One of the most daunting tasks that can face the beginning Crystal Healer would have to be how to choose which stones are the right ones for you.

One of the questions I am asked most often would be «How does one go about choosing the crystal or stone that is best suited for me?» Quite often, stones will be chosen for you and presented to you as a gift by someone else. Many times that person will tell you «When I saw it, I thought of you immediately and just knew I had to get it for you.» Well, the stone «spoke» to that person ... it is in this same manner that you would choose your own. You select the crystals that «speak» to you.

To do this, you begin by quickly scanning the stones to see if any of them appeal to you more so than the others. The ones that catch your eye are «speaking» to you and should be separated out and placed in front of you. Next, carefully examine each of the stones and pick out the ones that exhibit any of the following characteristics:

. a hot or cold sensation in the palm of your hand
. a buzzing or vibrating sensation anywhere in your body
. a mild or somewhat pleasant feeling of loss of equilibrium
. an altered state of awareness
. a positive emotional response (involuntary smiling and/or laughter for no apparent reason)
. a sense of contentment or well being
. a sense that something is trying to communicate with you

Not all stones will exhibit the above characteristics ... some may look ordinary or even plain ugly. Yet, your hand or eye just seems be drawn to it. Trust your intuition where crystals are concerned, your subconscious is better attuned to the individual vibrational frequencies of the stones. Most often I have found that the first stone I touched was, in fact, the one I ended up choosing. Even if I took another, I would find myself drawn back again and again to my original selection.

Stones to avoid would be those that exhibit any of the the following characteristics:

. a sudden, sharp, stabbing pain in the head
. triggers a negative emotional response (anxiety, grief or anger)
. an inability to focus the eyes properly on the stone (seems as though your eyes slide off the crystal or vision becomes blurred)
. the activation of the senses in a manner that disturbs or is unpleasant (a foul taste in the mouth or an uncomfortable itching in the skin)
. a pressure to the chest or difficulty breathing

Asthmatics especially take note. It is possible for a negative or damaged stone to trigger an attack. As far as first aid in such a situation, you should hold a fist sized cluster of small quartz crystals to your face and breathe deeply, stick your face above a sinkful of cold running water, or kick your shoes and socks off and walk around barefoot for five minutes. All of these will increase your intake of negative ions and allow you to process the oxygen from the air more efficiently.

Another method that is quite good for choosing stones involves the use of a pendulum. There are a good number of professional style pendulums available. Truly, any pendant can serve as a pendulum provided it is one that you wear upon your person and is thus steeped in your personal vibratory resonance. It is best if the chosen item has a fairly well defined bottom end which will allow you to gauge the swing direction with more ease.

Once you have chosen your pendulum you will want to perform a small test. Hold the chain of the pendulum so that about five to eight inches dangle beneath your fingers, your arm raised to shoulder level and your elbow bent to a forty-five degree angle. You must ensure that you keep your wrist relaxed but straight. Hold the pendulum chain lightly between your thumb and index finger and take three nice slow deep breaths.

Either mentally or aloud, whichever is more comfortable to you, ask the pendulum to show you YES. After a few moments the pendulum will swing in a specific direction. After making note of the direction of swing, stop the pendulum with your other hand and allow it to hang motionless for a few seconds. Repeat the previous exercise, this time asking to be shown NO, making note of the direction that the pendulum moves. I would suggest for you to do this exercise several times in a row, alternating between asking for YES and NO, so as to be quite direction indicates which answer. Once you are certain of your directions, you will then be able to utilize the pendulum to chose your crystals.

This method is most useful when choosing stones for a specific purpose or for someone else. You would begin by holding the pendulum above each crystal one at a time. Ask whether this stone is the right one for your purpose or for the person for whom you are selecting it, then observe the results. Sometimes, the pendulum will indicate more than one crystal as being appropriate. In such a case, unless there are monetary restrictions (the rarer crystals can be quite expensive), I would suggest taking all of them. In a situation where the cost of buying more than one or two of the crystals is prohibitive, I would suggest that you chose the one for which the pendulum reacted the most strongly.