The [wo]man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
—CONFUCIUS
HI, I’M COLLEEN, and I’m a shaman—though I’m probably not your typical shaman (I also happen to wear fake eyelashes and high heels to work). I spend my days conducting intuitive crystal readings with clients, teaching Shaman School, working with the editorial community on mystically minded content, and talking at speaking engagements about my favorite thing—crystals! But it wasn’t always this way. In my “past life,” I was a fashion stylist, which I did successfully for fifteen years, living your typical life in New York City. Then, ten years ago I got a personal ping from the universe telling me it was time to make a huge life shift. I started having premonitions, seeing spirits/apparitions, hearing voices, and being told by complete strangers on the street that I was a healer. What was happening?
Before I answer that, let’s backtrack a bit. I grew up your typical Midwestern Irish Catholic girl, but there were signs all along, from the moment I entered this world, that I was meant to embrace the mystical life. I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the day of the High Priestess (August 29, making me a Virgo, the sign of the Healer), during an intense electrical storm. My mom had a contraction every time lightning streaked or thunder crashed outside the hospital window. Years later, an astrologer would explain to me that this was a very auspicious weather pattern, due to the specific alignment of the planets at the time of my birth.
As a kid, I always had an uncanny intuitive sense. At age seven, I woke up one morning and somehow just knew the winning numbers to that night’s pick-3 lotto jackpot. I convinced my mom to buy a ticket, and the $2,000 prize money allowed my family to buy a totally boss camcorder. I also stunned my first-grade teacher, Sister Mathias, by guessing the exact number of gumballs in the glass jar in our classroom. This ability, known as claircognizance—when someone just knows, though they can’t explain why or how they got the information—started for me when I was small. I still have it today, though now I work with my intuition in a professional setting, relying on my skills to conduct Intuitive Crystal Readings, Psychic Business Building Sessions, or Shamanic Closet Cleansings for my clients.
MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
Crystals have long been a part of my life, though it took me some time to realize that they were my calling. I have always been drawn to blingy statement jewelry, but it wasn’t until I set foot in my first metaphysical shop eleven years ago, on the random recommendation of a friend, that I began to discover the real power of gemstones. A metaphysical shop or “New Age” store is one that houses tools and educational materials—like tarot cards, books, candles, sage, pendulums, and, of course, crystals—related to spiritual or religious beliefs and practices.
The moment I walked into this shop, I locked eyes with a woman named SheyShey (which means “thank you” in Chinese) who would completely change my life and end up becoming my first crystals mentor. But at the time, I was a skeptic. “What can I help you find?” SheyShey asked as she approached me. My sarcastic inner voice was screaming, My sanity! but all I managed to say was, “I don’t know.” SheyShey replied, “Well, look around and see what speaks to you.” I started browsing the shelves and chose several crystal necklaces based on their radiant color and intricate textures. SheyShey looked at me and said, “Oh, you aren’t happy with some of the relationships in your life. I don’t think you are happy in your career, and you want to make more money. Plus, you are feeling lost and looking for clarity.” I was stunned, and found myself holding back tears, as everything she had just said was correct. “How did you know those things?” I asked. She smiled mysteriously and said, “By the crystals you chose, of course. Each crystal has a certain meaning. We wear crystals to help us with what we are trying to work on in life.” How was her intuition so spot-on? I walked out of the store trying to make sense of what had just happened—and with three necklaces: Rose Quartz for love, Clear Quartz for clarity, and Citrine for abundance in business (SheyShey had explained their meaning to me). That night, lying in bed with my new purchases around my neck, I replayed the day’s events in my head, my mind racing. I had to know more!
I went back to see SheyShey a few weeks later. She greeted me warmly and asked, “What stones are speaking to you today?” I picked up two more necklaces, and she immediately said “Oh, you are having trouble with your voice. You have many important things to tell him, but you are holding back. You are also about to start traveling more for work, so those are a good choice, too.” Again, I stared at her, wide-eyed. There was indeed someone in my life who I needed to have a heart-to-heart with, I just didn’t have the balls to do it. I had also just signed on for an ongoing project that paid well—and that would put me on airplanes about 75 percent of the time. I told her this. Her response? “Oh, good, the Citrine is working nicely for you.” (This amazing job had materialized after my first visit to the store, when I’d bought the Citrine necklace for business abundance.) I bought the two new necklaces without hesitation this time, thus adding Lapis Lazuli, stone of communication, and Tiger’s Eye, stone of protection in travel, to my arsenal.
SheyShey had blown my mind, and I went back to see her again and again, to learn from her and to build my collection. Eventually I became a permanent fixture in the store, where I would sit on a little wooden bench and listen (which felt reminiscent of sitting in a church pew every Sunday through my childhood), absorbing everything that SheyShey had to teach me like a sponge. I learned that SheyShey was Chinese, a Buddhist, and a lawyer turned “Crystals Master,” and she has since become one of my greatest teachers. I am eternally grateful that she was so patient with me that first day in the shop, and that she took me under her wing and gave me my start in the world of crystals. Everything that I am about to share with you, I owe to her.
Not long after first meeting SheyShey, some strange things began to happen. I like to think of them as signs from the universe that my life, and my calling, was about to change. I heard my first “voice,” also known as clairaudience—in a Brooklyn bodega, of all places, predicting that another customer and the cashier were going to get into a fight over the price of bananas. A few days later, I was walking through Midtown Manhattan, about to cross Fifth Avenue, when I heard the same voice from the bodega say, “Stop, stop, stop—go left!” Instead of crossing the street, I stopped dead in my tracks at the corner, and I watched the man who’d been walking next to me on my left side get clipped by a car on his right. Fortunately, he wasn’t hurt, but I would have been a goner had I kept walking! Several similarly eerie and prophetic events followed, including a psychic-medium woman at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week who wanted to examine my vibrant green aura. I also started to notice, quite frequently, that when my iPhone was facedown and would ding, I knew exactly who it was without looking. I wrote this off at first, but then it happened with someone I hadn’t heard from or seen in over five years. Okay, Universe, I hear you loud and clear.
My next stop was a consultation with reputable New York City–based psychic and healer Asa Hoffman, who took one look at me and said, “Honey, you’re not crazy, you’re psychic!” He explained over the course of our session that the voices were in fact my “Spirit Guides” saying hello. The premonitions were my clairvoyance, also called “second sight,” kicking in, which means I’m able to perceive things or events from the past or in the future that are beyond normal sensory observation. Premonitions come to me in the form of movielike images, both when I’m awake and dreaming. Asa told me I needed to get a spiritual mentor, pronto, because my whole life was about to change.
COMING OUT OF THE SHAMANIC CLOSET
As I continued my trip down the crystal-laden rabbit hole, it became clear on many levels that my career as a fashion stylist was no longer the great-fitting LBD it once had been. I began to feel like I was leading a double life—no one else knew that I was splitting my time between shamanic studies and the fashion world. I started to feel a lot of internal conflict. There were still so many things I loved about the fashion world—collaborating with creative types to build a collective vision on a project and watching it come to life before my eyes, the magnetic energy on set, traveling to exotic locations, freedom of expression, and of course the endless visual array of patterns, colors, and textures of the designer clothing—but on set, it became impossible to ignore the industry’s toxic side (greed, vanity, ego, addiction, and workaholicism, with a whopping side of eating disorders). Not to mention that being a fashion stylist is backbreaking work, involving long hours and perpetual jetlag. Something had to change.
Interestingly, as my spiritual knowledge increased, I seemed to become a magnet for those seeking counsel. I’d be backstage with a gaggle of naked Glamazons, and out of nowhere one would start spilling her emotional and spiritual guts to me, asking for my advice. I’d stand there, a sacred witness, being cried on and hugged by a statuesque beauty with her tits in my face (literally, because I’m five foot two). After several of these mildly uncomfortable moments, I decided to put my training to work and began sharing the ancient wisdom teachings that I was learning—with my own uniquely curated spin. I would give each of these ladies “mystical homework,” and a “Crystal Rx” for what ailed them. Imagine my surprise when I started getting their follow-up emails thanking me for my advice and telling me how much it was helping. Was I onto something?
As a stylist, I traveled constantly—from the runways of Paris to the crystal caves of South America—and on these journeys, I began to merge my two great loves: fashion and mysticism. As I became more and more spiritually attuned, I began to incorporate my healing knowledge with everyone I encountered, from models backstage to strangers in airports. And this is how Style Rituals was born. I’d always had a deep appreciation for all things beautiful and been acutely aware of the power and strength that lies in the exquisite. But I also believe that there is power in beauty only when beauty exudes honesty, strength, compassion, and confidence. This realization is what catapulted me into merging my two passions into one unique vision, and it became the underlying philosophy behind my business.
Of course, launching Style Rituals took time (two months locked in my bedroom developing a business plan and a website) and plenty of effort. I had to get my fashionista clientele on board with the idea of booking crystal healing sessions with a prophetess who had formerly chosen their outfits and curated their closets. But little by little, and as people started to see results, my client list grew through word of mouth. Because crystal healing is for real, and I was bringing it to my clients in a way that didn’t feel too woo-woo or New Age. Some ingredients in my secret sauce included prescribing crystal prescriptions with palatable and memorable nicknames that my well-dressed community could relate to. I’d compare different crystal usages to clothing, self-care rituals, Xanax and Botox during my signature Intuitive Crystal Reading (a custom blend of techniques from many different healing modalities wrapped into a one-hour sesh), plus my Chakra Cleanse, which I describe as “a green juice detox for the soul” (more on these later!).
My goal in this book is to do the same thing for you that I do for each of my private clients in our sessions. I want to teach you the ancient art of Stone Medicine, updated for the twenty-first century and tailored to your needs! As you will learn in this book, there is a Crystal Rx for just about everything. Through working with stones and crystals, we can heal mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Crystals can help us to increase focus and clarity, silence anxiety and depression, curb addictions, build confidence, improve our communication skills, make better life choices, heal relationship traumas, and even get sounder sleep. All we need is the know-how.
So follow me into the wilds of the crystal kingdom. On our journey, you will meet thought leaders from various industries who are finding fascinating new ways to use crystals in both their business and personal practices. I want the world to understand how palatable Crystal Medicine is, and how crystals can be incorporated in so many areas of life, from beauty to fashion to music to technology to food. Crystals are becoming big business, attracting followers who range from celebrities to Wall Street bankers to Hollywood screenwriters to real estate titans. I’ll also share plenty of tips, tricks, and how-tos along the way to help you develop your own personal practice and curate your crystal collection. The world of crystals is changing at lightning speed—no longer hippie-dippie, it’s an increasingly sophisticated and growing industry.
Let’s go!