Last winter, I spent a week in Arizona, where I achieved my longtime goal of obtaining crystals. I found them at a little shop in Sedona, where a store attendant guided me through the tables and shelves of options, from giant geodes made from bubbles of ancient lava to delicate amulets.
He spent so long with me, patiently flipping through a well-worn guidebook, that I couldn’t leave without taking some of his suggestions. He rang me up: black tourmaline, amethyst, and calcite, all meant to unblock creativity and banish negativity. I hoped all three would help my writing.
Today, crystal purchases like mine make up a nearly $200 billion industry that’s about far more than selling rocks. Crystals are one facet of an emerging form of modern spirituality, one with peculiar ties to capitalist consumption. But they’re also an ancient tradition, and our fascination with them might be something deeper, something human, that’s been part of us all along.
At Stanford, Associate Professor Marisa Galvez has studied how crystals appear in medieval texts. Along with references in religious texts and the writings of Pliny the Elder, Galvez was surprised to discover nods to crystals in troubadours’ songs and love stories–the pop culture of medieval times. “They used the stone and its qualities to describe the beauty of the main character’s love interest in their stories,” Galvez said. “But they also used crystal to describe different aspects of carnal desire and love.”
She provided an example in which a woman’s teeth are described as “crystal,” evoking an image akin to the grills rappers wear. (Slang for jewelry, “ice,” also shares DNA with crystals–the word “crystal” is derived from the Greek word for ice.) The mystery and erotic qualities of crystals might come from their inherent dual nature, of transparency and opaqueness, Galvez suggests.
According to Madeleine Thomas, who wrote a great piece about crystals for Pacific Standard, today’s crystal retailers also have the New Age movement to thank. The movement bubbled up in the 70s and 80s, channeling countercultural values and capitalizing on growing hunger for self-help and holistic medicine. But unlike the counterculture, the New Age movement wasn’t propelled by politics or a coherent philosophy. With time, it just became another way to shop.
Consider Crystal Light, the sugar-free powdered drink mix my friends used to mix with vodka in college. The brand persuaded millions of women to drink more low-cal flavored water, and got them hooked on artificial sweeteners in the process.
The beverage’s name comes from crystal light therapy, which dates back centuries. In most iterations, this therapy provides exposure to natural sunlight and crystals to give recipients a healing dose of vitamin D. Although light-based therapies might seem farfetched, conditions like seasonal affective disorder are today widely acknowledged, validating the long tradition of using light to heal afflictions.
Today, crystals are part of a widespread hunger for wonder and mystery, in an era when church isn’t the only place to explore those cravings. Thomas interviewed Matt Hedstrom, one of my favorite college professors at UVa, about the rise of crystals and New Age spirituality.
“What more and more people in religious studies are starting to think about is not the absence of religion, but that there isn’t a dominant mode of religion any longer,” Hedstrom said. “All of the sudden, instead of five options of religion, or 10 options, you’ve got every mix-and-match variety you could think of, including one you invented on your own.”
But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Thomas interviewed multiple sources who traced their personal growth and inner peace to their experiences with crystals. Even if the stones don’t emit special frequencies, they can bring people together and open up conversations about fear, anxiety and pain.
I doubt my crystals actually exert energy into my environment, but when I sit down at my desk, I do like seeing them. They’re a reminder to clear my head, focus and set aside bad feelings so I can take steps toward achieving my goals.
If that’s all my crystals are good for, then that’s enough for me.
Something else
A few weeks ago, Washingtonian published a story by journalist William Brennan, who spent a year investigating a bizarre death in Bethesda. When firefighters arrived to put out a house fire, they discovered that the homeowner had dug a series of tunnels underneath the property to prepare for (he believed) impending nuclear war. One of the men he hired didn’t make it out alive.
It’s sad and incredibly well written, and ultimately it’s a story about how internet spaces like 4chan can warp our worst impulses, often using our biggest hopes and dreams as catalysts. You can read it here.
One more thing
Anna Doherty, the incredible illustrator who created the happy vulture in my newsletter logo, has a new Etsy shop! Her greeting cards are currently only available in the UK, but if you love her work, I recommend checking out her books.
Her latest book, The Brontës, is a beautifully illustrated nonfiction story about the famous sisters, their childhood and the odds they overcame to become bestselling authors. It’s designed with young readers in mind, and I wish I’d had it when I was growing up.