“The magic inside of you, there ain’t no crystal ball,” Dolly Parton sang in her song “These Old Bones” in 2002.
Sometimes in life, you might need a boost — in energy, in positivity, or even just a bit of romantic magic. I needed guidance during this stressful time of homework piling up and was seeking something to help me, so I turned to educating myself in a different kind of home remedy: crystals. I had heard about it and decided it was worth a shot. There is no scientific information to say that it is true that there is a change, most scientists chalk it up to the placebo effect. This would in fact support that you manifest what you want as long as you think about it, so in other words, crystals can be seen as a mental incentive.
Once again, my trips downtown led me to the store of purple and black wooden panes, Gem Goddess Emporium. I find comfort in the decorative tile that clicks under my feet as I greet the desk worker, Katarina Montroy. She has a lovely smile that reaches up to the eyes and out to me an inquisitive customer. Montroy gave me the rundown about crystals, the most common selling in the store being carnelian and citrine. These two stones are all about self-esteem and abundance respectively. Carnelian is a stone of deep swirling orange and streaked with darker peach hues, sometimes a reddish brown. Citrine is amber, leaning more toward lustrous maple yellow or even a popcorn jelly bean color.
Montroy’s favorite stone is opal for being a birthstone and for its range in color, said to be a “charming stone” to all who view it. The stone that could be deemed the store’s mascot was quartz as it is “universal” — all people being welcomed into the store as a safe spot clarifies why the store’s mascot is a clear crystal. It’s the visitors that make up its variety of colors.
Montroy said, “This store is a haven for all who may need it, a place of love and healing for everyone.”
In my personal opinion, the store is more of a dioptase crystal. I was standing in the middle of the room as a bright green, a color I just couldn’t peel my eyes from, glowed across the room at me. Montroy said it was a stone of relief and relinquishment. Dioptase is a stone for dispersing sensitive or strong negative emotions.
Montroy noted the season of Samhain was around the corner.
“Samhain is a Gaelic festival of the darker half of the year, winter,” Montroy said. “It’s the root of Halloween we know today.”
Montroy went on to explain that “people stock up on smoky quartz for less fear, blue lace agate for mood improvement, apatite for enhanced sight, and green aventurine for luck.” It is a transition of seasons and so new energy is needed to accompany the new season and the unseen future of this new season. Many of the stones’ abilities relate to abundance, opportunity, and an overall initiation of good things right before the cold and dark season takes over completely, or in simple terms, a harvest.
The Gem Goddess Emporium has many colorful gems, minerals, and crystals of all needs and preferences to fit everybody and the fun part is that some of the minerals can be found in upstate New York, not too far from Plattsburgh. If you do go out looking for crystals or reassurance, a good place to start is at Gem Goddess Emporium for some beginner’s lessons. Be sure to take a green aventurine for luck, apatite for enhanced sight, and citrine to find lots of cool things… You know what? Just take them all. One can never have enough help, especially if it comes in such a pretty package.