• Emerald Meaning | Crystal for Abundance, Self-love & more! [Crystal Confab Podcast]
    May 12 2025
    Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #32 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Emerald meaning, including: Manifesting abundance with Emerald Emerald as a travel companion Using Emerald for radical self-love Tune in now for a deeper look at Emerald meaning! Podcast Episode Transcript: Are you interested in becoming a Certified Crystal Healer? Find out more about the CCH and Advanced Crystal Practitioner Program HERE!
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    46 mins
  • Chiastolite Meaning | Crystal of Higher Truth, Spiritual Crossroads & More! [Crystal Confab Podcast]
    May 5 2025
    Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #31 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Chiastolite crystal meanings, including: Working with Chiastolite Crystals during Samhain & Beltane Harnessing Higher Truth with Chiastolite The history of cross-stones and the magic of the crossroads Tune in now for a deeper look at Chiastolite meaning! Podcast Episode Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for a casual chat about all things crystals. Nicholas Pearson: Hello, and welcome back to Crystal Confab. It's Nicholas, and I'm joined by Adam and Kyle. Our crystal bestie, Ashley, is elsewhere in the universe today, and she'll be joining us again soon. And this week, we have, I think, another really underappreciated gemstone that we're gonna be confabbing about, and this is a stone that I think is probably pretty recognizable. Maybe fewer people can pronounce its name or spell it, and even fewer have worked with it. And that stone is Chiastolite, which is a really fascinating stone that has been confused with some other stuff throughout history. No surprise there. And it's a variety of a mineral species called andalusite. I happen to know that Kyle's a big fan of andalusite more generally speaking. So what do you have to tell us about this mineral species? Kyle Perez: Well, of course, I was introduced to andalusite doing my gemology degree. You have to cover pleochroic stones, and andalusite is like the poster child of pleochroism in minerals. As you can see, it has this kind of innocuous brown color, but when they are cut and faceted correctly and you see the light correctly through them, they show the traffic light system of colors, yellow, red, and green or like an amber color. And it is incredible that you can turn this stone one way to another and see these incredible colors shift and change. And I was drawn into it immediately, and I find it incredible to shift our perspective. I think anything pleochroic has that ability to perspective shift, and it helps you to see practical ways of looking at things, energetic ways of looking at things, and kind of cerebral ways of looking at things. It really gives us the ability to look at things in many ways and from many angles and that's why I really love it and that's why I think it leads into and is incredible with Chiastolite or ‘Chiastolite’ as it is supposed to be pronounced. Adam Barralet: I'd love to actually just bring that up. I've always said Chiastolite, but it's the correct Chiastolite, is it Nicholas? Nicholas: Historically, yes. So it's taken from the Greek letter, which in English, we often say Kai, but would be kind of a really guttural sound closer to that in Greek. So is marked with an x or shaped like an x, which is how it gets its name. Adam: I love that. And it is a really interesting stone, is it? Because normally when it's cut and this is how we find a cut the most, it's, you know, that beautiful brown stone, really interesting having that black cross throughout it. Nicholas: Yeah. And that phenomenon has attracted quite a lot of attention over the years. So the earliest textual references, we have to things objects just called cross stones appear in the very late, fifteenth century, so toward the end of the 14 hundreds. And around this time frame, we might encounter an occasional illustration, and they're mostly just pebbles that are crisscrossed with veins of quartz or calcite in them, and they were known as cross stones or some version of that. There's like a million permutations of this name, lapis crucifer, from lapis meaning stone and prox brass, ferere, tecere, so literally cross bearing stone. We have lapis cruciatis. We've got the crucis lapillo,
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    40 mins
  • Jet Meaning | Crystal for Moon Energy, Minimalism & More! [Crystal Confab Podcast]
    Apr 28 2025
    Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #30 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Jet crystal meanings, including: Working with Jet Crystals during the Full & New Moons Adopting the 'less is more' approach with Jet crystal energy Jet's historical significance, including its connection to queer identities in the ancient world Tune in now for a deeper look at Jet crystal meanings! Podcast Episode Transcript: Are you interested in becoming a Certified Crystal Healer? Find out more about the CCH and Advanced Crystal Practitioner Program HERE!
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    40 mins
  • Ammonite & Fossils Meaning | Crystals for Kitchen Witchery & More! [Crystal Confab Podcast]
    Apr 21 2025
    Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #29 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Ammonite & Fossils meaning, including: Kitchen witchery & Fossils Opal and Fossils combining to make Ammolite Horns of Ammon, Avalon connection and Ammonite Tune in now for a deeper look at Ammolite & Fossils meaning! Are you interested in becoming a Certified Crystal Healer? Find out more about the CCH and Advanced Crystal Practitioner Program HERE!
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    47 mins
  • Calendula Salve Recipe | Simple DIY Kitchen Witchery!
    Apr 17 2025
    Make your own ultra-nourishing and joy-boosting balm with this simple Calendula Salve Recipe - with a touch of herbal magic of course!
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    34 mins
  • Libyan Desert Glass Meaning | Crystal for Transformation, Leadership, & More! [Crystal Confab Podcast]
    Apr 14 2025
    Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #28 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Libyan Desert Glass meaning, including: Varuna Direct & Libyan Desert Glass Libyan Desert Glass for transformation and unity Enlightened Leadership with Libyan Desert Glass Origins and history of Libyan Desert Glass Tune in now for a deeper look at Libyan Desert Glass meaning! Podcast Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for a casual chat about all things crystals. Kyle Perez: Hello and welcome to Crystal Confab. We are, of course, here for another week talking about something that jumps into the crystal realm without technically being a crystal. I am, of course, joined by Ashley, Nicholas, and Adam, and we're going to talk about Libyan desert glass, also known as Libyan gold tektite. Are you all as excited as I am to talk about this rather interesting one? Ashley Leavy: I definitely am. I love this stone so much. I was first introduced to it years and years ago, and we were just talking a little bit before we started recording. There's sort of this, like, moldavite to Libyan desert tektite pipeline that many of us follow to sort of find this stone. And I remember just being so taken with it. Adam Barralet: I know I had so many people come to me and go, oh, what do you think of moldavite? And I'm like, that's moldavite. And, of course, moldavite got, you know, it's kind of a time of glory a few years ago, and I think it was being shared a lot on social media and TikTok and so on. And its price skyrocketed. But I'm like, you don't want moldavite. You want me to be in desert class. And in my opinion, maybe that's why we're doing the episode before a moldavite episode. I think it's actually better than moldavite. But there's amazing other tech types as well, that I love that are found all around the world. Kyle: Absolutely. This is one of the, I think, underappreciated gems that we really should work with a little bit more. And I think of all of us, it is always appropriate for Nicholas to dive into the amazing information that we have about Libyan desert glass. Nicholas Pearson: Thank you. This is a special piece to me. I'm wearing my favorite one, which Ashley, of course, will recognize that I bought and treated myself to. I saw this on a store shelf in Glastonbury A Couple Years back, and I had to do a double take because I really thought this pendant was on the wrong shelf. It's just too perfect, and I thought I was looking at some really flawless citrine with an emerald set in the bezel. And on close inspection, I could see these little wispy waves running through it, which tell us that it has an amorphous silica structure, which we call Lechatelierite. And it is like the juiciest piece of Libyan desert glass I've ever seen in my life. But, I do have a few pieces. I've been fascinated by this rock for a really long time, and we have evidence that may stretch as far back as 30,000 years of human history with this stone. And there are some mysteries about it that remain unsolved. We don't have a really rich record of use. We don't have, like, an overwhelming amount of materials that have been made from it. We've got some lithic points, things like, you know, spear points, arrowheads, knives, that kind of thing. And obviously, the most famous thing that I think all of us here have seen is the pectoral of King Tut. So King Tutankhamun was buried with a really resplendent piece of Libyan desert glass carved into the shape of a scarab and set literally over his heart, which is pretty significant in Egyptian history and culture. I'm not the expert in that though, but what I would really love to talk about is our evolu...
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    53 mins
  • Blue Sapphire Meaning | Crystal for Commitment & More! [Crystal Confab Podcast]
    Apr 7 2025
    Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #27 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Blue Sapphire meaning, including: Blue Sapphire for commitment Sharpening the mind with Blue Sapphire History and folklore of Blue Sapphire Blue Sapphire and Full Moon in Libra Tune in now for a deeper look at Blue Sapphire meaning! Podcast Transcript: Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren't sure how to use them? Join four crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for Crystal Confab: a casual chat about all things crystals. Nicholas Pearson: Hello, and welcome to another edition of the crystal confab. My name is Nicholas, and I'm joined by three of my crystal besties, Kyle, Ashley, and Adam, and we are gonna confab about another gemstone. So this week, we are going to talk about the sibling gem of one we just recently covered. And although we alluded to the fact this was coming, I think it's gonna be really fun to talk about sapphires. And before we really, like, dive into our our separate topics, I would love to just kinda open the floor to, we'll say, the the cornucopia of things we see labeled sapphire on the market from maybe different flavors and colors of it to things that are maybe a little disingenuous that can also be out there. Kyle Perez: I am so excited to talk about a little bit of sapphire. Sapphire is a stone that is very important to me. I spoke about this in our last episode. I have orange sapphire in my wedding band as one of my important stones of connection, but I would really like to talk about fakes first. Fakes, synthetics, imitations because sapphire being one of the big four, emerald, diamonds, sapphire, and ruby, it is one of the most imitated and faked stones. Right? It's one of the most and I've been doing it the longest. Right? Because these stones have been loved for so long. And I've got a couple of examples that I have and you're not going to be able to see it as well as I'd like you to, but this is a really pretty blue sapphire pendant. It's got a lovely little clear stone on the top. But this is one of the lyres that is out there. And what I know with my little loop when I look at it sideways is it has a clear portion on the top, a tiny little sliver of dark blue, and then clear underneath. That means it's a foil scented stone, so it's an imitation. It's not even a real sapphire. It's totally, totally imitation. And then within this little box, you can see a lovely bright blue stone in the middle. This was actually our gift. There's a couple of real ones on the outside, but it's, you know, gotta keep them together because they're all sapphires. The one in the middle is actually a synthetic manmade sapphire that was a gift to all of our gemology class when we graduated. We were told it was. It's one full carat. It's really, really beautiful, but it is a lab grown example. And it's really interesting to know that we have lab grown. We have synthetic. We have, like, imitation. There's all of these different layers of fakes that are out there. So it's really important that if you can, when you're looking at jewelry, fine jewelry, especially examples, a nice triplet loop as a base is an amazing place to start. These have come a long way in a really long time. They've got UV lights on them. They've got lights on them, so you can really dive into and look at stones and see within them. And that's something that reveals a sapphire. Sapphires will often have layers of blue color, which I alluded to with Ruby last week. That dichroic nature of showing more than one color is something that is very common in our sapphires. So it's important to look for that subtle difference in color, but not necessarily clear blue in such dramatic spaces. Ashley Leavy: Let me ask you, Kyle.
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    51 mins
  • Healing Properties of Black Obsidian: A Crystal for Personal Growth
    Apr 3 2025
    A stone used for millennia in both toolmaking and ritual, Black Obsidian is a form of naturally occurring glass, formed when volcanic lava cools rapidly. It's a powerful stone known for its ability to reveal hidden truths, dissolve energetic blockages, and support deep emotional healing. Whether used for energy clearing, scrying, or shadow work, the healing properties of Black Obsidian carry profound potential for clarity, transformation and empowerment. In this post, we’ll explore how to work with the raw, untamed power of Black Obsidian to help you navigate deep healing and uncover your most authentic self. A Crystal Message about the Healing Properties of Black Obsidian: "I consciously tap into divine wisdom and knowledge and embrace my intuition and inner knowing." Common Healing Properties of Black Obsidian: Promotes energetic protection Reveals the truth in any situation Exposes areas of yourself that need growth and development Blocks negative energies from entering your auric field Enhances grounding Banishes negative energy Brings peace and calming Encourages living in a virtuous manner Increases courage Encourages personal growth Facilitates compassion Enhances accuracy in scrying divination Aids in acceptance of your weaknesses so that you can begin to heal and correct them Helps you to address issues of control and power struggles Enhances the experience of ceremonies and rituals Removes negative thought patterns and conditioning Black Obsidian Companions: Colors: Opaque black (sometimes with transparent banding) with a glassy surface. Zodiac Signs: Capricorn, Scorpio Elements: Earth, Fire Companion Flowers: Fireweed Companion Essential Oil: Camphor Companion Stone: Howlite Common Origins: Mexico Notes: A natural volcanic glass. Wanna’ Get Science-y? Click Here to get information about the chemical composition, hardness, streak, etc. of this crystal from one of my favorite sites! One way to work with the Healing Properties of Black Obsidian: Scrying Divination Obsidian mirrors, made by polishing thin slices of Obsidian into mirror-like discs, serve as potent tools for scrying divination. With their glassy, reflective surfaces, Obsidian mirrors provide a gateway to the realm of the subconscious. These mirrors give you the ability to look at yourself, so you are better able to reflect on your life paths, your behaviors, and your identity. Obsidian mirrors have been esteemed for their connection to the underworld and the spiritual realm. In the last few years, the popularity of Obsidian mirrors has surged again, but they have long served as tools for scrying divination. Practitioners like John Dee, the famous crystallomancer, worked with one of these mirrors in his scrying practice to communicate with otherworldly entities and gain profound insights. By gazing into obsidian mirrors, you can receive messages from your intuition, your guides, and your ancestors as part of your crystal scrying practice. If you’d like to stick with natural stones, rather than glass mirrors for your work in divination with crystals, a Black Obsidian tumbled stone or small palm stone will also work well as a scrying tool, and these are typically much more affordable than the round disc-shaped mirrors. The staff at my new age shop, Mimosa Books & Gifts, had this to share: Obsidian is the most abundant form of naturally occurring glass, the result of volcanic lava cooling quickly. Technically obsidian may have any composition, but usually, it’s a glass with inclusions of hematite and rhyolite. Because it’s easy to chip and forms a sharp point, it has been an invaluable material for toolmaking throughout history, thus contributing to the evolution of the human race’s evolution.
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    13 mins