(originally written and illustrated September 21, 2019)
I don’t want to get into a debate about the validity of crystals in healing or anything else metaphysical - it’s not for me and if it makes you feel good, I’m glad you found something to help.
I see a lot of internet posts, primarily on Instagram, with a lot of crystals. So many crystals. It seems like everyone has crystals. You likely have at least one crystal in your home (between the overlap in my friends sphere this just seems likely). I own crystals, most of which I’ve had since high school. I carry them around with me from place to place, apartment to house - they migrated with me from Virginia to Missouri. They’re pretty things from nature, they refract sunlight, and would seem to be pretty effective for throwing at people (sharp, heavy rocks, right?).
I have no idea where they came from.
They may have had tags on them at one point - claiming an origin - but it seems likely that they didn’t.
Crystals are everywhere - at the art show I went to a month ago (so many crystals), at the psychic fair I went to last year (SO MANY CRYSTALS), at the street fair in Seattle I was at a few years back (so many crystals). I’ve seen them labeled with their origin, and not labeled.
I’ve never once asked how they were mined.
Mining feels like a loaded word. For me it conjures images of dark holes in the ground, coal, miners lung, child labor, and envronmental destruction. I think of blood diamonds, and Centralia Pennsylvania, and underpaid mud covered laborers.
I don’t think about crystals. Which come from the ground. And are mined. Out of the ground. Primarily from countries with very lax or nonexistent labor and environmental laws because that’s going to cost less and Americans are nothing if not constantly on the lookout for the best deal.
The top exporting countries in 2015 for quartz were China, Turkey and India; exporting over 184 million dollars in quartz combined.
SO. MANY. CRYSTALS.
I’m putting a link here to the article that got me thinking about this. I’d really like to encourage you to read it. Or go google search “impact of crystal mining” - it’s 10 minutes of your day just do it. I have no problem with you using your quartz and moonstone to heal your spirit, or channel love into the world, or make a promise to the earth. But there’s got to be a way to do that without screwing up the planet any more, or what’s the point?
