My Rule of Rose brooch I hand made for my Jennifer Costume this Halloween. The backing was given to me by a dear friend, and club member. The rock was also given to me by him. It’s red jasper. I cut, shaped, and hand carved the piece with my Grandpa’s dremel. I will post costume pics on my personal account, and maybe one here on Halloween. The top two images are oiled, bottom is dried.

Juicy Gem Tourmaline Crystal from California 🫠

I’ve always been inspired by @LookAtThisRock’s artistic perspective on rocks - but I didn’t expect to encounter such a deeply expressive and refined creative voice.

By chance, I discovered that we were featured on the blog, and I’m truly grateful. Being included in such a thoughtful and artistic space is a real honor for me/us.

Thank you so much, Jon - this genuinely means a lot.

This is your sign to learn more about 🪨 cool rocks 🪨. Become a certified rockhound now.

I have something so important to tell you: Last week my sister and I smashed a bunch of rocks in half. It released something primal within us, and I am compelled to preach the one universal truth I now know; The key to life is to recognize you’re a certified Rockhound. A Granite Groupie. A real Basalt Head. 

✨SOLD!✨ This little teal geode has officially found a forever home! It will be off to live its best sparkly life, pretending to be a real rock but with way more sass and squish.

Crystals: they taste good. Especially when used in magic. CRUMCH.

So do rocks. So do minerals. Just so deliciously spiritual. Y'know?

But they don't all taste good on your soul in the same way, because these words don't mean the same thing. GEM and STONE and CRYSTAL aren't synonyms, though their definitions sometimes overlap. In a casual setting it's fine to fart these words around interchangeably. I just wouldn't do it in any serious capacity.

🔮 YO WHY DOES THIS MATTER

🐻 In short: it'll make your spells more powerful.

🐻 In long...

To start getting into these lovely crunchy snacks, dear humans, you're going to have to know at least a little of the science. And if you're groaning right now, you're not ready to be a practitioner of any ding-dang metaphysical thing. You have to understand a touch of the natural world before working with it.

For instance: if you need fiery passion in your life, are you going to use something in your spell that comes out of a mollusk (a pearl) or from a volcano (obsidian)? If you need structure, is it better to use an object that's chemically a blobby mess (an opal) or orderly and neat (quartz)?

Unless you have prior associations with these objects, the basic science is all very crucial.

Still, I'm not gonna bore you. Let me just lay on you what you need to know to start with. You can go scurry off and read more as you please.

🔮 WHAT IS A CRYSTAL?

A crystal is a homogeneous solid substance with a repeating symmetrical structure. This structure is called a crystal lattice.

— Crystal Basics: The Energetic, Healing, and Spiritual Power of 200 Gemstones by Nicholas Pearson

What the hickety heck does that mean? Basically:

A crystal is a solid. OK.

Its internal chemical or molecular structure is homogeneous. All its parts are the same.

Its internal chemical or molecular structure is symmetrical, meaning its parts, on an axis, are the same. Mirrored. Think a butterfly, a snowflake, etc.

Its internal chemical structure also repeats. So you have the same chemicals or molecules repeating.

Its internal chemical structure is called a crystal lattice.

SALT is a crystal. It looks like this, way down on a teeny-weeny level:

Those are the elements sodium and chloride in a crystal lattice.

🐻 As an overview...

✨ USUALLY CRYSTALS: minerals ✨ SOMETIMES CRYSTALS: gemstones, stones ✨ USUALLY NOT CRYSTALS: mineraloids ✨ USUALLY NOT CRYSTALS, BUT MADE OF MINERALS: rocks ✨ DEFINITELY NOT A CRYSTAL: eggs, sadness, your mom

🔮 WHAT IS A MINERAL (AND MINERALOID)?

A mineral is a naturally occurring, inorganic crystal. That means that minerals must be formed by nature, from nonliving sources, and exhibit homogeneous compositions and symmetrically repetitive structures.

— Crystal Basics: The Energetic, Healing, and Spiritual Power of 200 Gemstones by Nicholas Pearson

Let's break this down again.

A mineral is naturally occurring, which means it forms in nature.

But it's also inorganic. Animals don't make them. Plants don't make them. Things that are alive can't make them. It's gotta come from the earth. (Which is alive in a spiritual sense but not in a scientific sense. It's not, like, an organism. You know what I mean?)

They have homogeneous compositions. This means they're made up of the same thing throughout their entire structure.

They also have symmetrically repetitive structures. Their composite parts mirror on an axis, again like a snowflake, and the patterns of their molecules, elements etc repeat.

Labradorite is a mineral. It comes out of igneous (magma-formed) rock and it has a repeating chemical mixture of oxygen, silicon, aluminum, calcium, and sodium.

🐻 On the other paw...

When a substance meets some, but not all, of the criteria of a mineral...it is called a mineraloid.

— Crystal Basics: The Energetic, Healing, and Spiritual Power of 200 Gemstones by Nicholas Pearson

If you have yourself a substance that's real close to a MINERAL but doesn't check off all the boxes, it's a mineraloid.

Obsidian is a mineraloid. It comes from lava, so it's non-organic. But its structure is amorphous, meaning it's not arranged in a crystal lattice.

🐻 So: a MINERAL is a CRYSTAL. A MINERALOID is generally not a CRYSTAL.

🔮 WHAT IS A ROCK?

This one's so easy I don't have to pull out a book for it: basically, a ROCK is made up of one or more MINERALS or MINERALOIDS.

Marble is a rock. It's composed of the MINERALS calcite and/or dolomite.

Limestone is a rock. Its parents are (generally) the MINERALS calcite and/or aragonite. I'm sure they're proud.

🔮 WHAT IS A STONE?

Not an official scientific term, as far as I know. This is one that's gonna vary depending on your dialect, your background, etc. I use STONE as a synonym for ROCK, but wouldn't use it for just any old MINERAL or MINERALOID. (Like, a piece of obsidian is not always a STONE to me.)

Your mileage may vary.

🔮 WHAT IS A GEMSTONE?

Also not an official scientific term, as far as I know. Like STONE, this will vary based on your background, dialect, etc. Generally, GEMSTONE refers to any MINERAL, MINERALOID, or ROCK that you humans have used to decorate yourselves over the years. Think jade (ROCK) or ruby (MINERAL) or opals (MINERALOID).

🔮 OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

There's way more scientific rocky rockiness to be talked about. For instance:

The rock cycle (how rocks are formed)

Crystal structures (based on the shape of their lattices)

Color, hardness, etc

...not to mention the METAPHYSICAL properties involved here. But this post is already long and to be honest I'm tired of speaking Human. More later.

Blessings, cubs!