5 Crystals for Autumn

The days are definitely shorter. Thankfully the chickens are now going to bed at a more respectable time. The trees are still very green for the time of year, but the Horse Chestnuts and Virginia Creeper are wearing their stunning orange and red dresses. I’ve never seen so many acorns! Our ceremony circle is beneath Oaks and the ground is crunchy with them. It’s like walking on marbles and the squirrels shout at me when I go up there.

As we begin to light fires in our hearths and snuggle up, I thought I’d share some warming, nurturing crystals with you.

Carnelian - warming, energising, joyful, positive, encourages creativity

Carnelian is a variety of quartz, sometimes called Orange Agate, which ranges from pale peachy orange to deep brown-orange.

Paler Carnelian is gentler; the really bright orange is uplifting and joyful; the darker, richer orange/brown is deep and earthy.

Carnelian carries the combined energies of Earth and Fire, and is warming and energising. It is active and helps to get things done. It enhances creativity on all levels, and has a particular affinity with the sacral chakra.

It can help us to connect with ancestral wisdom held deep within Mother Earth. It supports women to be strong, creative, confident, and in touch with their true feminine power, and helps men to know and understand the deep ancient wisdom of the Divine Feminine within themselves, the women around them, and the Earth.

You can purchase Carnelian here (on Friday evening) and here (any time)

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Flower Agate - gentle, feminine, nurturing, healing trauma, courage

Flower Agate, also known as Cherry Blossom and Sakura/Sekura Stone, is a relatively new discovery from Madagascar. It isn’t truly an agate but a pinkish/apricot translucent chalcedony with more opaque white ‘flowers’.

This stone is truly beautiful, often with deeper pink, gold or even greenish areas, and some tiny ‘caves’ with druzy quartz. I love it!

It has a beautiful soft, feminine energy and is calming, reassuring and very nurturing. It teaches us of the strength of gentleness and is a powerful healer of stuck emotion and trauma.  Flower Agate can help dissolve old beliefs that limit us, so that we can remember the truth of who we are. With love and compassion for ourselves, we can find courage to allow and enable that to grow. In this way we can stand in our own unique power and shine our gifts into the world.

You can purchase Flower Agate here (on Friday evening) and here (any time)

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Petrified/Fossil Wood - gently grounding, gathering in, ancient wisdom

Petrified wood is wood that has become stone. Ancient wood became buried beneath volcanic ash or sediment, and was preserved because no oxygen was available to break down or decompose the wood. Mineral rich water gradually deposited the minerals in the organic cells, and eventually replaced them, keeping the original shape and structure of the tree.

Energetically it is gently grounding. It holds the energy frequency of the original blueprint of evolution, and reminds us that, as humans, we are an intrinsic part of the beauty and harmony of nature and can always choose to return to the pattern of perfection. It is perfect for connecting with our close, and distant, ancestors.

You can buy Petrified Wood here (on Friday) and here (anytime)

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Polychrome Jasper - earth and fire - rootedness and creativity

Polychrome Jasper comes from Madagascar. It is a relatively recent find. It was discovered when searching for Orbicular or Ocean Jasper. Both are very decorative, and are used in this way.

Like all Jaspers, Polychrome is stable, grounding and long-acting. It helps us to connect with Mother Earth at a deep level – not the soil and plants close to the surface, but the deep rooted rocky depths. As well as embodying the Earth element, Polychrome also has Fire and it brings energy, vitality and a passion for creativity.

 It has a lovely texture and feels much smoother than most Jaspers/Agates. It is very silky and sensuous to hold and stroke.

 It is a good gift for those who ‘don’t do crystals’ because it is visually very attractive and interesting.

You can buy Polychrome Jasper here (on Friday) and here (any time)

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Aragonite - being yourself, finding your centre in the midst of chaos

The name Aragonite is derived from The Aragon River in Spain, which is where the first crystals were found. This type are brown clusters which are sometimes called Aragonite Sputniks or Flowers of Iron (Iron creating the colour).

Aragonite, like the better-known calcite, is a calcium carbonate mineral but it’s crystals have a different structure. It comes in a variety of colours, including white, pink, yellow, orange, red and brown.

It has a lovely, soft energy that is gently grounding and centring, and a perfect ally for being in the present moment. They help us to release turbulent emotion and to stay calm and settled when people or situations around us are challenging or chaotic, so that we neither react from emotion, nor lose ourselves in a different story.

As well as Aragonite ‘Sputniks’, it can be found in masses with cream and brown stripes. This is very centering and nurturing.

Aragonite is also the mineral that creates Pearl, Abalone and Mother of Pearl.

You can purchase Aragonite here (on Friday evening) and here (any time)

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Stay warm and cosy this autumn

Crystal Blessings from Sue xxx

Moving into Autumn - a crystal for now

Last night I lit the woodburner and this morning I put the heating on. For a week or so, the scent of Autumn has drifted in on the breeze. Mornings have been Autumn and a woolly cardigan. By eleven it’s been time for a change of attire to a cotton cardigan. Some days have been gloriously sunny and bare arms have held onto the last gifts of summer, until 4 when the woolly cardigan has been needed again. We’ve still managed most lunches outside, and as many suppers as possible - admittedly some with a bit of English determination - it isn’t actually raining! I no longer have to wait for the chickens to go to bed before I do. They are now settled on their perches by a respectable 8pm.

With the energy drawing into Earth, different crystals call - those that are gently grounding; those that are warming and nurturing - and over the next period of time I’m going to share some crystals that are calling me right now.

This week I’ve been drawn to Aragonite. I’ve written about it before this year, but now it really comes into its own. I have two types of Aragonite in stock in the webshop.

Shop Banded Aragonite

Banded Aragonite has stripes of brown and cream. It has a lovely, soft energy that is gently grounding and centring, and a perfect ally for being in the present moment. It helps us to release turbulent emotion and to stay calm and settled when people or situations around us are challenging or chaotic, so that we neither react from emotion, nor lose ourselves in a different story.

Banded Aragonite hearts

Aragonite, like the better-known calcite, is a calcium carbonate mineral but it’s crystals have a different structure. It comes in a variety of colours, including white, pink, yellow, orange, red and brown.

Banded Aragonite Tumblestones

The name is derived from The Aragon River in Spain, which is where the first crystals were found. This type are brown clusters which are sometimes called Aragonite ‘Sputniks’ or Flowers of Iron (Iron creating the colour).

These clusters orange/brown crystals form many interesting shapes. They are named for the Russian satellite Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite launched in 1957.

Aragonite Sputniks

Aragonite Sputniks share the gently grounding and centering qualities of banded Aragonite but they are also warming, opening and energising. Hold if you feel chilly, especially where circulation is poor and hands and feet get really cold. Work with Aragonite if you feel disconnected and forget that you are at one with your community and Mother Earth. Feel your Earth Star - the chakra beneath your feet - relax and allow your heart, mind and spirit to soften and open .

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Crystals to come soon - Petrified/Fossil Wood and Carnelian

Black Chalcedony Womb Stones

These amazing Chalcedony nodules were completely new to me a couple of weeks ago. I’d never seen them before. Apparently they are a relatively new discovery from Morocco. I bought them in a bag labelled Mochi Marbles. They aren’t! They are the same shape but are Quartz, not iron oxide concretions.

They are available here

I’ve just been doing a bit of research and have now seen them called Black Chalcedony, Botroidal Chocolate Chalcedony, Chalcedony Womb Stones, Truffle Chalcedony.

I like these stones. They feel very ‘light’ for a dark stone and I feel them at the crown as well as the root and earth star chakras. They have a very gentle grounding quality and are also very calming, comforting and nurturing. They help us to feel settled in our bodies and environment. At the same time they open the crown to receive spiritual/heaven energy and help it to ground.

I’ve read that they are good for fertility, but I don’t know them well enough yet to know if this is true.

I’m interested to see whether they start to be sold in pairs and described as male and female, as happened with Mochi/Moqui Marbles or Shaman Stones.

Loving our beautiful land

Since Mother’s Day I’ve hardly been beyond my gate. I don’t go out often anyway, so I’m used to that. I have missed seeing family, but apart from that my life has been completely blissful. Since lockdown, we’ve had the most amazing weather, and nature is thriving. Traffic is much reduced and the road by my house has never been so busy with walkers, runners and cylists.

I’m very aware that the nature of life in my little bubble is not shared by all and many have been tested in these times. I’m also aware that outside my bubble, something is happening in our sacred land that both sad and shocking. It is hard to imagine how we could have got to this - a situation in which decisions are made about our beautiful country and her citizens by con men, and that we have collectively allowed, or even chosen, this situation.

Never in my lifetime has greed and corruption been so apparent. Never have the people been treated with such utter contempt by those who are meant to be in service. Never have decisions been made to let the elderly die, en masse. The other side of my personal bliss is utter grief and horror at what we have become as a nation. Those currently in power have claimed ‘national pride’ as their own - a national pride of arrogance, entitlement and assumed superiority. The acts of so many ‘ordinary people’ shame them - the everyday heroes going about their daily work to keep us safe, well and fed; the many volunteers in communities; all who willingly accept and endure personal privations for the greater good of all.

These wonderful qualities must eventually trump the greed and selfishness of the few. This situation must change us. What we value, how we organise, what we choose to believe and accept, what we allow or condone must change or inevitable future earth changes will destroy us all.

One of the many wonderful things that is emerging from the current situation is to see how many people are growing food, fixing and mending, cooking nutritious meals from scratch and re-evaluating what matters in life. I’ve seen that the media are now urging us to get back to shopping as quickly as possible. I was happy when the garden centres opened, because buying seed online proved to be very disappointing, but I truly hope that we choose never get ‘back to normal’ and instead seed a new way forward with much less unnecessary consumption and waste.

There’s lots of food growing here! Marcus has been building new vegetable beds, clearing overgrown areas and creating a chicken city; Sue planted lots of seeds; we bought 4 new chickens then lost two of the old ones to Mr Fox (hence the chicken city); the bees all died and we were devastated but it appears that a swarm has now moved in.

I was so happy to hear how much the crystals have been helping you all, and it’s been lovely responding to your requests for crystals. There’s quite a lot now available in the webshop. Please do have a look!
You can always email if you want something that isn’t there and I’ll help if I can.

Not only have I been working on a webshop, I’ve been writing these blogposts and have even ventured into the world of Facebook Live. Never, ever would I have thought that these things would happen! Who knows what’s next!

We now have surplus seedlings so the little stall is back outside the gate. For those of you who are near, now that some travel for exercise is safe, you can also collect your crystal orders here.

Next blog and Facebook live on Sue Weaver’s Crystal Barn Online
Citrine, Rhodonite and Banded Aragonite