Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem, and Metal Magic - Scott Cunningham

...useful to me, I am constantly impressed with his generous heart and affable candor. While "Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem and Metal Magic" may not be as serviceable to more advanced practitioners, it is undoubtedly a solid reference guide for magical practitioners of all paths.

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Perhaps the most wonderful thing about Scott Cunningham's works in regards to magic and the Wiccan religion in general, is that he makes everything so accessible to all readers.I have yet to see him talk over, under or around any potential reader, and he always seems to keep in my mind that his readers will, of course, be at different levels of confidence, interest, study and ability. That being said, his "Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem and Metal Magic" is a very useful reference book that targets the use of Earthy components in magical workings.

Cunningham begins by talking about the power of stones as viewed historically, Stone magic, and, as is typical of him, Magic in general. He speaks to his readers first of the Three Necessities for successful magic; the Need, the Emotion, and the Knowledge. I must agree that all three are truly required to achieve any results by a practitioner, irregardless of their potential. The author then moves on the Morality behind working any form of magic, which is also vital to those coming to these concepts as novices. The remainder of Chapter Two touches further on some necessary basics; Visualization, Charging stones, and setting up an area for the practice of magic.

Those who are beyond the level of novice, can quickly move through these early chapters without missing anything of vital interest, although if Cunningham is new to you (which I'd find hard to believe) you might simply enjoy his perspectives on these topics. Most of what the author discusses in these pages is laid out for those of beginning or intermediate levels of study, especially for those new to this particular type of magical working, Earth magic. I'll elaborate...

Part One, including the introduction, all deals with very elementary concepts. Chapter Three: Stone Energies, for instance, provides more specific information about working with the wide array of stones available to us. The information here is most useful to novices, as it discusses terms like Projective and Receptive and how to quickly decide whether a given stone is in one category or the other. Chapter four delves deeper into understanding the Stone People and concentrates largely on stone color and their associations. The next chapter talks simply about the relative significance of using stones with a specific shape, and isn't of the greatest value. A heart-shaped stone would obviously be useful if one were doing a working to draw love into your life, but isn't necessary as Cunningham would be the first to admit.

Next we take a look at Obtaining stones for our magical use and further discuss the pros and cons of using a personalized method of gathering over a more commercial source. How to judge the need to Cleanse your stone/s before magical use and a couple of suggestion how to perform a Cleansing are given next. As you can see, all of these topics are just basics that are both useful and necessary when following a Magical path. Having a good understanding of these things is vital and therefore appropriate in a written work meant to be used as a resource though. It is my belief that these basics aren't really needed by a reader who already has a sound understanding of these underlying principles and beginning methods.

If, however, you have been following a magical path and have never worked specifically with stones, everything in this work has the potential to be useful to you. Cunningham gives us some wonderful examples of how to use stones in divination, a few basic spells involving stones, as well as how to set up a Stone Tarot. His brief look at jewelry, for example, was rather useful to me. When I read, "Because rings kept energies in the body, they were also thought to inhibit the release of power." Something clicked inside my head.

I had never consciously thought about this particular issue, but I have always intuitively followed this precept. Perhaps there is no value in bringing something known through practice and intuition into the bright light of conscious observation, but I would disagree. I have found it useful to store a little extra energy into jewelery items that I wear on a regular basis. There have been plenty of times where having that source to pull from has made a huge difference in my day or even my life. However, I had often wondered why this same item would seem a hindrance to me at other instances. I would simply remove them before attempting something, like smudging for example, but until reading this book, I had never consciously known why I did what I did . This is the difference between Emotion and Knowledge.

For practitioners of all levels, it is the final three sections of this work that will make it most useful as a reference source. Parts II and III of this book are a wonderful encyclopedic listing of over 100 stones, gems, and metals. Cunningham makes everything easily accessible and gives us a detailed look at each stone or metal by listing each with it's common name, folk name, energy type, planetary association, elemental association, deity association, general powers attributed to the stone and then a more detailed look at it's magical/ritual lore and uses.

There is a delightfully clear color insert in this section that gives the reader a photographic reference so that we may see some of the stones we have been reading about in such detail. I always find a visual reference to be handy, although if you are looking for something to help you identify a given stone, you might want something more specifically designed to do just that and that alone.He closes this book, as is the habit of this author, with a list of tables to be used as a quick reference to finding a stone's : Projective or Receptive type, their Planetary and Elementary rulers, their Magical Intentions, Birthstones, and possible Substitutions.

Cunningham always encouraged his readers to make their own judgments, to look at other sources, to trust themselves, and readily admits in this work that his is not the definitive answer when looking at the uses of a given gem in a magical working, merely a guide and a possible reference source. Sadly, this wonderfully openhanded author and ambassador of a pagan way of life died in 1993 at the age of 37.

In that brief lifespan, he wrote more than 50 books, some fiction some non-fiction. While I have not found them all to my liking or particularly useful to me, I am constantly impressed with his generous heart and affable candor. While "Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem and Metal Magic" may not be as serviceable to more advanced practitioners, it is undoubtedly a solid reference guide for magical practitioners of all paths.

 

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