Thank you very much for that.  That's pretty much what I was looking for.  I own a raw emerald that a friend gave to me a long time ago, but I'm not sure it's the right one for me right now.  I've always been drawn to my birth stone, Garnet, Aquamarine, Sapphire, and Black Onyx.  Lately I've been very drawn to Onyx.  I'm not sure there are any shops where I live for stones specifically.  What type of shops should I visit?

Also, what if I do not have a place to smudge properly?  If I bought one of these stones, what would be another way of cleansing it?

Smudging can be done anywhere in your home or even outdoors. If you cannot smudge to cleanse the stone place it under running water and visualive the dirt and bad energie being washed from your stone. A word of caution if cleansing opals or any of the fire type stones such as fire agate never use hot water or ice water as this will crack the interior of the stone you will not see it but you will notice a color change within the stone and no it will not return to normal as the color is refractions of light off trapped particles water within the stone.

I am not sure where you live but in most any major or medium size city there will be a metaphysic shop or book store that deals with metaphysic (new age as well) or if you have a Discover Channel store in your local mall. Any where there is a rock shop as where you shop it is not important  just that you have a place to select stones, you might even see if your area has a rock and mineral club because someone there is always willing to help out a new rock hound.

Now I cannot tell you now why citrine was chosen let me put it a different way they wonl't let me tell you but I can tell you why you are being drawn to Onyx.

Onyx comes in a variety of colors, this stone is a memeber of the Chalcedony family and works with self-control, as well as your decision making process, and helps the intuitive process and is a cleansing maintainer for that process. This stone helps you under the moment.

As far as the other stones they are all great stones for you to work with and each of them work in great harmony with each other.

Well, where I live, our mall is pretty limited. I'll have to look up some local shops.  I may get my other friend to come with me.  

Also, the emerald that I have, I've felt more drawn to lately, and I kept feeling that I should run it under cold water.  It's an uncut emerald, and I literally felt it calling me to do so.  I don't know anything about emeralds, so I'm trying to go by my gut feelings.  Normally I'm correct when I follow those feelings.  I've learned the hard way when I haven't followed them.

What you say about the Onyx makes more sense to me now as far as why I've felt called to it.  I've been feeling the need for that extra boost of self confidence as far as self control goes.  Not in all areas, but in certain, more personal areas.

Thank you for your help!  It's really made me understand what I need to do, and why I've had certain feelings when with stones and crystals.

Your emerald is also helping in those areas as well, as it works with our emotions and in the heart chakra also.

SO you see you understand more than you thought you did so just keep listening to them.

Yay! I guess I'm not as dumb as I thought, lol.