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Drawing: The Magical Eye of Pyrite and Lapis Lazuli

Whatever your eyes “see” is how you perceive the world.

I have a special relationship with Pyrite – it was the mineral that got me motivated to start up this online crystal shop 4 years ago. So I will always be grateful to Pyrite for getting me started on this adventure.

From Krista Mitchell’s book Change Your Energy:
Pyrite is masculine, extroverted, yang, aggressive energy that helps you thrive, push through obstacles and succeed. Boosts ambition, energy and will. Fires up the metabolism and aids digestion. Attracts money, wealth & prosperity. Excellent for manifestation.

As for Lapis Lazuli, this stone helped me to create a vision. Although the vision I imagined in my mind didn’t manifest in the exact way I pictured – it still was a catalyst for magical things to occur in my life. I never thought that I would be doing any of this let alone get into the healing aspect.

From The Pocket Book of Stones by Robert Simmons:
Lapis Lazuli is a stone of visionary awareness, bringing new information to the mind in images rather than words. It enhances intellectual ability, making one a better learner and teacher. Lapis is a stone of initiation as well – a catalyst for a mystical journey to higher awareness.

Here’s a marker drawing that I did recently, I hope to take a better photo soon and replace this. Lately I have expressed boredom with just posting crystals on Instagram so I’ve been trying to change it up.

Both the Pyrite and Lapis Lazuli stones have sold.

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The Power of Crystals – Coloring Book

I’m late to sharing this but hey, better late than never.

I was sent an awesome coloring book recently called The Power of Crystals – A Coloring Book of Healing Minerals, A to Z. The photos above feature the cover and a sample page.

I am a perfectionist so I have yet to color any of the pages but I have to say – I really appreciate the mineral drawings as they are very detailed. Even without coloring them, you can clearly see the dimensional aspects of each mineral that was illustrated. The descriptions also provide physical and metaphysical properties of the mineral group.

Here is a list of minerals that are included in the coloring book:
Agate, Amazonite, Amethyst
Beryl
Calcite, Celestite, Copper
Diamond
Emerald
Fluorite
Galena
Garnet
Herkimer Diamond
Jade
Kunzite
Lapis Lazuli
Malachite
Olivine
Pyrite
Quartz
Rhodochrosite
Ruby
Selenite, Silver, Sulfur
Topaz, Tourmaline
Vanadinite
Zircon

Overall a fun and therapeutic activity for the mineral lover in your life.

Have a look at Diamond Dan Publications’ store

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An Oracle Pull & Healing Stones for January 1st, 2021

It’s the first day of a new year – the sun is in Capricorn and the moon is in Leo. The year is officially 2021.

While I wasn’t intending to pull a card I did so on a whim to post on my Instagram page and ended up pulling a 1 – SEER card from the Nature Nurture Oracle deck created by Marcella Kroll. From the booklet this card indicates:

Omens, prophecy, dream time and wisdom

It’s a powerful time to pay attention to the invisible world and receive messages in dreamtime or meditation. Social media has a way of keeping us forever distracted – always on our phones, having FOMO, or just scrolling and looking for the next fix. I get it, it happens to all of us…myself included.

Owls have long been associated with wisdom, knowledge and being able to ‘see’ through the dark so it only felt right to add these two lovely stones to the mix – a Labradorite and a Lapis Lazuli. Edit: only the Labradorite is available for purchase.

Why did I choose these stones?

As you probably already know, Labradorite is a stone of magic and can help you ‘tune in’ to your intuition or psychic ability.

I want to stress that the word ‘psychic‘ doesn’t literally mean “mind reader”. You may or may not gain mind reading powers with Labradorite BUT you’ll be able to tap in to a deeper aspect of yourself and begin to ‘see’ people’s energy beyond the surface level. We are layered beings and accessing your psychic abilities takes time and practice.

Lapis Lazuli is a stone of ancient wisdom and royalty. Just looking at the stone immediately takes you to the night sky, with flecks of Pyrite and Calcite as stars. The kings and queens of ancient Egypt adorned themselves with Lapis Lazuli, even wearing it into the afterlife.

According to Melody, Lapis can be placed over the third eye to aid one in developing insight into ones own dreams.

Both stones have different shades of blue so they naturally vibrate to your 5th chakra. The 5th chakra is associated with our throat – it enhances communication ability and the ability to speak our truth.

Back to the oracle card. One of the definitions of ‘seer‘ is

a person endowed with profound moral and spiritual insight or knowledge; a wise person or sage who possesses intuitive powers.

So let’s be like the owl who is a seer. Observe and see your life and those around you from a higher perspective.

Purchase this Labradorite palm stone at my Etsy shop.

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7 Healing Crystals & Stones for Your Chakras

Chakras – you’ve probably heard or read about them a lot these days. Look at the hashtag for ‘chakra’ or ‘chakras’ on Instagram and you’ll see over 2 million posts related to it.

But really though – what IS a chakra, and why is it important?

Chakras are basically energy centers of the energetic or subtle body. Though we can’t see them, they are often depicted as wheels or discs that are constantly spinning, each one a color of the rainbow. Together they form our human energetic field, sometimes called the rainbow body but more commonly known as the aura.

Although these are abstract concepts, we are actually experiencing the chakras at work daily through our thoughts, feelings and how we perceive life. Each chakra is also connected to organs in our physical body.Β 

For example, the color red represents our first chakra often called the root or base chakra – located at the end of our spine – the tailbone. This chakra represents our connectedness to our physical body and the earth as well as feeling centered, grounded and at home. When this chakra is imbalanced, we can expect to feel the opposite: feeling spaced out or not present, not connected to our body; not feeling safe.

How can healing stones help with our chakras?

The purpose of learning about our chakras is to bring awareness to our own actions and behaviors. We want to achieve balance and harmony in our energetic body because if we don’t, it eventually affects the physical body.

We can work with healing stones – stones that correlate to our chakras – to help bring us back into balance.

You can visit a crystal healer to assist you with this or you can do it yourself by placing stones along your body to effect healing.

Here is an example of healing stones you can work with to help balance the 7 chakras of your body:

1st Chakra – Red – Red Jasper, Smoky Quartz
Place in between your crotch area or right in between your upper thighs.

2nd Chakra – Orange – Carnelian, Garnet
Place on your abdomen area below the belly button.

3rd Chakra – Yellow – Citrine, Pyrite, Tiger’s Eye
Place on your stomach area above the belly button.

4th Chakra – Green (or Pink) – Green Aventurine, Rose Quartz
Place on your heart.

5th Chakra – Blue – Blue Lace Agate, Sodalite, Lapis Lazuli
Place on your throat.

6th Chakra – Violet – Amethyst, Fluorite
Place on your forehead or third eye center.

7th Chakra – White – Quartz, Selenite
Place above your head.

Conclusion:

This is just a basic rundown of the 7 Chakra system and the healing crystals & stones you can use to heal, balance and align your energetic body.

Click here if you’d like to purchase our 7 Stone Chakra Set with Green Aventurine

Click here if you’d like to purchase our 7 Stone Chakra Set with Rose Quartz

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Opinion: Why Are Crystals So Expensive?

This is actually a very common question that I often hear from buyers, including myself after having my fair share of buying crystals & stones from metaphysical stores around town as well as online, you begin to wonder:

Why Are Crystals So Expensive?

Bare with me as I attempt to shed some light as to why buying crystals and stones can get expensive.

Also please be aware that these are based on my personal experience of being the buyer and eventually the seller. I am not speaking for everyone else.

A buyer’s point of view:

If you’re viewing this from the buyer’s point of view, well yes of course you’re going to think buying crystals at retail prices tend to get…yup, PRICY! Especially when they’re little stones. I totally get your thinking on this because as much as I love minerals, I have to be careful on not spending too much on them as well.

A seller or small business owner’s point of view:

If you’re viewing this from a small business person’s point of view, you probably understand that the whole point of having a business is to make money. And so crystals have to be marked up to pay for the cost of doing business – like whether you own a brick & mortar or e-commerce store there’s rent, fees, advertising costs, travel expenses like flying or driving to the Gem & Mineral shows in other states to buy those crystals, etc. and so much more.

So you see, those costs are added on to the crystals. But not everyone does this, as it all depends on the person. I mean, some sell just for the love of it. Others live in a state where the cost of living is low so there’s no need to mark up the stones while others (like me) live in a state that has a high cost of living so yes, in order for the effort of doing business to be worth it – crystals have to be marked up.

Other factors to consider:

  • The mineral or mineral combination might be rare or hard to find. For example: Larimar, Opal, Moldavite, Libyan Desert Glass and Ajoite just to name a few.
  • The people who actually mine minerals risk their lives by hiking up or going into a treacherous location such as a cave or a mountain, or an ancient volcanic area.
  • If it’s an Aura coated or Aura treated crystal (for example, Aqua Aura is permanently bonded with gold vapor), the cost of getting the crystal coated can get expensive.
  • Some wholesalers will mark up the price of the crystal, therefore in order to make your money back…you’ll also have to mark it up. Or not.
  • Each crystal or stone is a one of a kind piece. No two are alike. Also, they last forever. Can you imagine how much money that crystal has accumulated? You could be dead and that crystal or stone will continue to exist long after you and I.
  • The bigger the crystal, the more it costs to ship it. So yes I’m adding shipping costs to the list.

Conclusion:

There’s going to be all kinds of reasons as to why buying a crystal or stone can get expensive. As always, do your own research and trust yourself to make the right purchase.

Also think of it this way: if you’re buying something that’s a tad expensive let’s say from your local retail shop – you are actually helping that shop stay in business. Same with an online store. If you love supporting small businesses like mine, then the cost won’t seem so harsh. It’s all a matter of perspective as to what you think is valuable, as everyone is buying or selling at any given time.

I hope this makes some sense. The photo above features my Pyrite with Quartz cluster from my personal collection, which was expensive $$$ but I really wanted it. And I have no regrets.πŸ’›πŸ€‘πŸ’›

Visit my online crystal shop: Metaphysical Vibes

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Buy What You Love, Even If It Is Expensive.

This might be an odd topic to write about on here, but I feel that it needs to be addressed.

When you have a business, often times you will be criticized for being too pricy or expensive. Even a small business like myself has already gotten a couple of comments about it. This becomes normal as you expose yourself to the public more and more; they’ll be sure to leave comments on Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, etc. And that’s totally fine; everyone has a right to express their thoughts…it is the internet after all.

I suppose I could talk about all the expenses that I’ve accumulated to have this business up and running (especially here in California), but that’s probably boring and irrelevant to you so I won’t. Besides, I chose to have those expenses and I am confident that it will be worth it in the long run.

I’ll definitely offer a sale or discount here and there but I won’t lower my prices consistently just because someone is telling me that I’m pricy or expensive. To each their own and setting boundaries on what you will or will not do to make a sale is important.

When I buy crystals from other people (and I do)…if I really want it, I buy it regardless of price. I don’t shame the seller into making them feel that their price is too high, I understand completely that they have to make a profit too. We ALL have to make a profit. I mean, that’s the WHOLE point of having a business right? Doing what we love AND making a profit from it; otherwise what’s the point of being in business if we’re not going to thrive? It’s too much energy and effort.

Amazon and Walmart are able to sell stuff for cheap because they are mega giants and are in a capitalist/competitive mindset. Small businesses are not, at least not me.

So this is me just putting it out there to anyone who happens to be reading this:

Buy what you love, even if it is expensive. Would you value it just as much if you bought it for cheap?

Don’t get me wrong; I also look for lower priced crystals and stones on occasion. But it also largely depends on its energy.

I’m reading a book about creating money and one of the concepts it talks about is this:

If you spend money without joy or love, out of obligation, resentment or worry, or with a feeling that you cannot afford what you buy, it will keep you out of the abundant flow of money.

If you buy things that you truly want with joy, your abundance will open up even more; it sends a message to your subconscious that you are deserving of such things.

I hope this gives you, the reader, some perspective.

And no, I’m not trying to convince you to buy crystals from me (although, I’d love it if you do and only if you see a crystal or stone that vibes with your personal energy).⚑

I’m also not saying that you should always buy expensive things and go into debt; rather, treat yourself every now and then to something that you really want, regardless of the price. If you know it will make you happy then go for it.

I chose to post a photo of this stunning Pyrite mineral since the day I wrote this is Thursday, day of the planet Jupiter; a planet associated with expansion. This Pyrite has sold.

Also here is a link to the book I’m currently reading – Creating Money: Attracting Abundance by Sanaya Roman