This my latest crystal mandala layout – for Focus.  I moved the table away from its previous position beside my crystal collection as I felt the grouped crystals interfered with the energy of the crystal mandala and its intent of focus. It feels heaps better in its new position under my spider drum and Shamanic Power painting (see photo below).

Later I’m going to try my hand at talking about the crystals I’ve worked with using my new tablet, so won’t go into details of this today.

I get a poem and photo in my inbox every day from Panhala, a Yahoo group, which started up when I lived in the UK in 2003. These posts really light my day, a wonderful selection of poetry, so I’m going to reprint one here relevant to my love of crystals, rocks and stones:

Stone

Go inside a stone
That would be my way.
Let somebody else become a dove
Or gnash with a tiger’s tooth.
I am happy to be a stone.

From the outside the stone is a riddle:
No one knows how to answer it.
Yet within, it must be cool and quiet
Even though a cow steps on it full weight,
Even though a child throws it in a river;
The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed
To the river bottom
Where the fishes come to knock on it
And listen.

 I have seen sparks fly out
When two stones are rubbed,
So perhaps it is not dark inside after all;
Perhaps there is a moon shining
From somewhere, as though behind a hill—
Just enough light to make out
The strange writings, the star-charts
On the inner walls.

~ Charles Simic ~

(The Voice at 3 A.M.)