Crystals and stones

[konchog uma]

i am curious as to daoist (or anything else since this is in the general discussion forum) understanding of crystals and stones. when i was a kid i was drawn to them, and i still wear a pouch around my neck with crystals in it. i guess i just resonate with them.

 

does anyone have information about them from a "spiritual" perspective, not so much a "magickal" perspective? cause ive read a lot about crystals and their metaphysical purposes, but i ask because in the intro to fusion of 5 elements, mantak chia said that daoists used crystals to aid their practice as part of external alchemy.

 

"For more than five thousand years, Taoist masters researched

and developed various methods to attain such desirable

achievements as long life and happiness. Some of the methods

were called External Alchemy, and these included the Immortal

Pill, magic potions, crystals, crystal essences, flower essences,

precious stones, etc. The highest Taoist masters realized external

methods offered only limited help while building dependencies on

materials that were difficult to come by."

 

does anyone have any leads on information about what these masters did with their crystals? i am curious. thank you!

 

 

my newest crystal! an amethyst with a nice phantom that my friend dug out of the ground in thunder bay ontario... too bad my phonecam liked the plant in the background better!

[Marblehead]

I don't know anything about their application in Taoism but I do know a few people who are very much into the properties of crystals and stones.

 

I have a rock/mineral collection I gathered when I took a tour of the US, Nothern Mexico and Southern Canada back in the late 1980s but I have not attached any spiritual significance to anything in the collection.

 

However, in Cherokee spirituality, my Medicine Stone is the turquoise.

[konchog uma]

I don't know anything about their application in Taoism but I do know a few people who are very much into the properties of crystals and stones.

 

I have a rock/mineral collection I gathered when I took a tour of the US, Nothern Mexico and Southern Canada back in the late 1980s but I have not attached any spiritual significance to anything in the collection.

 

However, in Cherokee spirituality, my Medicine Stone is the turquoise.

 

well thats pretty cool. i have had the privilege to sweat lodge with some indigenous americans but never really talked to them about the spirituality of stones. i have read books from NA perspective, but they say the stones are the intelligence of mother earth that are given to us.

 

in hermetic thought the mineral plane was a plane of consciousness like plant, animal, and human. as you went up the scale, you found beings more capable and less wise. so stones can't do anything but they embody the highest wisdom. for that reason i think its good to cultivate relationship with them as a human. for me they help me get in touch with subtle vibrations and remember that life is strange, i treat them like they are alive, and i talk to them. i dont care if i sound wierd, a person can talk to anything, and if they invoke it right it will respond. you could have a psychic conversation with the chair youre sitting on if you wanted to, its just how the mind works. but annnyway, i just wondered what daoist masters did with crystals... auric healing? meditations? grind it up and drink it? im really curious

[Marblehead]

I will leave the rest of your questions to any member who practices Alchemic Taoism as I have no knowledge there.

 

Yes, I understand that minerals, and especially crystals, play an important part in the life of those who believe.

 

I can understand talking to (with) your stones and minerals.

 

And yes, in NA spirituality it is best if you have a stone (or mineral) assigned to you by someone of the spiritual plane. But there are a couple sites on the internet where you answer a few questions and the stone is recommended to you so that is an alternative.

 

Of course, others say that when you find the one 'that is yours' it will speak to you so that is the one you would put above others.