The entire quartz family is amazing, but Amethyst is definitely the one wearing the crown. Crown chakra, that is.
Amethyst is a purple colored quartz that is probably, by far, one of the most beloved healing crystals from the mineral kingdom. It has a few things in it’s corner, such as, it is the birthstone for the month of February (you lucky ducks!), it’s an affordable semi precious gem, and it even makes mention in the bible as being one of the stones in the breastplate of the high priests of Israel.
Then there is that whole “being purple” thing. The color purple is so popular that even Oprah starred in a movie with the name. What was the line about it pissing God off if you walk by the color purple without noticing it? Yeah, it’s like that.
Another thing that amethyst has going for it is that even the meaning of its name means something very specific. It’s name translates as “not intoxicated”. That’s not subtle or hard to understand. People used to think that drinking out of an amethyst cup would prevent drunkenness and encourage sobriety. Some say it was because the purple of amethyst looked like watered down wine. *shrugs* I always thought my wine looked more like garnet, but whatever.
Some other historical associations of amethyst was that it protected the wearer from the “evil eye”, which was basically when someone was giving you energetic “stink eye” meant to harm you in some way. They were real big on preventing evil stink eye back in the day, so again, amethyst was one of the first gemstones that was directly associated with spiritual or energetic protection.
One of the other associations was that it lessened fleshy or carnal desires and instilled a sense of peace and calm, perhaps because of its “sobering” quality of lowering addictive behaviors. That would make it a great sleep and meditation stone, but you’d need to chuck it out of the room on Valentine’s evening, I’m just sayin. It’s kinda like the opposite of being “drunk in love”.
I wonder how many women in more ancient times were clinging to some amethyst in hopes it would have sobering and desire squelching effects on the SOB’s they were forced to marry? I’d put money down on the theory that the first gem elixirs were born this way. A gem elixir is basically fluid, usually water, that has been imbued with the vibration or energy of a particular stone. That was the point of drinking wine out of an amethyst cup. The wine was supposed to take on the energetic qualities of amethyst and be, therefore, less potent. Not sure how well it worked out for them, but that was the going thought at the time.
The Quartz Family
The whole quartz family is full of a bunch of rock stars. Pun intended. 🙂 Besides amethyst, there is my all-time favorite stone, rose quartz, as well as citrine, smoky quartz, clear quartz, milky quartz, quartz points, and a dizzying array of quartz with inclusions, such as rutilated quartz, tourmalinated quartz, hematoid quartz, and so on.
Whew, that is one sexy list of crystals. So why is the quartz family so sexy? They happen to be fantastic at holding and amplifying intentions as well as directing or projecting energy. Some people call it “programming”, but I prefer to describe it as the quality of being able to be imprinted with energetic information or intentions, which it then holds steady and radiates outward more amplified. Directing energy, such as in drawing an energetic circle to create sacred space, is best done with a terminated point.
Because I like for things to make sense, I would use the specific quartz variety that best matched my intentions, but how do you determine that?
I want to free you from the shackles of the metaphysical crystal meanings and properties books forever. It’s so easy that it will probably irritate you a little.
Chakra Colors = Crystal Colors
I always tell people that the quickest way to master gemstone meanings is to study up on the chakra system and what each chakra center represents, what themes or qualities they have, and what being overactive, balanced, or underactive means for that center.
The colors of rocks, stones, and crystals almost always directly relate to the meaning and themes of the chakra color with which it coordinates. The colors of the crystals basically “tickle” or interact with the chakra center of the same or similar color. There are other factors, but that is the quickest way to “unpack” the meaning of any crystal or stone and to figure out which one you might want to grab.
If you know your basic 7 chakras by the corresponding chakra colors and main themes, you are 80% of the way to understanding how to interpret gemstone meanings and uses. I told you it was easy.
Your job is to figure out which chakra or chakras you may need to work on, then browse crystals and rocks of similar or complimentary colors that “tickle” those centers the best ~for you~.
My favorite analogy equates crystal “vibration” to music. Each rock is it’s own unique “note” and you are your own unique “song”. When something is out of tune in your personal song and needs adjusting, you need to find the right “tuning fork” that holds the right note and helps you bring it back into balance or harmony. The term “attuning” or initiating an “attunement” means to bring yourself into vibrational alignment with something, hopefully to correct a vibrational misalignment within yourself.
For example, all black stones correspond to the “root chakra”. That is the chakra that is associated with being stable, grounded, and with connecting to and navigating the physical/material world safely and with competency.
All black stones are going to be protective and grounding. All of them. Every. Single. One. Your job is to find the nuanced (s)tone from that range of (s)tones that is most resonant with you as an individual. Basically, this mean selecting and working with a rock that gives you the best tickle and holds vibrational space to correct the misalignment in your system.
I just blended my analogies, but I think you get my point.
So there you have it. Use the crystal meaning books if you care to, but you still have to find the one stone that makes the best sense for you. Bada bing, bada boom. You are now a Crystal Master.
And now back to amethyst…
Amethyst Tickles the Crown
Amethyst is normally a rich to light purple color. Purple, white, and gold are associated with the “crown chakra”. The crown chakra is the direct connection point to the spiritual or Divine levels. If you want to interact with the spiritual level, either by praying, meditating, doing energy healing work, like Reiki or pranic healing, or receiving spiritual assistance for whatever reason, that all goes through the crown chakra first.
Amethyst isn’t the only purple stone out there that tickles and empowers the crown chakra, but it is the only one that is also straight up quartz. Because it is quartz, it can be programmed with intention or used to direct energy through a point. Za-zing. That’s what I’m talking about.
Why Care About the Crown Chakra?
I can break it down into two very easy to understand dynamics: Large and Open Crown Chakras v. Small and Closed Crown Chakras.
Big ass crown chakra = very evolved and spiritually plugged in person who perceives the self as part of All Creation.
For example, the halo surrounding the heads of spiritual figures depicted in art through history could be considered a visual interpretation of the crown chakra being fully balanced, expressed, opened, and activated. Jesus is shown with a big crown chakra. Buddha, Mother Mary, the saints, and other “masters” (too many to list)…are shown with a big ass glowing halo around their heads.
People with balanced and open crown chakras are generally loving, kind, compassionate people that avoid harming others because “the self” is seen as integrally related to the greater whole. To bring harm upon any other part of the larger whole is the same as bringing harm to the self.
People with well developed crown chakras have a moral compass that can be described as self-generated, self-motivated, and self-regulated. In other words, they don’t need anyone threatening them with going to jail, hell, or Siberia in order to behave in ways that are kind, adaptive, and responsive to the needs of others. They don’t need anyone to be “watching” them in order to behave in socially acceptable and respectful ways.
Tiny ass crown chakra = a person with no or little sense of being connected to any spiritual reality or of being a part of any larger system.
People with undeveloped, closed or inactive crown chakras are usually ego driven a-holes that are “out for number 1”. The moral compass of someone with a blocked or underactive crown chakra is more dependent on external pressure, such as, an expectation of rewards for behaving well, or the expectation of punishment for behaving badly.
Going to jail, hell, or Siberia might be the only things that keep this kind of person from serious misconduct. They may be quite capable of behaving well through external social pressure, but they might behave very differently when they think that “no one is watching”.
Balance is Good
Of course, a chakra center also happens in a system. If your crown chakra is overstimulated (connection to spiritual reality) and your root chakra is under stimulated (connection to physical reality), ooo-weee baby, you got yourself a card carrying space cadet who can barely stay “in body” long enough to interact with the world. They will be loving, sure, peaceful even…but someone without any vacation home in the 3D physical world will be hard to relate to for all sorts of reasons. They will leave you saying, “Helloooooo, is anybody home??!”
The answer is, uh, no.
They are out playing in the astral planes, having chats with “beings” from the mother ship or another dimension, while forgetting to show up for real world appointments, pay the rent, or perhaps bathe. They will seem “out of touch”, “out there”, on drugs, or crazy as hell. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.)
I’ve had my years of being barely in body. It was surprisingly productive, but only after I re-grounded myself and could bring that spiritual connection into some practical application in the “real” world. Still, I’m sure I didn’t “pass for normal” during those years. *shrugs*
Life requires some attention or you end up on the street. You have to be competent enough to take care of your basic 3D needs, unless you have an adoring partner who is content to take care of your basic 3D needs for you AND who appreciates the contributions you make in return, which are far less tangible. Yeah, good luck with the second part.
Balance is the key.
When to Use Amethyst
1) Crown Chakra Stimulation/Empowerment: Perhaps you’ve gotten a little too settled in your day-to-day activities and have been too distracted by real world things to spend much time contemplating the bigger picture or a higher power. Sometimes that shit happens. When you feel like it’s time to come up for spiritual air, grabbing an amethyst crystal is a fantastic idea.
2) Shifting to Spiritual Work: It’s nice to use amethyst when you are doing some kind of spiritual work, such as prayer, healing work, or before engaging activities that seek wisdom and guidance from spiritual levels.
3) During Activities in Alignment with Peacefulness and Meditation: Amethyst is great for meditation or meditative processes. It can be great for sleeping and for encouraging a sense of general calm. It might be great to have on you if you are feeling stressed or overly attached to a worldly concern and are trying to stay in the energy of the bigger picture.
4) Sleep: Amethyst is a great sleep stone for the same reason it is a good meditation stone. It chills you out and makes you feel more relaxed. But since it is also associated with lesser physical “appetites” you may want to swap your amethyst out for a ruby, carnelian, or garnet on “date night”.
5) Children: Amethyst is one of the best child specific support stones with which I’ve worked. It makes sense to me that a higher spiritual state, or one which is more connected to a spiritual reality, is comforting, protective, and restorative to children. They are already far less grounded than adults and have not had to necessarily focus on meeting their basic physical needs.
Amethyst is kinda how they want to roll naturally. It would be helpful for general care, but also fabulous when they are feeling stressed in some way. Amethyst or rose quartz would be a fabulous “pet rock” or woogy stone.
6) Spiritual protection: Amethyst wouldn’t be my biggest, baddest 1st choice for this, but I use it with other stones. I would, however, use this as a sleep stone for anyone, especially children, who seem to need some good energetic boundaries of a spiritual nature.
7.) When prompted: Above all, it’s best to go with your gut and give yourself permission to ignore everything I said and use amethyst in whatever way makes sense to you. No one died and left me amethyst queen.
How to Work with Amethyst
1) Nearness: This is a passive and simple way to interact with amethyst. Just put it near you or on your person to be in contact with those energies. Having a nice amethyst cathedral geode, good sized point, or a cluster somewhere in your immediate environment can sometimes be enough. You can also carry amethyst in your pockets or wear it as jewelry. All of those strategies are pretty low key and won’t “out you as a crystal freak”. (haters)
2) Basic Attuning: This requires a bit more effort, but when you add a direct request to attune to a stone for the adjustment you want, you get an immediate hit and a far more immediate shift. Just state a request, such as, “I request to attune to this stone, if it is appropriate and in my Highest Good, now please.”
If you can set the mood with a little relaxing music, candle light, and a yoga pose, that would be ideal. That’s all great if you have made intentional time to connect, such as doing prayer work, meditating, or healing work. However, if all you have is a 5 minute bathroom break and you need to have a serious “serenity now!” moment or you might scream… then just attune and ask for it to continue to download until optimal assistance is reached.
3.) Rock Breathing: This is great method of attuning to a stone in a very interactive way. You can place the amethyst by your mouth and begin seeing the amethyst energy move into and connect to you on the in breath, and then see your own energy connecting to the amethyst on your out breath.
You could also hold it in front of the third eye chakra or at the top of your head, by the crown chakra, and “breathe” through the rock and into those energy centers. If you are feeling overactive in your lower chakras, you could “breathe” amethyst energy into those centers to cool them off a bit.
4.) Imagery: You can include imagery with any other method you use by imagining a purple amethyst energy moving into your system and spreading out. If you can’t “see purple” in your imagination, perhaps you can create a sensory experience of a different kind, like the smell of lavender, the taste of grapes, or the spreading sensation of peacefulness as in muscular relaxation.
Hypnotists may find it helpful to have amethyst around while doing progressive relaxation or hypnosis sessions. Perhaps even let the client hold one, if they care to. Energy workers may find a small imagery activity using amethyst helps their clients feel peaceful, which also increases their receptivity to healing energy.
5.) Gem Elixir: If you can’t find yourself a handy dandy amethyst cup, you’re going to have to do a little work to create a gem elixir. There are many methods to making a gem elixir. I tend to do the lazy method of an immediate direct download.
If you have a clean piece of amethyst with no matrix (stuff inside it) of unknown origin, you should be able to just plop it into your glass of water and say, “I request to create an amethyst gem elixir, now please.” Then hold the glass between your hands and let it rip for a few minutes. I always seal my work after doing any energy work with the following saying, “Please Bless, Optimize, Stabilize, Amplify, and Seal under the Divine, now please.”
An amethyst gem elixir would be great for kids or to be used as a physical way to take in the energy of amethyst, either by drinking the “charged” water, anointing your chakras with the water, sticking it in a bottle to spray it, or bathing in it.
You can read more about creating a gem elixir here.
6.) Crystal Stone Grid (aka: Reiki Grid): This is an advanced way to work with stones and, again, takes conscious intent and action at first, and then you can ride in on the passive wave of the energy field that is created by the grid that does run on for a time frame.
You can go easy with amethyst and use it alone or you can use amethyst in concert with some other stones. I would be mindful that if you are having a hard time concentrating or feeling “in your body” at times that you want to be in your body and able to concentrate, you may want to activate and work with that crystal stone grid combination only while you are engaged with activities supported by enhanced crown chakra functioning. Or, you should balance it with grounding stones.
You can read more about grids and download free crystal stone grid templates here.
7.) Whatever way seems right or intuitive to you. You may even want to do a meditation where you ask to interact with the stone “deva” (personification of amethyst energy) that you can meet and imagine asking questions and receiving answers. Hey, who says I have cornered any market on wisdom? Certainly not me. 🙂 Explore and see what cool stuff you can discover that is new and helpful! If I can do it, you can do it!
Amethyst Plays Well With…
1.) All other members of the quartz family, such as- Herkimer diamonds, rose quartz, citrine, quartz points, quartz with inclusions, any quartz.
2.) Partnered with other upper chakra stones good for spiritual, intuitive, or conscious altering stones, such as- selenite, moldavite, scolecite, petalite, azurite, sodalite, lapis, other purple, dark blue, white, golden, golden yellow, sky blue, green or pink stones.
3.) Partnered with other grounding or protective stones, such as- smoky quartz, petrified wood, jet, shungite, black tourmaline, any other black, metallic black/gunmetal colored stones, or dark red, brown, grey stones. Also in general agates and jaspers, which also have grounding and empowering energies. Any stones with “eyes” or circles on them, like Ocean Jasper.
4.) Partnered with other “spiritual helper” or “angelic” stones, such as- rose quartz, angelite, celestite, prehnite, moldavite.
5.) Partnered with other comfort, sleep, and peacefulness stones, such as- rose quartz, lapis, sodalite, lepidolite, lithium quartz, scolecite, petalite, moonstone, mangano calcite, fluorite.
6.) Partnered with other healing specific and healing general stones, such as- Ocean Jasper, chlorite-included quartz, epidote-included quartz (aka: Green Earth Healer Quartz), rose quartz, shungite.
7.) Partnered with other stones that support sobriety, breaking additions, or hard core purification, such as- obsidian, fluorite, sodalite, salt, shungite. fulgurite, indigo gabbro, selenite.
©2020 Stacie Coller, Enter the Earth. See more interesting blog articles and amazing crystals and rocks at Enter the Earth. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram!