I became reacquainted with the therapeutic powers of gemstones when I traveled to India a couple of months ago. I met a gemstone merchant who gave me a crash course on recognizing stones and the value of each one, both in monetary terms and as a substance for healing. The moonstone I held aids digestion; the labradorite is good for the eyes. I was experiencing severe eyestrain at that time and put the large greenish—gray labradorite over my eye. My positive thinking may have coincided with the positive energy that supposedly emanated from the stone because the pain in my eye began to subside after a while. My curiosity piqued by what I had experienced, I began to scour bookstores and the Internet trying to find about as much as I can on the healing abilities of gems.
Gemstone therapy is an alternative technique for strengthening and protecting the body. It also helps in achieving mental, emotional and spiritual balance. The ancients used them to ward off evil, which came in the form of illnesses, bad luck, and affliction. Some people believe that this is greatly connected with opening up the chakras, the body’s energy centers that run down the spine–but that is a different discussion altogether. T. Lobsang Rampa, the controversial mystic and occultist popular during the ’60s explains in one of his books that stones have very strong vibrations; they resemble radio transmitters by how they send out messages to a particular individual’s aura. In this case, the messages are in the form of positive energy.
The best way to do stone therapy is to wear high—quality beads around the neck or close to the body. Wash the stone with saltwater or put it under running water to bring out its healing abilities. Metal supposedly obstructs the process. If metal surrounds the gemstone, its effects are often reduced, sometimes even eliminated.
Gemstones for healing have to be undyed and unfractured. It’s supposedly best if the gemstone is round. Different stones subscribe to different healing powers.
Agate – Generally good for transmutation; helps with the emotion of acceptance; beneficial in stomach area.
Blood agate – Known in the Far East as protection against insects such as spiders – the stone gives off radiation, which disheartens spiders and scorpions.
Moss agate – Helpful to the colon, circulatory system, pancreas and pulses; aids in blood sugar balance; in China, farmers use them as decoration to have a good year in terms of agriculture.
Alexandrite – Helps counter low self-esteem; prevents central nervous system disorders; protects spleen and pancreas.
Amber – Prevents memory loss, eccentric behavior, and anxiety; helps those who are unable to make decisions; strengthens the thyroid, inner ear, and neuro-tissue; activates altruistic nature; encourages realization of the spiritual intellect.
Amethyst – Counters headaches; prevents blood sugar imbalance, brain imbalances, edginess; facilitates healing and inner peace; stimulates third eye; aid for meditation, spiritual opening and internal surrender; used as a tranquilizer in the Far East before aspirin made an appearance.
Aquamarine – Counters coughs; helps with phobias; strengthens thymus gland; calms nerves; helps alleviate problems with eyes, ears, jaw, neck, stomach, and teeth.
Beryl – Counters laziness and hiccups; alleviates swollen glands; protects against eye diseases and bowel cancer.
Bloodstone – Improves circulation; alleviates stomach and bowel pain; purifies bloodstream; protects bladder; strengthens blood—purifying organs; said to be an all—purpose healer and cleanser.
Carnelian – Stimulates curiosity and initiative; focuses attention to the present moment; aids in digestion.
Chalcedony – Helps with melancholia; alleviates fever; helps to pass gallstones; helps prevent leukaemia; protects against eye problems; stimulates maternal feelings; encourages creativity.
Citrine – Heart, kidney, liver and muscle healer; protects against appendicitis and gangrene; helps personal clarity; eliminates self-destructive tendencies.
Crystal – Increases clairvoyance; strengthens the third eye.
Diamond – Protects against all brain diseases; protects pituitary and pineal glands; draws out toxicity; renders one immune against poison and madness; believed to cure most illnesses.
Emerald – Protects against all mental illness; prevents circulatory and neurological disorders; transmits balance, healing, and patience; increases psychic and clairvoyant abilities; helps alleviate eye afflictions.
Garnet – Assures constancy in love; when in contact with the body, protects against skin diseases and danger
Jade – Protects kidney, heart, larynx, liver, parathyroid, spleen, thymus, and thyroid; strengthens the body; cures afflictions relating to urinary system.
Lapis lazuli – Cures fevers; prevents inflammations; penetrates subconscious blockages; alleviates sore throat; eliminates old and negative emotions; prevents miscarriage and abortion.
Moonstone – Soothes and balances the emotions; encourages inner growth and strength; aids in peace, harmony and psychic abilities; aligns vertebrae; aids digestive system.
Onyx – Encourages objective thinking; helps eliminate negative thinking, apathy, stress, and neurological disorders; also used to strengthen heart, kidney, nerves, capillaries, hair, eyes and nails.
Pearl – Eliminates emotional imbalances; aids in stomach, spleen, intestinal tract and ulcer problems.
Peridot – Protects against nervousness; helps alleviate spiritual fear; aids in healing hurt feelings and bruised egos; incurs strength and physical vitality; helps the liver and adrenal function properly.
Quartz – Transmitter and amplifier of healing energy and clarity; channels universal energy and unconditional love.
Rose quartz – Prevents lymphatic cancer and circulatory problems; helps the psychologically inflexible.
Ruby – Balances love and all spiritual endeavors; self-esteem; strengthens neurological tissues around the heart; prevents miscarriages.
Sapphire – Helps with spiritual enlightenment and finding inner peace; helps cure rheumatism; prevents mental illness; said to be an anti-depressant; aids telepathy, clairvoyance, and astral projection.
Topaz – Balances emotions; calms passions; prevents gout, blood disorders and hemorrhages; increases poor appetite; enhances tissue regeneration; prevents venereal diseases; helps cure tuberculosis; reverses aging; stimulates endocrine system; releases tension.
Tourmaline – Dispels fear, negativity and grief; calms nerves; improves concentration and eloquence, regulates genetic disorders, cancer and hormones.
Black tourmaline – Helps cure arthritis, dyslexia, syphilis, heart diseases; anxiety, and disorientation; neutralizes distorted energies, i.e. resentment & insecurity.
Rubelite:—Encourages creativity and fertility; balances passive and aggressive nature.
Turquoise – Master healer; protects against environmental pollutants; strengthens anatomy and guards against all diseases; improves absorption of nutrients; aids in tissue regeneration; helps cure eye disorders.
For other people, the energizing power of gemstones is found in a less mystical setting. Ginger Teehankee revels in a different kind of gemstone therapy, one that doesn’t have anything to do with the molecular structure or vibration rates of the stones. She started creating gemstone pieces as a hobby, putting into practical use the knowledge she learned from a jewelry design course she took in Thailand. This hobby has also become a source of relaxation for Ginger, a stress—ceaser that also allows her to be creative.
"I’ve always been interested in gems," she says. Ginger collects stones from her travels to Thailand and Europe, and puts them together in one—of—a—kind pieces that include multi—strand chokers and necklaces, chunky bracelets, drop earrings, and rosaries.
Pretty soon the hobby became a business prospect. She eventually marketed to boutiques and stores, allowing for more people to appreciate her hobbyist creations, and possibly derive positive energy from these.
The use of gemstones for healing shouldn’t be taken without medical treatment. An individual always needs to balance the strengths of nature with science. Gemstone therapy, as earlier mentioned, is an alternative to living an enriched life. It is a way of keeping in touch with what our ancestors believed in. It’s a way by which one’s faith in nature and the God—given can be strengthened. But if you’re still skeptical, you can always say that it looks great with your favorite little black dress.