From time immemorial, crystals have been used for healing, and legend has it that long ago, people knew how to store information inside these precious stones. How does their incredible magic work? Through this clear, practical guide, discover the many ways crystals can cure physical, emotional, and spiritual problems, divine the future, and enhance psychic powers. See which ones work best to aid meditation and visualization, clear a room of negative energy, promote creativity, or foresee the future. There's advice on buying, purifying, and charging the stones, crystal folklore, and a breathtaking gallery rich in information. Other topics covered include: Crystal legends and folklore - Healing with crystals - Crystals, colors, and chakras - Birthstones - Growing your own crystals - Crystals through the zodiac - Crystals for anniversaries A splendid book for the curious and for beginners on the crystal path, Crystals, Plain and Simple is a book that entertains, enlightens, and informs. Cass and Janie Jackson are authors of over a dozen books on astrology and alternative health topics, including Astrology Plain & Simple and Crystals Plain & Simple . Cass resides in the United Kingdom. Janie died in 2016. Crystals Plain & Simple By Cass Jackson, Janie Jackson Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc. Copyright © 2016 Cass and Janie Jackson All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-57174-757-0 Contents Introduction: Crystals, 1 What are Crystals?, 2 Crystal Legends and Folklore, 3 How to Bring Crystals into Your Life, 4 Crystals for Psychic Development and Divination, 5 Crystals for Visualization and Positive Thought, 6 Crystals for Meditation, 7 Healing with Crystals, 8 A Gallery of Crystals, 9 Crystals in Everyday Life, 10 Crystal Correspondences, 11 Growing Your Own Crystals, CHAPTER 1 What Are Crystals? Crystals, in the sense that we use the word here, includes gems, rocks, precious stones, semi-precious stones, or even simply stones. Most crystals are of mineral origin — though modern usage of the term "crystal" includes amber, pearl, coral, and a few items that are not mineral in origin. Some colored stones, such as malachite and rose quartz, are unformed and "rough" when taken from the ground and are usually described as semi-precious. Others, such as the diamond, are equally rough when mined, but are exquisitely cut and polished. Still others, like the amethyst, come out of the ground naturally faceted and already perfect in every way. Whatever their original forms, crystals have always fascinated mankind because of their beautiful colors or the way they sparkle. Primitive man, recognizing that these stones were different from the soil and rock amongst which they were found, instinctively collected them as something special. It was then an easy step to endow these beautiful objects with special attributes and magical properties. The Ancient Egyptians believed that crystals could ensure good health, worldly fortune, and protection from evil spirits in this world and the next. It was the ancient Greeks who gave us the word crystal, derived from krystallos, the Greek word that meant both "ice" and "quartz." The ancient Greeks believed that clear quartz was simply ice that had been transmuted into a more permanent state. The less common a crystal is, the more precious it becomes; thus the diamond is more valuable than the quartz crystal. The larger these crystals are, the less common and even more precious they become. Even today, the largest and most rare stones are found only in royal regalia or in jewelry owned by the extremely wealthy. As mentioned earlier, this book will list as crystals some materials that are not crystalline in structure. These are nevertheless considered to be gems because of their beauty and rarity. One example is the pearl, which is an organic substance formed by an oyster. Coral, too, is an organic substance, being the external skeleton of tiny marine organisms. Amber is formed by the fossilization of tree resin, and jet is a hard variety of lignite — a close relation to coal. Most crystals are hard minerals, ranging in color from completely transparent and clear as water — as with the true white diamond and the less expensive crystal Herkimer diamond — through to completely black — as with jet and the crystal known as Apache Tears. Many crystals are homogenous, meaning the whole stone is of uniform color, such as jet. Others are striped, such as sardonyx, or mottled, such as opal. Some crystals, such as tiger's eye, sparkle as they reflect the light from within. Others, such as jasper, are opaque and have only surface color. The variety and intricacy of crystals is endless. Crystals are all formed in the earth at varying depths, and under varying pressures as well as various temperatures. These factors have a large influence on the type of crystal formed. Some of the types of crystal formation are listed below. Clusters or beds of crys