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Welcome to our first Throwback Thursday! For those of you that have been with us, you may remember that we used to have a large database of writings. During a software migration, we thought we had lost all of those original articles. To our happy surprise, we recently discovered them on a backup, and now will start bringing these to you again. Watch for them on the Third Thursday of each month and we hope you enjoy!
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Working with Crystals: Black Tourmaline
by: Ana Palles
Originally Published: Feb 2008
Working with Crystals: Black Tourmaline
Crystals and gemstones have long been used for healing work as well as in industrial applications. It is largely due to the electrical properties of the stones that creates a common language among these diverse purposes.
Some minerals, such as quartz, exhibit piezoelectricity properties. This is electricity that is produced by applying mechanical pressure onto the crystal resulting in one end becoming positively charged and the other negative. Piezoelectric materials are often used in electric circuits or as components for frequency-control devices.
In healing work, this property is drawn on when setting up an energetic flow or grid. Healers trained in working with crystals set up patterns that assist with energy circulation and frequency.
Pyroelectricity, a property also found in some minerals, is the ability to generate negative and positive electrical charges based on a change in temperature. The application in energetic healing becomes all the more clear here because of the heat that is generated by energy healing practitioners.
“…the pyroelectric effect has been known for 24 centuries—the Greek philosopher Theophrastus probably wrote the earliest known account. He described a stone, called lyngourion in Greek or lyncurium in Latin, that had the property of attracting straws and bits of wood. Those attractions were no doubt the effects of electrostatic charges produced by temperature changes most probably in the mineral tourmaline. .. Theophrastus and other writers of the two millennia that followed were far more interested in the origin of the stone and its possible therapeutic properties than they were in physical explanations. .. Two thousand years after Theophrastus, tourmaline's unusual physical properties were reintroduced to Europe through the publication in 1707 of a book entitled Curiöse Speculationes bey Schlaflosen Nächten (Curious Speculations During Sleepless Nights).[1]
Tourmaline both repels and attracts due to its electro-magnetic properties which is one of the reasons this stone is popularly used in energetic work. In my experience, black Tourmaline is one of the most important stones that help eliminate adverse energies and provide protective grounding working with an individual’s electro-magnetic field.
Black Tourmaline appears to absorb adverse energy. During healing sessions, the black Tourmaline has been very effective in anchoring the sacred space and provide a form of dampening field when doing extraction work and soul retrieval. It assists with blocking out external intrusions to the work the client wants accomplished.
Additionally, the black Tourmaline demonstrates protective qualities, helping to calm and shield us when we tackle difficult and sometimes fear-laden issues. For example, the young daughter of a friend of mine sleeps with a large chunk of black Tourmaline under her bed. Her mother sometimes finds her in bed asleep with the stone held in her hand.
The little girl is fascinated with the Tourmaline and lays it on herself, feeling the energy. Although she has a number of beautiful minerals at her home, it is the black Tourmaline that she uses when she is having trouble sleeping or not feeling well because of her physical challenges. The Tourmaline provides her with comfort and a sense of safety.
Similarly, a client who had been a victim of sexual abuse came in for energetic healing work. As you would expect, even though she had sought out an energy healing session, she had great difficulty feeling with safety and trust. We invited her to watch as we set the space for her, explaining the use of the stones and the cleansing of the space in preparation for her session.
She held onto a piece of black Tourmaline throughout the session as well as having various other stones around and on her. The session was very powerful but the most important part was her feeling afterwards, and throughout the work, that she was protected and safe.
I had another interesting experience with black Tourmaline. I was sleeping, albeit not comfortably, when I awoke due to very painful cramps. I generally keep a heating pad in a bedside basket for just such an occasion. This particular day, however, I could not find the heating pad and I just wanted to ease the pain and get back to sleep. I reached over fumbling for my light when my fingers brushed the familiar craggy shape of my black Tourmaline chunk. Wrapping my fingers around it, I placed it over my right side. At this point, I was in a lot of pain and I bundled closer, curling up in a fetal position with the big chunky stone sitting heavily on my lower hip.
Slowly I noticed that I was breathing easier, less guarded. The pain slowly subsided. The area under the Tourmaline felt warm and I could now brave stretching my legs out and laying flat again. I gratefully fell back asleep.
Maybe it was the weight or the Tourmaline that helped me, or the warmth of having it against my skin. Perhaps the relief I found was nothing more than simply riding it out. The bottom line for me was that it did help me.
I consider black Tourmaline a must-have stone for any healing work and space setting. Tourmaline is a great stone to have around when there is anger or other explosive emotions in your environment. Its effectiveness at maintaining a calm radius makes it one of the most important and useful minerals for one’s home.
[1] http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-58/iss-8/p31.html
