Have you ever heard of your birthstone? The type of gem assigned to you depending on which month you were born? Peridots, amethysts, garnets, and more: these are all crystals! Many people believe that crystals have certain properties, vibrations, or energy that can help aid you in your everyday life. Now whether you choose to believe it or not is up to you, but either way, I think learning about crystals, what they are, where to get them, and how to use them is really fun!

To begin, here is a list of some of the most popular crystals and their properties:

• Rose Quartz: A stone that aids in the healing of relationships with others and yourself along with promoting the idea of unconditional love. It is supposed to help promote self-love, friendship, and feelings of peace.
• Clear Quartz: A crystal that has multiple purposes and can ultimately be substituted for any other crystal. It’s considered to amplify the effects of other crystals and to be a master healer on the emotional, physical, and spiritual level. 
• Obsidian: Black crystals like obsidian normally have the same properties aiding in the absorption of any incoming negative energy. It helps with mental-stress and protection. 
• Amethyst: One of the most popular and useful crystals is amethyst a pretty purple gem that helps fight against addiction, reducing stress, providing balance, assisting with spiritual connection, and more. 
• Lapis Lazuli: You may have heard of it from Minecraft or from learning about King Tut in the ancient Egypt section of your history class, but Lapis Lazuli is supposed to help people with gaining courage, speaking the truth, and connecting with your spiritual side.
• Tiger’s Eye: Tiger’s eye is a gorgeous orange/brown crystal that promotes mental clarity, focus, getting rid of fears, and more. It is also known for helping users mainly ground their own personal energy. 

But those are just 6 out of the thousands of other crystals that exist! Some of my other favorites are malachite, black tourmaline, jasper, moldavite, larimar, and spirit quartz. Now that you know of the crystals and properties of each, you may be wondering how you can use each one. But before you use crystals, you have to prepare them. To prepare a crystal takes just 2 steps:

1. CLEANSING THEM: Sort of like a fresh start you have to cleanse your crystals prior to charging, setting your intention with them, and using them. There are many different ways to cleanse them and it’s all up to what you feel like works best! Some people will use incense (which is my favorite method), sound, sunlight or moonlight, candles, water, and more. You have to be careful if you’re cleansing them with water thought as not all crystals are waterproof. Some non-waterproof crystals are (kyanite, selenite, malachite, calcite, angelite, basically anything ending in -ite but others include amber, turquoise, moonstone, etc.)
2. CHARGING THEM: Similar to cleansing, you can also use water and moonlight or sunlight to charge but other methods also include letting your crystals sit in a dish of salt (Himalayan usually) or by even using other crystals to charge them. Many people will for example have a stick or plate or selenite and will leave other crystals on top of this stick or plate and out in the sun or moon to charge. 

Both steps are important but within each step is just setting the intention of what you’re doing and how it’s going to affect the crystal. You have to light the incense or put your crystals out in the moonlight thinking that it is going to cleanse or charge your crystal so that it can aid in whatever property it has. Take crystals like tiger’s eye with you to school knowing that it helps promote focus and thinking that it will help in doing so. People will use crystals every day by carrying them around in school or work, sleeping with them under their pillow, during meditation, and more!

On top of the fact that crystals are so gorgeous to look at, they’re really cheap too! Whether you want them for the simple pleasure of the aesthetic or for energy purposes, they’re definitely worth the purchase! Depending on the size and rarity of the crystal they can range from $3 to thousands of dollars! Most are usually like $0.75-$3 if you’re getting a small stone about one or two inches long. But bigger crystals that are human-sized can be thousands of dollars! You can get them on websites like Amazon and Etsy or by heading over to your local metaphysical store. If you want to learn more about crystals you can buy books teaching you more about how to use them or just look it up online. It is also worth mentioning that in Rockville Centre the store A Time For Karma has incense, crystals, and more!