Choosing Stones and Crystals, Stone and Crystals Choosing you

There are all sorts of lists of suggestions  for choosing  crystals and stones for various kinds of work. These lists  are often  useful guidelines, However, most people do not start working and gathering crystal helpers by choosing  from lists  or in a cool logical way .

    People  choose stones for beauty, They heed an impulse ,The dog drops a rock at Their  feet ...Stones find you, They call you . You happen upon them,. One moment you may have been  laughing heartily at the ridiculous
idea that crystals could have healing functions and/or   connect you with wisdom and the next moment  you were having a conversation with crystal deva in a room full of rocks.

  You may have collected some stones  as a child. Perhaps you picked up a few on vacation . You may have been drawn to jewelry made with natural gemstones.  You have them or will have them  because .they attract you  in some way That is the most important reason to choose a stone That you want it. Why  you want it does not really matter .

    Some people will need an excuse to buy / get  them so the some first crystals  may  act the part of a paper weight or a bookend  or even an ashtray or bowl who knows For personal enjoyment, meditation , for putting under your bed , for propping a door open , on a shelf as a room clearing and energy enhancing tool.
I'd like to suggest that people keep an eye out for a larger "house" stone or two, a piece big enough to put  on a table and look at /meditate on  .  One  or more stones or clusters  to  hold that fill the palm  some stones that a big enough to gaze on reflectively without squinting.
Maybe some amethyst or  some rose quartz ,a nice hunk of petrified wood even a perfectly ordinary round gray rock  will be among the stones the call you . what stones You choose what stones choose you will be different for each of us.
A flat  quartz cluster or a Selinite wand can be used to rest smaller stones on to clear them . Clusters both large and small  have many uses  and can  make good room healing /clearing enhancing stones As well as helping harmonize group and family harmony Even a big hunk of something to guard your door or greet visitors .
 
A selection of small stones is valuable for work in laying on of stones, for carrying   with you and for many other purposes. Choose  tumbled and natural stones  sized between a dime and a dollar or so for  placing on
people or for casting.  When they have a flat  side they will stay on a person  or stop  in place when thrown without rolling excessively and won't be so easily lost ..You do not them to be very heavy because too
much weight  can become uncomfortable  Stones placed  at the brow and throat should  not be too large because there is not a lot of room there.

It is good to have examples of natural rough unpolished stones  and tumbled and polished stones . So that you can discover what forms suit you best.
When you do start to get systematic you'll  probably want at least two stones of each spectrum colors  .  They do not need to be the same kind of stones . Shaped stones such as oval cabochons are used by a lot of people  for on the  body work.
 
Formal crystal healing such as laying on of stones  is not what most people first use crystals for . So your first personal stones may be very different than the ones you will want later.
Jewelry pieces can be chosen to wear for specific purposes and necklaces, bracelets rings and earrings  in many stones are widely available and can be worn without drawing undue attention . You do not need to carry a large box crystals around with you all the time . Some people prefer to work with beads and jewelry /. Some of us always end up taking the jewelry apart for the stones .It may take a while to discover what ways of working with crystals and what kind of them you prefer to work with.

When you are out looking for stones do not let a list or plan get in the way of your intuition  there may be something you need , want ,will love that you would over look if you  just read the list .  It is good to have a number of quartz points they don't have to be large  and when you start out do not try at first to find special shapes just select some
you like . Later you may want to explore many of the forms with specialized uses

Many crystal workers choose to work only with perfect chip free stones and may prefer clear stones to those with cloudiness and inclusions .My personal experience has been that this is not essential and that in
many cases the chips inclusions cracks discoloration etc. add to the experience and effectiveness of the stone and like people changes are normal. The crystals do not reject us because we are imperfect  .
Though if one of the specialized forms breaks in a way that alters the form significantly  the use for the stone may change also.
Some people feel that there is a correlation between the size  or gem quality of a stone and its ability to do work or assist with healing .I find that for the most part this does not particularly matter because rather than the power just  being part of the essence of the physical stone , The stones act as a channel for healing energy and a connection
to specific spiritual sources or deva. and there are techniques for amplifying the effectiveness and clarity of the stones you are working with.

For the most part choose the crystals that attract. Sometimes however,  a crystal will repel you  you will actively dislike it  . This may mean that you are not ready to deal with the specific areas of healing that
the stone is attuned to  or that you are not ready to face a problem area in your life . This is more likely to happen with stones you are given rather than choose yourself .
Quite often you will find great value in working with this  stone  in the future when you are ready . You can set it aside   Look up the properties  of the stones you don't like as well as the properties of those you do like .

 Allow the crystals, minerals, rocks, gems and stones you need to find you  .You never know where they will turn up or come from . Your stone may be the only rock in a bookstore My favorite piece  of petrified wood
used to be in a book store. Do not limit yourself to looking in fancy stores and don't ignore the local rocks some people's common pebbles are another persons precious stones .Pet supply stores sometimes have very nice stones for putting in terrariums and aquariums. Garden shops occasionally have some nice rocks
.
Naturally there are a lot of stones  rocks crystals and mineral treasures outside. Perhaps you will have opportunities to go on rock gathering expeditions.  Keep an eye out for stones whenever you go out because you
make have them find you almost anywhere.
When you do not have a strong sense of attraction to a particular stone and are selecting from a number of them.  You may want to  try one of the methods  for  sensing crystal energy or helping to amplify intuitive
information.  You could try to riffle through a bunch of stones and see if any "stick" to your fingers  or if you feel heat  from them.  People who feel energy from crystals will hold their hand above the stones to feel which one seems to call  . Pendulums are also used quite often  for helping choose stones .
Rather than rushing to gather a huge bunch of different stones and only exploring them superficially. Take your time to get to know a few really well  .  I like to select a different stone each week from my collection  to focus on  with meditation holding and study of written materials and always learn something new.

You will want to learn something about the physical properties of the stones  in order to care for them well . Some stones are fragile. Others are soft or  scratch easily  some stones will chip and others will dissolve in water   Some stones do not travel well and others are pretty durable.

Most stones have traditional uses in both healing and magical practices.When you  want to find a particular stone for a particular purpose try whichever approach to working with crystals you feel called to. Explore different approaches   to stones and study different systems  of  properties . You can often adapt a stone or a practice from one system into another .

Think about What general kinds of stones attract you .  Do you prefer a particular form  ? Is there any stone that you dislike? Where have you found stones ?