Crystal Light
Filed under: Uncategorized — Giulianna Maria Lamanna @ 8:48 AM
This is neat: remember when you were a kid and you’d chew mint Lifesavers in the dark to watch them make sparks? Well, you can do the same trick by rubbing two quartz crystals together. It’s called triboluminescence and while it won’t exactly light up a room (that’s what fire is for), it’s still a fun trick.
so cool. Prehistoric shamans in the SE united states - and i’m sure many others - collected quartz crystals for this reason. ten years ago i was on an archaeological team in north GA and i excavated a hole that had about 16 perfect crystals. the site was from the late woodland era (@ 800 AD). Later ethnographic evidence from the Muscogee Indians suggests that they (the Muskogee) used the crystals for divination. i guess not much has changed today…. altho i wonder what kind of reading you can get from a mint Lifesaver.
Comment by Dungan — 27 November 2007 @ 1:48 PM
Sounds very interesting, Dungan, and I’m sure this was at least <em>one</em> of the reasons quartz has so universally appeared in such honored places in so many shamanic traditions around the world, but I’m hesitant to call it <em>the</em> reason.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 27 November 2007 @ 8:46 PM
true that, quartz has many unique properties. it sure is pretty. on a cosmological note, quartz is often placed “in between” realms - like cracks in the caves - or used to navigate between normal consensual reality and the spirit worlds. One of the ethnographic sources mentions that the Muscogee believed that the quartz lost its power in the daylight, so they too kept their crystals hidden or buried. that experience was exciting for me, even tho my friends used to joke about me being cursed by that “spirit hole.” no - i was iced up, paleo style.
Comment by Dungan — 27 November 2007 @ 10:34 PM
This is going to sound very woowoo but I think there may be something to the whole crystal healing phenomenon, because I can sense energy, chi, whatever you want to call with with my hands and when I hold a quartz crystal and point it at my palm it definitely seems to intensify and concentrate that energy. I have heard them refered to as “the crystal people” in the same way many natives refer to “the plant people”.
Comment by Penny Scout — 6 December 2007 @ 10:53 PM
Oh it is also fun to make light by rubbing a fluorescent light tube on a cat!
Comment by Penny Scout — 6 December 2007 @ 10:54 PM