The mineral kingdom has held a perennial allure over humankind. Metals and ores, gemstones and building materials, crystals and rocks alike have fascinated us since the dawn of time. Nowadays, the spiritual properties of crystals have reached an all-time high in popularity. As interest rises, more people are keenly seeking a better understanding of how crystals and gemstones provide the energies that they do. The most fundamental physical, optical, chemical, and mechanical properties of crystals hinges on their perfect structure and composition. This inner order, or coherence, is even responsible for the spiritual qualities that crystals portray.
The most predominant feature of any crystal– whether solid or liquid, in your body or in the ground– is it’s innate order and perfection. These traits amount to a state known as coherence. In short, we could define coherence as “the quality of forming a unified whole.” On a physical level, this refers to the organization of a crystal’s lattice, the arrangement of its atoms, ions, and molecules in an orderly fashion. Every group of components that represents the most fundamental unit of crystallinity, sometimes called a unit cell, repeats throughout the entire structure of a crystal. Using quartz as an example, the silica base forms a tetrahedron, a Platonic solid that resembles a pyramid with a triangular bottom; this tetrahedral unit repeats throughout the entirety of the crystal’s physical structure, with virtually no deviation.
Looking at the physical structure of any mineral (as all minerals are crystalline), they exhibit this high degree of coherence in their makeup. This coherent structure is what results in most of the other measurable qualities that minerals have, including physical properties (like hardness and density), optical properties (like refractive index), and even in some cases magnetism, luminescence, and unique mechanical properties.
Since all forms of matter generate electromagnetic fields, the energies that surround your favorite stones is naturally influenced by the coherent internal order of its crystal lattice. Thus, we can conclude that coherent structures will generate coherent energy fields. This isn’t limited to the EMFs generated by crystals, either; the coherence that crystals generate is made use of in laser technology and a number of other applications in science and industry, too. Again returning to the example of quartz, when light enters the crystal, the lattice of the mineral actually organizes and aligns the photons (packets of light energy) so that the electric and magnetic waves from which light is composed are all unilaterally aligned. This process is called polarization.
When we work with crystals, we are benefitting from their innate perfection. The sea of vibrations through which we navigate each day is largely incoherent. Even the fields emitted by all the cells, tissues, organs, and systems of your body can be fraught with incoherent patterns. The reason that crystals are so helpful is that they train these incoherent fields by allowing their coherent, ordered energy to serve as a template for them. This action of entrainment occurs whenever two resonating fields interact; the field with the greater amplitude (or volume) “wins” by bringing the lesser amplitude into harmony with it.
Coherent fields naturally project a louder message. To illustrate this, imagine stepping into a crowded room and trying to listen to everyone’s conversations at once. You’d probably pick up very little from this, and the sound would be a dull cacophony of white noise. Now, imagine if everyone began to recite the same words at exactly the same time; the message would be clearly audible and it would appear to increase in volume, as a coherent signal projects farther. This is the difference in the average field of energy and that of a crystal. It is the principle of cohering signals that even allows for crystals to apparently amplify signals (such as how quartz can magnify our intentions or amplify the effects of other stones).
Coherence is the single most important feature of working with crystal energy. On a physical level, quartz and other minerals clearly entrain the measurable fields of energy that our bodies produce. In other words, the orderly energy fields of crystals instill order upon our own energy fields. Further, this state of order and harmony is also imposed over the non-measurable, or subtle, energies. This is the primary mechanism behind healing with the gifts of the mineral kingdom.
You might be wondering why all stones don’t produce the same results if they all use this very same mechanism. The answer lies in the individual character of each stone’s energy field– something that results from all the other properties of a given rock or mineral, such as its composition, crystal system, habit (or external morphology) hardness, specific gravity, diaphaneity, purity, mass, and even color. Each of these properties defines the individual qualities of the energy field a crystal or stone produces; coherency is the underlying attribute that unites them.
When connecting to your favored stones, think about what a marvel it is that every particle from which it is made is organized in such a perfect, efficient way. It is from this organization that the energy of crystals manifests, offering itself in service to the rest of the planet. Crystals are here to be teachers, healers, and guides on our own path towards achieving our own perfection. They are some of the most potent facilitators of transformation precisely because they point us towards the innate order and perfection of our own soul. Connect to them consciously, and learn to co-create with them willingly; in doing so, your life will be forever changed.
