Crystals for Strength, Wisdom & Protection

Do you know someone who makes decisions based on the swing of a crystal pendulum, or swears by wearing gemstones to cure everything in their life? Holistic healers have used the power of crystals for many types of healing, and many believe they are on to something very real.

Also known as vibrational medicine, crystal therapy seeks to balance the qi (also known as chi), the universal life-force energy in the body. But it isn’t just sparkling crystals (which are technically pieces of clear quartz) that have the power to heal. There’s a rainbow of gemstones imbued with properties that can help you in your daily life, such as finding strength, offering protection and gaining wisdom. Here’s a starter course on choosing the right stones for these particular effects.

Gemstones for Strength

The use of gemstones is even well documented in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments. Exodus speaks of God ordering the high priest’s breastplate to be decorated with stones including jasper and onyx. Both stones, interestingly, are associated with the solar plexus chakra, exactly what the breastplate would have protected. According to The Book of Stones by Robert Simmons, Naisha Ahsian and Hazel Raven, onyx helps focus one’s attention and increase willpower and self-control.

Jade, too, is a semiprecious gem that has a variety of uses, chief among them strength and knowledge, specifically because it attunes the wearer to the needs of the body, according to GemLore by Michael R. Collings. Indeed, jade is associated with the heart chakra and therefore with both love and courage.

Heliotrope, a little known type of jasper, is also called bloodstone for its opaque layers of red and black chalcedony quartz. It’s associated with strength (as well as focus and purification) because it grounds the wearer, according to Florence Mégemont’s The Metaphysical Book of Gems and Crystals.

Gemstones for Protection

Agate is a stone commonly seen in colorful, milky layers and edged with clear crystals. Cultures throughout the world have used agate nodes (found in volcanic rock) to improve wellbeing, writes Collings, from Hindus employing it to allay fears in children to Native Americans using fire agate to energize the spirit. In Healing Crystals and Gemstones, Flora Peschek-Böhmer and Gisela Schreiber write that it “enables the wearer to choose between true friends and false ones,” alongside other protective powers like averting storms and keeping a pregnant mother and her unborn child healthy, one of agate’s oldest medicinal uses.

Amber is made of fossilized tree resin several million years old and has strong protective properties. According to GemLore, amber attracts loyalty and can absorb negative energy and then make it positive. Because of its organic properties, amber connects us to the sun’s energy, “helping us clear resistance to our own personal revolution,” according to The Book of Stones.

Coral is another organic semiprecious stone, made from calcified marine invertebrates. In Healing Crystals and Gemstones, one learns that ancient Egyptians put coral on tombs to protect the dead against evil spirits. Even now, coral is thought to help the wearer repel negative energy and therefore protect against the loss of qi.

Gemstones for Wisdom

Although many associate turquoise with the North American West, it was mined in ancient times in the Middle East and even referred to in the Bible’s Book of Ezekiel. Iowa-based holistic healer Phylameana lila Desy says that this “advisor” stone “can help one learn spiritual lessons through meditation and/or dream visions.” Among cultures across the world, turquoise has been used to enhance communication, especially with the spiritual realm.

Lapis lazuli, a deep blue stone mined in only a handful of countries around the world, is another known for its associations with wisdom. According to The Book of Stones: “It is the stone of the spiritual seeker and student, stimulating one’s desire for knowledge and understanding.”

Golden brown tiger’s eye is considered the “all-seeing, all-knowing eye.” Because it’s associated with the emotional sacral chakra, this form of darkly layered chalcedony quartz enhances insight and creativity. Along with the other gemstone “eyes” (falcon’s eye and cat’s eye), tiger’s eye is helpful to our inner vision, writes Mégemont.

These gemstones all have a multitude of uses, making them multitasking talismans. And when it comes to wearing them, the more the merrier. Combining stones and crystals enhances their power.