Selling crystals people often ask about how I feel about the stones, crystals, gems being mined from the earth. I myself often go mining, particularly herkimer diamonds, green appatite, blue appatite, sphene, apophylite, garnets, and quartz crystals from Arizona, Arkansas and India. So I’ve had my time in the earth digging out Her gems. I’ve taken stones that I’ve mined and had them made into cabochons, then set in jewelry. Seen that jewelry on the chest of both my Mother and Grandmother. How do I feel about ‘taking’ them or ‘stealing’ them from the Earth, as some have unfortunately called it. I have many feelings about the subject, which have come from my own and friends’ experiences with crystals and gemstones.

There’s nothing like a few days digging in the earth, out in the forest or in the desert, the mountains, hills, and valleys. The Earth, She touches us. I’ve always enjoyed my time searching for crystals. Some times you can dig all day and find nothing, other days the crystals just keep coming. I’ve noticed that some people can work in a hole digging and digging and finding almost nothing. After they leave, myself or someone else can get in the same hole, dig a little to the left and crystals just fall out by the handfuls. This first let me know that they decide whom they are going to go home with.

They know what they are doing. Crystals have a consciousness, different from ours but quite present and palpable. They know when they want to be found and by whom they wish to be found in order to get where they wish to go. To doubt this is to doubt the power the crystals have.

In the Vedic philosophy nothing is by chance. Everything is just the unfolding of one’s karma. One is born with certain planetary combinations that will lead one to dig in the earth and look for crystals and gemstones, one does not end up doing these things by chance. There is also a relationship between the Manas (mind) of an object and the atman of a person [1]. Pandit Sanjay Rath has said, “The interaction between the Atman [soul- Sun] and Moon [manas-mind] is most important. Nothing is random, the manas of a room is waiting and preparing for you to come”[2]. So a crystal or gemstone is going to be found exactly when the correct alignment happens to have it found. Pandit Sanjay Rath has also said, “The manas of a chair interacting with the manas of Sarvatman [soul of all] will decide the utilitary time period.” A gemstone’s mind will decide with the Soul of All where it is to go, who will dig it up, who will cut it, who will sell it, who will wear it, who will keep it in the family for generations and who will quickly lose it. These things aren’t random, we must trust the Sarvatman, and watch our own minds. There is divinity in everyone and all receive what is there karma.

Arnold Mindell writes in his book about the Dreamtime, “According to one Aboriginal elder, ‘The flint lives inside the stone like a dream inside your mind. Its essence has been prepared inside the stone since dreamtime’. According to what they have been taught, physicists believe that a person observed the stone and consciously decided to create flint out of it. In contrast to this belief, the Aboriginal elder says that the stone has the Dreaming within itself. Therefore, the stone ‘interacts’ with or ‘dreams’ the hands of the ‘observer’ to bring out the flint-like essence that was already present within the stone. In other words, you do not observe and do things; you are attracted to things and their Dreaming power orients your behavior”[3]

Some people say that they want to see the stones/crystals used for healing purposes and not just let them go to any body, but this denies that people have a transcendental self that has led them to a particular piece. Be careful to judge another’s higher guidance which is looking out for them. All is meant to be and the stones go where they wish to go, they know what they are doing. When we quite our own judgmental mind, and allow the crystals to speak to us, they will guide us to where they wish to be, as we are always just keepers of these jewels, never truly owners.

Cabbing green appatite that I mined in Bancroft, Ontario

There was one instance when my brother was out mining herkimer diamonds. He was pounding away with his hammer and chisel when all of a sudden he was in another world/space. There was a fairy spirit creature who spoke to him saying, ” Why are you digging, this is a power point for the planet.” He responded by asking her, “well, wouldn’t it be good to spread that out and share it with people?” Then as fast as it came he was BAM, another hit on the chisel, back in the hole mining. This fairy spirit question made me think and meditate, why are we digging. What has called me to some hole in the earth, to work for days on end, sometimes unsuccessfully sometimes well rewarded? Why are you carrying and using crystals?

These places that crystals come from are power points on the earth. As modern technology is digging deeper and into new places looking for uranium, oil, or making roads, new mines with great varieties of gems and crystals are being unearthed. There is a balance always kept on this realm. When a powerful dictator is trying to take over the world a great saint is born to teach peace and set souls free. As when the atomic bomb was created so was LSD discovered to start a spiritual revolution. The universe always allows for all possible realities to exist in a time-space balance. These crystals are coming into our reality to balance out the negative energies in ourselves and on the planet, as everything is but a reflection. As above so below, may the crystal powers manifest themselves in the most harmonious ways possible. May we consciously remember and give thanks to the power places (and guardians of these places) that our crystals come from.

[1] From the view of Vedic philosophy a stone has a Manas (mind) but not a Jiva (individual soul). Only something that reproduces itself has an individual soul separate from the Paramatman (supreme soul).
[2] Pandit Sanjay Rath, Brihat Parasara Hora Shastra lectures in New Delhi. November 16, 2002
[3] Arnold Mindell PH.D. Dreaming While Awake, Hampton Roads Publishing Company, 2002