protective turquoise on your daily commute, Philip offers easy-to-follow tips for nurturing your relationships, bringing harmony to your home, improving performance at work and achieving your life goals. A comprehensive directory features 101 of the most useful crystals, alongside information on harnessing them to enhance the feng-shui energy of your home, connect to your chakras and work with their astrological alignment for the most successful results.

Leseprobe

Crystals for

Everyday Living

Crystals for

Everyday Living

Bring happiness to your home, achieve your goals, and enhance every element of your well-being

Philip Permutt

Published in 2024 by CICO Books

An imprint of Ryland Peters & Small Ltd

20–21 Jockey’s Fields

341 E 116th St

London WC1R 4BW

New York, NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text © Philip Permutt 2024

Design © CICO Books 2024

Photography © CICO Books 2024, except as otherwise listed on page 144

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-80065-375-7

E-ISBN: 978-1-80065-393-1

Printed in China

Publishing manager: Carmel Edmonds

Editor: Kristy Richardson

Senior designer: Emily Breen

Art director: Sally Powell

Creative director: Leslie Harrington

Production manager: Gordana Simakovic

Head of production: Patricia Harrington

SAFETY NOTE

Please note that while the descriptions of the properties of crystals refer to healing benefits, they are not intended to replace diagnosis of illness or ailments, or healing or medicine. Always consult your doctor or other health professional in the case of illness.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Crystals in Your World

Chapter 2

Crystals in Your Home

Chapter 3

Crystals at Work

Chapter 4

Lifestyle Crystals

Chapter 5

The Crystal Finder

Further Reading, Resources, and Glossary

Index of Crystals

Index

Acknowledgments and Picture Credits

Introduction

This book grew from an idea. It all just started as a thought: if you do anything with conscious intent, it amplifies the power and efficacy of whatever it is you are doing. And the whole book flows from this simple understanding. Within these pages you will see how consciously welcoming crystals and their helpful, healing energies into your life will bring happiness to your home, enable you to achieve your goals, and enhance every element of your energy and well-being, easily and effectively. You will feel happier, have more confidence, and be emotionally stronger. Your health will improve, you will become more successful, and you will enjoy all life has to offer.

I came to crystals in 1992 following a serious illness. After severing the sciatic nerve to my right leg in a life-saving operation, the surgeon told me that I wouldn’t walk again, so I tried every alternative treatment I could find to heal me. I walked out of the hospital six weeks and two days later. Crystals helped me achieve this and have been with me ever since.

Many people look toward crystal healing as a complimentary healing modality for physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual issues, but crystals can help with so much more, transforming each area of your life with healthy, happy crystal energy.

Crystals are always around me: worn by me, kept by my bed, and placed in my living room, study, and kitchen—in fact, in every room in my house. You will also find them in my garden, my showroom, and my car, accompanying me wherever I travel. They help make life flow better, release daily stress, and even, perhaps, reveal some of the lessons we are on this planet to discover. Everything within the book is real. You will read many examples of my own crystals and how I work with them in a wide range of situations. They become crystal helpers, my assistants in everyday life. They can become yours, too.

Chapter 1

Crystals in Your World

What can crystals do for us?

So, what else can crystals do for us?

Choosing crystals

How quickly do crystals work?

Crystals and astrology

Crystal care

What can crystals do for us?

Crystals are amazing, healing tools. They can lift you up when you’re feeling down, heal physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual wounds, and even help you to make decisions along your life path. They are truly magical.

Crystals, such as labradorite, can fill your world with magic.

Magic is defined as something we witness but cannot yet explain … “yet” is the key word here. From the invention of controlled fire to space travel, each jump in technological development has led to wondrous new things for mankind. Each one seemed magical at the time, and each time there have been doubters—those stuck in their old ways, resisting new technology. As science opens new frontiers of possibility and understanding, many of the things which were once called “magic” are now in common usage. They are all around you, every day, packed into what we consider mundane 21st-century living … something our ancestors would have called “magic!”

All innovations in science and technology, such as space travel, once seemed wondrous and “magic.”

How old is crystal technology?

Crystals have been at the cutting edge of human technology and possibility since we humans first started walking upright on two legs. The prehistory of human evolution can be witnessed at the Cradle of Humankind, a series of caves north of Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa. Some of the excavations at this UNESCO site take us back to around 3.5 million years go. As each layer of excavation reveals an earlier aeon, from our ancestral prehuman species right the way through to today’s Homo sapiens (that’s you and me), there is one thing each era has in common … crystals.

The earliest humanoid burials date back some 335,000 years. Skeletons, found buried ritually in graves, were discovered by paleoanthropologist Dr Lee Berger in the Rising Star Cave System at the Cradle of Humankind. These are Homo naledi, which are perhaps the last pre-Homo sapiens species from whom we evolved into today’s modern human beings. The ritual markings, carved into smoothed rocks with stone tools, were believed by anthropologists to be linked to belief in an afterlife of some description. Other stone artifacts were also found nearby.

In the Kalahari Desert, Republic of South Africa, Dr Jayne Wilkins discovered crystals collected by humans for spiritual use over 105,000 years ago. Described as “non-utilitarian objects” (objects which have been fashioned or placed somewhere for spiritual, beauty, or ornamentation purposes), these calcite crystals were found at a sacred site far from their natural environment. In other words, they were moved there by prehistoric man for a specific and special purpose.

The first humanoid tools were made from chert (often the flint variety of chert), which was made into many things, including scrapers and knives. Chert and pyrite also helped to make sparks for fire. Over the millennia, these tools developed in intricacy and efficiency into axes, spearheads, and arrowheads, and have continued to develop throughout the 21st century into technology for computers, cell phones, lasers, and space travel.

Humans have worked with crystals, such as this Stone Age flint knife, since the dawn of humanity.

So, what else can crystals do for us?

The question is never “Do crystals work?” or “What can they do for us?” It is always “What can’t crystals do!”

Each crystal only does one specific thing. Helping that crystal do that one thing—to be as good as it can be—can affect and change so many things in your life. Citrine, for example, balances the cells in the bowel that absorb nutrients. But it can also aid recovery from injury, maintain a healthy body weight, boost the immune system, and so much more (see box, opposite.)

All crystals affect us in different ways and can often help with many symptoms, but it’s in dealing with the cause of a condition that crystals come into their own. For example, if you feel you need to balance your weight, citrine will help if you have a digestive disorder. However, if the cause is emotional, then apatite will work much better for you. If the cause comes from social pressure, then spirit quartz may work better still. In reality, there are often several causes. A bowel disorder such as Crohn’s disease can affect weight loss and weight gain, but the condition itself is affected by stress and emotional and social pressure, as well as diet and a genetic predisposition to the condition. In this way, we may need a collection of crystals to help balance all the different aspects of a condition or situation.

A collection of crystals, such as apatite (left) and spirit quartz (far left), can work together with citrine to treat an underlying cause.

The power of citrine

Crystals help your body, mind, emotions, and soul find balance, making you happier and healthier. For example, let’s look at citrine, which balances the cells in the bowel that absorb nutrients. Sounds simple. But how does this affect your body, mind, emotions, and spirit?

Well, when we absorb the nutrients we need from whatever food we are eating, we end up with more nutrients flowing around our body. These nutrients make it easier for our bodies to repair quickly, whether from a minor bruise or when recovering from a major operation. So, citrine will help your body to repair itself more quickly.

When you are absorbing the balanced nutrients that you need, it is easier to find and maintain your natural weight. There is no “perfect” weight but a perfect size that is unique to each of us. Everyone is individual and crystals treat us as such. In this way, citrine may be good for weight loss or weight gain.

When there are more nutrients flowing around your body, your heart doesn’t need to pump as hard to get nutrients to where they are needed. So citrine is good for your heart health.

Blood flowing more easily around your body moves more oxygen to your brain, which boosts both logical and creative thought. So, citrine is also good for all mental processes, including mental healing.

The blood flowing around your body also carries white blood cells, powerful enforcers of the immune system. These blood cells are like biological bouncers evicting troublemaking bacteria and viruses from your system. So citrine gives you protection against the germs and bugs that are all around us in our environment.

I can go on and on with this example of what citrine can help with, and you may well ask “Well, what can’t citrine do?”

The simple, balancing qualities of citrine in one area can affect and improve the body, soul, heart, and mind.

Choosing crystals

The key to choosing crystals is your own intuitive awareness of the crystals you encounter. Start by being aware of the different crystals you are drawn to, be mindful of the ones that repel you, and ignore all the others for the time being.

The crystals you like—the ones that make you feel good or that make you smile—will help you with things you need or want in your life right now. You will often notice quick rewards working with these crystals.

Crystals that you are drawn to will always help you with something you are doing or want to do.

The ones that repel you—that make you feel uneasy, nauseous, or are difficult to even pick up—are the life-changing crystals. They are touching something deep down inside you that you don’t want to look at. Even though the process may be uncomfortable at times, the rewards are amazing. When this initial discomfort passes—and it will—life will seem better than it’s ever been.

Some crystals just work for almost everyone all the time. Calcite, for example, is always calming and the green variety works magically for anxiety and panic attacks. Others just seem to work in certain circumstances without us really knowing why, such as an elixir of amber to ease constipation. (A crystal elixir is water in which a crystal has been immersed.) Crystals like these are a great place to start for choosing crystals for everyday living, while others will require a little consideration.

Green calcite (top) can help if you suffer from anxiety, and tourmaline (center) eases the symptoms of worry. Amber (bottom) can make an elixir that has healing effects for almost everyone who uses it.

EVERYDAY SOLUTIONS

An easy way to choose crystals for everyday living is to look at the common things that can stop us enjoying life every day.

Stress or grief can have a huge impact on daily life and affects everyone differently. Another obvious example is worry—the single, most useless human emotion there is! Once you have thought through, planned, and actioned everything you can about a situation, continuing to think about whether you have done enough, or the right thing, or whatever else is purposeless. Tourmaline is a fabulous crystal to help you with this part. It works in two ways, firstly to help you to focus on the matter in hand and secondly to let go of worry after you have done everything you can. Coincidentally, it’s also great for stopping you worrying about what other people think of you, which can free you up to live your life to your fullest potential.

Sometimes our needs are less obvious, or they may be a combination of many different factors. We’ll look at these in more detail in Chapter 4 (see page 68.)

How quickly do crystals work?

Sometimes you have an immediate, almost magical, reaction to a crystal. You buy a new crystal, instantly feel better, and it’s as simple as that. However, at other times, it can take longer for you to see the benefits.

Crystals will always start working straightaway and you may feel nothing, start to feel subtle changes, or notice improvement immediately. As a simple guide (but not definitive), the longer the problem has been going on in your life, the longer it will take for crystals to work at their full potential.

For long-term, chronic situations, such as patterns that you have been repeating throughout your life or issues triggered in childhood, crystals may take a while to work. It may take some time while they help you to fully release the associated energy and move on.

Try the exercise opposite to increase your awareness of the crystals that will work for you. With practice, you will soon start to sense your connection with appropriate crystals straightaway.

You will feel the effects of some crystals immediately, while others may take longer to reach their full potential.

Crystal awareness

This exercise will help you to develop your intuition, not just with crystals, but in every aspect of awareness in your life. Before you start, gather your crystals on a table, on the floor, on a tray, or in a bowl. If you have lots of crystals, then you might want to try this exercise with some of them rather than all!

1 Sit or stand in front of your crystals and take three deep breaths into your belly.

2 Close your eyes tightly and count to ten. Feel the tension in your face during these ten seconds.

3 Open your eyes and notice which crystals you see first. Which ones jump out at you? Which ones are waving, sparkly, shiny, or special? Consider how you feel about each of these crystals and how you feel about them as a group.

4 Now repeat steps 1 and 2.

5 Open your eyes, but this time, notice which crystals you don’t like the look of. Which ones turn you off, or feel dark, hostile, or unwelcoming? Again, consider how you feel about each of these crystals and how you feel about them as a group.

6 Now, look up the crystals that sparked a strong reaction in The Crystal Finder (see pages 94–136). Do they relate to anything that’s going on in your life now or in the past?

Practice crystal awareness to develop your intuition and recognize the crystals that you are naturally drawn to.

Crystals and astrology

There are crystals that tie in with day and night, times of the day, and days of the week. Different cultures throughout history have linked stones to planets, months, seasons, and the zodiac. All of these are good, valid reasons for selecting a crystal.

Astrologers believe that when you are born your body has a natural vibration linked to the Universe of which you are part. If this can be recreated around you all the time, then everything in your life will flow better. Your zodiac (sun) sign is determined by the position of the Sun in relation to the Earth at your time of birth. Dates change slightly because our calendar doesn’t exactly match the Earth’s orbit round the Sun. If you are born on the cusp, check an ephemeris (see page 137) for exact times and dates.

Carrying or wearing your birthstone replicates the vibrations of the stars and planets at your time of birth. These will be drawn down toward you, boosting your aura. This is protective physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. It is also thought that these birthstones will increase your body’s own healing power. You will have more energy, recover quicker from illness and injury, and feel stronger emotionally and mentally to cope with stress.

The birthstones (see box, opposite) shouldn’t restrict you in your choice of crystals. If you feel drawn to a specific crystal, it will benefit you even if you don’t know how or why you have been drawn to it, and regardless of whether it is your birthstone or not.

There are many different birthstones for each star sign. The chart shown opposite offers a typical, but not definitive, selection.

Capricorns can boost their aura by wearing tiger’s eye, one of the birthstones that links to the alignment of the stars and planets at their time of birth.

Typical birthstones

Crystal care

Crystals naturally pick up energy. They absorb energy from you, from other people, and from the environments in which they live. Traditional cleansing methods help to release energy buildup that your crystals have absorbed, and which is no longer needed.

Crystals also need physically cleaning as they can become dusty. Dust sticks with an electrostatic charge that affects the electric potential of crystals and also blocks out light, which reduces the quantity of photons a crystal can focus. To remove dust, lightly brush your crystals with a soft brush—a clean makeup brush or small paintbrush is ideal. Do this regularly to avoid dust buildup.

You can also clean your crystals by placing them in a bowl and immersing them in a solution of water and a little mild, good-quality detergent. However, if a crystal carries a “no elixir” warning in The Crystal Finder (see pages 94–136), do not use water-cleansing methods. Afterward, rinse them thoroughly with water to make them sparkle. Leave your crystals to dry naturally or pat them gently with a soft cloth.

Traditional ways to cleanse your crystal

You can see when your crystals need energetically cleansing—they lose their sparkle, brightness, and even color, and may also feel sticky to the touch.

Sound: If you have a lot of crystals, by far the simplest and most effective way of cleansing them is with sound. Tingsha are perfect and can also be used to cleanse your home, workplace, yourself, or others. You can also use drumming, chanting, classical music, loud rock, or drum-and-bass!

Tingsha are perfect for cleansing crystals with sound.

Running water: Hold your crystal under running water for a few minutes (or longer if it’s been working hard or hasn’t been cleansed for a while).

Incense: Let frankincense, sandalwood, sage, or Palo Santo smoke waft over your crystal. You can also use a smudge stick, which is a bundle of herbs (usually sage) that are burned during cleansing rituals.

Moonlight: Leave your crystal in moonlight, especially the light of a full or new moon.

Earth: Bury your crystal in the earth and leave it there for two weeks. Bury it when the Moon is full and unearth it at the time of a new moon.

Crystals can be cleansed of surplus energy with running water (above) or with incense (below).

Selenite/amethyst/quartz: Place your crystal on a selenite plate or flat crystal, an amethyst bed or quartz cluster, or inside a geode.

Sunlight: Leave your crystal in sunlight. You can also dry your crystals in the sun after washing them. Beware, though—quartz crystals, especially crystal balls, will focus the Sun’s rays and can be a fire risk. Take appropriate precautions by not leaving quartz unattended in sunlight for any length of time, and do not place on or near any flammable objects. Please be aware some crystals may fade in sunlight too.

Breath or clear energy: Exposing your crystal to your breath is cleansing. Inhale deeply, focus your intent (for cleansing), and breathe out over the crystal. Any clear energy, such as reiki, can also be used in a similar way.