Tag Archives: consciousness

How To Make Everyday GemStone Elixirs

It’s super, super easy. Anyone can do it. Let me tell you how! With pictures!

There are two types of elixirs that I make. The first elixir is the one that I make in my every day life for drinking, which this article will be focused on. Most of the time my water is infused with some type of mineral when I’m not travelling (and whenever possible when travelling). The second are the type that I make for Willow’s Lavender.

The every day elixirs that I drink are made for quick consumption and are less time consuming to make. They usually have just one or two minerals in them due to fast turnover. I don’t keep extra’s of any of the elixir around because if I want rose quartz water instead of amethyst water I’ll simply make it that day, whereas the elixirs in the store a combination of gemstones to maximize the potency of the mineral kingdom for a specific usage created in ceremony. The process is detailed here.

Before we start lets talk about why on Mother Earth would you want to infuse your water with gemstones? I’ll give you three reasons:

1. Every time you drink water you could be sipping magickal crystal frequencies that heal your body effortlessly, with no thought on your part!

2. It’s a simple, easy, effective way to help attain or maintain the level of consciousness you desire.

3. You bless your water, and when you bless your water you change what the water holds. This means that the unwanted chemicals that don’t serve your body are filtered out, and you are drinking “clean” water.

Let’s get you started on making your own everyday gemstone elixirs!

Step One: The first thing to do is research. Ask yourself, what do you want the elixir to do? What qualities do you want to draw into your life? What do you want to become more of? What do you want to release/heal?

Then check out the crystals and minerals that will help you with that.

I usually use a combination of resources when I do my research. They are good ol’google, The Book of Stones: Who They Are & What They Teach and Love Is in the Earth: A Kaleidoscope of Crystals. Sometimes I’ll use the Liquid Crystal Oracle cards too. After a while you’ll get to know the minerals better and will begin to trust when you intuitively pick out the crystals. Often I’ll just ask my minerals “Who would serve me best in my water?” and go from there.

At this point in the journey its important to double check two things: Does the mineral you’ve chosen dissolve in water? Is the mineral you’ve chosen poisonous?

This is the list that I use.

If you find that your crystals is either water dissoluble or poisonous you can still use it, don’t worry, there’s just a couple extra steps involved because you have to use the double jar method instead of just one jar. The double jar method requires a small jar with a lid that easily fits inside the large jar you are using.

I’m a bit picky so I use glass only when making gemstone elixirs. I never touch the water with metals (caps excluded – I haven’t been able to find glass lids yet) or plastics (the worst!). The water will absorb materials from whatever you put it in and glass tends to be the cleanest so I use glass as much as possible.

You may want to make sure you are in a quiet space to better focus until you are well practised. This part of the process takes a maximum of ten minutes.

You are ready to begin when you’ve assembled the following:

One mason jar (or two if you are doing the double jar method as detailed above)
Your chosen mineral(s)
Water (preferably distilled, however, I often use tap/filtered water – do the best with what you have.)

Step Two: Fill the large jar with water and bless it.

If you are doing the double jar method make sure there is enough room for the small jar to fit without overflowing the large jar.

After the water is inside the jar take a moment to pray over it and to it. Thank it for the wonderful blessings it gives our bodies, thank it for healing our bodies, thank it for flushing toxins out of our body. Thank it for the love it gives us, for the nourishment it provides it. Tell it how wonderful it is and how grateful you are to drink it.

Imagine you are sending love to the water. I will typically stand with my feet firmly planted on the ground, head bowed, both my palms on either side of the jar. I spend a few minutes just pouring out love and gratitude for the water. Then I ask it to bless my body and all who drink this water. I ask for it to accept the mineral I’m about to put in for healing, love and light. I will often visualize matching scenes or symbols as I pray over the water like the Violet Flame or Cho Ko Rei.

This changes the entire structure of the water.

Step Three: Activate & program your mineral.

Then take the mineral, or one mineral at a time if you are using more than one, and place it in the palm of your hands. Either roll it between your palms or simply hold it if its fragile. And begin to program your mineral.

1. Connect to the mineral.
2. Ask the mineral to work with your intention, bringing the qualities you want to the water, infusing the water with with its Divine Unconditional love and healing.
3. Thank the mineral.

Step Four: Place the mineral(s) in the water in the large jar.

If you are using the double jar method place the mineral(s) inside the small jar with the lid on tightly and put the small jar in the big jar.

Step Five: Pray over the water again (optional).

At this point I place both my hands on either side and do a quick prayer asking that the water be infused with properities of this mineral, and state my intention. I say thank you, and relax.

Step Six: You have gemstone infused water!

Enjoy it! Make a refill any time you want!

Experiment too! I’ve had some crazy experiences with certain minerals, but sometimes that’s the best way to learn. I will say that its definitely a lot of fun with the mineral kingdom.

P.S.

If you decide to make an elixir with moldavite, unless you are the 10% of the population that feels grounded with moldavite, please, please, please use a more grounding stone, too, like amethyst and black obsidian. A pure moldavite elixir should pop up with a “Do not drive after drinking or operate heavy machinery or use sharp objects.”

The 4 Most Intriguing Crystals of Summer 2013 Part 1

This past summer I went on a journey, a pilgrimage if you will. It wasn’t planned on my part. I simply dreamt that it was time for me to go travel, and when I woke up the Universe had already constructed a plan to get me travelling and out the door. I was gifted the chance to meet many magical crystal beings and fewer but equally as magical crystal keepers throughout my travels.

I’d like to share with the four most intriguing minerals I came across this summer, a few of which I have the privilege and joy of working with, in no particular order.

The Andara I’ve been working with. It has an angels wing on the other side. 🙂

Woah! Can I just say, wow! The first pieces of Anadara I encountered in the Crystal Room in Mt. Shasta. If your unfamiliar with the Crystal Room it is actually an eight room crystal store tucked around the corner from the main drag of the town of Mt. Shasta. I cried the first time I went in because of the overwhelming love inside the store, which tells me the crystals are well loved and taken care of.

I wandered all the way to the last room in the shop and on the floor were sitting two huge chunks of aqua-blue Andara. I had never seen anything like it before. They were just like glass, but different. I touched one and tuned into it, someone playing a crystal bowl in the background.

Instantly I was transported underwater to Atlantis. It opened up its doors and I saw all sorts of mystical fish and sealife including mermaids. Entering cave up to dry land we stopped. I began to witness a scene. I could feel myself being pulled in very deep and I didn’t have time to sit at the moment so I pulled myself out of it. I queried the shop workers, but they didn’t know too much about it except for the name of the crystal.

I was fascinated since that day. I saw various pieces, and noted that the prices were rising over the summer to $183 for a fairly small chunk at one of the mineral stores in Shasta I was frequently – way over priced, over double what it is at cost.

I also came across arguments: are they real? What are they? How do you tell real ones from glass?

If you can’t feel the difference it would be a challenge I would guess. I was in Ashland, Oregon going for a massage when I came across a woman who was selling them for her friend. She hadn’t sold very many of them. For the same sized chunk as mentioned above, it was only $40. It was all I had in my wallet but I knew one was coming home with me.

Mine is rose pink, and I’d love to work with the aqua blue. I was also able to work with large smokey andaras over the summer. I channelled that they each align colour-wise with the chakra system, expanding, balancing and anchoring in higher levels of consciousness. They work fast and are potent for the people working with them. They are gifted to us at this time to help us raise consciousness to the true level of where we are supposed to be.

Research states that they come from only one place in the world, found on Nellie’s Land. They are composed of prima matra and are not volcanic glass even though they look like glass. They are currently gaining notoriety in the metaphysical world as fast consciousness expanders, powerful healing tools, and gateways to other realms.

I’ve just begun working with mine in deep meditation, and wow. It’s amazing. I would love to work with more of different colours. Each Andara is connected to an Ascended Master aligned to the colour of the Sacred Flames.

You can find more info about Andaras at this links:

Nellie’s Website
Blog about Andaras
Channel about Andaras
Sciencey View

The Azeztulite I’ve been working with. The white wand from Mt. Shasta and two pieces from a client.

2. Azeztulite

I collected a few pieces over the summer: white, rose and gold. The rose and gold were chosen by a client of mine who knew I was looking for this mineral due to its properties as an ascension mineral. It, too, came to the planet at this time to help with the consciousness and to help us grow faster. It is also a questionable mineral, many people wondering how to tell the difference between quartz and azeztulite.

I was in Shasta when I had a dream that told me to go to Soul Connections, a crystal store in Shasta. I woke up and told my friend that we have to go to Soul Connections today. We walked in and I was guided to go to the azeztulite section which I had been watching all summer long for a piece that called to me and I could afford. Sitting on the top of the pile was my piece, the most beautiful piece of azeztulite I had seen them carry all summer (as shown in the picture). My friend bought the crystal for me that was out of my price range, thankfully, and I’ve enjoyed it every since.

The minerals contain a soft frequency that unfold into transcendence and uplift. It elevates one to the joy and happiness that are our birthrights, allowing us to release all that doesn’t serve. Each one works on a ray with a specific being, similar to the Andaras. If you are familiar with the Sacred Flames you can match both the Andaras and Azeztulites to the various flames I feel. Azeztulite work in a more well round way instead of having a laser-like focus. They are just generally more soft and feel like a loving grandmother to me.

In meditations they have proven to be potent. They connect to higher realms with a softness and overflowing love that just holds a person in a place of peace and joy, allowing the world around them to go by. It’s not a passive allowance, but a surrender to the flow, a lack of attachment. Its time to just be.

If you have the opportunity to work with these guys, do it. I’m still exploring their gifts. The white one came to me to be used on others, combining amazingly well with the ametrine wand I often use. Together, used on the hands, they bring others to other dimensions and provide an experience of synaesthesia. If you can sit with a piece of ametrine and a piece of azeztulite I highly recommend it.

If you want to read more about this mineral look it up in The Book of Stones: Who They Are & What They Teach. They have quite an extensive section on it, the best place to read about it actually.

Apparently I have a lot to say about these minerals! Stayed tuned for Part Two next week! You will not be disappointed!

Crooked Thinking and Limiting Beliefs

Last weeks blog post gave you an example of what I would like to discuss today – re-framing crooked thinking and limiting beliefs. Recently at Bridges we took a workshop called “Changing Limiting Belief Systems.” It was a highly valuable class where I learned a lot and received reminders of what I’ve been working on. I would like to share some of of the workshop with you, my lovely readers. Perhaps you will find the knowledge and technique as helpful as I did.

This approach is called cognitive restructuring from my understanding of cognitive therapy. Though a very left-brain approach this technique seems very useful and follows how most people naturally think. Many of us in class discovered we were already doing this work to various degrees. Now we were just getting the vocabulary and a greater understanding of what exactly we were doing. This workshop, and article will, focus on re-framing our thoughts and creating choices for how we respond to situations and people in our lives.

Re-framing is the art of turning something around, in this case a negative thought to a postive thought. This requires acknowledging the feelings surrounding the thought and making a choice on how to proceed. Let’s talk about core beliefs for a moment.

Core beliefs are thoughts that are so strong they seem to be a apart of us and govern us. For many people, but not all, these thoughts are subconscious. They can be brought to conscious awareness and changed with awareness and mindfulness.

Negative core beliefs can cause distorted thinking/crooked thinking which doesn’t serve our Highest Good. For example, having the core belief that I am flawed in some way might lead to me having avoidance behaviours, perfectionism, or being inauthentic.

Positive core beliefs help us a long our path and serve our Highest good. They bring about healthy boundaries, and positive behaviors that protect us as well as authenticity and true unshakeable confidence that comes from inside ourselves.

Reframing involves four steps.

Recognize. Notice the thought and ask yourself, “Is this serving me? Is it positive or negative?” If it is negative, “Do I want to work with this thought right now and reframe it? Where does this thought come from? When did it start? Why am I thinking this?” And my favorite: “What is my motive?”
Acknowledge. Notice and say hi to the feelings that are coming up with the thought. You can’t deny them; they are there and real, and will come back to haunt you if you try denial. Seriously. They will. What are your feelings telling you?
Stop or Disrupt the thought. The beautiful thing about our minds is that we can only think one thought at a time. I know that sometimes it feels like we are thinking a millions things at once: our brain is going so fast, a thousand miles a second, that we must be thinking a million things at once. Not true.
Replace the thought with a new thought. If you don’t do this last and final step you will have a hole left where the old thought was inside your thinking patterns. That means the old thought can easily come back, so simply replace it with a positive thought and a positive way of thinking.

One of the most useful things I received in the workshop is a list of ten common patterns of distorted or crooked thinking.

All-or-Nothing (Black & White Thinking) – Switching from one extreme to another. Eg. “One mistake ruined the whole thing.”

Overgenerallization – Assuming that because something happened once it will always happen. Eg. “I always blow it at the last minute.” or “You always forget to do the things I ask.”

Mental Filter (Dwelling on the Negative) – Dwell on the negatives and ignore the postives. Eg. “I got it right this time but I had to try three times before I finally got it right.”

Discounting the Postivies – Insisting that your accomplishments or positive qualities don’t count. Eg. “I was just lucky.”

Jumping to Conclusions – Part A is Mind Reading. Belieivng that you know what other people are thinking. Eg. “They all thought I was stupid.” Part B is Fortune Telling. Arbitrarily predicting that things will turn out badly. Eg. “Everything is bound to go wrong.”

Magnification or Minimization – Either blowing things way up out of porportion or shrinking their importance inappropriately. Eg. “I’ll never get over it.”

Emotional Reasoning – Mistaking feeling for facts. Eg. “I’m so worried; I just know soemthing is going to go wrong.”

Should statements – Criticizeing yourself or others with shoulds, shouldn’ts, musts, oughts and have tos.

Labelling (Name Calling) – Idenfiying with your shortcomings or mistakes. Eg. “I’m and idiot.” or “Anybody who could do that must be brain dead.”

Personalization and Blame – Blaming yourself for soemthing that was not your responsibility. “Its all my fault” or “If only I’d done more.”

When I went through this list the first time I easily was able to check off four patterns that apply to me. Since watching my thoughts more carefully I’ve checked off more.

Our class was given the following exercise:

For one week record your negative thoughts. You might write them down, or make check marks on paper, or put a penny in a jar for each one that you have. If you are recording your negative thoughts on paper, divide your paper into three columns. In the first column put your thoughts. In the second column identify the pattern. Lastly, re-frame the thought in the third box. This exercise is done to bring more awareness to what thoughts you are thinking and gives an opportunity to practice re-framing, if you are so inclined.

You are invited to join us, and share with me your experiences of this approach and thought patterns. Have you done something like this before? Was it beneficial? How did you change your thinking most efficiently?

Next week is part two of this topic. 🙂

The Spiral Change

I’ve done it! I’ve finished my business plan and my request for business seed money has been granted! With endings come new beginnings, and since the completion of my business plan I’ve been very focused on writing and creating this blog. One of my advisers noticed this, and recently in our conversation brought up his surprise as to where I am putting all my attention to.

“Shouldn’t you be more focused on Willows Lavender than your blog at this point? If you focus on many different things, you can only do a little bit at a time, but if you focus on one thing you can get a lot more done in a shorter time period?”

He was right. And so I informed him, that honestly, I just don’t know what the next step is with Willows Lavender. What do I need to do now?

We didn’t come up with an answer because we didn’t know what I needed to do. But this conversation did prompt me to pull some cards before I went to sleep that night. The cards that I pulled were: Inner Power, Self-Reliance, and Quiet Time. I spent some time feeling them and this is what passed through my mind:

Starting and running my own business is a huge step in taking back my power and owning it. I need to be in my power as a business owner.
This business is a way for me to become more self-reliant on myself, learn to find the answers of what I need to do next by myself, for I am full of wisdom if I will listen to it.
Take some time off from working and allow yourself to open to the wisdom wishing to be heard.

I thanked the cards, put them away, and rolled into sleep fully intending to take the next day off to work more with my own inner guidance.
—————–

Spiral Times began in 2009 as an experiment, which each and every post has been since then. It began because I felt a need to share with others my experiences, thoughts, dreams and desires – many of which I have never taken the time to write down and post about. Spiral Times fell aside as life’s many lessons came full blast to me over the next few years until I was once again ready to post, which was last year at the end of 2011.

Never has Spiral Times lost its meaning to me, and today I would like to share with you why this blog is named as such because it is named for a moment that is still very vivid in my mind and that has greatly affected the way that I live and experience life.

In that particular moment, five years ago, my heart was being torn in many different directions. I knew that no matter which way I chose to go I would lose something important to me and so I couldn’t make up my mind in which direction to go. Crying out in despair for help, tears rolling down my face (it was dramatic in my mind so imagine it as so!), I was suddenly transported to another very different place.

I was walking up the slope of a white-blue spiral in a dimensionless and timeless space. The spiral expanded above and below me, and held other people who were also in various stages of ascending or descending. Sometimes they were even sitting or pacing back and forth on the spiral.

At the same time I saw and felt this, I knew that this spiral represented human consciousness. I knew that one could go up or down this spiral in whatever form or fashion one wanted to take. There were no good or bad, and no part of the spiral was better than any other part. However, the higher up the spiral one was the more “truths” one was aware of because the higher up the spiral the more “truths” one had lived. The higher truths encompassed and expanded the lower truths (for lack of me knowing the words that would better explain this experience without judgement I will use lower and higher even though no part on the spiral is better than another). Each person was living their truth, and as such was on the part of the spiral that vibrated to their truth. As each person lived they were making choices to expand or minimize their truth and change where they were on the spiral.

As I felt myself move up the spiral I returned to the living room and watched a spiral dissipate into the air, literally moving up from where I was.

This blog honors that moment that taught me so much so quickly. It was a moment that became the basis of many of my beliefs and that reminds me to argue less, to never try to convince or persuade a person, to bring compassion and understanding to every encounter, to all change to happen as it naturally does in life and with people. As your truth and vibrations change so does your life to match.

And yes, I get lost in the everyday world, and sometimes I’m not able to live these ideals, but the spiral reminds me of these ideals.

As I shift, Spiral Times shifts. Writing here for the last few months has allowed me to come to know what it is exactly that I really want to put on in the world at this moment. What I have been writing here doesn’t belong here. It belongs to Willows Lavender.

And so the Spiral Times is going to shift, make a transition, perhaps even experience a metamorphosis into what I’ve been guided that it needs to be.

On May 1st I will post again to inform you of any updates, and hopefully the Spiral Times will resume its journey anew at that time.

Until then,
Adios.

Who is Mirroring You?

What do the people around you reflect?

Many times I’ve come across the concept that the other people that I encounter are mirrors for what’s happening within me. The first time I encountered the phrase I sat back and contemplated it, rolling the phrase “People are mirrors for your inner self.” I knew it was important, but I didn’t quite understand it or realize it.

For many years after I tried to grasp the concept, tried to feel what it means for others to be a mirror of myself or to be a mirror for the person. I think once the concept is fully realized in a person will change the whole person’s behavior and the way they interact with people. Once fully realized, a person can see or feel the sweeping undertows of an interaction with another person and what is truly going on in a situation.

A small piece of Maya or illusion is removed.

Sometimes my brain has a very hard time conceptualizing a particular concept. This was one such concept. My brain twisted and bent as it strived to make sense of people mirroring me for a few years now. Often I would meet a person and do my best to see what was being mirrored back at me only to not be able to find anything at all. I would be asking the question: “What is it that I don’t like about them? What is it that annoys me?”

And if they were really annoying or infuriating to me I would say to myself, “Oh God, seriously? I really hope I am not like that at all!”

It was rare that the mirror would spawn deep reflection – my brain hurt – until I finally realized a small part of the concept just last month: Whatever I get annoyed about, I am. This was beautifully shown to me by the Universe and a friend of mine. I was complaining to her about how some people make plans: “They leave it all up in the air and I never know if we are actually going to meet or not! And I get so confused sometimes!”

My friend said: “You do that too.”

Stunned, my words died in midsentence. “What? When?”

She proceeded to give me several examples of when I had done the exact thing I was complaining about.

And it hit me: I am what I complain about.

Last week I witnessed a woman who was reflecting parts of me that I don’t like to look at or accept within myself. Because I refused to look at this aspect of me my reaction to her became stronger and stronger as I fought it – I wasn’t looking at my victim state because I wasn’t being a victim therefore why should I look there?

Deeper reflection over time revealed that there are still areas of my life where the victim mentality comes into play. By allowing myself to have a victim mentality and not being on guard of my mental patterns I step out of my personal power. I don’t take full responsibility for my life, giving it away to whatever fits in that moment of time.

Something else I have recently noticed is that in all the mirrors I’ve ever looked at, I was always trying to find what was wrong with me. I was always asking the wrong questions. I believe that asking those questions was part of the reason that I had such a hard time conceptualizing the idea – I didn’t believe that a person could mirror positive aspects of me too.

The Universe is not a tyrant.

The Universe is expressed in my reality right now as a duality – there is positive and there is negative and therefore mirrors in my life express both. Mirrors can be a positive experience!

Mirrors can be positive and beautiful too, just like you!

Realizing the other part – that you are a mirror for others – can change interactions with others as well. There are times when I have been hanging out with a person and something gets triggered. From my perspective I’ve done nothing to provoke or annoy the person, yet something happened for them that wasn’t pleasant.

Understanding that I may have mirrored for another an aspect they hate allows more acceptance and compassion to flow from me to them. Having experienced my own reaction to someone innocently reflecting one of my most undesirable aspects of myself in my opinion, I can totally empathize with a person who receives the same from me.

When a reaction like this happens, if a person is able to be conscious and allow the reaction to happen without judgment more clarity for both people can be attained. The person on the receiving end is able to step back from the situation and stay calm. He is able to practice allowance, his own wisdom and compassion. He needs to be able to decipher what is going in the situation – is he a mirror, or is he something more? How can he best respond to this situation? Does the reactor need space?

Sometimes the only thing the receiver can do is accept it. Sometimes the receiver must intervene. I would love to one day have the ability to take all with calmness and yet give out exactly what the other person needs to learn what the Universe is trying to teach, just like the story of a monk who threw his shoe at a student to make a point, or Jesus turning the merchants tables over in the temple in anger. (I’m sure most traditions have similar stories that I’d love to hear about as they bring a smile to my lips).

The person reacting needs to be able to fully react without judgment or fear, and learn from his reaction by having the space to process what happened and why. This must processing must be done on the reactors own terms and in his own time.

I feel like this happens quite often on a less extreme scale in many of my interactions with people, and part of the reason why I don’t want to respond to certain people or vice versa. I truly believe that every encounter with another is a learning opportunity. If I could use them all without being overwhelmed or driven crazy, I would! 🙂

P.S. Pictures in today’s blog posts were not taken by me. Click the image to go to the owners Flickr portfolio.

New Moon and Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas everyone!

It’s that merry time of year, when everyone is supposed to be full of holiday cheer! This year does not feel like Christmas to me at all. I barely heard anyone, and I myself, say “Merry Christmas”. There is no snow on the ground here in Victoria, unlike in Manitoba where I’ve spent all my other Christmases. Alas, my bestie and I are set to make dinner tomorrow night, and pancakes, and it shall be a great day! I am making vegan gluten free pizza tomorrow, which I’m very excited to make!!

Today is the New Moon, and I have been happily paying attention to the moon cycles for the last few months. It helps me, refocuses me and see where I’ve come in the last little while. Check out the Manifestations page if you want!

I think too that the New Moon ceremonies help speed up the manifestation power, and helps me see where I need to be clearer in my life. Today I noticed that asking for a new job, in the past three months my requests have changed. One month I was asking for a job that pays $12/hour, then $18/ hour, then a loving peaceful environment with no pay listed… How is the Universe supposed to know exactly what I want and need?

Christmas is a time for love to enter the hearts of all humanity and for humanity to ascend into the Christ Consciousness. May you have an amazing journey!

Lot’s of love!

Serafina

The Crystal Matchmaker

Rare Ascension Minerals & Crystal Readings