Love & Light Live Crystal Healing Podcast

The healing properties of Vera Cruz Amethyst are powerful and abundant. This stone will connect you to your higher self, promote spiritual growth, and more!

Transcribed - Published: 30 July 2025

Dendritic Agate is a beautiful form of Agate that displays inclusions of dark manganese dendrites. Being a lover of both trees and crystals, this is one of the stones I feel most connected with. These dendrites look like little tree roots, giving the Agate its name. These minerals are also known as arborescent. The tree-like crystals featured in the dendritic mineral habit branch in one or more directions from a central point. Keep reading to discover the powerful healing properties of Dendritic Agate! A Crystal Message about the Healing Properties of Dendritic Agate: “I am rooted into the wisdom of my guides."   Common Healing Properties of Dendritic Agate: Stimulates intuitive wisdom Encourages you to connect with nature and nature spirits Facilitates communication with trees or tree spirits Instills a deep survival instinct and helps you act to energetically protect yourself without harming others Aids you in branching out into new pursuits Fosters personal growth and development Promotes grounding and a connection to the earth Encourages a connection with your guides, especially when you're seeking wisdom and guidance Facilitates energy cleansing Enhances your animal communication skills and your ability to understand animal familiars (especially with birds) Encourages the exploration of your family tree and ancestral lineage Increases your ability to understand the interconnectedness of yourself with all beings and the world around you Facilitates manifestation of blessings for the good of your community Assists you when you're creating energetic boundaries for your magical practice Promotes mental clarity and stillness of your mind Encourages self-reflection and deeper understanding of how you can make a positive impact in the world     Colors: Dark, tree-like, branching Manganese dendrites growing through a clear translucent to milky opaque Chalcedony matrix. Zodiac Signs: Capricorn, Virgo, Taurus Companion Stone: Copper Moon Phases: Waxing Gibbous Companion Flowers: Grey-Headed Coneflower Elements: Earth Companion Essential Oil: Cedar Common Origins: China, Brazil, Turkey, South Dakota (USA), Montana (USA) Notes: This stone is also known as Landscape Agate, Scenic Agate, Dendritic Manganese Agate, or as Manganese Oxide-Included Agate. Wanna’ Get Science-y? Click Here to get information about the chemical composition, hardness, streak, etc. of this crystal from one of my favorite sites!   How to Leverage the Healing Properties of Dendritic Agate: If you really want to explore your family history, your ancestors, and your lineage in a deep and meaningful way and get in touch with your roots and where you come from, then there is no better stone than this one. Dendritic Agate encourages you to branch out and explore your family tree or your lineage if you feel called to connect with this part of yourself (it can also help support you as you work on healing ancestral wounds if that feels more appropriate).  Keep this stone on the ground while you're researching your family to stay grounded and rooted in your family's history while you're branching out and exploring your family tree. Place it between or under your feet to keep you connected and centered while journeying into your ancestry.  It will help you stay focused on what is most important for you to discover and reflect upon. Placing a Dendritic Agate close to the windows or doors in your home can help facilitate energetic cleansing to draw unwanted energy out of your space.   Your intuition isn’t just a whisper—it’s your compass. Whether you're choosing crystals, tuning into subtle energy, or making soul-led decisions, your inner wisdom is what guides you toward alignment, confidence, and purpose... That’s why I created the Connecting with Your Inner Wisdom Course—t...

Transcribed - Published: 17 July 2025

The elements represent the four creative energies of the universe and each has a set of archetypal energies associated with it. Getting familiar with these can help you better understand their energetic influence on you. Each element is also associated with certain healing stones based on their respective properties and energies. Let's dive into water element crystals, and discover how you can incorporate the power of water into your crystal practice... Water is a powerful ally, a companion, and a wise teacher. Water has had such a profound impact on my life... From summer walks around the pond near my grandparents' house during my childhood, to hiking the marshes near my home searching for skunk cabbages in college, to my deeply profound pilgrimage to Avalon where I connected with the Red & White Springs (which had a huge impact on my spiritual practice), water has been ever present in my life...even here in the Midwestern US! Water has held me during times of joy and deep grief, in moments of embodied presence and mystical experience.    The Water element connects you with emotions, intuition, cleansing, and love.      Keywords: Fluidity, Adaptation, Emotions, Intuition, Love, Memory, Wisdom, Reflection, Healing, Release Color & Symbol: Blue Crescent Moon or Blue Inverse Triangle Season & Direction: Autumn, West   Parts of the Body: Belly, Adrenals, Intestines Zodiac Signs: Cancer, Scorpio, & Pisces Tarot Suit: Cups / Chalices (representing the emotions, intuition, love, and a mirror of your heart) Planets: Moon, Venus   Crystals for the Water Element:        Blue Lace Agate – a cooling, water element stone Botswana Agate – reminds you to go with the flow Lake Superior Agate – connects you with the energy of the water element (the life-giving source); aids you in healing the Earth’s bodies of water River Agate – helps you tap into your inner power - like a river carving through rock Amazonite – lets compassion flow like water from your heart Amethyst – connects you with the intuitive aspects of the water element Vera Cruz Amethyst – reminds you of the life-giving energy of water Aquamarine – a stone of the sea and its creatures     Brown Aragonite – helps to release the fear of water Azurite – promotes mental clarity during intuitive work Aqua Calcite – facilitates a calm mind, like a pool of still water Red Coral Calcite – connects you with the energy of the water element White Calcite – offers you space for reflection Cavansite – connects you with the energy of the sea Blue Chalcedony – reminds you to shift and change according to your present circumstances (like water filling different shaped containers) Charoite – enhances water healing practices (including H.A.D.O.)     Chrysocolla – instills respect for the Earth’s bodies of water White Coral – encourages communal tending of waterways and water sources Creedite – connects you to the energy of the water element to wash away feelings and thoughts that need to be released Dumortierite – connects you to the energy of the water element so that you are better able to “go with the flow” Blue Fluorite – connects you to the energy of the water element for cleansing, emotional healing, etc. Fossilized Echinoid (Sea Urchin) – enhances your connection to the water element Iolite – used to navigate the sea, this stone helps you find direction when you feel swept away by the current of life Gary Green Jasper (Petrified Bog Wood) – it took ages for this stone to form so it encapsulates the idea that good things take time and reminds you that you must have patience     Blue Kyanite – a powerful energetic cleanser Lapis Lazuli – helps you recognize the powerful microcosm-macrocosm relationship of the water within your body and your cells in relation to all the water here on earth

Transcribed - Published: 3 July 2025

A Crystal Message about the healing properties of Orange Calcite: "I embrace my motivation to walk my path and fulfil my soul purpose."

Transcribed - Published: 18 June 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez  and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #32 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Emerald meaning, including: Manifesting abundance with Emerald Emerald as a travel companion Using Emerald for radical self-love Tune in now for a deeper look at Emerald meaning!   Podcast Episode Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.   Adam Barralet: Welcome to this week's episode of crystal confab. We are so excited to be talking about this crystal today, and I think Nicholas is extremely excited. We've talked about stones of nobility in the last few weeks. We've talked about sapphires. We've talked about ruby.   And so, of course, we must, otherwise, Nicholas would probably threaten to leave the show, talk about emerald. And that's exactly what we're talking about today. Joining me are Kyle and Nicholas, and we are talking about one of the things I really love about Emerald is that it's part of a family called the Beryl family. And I just think of a bunch of old women sitting around knitting called the Beryl's and that type of thing. But people may not realize that some of our other much loved crystals such as acmarin, heliodor, and morganite, they're all part of the beryl file family.   Aren't they, Kyle?   Kyle Perez: Absolutely. The beryl family is all beryllium silicates, and they are beautiful in their perfect formation. They are all hexagonal, and your pure colorless beryl is called goshenite, originally found in Goshen, The United States. I don't know exactly where it is. I've forgotten.   Nicholas should be able to let me not know. I know it was named after where it was found. This is an etched Brazilian piece, really interesting, and totally colorless. You'd think it was quartz. Then you have Heliodor, yellow, named for the sun god.   I love Heliodor and aquamarine because they're both colored by iron, and it is one ion of iron difference that changes the color from blue to yellow, which is really cool. And I can actually show you in this aquamarine that goes into heliodor from Namibia. I love to call it aquadore. You can call it whatever you want. Then we have red beryl.   Red Beryl comes from the Wawa Mountains, which I just love to say, which is too much fun. Definitely the rarest and most expensive of your Beryls. It will cost you several tens of thousand dollars a carat cut. And then a really rare interesting one, black Beryl. Weird, included, kind of interesting.   There is also a Maxixe beryl, which is a really dark, dark blue beryl that you find in Brazil that actually changes color when it comes out of the Earth. And then there's even orange Beryl and green Beryl that you find out there as well, and it's just an amazing family. And they're strong gems. Remember, Beryls are eight on the hardness, so they're good sturdy gems that actually last well in jewelry. So look for all of the colors of the rainbow, please.   Adam: And do you find, Kyle, the, the Beryls are good as a family for something in particular?   Kyle: I literally have all of my Beryls in one grid together. They all live together in one grid, and they all access all of the elements, and they connect to fae, and they connect to light and joy and all of this really uplifted energy. I actually have a crystal skull carved, two in morganite, three in emerald, two in aquamarine, and two in heliodor as well. I have a full collection of skulls carved in this energy, and I really love that element where you get water, you get fire, you get earth, you get air, you get it all coming in together, and it really is empowering. And I think it's a great follow on from, you know,

Transcribed - Published: 12 May 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez  and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #31 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Chiastolite crystal meanings, including: Working with Chiastolite Crystals during Samhain & Beltane Harnessing Higher Truth with Chiastolite The history of cross-stones and the magic of the crossroads Tune in now for a deeper look at Chiastolite meaning!   Podcast Episode Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for a casual chat about all things crystals.   Nicholas Pearson: Hello, and welcome back to Crystal Confab. It's Nicholas, and I'm joined by Adam and Kyle. Our crystal bestie, Ashley, is elsewhere in the universe today, and she'll be joining us again soon. And this week, we have, I think, another really underappreciated gemstone that we're gonna be confabbing about, and this is a stone that I think is probably pretty recognizable. Maybe fewer people can pronounce its name or spell it, and even fewer have worked with it.   And that stone is Chiastolite, which is a really fascinating stone that has been confused with some other stuff throughout history. No surprise there. And it's a variety of a mineral species called andalusite. I happen to know that Kyle's a big fan of andalusite more generally speaking. So what do you have to tell us about this mineral species?   Kyle Perez: Well, of course, I was introduced to andalusite doing my gemology degree. You have to cover pleochroic stones, and andalusite is like the poster child of pleochroism in minerals. As you can see, it has this kind of innocuous brown color, but when they are cut and faceted correctly and you see the light correctly through them, they show the traffic light system of colors, yellow, red, and green or like an amber color. And it is incredible that you can turn this stone one way to another and see these incredible colors shift and change. And I was drawn into it immediately, and I find it incredible to shift our perspective.   I think anything pleochroic has that ability to perspective shift, and it helps you to see practical ways of looking at things, energetic ways of looking at things, and kind of cerebral ways of looking at things. It really gives us the ability to look at things in many ways and from many angles and that's why I really love it and that's why I think it leads into and is incredible with Chiastolite or ‘Chiastolite’ as it is supposed to be pronounced.   Adam Barralet: I'd love to actually just bring that up. I've always said Chiastolite, but it's the correct Chiastolite, is it Nicholas?   Nicholas: Historically, yes. So it's taken from the Greek letter, which in English, we often say Kai, but would be kind of a really guttural sound closer to that in Greek. So is marked with an x or shaped like an x, which is how it gets its name.   Adam: I love that. And it is a really interesting stone, is it? Because normally when it's cut and this is how we find a cut the most, it's, you know, that beautiful brown stone, really interesting having that black cross throughout it.   Nicholas: Yeah. And that phenomenon has attracted quite a lot of attention over the years. So the earliest textual references, we have to things objects just called cross stones appear in the very late, fifteenth century, so toward the end of the 14 hundreds. And around this time frame, we might encounter an occasional illustration, and they're mostly just pebbles that are crisscrossed with veins of quartz or calcite in them, and they were known as cross stones or some version of that. There's like a million permutations of this name, lapis crucifer, from lapis meaning stone and prox brass, ferere, tecere, so literally cross bearing stone.   We have lapis cruciatis. We've got the crucis lapillo,

Transcribed - Published: 5 May 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez  and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #30 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Jet crystal meanings, including: Working with Jet Crystals during the Full & New Moons Adopting the 'less is more' approach with Jet crystal energy Jet's historical significance, including its connection to queer identities in the ancient world   Tune in now for a deeper look at Jet crystal meanings!   Podcast Episode Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for a casual chat about all things crystals.   Kyle Perez: Hello, and welcome to another crystal confab. Today, we're staying with another, not necessarily ‘gemstone-gemstone’, and I'm joined by Adam and Nicholas, and we're going to dive into Jet. How many of you love a bit of Jet action?   Nicholas Pearson: I've grown fond of it over the years.   Adam Barralet: Yeah. Me too. I think one of the really interesting things a lot of people find is just tactile-wise, how it feels so different to a crystal. And, you know, one of the problems I think all of us probably get is people sending pictures or trying to identify what this crystal is. And the great thing about when it comes to black crystals, Jet is so much lighter.   So if it's a really, really light crystal, then it's going to be really, really easy to go up that Jet type of thing. So that's one thing. But I, you know, I've had experiences and I'll share them later on about just the tactileness of Jet is really, really nice. But, I believe it's been used for a long, long time and has a really great history about it as well. And who better to tell us about the history than Nicholas?   Nicholas: Yeah. This is one of those rocks that I think we can trace approximately 30,000 years of human use of. Going back a really long time. In, you know, the earliest instances, people didn't necessarily make the strong geological distinction between Jet and related materials. Kennel coal and lignite and sometimes black shale were treated very similarly.   So we kinda have to have a little grace in interpreting the data. But it is a stone that is inherently in between, and I find that really magical. One of the most important sources for Jet in the ancient world was in Whitby and what is now modern day Whitby in Yorkshire. I have a bit of Whitby Jet here from the coast of England, and it is my favorite piece in my collection, of very few pieces of Jet. But I think it is really marvelous to imagine that particularly during the Roman occupation of Britain, this material was traded across thousands upon thousands of miles.   We find evidence of Whitby Jet carvings in faraway Switzerland and Germany, as well as in Rome proper. So this was a commodity that was traded for a very long time. In other parts of the world where Jet can be found, we find similarly ancient uses of it. But when this kind of Romano British center production was in full swing about thirty five hundred years ago, Jet seemed to acquire, if we read between the lines, a number of uses that are a little bit weird, a little queer, we might even say. And one of my favorite examples is, the remains of a a skeleton found in a a Roman period burial.   The skeleton is officially known as skeleton six five two, because we don't have names and dates and ages for all of these figures. And there are a lot of confusing data points about this. This person was interred with a lot of very lavish expensive funeral goods, including jewelry, but they were buried in the part of the cemetery that you would put people who were on the outskirts, the fringe, the beggars, the thieves. So we have a little bit of contradictory information there. When this area was being excavated for the first time, doing, osteological analysis,

Transcribed - Published: 28 April 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #29 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Ammonite & Fossils meaning, including: Kitchen witchery & Fossils Opal and Fossils combining to make Ammolite Horns of Ammon, Avalon connection and Ammonite   Tune in now for a deeper look at Ammonite & Fossils meaning!   Podcast Episode Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for a casual chat about all things crystals. Adam Barralet: Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of crystal confab. Each week, we like to talk about things that are buried in the ground and have been waiting for a long, long time for us to discover them. But today, we're doing something a little bit different because we won't be talking about a crystal. We're gonna be exploring the world of fossils and things like amylenite and ammolite. So I'm gonna be honest with you. Fossils don't really thrill me. So I've set a challenge to the other three to see if they can win me over by the end of the episode. So to dive in and explore these, welcome, Kyle, Nicholas, and Ashley. Kyle, I know you like the ammolites and ammonites. Talk us a little bit through them. Kyle Perez: Well, for me, I am kind of like you in the way that I'm not a huge fossil person, but I know other people around the confab are much much bigger. I will start with fossil light, ammolite. But what I wanna talk about first is what I've seen as an explosion of interest in fossils recently. I don't know if the rest of you have seen this as well, but last year at the gem show that I worked at, people gave no crap about the crystals. I had to learn on the fly about the fossils that we had because that's where a huge amount of interest was. Our ammolite shells, our ammonites, the megalodon teeth, like amber, green ambers, all of these sorts of things were, like, really exciting. Have you seen that sort of thing, or is it maybe just a niche thing that's happening here? Nicholas Pearson: Yeah. I'm pretty much seeing it industry wide, but I would love to say that it's probably people like Ashley and me who might be bringing some more crystal folks to the dark side. I haven't been to any, like, really big trade shows in a hot minute, but I know Ashley frequents them. So she might have some more insight there too. Ashley Leavy: Yeah. I think if I really reflect on it, the fossil boots might have been a little bit busier than they normally are. Usually, I'm one of, like, two or three people shopping at those booths for the store. So maybe that is the case. I haven't noticed it yet trending amongst the crystally people, the healy feelies, like all of us. I feel like I'm always being like the fossil evangelist out there, trying to get people to appreciate them a little bit. I know Nicholas is the same. We actually did an amazing event last year hosted by Anwen Avalon who did, like, a fossil symposium, and it was Anwen, Nicholas, myself, Brett Holyhead, and Moss Matthew. And it was just, like, five days of fossils, and it was super fun. But that is very much not the norm. I think it takes a little, a little bit of special interest to get people going.   Are you captivated by the ancient wisdom of fossils? Elemental energies shape the world and guide our spiritual practice. By working with fossils, you can access these ancient forces and bring balance, empowerment, and connection into your life. That’s why I created the Fossils for Elemental Magic Course—a beginner-friendly journey into the magic of Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Spirit.     In this course, you’ll explore how fossils act as conduits for elemental energy, empowering you to align with nature’s forces in your rituals, divination, and healing work.

Transcribed - Published: 21 April 2025

Make your own ultra-nourishing and joy-boosting balm with this simple Calendula Salve Recipe - with a touch of herbal magic of course!

Transcribed - Published: 17 April 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #28 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Libyan Desert Glass meaning, including: Varuna Direct & Libyan Desert Glass Libyan Desert Glass for transformation and unity Enlightened Leadership with Libyan Desert Glass Origins and history of Libyan Desert Glass   Tune in now for a deeper look at Libyan Desert Glass meaning! Podcast Transcript:   Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for a casual chat about all things crystals.   Kyle Perez: Hello and welcome to Crystal Confab. We are, of course, here for another week talking about something that jumps into the crystal realm without technically being a crystal. I am, of course, joined by Ashley, Nicholas, and Adam, and we're going to talk about Libyan desert glass, also known as Libyan gold tektite. Are you all as excited as I am to talk about this rather interesting one?   Ashley Leavy: I definitely am. I love this stone so much. I was first introduced to it years and years ago, and we were just talking a little bit before we started recording. There's sort of this, like, moldavite to Libyan desert tektite pipeline that many of us follow to sort of find this stone. And I remember just being so taken with it.   Adam Barralet: I know I had so many people come to me and go, oh, what do you think of moldavite? And I'm like, that's moldavite. And, of course, moldavite got, you know, it's kind of a time of glory a few years ago, and I think it was being shared a lot on social media and TikTok and so on. And its price skyrocketed. But I'm like, you don't want moldavite.   You want me to be in desert class. And in my opinion, maybe that's why we're doing the episode before a moldavite episode. I think it's actually better than moldavite. But there's amazing other tech types as well, that I love that are found all around the world.   Kyle: Absolutely. This is one of the, I think, underappreciated gems that we really should work with a little bit more. And I think of all of us, it is always appropriate for Nicholas to dive into the amazing information that we have about Libyan desert glass.   Nicholas Pearson: Thank you. This is a special piece to me. I'm wearing my favorite one, which Ashley, of course, will recognize that I bought and treated myself to. I saw this on a store shelf in Glastonbury A Couple Years back, and I had to do a double take because I really thought this pendant was on the wrong shelf. It's just too perfect, and I thought I was looking at some really flawless citrine with an emerald set in the bezel.   And on close inspection, I could see these little wispy waves running through it, which tell us that it has an amorphous silica structure, which we call Lechatelierite. And it is like the juiciest piece of Libyan desert glass I've ever seen in my life. But, I do have a few pieces. I've been fascinated by this rock for a really long time, and we have evidence that may stretch as far back as 30,000 years of human history with this stone. And there are some mysteries about it that remain unsolved.   We don't have a really rich record of use. We don't have, like, an overwhelming amount of materials that have been made from it. We've got some lithic points, things like, you know, spear points, arrowheads, knives, that kind of thing. And obviously, the most famous thing that I think all of us here have seen is the pectoral of King Tut. So King Tutankhamun was buried with a really resplendent piece of Libyan desert glass carved into the shape of a scarab and set literally over his heart, which is pretty significant in Egyptian history and culture.   I'm not the expert in that though, but what I would really love to talk about is our evolu...

Transcribed - Published: 14 April 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #27 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Blue Sapphire meaning, including: Blue Sapphire for commitment Sharpening the mind with Blue Sapphire History and folklore of Blue Sapphire Blue Sapphire and Full Moon in Libra   Tune in now for a deeper look at Blue Sapphire meaning! Podcast Transcript:   Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for Crystal Confab: a casual chat about all things crystals.   Nicholas Pearson: Hello, and welcome to another edition of the crystal confab. My name is Nicholas, and I'm joined by three of my crystal besties, Kyle, Ashley, and Adam, and we are gonna confab about another gemstone. So this week, we are going to talk about the sibling gem of one we just recently covered. And although we alluded to the fact this was coming, I think it's gonna be really fun to talk about sapphires. And before we really, like, dive into our our separate topics, I would love to just kinda open the floor to, we'll say, the the cornucopia of things we see labeled sapphire on the market from maybe different flavors and colors of it to things that are maybe a little disingenuous that can also be out there.   Kyle Perez: I am so excited to talk about a little bit of sapphire. Sapphire is a stone that is very important to me. I spoke about this in our last episode. I have orange sapphire in my wedding band as one of my important stones of connection, but I would really like to talk about fakes first. Fakes, synthetics, imitations because sapphire being one of the big four, emerald, diamonds, sapphire, and ruby, it is one of the most imitated and faked stones.   Right? It's one of the most and I've been doing it the longest. Right? Because these stones have been loved for so long. And I've got a couple of examples that I have and you're not going to be able to see it as well as I'd like you to, but this is a really pretty blue sapphire pendant.   It's got a lovely little clear stone on the top. But this is one of the lyres that is out there. And what I know with my little loop when I look at it sideways is it has a clear portion on the top, a tiny little sliver of dark blue, and then clear underneath. That means it's a foil scented stone, so it's an imitation. It's not even a real sapphire.   It's totally, totally imitation. And then within this little box, you can see a lovely bright blue stone in the middle. This was actually our gift. There's a couple of real ones on the outside, but it's, you know, gotta keep them together because they're all sapphires. The one in the middle is actually a synthetic manmade sapphire that was a gift to all of our gemology class when we graduated.   We were told it was. It's one full carat. It's really, really beautiful, but it is a lab grown example. And it's really interesting to know that we have lab grown. We have synthetic.   We have, like, imitation. There's all of these different layers of fakes that are out there. So it's really important that if you can, when you're looking at jewelry, fine jewelry, especially examples, a nice triplet loop as a base is an amazing place to start. These have come a long way in a really long time. They've got UV lights on them.   They've got lights on them, so you can really dive into and look at stones and see within them. And that's something that reveals a sapphire. Sapphires will often have layers of blue color, which I alluded to with Ruby last week. That dichroic nature of showing more than one color is something that is very common in our sapphires. So it's important to look for that subtle difference in color, but not necessarily clear blue in such dramatic spaces.   Ashley Leavy: Let me ask you, Kyle.

Transcribed - Published: 7 April 2025

A stone used for millennia in both toolmaking and ritual, Black Obsidian is a form of naturally occurring glass, formed when volcanic lava cools rapidly. It's a powerful stone known for its ability to reveal hidden truths, dissolve energetic blockages, and support deep emotional healing. Whether used for energy clearing, scrying, or shadow work, the healing properties of Black Obsidian carry profound potential for clarity, transformation and empowerment. In this post, we’ll explore how to work with the raw, untamed power of Black Obsidian to help you navigate deep healing and uncover your most authentic self. A Crystal Message about the Healing Properties of Black Obsidian: "I consciously tap into divine wisdom and knowledge and embrace my intuition and inner knowing."     Common Healing Properties of Black Obsidian: Promotes energetic protection Reveals the truth in any situation Exposes areas of yourself that need growth and development Blocks negative energies from entering your auric field Enhances grounding Banishes negative energy Brings peace and calming Encourages living in a virtuous manner Increases courage Encourages personal growth Facilitates compassion Enhances accuracy in scrying divination Aids in acceptance of your weaknesses so that you can begin to heal and correct them Helps you to address issues of control and power struggles Enhances the experience of ceremonies and rituals Removes negative thought patterns and conditioning     Black Obsidian Companions: Colors: Opaque black (sometimes with transparent banding) with a glassy surface. Zodiac Signs: Capricorn, Scorpio Elements: Earth, Fire Companion Flowers: Fireweed Companion Essential Oil: Camphor Companion Stone: Howlite Common Origins: Mexico Notes: A natural volcanic glass. Wanna’ Get Science-y? Click Here to get information about the chemical composition, hardness, streak, etc. of this crystal from one of my favorite sites!   One way to work with the Healing Properties of Black Obsidian: Scrying Divination Obsidian mirrors, made by polishing thin slices of Obsidian into mirror-like discs, serve as potent tools for scrying divination. With their glassy, reflective surfaces, Obsidian mirrors provide a gateway to the realm of the subconscious. These mirrors give you the ability to look at yourself, so you are better able to reflect on your life paths, your behaviors, and your identity.     Obsidian mirrors have been esteemed for their connection to the underworld and the spiritual realm. In the last few years, the popularity of Obsidian mirrors has surged again, but they have long served as tools for scrying divination. Practitioners like John Dee, the famous crystallomancer, worked with one of these mirrors in his scrying practice to communicate with otherworldly entities and gain profound insights. By gazing into obsidian mirrors, you can receive messages from your intuition, your guides, and your ancestors as part of your crystal scrying practice. If you’d like to stick with natural stones, rather than glass mirrors for your work in divination with crystals, a Black Obsidian tumbled stone or small palm stone will also work well as a scrying tool, and these are typically much more affordable than the round disc-shaped mirrors.   The staff at my new age shop, Mimosa Books & Gifts, had this to share: Obsidian is the most abundant form of naturally occurring glass, the result of volcanic lava cooling quickly. Technically obsidian may have any composition, but usually, it’s a glass with inclusions of hematite and rhyolite. Because it’s easy to chip and forms a sharp point, it has been an invaluable material for toolmaking throughout history, thus contributing to the evolution of the human race’s evolution.

Transcribed - Published: 3 April 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #26 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Ruby meaning, including: Ruby and lookalikes throughout history Ruby for confidence Emotional strength with Ruby   Tune in now for a deeper look at Ruby meaning! Podcast Transcript:   Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for Crystal Confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.   Ashley Leavy: Hello, and welcome to another episode of crystal confab where I'll be confabbing with my crystal besties about one of our collected favorite stones, as we always say. This week, Adam, Nicholas, Kyle, and myself are chatting about Ruby. I am so excited about this episode. I actually just got this brand new Ruby palm stone from the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show about two months ago, and it has just been sitting on my desk, kinda letting me hold it, drawing some inspiration. So, how is everybody doing today?   Adam Barralet: Really well. And I'm really wrapped up in talking about Ruby. It is one of my favorite crystals, especially when it comes to, like, red crystals. I find it really empowering as well. And I really am enthusiastic to have this conversation because I think sometimes people forget about, like, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds because they kind of think of them as being, like, jewelry.   And so there's probably people that have a Ruby and don't realize that the Ruby because it's their engagement ring. It's not a tumbled stone in that way. But in saying that as well, you know, I'd love to know how much you paid for your palm stone. Rubies don't have to be that expensive. They are gonna be more than your amethyst or your rose quartz, but this is a piece I paid, 50 Australian dollars for this type of thing.   It's just a tumbled stone. Obviously, it's of the quality that can be turned into a ring necessarily, but I think it's a real powerful crystal to have in your collection.   Ashley: That's a great point, Adam. And so often when we're talking about, you know, crystals, we're especially in the crystal healing community, we're not necessarily thinking of fine jewelry. We're not necessarily thinking of precious gems. And those precious gems, the Ruby, sapphire, emerald, and diamond, are kind of in a class of their own, and then we have all the semi precious gems kind of that we see more commonly in the type of jewelry that, you know, we've been showing, frankly, in quite a lot of these episodes now. This Ruby palm stone, it's a good size.   It's a very nice quality. It has a good color. I think it was about 55 US dollars, so not too bad.   Adam: That's yeah. I'm very, very jealous of that. It's also interesting when we talk about those top four that we both listed, with Ruby rubies and sapphires, they're actually the same stone, aren't they? They're both corundum, but just different colors, which is quite that really interesting. And, you know, as I was learning throughout the years, I realized, oh, wow.   We always think of sapphires as being blue, but, no. You can get them in orange, yellow, green, white, black, every color. The only color that ain't come in is red. Well, they do, but we just call that a Ruby. And, Nicholas, do you know by any chance why that is?   Is that just through tradition before they realized it's all the same stone?   Nicholas Pearson: Yeah. So, you know, sapphire once used to mean more or less any blue stone, and Ruby literally comes from Latin, Ruby as red red colored gems. So, you know, they got some disambiguation over time. Like, the original sapphire, as we'll talk about another week, is not even remotely geologically related to what we think of as sapphire today. That is another semiprecious gem,

Transcribed - Published: 31 March 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #25 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Pietersite meaning, including: Pietersite and New Moon in Aries High magic and Pietersite Being in the 'eye of the storm' with Pietersite Formation and energy of Pietersite   Tune in now for a deeper look at Pietersite meaning! Podcast Transcript:   Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.   Adam Barralet: Nature is truly awe inspiring, and there's nothing more inspiring than a thunderstorm. I love them. I love the power and the rumble of the thunder, the flashes of the lightning, and the electricity that surges through the sky. And whenever there is an electrical storm, there's one crystal I run and grab. It's my Pietersite.   And that's the crystal we've decided to confab today. I'm here with Ashley, Kyle, and Nicholas, and we're about to dive into the stone of the storm. How are we today, everyone?   Nicholas Pearson: Excited.   Adam: Yay. It's an electrical kind of crystal, isn't it, Nicholas? And I know you've got some really great information to share with us about its formation because it's a really interesting looking crystal. And I'm sure the formation is really potent as well. Can you tell us a little bit about that?   Nicholas: Yeah. I have to preface this by saying, this, in no uncertain terms, is one of my all time favorite minerals. And I know we've all said that more than once, but this is the first gemstone that I truly took one look at and fell in love with. I remember visiting my local little crystal shop in the teeny tiny town I grew up in, and I'd seen almost everything in every single case except for this one dark stone in the back corner that didn't quite have a light reaching it. And so finally, you know, I turned to the owner of the shop.   I'm like, what is this one? He's like, oh, Pietersite. I think you'd actually like this. I'm surprised you'd never seen it. At that moment, he brought it out and I could turn it in the light.   I was in love. Now in that stage of my life, I was all of, like, maybe 12 years old. I just didn't have $68 to spend on a pretty chunky cabochon. I do wish that I had that money then because, you know, ten, twelve years later, it would have been worth five or seven times that. Thankfully, I've seen prices kind of recede a bit in a lot of markets here in North America in the last few years.   So it's certainly coming out in greater abundance, and I'm really grateful for that. But Pietersite is this stone that's kind of wrapped in mystery, and I think that's really appropriate for a gemstone like this. It's one that, a lot of, let's say, theories were put forward as to its formation process, but it wasn't until about, like, fifteen years ago, in 2010 that there were some pretty decent, like, good structural and chemical and optical analyses done that gave us some answers. So we have to address its relatives to better understand what makes it different. And so pietersite is very similar to tiger's eye, in a lot of ways.   They contain a lot of the same ingredients. They are predominantly quartz. They have these fibrous asbestos forms, we call them, inclusions of crocidolite and some of its altered relatives. There tend to be a lot of iron oxides and hydroxides in both. But in tiger's eye, we see these kind of broad parallel brush strokes of that chatoyant or cat's eye like pattern.   And in Pietersitezite, we see anything but that. In fact, the gemological term, and this is one of my favorites for it, my favorite gemological term maybe ever is chaotic chatoyance. And that is what this is. And, hence,

Transcribed - Published: 24 March 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #24 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Red Garnet meaning, including: Red Garnet for tuning into Mabon energies Powerful & protective nurturing with Red Garnet Red Garnet's connection to Goddess Brigid The chemistry and energy of Red Garnet   Tune in now for a deeper look at Red Garnet meaning! Podcast Transcript:   Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.   Kyle Perez: Hello, and welcome to another Crystal Confab. I'm Kyle, the Crystalline Mage, and I'm joined by Ashley Leavy, Nicholas Pearson, and Adam Barralet, my crystal besties as we confab about a different crystal every single week. Now this mineral in particular, I would argue we all have a very good relationship with. I think everyone loves a bit of this, and this is, of course, our red garnet. Red garnet has few different variations, and we're going to dive straight into Nicholas who's going to share a bit of the chemistry, a bit of the magic, and a bit of the energy that it entails.   Nicholas Pearson: So I wanna preface this by saying I'm as we've probably discussed in the past, I'm like an Uber Capricorn. I've got a big stellium there. I'm a January baby. Garnet is my birthstone. I'm also red-green colorblind.   I have never been excited about a red garnet in my life. And I'd heard that there were such things as green garnets and never laid my eyes on them. You know, I'd seen orangey reds and pinky reds, but it was mostly the dull, earthy, browny kind of reds that I just don't think my eyes perceive that color well. So I grew up not loving my birthstone, a story that sounds similar to others out there. And when I was a freshman at university and I started working for the Earth Science Museum, I found out that garnets could come in other colors, not just kind of, you know, green was an option and then variations on red, but they actually came in a a wide variety, and it dealt a lot with their chemistry and trace elements and things.   And I was really mystified to learn that unlike quartz, which comes in so many different colors but is fundamentally the same substance, garnets are a whole family. In fact, they're like two two series that share a common element, and it blew my mind. Furthermore, that particular year, this would be, like, early, maybe mid two thousands, the discovery of the Japanese rainbow andro garnets from Tenkawa Mine in Nara Prefecture was just blowing up all over the place. It was on the front of, like, Rockin' Gym and the neurological journal. And the museum I worked for, of course, got all these publications, and I saw this vivid multicolored thing.   And I was like, what is this? And my boss goes, oh, well, those are the Japanese rainbow garnets. You like rocks. Really, you've heard about these. They're everywhere.   I'm like, I know nothing. So I learned everything I could about garnet. It turns out at that point, the textbook said garnet came in every color of the rainbow except blue. Not long later, I found better, better data, more up to date information that said garnets could come in every color of the rainbow except blue garnets were usually microgarnets, and they were found in things like kimberlite pipes. And they were good indicators if you're looking at thin sections under polarizite that you might have diamonds nearby.   So you wanted to find them. They just weren't exciting to look at. And then sometime in the last decade, there was a find in Tanzania. I don't know how well this is gonna show up on camera, but blue garnets exist. They're kind of more blue violet than, like, a true blue.   But my white whale is out there in college.

Transcribed - Published: 17 March 2025

If you’ve been working with crystals for a while, you’ve probably heard that they need to be charged—kind of like little energetic batteries that run out of juice. Traditionally, people believed that a crystal’s energy could get depleted over time, and charging was the way to refresh it. But over the years, I’ve come to see things a little differently. In this post, I’ll share my take on charging crystals, why I still do it (but for a different reason!), and how to charge crystals to align their energy with your intentions. Traditional Thoughts on Charging Crystals: Traditionally, the concept of charging crystals was taught because it was thought that a crystal's energy could become depleted over time. Charging was the method used to replenish the crystal's energy so that it could continue to work effectively. Basically, crystals were treated like batteries that were drained of their energy and then "re-charged" to energize them again. If a crystal didn't feel the same or work quite the same any longer, then it was recommended to charge the stone. Some people also viewed this as a necessary step after cleansing, because they believed that the cleansing process removed ALL energy from the stone.   My View on Charging Crystals: In my experience crystals don't need to be charged the same way they need to be cleansed. A crystal doesn't actually lose its energy over time just because you've worked with it - it's not like a battery as we were made to think. If the energy of your stone feels "off" to you, it likely just needs a good cleansing. If that doesn't help, it could just be that the stone is no longer needed - that it has served its purpose and it's giving you a subtle hint to move on. I still charge my crystals, but instead of doing this to replenish their energy, I think of it as a way to add to it...a way to further define and align the energy of the stone with your intention. Each method of charging adds its own energetic imprint to the crystal, so you should decide which type of energy you would like to work with and then charge your stone using a corresponding method. How to Charge Crystals: Common Methods Sunlight Wheel of the Year Holidays Solar and Lunar Eclipses Pyramids Quartz Crystal Charging Grids & Numerology Seeds Flowers Herbs Water Snow Rain & Storms Fog   How to Charge Crystals: My Top 3 Favorite Ways 1) Charging with the Sun: When charging your crystals with the energy of the Sun, place your crystal outdoors or on the windowsill and leave them there all day (or a minimum of 2-3 hours). Many healers prefer to place their crystals outside on the ground (where they have direct contact with the earth), but if this isn't possible, placing them in a windowsill is also acceptable. To assist the process further when working with the Solar holidays (Holy Days), you can set your stone atop a picture of the Wheel of the Year on the corresponding day. In general, this method of charging is connected with personal power, good luck, vitality, and with the fire element.   2) Charging with the Moon: When charging your crystals with the energy of the Moon phases, place your crystal outdoors or on the windowsill and leave it in there overnight. Many healers prefer to place their crystals outside on the ground (where they have direct contact with the earth), but if this isn't possible, placing them in a windowsill is also acceptable. To assist the process further, you can set your stone atop a picture of the corresponding moon phase.   3) Charging With Herbs (Fresh or Dried): Place your crystal in a container (preferably wood, glass, or ceramic) filled with leaves (any type will do, but specific types will carry the energy of that plant) and leave it there overnight. It's best to completely cover the stone with the leaves. When using fresh leaves, this method of charging is connected with the property of new beginnings and with sp...

Transcribed - Published: 13 March 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #23 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Bloodstone meaning, including: Bloodstone for ancestral connection Mobilising defenses with Bloodstone What your body needs & Bloodstone Bloodstone & Blood Moon in Virgo   Tune in now for a deeper look at Bloodstone meaning! Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for a casual chat about all things crystals. Nicholas Pearson: Hello, and welcome back to Crystal Confab. I'm Nicholas, and I'm here to confab about crystals with some of my favorite humans. I'm joined by Ashley Leavy, Adam Barralet, and Kyle Perez. And this week, we are diving deep into one of those stones. It's been around for quite a long time, valued for a good chunk of human history, but I think is a little underappreciated in today's crystal world. And that stone is Bloodstone. Historically, it's been known as heliotrope, a name we also give to sunflowers, which means to turn toward the sun because in medieval lore, it was associated with the sun and conquering things as we might talk about later. And it's a variety of chalcedony, but it's not the only thing out there called bloodstone. And we've got this African bloodstone out there as well, which is a more translucent chalcedony with a breccia, a broken kind of fragmentary bit of the reddish jasper that's in there. Does anyone else have some experience with seftonite? They might wanna talk about comparing and contrasting the two. Ashley Leavy: Yeah. This is a stone that, you know, I think became kind of popular on the market maybe, like, 2017, 2018. Somewhere in there is where I really started to see it come out more, and it started being called African bloodstone. And then a lot of people dropped the African and just started calling it bloodstone, which has definitely created a bit of confusion with our dark green chalcedony that we're so used to seeing with those beautiful red spots, which is the bloodstone we're all here to confab about today. I do think that the African bloodstone is really interesting. I can see how, at least symbolically, some of that energy still comes through in a similar way to what we would have with our traditional bloodstone. You have these little red sort of patches, not quite spots. So, you know, it doesn't have that same long historical use and lore that our regular bloodstone has, but there are some things about it that I think are interesting. I found that stone to be really, really grounding to help me when I'm feeling scattered, and I think that really has to do with that breccia. I always think of that as being something that pulls everything together. So that is one great way to work with that. But I do want to just really drive home with folks, and when we were talking about this just just before we started recording, Kyle actually brought this up, that it's not exactly the same as our traditional bloodstone. And so if you see sort of that gray with the more angular red bits in it, those little breccia bits of the red jasper, not the same as the traditional bloodstone. It will have a little bit different quality to it, but I also find that that one is really good for dream work and dream recall, which I found interesting. I didn't expect it because that is something that, at least in my experience, is vastly a different type of quality than I would expect from traditional bloodstone. Does anybody else have experience with that? Kyle Perez: I really love that avenue. For me, it has very much been a stabilizer. You can see here, like, the jaspery redness and then that chalcedony kind of inclusioniness. Like, it is definitely not the same stone. I think that clarity, the softer chalcedony really has a difference too. Like,

Transcribed - Published: 10 March 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #22 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Turquoise meaning, including: Allowing rather than pushing with Turquoise Turquoise & the air element Integration of spiritual information with Turquoise History, folklore and geology of Turquoise   Tune in now for a deeper look at Turquoise meaning!   Podcast Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Intro: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for Crystal Confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.   Ashley Leavy: Hello, and welcome to the crystal confab podcast where we confab about some of our favorite crystals. I am here with three of my crystal besties, Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez, and Nicholas Pearson, and we are so excited to talk to you today about Turquoise. This is such a phenomenal stone and one of the things that I personally love about this is just the huge variety that we see it come in, which, you know, I think we don't always think about when we are exploring turquoise. It kind of always looks really similar at first glance until you really start to get to know it. So, Kyle, I would love to have you sort of kick us off and tell us a little bit about your experience here with turquoise.   Kyle Perez: Oh, for me, I collected turquoise because it's a stone that you should have because it's turquoise. Right? Like, that was how I started. Like, it's turquoise. And so these kinds of little pieces came into my collection, not too expensive.   They just kind of hung out for ages. Literally ages. And then the longer I was doing my spiritual work, the longer I was connecting to crystals, that's when I started to sort of work with them a little bit more. I sort of needed to wait my turn a little bit before it started to reveal itself to me. I don't know about everyone else.   Has anyone else had an experience like that with turquoise?   Adam: Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. Definitely.   Kyle: Well, I was really diving in on the instruction of the universe because I was given some. So this really beautiful piece, I don't know if it's gonna show up properly, is Persian turquoise. It has pyrite inclusions in it. Little beautiful tiny cubes of pyrite. And this lady just said, I need to give this to you.   This is yours. Take it. I like it, but I don't want to. And I was just like, you're mad, but thank you. Like, I'm not gonna say no because, like, it's a big beautiful rough raw, like, jagged, interesting piece of turquoise totally in my bag.   And I was basically wearing it every day and I've been sort of doing my work and things, I would say, six, seven years or so worth of spiritual work and study and that sort of stuff. And it was starting to sort of replay back stuff from the beginning. It started to show me not things again, but the themes and allowing me to dive into them with new knowledge and a new perspective. For me, it's been about the integration of spiritual knowledge and information. It has allowed me to not just learn it and not just study it, but to live it and experience it and to understand my purpose through these lessons.   Does that make sense? It's this kind of yes. You've done the book learning. Now let's actually experience what it's here to show you. Let's actually create some magic with it.   Let's actually open your heart to the truth of the situation and what it means to you. The other thing I think with all crystals and minerals is that we learn about them from books. We learn about them from others. We learn about them from podcasts and whatever, but it's the lived experience of how it shows you your journey and how to work with it. That's the truth of it.   Does that make sense? Like it's that this is why I'm here for you.

Transcribed - Published: 3 March 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #21 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Rhodonite meaning, including: Venus Retrograde & Rhodonite Rhodonite for friendship & new beginnings Creating emotional transformation with Rhodonite Rhodonite for living authentically   Tune in now for a deeper look at Rhodonite Meaning! Podcast Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for a casual chat about all things crystals. Adam Barralet: Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of Crystal Confab. Today, we're gonna dive into another pink crystal. When people think about pink crystals, rose quartz kind of pushes its way through and holds the spotlight. But today, we shift that spotlight a little to the right, and we're gonna be looking at rhodonite. Now this is a really interesting crystal. I know we've got some show and tell for you today, but let's see if we can help you to build an appreciation for another beautiful gift from mother earth. I'm joined today with Kyle and Nicholas. Gents, thanks so much. Kyle, why do you love this crystal so much? Kyle Perez: Well, let's just look at it for starters. Like, the beautiful shades of pink with black, like, no two pieces of rhodonite are generally the same depending on where it comes from in the world. It can be really, really rich and magenta or it can be really soft pink, and you'll always have well, not always, but often you'll have these beautiful black inclusions as well and it adds such character. This is from New South Wales, this piece of rhodonite, really beautiful slab. This is I think Brazilian, really deep and rich. I have found upon getting into this podcast, I have given so much of it away. It is a crystal that I give away so much. There's something that I do which is called a crystal reading, and I basically will have a bowl of crystals inspired by something that Adam did years ago where I have a bowl of crystals at a market or a fair or something. And amongst those crystals, I will intuitively pick for the person and dive into a reading for them. And there are so many people that I meet when they're at a stage in life, when they are going through changes and transformations and needing to love themselves, needing to focus on themselves, needing to bring that appreciation to self in. For me, Rotonite helps you to love yourself, appreciate yourself. It helps you to know your gifts so you can bring them into any situation, and it helps you to get rid of the I can't or it helps you to worry about what you actually can't do or what you can't bring to situations. I find it really great to help you to know your skill level so you don't overextend yourself in things that you don't need to because there are other people that can do it. Right? I find Rhodonite allows you to fit in, and it's not about a fitting in thing. It's allowing you to fit in wherever you are meant to be. It allows you to charm your way into situations. It allows you to hold space and take up space and know that you deserve to take up this space. It gives that connection to I can, I will, why can't I? I find it really encouraging. I find it protective. I find it supportive, and that's why I think I've given so much of it away to these people in their readings, whether they're going through job change, relationship change, personal shifts, whether it's divorcing, whether its death and rebirth, rhodonite seems to come up again and again and again, and I think that it speaks to its energy. It speaks to its ability. It speaks to its strength of Adam: all of Kyle: it that it can bring to our situations. I find it has more of a push than maybe rhodochrosite, which you often will see side by side. You'll see them compared.

Transcribed - Published: 24 February 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #20 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Danburite meaning, including: Full Moon in Leo & Danburite Danburite to clarify Spiritual & Psychic info Finding your inner light and what sparks your passion and purpose with Danburite Danburite and spiritual ecosystems   Tune in now for a deeper look at Danburite Meaning!   Danburite Podcast Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Intro: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals. Kyle Perez: Hello, and welcome to the Crystal Confab. I'm Kyle, the Crystalline Mage, and I'm joined by Ashley Leavy, Nicholas Pearson, and Adam Barralet, my crystal besties, as we dive back into our regular programming, one mineral per episode. And today is honestly one of my personal favorites, and I'm sure you've heard us all say that several times over the episodes, but it truly is. And it's Danburite, and it's one that I wear often and regularly. And we are going to pass straight over to Ashley who's literally direct from Tucson to have a little chat. Ashley Leavy: It was such a fun show this year. There was so much to see. There's always a lot of excitement come Tucson time. I think, you know, both for shop owners like myself who are going over there to, you know, source things for our sales and storefronts as well as for the vendors that are traveling from all over the world to come to the show, show what they have, get you introduced to new things. There was a lot of excitement and a lot of buzz this year. I think a few trends that I noticed that I wanted to share where I saw definitely more push for ethically sourced minerals this time, which I have to say was really great. Like, several of the vendors that I've been going to for years that do ethical sourcing had more availability than what they've ever had before, which is really cool, And a few other vendors who have kind of tried to do that in the past, but maybe not across the board, have found new sources, new suppliers, new cottage miners to work with who are doing things a lot more ethically. I've also talked to a few vendors this year who changed the way that they're manufacturing, which is huge. So they're doing a lot of it in house, so they have more oversight. Like, those are the kind of changes that I get really excited about seeing, and I know that that comes from consumers, you know, re who are purchasing retail, like, the end consumer level, putting pressure on the storefronts, and then those storefronts putting pressure on their sources. And also the work of amazing people, like Nairi from Crystal Auras by Nairi who just had World Crystal Healing Day, the first ever, who are just champions of ethical sourcing. And so I think we're starting to see the very beginning of that, which is interesting because we were just talking about this in a recent episode. So that was awesome. The other thing that I noticed is that a lot of the vendors were trying to get new things out there. There were a couple cool new finds. So from the DRC, there is a botryoidal malachite with kind of a druzy quartz coating that was absolutely stunning the first time I've ever seen it. There was incredibly high grade pink aragonite, like nothing I've ever seen, way out of my budget personally, but it's great to look at. There was also this really cool combo of chrysocolla, kind of that chalky botryoidal crust chrysocolla and cobalt, hoan, calcite crystals growing together with this intense blue and pink in one cluster. So those were some of my fun new finds for this year that I was excited to see, but there were also some things I wasn't thrilled about, including some crystal fakes. So many of us have probably seen over the last eighteen months to two yea...

Transcribed - Published: 10 February 2025

You may (or may not) know this about me, but in addition to teaching classes with the Love & Light School, I also own a crystal shop here in Madison, Wisconsin. Each year, I travel to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show for my shop, Mimosa Books & Gifts, with a small team — myself, my shop manager, and our shipping manager — to pick out some amazing crystal treasures from across the globe. Big shows like this can be intimidating, so I've put together this helpful Tucson Gem Show Guide to use when attending! Last year, I wrote a short article with some Tucson Gem Show Tips and some helpful information about spotting crystal fakes, but with more and more people starting their own crystal shops (either in-person or online), I have been getting more questions than ever about how it all works! This year, I've broken down our entire experience into a handy Tucson Gem Show guide, to give you a look behind the curtain at the show, or help you plan your own trip!   2025 Tucson Gem Show Highlights: Before we dig into the specifics of how to shop a show like Tucson, I thought I’d share some notable highlights from the 2025 show: Favorite Crystal Find: Botryoidal Malachite with Druzy Quartz coating from DRC Best-Quality Gems: Stunning Rhodolite Garnet mini palm stones from India Most Unexpected Find: Bronze Sapphire from India Most Expensive Thing: Pyrite Cannonball with Ammonite Fossil inside from Yorkshire, UK! Best Value: Gemmy Lepidolite palm stones from Brazil (got these for a great price!) Most Beautiful Find: Chrysocolla with Cobaltoan Calcite crystals growing on it from DRC Most Outrageous Fake: Fake Ruby being sold as natural Best Jewelry Item: Incredibly gorgeous Hypersthene pendant Popular Trends: Ethically-sourced crystals on the rise plus BIG variety of spheres this year! Declining Trends: Mass-produced carvings of all types (multiple vendors reported a huge decline in sales)...especially those of poor quality Best New Vendor: Obsidian Opal Geode Agate by Carlos Eduardo Rios (GORGEOUS Obsidian plus the most beautiful Huichol artwork with hand-written poetry!) And with that little wrap-up, let’s dig into our Tucson Gem Show strategy from start to finish! Travel Planning for the Tucson Gem Show: We usually start planning and preparations for the Tucson Show in November or December (the show begins in late January, so this gives us a month or two to make our plans). This is when we book our airfare, rental car, and house for our trip. There’s quite a bit to consider about each of these things when planning your travel… Booking Airfare: After many years of going to the show, we have learned to give ourselves as much space as possible with our flights to make the most of our time in Tucson. On the way out, we catch an early flight (the day before one of the biggest shows opens up), so we have time to settle in (more about that later). On the way home, however, we book a late afternoon flight so we have time to run any last-minute errands, squeeze in some extra shopping, and get to the airport with minimal stress and lots of time to spare. I'd also highly recommend giving yourself extra space for any layovers you may have so you don't miss your connecting flights. We missed our flight this year due to mechanical issues with our flight and got stuck overnight in Dallas (which was very expensive!). Booking a Rental Car: The Tucson Gem Show is one place where having a bigger vehicle comes in handy. We usually rent a small to mid-sized SUV so we have lots of space for hauling minerals and luggage. With 3 of us attending the show, we need the luggage space getting from the airport to our rented house, and there are always a couple of days when we shop so heavily that nearly every free inch of the car is filled with boxes of crystals. We typically rent a hybrid vehicle to save on gas, but a big car is a must for our little team. Renting a House:

Transcribed - Published: 5 February 2025

The Tucson Gem Show is one of the largest gem shows in the world. Here's my tips for attending and spotting Crystal Fakes.

Transcribed - Published: 5 February 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #19 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they each reveal their their three all-time favorite crystals for love. Tune in now to hear about the best crystals to use for the many different types of love, including: Romantic love Platonic love Familial love Self-love And so much more!   Tune in now for a deeper look at Crystals of Love! Crystals of Love Podcast Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for a casual chat about all things crystals. Nicholas Pearson: Hello, and welcome to another edition of Crystal Confab. I'm Nicholas. I'm joined by three of my crystal besties, and we have a little bit of an unusual episode for you all. So you've probably gotten familiar with our pick a stone and dive right in format, and that's great. We're gonna keep doing that, but there's something really special on the horizon. By the time this episode comes out, it's just gonna be a little ahead of Valentine's Day. Love will be in the air, maybe more so than it normally is or maybe we're just paying better attention to it. And to celebrate that, we have collectively decided to share our favorite crystals for love. So you're gonna hear what we work within our own lives, what we recommend to others, and maybe meet some undervalued, underappreciated, maybe some unknown crystals for love and romance along the way. So let's go ahead and just kick it off. Kyle, what are your three favorite crystals for love? Kyle Perez: Well, it was really hard for me to choose just three. I don't know about everyone else, but I certainly had a challenge cutting it down to three. I've tried to pick three that I work with a lot, and I've worked with a lot through my journey. I'm going to start with jade. Jade has two flavors. We have nephrite jade and jadeite jade. These are two flavors of jade that are very similar, but they have, I wrote this down so I wouldn't forget single chain silicate versus double chain silicate. Your nephrite jade will form thank you, Nicholas. I had to remember and write it down. Your double, your nephrite jade will form larger but less dense. Your jadeite will be smaller and more dense. Both of them are arguably the densest materials in the crystal world. They are internally stronger than most others. Diamonds have a hardness on the outside. Jade has it internally, and this is why I love it for love because it gives us internal strength. It gives us the support of our internal body. It helps us to feel, see, and tap into all of the things that help us to feel more loved, more strong, more supported. If you look into culture where jade is utilized in New Zealand, Aotearoa, greenstone is prevalent through familial bonds. It is something that is given and handed down and is a totem for family. In Asian culture and Chinese culture, it is gifted to family, gifted to friends for abundance, for wealth. Right? Both of these things, wealth, abundance, family, it's all heart energy. It's all love energy. When we feel abundant, when we feel surrounded by good things and good people, we feel more love, and that's why I love Jade. It helps you to see the right people that support you and those that don't so that you can invest less in that and more in those that do support you. It helps you to also see where you need to take care of yourself better and love yourself more. For me, it has helped me to love my physical body, and my physical body is something I don't love so much being someone who suffers chronic pain. For me, it has taught me physical body love. I can appreciate myself more. What's the saying? My body holds my organs in place, and that's all it needs to do right now. Right? That's perfect for what it's doing.

Transcribed - Published: 3 February 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #18 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Labradorite meaning, including: Labradorite for shielding & protection New Moon in Aquarius & Labradorite Unlocking your personal Magick with Labradorite Labradorite for setting boundaries   Tune in now for a deeper look at Labradorite meaning! Crystal Confab Podcast - 'Labradorite Meaning' Episode 18 Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals. Ashley Leavy: Hello, and welcome to another episode of crystal confab, where me and my crystal besties confab about some of our favorite stones. And today is no exception. We are gonna be discussing labradorite, which I am so stinking excited about. I don't know about all of you, but this is one that it seems like most people are immediately drawn to in their crystal work. Is that something you each have noticed? I see a lot of nods happening. Kyle Perez: Without question, people are always drawn to the flash. You can't deny that immediate impulsiveness drawn to that. Like, where did that come from? Ashley: Yeah. And I mean, it is a gorgeous stone. I have one here. This is from Madagascar, but let's see if I can catch it. There we go. The most brilliant purple and gold and orange. It's kind of like that beautiful sunset, which, you know, it reminds me of when you're on the beach kind of looking out and the sun is just going down over the water and you get that sort of ripple effect, which I know is something, Nicholas, you are no stranger to having grown up in Florida. I'm sure you had your share of magical Florida sunsets. But you've worked with the stonemore for boundary setting. Nicholas Pearson: Yeah. So I remember my very first piece of Labradorite. I think we picked it up at, like, a flea market or something like that when I was in middle school, and I just couldn't believe the earth made something like this. It was just so magical, and I kind of just appreciated it for its beauty and didn't do much else with it for a while, at least. And some years ago, I was doing some intensive training with one of my teachers and mentors, and we were learning about, things like psychic hygiene, shielding, protection, and how all of that kinda supports our our emotional, energetic, and social boundaries too because you can't really have one without the other. And I was going through all of the techniques as they were being taught to us like a good student is supposed to. And then secretly, outside of my homework, I was doing weird stuff kinda in the same vein. And Laboratorite was one of those allies that just popped up for me in that time frame that just felt so right. And so, I know this is gonna kinda bleed over into some of what you're gonna share with it too, but, I I find it to be just the most marvelous stone for all kinds of boundaries, whether it's energetic or spiritual or social or emotional, because it's just from from the way that it's made to the brilliance of its light, to the kind of deceptive nature of it doesn't have any of those pigments in it, there's something really remarkable about it. So, I wanna, like, kinda unpack this a little bit and start with when we talk about boundary setting, when we talk about protection, we often think about erecting walls. We want them to be airtight. We wanna keep everything out. And there are times that are absolutely true. We want to do that. But most of the time, like, you don't wanna be sealed in an airtight box. There's no room to breathe. There's no room to stretch or grow. What we need are selectively permeable membranes just just like we've got around every cell in our body. And without that, we've got problems. So,

Transcribed - Published: 27 January 2025

Each year as we approach Imbolc, I feel something stirring within me, I’m not sure if it’s just the excitement and anticipation of Spring after a long, cold winter here in Wisconsin, or if there’s something more behind it. It’s a sort of yearning to reconnect with the land after spending so much time indoors. Even as I write this we’re in the midst of a big winter snowstorm, and thinking about the year’s first blooms, the sound of the birds, and the squelch of the ground beneath my feet after the spring thaw, all feel so far away. Yet I can’t seem to pull my mind from thoughts of these things. The little signs that Spring is here always feel palpable. But between the awe of the winter wonderland I enjoy at Solstice and the first warm days when the world seems to come back alive, is one of my favorite holidays…Imbolc. Imbolc is the first of the cross-quarter days, and marks the very beginning of spring (the mid-point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox). A celebration of hearth and home, Imbolc is the perfect time to hold space for renewal, fertility, purification, rebirth, hope, growth, planning, and new beginnings. Imbolc is also when you release what no longer serves you, shedding darker days behind to make room for new growth. To share some inspiration with you this season, I’ve rounded up the following useful resources about how to celebrate Imbolc:   Imbolc & the Wheel of the Year Article: This article delves into the significance of Imbolc, a celebration in the Wheel of the Year marking the transition from winter to spring. The Wheel of the Year, representing the cycles of light and dark, is a tool for connecting with natural cycles and understanding personal growth. Imbolc, celebrated on February 1st, signifies the first hint of spring. Energies associated with Imbolc are renewal, fertility, purification, and new beginnings. The article provides insights into the traditions, symbols, and deities linked to Imbolc, emphasizing the connection to the Goddess Brigid, a symbol of light, fire, and fertility. It concludes with suggestions for how to celebrate Imbolc, including feasting, divination, planting seeds, and connecting with the energy of the sun. If you want to embrace the Imbolc season, the article serves as a comprehensive guide to the rituals, traditions, and deeper spiritual meaning associated with this important seasonal celebration.   Imbolc Altar Cloth and Crystal Set: This cotton altar cloth features an exclusive Imbolc design featuring my digital collage artwork! Use this cloth to decorate your Imbolc altar and celebrate the turning of the Wheel of the Year. You can also add three of my favorite Imbolc crystals: tumbled Amethyst, tumbled Infinite Serpentine, and rough Pyrite, to enhance your connection to this sacred season.   Crystals & A Card Spread for Imbolc Article: This article provides insight into practical, hands-on ways to celebrate Imbolc. I suggest specific crystals, such as Red Garnet, Carnelian, and Pyrite, to work with during this time. Each stone carries symbolic meanings related to the returning warmth and energy. Additionally, I share a sacred, Imbolc Card Spread for introspection and guidance during this period. The seasonal spread covers aspects of foundation, direction, growth, and illumination. Use this spread to uncover hidden influences, regain clarity, focus on personal growth, and receive Universal messages.   FREE Goddess Brigid Coloring Pages: Celebrate Imbolc with these 3 FREE printable coloring pages to honor Goddess Brigid! These coloring pages (hand-drawn by me!) include images of the Goddess Brigid, a Corn Dolly, and a Brigid’s cross. You can print these pages at home and color as an act of devotion or meditation. Corn dollies are often made in her image and are called “Little Bride’s.” Brigid’s Crosses are woven each Imbolc and hung in the home as a symbol of protection, fertility, abundance, and blessings.

Transcribed - Published: 23 January 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #17 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Carnelian meaning, including: Carnelian for clearing Tarot & Oracle decks Tyche Retrograde & Carnelian Less conversation, more action with Carnelian Evolution of Carnelian's lore   Tune in now for a deeper look at Carnelian meaning! Crystal Confab Podcast Episode 17: Carnelian Meaning - Transcript:  Crystal Confab Podcast Intro: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for a casual chat about all things crystals.   Adam Barralet: Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Crystal Confab. When it comes to crystals, there are so many different colors, but orange is one that we all have to have because we need it for our sacral chakra. And I remember a few years ago, I was actually doing a bit of a stop take of all my tumbled stones and realized that I just don't have enough orange crystals. It was actually the color I have least of. But one thing I think everyone has when it comes to orange crystals is the famous carnelian, and that's what we're diving into today.   Now carnelian is a crystal that has a long, long history. I believe it might even be mentioned in the Bible. And so I wanna ask Nicholas, tell us a little bit about the evolution and the history of carnelian today.   Nicholas: Yeah. I would love to. This is such a fun topic because I think when we look at the body of written lore of all gems, particularly in the nexus of civilization and forward in time, we see so much written about it. And it doesn't always feel very consistent at first, so we kinda have to unpack it piece by piece. So, for those who may not know, carnelian is a variety of chalcedony, which means it's cryptocrystalline quartz, just like onyx, which we talked about toward the top of the the the first season, and it gets its color from small amounts of iron.   And, this iron is something that feels kind of intrinsically motivating, grounding, energizing. You pick up any crystal book today, and you're going to find those kinds of keywords. Maybe it's about enthusiasm or energy or creativity. If we go back in time, we might channel the same kind of force to maybe more everyday concerns back then, you know, before we had phones to scroll on and spare time to write and draw, things like war and conquest, but also health and healing. So, some of the earliest magical kind of associations with Carnelian stem from a very kind of mundane use.   If you needed to put your seal of approval on something quite literally, you had to have a seal that was carved out of something that you could press into wax or later clay, and it needed to be a material that went in easily and came out easily without residue left over or you didn't get a clear mark on it. And of all the materials that we find in places like Mesopotamia, Sumeru, Babylon, this general region, one of the most important materials for the use of these kinds of seal stones, cylinder seals, and inscribed gems is carnelian. And the reason is kind of twofold. 1st, there's just the mundane functionality of it because of the thermal properties of quartz and therefore of carnelian. It goes into wax really well and comes out very cleanly.   Secondly, of all the materials that were available and durable enough to be carved, soft enough to be carved, but durable enough to last, carnelian really fit the bill. It was an added bonus that it was beautiful. Now these cylinder seals were things that were used by people in positions of power. So to own one was to represent your power. So if you were to inherit 1, even if you didn't have a lot of, let's say, like, social currency, it could signify a kind of symbolic agency.   And so Carnelian took on these associations with power, with wealth,

Transcribed - Published: 20 January 2025

I am so excited about the first ever World Crystal Healing Day, founded by Nyree of Crystal Auras by Nyree. World Crystal Healing Day (WCHD), taking place on January 22, 2025, is a groundbreaking global event founded by Crystal Auras by Nyree. This annual celebration highlights the transformative and healing power of crystals, showcasing their ability to support mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. With a mission to raise awareness of crystal healing’s profound benefits, WCHD aims to empower individuals to integrate crystals into their daily lives for enhanced balance and inner peace. In our fast-paced world, the demand for alternative therapies like crystal healing is rising. WCHD emphasizes the timeless wisdom of using crystals for wellness—whether for calming the mind, balancing emotions, or fostering personal growth. The event also honors the rich cultural heritage behind crystal healing, promoting ethical practices while encouraging individuals to unlock their full potential. WCHD offers a unique opportunity to unite a global community of crystal enthusiasts and spiritual practitioners. Whether you're a seasoned crystal lover or a newcomer to the practice, this day provides a space to connect, share, and celebrate the power of crystals in healing both individuals and the planet.   Tune in now for an interview with Nyree about World Crystal Healing Day!   Stay in touch with Nyree on Instagram @crystalauras   Are you interested in becoming a Certified Crystal Healer? Find out more about the CCH and Advanced Crystal Practitioner Program HERE!

Transcribed - Published: 19 January 2025

It’s a common practice to make a resolution to better yourself each time the new year rolls around, but it’s even more common that after a couple of weeks into the new year, those resolutions get tossed aside and forgotten - just like the previous year. Would you like to try something new this year? Something that will change your life right away so that you’ll actually want to stick with it? Make a resolution to clear and balance every aspect of your life, and it will result in a year you won’t want to forget. Read on to discover how you can call upon your crystals for the New Year!   It's a new year! And many would have you think this means it's time for a new you. But... what if instead of a new you, you just gave the old you a little helping hand?   Here are the top 5 quick-fix ways to use crystals for the new year to help you get clear, cleansed, healthy, & balanced:     #1 - Clear Out Last Year's Energy to Make Room for Shiny, New Year's Energy We all do it... I do it, and you do it. You carry things from your past into the future. Sometimes these things are good, like happy memories, but other times, you carry around things that don't serve you going forward, like unresolved emotions. The New Year is a great time to start with a clean slate, so taking some time to dump your baggage is the #1 way to clear and balance your energy for the new year.   #2 - Cleanse Your Space to Welcome in Some Positive Vibes Now that you've left your last year's baggage in the past (where it belongs!), it's time to cleanse your space of any energy that's no longer serving your highest good.  By allowing stagnant energy to linger in your environment, you're inadvertently telling the Universe that you're fine with outdated, dare I say, "Meh..." energy in your field.  You need to clear this energy out of your space so that the Universe knows you're ready for bigger and better things. Make way for positive vibes! Click Here to Check Out Our Classic Blog Post on Using Selenite & Black Tourmaline for Cleansing & Protecting Your Space so that you can welcome in some positive vibes.   #3 - Clear Your Energy Field for a Positive Outlook You've gone through our first 2 quick-fix solutions for a great new year and you're on a roll!  Our #3 tip is to use healing crystals to cleanse your energy field.  There's no sense in clearing out last year's energy and cleansing your space just to be a big blob of energy that no longer fits in with the super positive vibes you're creating.  I recommend a quick-fix Selenite "energy sweeping" technique for clearing out any energy that's not serving you in the new year.   Click Here to Check Out Our Classic Blog Post, "Best Selenite Formations for Cleansing" so you can start the new year on the right foot. Having a hard time keeping your vibes positive?  Whether it's your own negative thinking or bad vibes from others, sometimes negative energy is tricky to deal with. Click Here to Check Out Our Classic Blog Post, "Using Black Tourmaline to Transform Negative Energy Into Positive Vibes" so that positivity will prevail in the new year!     #4 - Focus on Wellness & Self-Care Many of us remember to do the simple things like routine energy cleansing, but when it comes down to energetic self-care, it's easy to fall short.  Quick and easy healing exercises are ideal (because you'll actually DO them), but are they effective?  Let me put it this way, is it better to do little exercises more frequently because they are quick and easy?  Or is it better to put off self-care because you don't feel like you have time, and then find yourself in an energy healing crisis because you've neglected your routine? If you're like me, you know the answer...it's always better to be doing something than to do nothing at all - especially when it comes to your energetic well-being. Click Here to Check Out Our Classic Blog Post, "3 Tips for Self-Care with Crystals" and get you...

Transcribed - Published: 15 January 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #16 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Larimar meaning, including: Larimar for abundance & love Harmonising water & fire elements with Larimar Larimar for healing your inner child Full Moon in Cancer & Larimar   Tune in now for a deeper look at Larimar meaning!   Podcast Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Intro: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for a casual chat about all things crystals.   Kyle Perez: Hello and welcome to another Crystal Confab, where I get to be with some of my favorite people on the planet, talking about my favorite thing on the planet, crystals, minerals, gemstones, and all of that good stuff. Today I'm of course joined j by Adam Barralet, Ashley Leavey, and Nicholas Pearson, and we're going to talk about arguably the most famous or infamous modern crystal mineral of especially the esoteric world, larimar, the beautiful wavy blue pectolite that I'm gonna show you some beautiful pieces of now. This is a really lovely slice of the beautiful Laramar, and this is a beautiful piece where you can actually see the outside of where it was formed. It forms in these beautiful volcanic bugs. And before we dive into it properly, we're going to talk a little bit about sustainability, and I think it's really important with Larimar, and I'm going to open it to the floor of my friends.   Who wants to dive in first on this interesting topic of sustainability in gemstones especially related to Larimar.   Ashley Leavy: I'll have a go. So when it comes to any crystals and minerals, we were kind of talking before the show about the importance of, you know, discussing ethical sourcing, And that's kind of the first thing I wanna hit on here. And I think that this term ethically sourced is something that we have just seen. People are using a broad brush to paint this idea of ethical sourcing. You'll see, you know, dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of Instagram pages and Etsy shops and everything saying ethically sourced minerals or consciously sourced minerals.   And what does that really mean? Because there's no regulation on this phrase. There's no governing body to determine what ethically sourced really means. So when people are using this phrase, don't just take that at face value, dig in a little bit more. In my eyes, there are 4 key components that we have to consider when we're looking at whether or not a mineral is ethically sourced, and there's like a 5th bonus one that I'll tell you about too.   So first, are workers paid fairly for their labor? That's a big one because a lot of the time, they are not. 2nd, are workers operating in safe working conditions? And that's one that my colleagues here will pick up specifically in this conversation about Larimar because it's really important to know. So are workers paid fairly and are they working in safe conditions?   3rd, is any child labor used to collect those minerals? Because this is something that, again, we see very frequently. 4th, what is the environmental impact of that sourcing? The answer is it's never gonna be 0. So we need to look at what we are okay with and what are we not?   Are there reclamation efforts? What is the extent to which there is environmental impact? Does it affect the ecosystem, the plants, the wildlife in the area? Is there, you know, toxic runoff? There are so many things to consider when we're looking at environmental impact and this is why in some countries they're starting to roll out more and more environmental impact studies before mining rights are granted, which is great.   We're seeing a little bit of a trend that way. So those are the four things that I kind of look for at a minimum. All those boxes have to be ticked to my satisfactio...

Transcribed - Published: 13 January 2025

The new year is a common time to make big changes and set the stage for transformation and a fresh start. Most of us have grandiose plans at first, but quickly slip back into old habits. So how can you be sure to stick with your plans and stay on track with your goals in the new year? Try working with these top crystals for new beginnings! Crystals work great along with your intentions for helping you reach your goals. For example, Rhodonite is a fantastic crystal for new beginnings.  To start a new routine in the new year, simply reach for a piece of Rhodonite and hold it in your hands.   Close your eyes and think about exactly what you’d like to do differently in the new year.  Visualize it in great detail - is it a new wellness routine, a commitment to read a book per week, or quitting a habit?  See it as clearly as possible, as if you can see it playing like a movie in your mind’s eye. Once you’ve been able to visualize this new routine, hold the crystal over your heart for a moment to show gratitude to the stone. Your stone has now been imprinted, or programmed, with the information from your visualization.   Once you’ve programmed your stone, simply carry it with you, in your purse, pocket, or handbag.   Any time you feel yourself begin to stray from your new routine, just reach for your stone for a bit of support and a reminder of that good feeling you had during your visualization, as well as a reminder of what you're working toward and why it's important to you. This will help ensure that your good intentions for creating new beginnings keep their momentum the whole year through.   Since you’ll be carrying your stone throughout the day, you’ll need to be sure to cleanse it frequently.  One of the simplest methods of cleansing is to pass it through the smoke of burning herbs. Try rosemary, mugwort, or lavender.   A great alternative method to smoke-cleansing your stones is to ring a bell or sound a chime near your crystal.  Sound is a powerful cleanser of energy and is quick, simple, and convenient. For more ideas, see this article on other common crystal cleansing methods. And while you're cleansing your stones, you may wish to cleanse your space while you're at it. By allowing stagnant energy to linger in your environment, you’re inadvertently telling the Universe that you’re fine with anything in your life that feels stuck.  Clearing this energy out of your space tells the Universe that you’re ready for new energy that's more aligned with your current vision and goals. Click Here to Check Out Our Classic Blog Post on Using Selenite & Black Tourmaline for Cleansing & Protecting Your Space so that you can welcome some new energy in the New Year!   Something important to remember is that new beginnings don't just magically happen. Lasting change typically requires our effort and focus. Many of us remember to do simple things like routine energy cleansing. But when it comes down to energetic self-care, it’s easy to fall short. Quick and easy healing exercises are ideal (because you’ll actually DO them), but are they effective?  Let me put it this way, it's better to do little exercises more frequently because they are quick and easy than to put off energetic self-care because you don’t feel like you have time. It’s almost always better to be doing something than to do nothing at all – especially when it comes to your energetic well-being. Click Here to Check Out Our Classic Blog Post, “3 Tips for Self-Care with Crystals” and get your New Year’s self-care routine in place now! Do you have big dreams for your personal growth and spiritual journey but sometimes feel like you need extra guidance to stay on track? Crystals can be a powerful ally in aligning your intentions with your daily life. That’s why I’ve created the Crystal Healer’s Datebook:     This all-in-one calendar, spiritual journal, and crystal companion will inspire you to deepen your connection with crystal...

Transcribed - Published: 7 January 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #15 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Snowflake Obsidian meaning, including: Snowflake Obsidian for balance Harnessing winter season energies with Snowflake Obsidian Snowflake Obsidian for working through grief and personal lows The interplay of stillness and movement within Snowflake Obsidian   Tune in now for a deeper look at Snowflake Obsidian meaning!   From energetic protection to past life healing, Obsidian is the crystal of transformation. When used with the right intentions, Obsidian acts as a guardian, truth-seeker and mirror to the soul, offering its ancient wisdom to guide you toward deep inner healing. This is why I've created my Unlocking Obsidians Course - to help you uncover and harness the raw, untamed power of Obsidian for empowerment, clarity, and a stronger connection to your authentic self. In this immersive course, you’ll discover: Obsidian’s Origins & Formation – What makes this natural glass so unique? The Many Types of Obsidian – Black, Rainbow, Mahogany, and beyond—each with its own distinct energy. Practical Techniques – Learn how to use Obsidian for energy clearing, scrying, protection, and deep healing. How to Spot Fake Obsidian – Ensure your crystals are the real deal.   Whether you're a crystal lover, healer, or spiritual seeker, this course is designed to help you embrace Obsidian’s transformative power in a way that feels supportive rather than overwhelming.   Podcast Transcript:   Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection, but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.   Nicholas Pearson: Hello, and welcome to another edition of crystal confab. My name is Nicholas, and I'm here with some of my best friends, and we're gonna confab about a new crystal. And this week, we don't actually have a crystal to talk about. So, maybe that's a really great place to start. Our ally for the week, our topic, our subject, our friend is snowflake obsidian.   And, you know, technically, given that it's obsidian, it's not a mineral, it's not a crystal, it's in this kind of weird liminal space that I think we'll talk plenty about, but, you know, what what reason do we have for throwing a non crystal in our crystal confab?   Ashley Leavy: I would love to jump in on this one right away because this is actually a question that I get from my students a lot. Like, you know, is it okay to work with these things that in the healy-feely world, we often just lump everything together and call it crystals, but obsidian, like Nicholas said, is not actually a crystal. The reason that we work with crystals in the world of crystal healing, we can generally agree, there are lots of reasons, but in general, you know, crystals have this perfect orderly structure to them. And it's thought that by bringing that perfect stable structure into our own energy field, into our space, then the energy of our field, our space goes through the process of entrainment and starts to mimic that perfect stable structure of the crystal. But Obsidian, since it doesn't have that internal crystalline structure, why would we still work with it?   And I like to think of this as, you know, there are lots of different reasons that we can turn to crystals and point to different crystals and look at where their properties come from, where their energy comes from, because everything has energy in this world, whether it's a crystal or not. Right? So just because obsidian isn't a crystal doesn't mean it doesn't still have this amazing energetic quality to it. And with our stones of all sorts, we can point to a lot of different ways that they get their properties and associations. Like,

Transcribed - Published: 6 January 2025

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #13 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Bumblebee Stone meaning, including: Harnessing joy with Bumblebee Stone Bumblebee Stone for hearth blessings The complex make-up of Bumblebee Stone and how this is reflected in its energy   Tune in now for a deeper look at Bumblebee Stone meaning! Podcast Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection, but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.   Nicholas Pearson: Hello, and welcome to the crystal confab. I'm Nicholas, and I'm joined today by 3 of my favorite human beings, especially in this crystal world, Adam, Ashley, and Kyle. And every week, we get together in confab about a new crystal. And this week, we've got kind of a fun stone coming out of the toolbox, and I think it'll be a great conversation. We get to unpack a whole lot about it, and that stone is bumblebee jasper.   So I'd love to pass it off to Kyle to get us started to talk about the makeup and nature of this stone.   Kyle Perez: I am so excited to talk about what I like to refer to and I think we all are more inclined to refer to it as bumblebee stone than bumblebee jasper, and this is an important differentiation. Let me get my mouth around that. It's important to know that a jasper has quartz as its base. Its micro crystalline quartz is what makes a Jasper a Jasper. They throw Jasper on anything that is opaque.   We have talked about this in our red Jasper podcast. Jump back to it if you haven't. Listen, this is a stone because a stone is a makeup or an amalgamation of multiple minerals. At least 2, sometimes more. Lapis lazuli is a great example of a stone or a rock because it has lazuli, it has calcite, it has pyrite together.   This bumblebee stone, if you are watching, as you can see, is beautiful layers of orange, gray, black, and yellow. Now I'm gonna read my notes because I don't wanna stuff up the pronunciation. Mount Sirumai or Chirumai in Indonesia, West Java. It is a volcanic area and it has up to or over at least half a dozen minerals within it. It has sulfur.   It has aurement. It has aragonite. It has calcite and it has pyrite within it. So it has all of these really interesting things going on inside it.   And what's really important is if you can find pieces that have actually been, this is something we've talked about as well, been sealed, coated, or reinforced with some form of lacquer because it has toxic minerals within it. It has arsenic. It has sulfur. It has them within the ultimate and the rialga especially. What's really important is especially if you're gonna wear it, hold it, and connect with it in that way because you don't wanna be absorbing the literal toxic levels of these minerals that are contained.   If you have these sorts of pieces, which I do have a couple of, these aren't properly lacquered. I don't touch them too much. I will wash my hands afterwards, and I will always make sure that I'm cleaning after working with them. Otherwise, if they have been coded, they're going to be fine. It's important to ask when you purchase, I think, when you're getting them. Yes, Ashley.   Ashley Leavy: Kyle, is there any other way that we can know if they're coated? And does it have to necessarily be, like, coated and stabilized? Or what about just a really, you know, like a high polish like you would find on most tumbled stones? Because I know if you think about something like a fibrous malachite. Right?   A little bit more problematic when it's just that powdery sort of malachite compared to when it's been polished. It's sort of fine. Same with, you know, potentially, maybe something like a tiger's eye. Right?

Transcribed - Published: 30 December 2024

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #14 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Arfvedsonite meaning, including: Creating cosmic connection with Arfvedsonite Working with Arfvedsonite to enhance spellwork Arfvedsonite & the New Moon in Capricorn   Tune in now for a deeper look at Arfvedsonite meaning! Podcast Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection, but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.   Adam Barralet: Hello, and welcome to another week of crystal confab. You know, I sometimes wonder if I was to discover a crystal, would everyone call it instead of Barralet mispronouncing my name? Well, today, we're gonna talk about another crystal that poor Johan Arfwedson probably gets rather upset often because he was a Swedish chemist who discovered Arfvedsonite, the crystal that we're going to be exploring today. Now this is a bit of a confusing crystal. It is a bit of a rarer one.   You will find it occasionally in crystal shops, but even identifying it may be a bit of a challenge. So I'm gonna talk to my other crystal gurus and see what they can recommend on what we can do with Arfvedsonite and how we even work out if it is Arfvedsonite. So here I have 2 different crystals that are in my hand. They're both black. They're both sparkly.   This one, when I bought it, was labeled as a strophylite, and this one was labeled as Arfvedsonite. And maybe, Kyle, could you start off by maybe shedding some light on how we work out if Arfvedsonite is Arfvedsonite?   Kyle Perez: Well, for me, the most simple way that I've learned to differentiate between the 2 is the simple color shift. I see that within the especially polished stones, it's not as easy within the crystalline form because the crystalline form is quite similar and you don't see that sheen as much. But in the tumbled stones, polished pieces that you kind of see everywhere around the world, It is a bluer flash that you will see within your Arfvedsonite. I don't know if this piece will show up. I think it's showing it off.   You can see a little bit of that blue flash. Whereas with your stropholite, it's yellow. I always see that bright yellow flash. It's more of like a yellowy beige, maybe even a little bit of orange, whereas you'll always see the bluey teal shift of color with Arfvedsonite that I've seen, but I think Nicholas might even be able to shed some more light on that.   Nicholas Pearson: Yeah. So, in simplest terms, the majority of any of the astrophyllite we're gonna have access to in the market has crystals that are always perfectly parallel, and they're usually in a very pale quartz matrix. They're more rod shaped, whereas with Arfvedsonite, it undergoes more intense metamorphism and will always be fibrous and kind of twisted. It can have a blue flash. Astrophylite will never have a blue flash, but Arfvedsonite could also be green or gold or orange or several other colors.   So if you've got this dark swirly matrix, it is guaranteed to be closer to Arfvedsonite than anything else, but I actually know how they got confused.   Adam: But it's not.   Nicholas: Yeah. So this is a case of someone attempting to get the chemistry right, and they came very close. So these materials that we usually see labeled Arfvedsonitet are actually, like, more more accurately. A geologist would describe them as, like, quartz amphibole schist. And the predominant species of amphibole, because amphibole is a really big and complicated group of chain silicates, the dominant species will either end up being Arfvedsonite or anthophyllite.   Anthophyllite is something we don't see written about in the crystal world hardly ever,

Transcribed - Published: 30 December 2024

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #12 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Citrine meaning, including: Working with Citrine during the Solstice Tapping into the spirit of celebration with Citrine Harnessing Citrine energy to unlock your full potential Plus, tune in for a look at whether or not natural Citrine is superior to heat-treated Citrine!   Tune in now for a deeper look at Citrine meaning!   Podcast Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection, but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals. Ashley Leavy: Hello, and welcome to another amazing episode of the crystal confab podcast. I'm Ashley Leavy joined by Nicholas Pearson, Adam Berlay, and Kyle Perez. And we are so excited to be chatting with you today about, I think, one of all of our favorite crystals, citrine. But even though this is one of our favorites, it is also a highly controversial stone for one big reason that many of you can probably already guess. Kyle, what is that controversy over citrine? Kyle Perez: Well, I think we all know it's natural versus heat treated. Those terms will always come up for citrine, but, weirdly, they don't come up for other minerals. And I just want to start by saying, if you have a really nice ruby or sapphire, maybe even an emerald or topaz, it is more likely than not, especially in jewelry form, that it has gone through some form of heat treatment or irradiation. So it's actually really important to know off the cuff straightaway that so many crystals and minerals go through the heat process. It is to clean them up, make them a nicer color, change their color. All of these things happen, and it's less out of malice and more out of need. It's more out of desperation. Right? There's not enough of it. There's more desire for this. So it has been happening for decades. It's not something that's new to the business, and it's not something that I think we should be so up in arms about. Yes. There is some bad heat treatment that does happen to our poor amethyst, and it can make it a bit crumbly and a bit sad, but if the heat treatment is done correctly, it's beautiful. And what the heat treated citrine actually represents is something that forms naturally, which is Madeira Citrine. If you've ever seen natural Madeira Citrine, I have a couple of pieces that kind of replicate that sort of color. I don't know if it's gonna work very well because I'm on my phone this week. Madeira actually means wood in Portuguese, and so it has that orangey brown wood tone that forms naturally through the heating and the radiation that happens below the Earth's surface. So it's gonna have iron in it and likely trace elements of aluminum too. It has been heated to a certain point, and that's where we get that beautiful range of color and tone from citrine. There are 2 really important points that separate natural versus heat treated to actually see whether or not one is all of the other, and it's dichroism. Dichroism is the play of 2 different colors or at least 2 colors. And what you will see with citrine is one color when you look at it down one axis, and then we call this the c axis when you're looking directly down the point, and you'll see a different tone. This is a beautiful African citrine coming from Zambia, nice and light. And what happens is that it just shows you that the crystal is natural. It has an orientation, and that shows that natural citrine side. Your heat treated citrine will very not show the dichroism. It's gonna show 1 rich, strong color, generally more orangey, generally more warm in its tone, generally stronger and more vibrant, and that's how I like to break down and separate them energetically. I think both of them have their place.

Transcribed - Published: 16 December 2024

Tune into the energies of the Winter Solstice by creating a seasonal Yule Altar with herbs, crystals & more!

Transcribed - Published: 12 December 2024

Join Adam Barralet and Kyle Perez  in Episode #11 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Petalite meaning, including: Petalite for navigating the Full Moon in Gemini Summoning emotional strength with Petalite Petalite for peace of mind and deeper meditation Raising consciousness with Petalite   Tune in now for a deeper look at Petalite meaning! Podcast Transcript Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection, but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals. Kyle Perez: Hello, and welcome to another crystal confab where we casually confab about a different crystal each week, and this week, we're going to be talking about the rare and magical energy of Petalite with just myself and Adam Barralet. Adam, how are you? Adam Barralet: I'm very good. When the Americans are away, the Australians will play. Kyle: Watch out. Adam: Exactly. Yes. Well, we are recording this. We record a couple of weeks before we release our episodes, and today is the beginning of Mercury retrograde. We wonder whether there's been some little mishaps there, but that's alright. I'm really looking forward to having a chat to you about this amazing crystal that probably came into my realm. I think when I remember the good old days when it was Robert  -  I always get Robert Simmons and that other crazy actor Simmons confused -  But, you know, remember the synergy 12 crystals? Kyle: Yes. Absolutely. Of course. Adam: And there's this whole range of these kinds of white and clear crystals that were meant to be high vibration crystals. Alright. Oh, they're interesting. So I slowly started to gather them together. And although, you know, things like that and natural like, petalite naturalite, scholastic, they can look, especially in the tumbled form, very, very similar. When you start working with the energy, you start to realize that they are absolutely amazing and quite different, aren't they? Kyle: Yeah. Absolutely. I find the subtleties and the differences, especially between white and colorless crystals, is all about getting to know them because transparency really does give that, oh, you can see right through it, what's even in it. But once you actually sit with it, connect with it, get to know it, you can really learn a lot and get a lot from them, I think. Adam: Now one thing that makes Petalite special, I believe, is it has a bit of a lithium in it, which is quite an interesting element, isn't it? Kyle: Yeah. Exactly. What's really interesting about Petalite is it's found in what are known as lithium pegmatites. And lithium pegmatites are very popular nowadays because lithium is going into all of our long term batteries and all of that sort of stuff. So lithium mining is at the forefront of what humans are doing at the moment. And petalite is one of those minerals that you find in lithium pegmatites along with some of our favorites like kunzite, pink tourmaline. You find all those real relatives spodumene, the spodumene families, like kunzite, hydnote, triphane, all of those really, and lepidolite. I knew there was another one I was forgetting. Really heavy lithium crystals that all bring a beautiful softness. They all bring a beautiful calming energy, and that's where I think petalite, for me, has been really, really important is working with that obvious content of lithium is super calming and brings peace of mind. For me, I'll show you a couple of really cute little pieces. Clear, colorless, not very interesting looking. Right? And they actually interestingly get their name from Greek, petulos, which comes from leaf, not petal. It has really interesting little veins, little white veins that go through it because it looks a little bit like a leaf. So it has that sort of softness like leaves do.

Transcribed - Published: 9 December 2024

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #10 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Red Jasper meaning, including: Red Jasper for Pendulum Dowsing and Dream Recall Navigating Mars Retrograde with Red Jasper Balancing the Air Element with Red Jasper's Earth Element Historical perspectives on Red Jasper     Tune in now for a deeper look at Red Jasper meaning!   Podcast Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection, but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals. Adam Barralet: You've probably got at least one of these stones, if not many of these stones, floating around your home. Today, we're gonna be exploring here on crystal confab, jaspers, in particular of the red variety. But I am joined by 3 of the most fabulous crystal experts from around the world, Ashley, Kyle, and Nicholas. Welcome to Crystal Confab, everyone. Today, we're looking at red Jasper and Nicholas. You've become - I don't know if this was intended or not - but you for me, you're feeling like a crystal historian. You're really, really great in telling us where the crystals have kinda journeyed through things. And Jasper, it seems like any rock that you don't know what it is, you just call it a Jasper. Is that playing a bit of a historical thing or why are we calling everything a Jasper? Nicholas Pearson: You know, it's kind of interesting. We've almost come full circle in this. So I think before we can build that context, we gotta, like, talk about what Jasper really is. And the short answer is it doesn't mean anything, except that it does, but different things to different people. So, to make that make sense, we have to consider that there's a geological definition of Jasper, a gemological definition of Jasper, and then also historical and linguistic one, and very seldom do they agree. So if you ask a gemologist what the definition of jasper is, you're usually going to get something, and Kyle's please correct me if I'm wrong here. You're usually gonna get an answer that sounds a lot like a cryptocrystalline or microcrystalline variety of quartz. It is often defined as a variety of chalcedony. So chalcedony forms, and we have, these, length fast fibrous, microscopic crystals of quartz that form together. They usually form out of a kind of colloid or goo, if we wanna be unscientific about it. And as that kind of gel solidifies, we get these tiny little crystals to emerge. And because of the way the crystal lattices kinda line up and twist and form those little fibers, there's space in between them. They don't form in neat little stacks like a box would because they're not shaped like a box. They're shaped like microscopic quartz crystals, and so they have a little twist to them, a little spiral, and there's room in between, which allows for so much variety and color and texture and pattern in the chalcedony world. That's how we get our carnelians and our Botswana agates and blue lace agates and red jaspers and green jaspers and bloodstones and, I mean, if you name it, if it's chalcedony, that's what it is. Except the challenge here is that, socially speaking, a lot of the things that get called Jaspers are maybe in fact a variety of quartz, but don't meet that length-fast fibrous definition that makes a chalcedony a chalcedony. So some of them are actually something called quartzine, which is a very, very close cousin to that. The crystals orient slightly differently, but still form in fibers. It makes room for different shaped gaps in there. We can also end up with chert, which is also known as flint except when it's not. And then we get a whole bunch of other hard stones that don't necessarily fit a perfect little catchall term, so we call them anyway,

Transcribed - Published: 29 November 2024

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez and Ashley Leavy in Episode #9 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Blue Barite meaning, including: How Blue Barite can aid in decision-making Working with Blue Barite to promote knowledge expansion Blue Barite for supporting you on your transformation path Blue Barite Meaning & its connection to Mercury Retrograde     Tune in now for a deeper look at Blue Barite meaning! Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection, but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.   Kyle Perez: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Crystal Confab, our weekly get together where we confab about a different crystal, and this week, we are going to dive into the incredible and rare magic of blue barite. I am, of course, joined by the fabulous panel of Ashley Leavy and Adam Barrelet. How are we today?   Adam Barralet: I'm excited to be talking about a bit of a rare crystal because sometimes the rarer crystals and not a lot of content out there, so it's gonna be a great one to talk about. What about you, Ashley?   Ashley Leavy: Yeah. I agree. These are the kinds of things that, you know, people will often ask about because there's just no resources. So I love getting to do these episodes in addition to the ones we do about the sort of tried and true ones.   Adam: Very true. Very true. And this is a really good week to be talking about blue barite, especially because it is a blue color. And that's you know, I find it works really well with the throat chakra because as many people are probably aware, they're probably seeing on their social media, It's Mercury retrograde. So let me talk a little bit about Mercury retrograde.   First of all, what is a retrograde? Well, what it looks like in the sky is that a planet slams on the brakes and starts going backwards in the sky. It's actually not. That's an optical illusion just because we're on one side or the other side of the sun and so on. But what our ancestors noticed is whatever planet goes into retrograde, while it's in retrograde, whatever it governs, it takes its help away.   So I like to think of the planets as being like our parents, and they kinda go on holidays for a little while. So we know that Mercury goes on holidays for 3 to 4 weeks at a time, 3 to 4 times a year. So during that time, we have 2 options. And unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of focus on the first one. The first one is fall on the floor and cry and blame everything on Mercury because everything goes wrong.   However, what I'm hoping to instill with you today, and I think blue barite is a perfect crystal for that, is option number 2. You're at home by yourself for your first time. Now you could either burn the house down or you can put on your big boy pants or your big girl pants, and you can learn how to do things better. So what we traditionally do find throughout Mercury retrograde, yes, back up your electronics. Yes.   Short trips like car trips can go a little bit wrong, so you wanna leave earlier. If you're traveling by air, definitely allow extra time and that type of thing. But with communication, there'll be communication breakdowns. There'll be misunderstandings. And this can be verbal.   This can be written. This can be text message, contracts, all those different type of things. And that's why you're often recommended not to sign a contract during a Mercury retrograde because you might misread it. Just take a bit more time if you do have to. So this is our opportunity.   When things go wrong, we can either blame someone else, including a bit of rock floating around in our solar system, or we can go, ah, what's the lesson here? What I love about the throat chakra is that the throat chakra for us,

Transcribed - Published: 25 November 2024

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez, Nicholas Pearson and Ashley Leavy in Episode #8 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they unpack all-things Watermelon Tourmaline, including: How Watermelon Tourmaline helps you understand the true meaning of joy Balancing the inflow and outflow of love with Watermelon Tourmaline Watermelon Tourmaline's connection to the heart energy center Bi-color vs. True Watermelon Tourmaline     Tune in now for a deeper look at Watermelon Tourmaline meaning!   P.S. - Watermelon Tourmaline fakes are flooding the market! However, once you know what to look for, it's typically fairly easy to recognize the real deal. Make sure to check out my video all about How to Spot Watermelon Tourmaline Fakes and never be fooled by imposter crystals again!   Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection, but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.   Nicholas Pearson: Hello, and welcome to Crystal Confab. Join me and my friends, Ashley, Adam, and Kyle, as we confab about a new crystal each week. And this week, we get to talk about something really special, unusual, rare, wonderful, magical, and it is watermelon tourmaline. And I think we should hand it on over to Ashley to give us a lowdown on what makes it special.   Ashley Leavy: Oh, hello, everyone. So excited to be doing another episode of Crystal Confab. I love this crystal. This has long ranked in my top five, maybe even my top three crystals, dare I say, for a while. I named it out loud as my favorite, which if you're anything like me, you know, it's so hard to pick an absolute favorite crystal.   But I love this stone for so many reasons. Largely though, because I am so drawn to the color. I'm definitely a big color person. I get a lot out of the different colors of stones that I work with. And there's something so magical about this combination of the green and the pink that just makes me feel some kind of way.   And I want to take a moment to kind of talk about the difference between in my eyes at least, and, you know, I'll let my fellow cohost decide for themselves here. But in my eyes, between a true watermelon tourmaline and a bicolor tourmaline. So let me sort of explain. A bicolor tourmaline could be any tourmaline that has two colors. And usually, these are going to be at opposite ends of the stone, so you'll often have, you know, a different colored cap.   Sometimes you'll have more than 2 colors in a long tourmaline crystal, and this is pretty common. We see this a lot that there's this really distinct color zoning that can happen. And this is one of the things that makes these stones so incredibly magical. But watermelon tourmaline is a little bit different because rather than the color happening, different on one end of the crystal and the other, it actually happens from the inside out. So there is this colorful core, in this case, that is pink, and then this sort of shell or exterior, in the case of watermelon tourmaline, that would be green.   And so what happens when that is sliced is you get these really stunning concentric circles of color. And this is one of the things that I think is so special about this stone. And so I just want to sort of put out there that, you know, just because you see a piece of Tourmaline and it happens to be pink and green, I wouldn't necessarily always call that watermelon. It has to have those concentric circles. And in researching for a blog post I wrote just a little while back, I found through min.org, which one of the best websites out there for great info about crystals, that the first time the name watermelon was used to describe Tourmaline goes back to 1910 in Maine.   When some was found, the name was coined by George Roblee Howe. So that was pretty exciting that this has reall...

Transcribed - Published: 18 November 2024

Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #7 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they unpack all-things Moonstone, including: Moonstone meaning & uses Working with Moonstone during the Full Moon in Cancer Which varieties of Moonstone to use for each lunar phase What's the difference between Genuine Moonstone and Rainbow Moonstone?     Tune in now for a deeper look at Moonstone meaning!   P.S. - Moonstone comes in many varieties and colors, which can make it difficult to spot Moonstone fakes! However, once you know what to look for, it's typically fairly easy to recognize the real deal. Make sure to check out my video all about How to Spot Moonstone Fakes and never be fooled by imposter Moonstone again!   Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection, but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.   Adam BarraletHello, beautiful Crystal Confab family. Thank you so much for listening or watching our episodes each week. This week, we're exploring the magical crystal of Moonstone. Now the really interesting thing is we're really organized and we prerecord a few weeks ahead so that we always have some episodes in the bag in case we have any tech issues or anything like that. And we were talking about and we're gonna talk about in this episode about the full moon.   Now for some reason, I got my wires crossed and thought we're already up for the wall full moon in Cancer. Of course not. This week is the full moon in Aries. A really great time at looking at your financials and your physical well-being as in your security in that way. So forgive me when I talk about the full moon in Cancer.   I'm 2 moons ahead of myself, but enjoy the episode anyway. Bless the day.   Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of crystal confab. Hopefully, you're sitting out under a beautiful full moon as you listen to our heavenly voices because today we're gonna be talking about Moonstone. Today, I'm joined by Nicholas and Kyle, and we are gonna dive deep into the crystal that is the epitome of lunar energy, and we're really excited for you to join us, for this conversation or this confab. So, obviously, with such a dazzling crystal, there's gonna be a lot of different stories and kind of folklore about Moonstone. So who better to share a little bit more about that than Nicholas?   What can you tell us about Moonstone, Nicholas?   Nicholas Pearson: I can probably tell us more than is productive. So let's start with, like, the origin of the name. What we call moonstone today, got that designation in the early 19th century, at least in the English language. But other stones had been known as moonstones in other languages for, I mean, at least several centuries. The earliest written record that we have about a stone that we assume to be moonstone, comes from Pliny the Elder, in Rome, and he referred to it under a few different names.   One of them is derived from the same root as the word for star, so it would be called like Astrates or Astroites, and would also take on the name Selenites, after the Greek goddess Selene. However, it's important to note that, like, what we think of as moonstone may not have been what they thought of as moonstone. Anything that had a kind of lunar glow to it. And if we look at some of the earliest written descriptions, more than likely, in some cases, authors were talking about really flashy adularescent feldspars. Sometimes they were probably talking about gypsum and mica, and in other cases, they might have even been describing good old fashioned white marble, or pale colored jaspers.   And, you know, ultimately it was just any stone that reminded folks of the moon itself, and even today we don't have a single mineral species that can be called moonstone.

Transcribed - Published: 7 November 2024

Selecting crystals for the seasons is all about trusting your intuition and considering the emotions each season evokes in you. Then it's as simple as matching these feelings with crystals that reflect the same energy.

Transcribed - Published: 7 November 2024

Join Adam Barralet, Ashley Leavy, Kyle Perez, and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #6 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they explore Rose Quartz' meaning and uses, including: Is Rose Quartz actually the ultimate "stone of love"? Spotting Rose Quartz crystal fakes Rose Quartz for grief & loss Working with Rose Quartz at Beltane Rose Quartz for fresh starts     Tune in now for a deeper look at Rose Quartz' meaning! Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.   Adam Barralet: Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of crystal confab. Today, we're looking at the crystal of love, or are we? I've got a bit of an issue, to be honest with Rose Quartz. I feel it's a bit like the Kardashians. It gets far more attention than it deserves because there are so many beautiful, loving crystals out there.   But whenever people are talking about love, they go straight to Rose Quartz. So today, me and my gang, we're gonna kind of unpack rose quartz. What it's good for, what maybe another crystal might be good for, and maybe throw in some surprise uses for this crystal as well. How are we today, guys?   Ashley Leavy: Oh, good. Good.   Adam: Good. Good. Now, Nicholas, I wanna start with you today. Tell us a little bit, rose quartz, it's counted as the crystal of love, but where did that come from? And do you think that's all we can use rose quartz for, love?   Nicholas Pearson: Oh, I'm so glad you asked. This is like my nerdy superpower is, like, tracking down where these, like, little epithets and things come from in our world. And, just casually over the years, I noticed that, like, before a certain point, nobody really makes a strong connection between Rose Quartz and Love. There might be a little kind of anecdotal stuff here or there, but it's about from the year 1985 onwards, and it's really, like, more frequent in the late eighties, early nineties that we start to see rose quartz called the love stone pretty universally. So, at some point in the last couple years, I decided to, like, intentionally do a deep dive on this.   I was writing some new curriculum centered around rose quartz. I was like, let's actually find out where this comes from. And to the best of my knowledge, and I could be wrong, I I would love a larger dataset than I've got, but it's already pretty big. The first time we see rose quartz called the love stone is in, like, one of those classic late eighties books called, Crystal Awareness by Kathryn Bowman, where she just gives it, among other things, she calls it the love stone. However, what happened 1 year later would really cement this.   And there's a kind of obscure book by today's standards, but this author was, at least at this point, quite popular. Her name is Connie Church. She released a couple of books. Crystal Clear, which, if you bought it in the eighties, originally came, like, shrink wrapped with a clear quartz crystal to go along with it. So you could do all of the exercises in tandem with the crystal.   And then as a sequel in, 87, so just 2 years after Catherine Bowman books Catherine Bowman's first book comes out, she puts out a book called Crystal Love. And, of course, it also comes shrink wrapped with a little piece of rose quartz. And throughout the book, she's constantly referring to this stone as your love stone. Not saying all rose quartz is the love stone, but all the self love exercises you're gonna do are with this stone, which is now your love stone. It theoretically could have been anything, but she wrote the book about rose quartz, and that's why it really just kind of became cemented in our collected psyche as the stone of love.   And, I think I think that is a really nice entryway to talking about what rose quartz can do for us,

Transcribed - Published: 4 November 2024

In this enlightening interview, energy and death worker Cassie Uhl chats to me about her new book, Craft Your Own Magic, which is all about cultivating personalized and ethical magical practices. Dive in now to hear about the transformative "tower moment" that prompted her to address cultural appropriation in her work and reconnect with her ancestral roots. Plus, learn Cassie's insights on building meaningful relationships with nature and her guidance on developing discernment in intuitive practices. This interview is a must-read for anyone looking to embrace the mystery of spirit and craft their own unique magical practice with an ethical framework. Disclosure: The link here is an affiliate link, meaning I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.  Yay!   Catch the interview highlights here: Ready to Craft Your Own Magic? Watch the full interview now!   Read the full interview about Craft Your Own Magic below! Ashley Leavy: Hello and welcome. I am so deeply honored to be interviewing today my dear friend Cassie Uhl, who is the author of so many phenomenal books, decks and journals. Today we are discussing her brand new book, Craft Your Own Magic: Reawaken Your Intuition, Understand Magical Correspondences and Create a Meaningful Personal Practice. Cassie, thank you so much for being here with me today. Cassie Uhl: Thank you, Ashley. I'm so happy to be here. Ashley Leavy:  You have been on the show before, but would you mind introducing yourself and a little bit about your work, for those who are new to learning about what you do, and also because your work has changed a good deal over the past few years. Cassie Uhl: Yes, absolutely, it has so much in beautiful, beautiful ways. Um, yeah, I'm an energy worker. I'm a death worker. Those are two things that I'm really passionate about. As you mentioned, I'm an author, and those are the things that really inspire my work and my practice. And I'm a magic maker. Some might say a witch. That's a word I use sometimes, but I like to be out in the land, working magic with trees and flowers and water. That's also a big part of my my personal practice.     Ashley Leavy: And I think all of those things really weave together in the work that you do. You see it come out in all these different magical ways, and especially in your writing and in your art, where there's this really deep expression of what you do. And I think the thing that struck me most about your newest book, Craft Your Own Magic is how deeply personal it is, and how vulnerable you are in those pages, and how much of yourself you share, but you do it in this way that is, I think, so different than what we often see in the healing space or the magic space. You're not sharing these parts of yourself to be like, and this is how it's done. You're very much sharing from this, like I said, really vulnerable place to say this is one way that it can look like. And you're often turning a question back on the reader and saying, 'What does it look like for you?' So I would love to know what inspired this approach to Craft Your Own Magic and what really got you started on the journey of creating and releasing this book? "I already had a really strong relationship with my guides and some of my ancestors, and it almost felt like they were really pulling and calling me to create something of my own. And in that moment, in the tower moment of all of that, it felt awful. But now today, I can look back and think, 'Wow, what a gift.'" Cassie Uhl: Thank you. I love this question. Yeah, Craft Your Own Magic is so different from my other books. And when I tell people that this is my first big book, it's my first book that's really got more me in it. And it still is really important for me to share in a way that's like, 'This isn't how you do it. This is how I did it.' And what really started that journey for me was, I would call it a tower moment, referencing the Tarot,

Transcribed - Published: 31 October 2024

Join Adam Barralet, Ashley Leavy, Kyle Perez, and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #5 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they explore Spiderweb Obsidian meanings and uses, including: Spiderweb Obsidian & the Scorpio New Moon Weaving Threads of Magic with Spiderweb Obsidian Getting to know Spiderweb Obsidian (and any stone) in just a week! Spiderweb Obsidian for discernment     Tune in now and dive into the magical world of Spiderweb Obsidian!   Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals. Nicholas Pearson: Hello, and welcome to crystal confab, a podcast where 4 crystal experts come together to confab about a new crystal each week. Join Ashley Leavy, Kyle Perez, Adam Barralet, and myself, Nicholas Pearson, this week for our conversation about spider web obsidian. So how's everyone doing this week? Adam Barralet: I'm really good and excited to talk about an Obsidian, but a bit of a rarer Obsidian that maybe doesn't get as much attention as some of the others. Ashley Leavy: I'm really looking forward to this conversation also, because here in the northern hemisphere, we are getting, you know, well into the deep autumn, and I love this idea of this spiderweb obsidian kind of tying into our end of the year seasonality here. So I'm really looking forward to this chat. Kyle Perez: Me too. I am very excited, of course. This one, I had to do a bit of homework on. So I'm excited to share that. Yeah. Adam: So let's dive into it, Ashley. You know, as you do work move into the autumn time, you know, where is this crystal kind of really great for you at the moment? Ashley: Yeah. So for me, this stone is really about the interconnectedness of all things. If we think about a spider's web, it has each of these little strands that then get woven together and all connected. And I, you know, we can't help but feel a little ripple, a little movement in one area when there's something happening somewhere else. So we can see this on the microcosm, like in our own personal life, right? If things are a little, not quite on an even keel, we feel some choppy waters over here. We're gonna feel that in other areas of our life, but we can also really see and experience that on a larger scale when things are really out of balance and really out of alignment in the world, which they are, which they have been, which they will continue to be. We feel it. We feel it on the personal level. We feel it on the community level. We feel it on the global level, and helping us understand our role in that greater, you know, macrocosm perspective of things, I think, is where this stone really shines. So acting as a touchstone, a reminder to show up in bigger ways, not just for ourself, not just for our friends and family, but for our greater community, really showing up to be of service, to care for one another, to do our bit, to make the world a better place, I think is one of the things, one of the lessons that this stone really has to share with us. And this isn't, you know, just on the sort of mundane level, although it's great to show up and do those important acts. This stone also reminds us that we can do this on a magical level. So, you know, this could look like community service, maybe volunteering at your local community garden plot or something like that, but this also is in this space. So reminding us that our magical practice in whatever form that takes, our healing practice and whatever form that takes, isn't just about self, that it should be really rooted in community care, because everything is so interconnected, because those ripples go out so much further than what we can see. So that's one of my favorite things about the spiderweb obsidian.

Transcribed - Published: 28 October 2024

Samhain (pronounced the Gaelic way, SAH-win) is celebrated on October 31. This holiday marks the beginning of the dark half of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere and is the perfect time to hold space for ancestor connection, intuition, the thinning of the veil, death, introspection, rebirth, divination, and honoring the dead! It's a day to connect with ancestors and honor those who have passed on. Samhain is also an introspective time that can heighten intuition & divination, and call for meditation on death and rebirth. *If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, you'll be celebrating the festival of Beltane today instead of Samhain to keep with the seasonal cycles.  The 3 Best Crystals to work with on and around Samhain are: Black Moonstone - A darkly reflective crystal perfect for promoting intuition and personal insight. Use it wisely when you're ready to ask big questions this month. Sangre Calcite - This deep red calcite is a powerful fire element symbol that makes it a great helper for vitality and motivation in the colder months. Howlite - This stone is associated with the world of dreams and that which lies "beyond the veil," making it a good complement for connection with ancestors and the spirit realm.     More Samhain Crystals: Black Obsidian Bloodstone Black Moonstone Black Onyx Carnelian Hagstone Howlite Jet Red Garnet Red Sangre Calcite Shungite Smoky Quartz Snowflake Obsidian Set Up Your Samhain Ritual Altar!        Samhain Symbols Ale or Mead Pumpkin Skull Besom or Broom Beans Cauldron Bat Key Squash Pomegranate Nuts Apples & Cider Bones   Samhain Herbs: Angelica Catnip Cinnamon Mandrake Mugwort Rose Hips Rosemary Vervain Wormwood     Samhain is Also Known As/Related To: Halloween All Hallows Eve Calan Graeaf Ancestor Night Third Harvest Final Harvest Day of the Dead Witch's New Year Sauin Bonfire Night All Saints' Day All Souls' Day Celtic New Year       Open yourself up to the messages of illumination at this time of the Fire Festival with a Sacred Samhain Card Spread!   This reading will cover 6 aspects of the Final Harvest and shift into the Celtic New Year with highly specific info to help you: Uncover hidden influences that are affecting the events in your life and navigate the thin, mystical spaces Hear messages from the universe specific to your unique spiritual path, intuition, and connection to your ancestors or guides Look into what you need to focus on now on your soul path by gaining insight into what to sow and cultivate now until the light returns     Interpreting Card #1 What are you harvesting now from the energy of this past year? This card helps summarize your journey over the past year and what has ripened and is now ready for harvest. Think of all you've been working to grow and create in your life - now is the time to reap the rewards of your efforts and call in the harvest.   Interpreting Card #2 What should you sow and cultivate from now until the time when the light returns at Imbolc? Now that you've called in the harvest and completed a cycle, what would you most like to sow the seeds of in this moment? What will serve you best in the coming year? The energy you focus on now will begin to show itself and come back to you in big ways by Imbolc. This card may hold some hints or inspiration on what to do next.   Interpreting Card #3 What should you release into the darkness and burn away in the bonfire of your soul? What needs to be released at this time? And what is no longer serving you? What is potentially holding you back from all that you'd like to embody in your life? This card is here to help you recognize and accept the things that are ready to be let go so that you can create space in your life for things that will better ...

Transcribed - Published: 24 October 2024

Join Adam Barralet, Ashley Leavy, Kyle Perez, and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #4 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they explore Dioptase meaning and uses, including: Dioptase & Chariklo Connecting with your Guides using Dioptase Cultivating Powerful Compassion with Dioptase Dioptase & the Divine Feminine     Tune in now and dive into the magical world of Dioptase! Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.   Ashley Leavy: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the crystal confab podcast. We are really excited to share a lot with you today. We're gonna talk about some magic related to the crystal dioptase, which I personally really love. It's one of my favorites. I am Ashley Leavy and I'm here with my fellow co hosts, the amazing Adam Berlick, Kyle Perez, and Nicholas Pearson.   So hey, everybody. How are you doing?   Adam Barralet: Really good. Exciting to talk about a bit of a rarer crystal today.   Ashley: Yeah. I know. We have so much crystal wisdom in store to share in today's episode. So why don't we go ahead and dive right in? I believe Nicholas had something to share to kick us off.   Nicholas Pearson: Yeah. So it's not a secret that I really love copper minerals for folks who listen to be nerd out about rocks. They were like one of the first moments that I had in my journey of, like, learning about the geology and how the energy kinda synced up with it. It would be like I'd find a weird, unusual thing I'd never heard of before in my museum days, like cyanotrichite or something similarly odd, that I had difficulty sounding out and pronouncing, let alone remembering how to spell. And I'd sit and meditate and, you know, come up with my own personal experience and then go look it up and go, wow.   This also has copper in it, and that's why it has this property that reminds me of this other thing and that other thing. So it was like one of those big light bulb moments. So I've always loved, like, the whole copper family. And, Dioptase, I find, like, really exceptionally sweet. There's a tenderness to it.   Copper minerals are so connective and synergistic on their own, but there's something about it being like a copper silicate that makes it so much more expansive and radiant and luminous. And, some years ago when I was doing some, like, extra research on on copper minerals for, in bookstones on the Goddess, I found, like, these little threads that all fit together that kind of connect them to the divine feminine. You know, we've got the the word copper itself comes to us because of the island of Cyprus, which is cupros in Greek, which became cuprum in Latin, eventually copper in in English after making a few more stops along the way. And among among other great mythic things about Cyprus, it was a really historically important source for copper minerals and copper ore in the ancient world. It's also said to be more or less the birthplace of, the goddess Aphrodite or Venus.   So, you know, when she first set foot on solid land after being born from the foam of the waves, it was in the island of Cyprus there in the Mediterranean. And so that place is, like, impregnated with her coppery-ness, if you will, in its local geology. But there's this really kind of fun thread that connects a lot of copper minerals to the divine feminine. In some Slavic lore, you occasionally find references to, like, either a copper mountain or a malachite mountain that's kind of the same as Mount Venus, which we find farther to the west in the European, like, witch lore that talks about this meeting place for magic, a connection to the witch mother, the witch queen, the queen of magic and mystery, the queen of heaven, and appropriately enough,

Transcribed - Published: 23 October 2024

Join Adam Barralet, Ashley Leavy, Kyle Perez, and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #3 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they explore Angel Aura Quartz meaning and uses, including: Raising energy with Aura Quartz Historic notes about aura-like glazes Coatings for Quartz in ancient Nubia Working with Angel Aura Quartz for the Full Moon in Aries     Tune in now and dive into the magical world of Angel Aura Quartz!     Podcast Episode Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals. Adam Barralet: When it comes to man made crystals, for me, they just don't feel right. Things like gold stone, that glassy opalite, and dyeing different things like agates and halites. However, there is one family of crystals that I will make an exception to because the power and potentiality of these crystal is absolutely amazing. These are the aura quartzes. And today, we're gonna dive into one of my favorites. It's known as angel aura quartz. So welcome to crystal confab where we dive in and have a bit of a special informal chat about one of the crystals we love and we hope you love too. Joining me today, of course, is Kyle and Nicholas. How are you today, gents? Doing well. Kyle Perez: Doing well. Thank you. Adam: Beautiful. Now I wanna start off by kind of really clarifying, you know, I've got my favorite angel aura quartz. It's actually a Lemurian seed angel aura quartz here. But, Nicholas, I remember seeing on your Instagram, I don't know how long ago it was now, you did this amazing explanation because when I first started collecting crystals, there was only one type of aura quartz. And, obviously, the different metals that you fuse together, you get all the different colors of the rainbow. But as time's gone on, I've noticed there's different other kind of ones. And many times even buying online, I've got disappointed with what's actually wrapped up. It's not what I believe to be a true aura quartz. But can you run us through what the aura quartz is that? Nicholas Pearson: Yeah. Absolutely. So in the late nineties, there was a scientist in the Pacific Northwest here in the United States who came up with this process of applying a really thin, like, microns thick, layer of precious metals to the outside of quartz, and later they did it to some other materials as well. And, the first experiments were done with gold, which produced that, you know, beautiful kind of aquamarine blue color, and they were kind of iridescent. And so they nicknamed that aqua aura. And over time, they, you know, tried some other things out with different metals, and that produced things like our rainbow aura, titanium aura, the angel aura that we'll be discussing tonight. And it was a pretty closely guarded secret. The way of applying that metal to the outside, is a process that goes by 2 different names. It's called precious metal anodization, where they're, you know, vaporized. It's also called vapor deposition, and you have to superheat the quartz in a vacuum chamber under intense pressure, to allow those metals to become a gas, like the air we breathe. And the quartz in that environment also generates a tiny electrical charge, thanks to its piezo electricity. And that that kind of calls, if you will, the metals to it to make that permanent layer on the surface. And it's a very, very thin layer, but it is permanent, unless you're gonna, you know, take it to a, you know, bit of lapidary equipment, you're not gonna sand it off. And that was pretty much it. And while I imagine there are some other folks who figured out how to do this in some other parts of the world, in the, you know, last I mean, certainly in the last 10 years, but in more recent years, we've seen kind of this explosion of aura like ...

Transcribed - Published: 15 October 2024

Join Adam Barralet, Ashley Leavy, Kyle Perez, and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #2 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they discuss all-things Amethyst, including: Similarities & differences of Amethysts from different localities Getting back to basics with simple crystal practices Crystallography and twinning and their effects on Amethyst energy Amethyst and Jupiter Retrograde   Tune in now and dive into the magical world of Amethyst!     Podcast Episode Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals. Kyle Perez: Hello, and welcome to crystal confab, where we confab about crystals. I'm Kyle, the crystalline mage, and I have with us Adam Barralet, Nicholas Pearson, and Ashley Levy. And we are going to dive into amethyst, which I think we can all agree is an essential crystal and mineral for anyone working in and around crystals and minerals. I have, been blessed with, working with amethyst since I was a little kid when I was gifted my first piece from my grandmother. I think that's probably a story that's quite similar for everyone, whether it's walking into a crystal shop, whether it's being gifted a piece, whether it's finding a piece. I think Amethyst is often our first, and I'm excited to dive in with all of you about what Amethyst is amazing for in different ways. Maybe you haven't thought about it before, and maybe it will confirm the way you do work with amethyst. Adam Barralet: I love what you're saying, Kyle, about it being your first crystal because it was my first crystal as well. When I walked into a crystal shop, that's what I bought. And then I got a little sheet of paper that told you what to do with each crystal, and then that kind of spiraled out of this top mess than it is today. But, actually, Nicholas, was do you remember your first crystal? Nicholas Pearson: Yeah. I know mine really intimately. It's a piece of quartz that my grandfather gave me. I was you know, like a lot of us, I picked up rocks everywhere I went as a kid. I've never outgrown that, by the way, as Ashley can attest. And, my my grandmother collected, like, vintage turquoise jewelry. So, like, I just had this fascination with rock and gem, and my grandfather gave me a piece of quartz from Hot Springs, Arkansas, and that in no uncertain terms, it changed my life 30 plus years ago. Ashley Leavy: I have a similar story, of course, but my first crystal was fluorite. My grandfather was a huge mineral collector, and he specifically collected fluorite from Cave in Rock, Illinois in Southern Illinois, here in the Midwest in the US. And that fluorite in particular is so beautiful, displays this amazing cubic habit, fantastic color zoning, and he was so into it. And I can remember sitting in his office for hours while he would tell me about all these crystals. And when I was 8, I actually went to he had, like, a little cabin property in Southern Illinois, and I went down to visit for spring break over school. And he took me to Cave and Rock. And although I'm pretty sure that mine had recently closed at that time, and that would have been back in the, like, early to mid-nineties because mold. We went and looked through the, like, dump pile of rocks that they had pulled out, and we actually found some fluorite. And I still have that piece of fluorite today, and it is my favorite stone. It's pretty rough and ready. It's not like a gorgeous piece, but it's so so special. Adam: I love that. I love that. Now today we're talking about amethyst, obviously. And I love people who are watching or listening to let us know in the comments what your first crystal was. But obviously, amethyst is found in many locations around the world, and that's gonna impact identity, I'm guessing.

Transcribed - Published: 7 October 2024

Join Adam Barralet, Ashley Leavy, Kyle Perez, and Nicholas Pearson in the very first episode of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they discuss all-things Black Onyx, including: Black Onyx & the New Moon in Libra Black Onyx for Shadow Work The science behind the energy of Black Onyx The origins and etymology of 'Onyx' and how the meaning has shifted over time     Tune in now and dive into the magical world of Black Onyx!     Podcast Episode Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals. Adam Barralet: Hello, and welcome to the first ever episode of crystal confab. My name is Adam Barralet, and I am joined by 3 individuals who I believe to be 3 of the best crystal experts in the world. We're gonna introduce ourselves in just a moment, but this is going to be a podcast which explores the crystal world, and we're gonna take a deep dive into one of your favorite crystals each and every week. So joining me on the podcast is Kyle, Ashley, and Nicholas. How are we all today? Kyle Perez: Really good. Ashley Leavy: Great. Thanks for having us. Adam: A pleasure. A pleasure. Now we're gonna be we're gonna be joining you every single week. Yeah. You might be wondering who on earth we are. So I might get each of the hosts to introduce themselves. We might start with Ashley. Ashley, tell us a little bit about yourself. Ashley: My name is Ashley Leavy. I'm the founder and educational director at the Love and Light School of Crystal Therapy. I am also the author of several crystal healing books, including Cosmic Crystals and the Beginner's Guide to Crystal Healing. I've been doing this work professionally since about 2007, and I am so excited for our inaugural episode and can't wait to talk with all of you. Adam: And, Ashley, your voice sounds a little bit different to mine. I'm guessing you're not Australian. Ashley: I am not. Thank you. I'm in the states. I live in Madison, Wisconsin, where I enjoy gardening, my chickens, time with my dogs, spending lots of time working with my crystals, and, overall, just having kind of a, you know, pretty quiet peaceful existence. Adam: Amazing. Amazing. And, of course, also joining us from the States, we've got Nicholas. How are you, Nicholas? Nicholas Pearson: Great. So, thanks so much for, you know, getting us all to collaborate, getting us in one space. I'm really excited for this. So for those who may not know my work already, my name is Nicholas Pearson. I am currently writing my 10th and 11th books simultaneously. The majority of which have been about crystals. You may already know some of the more popular ones like Crystal Basics or Stones of the Goddess or Crystal Healing for the Heart. And I have been a mineral collector for more than 30 years now. Initially, I went to university and actually majored in earth and environmental science and worked in the earth science field for a bit before leaving to do other things. And, I have been writing for about 10 years now, and, I'm really excited for some of those projects that are coming up on the horizon. I'm joining from, Orlando, Florida, so I'm I'm here in the the central part of the Sunshine State, although it is nighttime and not very sunny. And, I'm just so excited to get together with some like-minded folks. Adam: And, of course, I needed some southern hemisphere backup, so I called on a good friend, Kyle. Kyle, thanks for joining us and being part of the team. Kyle: It is absolutely my pleasure. I am so excited to be a part of this and to just chat crystals with people that love them and have been a part of it for a long time. So I'll go into myself. I'm Kyle Perez. I go by the crystalline mage. I've been working in the industry for over a decade.

Transcribed - Published: 30 September 2024

Working with crystal cards is an amazing way to tap into your intuition and get a little support and encouragement from the universe. Read on to discover the best crystal card decks for your daily card pull!   Why Work with Crystal Cards? I personally like to pull a card or two to start my day.  Then I’ll place the cards somewhere I’ll see them often throughout my day as a reminder of the messages they’ve given me. I like to add the cards I pulled to my altar and reflect on their meanings for some extra insight and clarity. The great thing about working with Crystal Cards, is that there’s no right or wrong way to go about it; it’s all about tuning into your intuition and doing what feels right. Crystal-themed Cards are my favorite because each card is associated with a particular stone. After pulling my cards and reflecting on their meaning, I can connect with the stone in meditation, while journaling, or even carry it with me throughout the day for some added support. It's an excellent way to anchor the card's message into my practice and helps me feel more connected with the energy I want to be mindful of that day. Tarot Cards vs. Oracle Cards: Tarot cards follow suits in the minor arcana and have strong archetypes associated with their major arcana cards, but Oracle cards don’t follow these traditional associations. Instead, they leave a lot of room for your own interpretation based on their symbolism and imagery.   6 Best Crystal Cards: There are TONS of amazing Crystal Card Decks available (including a few of my own!) and I often get asked which are my favorites to work with. I've pulled together my 6 favorite crystal card decks (in alphabetical order) that I'd recommend based on their substance and imagery - these decks have the perfect balance of beautiful aesthetics and great information that makes them perfect for a simple daily card pull, or a more extensive card spread.     #1: Crystal Energy Affirmation Cards by Ashley Leavy The Crystal Energy Affirmations Card Deck contains 52 crystal-themed cards. Each card features a photograph of the crystal and and associated affirmation. Draw a card, speak the affirmation aloud (or silently to yourself), and work with that crystal during the day to call in that energy and create positive changes in your life. This simple system is an excellent way to get to know your stones and is a quick and easy daily ritual for working with your crystals!     #2: Crystal Moon Mystic Oracle by Ashley Leavy The Crystal Moon Mystic Oracle deck is a set of 76 cards offering guidance from the moon. The lunar phases, the zodiac, and the 13 full moons of the year all come together in this deck to inspire and provide insight into your spiritual path.  Plus, you'll learn about the healing crystals that connect to each of these moon energies and how you can incorporate them into your spiritual practice or healing work. A perfect accompanying deck for my book, Cosmic Crystals: Rituals and Meditations for Connecting with Lunar Energy.   #3: Crystal Healing Card Deck by Uma Silbey This is a fantastic deck for beginners and experienced card-readers and crystal workers alike. It has simple and straightforward information on each card including a keyword for the main energy of the stone and a few sentences about its physical and emotional qualities. There's also a short affirmation included on each card and the images are photographic examples of each stone. A great deck overall for card reading or to use like flashcards for learning more about your crystals! #4: The Crystal Wisdom Healing Oracle by Judy Hall These cards are incredibly simple, but it's the guidebook that really shines! The cards feature only a photograph of the stone and its name in text, but Judy Hall's descriptive interpretations for each card in the included guidebook not only summarize the energy of each stone well,

Transcribed - Published: 26 September 2024