Even if you’re completely oblivious to the world of crystals, chances are that you have at least encountered Amethyst in some form or fashion. It is the epitome of what a ‘crystal’ is in society and most forms of pop culture. From playable characters in video games, to quirky settings in TV shows, to ornaments placed around your favourite shop, Amethyst is usually the one and only gemstone used to represent the bigger wider world of crystals. And this is no surprise, as Amethyst is literally your gateway crystal. It’s your first best step into that big wide world, and a great introduction to what all crystals have to offer.
Part of its easy familiarity is that Amethyst is a crystal found almost everywhere, in almost every country on Earth. It is after all a type of Quartz, the essential building block to most crystals and the Earth’s core itself. Geologically speaking, Amethyst is the result of quartz being affected by iron impurities and extreme radiation in the earth that occur either through volcanic and hydrothermal processes, or via the intrusion of mineral rich water that make their way inside a quartz structure. The iron is particularly key - it is what makes Amethyst purple, or Rose Quartz pink, and high concentrations of it can trigger further colour changes.
Amethyst is also rich in reference throughout human history. Used in Egypt some 5000 years ago, to India & China 3500 years ago, and all the way through from Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, in France some 2500 years ago, and right up to the Middle Ages. In fact, for the better part of our modern Judo-Christian ‘Common Era’ Amethyst was really the gemstone. It was used prolifically throughout Europe, by Bishops and Kings alike, to signify wealth or spiritual enrichment, and for the longest time was looked at as the most valuable gemstone on the planet. It’s value dropped once larger deposits were discovered in South America, at first by Conquistadors in the 1700’s, and then later in post WWII, where it would be predominantly mined in Brazil and Uruguay from the 1970’s onwards. These days Finland remains as the only nation with an active Amethyst mine in Europe.
Energetically speaking, the first thing to remember is that Amethyst is a quartz - a tool that speaks to the higher vibrating qualities in us all, and to the ethereal. But Amethyst is also finely and very precisely balanced with iron, the element that keeps us grounded, in reality, and present. You might say Amethyst pushes us to have one foot outside of reality, in the dreaming, and one foot inside - to see more than what’s in waking life but recognise you still live it. For this reason Amethyst is really is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades kind of crystal. It spans your entire energetic body, and helps with a wide range of emotions, but very thinly spread and only to a minor degree. These can include things like vitality (you may feel you have a little more ‘pep’ in your step in the mornings); or you may feel more calm and less prone to worrying (and while not strong enough to handle full-blown anxiety, it’s great for kids and people with less baggage); and can help over-active minds settle down and focus on the tasks at hand (again great for kids, or anyone avoiding sleep-time).
But where Amethyst really shines, where it really comes to life, is when you sleep. It is in none too specific words, a crystal of the night.
So during its heyday throughout Europe (and even well before it), Amethyst was already being used quite extensively in parts of South America. Along with Citrine, Amethyst was used by many early tribal cultures in Bolivia and Brazil, where even to this day many people from these regions are taught that Citrine is the ‘day’, and Amethyst is the ‘night’. Citrine is for the waking time, for facing your struggles, and shining the light of the sun to help power things, to help them grow. Amethyst meanwhile, is for the shadows, for the unseen things, the things that are left unspoken during the day.
In less esoteric terms, this means that Amethyst speaks strongly to your subconscious. It is after all a crystal firmly connected to the third-eye chakra, to emotions related to illusion, self-deception, or a lack of sense of self. If you’re the type of person that doesn’t like to deal with situations throughout the day, if you avoid confrontations or just necessary ‘chats’ (even the ones with yourself, in your own head), and then go to sleep at night and let all your encumbered thoughts out, if you let your dreams do your ‘thinking’ for you as a way to process all the avoided daytime demands.… then Amethyst is for you.
Amethyst will help you make sense of all that night-time dream processing, to better understand how you really feel, so that when you wake up it is with a clearer sense of your situation, and with a little more gusto to face it.
Constant use of Amethyst in this way, sleeping with it by your bedside, will ultimately help you to ‘wake up’ a lot more, to really see the world around you that you have avoided, and a common side-effect for many users is that they begin to feel much more intuitive and in-tune with their spiritual self. The irony to this is that once this happens, Amethyst can become a little much, causing some users to feel too open, to see too much of the world around them and begin suffering nightmares instead of a good night’s rest. Amethyst is a good connector to the third-eye, but its filter can be a little wide, it opens you up to everything, so in cases like these we recommend just taking your piece away from the bedroom and moving it to somewhere else.
Amethyst is not only the perfect starter crystal for new collectors, but a great port of call to return to for those of us who have used crystals for some time, and maybe forgotten what good old peace and contentment feel like. When we forget which crystal is great for this, or useful for that, picking up an old piece of Amethyst can help us remember why we were so drawn to them to begin with, and what that initial simple feeling of happiness was like. It is a handyman’s crystal, one that you can use in almost any scenario - in your kitchen when you’re cooking, in your gym training, or your own little meditation spot out on the verandah. It is a crystal that’s useful across all ages, from the smallest kids through to grown adults, and you don’t need to be a guru or shamanic practitioner to get the most out of it, it is a highly accessible crystal for literally everyone. So now that you have officially met and been introduced, we suggest you pick a little Amethyst for yourself, and start your crystal journey with happy trails.
