Saturday, August 17, 2013

7 Crystals You Need to Attract Love In Your LIfe




Rose Quartz

Rose Quartz invites love into your life.  It opens your heart to receive love and gently reminds you that you are worthy of love. Wear this stone or keep it by your bedside to remind you that love is coming your way.




Malachite

The beautiful green swirls in this stone help to usher away hurtful memories.  Malachite works quickly and diligently to clear away painful heartache and make way for new love.  Try sleeping with this stone on your heart chakra.  Alternately, you can wear the stone as a pendant over your heart or you can sleep it with it under the pillow. 

Rhodocrosite

The lovely marbling of pinks and whites in this stone helps us to unite the different aspects of our personality so that we can learn to truly love ourselves.  The only way to bring true, authentic love into your life is to love yourself first.  Rhodocrosite helps you to appreciate yourself as it teaches that you are worthy of love, health and happiness

Rhodonite

The pinks and blacks in this stone remind us that affairs of the heart are often painful.  Rhodonite is the Stone of Forgiveness, and it will help you to let go of any pain from a past relationship with an attitude of love and forgiveness as it gently cleanses your aura of hurt, anger, regret and bitterness.


Green Aventurine

Known as the Stone of Love and Luck, carrying this stone with you will increase your confidence and your luck at attracting new love into your life.  It’s also known as a Stone of Abundance, so keep one in your wallet to ensure new financial resources too!



Apache Tear

This form of Obsidian is known to absorb depression, grief and negativity.  Legends say that as the Apache women and children watched their men die in battle to save their land and way of life, they cried rivers of tears.  These tears hardened into these Obsidian stones which we call Apache Tears.  The legend says that whoever holds an Apache Tear will never grieve again.  Carry this stone with you to help absorb any sadness you may be carrying in your heart.

Citrine

This joyful, sunny stone is known as the Stone of Success.  It will help make you feel more empowered, confident and sure of yourself.  Carry this stone or wear it as jewelry to enhance your self-esteem, confidence and joy.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

The Power of Sage


In Latin, “salvare” means to heal and salvia – the species name for sage – is a direct divination.  Sage heals.  Throughout history, sage has been used in ceremonies and for medicinal purposes.  Sage is found in the Russian steppes and throughout Western North America.  It’s incredibly adaptable and can survive temperature extremes and periods of drought.  Sage has been used to cure night sweats, hot flashes, and headaches.  The Navajo, in addition to using Sage in ceremonies, used it to cure headaches and fever.  They made infusions of the leaves to cure intestinal worms in their sheep and goats.  They applied hot poultices on the leaves to relieve migraines.  The “49ers” made sage poultices to help heal gunshot wounds. 

It is placed in medicine bags to protect sacred items.  Before entering a sweatlodge, sage is used to purify the body.  During the sacred Sun Dance, dancers wear sage wristlets and anklets for protection and purification. 

You can use sage in your own life to enhance your energy, cleanse your space and invite protection.

Every person, rock, plant, animal and home has an auric field which can attract and capture negativity.  If this energy is not cleansed, it can create illness and depression.  Our aura extends around our physical body and is constantly receiving information.  When we are around negative, angry people or in homes and stores that have witnessed arguing, yelling and sadness, our aura absorbs this energy like a sponge.  Just as we need to clean our body once a day, we also need to clean our energetic body.  Smudging yourself with sage allows you to do this quickly and efficiently. 

You can find smudge sticks and loose sage on line or in metaphysical stores.  They are inexpensive and easy to use. 

To begin smudging yourself, light the smudge stick and usher the smoke around your body.  Start at your head and brush down and away, constantly flicking and motioning the negative energy to the floor.  Called aura brushing, you can simply motion the smoke down around your head, arms, chest and legs.  Ask a friend to help you smudge your back – again being mindful to brush the smoke down to the ground where mother earth can absorb and heal the energy.  Alternately, you can place the sage in a burn proof bowl and allow the smoke to grow heavy and thick.  Stand over the bowl and perform the aura brushing technique described above.  Turn around in a clockwise direction to ensure the smoke encompasses all parts of your energy. 

To smudge someone else, you will need to find where their aura begins.  Some people have large auras – they project and push their energy out while others have very small auras, preferring to remain hidden and keep their energy tucked in.  The average person’s aura extends about six inches from their physical body.  To determine the boundary of someone’s aura, rub your hands together to awaken and activate your hand chakras.  Position your hands about two feet away from their body, palms facing out.  When you touch their aura, you will feel either a temperature change or an invisible barrier pushing against your palms.  Sometimes you might feel a pressure or stickiness.  Other times, you’ll feel a heaviness.  Either way, the air will feel different when you hit the auric boundary. 

Now, light your smudge stick and fan the smoke around the person’s auric border moving in a clockwise direction.  Begin at their head and moving clockwise motion the smoke down and around their body.  Ask them to turn around and do the same thing to their back and sides.  Then begin to spiral inward, closer and closer toward the person’s physical body as the energy feels cleaner and lighter.  Once the aura feels cleared, focus on the chakras.  Starting at the root chakra, motion the sage smoke toward this energy center moving up to each chakra finishing at the crown chakra.  When this is done, ask how they feel.  They might feel a heaviness in one spot, so focus there and motion your sage smoke toward it. 

When these steps are completed, take a large feather (most metaphysical stores sell turkey feathers but any feather will do) and use the feather to move smoke down the body.  Then, beginning at the feet, motion the feather up and around your body.  This will fluff up and air out your aura ensuring that your energy is completely cleansed. 

Depression feels like a blanket, a weight on the soul.  Anti-depressants, a healthy diet, exercise and therapy can help.  But this sage technique is also a great mood lifter.  Plus, it’s free and completely natural! Go into a small room like a bathroom.  Crack a window.  Fill a small heat proof bowl with loose sage leaves and light them.  Allow the smoke to filter up and around you.  Spend these moments sending up prayers for happiness, health and protection.  Repeat, “I am ready and willing to release my sadness. I allow into my space only that which enlightens and uplifts me.”  Ask your angels and guides to take away your sadness and help you feel better, happier and ready to release this depression.  When the sage leaves are completely burned down, open the window wide and safely dispose of the sage ashes. 

Sweetgrass – sometimes called Vanilla Grass – has a lighter, sweeter energy than sage.  It’s used to seal in the good energy and invite more happiness and positive energy into your life.  Grown in the Plains area of the United States (Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas), Sweet Grass is relatively inexpensive and easy to find.  After you’ve completed saging yourself, burn some sweet grass to lock in the good energy.


Our home is a reflection of us.  If our home is messy and chaotic, then inside we’re feeling messy and chaotic.  If our home needs lots of improvements, it symbolizes the improvements you still need to do on yourself.  If your home looks uninviting, then you’re telling the universe and all its gifts to stay away.  When I am asked to cleanse a person’s home, I am so often shocked to see that they have bushes and shrubbery growing past the windows.  Or they keep all their drapes and blinds closed – during the day!  Not only is this really bad Feng Shui, but think about what message you are sending.  “I don’t care about my house.  I don’t want you to see in or come in.  Stay away.”  To ensure positive energy in your home, keep it cleaned and organized.  Get rid of clutter and accumulations.  Do you really need that stamp collection?  Do you really think your kids will fight over your collection of Hummel figurines?  Do you really need 54 pictures of the family cluttering up your counter tops and shelves?  Probably not. 

Invite the light in.  Open the blinds and drapes.  Curtains should be replaced every five years and washed at least once a year.  Clean your blinds of dust and open them to let the light in.  Before smudging your home, say a small prayer.  Invite your angels and guides to assist you.  Call on Arch Angel Michael to usher out any negative entities or energy.  Light your sage stick or loose sage leaves in a heat proof bowl.  Allow it to burn until a good, thick smoke emerges.  Fan the flames out with your feather so you’re left with smoke.  You want to work with smoldering smoke, not fire.  If you’re having difficulty getting the smudge stick to burn, crush the end of the smudge stick to let air inside.  Once you’ve got a good smoke established, begin at your front door and proceed around each room in a clockwise direction. Motion the smoke around the windows and doors saying, “I seal this home in love and light.”  Fan the smoke into the corners and over the furniture saying, “I break up and dispel all negativity. Only peace, health, wealth, love, happiness and joy can abide here.” 

Everything has energy.  Everything.  The energy of depression, anxiety, stress, arguments and harsh words lingers.  Since it’s lower level energy, it tends to hide in crevices and corners.  So make sure to motion the smoke into all your closets and storage spaces too.  Don’t forget to smudge bathrooms, the attic and the garage. 

When you’re done saging, safely stamp out your sage stick.  I usually leave mine in the sink for the rest of the day just to be safe.  Then open several windows allowing the negative energy to be ushered out.  Thank your guides and angels for their help.  Wait about an hour and then close the windows.  You can now burn sweetgrass to seal in the good energy.  I also like to light a candle to invite more light into my home.

Your work environment needs to be cleansed too, but chances are your boss won’t approve of you burning a sage stick.  So instead purchase or make your own sage spray.  I make a sage cleansing spray that I sell on my website called Crystal Clear.   I use Holy Water from my church and add sage, lavender, cedar, frankincense and myrhh.  I also use dried sage and lavender and sprinkle cleansing crystals into the bottle such as carnelian and clear quartz.  Spritz your office daily with this spray to absorb negativity, stress and anxiety.