By Lina Kaihanidi, Stay Divine Yoga Studio Founder, Certified Yoga Teacher
Is stone magic witchcraft or science, metaphysics or physics? It is an intriguing question to ask. In this article I’ll try to answer it according to my university education in geophysics and many years in yoga practicing and teaching. You might agree with my opinion or might not; but you’ll definitely have fun reading it.
Let’s start.
A little bit of stone magic history
The lore of the spiritual qualities of crystals, gems and minerals goes back to beyond our written history. Many cultures have developed traditions of stone magic and crystal healing over time:
- Moldavite amulets were discovered in the 25000-year-old archeological dig that uncovered the Venus of Willendorf, the oldest Goddess statue.
- In ancient Rome, emerald was viewed as a symbol of fertility and was associated with the Goddess Venus.
- Fifteen centuries ago, Hindus believed that diamonds provided their owners with protection from evil spirits, fire, poison, snakes and illnesses.
- The Chinese have traditionally attributed healing powers to microcrystalline jade.
- Ancient legend in Burma held that inserting a ruby into ones flesh would make one invulnerable.
- The Hopi Native Americans of Arizona and Hawaiian islanders have been using stones in their rituals for millennia.
- And the list can be continued ad infinitum.
Adder stone
An adder stone is a stone with a naturally occurring hole through it (human intervention is not allowed). Adder stones are believed to have magical healing powers and the most extraordinary virtues. They were held in high esteem amongst the Druids and were one of their distinguishing badges. According to a popular conception, a true adder stone will float in water.
Such stones have been discovered by archaeologists in Britain, Egypt and at the coasts of the North and Baltic Seas. They were believed to protect against eye diseases or evil charms, prevent nightmares, cure whooping cough, recovery from snakebite and have the ability to see through fairy or witch disguises and traps if looked at through the middle of the stone. In Russian folklore, adder stones were called Kurinyi Bog (“The Chicken God”) and were placed into farmyards to counteract the evil spirits. [1]
Crystal ball
“Close your eyes and quiet your mind. The Crystal Ball shall reveal the truth. Now ask a Yes or No Question” (from an audio game built into the Google Assistant).
As a common fortune telling and divination tool, a crystal ball has always been associated with magic. The earliest use of a crystal ball can be first attributed to the Celtic Druids who divined the future and omens with beryl balls.
Images are claimed to be seen in crystals are interpreted as meaningful information and are used to make important decisions in one’s life (i.e. love, marriage, finances, travel, business, etc.).
Crystal gazing was a popular pastime in the Victorian era, and was claimed to work best when the Sun is at its northernmost declination. Immediately before the appearance of a vision, the ball was said to mist up from within.
In fact, a crystal ball is a bi-convex spherical lens with a uniform radius of curvature, thus the principles of optics may be applied to analyze its imaging characteristics. An image is formed with significant coma, field curvature, and other optical aberrations inherent to spherical lenses.
Since a crystal ball has no edges, the image-forming properties are omnidirectional (independent of the direction being imaged) and can produce the burning glass effect when the ball is brought into full sunlight. The image of the sun formed by a large crystal ball will burn a hand that is holding it, and can ignite dark-coloured flammable material placed near it.
The largest flawless a quartz crystal ball is in the National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., United States.
Stone magic today
Nowadays, the large community of spiritually-oriented stone lovers looks beyond the outer appearance of crystals and minerals. They link their quintessential energies with the possibility to open themselves to their influence. Hopes and intensions we carry are for the transformation to occur. The sort of changes we seek may run from self-healing to spiritual awakening, from grounding to ascension.
Gem and Jewelry Show in Tucson (Arizona, USA)
Gem and Jewelry Show in Tucson is the world’s largest event for all gemstone, jewelry, and the mineral industry professionals. It is not only the cult place that any professional dealing with stones has to visit at least once in their lifetime, but also an unforgettable event for over 40,000 people. The passion of Americans for stone magic, stone healing, mysticism and miracles is stunning. You could just smile at people’s craving for a miracle but it is a serious matter and big business.
In early February, this small town on the west coast of the States turns into a buzzing hive: gem dealers and miners bring their best rough materials, cabs, best quality of cut stones, minerals and new discoveries from Russia, Brazil, USA, Thailand, India, Madagascar, Africa, Colombia, Australia, Canada, China and other countries, attracting gem hunters from around the world. The show is hosted twice a year, in fall and winter.
The Synergy Twelve Stones
Perhaps, those crystals are the most powerful grouping of stones in the world, yet discovered for positive transformation and upliftment. They work together in any type of combination. These stones will work with your higher self and guide you to your path and destiny. Due to their high vibration they work deeply with sub-consciousness levels and their high vibrations and frequency will allow your greatest self to begin materialize through your work with the stones.
The Synergy 12 Stones include:
- Petalite
- Moldavite
- Phenacite
- Danburite
- Azeztulite
- Brookite
- Satyaloka Quartz
- Scolecite
- Tanzanite
- Tibetan Tektite
- Herderite
- Natrolite
Detailed information about these very powerful and rare stones you will find in our future publications.
Scientific aspects of stone magic (almost pure physics)
“Rock-solid” stones can vibrate
Excuse my tautology, but how “rock-solid” stones can vibrate? It’s witchcraft! No, it’s not. Actually, it’s pure physics, to be precise, solid-state physics.
Physically speaking, rock or stone is a natural substance, a solid aggregate of one or more minerals or mineraloids. For example, granite, a common rock, is a combination of the minerals quartz, feldspar and biotite. The Earth’s outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock [2].
As everyone knows, there are four fundamental states of matter – solid, liquid, gas, and plasma (does not exist freely on the Earth’s surface under normal conditions). The distinction is made based on qualitative differences in properties [3].
A gas has both variable volume and shape. What distinguishes a gas from liquids and solids is the vast separation of the individual gas particles (atoms, molecules or ions). Its constituent particles are neither close together nor fixed in place, and the interaction of gas particles is very weak. Liquid maintains a fixed volume, but has a variable shape that adapts to fit its container. Its particles are closer to each other but move freely.
In a solid, particles are closely packed together and the forces between them are so strong that the particles cannot move freely but can only vibrate. As a result, a solid has a stable, definite shape, and a definite volume. Solids can only change their shape by force, as when broken or cut.
Vibration requires energy. Energy, as a scientific term, is a very well-defined concept that is readily measurable and bears little resemblance to the esoteric concept of energy. The term energy is used by proponents and practitioners of various esoteric forms of spirituality and alternative medicine to refer to a variety of phenomena. There is no scientific evidence for the existence of such energy.
Solid-state physics
Solid-state physics is the branch of physics that studies how the large-scale properties of solid materials result from their atomic-scale properties through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy.
Solid materials are formed from densely packed atoms, which interact intensely. These interactions produce the mechanical, thermal, electrical, magnetic and optical properties of solids. Depending on the material involved and the conditions in which it was formed, the atoms may be arranged in a regular, geometric pattern (crystalline solids) or irregularly (an amorphous solid such as common window glass). The periodicity of atoms in a crystal is its defining characteristic that facilitates mathematical modeling.
The bulk of solid-state physics, as a general theory, is focused on crystals simply because it is the most common state of solid matter. It is easy to see this by breaking the stone and looking at the resulting kink. Usually at a break, fine crystal faces located at different angles are clearly visible: they glisten due to their different reflection of light [4, 5].
Crystal structure
In a crystalline material, atoms, ions or molecules are arranged in a strict order. The symmetrical three-dimensional arrangement of the constituent particles inside a crystal is called crystal lattice. The smallest group of particles in the material that constitutes the repeating pattern is the unit cell of the structure. The unit cell completely defines the symmetry and structure of the entire crystal lattice, which is built up by repetitive translation of the unit cell along its principal axes [6].
The forces between the atoms in a crystal can take a variety of forms: they can be held together with ionic bonds or the atoms share electrons and form covalent bonds. The differences between the types of solid result from the differences between their bonding.
Resonance
In physics, resonance is a phenomenon in which a vibrating system drives another system to oscillate with greater amplitude at specific frequencies. Pushing a person in a swing is a common example of resonance. The loaded swing, a pendulum, has a natural frequency of oscillation, its resonant frequency, and resists being pushed at a faster or slower rate.
Resonance phenomena occur with all types of vibrations or waves: there is mechanical resonance, acoustic resonance, electromagnetic resonance, nuclear magnetic resonance, and electron spin resonance [7].
Bioresonance
Discoveries made in quantum physics and biophysics revealed that all particles of matter share the characteristics of both waves and particles. This means that all substances – stones and humans – emit electromagnetic waves of a unique wavelength or frequency with highly individual characteristics.
Bioresonance literally means resonance in the biological objects. Does it exist? Logically, has to be. However, lacking enough scientific explanation and experiments, researchers have classified bioresonance as pseudoscience.
Stones are dielectrics
Crystalline solids (such as stones and crystals) are dielectrics – electrical insulators that can be polarized by an applied electric field. When a dielectric is placed in an electric field, electric charges do not flow through the material as they do in an electrical conductor but only slightly shift from their average equilibrium positions causing dielectric polarization. This creates an internal electric field within the dielectric itself. The study of dielectric properties concerns storage and dissipation of electric and magnetic energy in materials [8].
Dielectrics are important for explaining various phenomena in electronics, optics, solid-state physics, and cell biophysics.
Piezoelectric effect
Piezoelectricity is electricity in solids resulting from pressure and latent heat. Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials (such as crystals, wood, natural wool, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA and various proteins) in response to applied mechanical stress. The piezoelectric effect results from the linear electromechanical interaction between the mechanical and electrical states in crystalline materials [9].
Piezoelectricity was discovered in 1880 by Pierre and Paul-Jacques Curie, who found that when they compressed certain types of crystals including quartz, tourmaline, and Rochelle salt, along certain axes, a voltage was produced on the surface of the crystal.
Wikipedia says, “Piezoelectricity is exploited in a number of useful applications, such as the production and detection of sound, piezoelectric inkjet printing, generation of high voltages, electronic frequency generation, microbalances, to drive an ultrasonic nozzle, and ultrafine focusing of optical assemblies. It forms the basis for a number of scientific instrumental techniques with atomic resolution, the scanning probe microscopies. It also finds everyday uses such as acting as the ignition source for cigarette lighters, and push-start propane barbecues, as well as being used as the time reference source in quartz watches.”
Solids exhibiting piezoelectricity
Many materials, both natural and synthetic, exhibit piezoelectricity [9]:
- Naturally occurring crystals – quartz, sucrose (table sugar), Rochelle salt, topaz and others
- Bones exhibit some piezoelectric properties due to collagen. Collagen fibrils have the polar uniaxial orientation of molecular dipoles in their structure and can be considered as bioelectric. Studies in the 1990s provided the mathematical equation to confirm long bone wave propagation as to that of hexagonal crystals.
- Biological materials such as tendon, silk, wood, enamel, dentin, DNA, and proteins
How stone magic works: near-scientific considerations
In 1999, researchers from the University of London and Goldsmiths College conducted a study to investigate the power of crystals compared with a placebo. 80 Volunteers were asked to meditate with either a quartz crystal, or a placebo stone which was indistinguishable from quartz. Many of the participants reported feeling typical “crystal effects”; however, this was irrespective of whether the crystals were real or placebo. In 2001, the scientists outlined their study of crystal healing at the British Psychological Society Centenary Annual Conference, concluding “There is no evidence that crystal healing works over and above a placebo effect.” [10, 11]
Stone magic and crystal healing effects could also be attributed to cognitive bias, which occurs when the believers want the practice to be true and see only things that back up that desire.
I’m gonna try to be as objective as I can.
Let’s put scientific facts first:
- Crystals are the most common state of solid matter
- The forces between the constituent particles (atoms, molecules or ions) in a crystal can take a variety of forms: they can be held together with ionic bonds or the atoms share electrons and form covalent bonds.
- In crystals, the forces between the particles are so strong that the particles cannot move freely (like in liquids or gases) but can only vibrate.
- Human beings also vibrate.
- Two vibrating systems can resonate: resonance is a phenomenon in which a vibrating system can drive another vibrating system to oscillate with greater amplitude at specific frequencies.
- Crystalline solids are dielectrics that can be polarized by applied mechanical stress (pressure) and latent heat and exhibit piezoelectricity.
- Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials (such as crystals, wood, natural wool, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA and various proteins)
Now, let’s speculate:
- If crystals and humans can vibrate, probably they can resonate?
- If crystals and our bones can exhibit piezoelectricity and can generate and accumulate energy, maybe they can exchange that energy?
- If I hold a stone in my hand (or place it on my chest), is it not a piezoelectric effect generated by pressure and latent heat?
Is stone magic witchcraft or science, metaphysics or physics? We don’t know. Yet.
References:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adder_stone
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_matter
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_(geology)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condensed_matter_physics
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_physics
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_structure
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonance
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity
- https://www.livescience.com/40347-crystal-healing.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_healing
