This chapter explores the chakras, the body’s essential centers of power, and the aura, our unique energy field. Discover here how crystals heal chakras, and the seven key crystals that work with each of the seven chakras—essential for your crystal tool kit.
The Aura: The Body’s Energy Field
Imagine energy flowing through pathways within the body, a little like blood flows through arteries and veins. Where these energy pathways cross each other, there is a concentration of power—an energy hot spot. And where many of the energy pathways cross each other, there is a major energy hot spot. The energy pathways are known as meridians (or, in Indian tradition, nadis) and the energy hot spots as chakras.
The other major component of the body’s energy system is the aura, an etheric energy field surrounding the body. Energy emanates from the chakras into the aura and back through the chakras to your body, giving you a psychic sense of your surroundings. You can affect the flow of this energy by concentrating your mind and working with crystals, colors, and fragrances.
The chakras create a pathway of spinning energy hot spots along the axis of the body.
Energy Ebb and Flow
The chakras are the areas of the highest density of energy and therefore the easiest places to exchange energy with the outside world. These are the places through which we control the flow of our energy, both internally and externally. To those people who can see energy, the chakras look like spinning balls or wheels of light—hence the name, which comes from a Sanskrit word meaning wheel or circle.
Most Eastern traditions describe a chakra system consisting of seven major chakras, with each one associated with an area of the body (see opposite). The chakras are numbered from the first chakra, which is the base chakra, up to the seventh chakra at the crown. The chakras create a pathway of spinning energy hot spots along the axis of the body.
Chakras go in and out of balance and alignment naturally, fluctuating with everyday highs and lows. The little stresses of life, minor illnesses, emotions, and even your thoughts can change the equilibrium of your chakra system. Your energy, and therefore your chakras, are influenced by everything you do. When you are feeling anxious or unwell, or are not following your path in life, your chakras may shift way out of alignment and, if left untreated, take a long time to realign.
Locating the Chakras
Crystals for Chakra Healing
Crown: Amethyst
Brow: Lapis lazuli
Throat: Blue lace agate
Heart: Malachite
Solar plexus: Citrine
Sacral: Carnelian
Base: Red jasper
A healthy, balanced chakra has energy flowing through it. Where there is dis-ease (when the body is not in a state of “ease” or wellness) the energy slows or becomes blocked. Working with your crystals directly on your chakras can heal and prevent dis-ease, thus aiding physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. A balanced chakra system allows you to sense the world around you, avoid the unwanted effects of stress, and remain emotionally calm so you can live your life to the full.
Working with crystals is one of the simplest and best ways of balancing and healing your chakras. By placing a crystal on a chakra, the crystal focuses healing energy directly on the area concerned, which naturally calms and heals the body, emotions, mind, and spirit as needed. For example, malachite placed on the heart chakra helps to soothe emotions, citrine on the solar plexus chakra can ease digestive disorders, and carnelian positioned on the sacral chakra can give a boost of energy to help you deal with changes and cope with stressful events. Each crystal constantly emits a unique healing energy. Some of these energies marry happily to a specific chakra. Every crystal will help one, some, or even all of the body’s energy hot spots.
All crystals work through a balancing process. Imagine a tube with water running through it. This tube can appear blocked and therefore imbalanced for several reasons: if only a small amount of fluid is entering it, if there is a blockage, if the walls become swollen making the internal diameter smaller, or if too much water is flooding into the tube’s entrance. In each example, only a trickle of liquid may emerge. In a similar way, different crystals suited to each chakra will unblock energy stuck in the chakra from one of these causes.
Another way of looking at it is that by placing a crystal with similar energy to the healthy energy state of a chakra on or near the hot spot, the crystal “reminds” the chakra how it is to be healthy and the chakra naturally falls back into balance. A similar technique is used in meditative healing in which we visualize what it felt like when we were healthy and the body physically replicates the image.
| Chakra Associated Concepts | |
| Crown | Spirituality, connection to universe, imagination, awareness, optimism |
| Brow | Mind, ideas, thoughts, dreams, psychic abilities |
| Throat | Communication, expression, responsibility, freedom, leadership |
| Heart | Love, safety, trust, adventure, relationships |
| Solar plexus | Physical center, personal power, emotions |
| Sacral | Connection to other people, creativity, energy, confidence |
| Base | Survival, health, abundance, connection to earth, moving forward in life |
With over 15 years’ experience as a crystal teacher and healer, I have chosen the crystals for the chakra set in this book for simplicity and effect. It’s much easier to recall which crystal goes where with a simple color coding that ties in with the chakras. Therefore, the mantra here is to follow the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, from the base chakra upward. Each crystal is selected because it ties in with this color code and is effective and available from any good crystal shop or online store. Although there are many other crystal combinations and substitutions, these work for the majority of people most of the time.
All these crystals also have multiple healing applications and are an excellent addition to your crystal chakra healing tool box. I will discuss each chakra in detail in Chapter 4 (see page 49) but first let’s look at the rest of the body’s energy system.
The Aura: The Body’s Energy Field
Your aura—the etheric energy field surrounding you—should not be thought of as something separate, because your energy system is a complete entity. It is as much a part of you as your hands, head, and hormones. Energy flows from your body through your chakras into your aura and beyond to the outside world. At the same time it also flows in the reverse direction, from the outside world into you.
The aura is the first line of defense of the body’s energy system in much the same way as the skin is the first line of defense of the immune system. When your aura is strong and healthy, you are less likely to become ill and are more likely to attract friends, develop relationships, and experience a happy life.
The aura plays several important roles in crystal chakra healing, as it connects you to your environment and all the external factors such as people and events, as well as pollutants that affect the body, mind, spirit, and emotions. As you will see in Chapter 5, the aura is always included in full treatments.
The aura extends around the head and whole body.
The Layers of the Aura
The aura is roughly elliptical in shape and is made up of seven layers: the physical aura (closest to the body), etheric aura, emotional aura, vital aura, astral aura, lower mental plane, and higher mental plane (above the head).
THE PHYSICAL AURA: Working outward from your skin, the first layer, or physical aura, is very narrow, extending no more than ⅜in/1cm from the skin. it is very difficult to separate the sense of this layer of the aura from the sensation you feel when a slight breeze ruffles the hairs on your arm. The physical aura is your connection to all the energies surrounding you—your energy communication channel.
THE ETHERIC AURA: The second layer, the etheric aura, is one of the easiest to sense with your pendulum or hand. It starts about ⅜in1cm out from the body and is about ¾–1½in/2–4cm thick. It is the first part of the aura people see when beginning to see auras, always appearing with a slight gray or purple tint. It is a protective barrier to the physical body, defending against dis-ease that may be held in the outer areas of the aura.
The aura has seven layers: the physical, etheric, emotional, vital, astral, lower mental plane, and higher mental plane.
THE EMOTIONAL AURA: Extending a further ½–2¼in/4–6cm, this is the layer in your energy field where you hold emotion. Here, like attracts like, and so, over time, good feelings tend to group together, as do bad ones. Imagine the bad emotions as dark bits of energy. As they group together they exert a “pull” a bit like gravity on other dark energy. They slowly grow into larger masses. These draw energy from wherever they can, including other layers of the aura, the surroundings, and the body, creating a feeling around the person. We’ve all experienced this occasionally in somebody else. The sense that someone is draining you or you don’t feel comfortable around them is stemming from these dark blobs of energy in their emotional aura. When the good emotions group themselves together in much the same way, the feeling around a person becomes light and welcoming. This helps to attract friends and relationships of a healthy nature. We all know people who it feels good to be around.
THE VITAL AURA: As its name suggests, the vital aura is essential to health. All dis-ease is said to appear in this part of the aura well before there are any physical symptoms in the body. Everything that has happened to you in your life is recorded here, and this is the region psychics who specialize in “aura readings” look at to see into your past, present, and future. Unlike most of the other layers, which alter little, the vital aura changes size and color continuously, according to your health, moods, feelings, and emotions. With a little practice you can even expand and contract it at will.
THE ASTRAL AURA: Another layer that changes size, and also shape, dramatically, the astral aura is involved in out-of-body experiences including astral travel and projection. It acts as a bridge between you and the rest of the universe—it is where you start to sense your surroundings.
Practical Exercise: Sensing Your Etheric Aura
Hold the flat palm of your hand or your pendulum about 3–4in/8–10cm from a friend’s arm. (You can use your other arm instead, but it’s much easier to do this with someone else.)
Focus your mind on finding and sensing the etheric aura and slowly move your hand or pendulum toward the arm.
If you are using your hand, you should feel a change in sensation, such as warmth or coolness, a slight physical resistance, pins and needles, or an itchy palm. If working with a pendulum, it should start to move. The direction of movement is not important at this stage—it is any change that you are looking for. Whatever sensation you have or movement you notice will be subtle and you will need to be very focused to appreciate it, but it is something that everyone can easily find.
THE LOWER MENTAL PLANE: This layer can be imagined as an elliptical membrane surrounding each person. Less than 1mm thick, it is the edge of the aura and the boundary of your energy system. Occasionally, holes develop in the lower mental plane, which can lead to an oozing of energy, making you lethargic and prone to minor illness. These holes can be healed by “combing” a quartz crystal through the aura (see page 137).
THE HIGHER MENTAL PLANE: There is much debate about this final layer of the aura. It appears to hover over the head, about l½in/4cm above the lower mental plane. Many people think that it is connected to the lower mental plane, but I see it as your connection to spirit, God, or universal energy. The higher mental plane is the layer that is most susceptible to influence from things other people say, such as when, as a child, you may have been told to stop speaking to your “imaginary friend.” The more you use your ability to contact the spirit world, the easier it becomes. When this has become normal for you, you will see the guiding hand of the universe all around you.
Practical Exercise: Changing Your Vital Aura
The next time you go to the grocery store, try contracting your aura. Think about it shrinking smaller and smaller, coming in close all around you. Picture yourself shrinking in size. Imagine you are invisible. Notice what happens as you do your shopping. You’ll find people just don’t notice you, bump into your cart, and generally seem to ignore you.
Before you go to the store again, try expanding your aura. Picture it growing and filling the whole room. Imagine you are growing bigger. This time you will find that people notice you. They won’t bump into you and you’ll even have some extra personal space in the line at the checkout. This expansion of the vital aura is what makes stars (pop stars, that is, not the ones in space!), who can seem to “fill” an auditorium with their presence. In fact, it is their aura that is filling the auditorium.
All the crystals you ever work with are already in your aura. You can work with them in several ways (explained in more detail in Chapter 5):
Amethyst
Garnet
Zircon
Citrine
Amazonite
Aqua aura
Ametrine
Agate
Jasper
Labradorite
Titanium quartz
Tourmaline
Diamond
Petalite
Rutile
