Where Stone Meets Spirit

Most crystal carvings that you see in a store are predominantly machine made. Blocks of the stone are measured and cut, then placed into a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine that carves the stone. A worker then adds the details before putting it into a tumbler to get polished.

This is how stores are able to stock so many carvings for relatively low prices. And it serves a purpose because there’s a demand.

In reality, quality stone carving by hand is hard and skilled work, where the hours spent on the craft may not add up to a decent profit in the end. It’s why you don’t see a ton of hand carved crystals out there and, if you do, they’re either astronomically pricy or made by low paid - and somewhat exploited - craftspeople in labor-cheap countries.

This has never sat right with me. Crystals have an inherent resonant magic in of themselves, and to churn them out with machines and exploited labor and sell them as healing or magic tools is icky.

I’m a magus - a sorceror - and I work magic and spells as part of my day to day and professional lives. I use crystals for specific purposes throughout a lot of my work; if you’ve had a reading with me, you’ve seen the ways I use crystals in my readings.

Apart from readings, there are crystals that I place spirits within (a spirit house), crystals I use to help open up a client’s energy, crystals I link together to allow me to tap into different locations easier. I use crystals to protect myself (energetically, not stabby stabby - although that too, I guess) and to protect my house. I use crystals when I am clearing a haunted property.

Needless to say, I’m picky and discerning and I know if something doesn’t feel right.

I got tired of going into stores and seeing the same old tumbles and carvings and skulls with horribly carved teeth (you know what I’m talking about, teeth that are just a straight line of squares - ugh), or feeling that the stone looked nice but the energy was off - likely because of exploited labor. And I could rarely find the magical crystal tools I needed.

So one day, at my altar, I told the stone spirits, “Hey, I want to work with you on a deeper level, but I have trouble finding the right stones. If I’m supposed to grow my work with stones, then you gotta point me in the right direction.”

Soon after, I stumbled upon a huge piece of dark serpentine in my backyard. And something told me to polish it. So I bought a bunch of wet/dry sandpaper and started polishing it by hand. I asked the stone to teach me how to work with it, and it did.

Then stones and crystals just kept entering my life like they hadn’t done before. And the tools and knowhow to shape and carve them did as well. One thing led to another and…