Crystals are just rocks – the healing is what you make of it

It’s Tuesday lunchtime in Avebury, home to the world’s largest stone circle. I’ve just spent half an hour trying to find a parking space. It’s a beautiful day and even the National Trust overflow car park is, well, overflowing. Zen is the very last thing I feel as I head into The Red Lion pub to meet six spiritually minded female friends for a quick ploughman’s lunch before we do a bit of swinging. That’s divining with crystal pendulums to be clear.

Over the remains of the crusty white bread and cheddar, we “charge” pendulums made of rose quartz and amethyst. Holding them tight in our hands, we imagine them first cleansed by pure white light then filled with a pink mist of love, before asking the pendulums to show us which direction they’re going to swing to give an answer in the positive, an answer in the negative and a “how the hell would I know?”

Never mind the pink mist, I had a feeling I was filling my stone with scepticism. I’m as eager as anyone to have some answers in these uncertain times, but could a crystal pendulum really tell me whether it’s worth betting my life savings on a No Deal Brexit at Paddy Power so I’ll at least be hedged in the worst case scenario?

There are those who believe that crystals can do a whole lot more than that. According to charmsoflight.com, rose quartz “restores trust and harmony in relationships, encouraging unconditional love… purifies and opens the heart at all levels to promote love, self-love, friendship, deep inner healing and feelings of peace.” Meanwhile Cosmiccuts.com claims that amethyst promotes hormone balance, detoxifies the body and reduces headaches.

Shelley Von Strunckel, best known for her astrology – 1.5 million people read her columns every week – has a wider interest in spirituality and crystals in particular. When I asked her which crystals we should use to attract all the big ticket items people want: love, money, fame, she answered with a hearty laugh. “People ask me, will this bring me love? Will this heal me? I have to tell them, no. It’s just a rock. It’s a rock with a pedigree but it’s still a rock.”

She does, however, believe that crystals are able to attract and store energy. They can hold a charge. She explains that the crystals used in healing work in the same way as the chip in your computer or the quartz in a battery-powered watch. Until energy – in the case of that computer chip for example, electricity – flows through them, nothing happens.

Crystal healing doesn’t work because you’ve chosen the right colour rock to “attract” love or cash. It works because crystals amplify our own energy. Von Strunckel gives the example of a bishop’s ring, traditionally a large amethyst, amplifying his blessing. Or the diamonds in the Crown Jewels. “The seat of wisdom is traditionally the Crown chakra, in the middle of the forehead. So you whack a great big jewel on top of it.”

Von Strunckel summed it up. “Use your crystals as a catalyst to accentuate the positive. A crystal won’t help you find a partner or win the lottery, but it could help you to stay positive and in turn your own positive energy could attract the things you want into your life.”

Back in Avebury, I decided to suspend my disbelief and see if I could instead amplify a little bit of optimism. Avebury is a small village surrounded by a vast Neolithic henge, comprising three stone circles. One of the most famous prehistoric sites in Britain, it’s still a place of spiritual importance to modern believers. The stones at Avebury are “sarsen” – a shortening of Saracen stone. It’s a type of sandstone, which is sand bound with silica. Silica is commonly found as quartz, just like our pendulums. I figured this made the enormous stones at Avebury count as crystalline super-conductors for my purposes.

Standing in front of a stone as big as an elephant, I tried to feel the energy. I certainly felt a breeze. The stones were strangely cold to the touch despite the heat of the day. As I stood with my back against one, I felt a welcome coolness that grew the longer I stood there. One of my companions, who lay her head against a dip in another stone said she could feel her head vibrating before she suddenly burst into happy tears.

We watched as a majestic greyhound made a beeline for one stone in particular (and not to pee). He circled it several times while his owner told us how the dog had recently undergone an operation to remove a grass seed from one of his lungs. He was still patched with bandages. After the op, the vet did not expect the poor pup to last the night. He told the dog’s owner that she should take him home to make him comfortable and wait for the inevitable. She’d brought him to the stone circle instead. A week later, the dog was getting better by the day. Coincidence? Further on, we encountered a ram leaning heavily against another stone, looking especially blissed out. Are animals more tuned in to the earth’s subtle energies than we are?

We stopped by the last stone before the National Trust tea-rooms to ask our pendulums some questions. I asked about the novel I’ve just started writing, which is a departure from my usual style. Could I make it work? My pendulum swung clockwise for ‘yes’. Starting a new book is always difficult. I was happy to take that answer even if I suspected that I was subconsciously helping the pendulum go the right way. In some ways, it didn’t matter did it? I wasn’t really asking the stones about my book. I was asking myself if I thought I had it in me. The crystal was amplifying my answer. My energy, as Von Strunckel had explained.

Afterwards in The Old Forge gift shop, where shelves full of crystals and other esoteric nick-nackery promise all manner of things, I bought a ring made of hematite for £1.50. A little sign claimed that hematite could “dissolve negativity, boost self-esteem and support the blood and circulatory system.” It added: “Also said to be grounding and protecting.” All for the price of half a latte.

I came home from my day trip to Avebury feeling light-hearted and, yes, I’ll say it, energized. But was it the standing stones? Or the hematite ring, which I cleansed and recharged under running water according to Von Strunckel’s instructions? Hematite is just plain old iron oxide, after all. Or was it the effect of spending a sunny August day in a beautiful setting in the company of good friends? I’m still wearing the ring for now, just in case. At the very least, every time I look at it, I’m reminded of the glorious Wiltshire countryside, the feeling of sunshine on my face and the lazy buzz of bees on summer flowers. And that’s no bad thing.