When I was a little girl, I loved collecting "pretty rocks" as I called them. Crystals were just pretty rocks in my understanding for many years. The prettiest of rocks. The connection between crystals and energy came in my thirties. As a child, the idea that rocks harnessed some sort of energy or power would never have been introduced to me, it would have been considered witchy. Anything witchy was immediately ruled out as Satanic and evil. In my thirties, as I was actively working my faith journey for the first time since I was a teenager, I was also actively stripping away the beliefs and ideals that had been tied up into faith as it was presented to me. I was breaking chains around a box that contained God, so that I could open the box and let God out, allowing God to be the enormous, all consuming, ever present being I was taught to believe He was.

       I was in my mid-thirties when I pulled the last of the chains off the box, and had managed to slide the lid slightly ajar. It was then that I became aware of the energy work that could be done using crystals.  I had known about LCD technology since it's mainstream inception, but the fact that liquid crystal displays were using the power of crystals to transfer the electrical energy and generate the light display on the screen had somehow not been intellectually absorbed by my brain. Liquid Crystal molecules were essentially doing an intricate dance with light and electricity to produce the vast majority of display screens available today. It surprised me when it finally set in.

Crystals were JUST rocks, right?

Rocks had ZERO power, right?

To imply rocks had some sort of POWER would be wrong, right?

Rocks with power, well that's equivalent to SORCERY, right?

Magic, sorcery, enchantments, it was all evil, right?

Evil = Satanic.

       UNTIL, that is, I broke the chains off the box, and freed God from the constraints my mortal mind could fathom.  I let myself begin to believe God to be as BIG, as MIRACULOUS, and as absolutely MARVELOUS as God is. Everything here is God's creation, right? God created everything, right? Everything had a purpose, right? Then, maybe rocks can have power.

       Once upon I time, I believed that science, the study of things and beings and nature, was trying to disprove the faith I had been instilled with. Then I grew up and realized that if it's my faith, I get to decide the details of that faith, I was allowed to take God out of the box. I got to define what the presence of God would be to me. I stopped looking at science as the study of all things to disprove God. I started feeling like maybe it all just confirmed the big, nuanced, complicated, and intricate ways that God's creation was designed by Him to be. A planet filled with life and energy. Life created with free will and for a purpose. Energy in all kinds of ways and many different places, for many different purposes. If I believe in His creation, then I believe in the power and purpose attached by God to every single thing He created. It is all truly connected, and when I began looking at it this way, pretty rocks started to mean more too. I started collecting crystals intentionally. I started placing them in my home and throughout my life to help me navigate life with a more positive energy field surrounding me and my family.

       Now, you will find crystals in some form or another, in every room of my home, and rarely do I not have one adorning me in my jewelry, or tucked into my pockets, or even my bra! Some of my favorites to wear are:

rose quartz - love, trust, emotional healing

amethyst - protection, cleansing, intuition

jade - love, good luck, prosperity

hematite - grounding, clarity, manifestation

lapis lazuli - vision, truth, awareness

tiger's eye - balance, grounding, discernment

citrine - imagination, clarity, manifestation

malachite - protection, leadership, confidence

quartz - manifesting, amplifying other stones

snowflake obsidian - persistence, overcoming difficulties

sunstone - joy, optimism, courage, emotional support

moonstone - intuition, inner work, patience

       Every stone in my collection has a purpose, and they all look quite dazzling too! If this inspired you to begin having pockets full of rocks, please share that with me! I'd love to hear about your collection, you can even tag Dazzling District on the socials to share pictures of your collection of crystals with me in all their DAZZLING beauty!!

~ Live Dazzling

Rebecca Jackson