preparation FOR Crystal Reiki Healing
Discover how to get yourself and your environment ready for healing both yourself and others, including ways to select your crystals, what to consider before performing treatments, and techniques to mentally prepare yourself.
You might want to select crystals for many reasons: to work with in Crystal Reiki treatments, for self-healing, inspiration, or productivity, to help with problems, or to bring love and happiness into your life. You can use these methods to help you choose a suitable variety of crystal, such as amethyst or ruby, or to help you listen to a group of the same type of crystal to see which individual one wants to help you. Either way, once chosen you can look it up in the Crystal Finder (see page 105) to see its associations and how best to work with it.
CHOOSING CRYSTALS INTUITIVELY
There is an old crystal saying: “If you are drawn to a crystal, you need it!” And by and large this is true. We are all intuitive and naturally know what we need. I’d like to change the words just a little to: “If you notice a crystal, you need it.” It’s not only the sparkling ones waving across the room and drawing you to them, but also the ones you don’t like. The ones you feel you cannot touch or look at, or even go anywhere near them. The ones that make you ill at ease, nervous, and nauseous. The energy from such a crystal is reaching deep inside you and touching something you don’t want to acknowledge. It will make you feel uncomfortable. However, choose this crystal and it will help you to shed whatever is holding you down, emotionally, physically, mentally, or spiritually. These are the crystals that produce life-changing energy shifts. The journey may not always be fun, but the destination is worth it. Such discomforts never last long. Probably a few hours, a day or two, or a week or two at the very most. The key is to keep going once you’ve started. Doing Crystal Reiki Healing self-treatments (see page 68) every day will help to speed this process.
Two different lapis lazuli crystals
WORKING WITH A CRYSTAL PENDULUM
A crystal pendulum can be an excellent instrument to aid your intuitive development and gain confidence in your abilities, and a valuable tool on your Crystal Reiki Healing journey. It can help you to feel and “see” your inner vision. Your pendulum offers a reflection of your internal feelings. We all have an inner pendulum. Some call it a gut feeling, intuition, or an inner knowing. It’s the bit inside you that says “yes” or “no” to everything, all day long, every moment. It resides in your sacral chakra (see page 19) and has two distinct reactions. Everyone has experienced these, but we often only notice them at the extremes. One is a sinking feeling, where your stomach feels like it is dropping to your feet. This is the “Get me out of here!” or “I’m really scared, I want to leave NOW!” sensation. And we all know the “yes” feeling too—the euphoric inner high, the “Wow! This is amazing!” or “Love—true, real love.” It’s the feeling coming up into your chest, into your heart, from your navel.
A pendulum moves in different directions, but for each individual it always moves the same way to say “yes” and a different way to say “no.” When you see the pendulum moving in front of you, it is mirroring your inner feelings and you can begin to get in touch with your inner pendulum moving up and down inside you. Working with a pendulum in this way is known as dowsing, and it is one of the oldest forms of divination.
CHOOSING A PENDULUM
Select a pendulum, hold it in your hands, and allow your Reiki energy to flow into it. (If you are at Reiki Level 2, you can also visualize Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen (see page 29), the “distance” symbol, to connect the Reiki energy to your crystal in time and space to see the answers you need.) Then hold the pendulum’s chain and ask it two simple questions which have definitive answers—for example, “Am I a woman?”—and as you ask this your pendulum will move. Maybe back and forth, side to side, or in clockwise or counterclockwise circles. Whatever it does will represent your “yes” or “no.” Now ask the opposite question—in this case, “Am I a man?”—and observe your pendulum move in a different way. This is the pendulum showing you the opposite answer. Now you know your yes and no responses, you can ask your pendulum, “Are you a good pendulum for me to work with?” If it says “no,” then pop it back and try another! When it says “Yes,” you have a friend for life.
HOW YOUR PENDULUM HELPS
I’ve always worked with a pendulum, relying heavily on it when I began crystal healing, and even now sometimes falling back on it for confirmation or clarification. For example, sometimes I know a client needs a particular crystal because it seems to be sparkling and waving at me, but I have no idea where it needs to go on their body! The pendulum always works. I have three pendulums: one made from lapis lazuli for healings, a second made from amethyst for teaching, and a third natural citrine one for personal questions.
Your pendulum is a powerful tool. Every time you ask it a question, it is mirroring your inner self. You already know the answer. Your pendulum is helping to teach you how to connect to your inner being—or, more accurately, remind you, because as a child, you were likely told by parents, teachers, and society in general to ignore it. Now is the time to remember and tap into the innate knowledge and wisdom that is within us all.
If you treat your pendulum as a spiritual tool, it will always give you the right answer (whether you like it or not!). If you treat it as a game, then it will treat you in the same way. And if you keep asking the same question, it will get bored and start giving you different answers. And pendulums always answer in the moment. They do not predict the future. So, if you ask, “Will I get together with 20 friends for a reunion dinner next year?” the answer your pendulum would give is not a prediction of what will happen next year, but a report of what you and your 20 friends currently intend to do next year.
As you continue your Reiki journey and become attuned to higher levels, be aware that the attunement process alters your energy and vibration, so may result in your pendulum swinging differently for “yes” and “no” responses. Recheck your yes and no movements occasionally, and especially during the 21-day period after any Reiki attunement.
TREATING YOUR PENDULUM AS A SPIRITUAL TOOL
Sometime soon after I started working as a crystal healer in the early 1990s, I was interviewed by a newspaper journalist and she was really taken with pendulums, so much so that she bought one for herself.
She phoned me the next day in tears. She told me that when she went into work that morning, she took her pendulum and was demonstrating its magical powers to everyone in the office. Then someone suggested they should bet on a horse race. Everyone put a dollar into a pot. They asked the pendulum which horse would win and it guided them to a horse in the first race of the day. They placed the bet. The horse won! “Wow! Let’s do it again!” they said. Now, this time everyone in the office put $50 into the pot. The room went still as her pendulum picked another horse… only this time, it lost. So then her co-workers were furious!
I explained that the first time the amount of money was really insignificant to everyone and the pendulum treated the exercise as a valid way to show it worked. A spiritual quest. The second time was plain greed and not spiritual at all, so the pendulum treated them as such and played a game. Ha ha ha, very funny—not for her.
I told her to ask everyone in the office to put another $50 into the pot, but this time to agree on a charity to which they would give all the winnings and the stake money before asking the pendulum to choose another winner. She dowsed the runners with her pendulum in the last race of the day, picked a horse… and it won.
The moral of the (true) story is to treat your pendulum with respect and it will always guide you well; treat it as a game and it will treat you in the same way.
Now you have tuned into your pendulum, try this exercise to observe the added effect of crystal and Reiki energy.
1. Place your hand palm facing down on a large piece of paper. Hold your pendulum about an inch or two (2.5–5cm) over the ends of your fingers and ask, “Are you in my aura?” It will show you a “yes” indication. Hold this question in your mind and slowly move your pendulum away from your hand until its direction changes to a “no” response. Mark this place on the paper with a pencil.
2. Place a quartz crystal under the palm of your hand and repeat the exercise. You will find that the positive response continues further from your hand, showing that your aura has almost instantly become larger (perhaps beyond your piece of paper).
3. Repeat this again with the crystal under your hand, but this time allow your Reiki energy to flow through your hand. (If you are attuned to Reiki Level 2 or above you can visualize the Reiki symbols in the palm of your hand, too.) Again, you will find that your aura has become even larger.
This can be a fun exercise to do with a partner or friend. Hold the pendulum by their heart and move it away in front of them until it changes its response. Then do the same with them holding a quartz crystal to their heart. And then once more with them holding the crystal but also adding Reiki. If they are attuned to Reiki, they can let it flow through them or visualize the symbols. If they’re not attuned, you can send Reiki to them—it works just as well. Make sure you have plenty of room in front of them as Reiki can expand the aura dramatically!
Once you’re attuned to Reiki, it will activate your intuition and can be focused to help you select crystals instead of using a pendulum if you prefer.
1. Place a selection of crystals on the table in front of you. It is easiest if they are in a horizontal line to begin with, but once you get the hang of this method they can be in a random pile, a bowl, or anywhere you can reach.
2. Take a quiet moment to focus yourself. Place your hands in Gassho (see page 58), focus where your middle fingers meet, and welcome your Reiki Guide in (see page 21). You might like to consciously think or say, “Reiki on.”
3. Place either or both of your hands a couple of inches (5 cm) above the line of crystals, moving slowly over each one from right to left. Be aware of any changes. It is usual that above one (or more) of the crystals your hand(s) will experience a temperature change, becoming warm or cool, so these are the crystals to choose. You are sensing the energy of the crystals and your Reiki hands are reacting to the ones you need.
You can use this method to select crystals for yourself, family, friends, and clients. It also works well for choosing crystals to send distant healing (see page 93).
creating a sacred Crystal Reiki Healing space
It is important that your healing room is a sanctuary, for you and for anyone else you may treat there. You should enjoy being in your special space and the energy you create inside it. Spend some time there when you are not performing healing. Meditate (see page 58) and generally enjoy the energy you have created in your room. Ideally it should be a safe—practically and in feeling—clean and cleansed room which is used solely for healing (or healing/teaching type-events). This is not always possible, but a ritual to cleanse and dedicate the room will be useful if the room has many uses (see page 52).
A CLEAN ROOM
This is an absolute and a surprisingly overlooked consideration. Some people are so concerned with cleansing everything energetically they forget about the basics: vacuum or sweep the floors, dust every surface, and get a feather duster in the corners. Clean your mat or therapy bed and make sure you have fresh clean covers. Then lie on your mat on the floor or therapy couch and look up. Now remove these cobwebs, too!
ENERGETIC CLEANSING
Once the room is clean, you can start to focus on cleansing the space energetically. I love using tingsha (Tibetan bells) to cleanse my healing room or any other space, crystals, myself—basically, anything and everything! Ring them in the middle of the room and then around the edge of the room, paying particular attention to any corners and also over your crystals and mat or therapy bed. When you clink them together, the sound waves they generate literally vibrate and shake the molecules of the item they are cleansing, which releases any trapped energy. Bells symbolize beginnings and endings; for example, birth, marriage, and death are all signaled by ringing. They summon people to events, such as dinner or a church service, they alert us to someone at the front door, and they warn us of danger. According to Tibetan Buddhist belief, ringing bells shows love to the Buddha and brings good karma.
When I need to cleanse lots of crystals or a larger space, such as somewhere I’m teaching a class or workshop, I will work with a crystal singing bowl to cleanse the space and everything in it. Crystal singing bowls are made from quartz crystal and are often tuned to a specific note that resonates with a particular chakra. These can be very powerful healing instruments. They produce a pure resonant tone, which is perfect for cleansing, relaxing, meditation, and healing. You can strike a crystal singing bowl like a gong, or tone it giving a constant sound. You can also use bells, gongs, Tibetan singing bowls, chimes, and drums to cleanse energy.
Crystals such as amethyst, quartz, and selenite can help to keep the energy refreshed. Place large pieces of these crystals where you can, especially near your working crystals, under the therapy bed, and in any seated area where you take information from people you are treating.
Tibetan Dai Ko Myo (see page 36) can be used energetically to clear a space before a treatment or any ceremony or ritual.
CRYSTAL REIKI WATER
It is good to drink this any time, but especially after a Crystal Reiki Healing treatment and Reiki attunements. Essentially this is a crystal elixir with a Reiki boost.
Place a quartz crystal in a glass or pitcher of water. Place your hands either side and send Reiki to the water. Draw Tibetan Dai Ko Myo and Cho Ku Rei symbols over the water (see pages 36 and 25). Ideally prepare the water at least an hour before drinking. You can also do this the night before you need it.
COMFORT
The most important thing is that you are comfortable, whether healing alone or treating others. So, the temperature should be as you like it, as should ventilation, any music you wish to play, scents from incense or oils, the crystals around your room, and the colors you choose. The same goes for the clothes you wear. If you’re treating others and feel at ease in therapy “whites,” wear them, but if you feel better in flowing clothing or a T-shirt and jeans, that’s great, as long as whatever you wear is clean and comfortable.
Always have drinking water, or ideally Crystal Reiki water (see above), available for both you and anyone else you are treating. Healing can be very hot and thirsty work, even on cold days. Some people get very hot and dry throated when receiving healing. Always offer water at the end of a treatment.
Avoid bright lights, especially directly over the mat or therapy bed. Move the mat/bed or lights, or use floor-standing or table lights instead. You can also use dimmer switches. Some people like to burn a candle because, as well as producing a nice soft glow, the candle flame “brings in the light,” affirming that you are working in the light for the highest good.
Crystals for your therapy room can greatly enhance your treatments. This is so for any type of therapy or healing modality as well as Crystal Reiki Healing. When other people come into your healing space, they can have wonderful therapeutic experiences just from walking into the room. Remember to cleanse the crystals regularly, even the ones you have set in place permanently.
You will find the crystals most suited to you, but here is a quick tour of some of the crystals in my healing room to give you some examples of the crystals I find most suitable to work with:
Amethyst
Rose quartz
Black obsidian
Petrified wood
Lemurian quartz crystal
• Amethyst: I have two amethyst geodes in my healing room. One by the therapy bed to continually energize and cleanse it, and a second, which is programmed to cleanse other crystals, on my crystal table. It always gets an extra ting of the tingsha when I cleanse the room.
• Rose quartz: there is a large rose quartz under the therapy bed, approximately below where the heart of a client would be, to enhance the feeling of love. It’s like giving a big, loving hug to whoever lies on the bed.
• Black obsidian: this large crystal is kept underneath the feet end of the therapy bed to help with grounding.
• Petrified wood: a large piece on the floor absorbs stress as clients release it. There is always lots of anxiety and worry released during a treatment and petrified wood acts as a great sink for it, collecting it up and holding on to it so it can be cleared later when the room is cleansed.
• Lemurian quartz crystal: kept on the floor by the window. it serves a few functions, such as bringing light and energy into the room and keeping the treatment focused.
Pyrite
Herkimer
Tourmaline
• Pyrite: there are several pyrite crystals along the windowsill to help reduce external distractions. Pyrite is particularly helpful for noisy neighbors! I have a golf club outside the window and these crystals help to reduce the noise down to the occasional thwack of a club against a golf ball.
• Ruby, amethyst, and Herkimer diamond: these are my special attunement crystals for Reiki initiations. However, I find them helpful in treatments, too, as every crystal experience can be an attunement to crystal energy at one level or another for both your client and you.
• Tourmaline medicine wheel: this protects the healing space and keeps it special (see page 56).
In addition, I have literally hundreds of crystals to work with in treatments, including a selection of master crystals and hematite for grounding when needed.
MULTIPURPOSE SPACES
Ideally you will have a dedicated room or space as a healing room. However, this is not always practical, so here are some suggestions that may help you if you have a multipurpose space. Firstly, clean and energetically cleanse the space. Consider using things like screens, throws, scarves, and pashminas to change the look of the room. Try to have a focus point you can easily create, such as a small table or stool with special crystals, a candle, or representations of the elements, planets, or points of the compass (see page 56). Plants, herbs, or flowers are also nice and bring color and aroma. Add a statue of any deity or angelic guardian you believe in. You can even add glitter and sparkles.
REVIEWING THE SPACE
When you have set up your room go outside, close the door, take three very deep breaths, re-enter the room, and see how it feels. Don’t be afraid to change things now or as time goes by.
There are very few right and wrongs regarding how to work with clients. First and foremost, always be yourself. People will be drawn to you because of your energy so be more you, rather than trying to be whatever you imagine a Crystal Reiki healer “should” be.
BE YOURSELF AND BE COMFORTABLE
If you are comfortable and relaxed, your client will be, too—don’t worry about what you think they expect. Pay attention to personal hygiene as you will be working closely in people’s auras. Tie back long hair so it doesn’t fall on your client when you lean over them.
Your feet are also very important because as a Crystal Reiki healer you’ll be standing most of the day. Consider if you want to work in shoes or barefoot. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Working barefoot helps you connect to the ground and stay grounded. If you choose to work barefoot, as many healers do, make sure that your floor is vacuumed or swept and there are no crystal shards or anything else on the floor that might injure you or your client or cause discomfort.
BE PROFESSIONAL
You cannot make professional decisions if you are emotionally involved with a client. It’s great to help your family and friends, but if they need to see a therapist for specific symptoms or issues regularly then they should see another unrelated professional. Similarly, if you believe there’s someone better than you for this client, you feel out of your depth, or you just don’t want to work with someone for any reason, refer them to someone else. You should never put yourself in a position you feel uncomfortable with a client.
Confidentiality is an absolute. Tell your client it is a confidential space. They will relax and be more open. With this in mind, I recommend asking them to fill in a client consent form, too1.
Make sure your crystals are clean, cleansed, and arranged so you can select the appropriate ones quickly. The crystals you work with regularly can also be charged with Reiki (see page 38) so they are always ready to be used. If you are working as a mobile healer, or even if you have a multipurpose room at home, then the process of setting out your crystals prior to a treatment can help not only in creating a harmonious healing hot spot but also in making the space your own. You may find your crystals become a talking point as others observe you and are drawn into the energy you create around you. Whether you are working in a room, a tent, or even outside in a field, this will definitely help people to relax as they enter your special space. You will also feel empowered as you create your area for healing and make it distinct, which will enhance the success of every treatment you give.
Plan the order you are going to place crystals on your client. Going in one direction is better and less noticeable for your client than a haphazard approach. If you drop a crystal, leave it and work with another. If a crystal slips on a client, leave it—you can retrieve it later wherever it ends up! Assume it either wants to be where it has moved to (in which case it hasn’t “slipped”) or place another crystal where you think it needs to be.
Choose your setup, too—are you going to work on a therapy couch or pillows on the floor? When I started working as a crystal healer I always preferred working on the floor with lots of mats and pillows. Sometimes with Crystal Reiki Healing you will find that you are placing crystals around the body in the aura (see page 84) and this can be difficult on a therapy bed. If you do prefer a therapy bed, opt for a wider one rather than the “standard” 24-inch (60-cm) wide bed.
ARRANGING YOUR CRYSTALS
Whether you are working from a fixed location or traveling to different venues, many healers enjoy the gentle ritual of arranging their crystals before beginning a treatment as a way of focusing, centering, and grounding. You can arrange your crystals in the chakra/rainbow colors, in the shape of a compass (so north is always at the top or head of the bed), as a display in the shape of a heart, spiral, star, or animal, by mineral type, form, or size, aligned with the elements or planets, or any other way you feel works for you. There are no rules to this, only ideas as a starting point for your own creativity and requirements. Rituals can be as simple or complex as you need them to be.
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
Your treatment room should be able to hold all your client’s issues, so they don’t spill out into your life. Keeping all healing matters confidential is essential but it also helps in other ways. If your therapy room is a confidential space, and you make this clear to your clients, then it is easy for you to leave your client’s problems in the room when you step out and close the door. If you find this difficult, then work with a crystal ball at the end of every working day. Once you’ve seen your last client and cleansed and tidied your therapy room, sit quietly with your crystal ball. Imagine in your mind a picture of your last client and watch as they float into the crystal ball, where the crystal will hold their energy and transmute it as it continues to send them healing. Do this with each client you have treated, one by one. (You can also do the same thing with anyone and anything else that is worrying you or causing you stress, such as the driver who cut you up on your way home or your mother-in-law who’s visiting at the weekend.)
Psychic protection can help prevent you from taking on clients’ “stuff”—their issues. Try wearing, or carrying in your pocket or bra, tourmaline or other protective crystals (see opposite) or create a tourmaline medicine wheel.
TOURMALINE MEDICINE WHEEL
The tourmaline medicine wheel gives protection in any situation or place where its energies are focused, and to anyone. Select one tourmaline crystal to represent you or your therapy room. Select eight others, so you have a total of nine tourmaline crystals. Place the crystal representing you on a table, the floor, or any flat surface and create a wheel around it, placing first the stone to the North, which represents the gods, or things that are out of your control. Then the West—the physical world, which usually relates to things like money, careers, and finance. Next, the South—everything that is nurturing, such as home and family. Before you place a crystal in the East, fill in the gaps—northeast, northwest, southwest, southeast—so that when you place the one in the East, which represents the gateway to the psychic and spiritual worlds, you are completing the circle and closing the wheel of protection.
Tourmaline—especially verdelite (green tourmaline), rubellite (pink), and black tourmaline
Lapis lazuli
Ruby
Quartz
Red jasper
Mookaite
Tangerine quartz
Peridot
Kunzite
Angel aura quartz
Aqua aura
Aquamarine
Turquoise
Spirit quartz
Goddess stone
Obsidian
Pyrite
Agate
Stibnite
Smoky quartz
Red jasper
Kunzite
Stibnite
Pink rubellite
Aquamarine
Mookaite
Make sure you have a calm space before you start so you can focus and center yourself. Many people benefit from some form of meditation, ritual or ceremony. Try holding your quartz master crystal (see page 21): look at the termination and ask your Crystal Reiki Guide, and any others who might help, to join you. If you have Reiki Level 2 or above, draw the Reiki symbols in the corners of the room. Then use the powering self-treatment exercise on page 68 or do the Crystal Reiki Healing Gassho meditation.
CRYSTAL REIKI HEALING GASSHO MEDITATION WITH QUARTZ MASTER CRYSTAL
Gassho means two hands coming together in the praying hand or prayer pose. It is a gesture used in the East for meditation and prayer as well as a sign of greeting, gratitude, reverence, or apology. It is also the only meditation we know that Usui Sensei practiced himself.
This is a perfect, simple meditation you can perform every day. It is suggested that you practice this for 20 minutes when you wake in the morning and before you go to bed at night. I recommend you start by doing at least 10 minutes daily and you will quickly see the positive results it can yield.
Sit down somewhere comfortably where you can keep your spine straight. Hold your quartz master crystal (see page 21) vertically, with the termination at the top, between your palms with your hands in prayer position in front of your chest. Focus your attention on the crystal tip. Try not to think about anything other than the tip of the crystal and allow yourself to relax. Thoughts will come into your mind. Don’t get into a discussion or have an argument with them. Just accept them, let them pass through your mind, and bring your attention back to the tip of your crystal.
CRYSTAL REIKI GROUNDING
This is very simple but important. You should ensure you are grounded before you begin a treatment and that both you and anyone you are treating are grounded at the end. Some folks discover a floaty, airy feeling when either giving or receiving Crystal Reiki Healing and sometimes they really enjoy this experience. However, it is not helpful if you intend to do anything practical after the treatment—such as driving home!
To ground yourself, hold two hematite stones, one in each hand, recognizing their weight and imagining Reiki energy flowing from the top of your head all the way down your body to your feet. Take three deep breaths. Very quickly your hands will begin to feel heavy. This feeling grounds most people in a couple of minutes.
The Reiki symbol Raku (see page 34) can also be an excellent grounder. Try creating the raku symbol from hematite stones in your meditation room or under your therapy bed, if you have one. Simply having this symbol under the bed by the feet is grounding.
