Rocks and gems provide an excellent source of mystical energy. Many Pagans enjoy working with stone magic. Several articles and classes have contributed to the material excerpted in this section. The Year-and-a-Day Class briefly mentions stone magic in some sessions, particularly "Specialties" at the end of the cycle, at the novice level. The topic then ranges into intermediate and advanced levels, as you can see here.
Lessons
This class contains a large amount of material. For easier viewing online, it is divided into topical sections which are posted as individual lessons. You may work through these in order or skip to whatever seems most relevant to you.
The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals by Alfred A. Knopf. National Audubon Society, 1998. Best guide to stone identification for experts and rockhounds. Features numerous colorplates separate from text, with extensive technical details.
“Bob’s Rock Shop” by Bob Keller, 1995-2005. Online and offline vendor of stones; site includes many articles, links, and other resources for rockhounds.
"Crystal & Stone Magic" on PaganLore.com, 2002. Online discussion of stones and crystals with their magical properties. Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem, & Metal Magic by Scott Cunningham. Llewellyn Publications, 1987. Excellent magically-oriented text on the uses of stones, along with some related things like metals. Good supporting material such as tables sorting stones by property, but no colorplates.
"Fall in Love with Lockets" by Monica Rich Kosann, 2016. A thoughtful introduction to the history and use of hollow pendants, where magical stones may be set into the case or contained discreetly inside. Lockets also have a long tradition in protection and love spells.
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Footnotes
1. Quotes from Tom Durbin of Wellspring Jewelry are excerpted with permission from a private message dated 12/15/99.
2. Parts of this class were adapted from the articles ”No Stone Unturned: The Power of Stones, Gems, and Crystals” in 1999 and “Diamonds and Tiger’s Eye and Pearls, Oh My! The Mystical Powers of Jewelry and Gems” in 2000 which originally appeared in New Age Retailer. These were combined into a "Stone Magic" class for the Grey School of Wizardry in 2005. The material presented here is an excerpt of that compilation, giving an idea of what kind of stone magic teaching is available.