How to Meditate with a Crystal
by Donna Thomson
Have you ever tried meditating with a crystal? The effects can be subtle or quite interesting! There are almost as many reasons for meditating with crystals as there types of crystals, simply because each crystal has a different energy and can bring a different quality or benefit to the meditation experience.
Purpose of meditating with a crystal
Some of the many ways crystals can be used with meditation are:
- To facilitate the meditative state.
- To enhance your meditation experience according to the crystal's energy.
- To specifically explore the crystal and its energy.
- To heal yourself - on a mental, emotional, physical or spiritual level.
- To balance one or more chakras - energy centres.
- To facilitate your psychic abilities.
- To facilitate connection with your higher self, guides and spiritual information.
- To encourage particular qualities in yourself - such as confidence, self-love, etc.
- To ground yourself while meditating.
These can be broken down into two main purposes. The first is for the crystal to have a particular effect on you, e.g. healing, balancing or energising you in some way. The second purpose is to get to know your crystals and their particular energy, so you meditate with your crystal as the focus.
There are no hard and fast rules about meditating with crystals, you simply need to find a quiet place and time (early morning or late evening is best), choose one or more crystals, take some deep breaths and still your mind - see our other meditation articles for general tips.
With crystals, it's important to have no particular expectations because you could block other experiences that are different to what you expected, but may be just as valuable for you. So don't force a particular meditation experience but rather go with the flow and see what eventuates.
Preparing to meditate with your crystal
You can:
- Sit in a traditional sitting position, with eyes closed and hands holding the crystal, or with the crystal sitting in front of you on the floor. In this way the crystal can assist you depending on your intentions.
- Begin by holding the crystal and gazing into it (eyes are obviously open)...exploring the crystal and even exploring how its energy interacts with your hands or other parts of your body. You may also find that doing this first can lead you into a meditative or trance state, so feel free to close your eyes whenever you feel inclined.
- Lie down and place one or more crystals on different parts of your body (e.g. your chakras). This may be planned or you may be drawn to a particular crystal and a particular location on your body - follow your instincts. You may wish to place the crystals around your body, e.g. above your head, below your feet, or in a grid-like pattern around you.
Intentions & Techniques
Stillness - Your main focus might be the meditation itself and ridding the mind of thoughts to get in touch with your oneness with the universe. It takes a lot of practice to achieve this state as the mind is very persistent in reminding you of the person you forgot to call, or that you need to pick up milk from the shop! For this purpose you might choose crystals that help to achieve a deeper meditation, ground you while you meditating, calm the mind, or assist your energy to achieve a higher state of being - connecting with your spirituality.
Journeying - You can use visualisation to take yourself on an inner journey. The energy of the particular crystal may guide you to experiences that allow healing, self-awareness and understanding, or even communication with your guide or the 'other side'. Visualising yourself walking along a path is a great lead-in to this type of meditation. You can change the location to whatever you desire, such as walking along a beach, into a forest, up a mountain, into a cave, sailing up a river and so on.
While you guide the beginning of the meditation, let yourself then be taken into unchartered territory. Perhaps you can meet your guide along the way and ask them to take you somewhere of importance for you at this time. Your guide may be in human, animal or another form.
Meeting your guide - The journey visualisation is a great way to meet your guide/s. Begin your journey with the intention of meeting your guide. When you come across someone or perhaps an animal, stop and ask for a name, a relationship to you, if they have any information for you, and so on. You could set out a range of questions you would like to have answered over several meditations and see if you can find answers to those questions during your meditations. Perhaps you have some issues in your life that you would like help with. This is a good way to receive guidance.
Exploring crystals - If you're like me, you enjoy getting to know your different crystals. I always maintain that there is much more to each crystal than you will read in many of the existing descriptions out there because that information has been recycled for decades and in many cases the attributes given are simply inaccurate. While each type of crystal does have particular energy/qualities, they will work in a very personal way with you and for you. So you can gain a lot by exploring your crystals and what you pick up about their benefits for you.
When getting to know the crystals and their energy, you'll want to keep your eyes open, at least to begin with. Begin by focusing on the crystal as you relax. Study the crystal - turn it around in your hands, looking at all the facets, inclusions, rainbow effects, and so on. Soften your gaze. You might catch glimpses of the crystal's energy field. Explore how this energy interacts with the energy of your hands, or with another crystal. You might be drawn to place the crystal somewhere on your body - do so and see what you feel or experience. You might get feelings about the crystal and how it can help you and others...thoughts may come to mind about the crystal itself or about your life - e.g. suddenly feeling that taking up painting is a great idea for you.
You may be drawn to close your eyes and fall into a meditation which will most likely relate to the crystal's energy - e.g. citrine may draw you into a meditation where you experience some sort of empowerment about an issue in your life - or within yourself in general. Make sure you take notes about what you experience and you may see patterns emerge over time with your use of particular crystals and other things may be obvious straight away. Keeping a record will aid you in your general use of the crystals as you build up a repertoire of ways your crystals can work for you.
Healing - Using crystals in meditation often brings about healing experiences you don't expect or even realise you need! You might start off with any of the methods above, or specifically use a layout of crystals on or around your body. It might be intentional to work on issues or feelings, or these things might surface during the course of the meditation. Either way, go with it and see what happens. You might feel you are being infused with healing energy and this can heal any physical ailments too. Sensations, buzzing, tingling, warmness, coolness, etc. might be obvious or the effects could be more subtle, where you only notice later that an ailment seems to have disappeared or been relieved.
You could find that an issue you've repressed comes forward to be dealt with - this a blockage in your energy field wanting to be released. The crystal might be the catalyst in helping you bring forward that issue so you can deal with it, or its purpose might be in the healing of that situation so you can move on.
Choosing the right crystal for the meditation
Using crystals with meditation is very open-ended. For example, you could decide to explore the reason you have so much fear in your life. The important thing to do now is to look for the first crystal that appeals to you. Don't think you need to look up a book or surf the net for 'crystals that help deal with fears'. Simply let your energy reach out and you will be drawn to a crystal that will help. If you pick up a crystal and feel a 'yes', run with it. If you pick up a crystal but feel a 'no' or even slightly unsettled about choosing it, trust your instincts and look for a different crystal. You'll find more articles in 'Connecting with Nature' about choosing crystals.
...as aids to meditation
Chakras - If you would like to meditate on one or more of your chakras, a crystal of a corresponding colour will generally be a good choice - e.g. a red or dark crystal for the base chakra, or a green or pink crystal for the heart chakra. However, don't limit yourself by always matching the colour of the crystal to the chakras - explore and see what happens. Sometimes our chakras need the opposite colour to calm the energy of an overactive chakra for example. Plus, crystals are more than their colour alone, so don't underestimate how each can benefit you.
Facilitating meditation - Some crystals help you achieve a relaxed and receptive state for the meditation itself, increasing your psychic ability or heightening your connection with the spiritual realm - e.g. amethyst, clear quartz, selenite, fluorite, angelite and many other light-coloured crystals. I suggest you hold the crystal in your hands, place it against your third eye or rest it there if lying down, or place the crystal just above your head.
Grounding & Protection - You might find it easier to meditate if your energy is grounded and the crystals that help with this also help with protecting your energy while you meditate. Smoky quartz, bloodstone, tourmaline, obsidian and other dark crystals work well for this. The ideal location is just below your feet if lying down but you may also hold the crystal in your hands or even wear it as a pendant around your neck. I have a black obsidian carved arrowhead on a leather cord than seems to direct the energy downward, therefore grounding me.
If in doubt - try it out! Experiment with meditating with and without these additional meditation aids to see what you experience and what you prefer. Try different crystals for the same purpose. Most of all, be open-minded and follow your intuition at all times.
Meditating with crystals is an enjoyable and often insightful process. Have fun with it!