Glossary
Active meditation. A dynamic and lively form of meditation that usually involves physical movement.
Acupressure. A hands-on form of alternative healing.
Acupuncture. A method of treating illness by inserting needles into the body’s meridians.
Adamantine. Smooth, reflective, and polished.
Adularescence. A milky, flashy sheen created by microscopic inclusions.
Affirmations. A form of practical magic that works on both a conscious and subconscious level by retraining the brain to think in positive terms.
Aggregates. A combination of microscopic crystals.
Akashic Record. The cosmic repository of all knowledge.
Alloy. A mixture of two or more metals, or a mixture of a metal and another substance.
Amorphous. A substance without a clearly defined structure.
Amulets. Tokens and charms that can be worn for protection; they are intended to keep bad things away.
Ancient elements. Earth, water, air, and fire.
Anthraxolite. Petrified plant life, which may resemble specks of black coal.
Assembled. Produced from two or more separate crystals.
Asterism. A star-shaped reflection that appears when some gemstones are cut.
Astral plane. A spiritual level of reality, filled with thoughts and mental imagery.
Astral travel. A meditative exercise in which the consciousness actually leaves the body and travels through space and time in the astral plane.
Aura. The natural electromagnetic field that surrounds the human body.
Aventurescence. A reflective sheen caused by small metallic inclusions. Aventurine, sunstone, and goldstone are aventurescent.
Axis. The straight line through a crystal that defines its symmetry.
Bleached. Chemically lightened or removed.
Bonded. Fused with a colorless bonding agent.
Cabochon. A stone with a flat bottom and a domed surface.
Cairns. Pyramid-shaped piles of stones to serve as a focal point for energy.
Carat. A unit of measure used to weight gemstones; a carat is one-fifth of a gram.
Chakra. Sanskrit for “wheel” or “disk.” The chakras make up the energy system of the human body.
Channeling. The act of connecting and communicating with the spiritual realm.
Chatoyancy. The cat’s eye effect in some crystals, in which a shimmering band of light moves across the surface of a stone.
Clarity. The relative clearness of a crystal and the absence of inclusions.
Clearing. The process of erasing programs or impressions from a crystal.
Cleavage. The natural plane of weakness in a mineral where it will split.
Coated. Lacquered, enameled, inked, foiled, or otherwise treated for better color, improved appearance, or special
effects.
Collective unconscious. The bond of shared emotion and understanding that unites all people on a psychic level and the well of shared myth, history, and legendary associations.
Crystal. A solid in which the atoms or molecules are arranged in a definite, repeating pattern.
Crystalline. Any substances with a precise atomic arrangement.
Crystalomancy. The art of reading a crystal ball.
Devas. Nature spirits.
Diffraction. The process of splitting white light into a spectrum of colors.
Diffused. Treated with chemicals and high temperatures, to change their color or to produce special effects.
Dispersion. The process of splitting white light into a spectrum of colors.
Dodecahedron. A solid with twelve sides, each one a perfect, five-sided pentagram.
Dowsing. Divination with a pendulum.
Dyed. Recolored or color treated.
Elementals. The devic embodiment of the four ancient elements. Earth elementals are gnomes, and their numbers
can include elves and brownies. Air elements are sylphs,
including fairies and cherubs. Fire elementals are salamanders, flaming creatures that usually look like lizards or balls of light. Water elementals are undines, such as nymphs, mermaids, and water spirits.
Elixir. A magical healing substance.
Enhydro. Literally, “water within.” Enhydro crystals contain pockets of liquid trapped inside the crystal during its
formation.
Face. Any facet or flat surface on a crystal.
Facet. Any face or flat surface on a crystal.
Filled or infilled. Augmented with glass, plastic, or other stabilizing material.
Gamma or electron irradiated. Subjected to gamma and/or electron bombardment.
Geode. A rock with a crystal-lined cavity.
Granular. Grainy.
Greasy. An oily luster.
Grid. A framework for laying crystals and stones during a healing session.
Hardness. Scratch-resistance.
Heat-treated. Heated to change their color, clarity, or phenomena. Sapphire, ruby, tanzanite, citrine, and aquamarine are commonly enhanced by heat treatment.
Hexagonal crystals. Six-sided prisms or pyramids.
Hexahedron. A cube with six sides, each one a perfect square.
Hue. Color. The human eye can distinguish 150 different hues, including all the colors of the rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Icosahedron. A solid with twenty sides, each one a perfect, equilateral triangle.
Idiochromatic. Color that is inherent due to chemical composition and structure.
Igneous rocks. Formed from erupted volcanic lava or solidified magma.
Inclusions. Trapped particles of foreign matter, such as dirt, dust, other minerals, or pockets of water or oil.
Iridescence. A rainbow-like color effect.
Isometric crystal. A cube-shaped crystal with four equal sides.
Lasered. Treated with lasers.
Lucid dreaming. Conscious dreaming.
Luster. The overall shine of a gemstone, determined by the way it reflects light.
Mandala. A colorful, circular design that represents the shape and the creation of the universe.
Matrix. The base or foundation rock on which a crystal grows.
Meridians. The intersecting lines and pathways that connect the chakras.
Metamorphic rock. Any rock formed by the action of heat, pressure, or permeation by other substances on preexisting rock material.
Microcrystalline. A mineral structure in which crystals are too small to be detected by the naked eye.
Mohs Scale. A method of classifying the relative hardness of minerals.
Monoclinic crystal. A crystal shaped like a short, stubby parallelogram with tilted faces at each end.
Obelisks. Four-sided pillars that terminate in a pyramid shape.
Octahedron. A solid with eight sides, each one a perfect, equilateral triangle.
Oiled and resin-infused. Treated with colorless oil, wax, natural resin, or other material.
Opalescence. A milky-blue shimmer.
Opaque. Not transparent or translucent.
Organic gems. Crystalline materials made by or derived from living organisms, such as amber.
Orthorhombic crystal. A crystal shaped like a short, wide rectangle, or rhomboid.
Pendulum. Any object on a string used for dowsing and
divination.
Piezoelectric crystal. A mineral that vibrates regularly when an electric current passes through it.
Piezoelectricity. The electric current some crystals produce when they are squeezed.
Pleochroic gems. Stones that display one color from one direction but exhibit one or more other colors or shades when seen from another direction.
Polycrystalline. Consisting of many small crystals.
Program. To instill a plan or design into a crystal.
Pyroelectricity. The electric current some crystals produce as a result of temperature changes.
Reflective meditation. A calming, quiet, and passive form of meditation. For Westerners, it comes closest to Zen meditation, in which the goal is to forget oneself and experience the universe as a whole.
Refraction. The bending of light.
Resonance. A vibration that occurs in response to other frequencies in the area.
Rhombohedron. A six-sided prism.
Rock. A conglomerate of many minerals, chemicals, and solid organic materials that come from inside the earth.
Rough. An uncut, unpolished crystal.
Runes. An ancient magical alphabet of Northern Europe.
Rutile. A mineral that forms needle-like inclusions inside other types of minerals and crystals.
Sacred geometry. The study of mathematics as a path to God.
Saturation. Purity of color. Crystals that have a lot of gray or brown are less saturated with other colors, and they look dull as a result. Likewise, crystals that are too light are poorly saturated, too, because they look washed out.
Scintillation. Sparkle.
Scrying. Divination with a crystal ball or any smooth, reflective surface.
Sedimentary rock. The hardened sediment of other rock fragments, organic materials, and other substances.
Semitranslucent. Transmits a limited amount of light.
Semitransparent. Transmits most light through a substance.
Specific gravity. The density of a crystal, calculated by comparing its weight with the weight of an equal volume of water.
Star effect. A reflection that looks like intersecting bands of light across the surface of a gem. Rubies, sapphires, and
garnets often display a star effect.
Stones. Short for gemstones.
Gemstones. Crystals that can be cut and polished for jewelry.
Streak. The color a powered mineral on an unglazed white tile; a method of identifying minerals.
Striation. A parallel scratch, groove, or line.
Submetallic. Opaque and generally nonreflective.
Symmetry. Balanced proportion.
Synchronicity. Meaningful coincidence.
Synthetic. Man-made.
Tabular. Flat, like a table.
Talismans. Good luck charms.
Termination. The point at the tip of a crystal.
Tetragonal crystal. A crystal shaped like a long, tall rectangle.
Tetrahedron. A triangular pyramid with four sides, each one a perfect, equilateral triangle.
Tone. The relative lightness or darkness of a hue.
Totems. Objects carved in the shape of animals or mythical creatures.
Translucent. Allows light to pass through.
Transparency. How well light passes through a crystal.
Transparent. Clear as window glass.
Trapeziums. A crystal that looks like a pyramid with its top cut off.
Treatment. Any technique used to enhance a crystal or gemstone, such as heating, bleaching, dying, diffusing, and irradiating.
Triclinic. Flat with sharp edges, but no right angles.
Trigonal crystal. A crystal with three equilateral sides.
Vitrious. Glassy.
Vugs. Small cavities formed inside rock when crystals erode and leave a void behind.
Waxed and oiled. Impregnated with colorless wax, paraffin, and oil.