Review: The Book of Crystal Spells

It would be possible for me to walk into a bookstore and come out with half of their Pagan section (or New Age, since we're relegated to a fad instead of being an actual religion in the eyes of most bookstores). It would be great for the learning aspect, which I consider an important part of living life, but not so easy on the bank account. That means I have to be selective with my purchases and I tend to rely a lot on online reviews. When I saw this book on Lewellyn's upcoming titles I knew that I had to get it, which is what I did.

I've never heard of Ember Grant, but the premise of her book, The Book of Crystal Spells - Magical Uses for Stones, Crystals, Minerals...And Even Sand, was of interest to me. I'm a crystal junkie, this much is known by all that are close to me, and I tend to collect books on the subject almost as much as the crystals themselves. I've been interested in crystal magic for quite some time and have used it with successful results in the past. For that reason, and because of my sense of curiosity, I knew I had to have the book. I'm so thankful that it turned out to be a good read and a valuable resource that I will likely refer to again and again.

The book has ten chapters and contains a lot of useful information. Even as an admirer of Judy Hall, I must admit that a lot of current books on the market tend to feature the same information that she has in her works, so I was pleasantly surprised to find her name and titles missing from the author's bibliography. Instead, she used a variety of other research materials combined with her own experience, making this book a great tool for anyone interested in crystal magic. Even better is that the majority of it isn't redundant and not available in any other book that you could buy.

This book is less about crystal healing and more about spellcraft via crystals, so if you're looking for the latter you'll be surprised. While the author herself admits there is overlap between the two, such as using crystal grids and elixirs, and meditating with the crystals, the two are just as equally different from one another. This book gets to the nitty gritty (no pun intended) of using your own energy, pairing it with crystals, and using the enhanced product to bring about change in the world. Crystal healing is similar, yes, but also not quite the same.

The Book of Crystal Spells features some of the usual subjects, such as cleansing and empowering crystals, but it also delves into newer waters that some people may not think of exploring. One of those is using sand, which is given an entire chapter. It's a subject that I didn't give much thought at all to before this book, but now I find myself looking at it in an entirely different way. Is there anything more you can ask of a book?

Another gem (pun intended) of this book was the association with numerology. My eyes have been opened to numerology before but through this chapter I was able to calculate my life path number and pair them to crystals. Many of them were ones that I've used before though I was saddened to see some of my favorites missing from the list. Which is okay, in the long run, as we all have different crystals that speak to us throughout our lifetimes.

I could go on and on about the positives of this book, but I feel I should touch on a couple of the negatives. The first isn't much of a downside for most people, but as a lover of ametrine, I was a little bummed to find no references to it in this book. I tend to think of ametrine as a crystal that is more than just the sum of its parts, so it would have been nice to see it featured here in some aspect or another. To those of you that couldn't care less about ametrine, you likely won't miss it.

My second issue with the book is kind of a double edged sword. I enjoy using rhymes when it comes to my spells. I find they set the tone and help me with my focus. Also, if I do say so myself, I seem mysterious and powerful as I wave my hands over crystals and candles and chant some rhyming couplets. But I have to be honest here as some of the chants are a little hokey and a few are just downright silly. All in all, I would only consider using about 40% of those given, but I also tend to write my own spells anyway.

This book is geared to a beginner to crystal spell work. Even experts at the subject will find some use here, even if it is just the appendix. This thing is loaded with useful information including Platonic Solids descriptions, associations by season and day of the week, and even important details in relation to the color spectrum. All in all, get this book. I don't think you'll regret it one bit.