Quartz crystal is found in varying shapes. Here is a quick review of those shapes.
Basic Form. Quartz crystals are, at their most basic, either single or double terminated.
Single terminated is the most common configuration. These occur either because the crystal was separated from a cluster or it has grown one way on a substance or matrix. Single terminated directs energy in one way.
Double terminated. This is any crystal with a point on both ends. Double terminated crystals balance energy, connecting any two polarities. This shape can help free you from group mind and so help you to become self-empowered.
Quartz crystals are usually six-sided There are usually six sides to a crystal, in keeping with its tetrahedronal structure. Any deviation creates a different energy and use, which we’ll discuss in future weeks.
The other common shapes of quartz crystal are:
Clusters. These are excellent for assisting a person to harmonize their own energy field – body, mind, spirit and organ parts. It also creates energy in a common space that encourages all to work and live together in harmony, trust, cooperation. Clusters are excellent for clearing small stones and jewelry that are placed on them, for the multi-directional quartz points breaks up energetic debris. Clusters are also excellent placed in common areas you want to positively energize. Clusters are self-clearing in general, but once in awhile enjoy a good salt bath.
Geode
Geode. An enclosed crystal system, often an agate on the outside with a type of quartz on the inside. Attractive as is – usually a round rock ball – but esoterically used primarily sliced.
Cut in Half. Some geodes, when opened, display a gemstone cup. This shape helps harmonize the energy in a room. Tiny ones can be placed over an area of the body to draw out imbalances and hurts. I like to fill a cup-shaped geode with small stones and use it as an incense base. Some people like to mix elixirs in a cup-shaped geode, to energize the potion.
Sliced Thin. Other geodes, when opened, are mostly solid. These are frequently sliced thin so that light passes through the slice, revealing attractive abstract designs. A thinly-sliced geode looks lovely when placed in a window and helps focus healing energy from the sun into the room. A thinly-sliced geode is frequently used as a base for other stones, on an altar, and sometimes as a trivet for food.
Shaped. Humans have learned to shape quartz crystal to focus the crystal energy for a specific purpose.
Natural Crystals. Medicine people and esoteric practitioners have long shaped quartz to energetic purposes. This includes shaping points into wands used for purposes from massage to directing energy. It also includes pyramids, globes, sculptures and pendants.
Grown Crystals. The hard sciences and commercial jewelry also have shaped quartz for use, for they have long known that quartz is an excellent and very stable conductor of energy. Quartz was a conductive material in the first radios and is used in quartz watches and as computer microchips. Today industrial quartz is grown in a laboratory environment – they take a quartz “seed” – e.g. a particle of nature-grown quartz – and use this as a starter for laboratory grown quartz. They do this to create a more stable quartz base that they can then cut and manipulate. Otherwise, it can be difficult to find a really good piece of quartz that does not fracture when cut small.
Some contemporary light workers prefer the laboratory quartz for its stability. Quartz pendants are frequently laboratory grown, for they can be shaped into the desired form while liquid, and are more physically stable than the naturally formed quartz.