Divination with Crystals by Rev. Carol A. Ingle (Raven)

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Divination with Crystals

Putting together a set of stones for divination can be a really simple and inexpensive way to create a divination tool that you can take with you pretty much anywhere. From creating a yes/no set of 6 stones to a larger set that mirrors the major arcana in the tarot deck, stone divination is a great way to use your crystals on another level of healing.

The first thing to do is decide on how big of a set you want to create. You can always put these sets together on the fly when you need them from your collection of crystals, but if you want to create something specifically dedicated to divination, you’ll want to decide how big you want to go. Do you want this to be something that fits in a small pouch that can go in your pocket? Are you looking for something that can sit in a nice velvet lined wooden box on your altar and be part of your ritual divinations? Let’s talk about both scenarios and then you’ll see that you can create anything in-between. Your creativity is your only limitation with this!

First, let’s look at simple, small sets of crystals which consists of 10 or fewer pieces. A very simple one consists of 6 stones and is a yes/no bag. All you need are 3 white and 3 black stones.

I would recommend for the white stones I would recommend:

White Howlite = helps to calm, relieve stress and anger, and is said to also help gain insight from past lives. (Howlite comes in a few different colors, including blue and green so you’ll want to seek out the white, which usually has black or gray veins through it.)

Milky Quartz = helps with diffusing issues, relaxes and soothes.

Moonstsone = connects to empathic energy, brings emotional balance, helps to release unwanted thoughts and emotions (Again, like howlite, moonstone comes in many colors. Try and find ones that are as white as possible.)

Next you’ll want to find 3 black stones. Here I would recommend:

Onyx = helps to ground and center, has a calming effect, helps to reveal underlying causes in difficult situations.

Jet = brings stability and perspective to situations and puts the mind at ease.

Black Tourmaline = very grounding and protective, helps to strengthen our grip on reality.

While seeking out your stones you’re going to want to look for pieces that are all somewhat uniform. They don’t need to be the same size, but they should all be close (either all really small or all really large). You also don’t want to mix raw and tumbled pieces, so either get all 6 as tumbled stones or all 6 as raw stones. The reason for this is that when you have your hand in your bag and you’re looking to draw a stone for an answer to a question you don’t want to be using your hands to search out familiar stones, even subconsciously. You want to use the energy of the stones to draw you. If you know that all the white stones are larger than the black, for example, you might be tempted to draw one of them just because of what you’d like the answer to your question to be. By having stones that are all similar this is far less likely to happen and you’ll be able to focus more on how the energy of the stone feels.

Once you have your stones, properly cleanse and charge them, then give them intention. Take the white ones and charge them for giving off “yes” answers and vibrations and the black ones for “no”. If you feel for any reason that it should be the other way around, do that! But charge them with their intent and their new “job”, so to speak. Then put them in your bag. Give them a gentle shake while thinking of a question that you already know the answer to. Then put your receptive hand in, close your eyes, and take a moment to really feel around and let your hand be guided by the stones. Draw our three stones, one at a time (I like to do this with my eyes still closed) and then see what you have.

All White = Yes

All Black = No

2 White, 1 Black = Most likely Yes

2 Black, 1 White = Most likely No

And there you go! Really simple and depending on how small the stones are that you chose you can even carry this with you in your pocket all the time and you’ll never be without a quick divination tool.

For a larger set of stones, you can decide to work with a few different ideas. I once had a stone reading with a woman that had a large Lazy Susan (one of those round spinning trays you might find on a dining table) filled with stones of all colors, shapes and sizes. She had you think of a question and pick a number of stones with your eyes open. Then you did it again, this time with your eyes closed. The idea here was that the stones you picked with your eyes open indicated what you desire, what you were working toward, or even your expressed worries or fears, while the ones you picked with your eyes closed were more your higher self’s answers to some of these questions. It was really interesting and quite accurate too. The other method is to take stones that related back to the major arcana of the tarot and then you can use the stones to basically do tarot layouts like the Celtic Cross.

What I’m going to do is give you a list of stones with their meanings and tarot associations. From there you can decide how you’d like to read them. You can either just draw them like tarot cards or do the method like the woman that read for me did. Either one I think works great.

Again follow the same rules when picking out your stones here. Try and find ones that are somewhat uniform. When you do the pick from a plate of stones method you can add in other stones that you might not otherwise use in a bag that you pull from, like geodes and points. Once you have your stones, cleanse them, charge them, then place them in either a bag or box that you will work with them from. Depending on how big of a collection you work with in this method, either with 22 to represent the tarot cards or with even more from just your personal preference, you will want to decide on a bag or box that will be big enough to hold them while also giving your hand room to move and work with them.

Stone Divination Meanings and Tarot Associations:

(this comes from Scott Cunningham’s book “Cunnignham’s Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem and Metal Magic”)

0. The Fool = Agate – Scattered energies, waste, extravagance, imbalance, pride, ego, vanity

1. The Magician = Quartz Crystal – Magical attainment, control, power, balance, center, unification of spiritual and physical, self-knowledge, depth and confidence

2. The High Priestess = Emerald – Spirituality, secrets, power, Earth religion, the unknown, female mysteries.

3. The Empress = Peridot – Receptive energies, women, cycles, fertility, abundance, creativity, growth, female sexuality and love.

4. The Emperor = Ruby – Projective energy, men, compassion, force, movement, aggression, male sexuality

5. Hierophant = Topaz – Authority, Captivity, Confinement, Advice, Employer, honor

6. The Lovers = Rose Quartz – Love, sexuality, relationships, friendships, duality, polarity, balance and beauty

7. Chariot = Staurolite (crossed stone or twinned crystals) – Earth power, nature, self-control

8. Strength = Diamond (Herkimer Diamond or Garnet) – Power, courage,will power, activity

9. Hermit = Sapphire (blue tourmaline) – Wisdom, Knowledge, Mysticism, enlightenment

10. Wheel of Fortune = Sardonyx (black opal) – Transformation, fortune, luck, unknown factors

11. Justice = Carnelian – Law, Legal matters, dominance, submission

12. Hanged Man = Beryl (aquamarine) – Introspection trials, tests, sacrifice

13. Death = Amber – Renewal, beginnings, endings, health matters, Trials

14. Temperance = Amethyst – Moderation, Scattering of energies, nonfocused, disciplined, balance

15. Devil = Black Diamond (black tourmaline) – Addiction, delusion, pity, depression, pettiness, lack of vision, violence, control by others, submission

16. Tower = Lodestone Adversity, accident, oppression, challenge

17. The Star = Meteorite – Universal energies, astrology, eclipse, travel, hope

18. The Moon = Moonstone – Psychism, emotions, night, winter, sleep, dreams, tides, depression, water

19. The Sun = Tiger’s-eye – Mental activity, thought, visualizations, contentment, day, summer, the seasons

20. Judgment = Fossil – Reversal, outcome, evolution, growth, life, childbirth, lessons

21. The World = Opal – Interplay, success, harvest, movement, overview, ability, completion, higher forces.

Another great book to check out for information on stones and crystals for divination and magick is “Dunwich’s Guide to Gemstone Sorcery” by Gerina Dunwich.