Crystallize Your Solstice: Bring Intention to Your Crystal Collection with Yulia Van Doren

Yulia Van Doren explains how to Bring Intention To Your Crystal Collection...

How close is the nearest crystal to you, right at this very moment? Look up, and cast your eyes around the space you are in. Perhaps one is sitting on the table with you as you drink your morning beverage and peruse this magazine? Sparkling on the windowsill across the room? Are there a few tucked into the soil of surrounding houseplants? Or quite possibly the nearest crystal is one you’re currently wearing on your body as jewellery? I’m betting it’s a very safe guess that the majority of you reading this are not more than a few feet from a crystal at this very moment.

  Crystals are enjoying a very bright moment in our collective consciousness as an ever-growing number of people begin to resonate with the sparkling magic contained within Mother Earth’s gems, and many of us who are drawn to the metaphysical side of life have a rainbow plethora of rocks, crystals and minerals scattered, well, everywhere. Every corner of our living spaces, our bags and pockets, drawers and cupboards, even our cars hold one or more specimens of our beloved earth treasures. Our collections have grown organically over many years, some gifted by loved ones, some gathered in nature, and many (many!) purchased in various shops over the years, brought home either because they caught our fancy in the moment, or because we specifically sought them out to manifest a desire, intention or energy. How beautiful that we have chosen to bless our daily lives with crystalline energy, and how blessed we are to be surrounded and grounded daily by Mother Earth’s beautiful treasures.   Energy Review However, our personal energy is a constantly evolving and shifting element. We respond to everything from daily micro influences such as the foods we eat and the people we interact with, to big-picture influences like the changing seasons, the movement of the planets, and the earth’s vibration, which itself is constantly evolving and updating (especially in these current times of rapid change). Who you were yesterday is not who you are today, and who you are today is not who you will be tomorrow. Because of this, it is vital to regularly and intentionally reevaluate the energetic environment of your home and the ritual objects you keep within it. I find that many metaphysical stores, gathering spaces and homes have an energetic environment which crosses the line from gloriously eclectic to energetically overwhelming. Colours and textures, smells and sounds overlap in abundant multitude, creating such a mishmash of visual and energetic over-stimulation that the resulting effect is a kind of psychic “white noise.” For many of us who are sensitive to energies, we may subconsciously be drawn to create these types of spaces around ourselves, as they create such a state of overwhelm on our sensitive spirits that they actually de-sensitive us in the moment, “numbing us out” on an energetic level from overstimulation. And because the crystals you surround yourself with can greatly contribute to this overload of energetic stimulation, I invite you to make the time this mid-winter to intentionally reconnect with each one of them. Do the crystals you keep in your daily energy field truly match your current energy, vibration and soul? You may be familiar with the organizing guru Marie Kondo and her immensely popular book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. She has changed the lives of millions of people with her simple, yet very effective process for becoming intentional with every item in your possession. The central question of her method, ‘Does this (item) spark joy’, is such a beautifully simple, yet profound, way to instantly become clear on whether the energy of each of your possessions is in alignment with your current energy.  I’ve been applying this question to every aspect of my life for the last year with remarkable results. The Winter Solstice (21 December), nature’s most profound moment of stillness, provides us with an ideal opportunity for clarity and a reset. I invite you to use this magical time of year to intentionally reconnect with your “daily stones,” all of the crystals, minerals and rocks which surround you on a daily basis. Let’s get crystal clear that all of them are in joyful alignment with your current energy, vibration, soul and spirit.   Solstice Crystal Ritual Step 1: Gather every single crystal, rock and mineral you own. Carefully go through each room, bag, box, drawer, pocket – anywhere and everywhere a crystal might be stashed. Don’t forget to include your crystal jewellery. Lay out your entire collection in a spot touched by direct sunlight, such as a tabletop or windowsill. If your collection is sizable, I would recommend dividing it into groupings by type, colour or chakra resonance (for example, group all of your Rose Quartz together, or place all of your pink crystals in one grouping. Or, if you naturally feel a strong connection between crystals and chakras, group your crystals by their corresponding chakra). Note: if including your crystal jewellery would turn this ritual into an overwhelming process, save processing your jewellery for another day. Jewellery can hold extra strong layers of attachment related to inheritance, romantic history and perceived monetary value, all of which can make it harder to trust your gut intuition when choosing to keep or release each piece of jewellery you own. Step 2: Cleanse with sunlight. Individually cleanse any visible dust or dirt from each piece by either blowing the dust away, or cleaning with a soft cloth. Leave your collection sitting in cleansing sunlight for at least two hours. Step 3: ‘Does this crystal spark joy?’ Light a candle, and place it next to your gathered crystals. Remove any shoes, slippers or socks you might be wearing and sit in a chair so that both of your bare feet make direct contact with the ground, or sit directly on the ground. Imagine a stream of sparkling golden light rising up from the centre of the earth. The light enters your body through your feet and tailbone, and exits your body through the top of your head. Take three deep, grounding breaths. Begin by picking up one crystal and holding it in your hand. How does it make you feel the moment you pick it up? Don’t think about how much you paid for it, how rare it may be, or whether the person who gave it to you might be offended if you no longer owned it. Simply notice: ‘Do I feel a sense of pleasure, joy or gentle calm when I see or touch this crystal?’ Or as Kondo would ask, ‘Does this crystal spark joy?' If yes, gently place it to one side. If you feel anything other than a sense of joy, pleasure or calm while holding the crystal, thank the crystal for blessing your life with its magic, and gently place it into a holding container (tray, box, basket etc depending on the size of your crystals and collection). Continue this simple, intuitive process until you have divided your entire collection into two groups. Does this seem too simple a process to be effective? Please trust it! Pure intuition will always give you an immediate and obvious answer as long as you listen without letting your head get in the way (How much did this cost?/Who gave this to me?/But I haven’t yet manifested what I hoped to with this crystal). Just let go of all that mind chatter, and trust your gut. Step 4: Be intentional with your “keep” crystals. At the end of processing your collection, be very intentional with where you place the crystals you are keeping. Either return them to their original location, or experiment with placing them in new areas to bring out fresh aspects of their beauty, magic and healing. Step 5: Spread crystal joy. Besides bringing updated clarity and freshness to your home and energy, this ritual has the wonderful bonus of giving you the opportunity to spread joy with the crystals which no longer “fit” you perfectly. It’s important that you move these crystals out of your life as quickly as possible so that you’re not tempted to over think the process. Some suggestions: Gift them to friends and loved ones (it is the holiday season, after all). Or gift them anonymously by scattering them around your town for their new keepers to unexpectedly discover. Donate them to a charity shop, or take them to your local metaphysical store to see if they are interested in purchasing them. Some people feel led to bury their crystals in the ground in a ritual of “returning” them to their source, but I feel that passing them on to a new home is a much more generous and magical way to spread crystal healing and joy. Step 6: Enjoy the fresh flow of new clarity and energy you have created in your home and life. And may you have a blessed Solstice, and a crystalline 2019.   You may also like....