Soul's Code

A woman's peak experience in a crystal healing session leads to a career change and a seismic shift in consciousness

GUEST COLUMN: SUSANNA BELLINI — Years ago, I was struggling at the end of a painful relationship, coming to the end of a freelance IT contract, and thinking about whether I should change direction.

My question to myself: should I take my personal interest in energy healing further and follow a more meaningful path as a healer?

I’d just discovered crystal healing, and met a magical lady who had started out as a geologist and then discovered the energetic and spiritual properties of the stones.

She had shown me her crystals and, simply by holding them, I had experienced vivid visions, powerful emotions and a feeling of familiarity — like coming home.

A few weeks later, my relationship finally ended, badly and painfully.  I was distraught, so I booked a crystal healing session, and leaped on the first train from London to Brighton, arriving on my crystal healer’s doorstep in tears.

We went straight into a deep healing session and I floated out and away from my body, right out into the vastness of space.  Far below me, I felt her placing the blue quartz on my heart.

Physically it felt as though my heart was breaking open, then like cracks or lines of energy spreading out from the centre, and finally, like space and opening out and warmth.

I felt some tears running down my face, but they were tears of release and gratitude. There was no pain, no replay of any emotions or circumstances.  While part of me could feel real physical sensations — similar to being operated on under local anesthetic — part of me was floating amongst the stars.

Then at some point I lost all awareness of physical sensations and was entirely out of body — somewhere beautiful, being shown things — surrounded by loving beings, wandering in the beauty of the stars and the magnificence of the universe, the dark vastness of space.

Coming around at the end of the session, my heart, or more accurately my heart chakra, the centre of my chest, felt sore, tender, as if bruised, and it remained this way for a few days.

Mentally and emotionally I felt light, clear, clean, positive — as fresh and new as if I’d just been reborn.

I didn’t have the slightest residual painful thought of that relationship or that person, then, or ever again.

How I became a crystal healer

I’d already loved and responded to the crystals.  Now, knowing they were capable of such heart healing, I determined to become a crystal healer and share such beauty with others.

My first crystal healer taught me how to dowse the chakras, taught me the meanings and ways of working with stones and introduced me to Katrina Raphaell’s lovely books.

Since my friend wasn’t a teacher and I wanted to become a qualified practitioner, I completed an accredited two year Crystal Healing Diploma.  While this took away some of the magic for me, I felt it was necessary to take care of the statutory and legal requirements of training.

I felt a duty to my clients to learn first aid, anatomy and physiology, counselling skills, etc. as well as extensive academic and practical study of crystal and gem therapy, in order to be the best and safest therapist I could be.

I became a crystal healer and eventually a teacher of crystal healing practitioners in my turn. Eventually all the magic came back.  With the experience and wisdom I have now, I seek to teach with a balanced mix of magic and comprehensive practical training.

What you should seek in a healer

If you are looking for a crystal healer, or crystal healing training, I recommend that you find someone offering a mix of magic and grounded training and experience.

Go to someone who loves the stones, whose stones sparkle with life and who is also caring, practical, and down-to-earth.  Find someone you feel intuitively safe with, someone with some training, some practical experience and a lot of loving wisdom.

If you just want to start discovering a bit about crystals and how their energy works — go and choose some that attract you.  Hold them, meditate with them, place them somewhere lovely in your home and notice what happens.

If you can do some kind of experiential live or online workshop to learn about different ways of working with your stones, a good grounding in the basics will save you time and is invaluable. Then explore, discover and learn from the crystals themselves.  Only then read the crystal reference books and guides, to confirm your own real experience.

This way, your discovery of crystals will be a strong, wonderful, enlightening journey.

Susanna Bellini teaches crystal healing online and at her centre in York, UK.  Visit her at Bronze Dragon.  Her recent article for Soul's Code was Enlighten yourself while you sleep.