This post has been heavy on my heart for a long while. In fact (at the time of publishing) it has been sitting in my drafts and growing for almost five months. This is a very long winded post, filled with theological thoughts, scripture, and my personal insights from years of praying over my use of crystals, and I sincerely hope it will be of use to any fellow Christians who are wondering about the use of crystals and their sinfulness.
Any practice or item associated with the occult has been an object of scorn by Christians for, well, forever. Just look at what Christians did to midwives. They weren’t allowed into medical schools because they were women, so they had to pass down their knowledge of herbs and childbirth without the “necessary” education, so of course they were in commune with the devil! How else would they have come about their knowledge? How else would women in childbirth have prospered under their care far more than under educated male doctors’?
The question I get asked more than just about anything else by people in real life is how I can be a Christian and use crystals. Don’t I know that they’re occult? Don’t I know that anyone who has ever practiced the occult won’t be allowed into the New Kingdom?
I’ll go ahead and give y’all the tl;dr. Crystals are no more occult than essential oils, herbal remedies, or looking at the stars. They can be used in ways that are occult, but they are not inherently sinful. Using them as negative ionizers or for their healing vibrations is not a sin. Using them to conjure spirits, cast spells, commune with demons, divine the future, etc. is a Biblical sin. To practice the occult is to attempt to know things that are only meant for God to know (the future, namely) or to seek answers for uncertain things from someone other than Him (like asking an angel, demon, or spirit to give you guidance). Using natural things that God made to better your life is not a sin, and when you use a crystal, that is what you are doing.
So, let’s start with the basics. How do crystals work? Gems, stones, and minerals with a crystalline structure all vibrate at high rates. Without these vibrations, we wouldn’t have any of our modern technology, because so much of it is dependent on the known rates of vibrations of crystals. Computers, credit cards, watches, fiber optic phone lines, calculators - all contain crystals, most commonly liquid quartz. Liquid quartz is used to keep time in watches and clocks, because its vibration is consistent and reliable.
Every living thing is filled with vibrations at the cellular level, and these vibrations are affected by the energies around us. We are constantly barraged with the electromagnetic forces of the technology surrounding us, and they have an effect on the vibrations of our cells. Crystals help to retune those vibrations, allowing us to function at our full potential. I’m not saying you should go throw out your meds and buy crystals - not at all! - but they do effect our cells’ vibrations.
Anecdote time. I took Imitrex for migraines from the time I was 15. I am a chronic migraine sufferer, who had migraines 15-25 days a month. When I got pregnant with Emery, I had to quit Imitrex cold turkey, because it’s unsafe during pregnancy, and my doctor was uncomfortable prescribing any other migraine medicine. The first trimester was absolutely horrible for me, in regards to my migraines. I distinctly remember that the July I was pregnant with her I had 27 headache days. 27, and I wasn’t allowed caffeine or any pain medicine stronger than tylenol. Then I was introduced to the powerful combination of petrified wood and a Himalayan salt lamp. In August I only had 6 headache days. I haven’t been able to be back on prescription migraine medicine since I found out I was pregnant with Emery in May of 2013, due to pregnancies and breastfeeding, and I haven’t had a single month while using that combination with more than 12 headache days.
I don’t believe in chakras, which is what you’ll find if you search how crystals work. It’s page after page of chakra alignment this and that. What I do believe is happening is that the chakra points line up with our endocrine system, and the vibrations of the crystals reset the vibrations of our endocrine system, which will affect our health. Hormones are the key to being happy, y’all.
Let’s move right along to the most common Scriptures thrown at me about crystals being a sin, okay? Okay. I asked my mom, who was the biggest proponent of the “This is a sin and you’re going to hell for it” camp in my life, to find me every single scripture she could about why the use of crystals might be sinful. She came to me with 28 scriptures, and guess what? The only mention of anything that could even be construed as a crystal were references to amulets, which are far different than a crystal. Amulets were typically carved with a blessing or a curse upon them, or had been charmed. The scripture she gave me only referenced the occult, and the sinfulness of practicing the occult. In fact, if you google, “scripture about crystals” and look at the results, the passages you’ll find are overwhelmingly positive. For brevity’s sake, since these scriptures are fairly redundant, I’m just going to touch on the highlights.
- Deuteronomy 18:9-12 9 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering,[a] anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.
This is a pretty exhaustive list of what God considers the occult. You’ll notice there is no mention of anything to do with healing, crystals, or stones in this passage. I’ve also seen this passage used to condemn herbal remedies, essential oils, and massage.Yes, there are people who think that massage is occult. You can be shocked.
My experience with this particular passage has been that amulets were used in most ancient religions to practice the occult, and amulets were made out of crystals carved with images, curses, blessings, etc. which somehow means that crystals are inherently evil. Welp. By that logic, the Aaron should have ignored God’s command to place 12 different crystals onto the breastplate he had to w
ear before entering the Holy of Holies (see Exodus 28) because they were occult. And there should be no crystals used in the creation of the New Earth (Revelation 22), and all those times people or angels were compared to crystals? Yeah, that shouldn’t happen, because they are evil.
- Ezekiel 13: 18-21 18 and say, Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the women who sew magic bands upon all wrists, and make veils for the heads of persons of every stature, in the hunt for souls! Will you hunt down souls belonging to my people and keep your own souls alive? 19 You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death souls who should not die and keeping alive souls who should not live, by your lying to my people, who listen to lies.20 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against your magic bands with which you hunt the souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls whom you hunt go free, the souls like birds. 21 Your veils also I will tear off and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand as prey, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
Ohhhh, boy, people should never throw passages from Ezekiel at me. Ezekiel is my strong point, y’all. So, you read this and think, without context, God hates women who make jewelry and clothing, because that somehow makes men stray? But, nah, it’s from a book of prophecy, and you can’t take any of that literally. It’s filled with symbolism, starting in the first sentence, “who sew magic bands upon all wrists”. This is not in reference to magical arm decorations at all, but rather that these women weren’t even actual practitioners of the occult; they were frauds who were taking money from people. They sewed magic bands “on all arms”, meaning they gave everyone (”of all statures”, as the passage says) the same answers, presumably whatever they wanted to hear. The veils would have been used (most likely) to make the inquirer assume they were worthy of whatever “prophecy” they were given, or to hide from them whatever tricks they were doing to pass their “sorcery” off as genuine. Some translations say “pillows” rather than veils, but those translations are pretty crappy, because the Hebrew word used is for veil.
In 20, where it says, “I will tear them from your arms”, you have to keep the imagery in mind. There is no tearing of literal magical bands from arms, what’s being said is that God will make apparent to everyone they have lied to that they were swindled. Basically, this passage is God saying, “You were lying and stealing from my people, and giving false hopes, or crushing high spirits, and it’s going to stop because that’s not cool.” I love when people throw this passage at me, because they’re taking literally what was meant metaphorically. Based on the nature of this passage, these women weren’t even trying to practice sorcery - they saw an easy way to make money by telling the Jews in Babylon that they were soon going home to Israel, and took advantage.
These are the two most commonly used scriptures, but if you want to see other scriptures that directly mention the occult, you can click here.
The gist of this is pretty simple. Do you believe that objects can be inherently evil, or that it is the uses of the objects that are evil? Do you believe that alcohol is inherently evil, or that being drunk is the sin? Do you believe that owning a gun is evil, or that killing, injuring, or shooting at someone with that gun is the sin?
Now we get into the theologically tricky part.
- 1 Corinthians 8:9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
Okay, this verse is one of those verses that hits me in the gut every. single. time.
I grew up with this verse looming over me. “Amanda, don’t do anything that could be a stumbling block,” is something I have heard a hundred thousand times, and it is so all encompassing. Don’t smoke, drink, cuss, or make dirty jokes except in the privacy of your own home. Don’t listen to secular music except in your own home. Don’t let anyone know you’re depressed and suicidal, because they might be, and if you are they’ll lose hope. Definitely don’t do anything that could make someone think you are a witch.
This is my personal take on how this verse comes into play regarding crystals: if you know you’ll be around someone who previously practiced the occult but have converted and are trying to give up everything about it, maybe wear your crystals where they can’t see them until you are positive they can see them without being tempted to practice the occult again.
Now, let’s move on to practices commonly performed with crystals that would be a sin according to the Bible, shall we?
Divination
This one is pretty straight forward, but there are multiple ways crystals are used for this. Pendulum dowsing, lithomancy, scrying, or any other way that you use a crystal to facilitate seeing possible futures is a no go, the reason being that diving the future is a blatant slap in God’s face. It is human nature to want to know what is going to happen, however, our trust should be in God alone, and when we need confirmation or clarity involving our future, it is God we should go to. Using a pendulum is also iffy because someone is answering your questions, and it isn’t God. I’ve heard people claim that the answers come from their higher intuition, ancestors, angels, source, etc. but there is no way to know, and Satan is a crafty little bugger.
Scriptures to back this up: Micah 5:12 “And I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes.”
Leviticus 19:31 “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.”
Contacting Angels/Demons/Spirit Guides
I believe this is a sin for one main reason: you are choosing to ask someone other the God a question intended for God. Typically people will use crystals to contact one of these higher beings for guidance, and we have a God who loves us and longs to be the One we go to with these questions.
Contacting Ancestors
Did you not read the story of Saul? The Bible is very clear that calling forth the dead is 100% not okay. These are people who have departed Earth, and that's that. They're done with Earth, and God very plainly commands us to leave them alone. (Deuteronomy 18:10-11, Isaiah 8:19, Hebrews 9:27)
That's it. Those are the things that can be done with crystals that are sinful. As with all things, trust that the Holy Spirit will convict you if you are trudging into sinful territory.
God has given us a home that is filled with beautiful and healing creations, of which I believe gemstones are truly underused by His People. He is a God who wants good things for us. I believe God put crystals here to be used in the same way as herbal remedies and medication; for healing. They are not for divination.They are not to contact spirits. They are not for guidance. If you need guidance, seek God's face, and He will freely give it.
