Introduction

St. Bernard tells in his writings that all he knew, he learned in the fields and woods. He had no other master than the beech and oak trees. He advised his students that the trees and stones would teach them "more than they would ever acquire from the mouth of a magister." Indeed, the times we spend with the rocks, the experiences with the mineral kingdom, bring to the mind and soul more than books and lectures.

So in this workshop you will be totally immersed in the minerals and the earth matrix in which they are formed and birthed from. It will be a day of walking away from, of tuning out, the world of gadgets that constantly distract and possess us. Nature enables us to seek new life patterns that bring fulfillment of the spirit, beauty of soul, and dignity such as our early forefathers and first Americans once possessed.

First we are going to tune to the earth, then to the water, then to the quartz matrix and the formation of crystals, in particular the clear quartz crystals, and finally we shall learn to use them correctly for many purposes in our daily lives. This afternoon we shall build the crystal medicine wheel and learn of its powers. So this will be a busy, discovering day with the crystals.

I first met the crystals as a child in the Sierras, where both sides of my family owned and worked gold mines in Mariposa County. My uncle, John Wildt, was a mining engineer, and superintendent of the Colorado Quartz Mine (which still operates today), adjoining the family ranch, where, some 55-odd years ago, the stories I will be telling you today took place.

Miners have a superstition about taking women down the elevators to the tunnels where the veins of gold in the quartz matrix are being mined. I would constantly beg my uncles to take me down the elevator. They would try to put me off. "You don't want to go down there, it's hot!"

There by lamplight, in a room where every windowsill and shelf was covered with pink and transparent clusters of crystals, ore samples and odd memorabilia of the gold rush days, I first learned about crystals. Without knowing the tremendous value in dollars, I looked at the deeper meaning of the Temple of Light that I sat in, my classroom par excellence. In that Light all doubts, childish worries, and anxieties were washed from my uncle's face. I saw the light latent within his eyes shine forth as he showed me different specimens and confirmed my discoveries that within each crystal lives a spirit and that it is the inclusions that give it its color and quality.

I learned of the tremendous forces of the earth, and masses of rock beneath the earth that are at work all the time in what we call vulcanism, bringing into solution and transporting under hot temperatures and high pressure the powers that penetrate the hardest of rocks. Deep in the earth, deeper than the 7th level where the miners were working on a 7 to 8 foot wide vein, Mother Earth was busy arranging building blocks of over 90 elements from which everything in our world is made. Two of these elements, I first learned, are silicon and oxygen which are carried in quartz and gold and crystals.

But where do the elements come from?" I asked.
"From the stardust" my Uncle told me. "All came to us on earth from the great universal mass of matter and all were inherited from the sun - that's where they get their light. The sun is the mother of all the planets I show you in the night sky - all except the meteors, the shooting stars."

When I wanted to know where the matrix came from, I was steered to look at pictures and to read from a library of mining assayer's books, the likes of which I do not find in libraries today. Many questions I asked then can still not be answered today.

Crystal Formation

Science has come a long way, but not so far that all the mysteries of the quartz family have been solved; you will not find the experts agreeing on their many theories.

We are now, through our space probes and measurements of rays emitted by gasses, able to recognize 40 elements in the white hot gasses of the Sun. The silicon and oxygen which make up the quartz molecule (Si02: silicon dioxide, or silica) were once gasses, that cooled very long ago. That process is still going on.

Elements cannot be reduced. Each one has its own personality, attributes, and purpose. You should know, recognize, and honor the spirit in each one; use it only for what it is, according to its inner qualities. Just as some elements, such as helium, are lazy and aloof from chemical combinations, so are others, like oxygen, busy, always uniting with their neighbors.

The elements are divided into two groups - electropositive and electronegative. The water, silicon, and oxygen in crystal are in a chemical union of positive and negative atom to molecule, molecule to atom. Chemical unions demand negative and positive magnetism to be lasting, just like human unions.

Now let's go back to the sun and its beautiful spectrum which those of us who do the light concentrations on the Golden Orb and Prince Huraj know so well. That wonderful diaphanous blue portion of the sun's spectrum, the same color we read in the electro-magnetic auras of people, is oxygen.

Silicon is the most common element in the inorganic world. Silica is the most common constituent of all rock except the carbonates. We know it in soluble form in all oceans, rivers, ground waters, and in volcanic waters, too.

Quartz, the matrix of crystal and gold, is a wonderful rock it functions in many ways that every crystal user should know. Quartz has a great hardness, with the highest melting point of all common minerals, and can withstand much weathering and erosion. When struck against steel it makes fire the principle at work in a flintlock gun and when two pieces of quartz are struck together, they give off ozonic odors.

Quartz has the quality of connecting man to the other kingdoms; it is present in the skeletons of diatoms and the spicules of sponges, in the stalks of grass and the stems of trees. 12% of the earth's mantle is crystal quartz, and the quartz crystal gives growth to cherts and flintrock in the mineral kingdom. Rock crystals like ours are the purest of all quartz.

As a child, when seeking for the crystal elementals' hiding places, I discovered how the crystals were formed by water falling upon the tiny ones, aiding them to grow. Sometimes, returning to the same fissures within a day or two, I felt I could see the growth in these "babies". The earth gradually become them up with silt, asbestos, and chlorite, and these incorporated into the body of the crystal. This is covers called an inclusion and effects changes in color, but nobody can prove it so far. Sometimes these solutions dissolve away portions of a growing baby crystal leaving caverns in it; sometimes they make etchings on the face of the crystal. In this manner we can explain how glazes form on some crystals.

The great crystal formations, of course, are never formed in surface fissures but 100 feet below the surface and where the temperature is 365 degrees C. Time, besides heat and depth, is needed for them to develop in the quiet, slow, gradual manner which gives them their qualities of symmetry and beauty, and is why they are so perfect for healing and light work.

All crystal shapes are limited in fixed direction but not in fixed form. Steno, a Danish geologist, was the first man credited with studying the crystals and in 1669 established the Law of Constancy of crystals' angles of formation. He found that all crystals could be arranged in 6 systems with respect to the angle and proportional relationship to their axis. For our purpose, we need only know the difference between tetrahedral (4 faced) and hexagonal (6 faced).

Crystal quartz is always hexagonal. The inclination or slant of each pyramidal face from the horizontal will be 52 degrees and this is the same slope. as the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Isn't that something to wonder about?! When three alternate faces develop at the expense of their neighbors, the crystal takes on a cubical look. When the faces are of equal size, they are acute isosceles triangles with a base angle of 70 degrees and a vertex angle of 40 degrees, just like the Great Pyramids.

In 1885, the crystal was more fully investigated by Des DIazeaus, who saw its characteristic: properties under the polarizing microscope. Polarization is the process of affecting light so that the vibrations of the light waves assume definite forms. The transparent crystal, when viewed under a polarizing microscope, impresses a circular form upon light.

Des Dlazeaus found that at very low temperatures crystals conduct heat as well as copper does at ordinary temperatures, and saw crystals so tiny only the microscope could make them visible.

In modern times, giant crystals have been found - an enormous crystal, 25' in circumference, was found in Madagascar; a milky-white crystal 6 1/2' long and 1 1/2' in diameter, weighing 2,913 lbs. was found in New Hampshire. I saw the largest crystal ball, 12 7/8" in diameter and 107 lbs., in our National Museum in Washington, D.C. It is made of Burmese crystal and was finished in Japan.

The best sources of crystal in the United States are Little Rock, Arkansas and Hot Springs, Herkimer, New York.

History and Art

Crystals have been known, used, valued and honored by many very different cultures, throughout time and all over the world.

The word "crystal" itself comes from the Greek "krustallos" meaning "frozen in space snow and ice". The ancients in the Mycenaean era of Greek history (1400 1100 B.C.) carved crystal, as did the Romans creating wine jugs, cups, and vases. Nero owned two flawless drinking cups of crystal. The Romans used crystal lenses to cauterize wounds on the battle fields and to start fires for sacrificial purpose only. The Vesta fire was kindled on pine wood using these lenses and the sun. This was called the Holy Flame because the crystal remained cold.

The Sufi King Jamshed of Persia owned a crystal cup that reflected the whole universe. There are references to crystal in the Book of Revelations: "...and before the throne there is a sea of crystal..." (Rev.4:6); and the foundations of the walls of the Holy City are depicted as "...adorned with every precious stone. The first foundation, jasper; the second sapphire; the third, agate; the fourth, emerald; the seventh, chrysolite; the tenth, chrysoprase; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. ...And there shall not enter into it anything defiled..." (Rev 21:19,27)

The Crusaders wore a crystal on their rosaries, that the vows they took before the crystal be fulfilled.

The Amethyst

The Amethyst (from the Greek "amethustos" meaning "not drunk i. e. a cure for drunkenness) is known as the sacred stone and is used in the Fisherman's ring of St. Peter (the Pope's ring) and in Cardinals' rings. The belief in wearing the amethyst for preservation from bodily harm when attacked began in the Middle Ages. In 18th Century England it was valued equal to the diamond.

Catherine of Russia had fruit made of amethyst and other crystal colors; Chinese emperors owned tiny objects carved of amethyst. The Aztecs made skullsof amethyst, with moving jaws for the Gods to speak through.

The amethyst is composed of alternate layers of left and right handed quartz. It breaks with a rippled fracture and shows spirals called Airys spirals. Amethyst and citrine quartz show 2 colors (dichroism) lately thought to be from ray emanations of radium, and cosmic and ultraviolet rays. Amethyst formation occurs out of water and at low temperatures.

Uses and Purposes of the Crystal

If you've lived with a crystal for very long you know that they can never be possessed. They are tools only. They come to you when they are needed, in the most unexpected ways and places, and they will most mysteriously force you to give them away, or misplace them. I believe that crystals should only be bought as gifts or begged from a friend. The right crystal for you will speak to you by shooting a spark or ray of light at you.

Crystals have different purposes in your life and they should be chosen or "called" to serve those purposes. Their purposes are of 6 kinds so far as I have discovered and used them:

1. Crystals may be used for healing, depending on the need and the purpose of that healing. Pairs of crystals are especially chosen for healing work, and programmed for their particular use and procedure.

The crystal has the quality of being able to harmonize energies at all levels and to rebalance existing energies. You can't use the crystal successfully unless you are crystal clear yourself. You can't program your crystal higher than your own makkum. The attunement of the healer to the Holy Spirit is imperative. The healer's attitude toward himself must be at One with the Divine Healer, and toward the patient, without judgment.

For one in extreme pain, I like to use a pair with slanted terminal ends for thumb placement while being grasped in the closed palm. Remove them from their dark covers and place them in the right and left palms of the patient, with terminal ends pointing upward. Continue your visit while the patient holds them. At a certain point, ask : "How do the crystals feel?" As the temperature increases, the pain is diminished, energy is balanced.

Two crystals of the 4-sided variety (chisel-edge) are best used by passing across the body shoulder to shoulder, across the vegas nerve. This, according to magnetometer measurement and Kirlian photography, increases and extends the electro-magnetic field of the patient the quickest.

Murshid Inayat Khan taught us that all illness comes from unbalanced breath. Holding a pair of crystals in the closed hands, tuning to their power and purpose, and breathing from lowest chakra to crown on one breath works well for me. I also place crystals that are paired under the toes, on the cushions of the balls of the foot, supported by a pillow. Terminal ends point toward big toes. At the same time another pair is held in the hands, terminal ends pointing toward each other.

Total body magnetism is attained in the aura by placing one crystal at the head pointing toward the crown center and one at the tailbone pointing upward toward the coccyx. A small cluster is placed directly on the skin above or below the belly-button depending upon the sex of the patient. This has worked very well on transplant patients following surgery or when the organ was not "taking".

Emotionally ill or flu patients are best helped with crystals that have phantoms in them. The inclusions that caused this during the crystal's formation change, and work to loosen the virus hold by reflection. These same crystals may be used to comb the aura as the Sufis do in their light work. This is done without will. Start at the crown center and move down the magnetic body towards the toes, with the crystals held as close to the magnetic body as feels comfortable, as the healer exhales. At the fingers, tip the pyramid (top edge of crystal) up and go across the fingers, then continue to the toes, touching the big toe. The healer and patient inhale together as the crystals are moved up the magnetic body, ending at the crown center. The number of passes through the aura must be intuited or "seen" by the healer. Sometimes I use 5, sometimes 10.

Crystals may be used to draw light to a sickroom (or a meditation room or a family room or kitchen). These must hang freely from a nylon line and be in a window facing sunrise preferably, but reflect infrared rays well at sunset in a west window. These crystals are programmed for their particular purpose and are not worn on the neck, though they may be used in the Light Work at the New Moon.

The healing approach is to build confidence and faith in the patient - tell stories of the power of crystal spirits. Balance the breath of the patient. Balance the energy flow in the physical body and in the electro-magnetic: field of the patient. Direct rays into the sickroom, and leave a sense of the Presence of God with the patient.

2. Crystals may be worn as amulets programmed for the purpose of gathering thought-forms directed toward the person by intent or simply because one occupies that environment. Such amulets should be purified every evening, not being worn to sleep or nap in after wearing publicly.

3. Crystals are part of the Universal Consciousness. One who tunes to them may be pointed into Universal Mind by using them for the purpose of bringing spirit into matter during meditation. In meditation, crystals are held in the right or left hand, according to the match, pyramid on top, with one hand cupped under the other in the lap or held before the sun, at sunrise. As soon as the ray Is caught by the glance close the eyes and pick up the spark on the inner eye. Then progress as usual on your meditation. The flat unleaded crystals may be used for this also either strung on nylon line and hung before the Allah candle on an altar or worn under clothing and out of view when not in use. Sun or candlelight aura keep these crystals purified so they do not need other purification providing they are wrapped in cotton fabric: after use and put away, out of sight of men.

4. The double terminal crystal is used for dreaming and may be kept under one's pillow or in between pillow and case if in one's own bed. Best results are obtained when the dream crystal is programmed to the full moon.

5. Crystals of any variety may be used for sensitivity training. The group sits in a circle, and crystals brought by individuals are passed around, towards the right. The crystals are held in the hands as each person senses the different qualities or intention of each crystal.

6. Programmed crystals used in the Plant Kingdom have had wonderful results. Planting vegetable gardens in circles rather than rows, and using crystals has produced great results in France and England. Sick plants can be healed by programmed crystals, especially house plants.

Meditation Methods

1. Meditation on the crystal. Look by setting the gaze before the crystal.
2. Pir Vilayat's method. This crystal meditation entails visualizing oneself within the crystal.
3. Women's Light Work method - the New Moon Ceremony.
4. Group method. All focus on one large crystal. Be sure of each person's intent.
5. Meditation on individual crystals in the presence of the large crystal.

Cleaning your Crystals

1. Hold in a clear stream of running water, not tap water, that is the same temperature as the crystal.
2. Immerse overnight or for many hours in a saline solution.
3. Bury in sea salt.
4. Bury in earth against matrix, ground water, or simply base down. This is the best method for amethysts.
5. Elemental cleansing by ritual or breath.
6. Visualization: hold the crystal against the inner eye and visualize the birthplace of the crystal. Visualize the crystal's connection to the universal mass of matter, which is a part of everyone.

Programming Your Crystals

1. Hold in the palm of the hand and transmit the imprint of energy you desire.
2. Hold over the inner eye and concentrate on the purpose you wish to use the crystal for. Use only for that purpose or the crystal will leave you.
3. Place the crystal in a circle of other crystals with a cluster in the center, as a master crystal. This is done in direct sunlight. The master crystal always sits before the rising and setting sun. It is never covered, and is dedicated to the Golden Orb or to Prince Huraj.

Protecting Your Crystals

1. Store individual, or paired crystals in a cotton, cotton lined, or silk bag, with dried Southwest Sage or Cedar Bush, in a dark cupboard when not in use.
2. Concentrate on your crystals after usage.
3. Awaken the crystal when it is removed from cover, making passes over it.
4. Retain the programming by keeping individual crystals, or crystal pairs, separate from other crystals.

The Medicine Wheel of Crystal Energy

Purpose: The medicine wheel ritual is a means by which man builds an energy form that, by its purposeful nature, becomes a psychic energy for the healing of the earth and the human Spirit.

Procedure: Full purification practices precede the Medicine Wheel. Choose a place that is ancient earth. First tune to the earth. Call upon the Holy Spirit with the Qdus wasifa and place the Master crystal in the center. We interpret the center stone as Allah. People participating are divided into four equal groups, for the four directions, with a leader chosen for each group. The groups search in their direction for a directional rock and other stones that will form the wheel. A thank offering is left when stones are taken from Mother Earth. 8e sure directions are correct - use a compass.

Place the directional stones at the exact compass points and place the other stones gathered by the groups to form the outside of the wheel starting with the North to the East to the South to to the West and back to the North. Pray the Indian prayer to the winds. Stand crystals in earth clay, towers pointing upwards, and place between the stones, progressing from the North to East, South, West and back to the North. The Crystal Medicine Wheel is oriented to the North rather than the East in order to bring cosmic light down through the attunement to the North Pole Star and Kidr.

All crystals in the outside circle are then faced toward the Master crystal. Pairs must face each other across the wheel. The light of the crystals forms the spokes of the wheel. The wheel moves by the concentration of the Healers as they step from directional stones, progressing from the North and ending at the North. At each stop, the group says the mantrum, takes steps toward the next pole, repeats and continues, to complete the four directions. As the first leader returns to the North stone, the meditation on the master crystal begins in silence. At the close, all move back 3 steps from the circle, turn backs, and walk away in silence. The Master crystal is removed before individual crystals are returned.

Note: This seminar was held indoors due to weather conditions. The four corners, and all parts of the room were purified. A plastic drop cloth (neutral) was covered with redwood mulch and earth. After the ceremony, the redwood and the earth were taken back to Mother Earth; the stones were returned to their directions, and the crystals returned to their owners. The matrix crystal was carefully wrapped in velvet and put away. This ceremony is ordinarily done indoors only for protection of the environment or for mental, emotional, or psychic healing. In these cases, the patient is placed in the center and the wheel is built around him.