Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Ethiopian Opal Pendant and Roman Glass Pendant- Woven Wire Wrapped Mosaics in Bronze as $4.99 Auctions!


In honor of the official kick off the the holiday shopping season (right after Thanksgiving), I have been trying to list some more spectacular offerings for my fun $4.99 wire wrapped pendant auctions on eBay. I have these auctions ending most nights of the week during the holiday season. They are a great way to get a nice gift at a good holiday bargain price. Sometimes my auctions have several bidders participating and other times they seem to not bid up at all- but after doing this for many years I can honestly say that the auction ending price almost always ends up being deeply discounted from what the item would be priced at for sale in my shop. And these pendants are shipped first class mail for free, like everything else in my shop!

This week I made and listed a gemmy rainbow fire flash Ethiopian opal woven wire wrapped bronze pendant. I am very pleased with how it came out!





Ethiopian Jelly Opal: This stunningly beautiful and colorful opal occurs within spheres of nodular rhyolite mined in Ethiopia (first discovered in the 1990's).  As with all opals, it is a very energizing stone that is thought to increase productivity and spontaneity. It is believed to facilitate astral travel, conscious dreaming and clarity of perspective for difficult decisions.  It is also thought to help awaken your intrinsic psychic and intuitive abilities-excellent for inspiring creativity and releasing inhibitions. Called a "Stone of Joy", it is believed to activate the base, heart and crown chakras, bringing the joy of the non-physical realm to our world!


I am equally happy with a similar creation- a pendant using ancient iridescent glass remnants, which are commonly called "Roman Glass". Although it is not a gemstone, Roman Glass has been hiding within Mother Earth for so many hundreds of years that it feels like a gemstone in many ways (energetically). The beautiful iridescence comes from the "patina", a chemical reaction residue that has formed on the surface of the glass remnants over centuries!








Ancient Iridescent Roman Glass: These beautiful glass remnants are more than 2150 years old, dating to the Greco-Bactrain Kingdom in north central Asia from 350-150 BC! This kingdom represented the northernmost reaches of the Hellenistic Empire, essentially an extension of the ancient Greek civilization.  These glass pieces were once beads, bottles, jars, cups, vases, perfume containers and decorative tiles.  Over the ages they became buried and broken into small bits that began to collect mineral deposits from the earth that covered them.  These deposits then developed into what collectors call “patina”- beautiful layers of iridescent color. These ancient glass remnants have been said to carry an energy joyful living, perspective regarding one’s problems and allowing what is most important in life to become clear. Simply put, they seem to emanate happiness and the need to cherish life!

If you would like to visit either of these auction listings, just click them now to activate a link to the ebay listing for each item. They will each belong to someone in a few days, when these auctions close!

Friday, November 13, 2015

The Ethics of Crystal Healing Claims


I have a strong education in science. Most of my customers do not know this about me. Years ago, I underwent a very important paradigm shift in my life (one of many). It involved learning about the emerging implications of modern quantum physics. It was a very empowering thing for me, because I started to realize that there was much more to discover about the true nature of our reality. I began to understand the value of consciousness as it pertains to creating reality, or perhaps manifesting it out of an infinite probability cloud. With this new perspective, came the realization that many ancient spiritual beliefs had some grounding in scientific principles. Among these were the ideas of crystal healing.

Do crystals have an effect on living beings? The short answer is yes. When you fully understand science, you understand that we are living in a massively complex energetic ecosystem of frequencies (likely on multiple dimensions that we do not yet fully understand) so truly EVERYTHING EFFECTS EVERYTHING. But let’s examine this question on a more concrete mainstream level.

When most people begin getting interested in crystal healing, they will google about various crystals or stones and be barraged by some pretty fantastic claims. According to the internet, crystals and stones can fix our financial struggles, our failing relationships, even our diabetes! Just pay $99.99 for this special crystal right away and your life will be fixed, right? SO SO WRONG-So wrong on so many ethical levels it makes me want to cry.

Navigating my love for crystals, nature, science and spirituality in the ecommerce age has been an important challenge. My business began a few years after my own paradigm shift where these concepts took on great value in my own life. But I am trained in science. What that means is that I have a background that helps me understand exactly what a spiritual tool can and cannot do for me, at least in the world of provable results.
So back to the point- do crystals have an effect on living beings?  Yes, in several ways.

Crystals most definitely affect people from the perspective of personal belief- what science calls “placebo effect” and the new age movement calls “manifesting your reality”. If you personally believe that a big chunk of blue opal will help you sleep better, the chances are good that you will experience better sleep once you have that blue opal.

But I suspect it goes even farther than this. Based on quantum probability concepts about how consciousness concretely affects reality, I suspect that when a large group of people hold the same belief about something, that also has an effect.   The easiest way to explain this idea is to imagine “placebo effect” or “manifesting your own reality” magnified synergistically by a collectively held belief. An example: the “statins” are drugs that were introduced years ago for their ability to lower cholesterol levels in people. They work because the molecules of the drug interfere with an enzyme in the human liver needed for production and processing of cholesterol in our systems. But I suspect that statins may clinically perform even better than the confines of their physical form will allow because now there is a whole strong societal belief built up that they lower cholesterol. I believe that something can have even more effect when group consciousness believes it can do the job-it gets a boost of efficacy from the power of collective beliefs and how that interacts with reality on a quantum level. No on that I know of has studied this kind of an example concretely yet, but this is how I suspect reality and group beliefs function on the quantum level (and by the way, many theoretical quantum physicists suspect the same thing). The statins have only been with us for mere decades. Now imagine beliefs held about crystals and stones over many centuries! Does all that collective consciousness from over the centuries have an effect-probably.  That is my conjecture at this point.

Are there scientific studies that prove and disprove that quartz crystals have a measurable effect on living things? Yes, there are actually both. Studies can be a fickle friend to knowledge until the sample size gets big enough-in the several thousands. And large studies like that are EXPENSIVE. Right now there is no funding available from any organization to truly investigate, on a large reliable scale, some of the claims of crystal healing. There is no institutional profit in it (i.e. pharmaceutical companies and modern medicine have no vested interest in properly researching this).

The other issue I see in researching these claims is that we may not yet have the technology to even look in the right place.  It is likely that there are other multiple dimensions at play in living things beyond just the physical and mankind does not yet understand those dimensions or how to measure changes in them. I believe that there are all kinds of energy fields associated with living beings that go WAY BEYOND THE SCOPE of what our primitive science today can understand. The effects that crystals and stones have on living things may fall into this realm and be very hard to measure until we understand things better.

When I share about metaphysical properties of crystals and stones in my online shops, I try to speak in very general terms for a reason (this stone is thought to…….it is believed that). I do that because it’s not fair to say “this stone will heal your heartache and fix your relationship problems.” I also avoid bringing up the medical and health beliefs associated with stones because these things have not yet been studied or proven. If I was giving stones away for free, perhaps I would feel comfortable sharing beliefs from the past about how stones can possibly help our health. HOWEVER I am charging money for jewelry I have  made from healing gemstones and crystals, and so I cannot in good faith make any medical claims. It does not feel spiritually correct to do so. That information is out in the world for people to find in many other ways, if they seek it out. It is not proper that it should come from me when I am accepting money for a product made from a crystal or stone. One day, if there are scientific studies that one can cite along with the claims, then it may be a fair thing to do-but not until then.

Please remember, if  your heart is aching for a very expensive crystal or stone because of its metaphysical properties, you always have the simple option of getting (or even finding outside for free) a simple piece of quartz crystal  and infusing it with your own intention to “be like” the stone you desire in every way. This is a long held crystal healing practice that has worked for many. This is honest advice that can be given when people want a very expensive crystal or stone only for its presumed energies- they should be informed about this option. Melody and many other highly respected crystal healing sources have written about this technique, and the concept has been around for centuries.

I love crystals and gemstones. They are an important part of my life now. I feel many positive things when I spend time connecting with stones. I am very fortunate to be able to earn my living working with them. To me (and my customers) they are special. They enrich our lives in many ways. And the remaining mystery about them is exciting to me! I look forward to more that will be learned over my lifetime!

Our latest creations:


Angel Aura (Opal Aura) Quartz Crystal Wire Wrapped Sterling Pendant 




Pink Lemurian Quartz Crystal Wire Wrapped Sterling Pendant


Clear Petalite Crystal Wire Wrapped Sterling Pendant


Pink Lemurian Quartz Crystal Wire Wrapped Sterling Pendant 


Peruvian Blue Opal Wire Wrapped Sterling Pendant with Aquamarine