Crystals???

[Roza]

If I’m gone for a while just means I lost internet access at home, can’t pay the bills right now. But I have an important question.

I still have my old crystals, sitting in a box, in the closet. Should I be getting rid of them too? I don’t do all the dumb new age junk I used to with them, I don’t ‘charge’ them in the sun or do the salt & apple cider vinegar… shoot, I don’t even remember what that was for. Wasted a lot of money on ‘rocks’. Yeah, have pyrite, amethyst, rutilated quarts, agate, etc. Does it show I was a new ager & into all that? blush Also had books on reflexology and my crystals covered every ‘chakra’. Loved Shirley MacLaine and interesting that the address for the company that published a lot of her books (Bantam Books) is 666. One of my homes growing up (lived in two places) was the glacial dumpsite of WI so I loved finding fossils and always had an attraction to rocks.

Since I used my crystals in my NAM days, should I be tossing all of those too. I couldn’t burn my books but I tossed them and destroyed them before doing it so I wasn’t passing them on to someone else. My wiccan friend wanted a few that I tossed and a dumb crystal wand I have too.

Pardon me, I’m still getting junk out of my head here… blessed salt… I keep thinking, ‘isn’t that wiccan???’ yeah, I’m a goof that fell for the anti-Catholic stuff that claimed it all pagan… would I use blessed salt on them or would I toss them in the trash? They sit in a box in the closet.

Yeah, back in 2003, coming out of the NAM and then seeing Johnathan Edwards meditations with the rosary… NAM, I think that and other notorious anti-Catholic sites had me out of whack but it’s been a journey back home… a year back since July or August 2007.

 

[pentecostbaby]

I think if you used them, as in, during rituals, you should toss them. If you just kept them around, they should be okay - but many people on these boards will have better advice than me .

 

[Belle10]

I’d get rid of everything that has to do with when you were wiccan. ***Everything. *** They will only serve as temptation.

Praying for you that you have the strength to leave the old behind, and continue on as a new creation in Christ.

 

[Roza]

Should I smash them with a hammer? And that was John Edwards, sorry… I found his book and yeah I used to love watching his show in my NAM days. So that had me anti-Catholic for a time. That’s why Blessed Bartolow is an inspiration to me because he went from a priest of satan to a promoter of the rosary. I knew all the anti-Catholic lines out there. Still feel such a foreigner and I shouldn’t I don’t think. It’s been a year already!!

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The very first was an amethyst that I bought from a vendor at the University of WI Milwaukee and that was 1988 I think. I used to carry it around with me always. Always had to have my bag of rocks except the big ones, the ‘charging’ ones, whatever they were called. Those were too big. Even have a rough opal, and the rings I used to wear back then. Had a ying yang one too. Haven’t worn any of those in eons.

 

[Belle10]

Should I smash them with a hammer? And that was John Edwards, sorry… I found his book and yeah I used to love watching his show in my NAM days. So that had me anti-Catholic for a time. That’s why Blessed Bartolow is an inspiration to me because he went from a priest of satan to a promoter of the rosary. I knew all the anti-Catholic lines out there. Still feel such a foreigner and I shouldn’t I don’t think. It’s been a year already!!

I don’t know what the proper way of disposing them would be. Can you check with your priest for some direction?

As far as feeling like a foreigner, don’t. Everyone travels at their own pace on the journey – ask Mary to help bring you closer to her Son (she always does).

If you’re not familiar with it, I highly recommend praying the chaplet of Divine Mercy – you can read all about it at the link in my signature. God bless!

 

[Roza]

I think the Divine Mercy Chaplet is what I started praying first, then it took awhile but got back into the rosary too. I don’t know if it’s good or bad but I put it on CD to listen to/pray that way.

I get into bouts of missing Mass at times which I again should know better. The Church I first came back to Catholicism in I think is now closed, too chicken to call yet! I’m in WNY and I guess we lost half the population or something and that’s why so much is closing around here. It’s been weird times for me but I know it’s all part of growing. God is in control. Trying to learn more about Blessed Virgin Mary… I honestly never understood as a kid the first time around. At least, not as much as I should have.

I received the post card about the merge several months back and new it was coming. Their Church bells don’t ring anymore.

But I do remember still being a new ager and going to a new age store here, a worker telling me Catholic was the perfect religion for Christian Wicca and enough was still in me to have so many red flags go up… I knew Catholics never saw Mary as a godess.

 

[puzzleannie]

my sister has these hanging all over her house, yet is so quick to criticize when I bring out my crystal rosary (I got a crystal one specifically for visits to her).

they would look nice in a glass jar to hold artificial or real flowers and pretty grasses and stems. they are just rocks. they have no power, for evil or good, no chakra, no chi, they are just rocks, like those in your backyard. scatter them around your birdbath, or anyplace else they would be attractive. how about in the bottom of your fish tank. they are just ROCKS, created by God, with the natural beauty and purpose for which he endowed them.

 

[Roza]

What about the goofy crystal wand? I never wore it and never used it as a wand. Had a wiccan teacher I guess you could say, she was a fallen away Catholic too, she’s passed away now. I pray for her still. She’s the one that did reiki on my back for me.

Only spells I used to do, candle spells, did those a lot. Had a dumb pendulum too. It’s in this house somewhere yet. Just embarrassed for being so goofy.

 

[puzzleannie]

well Halloween is coming up, sounds like the basis for a good costume, in the real tradition of Halloween, which is making fun of witches and wizard wannabees.

 

[Belle10]

I think the Divine Mercy Chaplet is what I started praying first, then it took awhile but got back into the rosary too. I don’t know if it’s good or bad but I put it on CD to listen to/pray that way.

I get into bouts of missing Mass at times which I again should know better. The Church I first came back to Catholicism in I think is now closed, too chicken to call yet! I’m in WNY and I guess we lost half the population or something and that’s why so much is closing around here. It’s been weird times for me but I know it’s all part of growing. God is in control. Trying to learn more about Blessed Virgin Mary… I honestly never understood as a kid the first time around. At least, not as much as I should have.

I received the post card about the merge several months back and new it was coming. Their Church bells don’t ring anymore.

But I do remember still being a new ager and going to a new age store here, a worker telling me Catholic was the perfect religion for Christian Wicca and enough was still in me to have so many red flags go up… I knew Catholics never saw Mary as a godess.

By WNY I assume you mean Western New York? If so, here’s the Buffalo diocesan website: buffalodiocese.org/ and the Rochester diocesan website: dor.org/
You can look up parishes on there to see what’s open closest to you!

Catholic Answers has a lot of great information on Mary, as does EWTN:

catholic.com/library/mary_saints.asp

ewtn.com/faith/teachings/marymenu.htm

Nothing wrong with using a recording to help you pray…I pray the Rosary on my morning commute and the chaplet of Divine Mercy on my afternoon commute. I use a CD from www.CatholiCity.com (you can get it free) so I’m “hands-free” while driving.

Get back to praying the chaplet if you can, and read St. Faustina’s Diary. It’s a wonderful devotion and I’m sure it will help you strengthen your faith.

thedivinemercy.org/

:hug1:

 

[Roza]

I’ve lived in this duplex since 1995 and honestly never get trick or treaters here so I don’t even buy candy anymore. I used to go trick or treating as a kid at my grandma’s house in Milwaukee & later got to hand candy out when I was living in the city but where I lived in the country didn’t have trick or treaters out there.

I kept wondering if I needed an exorcism, I mean, I had ‘spirit guides’, one main one and two others… ‘thought’ I was contacting deceased ‘spirits’ of the departed. I guess when I contacted my wiccan friends brother (which I KNOW now I didn’t) she said it was his hand writing. I heavily got into that junk. In 2003 I was at a Protestant convention in downtown Buffalo and the speaker said ‘there’s someone in the audience with familiar spirits and I command them in the name of Jesus to leave!’ That’s when I was delivered from them.

I was rebaptized in 2004, in the AoG my Catholic baptism didn’t count because I was a ‘new believer’ so I was rebaptized. I spoke in tongues but only have a few words and I still don’t know where tongues all fits in. From Catholic teaching it seems it was only during the early beginnings of the Church… I don’t know for sure yet. I don’t know if they’re real words.

Lots to sort out. Can you tell? I had one of those 4 way medals, the silver all wore off & don’t even know where it is. Wnat to someday buy one that won’t wear away… like my crucifix. Bought that still in the 80’s, it originally was an earring. My rosary from the 80’s that I have to find yet… it glows in the dark and I really want to find that rosary.

 

[Roza]

I did get to pray Divine Mercy with my Church after Easter (I think) and I assume I can pray that any time as well or is it supposed to be only at 3pm? Once back to work, trying to get day shift, 3 pm would be during work hours. Part of me thinks it’s always going to be 3pm somewhere in the world… . but then again, I still feel so out there. I don’t drive and yeah, I think I do eventually want to do RCIA. Just need to get a job & get back to school, get back to getting the rest of medical things done I need to get done. Need to get some normalcy back again, there’s been a lot up in the air.

---

Part of what was leading me back, I was already out of the NAM but not back to Catholicism yet and it was around the time my almost 10 yr job closed. I found a broken rosary. I had to search for all the pieces and I found them. I had no way to get it back to whoever may have dropped it. I put it together at home and I still have it.

 

[bpbasilphx]

Loved Shirley MacLaine and interesting that the address for the company that published a lot of her books (Bantam Books) is 666.

**I think that’s just a coincidence. The priest at my parish church once upon a time had 666 as the prefix on his license plate.

Did you know that amethysts are the traditional stone for a bishop’s ring?

Crystals can be either pretty baubles or occult appliances. Only YOU know what they were to you.

On the other hand, can you think of a more appropriate use for a jewel than to adorn a chalice or icon?

Think about it.**

 

[vee8]

I read a book once and Im not sure but this might be it.
amazon.com/Theres-Power-Tongue-Maria-Vadia/dp/1579181996/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221662244&sr=1-3

The book was about the author who was heavily into new age stuff crystals, spirit guides you name it she did it/ had it. She said crystals may have spells or something on them and should be thrown out. Sprinkle them with holy water before hand and throw them where no one can get them.

The author also had to go make an appointment and go to confession to a priest who was familiar with this kind of thing. In that confession she had to name and renounce every guru, every spirit guide, everything, every practice, and everyone. I suspect you should do the same. You might want to have a priest or friend come over and help you throw out every last book and object from your new age days.

I kept wondering if I needed an exorcism, I mean, I had ‘spirit guides’, one main one and two others… ‘thought’ I was contacting deceased ‘spirits’ of the departed. I guess when I contacted my wiccan friends brother (which I KNOW now I didn’t) she said it was his hand writing. I heavily got into that junk. In 2003 I was at a Protestant convention in downtown Buffalo and the speaker said ‘there’s someone in the audience with familiar spirits and I command them in the name of Jesus to leave!’ That’s when I was delivered from them.

 

[Roza]

I originally purchased them for NAM reasons, meditation the new age way, my 7 centers, chakras etc. I have 1 self proclaimed wiccan friend still in my life but we hardly speak these days and another who is a self proclaimed pagan, he lives in Rochester now (we all used to work together). I think we both on different occasions went to Niagara Falls specifically for the purpose of ‘charging our stones’ because the waters of the Falls were supposed to be so powerful and healing. Yeah, I sat on the rocks in the upper Falls back then in my NAM days. I remember us hearing heavy footsteps on one trip and my pagan friend was with me, said it was one of the ‘spirits’, that the Falls is full of them because of all the lives that were lost there.

Again, I don’t believe in ghosts anymore, I know those are demons. The Bible is clear where we end up when we die, heaven, hell or purgatory.

---

I know I’ve been to that section before but bookmarked it and want to go through all of it. See, this is why I tied everything in as Catholic for a while. I grew up hearing stories about things that happened when people died, I never believed it as a kid and often thought it was insanity. Then, I had my OWN experience… when my grandfather died the vacuum turned on by itself and was told by a parent it was probably my grandpa stopping by to tell me to get back to work. I know now that wasn’t true but back then I believed it. Back then it was more of the ‘slippery slope’.

 

[BeeSweet]

I’d use them to decorate my houseplants, or leave them on shelves and window sills as knick knacks. They sound really pretty, I sure wouldn’t smash them with a hammer. I’d just try to tear off any hardware that makes them into jewelry and have them go back to their natural state. Put them in a fish tank or a rock garden. I’d bet they’d be just beautiful in a fish tank. They might also be really pretty in one of those little table fountains. We have a few geodes around the house and in the houseplants, not because of any connection with the NAM or the occult, but because they just look cool.

I don’t know if for me they’d be a temptation as much as they’d serve as a reminder of the very close call I came to in loosing Christ. I’d keep them and give thanks to God every time I looked at them for knowing what they really are: cool rocks that are nice to see. Crystals do have power, they have the power to make a person smile with their beauty, and spark interest in God’s creation.

Welcome home to the church! I hope you can serve as an inspiration to your wiccan and NAM friends, and possibly bring them back to Jesus’ loving embrace as well! God bless!

 

[Roza]

I hope so too, I need to be more open to my pagan friend. My wiccan friend, I took her to see the Passion. That was before I was back to the Catholic Church but out of the NAM. One of her sons went too, the other later watched the movie at home. She’s still so heavy into occult junk, that’s why I can’t stomach being near them too much though her husband is a Christian, not Catholic. I keep praying.

 

[Belle10]

I did get to pray Divine Mercy with my Church after Easter (I think) and I assume I can pray that any time as well or is it supposed to be only at 3pm? Once back to work, trying to get day shift, 3 pm would be during work hours. Part of me thinks it’s always going to be 3pm somewhere in the world… . but then again, I still feel so out there. I don’t drive and yeah, I think I do eventually want to do RCIA. Just need to get a job & get back to school, get back to getting the rest of medical things done I need to get done. Need to get some normalcy back again, there’s been a lot up in the air.

You can pray the chaplet of Divine Mercy at any time, but yes, Jesus told St. Faustina that 3:00 is the Hour of Mercy (it’s the hour He died on the cross). I’m at work at 3:00 too, so I usually just take a moment to look at the image of Divine Mercy I have at my desk and say a short prayer. Then I pray the chaplet on the ride home.

Part of what was leading me back, I was already out of the NAM but not back to Catholicism yet and it was around the time my almost 10 yr job closed. ** I found a broken rosary**. I had to search for all the pieces and I found them. I had no way to get it back to whoever may have dropped it. I put it together at home and I still have it.

See, I told you Mary always points us toward her Son!

 

[Roza]

I read a book once and Im not sure but this might be it.
amazon.com/Theres-Power-Tongue-Maria-Vadia/dp/1579181996/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221662244&sr=1-3

The book was about the author who was heavily into new age stuff crystals, spirit guides you name it she did it/ had it. She said crystals may have spells or something on them and should be thrown out. Sprinkle them with holy water before hand and throw them where no one can get them.

The author also had to go make an appointment and go to confession to a priest who was familiar with this kind of thing. In that confession she had to name and renounce every guru, every spirit guide, everything, every practice, and everyone. I suspect you should do the same. You might want to have a priest or friend come over and help you throw out every last book and object from your new age days.

I know this junk was in the family too, if you saw my post about when my grandpa died & the vacuum turned on by itself, growing up, that was Catholic to me. So yeah, I lumped it all together. I don’t know if my parents still look at junk like that as having been actual ‘visitations’. The day with the vacuum, my dad was there, my mom wasn’t. I think he started believing in ghosts then. sighs I haven’t really asked him. The switch for the vacuum had to be clicked into place to be turned on or off so I couldn’t have had it half turned off or something, know what I mean? I know now it wasn’t my grandpa visiting… I believe it was a familiar spirit but back then, yeah… I thought my grandpa had ‘stopped by’.

I’ll bookmark that link and get it eventually. Thanks!

 

[Roza]

See, I told you Mary always points us toward her Son!

You know, back then I wouldn’t have even thought about the rosary. But for some reason I couldn’t let it sit there and yeah, I had to put it back together. I did get all the pieces. I still have that one too.