Wow!  Pretty!  I think that there should be a thread (maybe it's this one?) for lots of beautiful pics of crystals and gems that you all own!

I know it would be great if some other members could post pics of their crytals and how they came to own that one.  I love seeing others pics and hearing about the stories that come with them.

I went to the malll today because my daughter said she had seen amethysts there.  She was right.  No geodes and the caves and a cathedral were selling for more $$$ than I had on me.  But I did buy a small modest amethyst the salesperson referred to as a point, I'm guessing because of the number of facets on it.  Anyway, here it is:



Of course, I don't know anything about the care and feedings of such crystals, so advice would be welcome.  It seemed right to expose it to the lunar eclipse tonite but the perpetual cloud cover kinda killed that.  But I did get a few waning moments of eclipse in a tiny break in the clouds:



So I hope that charged it, cleansed it or whatever (you can see I know nothing about this).  Anyway, there was a whole box of these amethyst points but this one seemed to call to me, like a kitten in the pet store (that happened to me a long time ago).

Another stupid question, or maybe thought, and that is a question of naming.  I like to name things.  My 4 PCs are named Freya (my notebook), Zeus (my server), Fafnir (my work system), and Gwenhwyfar (the family PC).  Looking at the amethyst, Ishtar came to mind.  Is this pointless and does no one else do this?  Just curious.  It seems it should be personal to me.

Oh my if naming it is looked down on then I'm down there on the ground, flat, peel me off the floor with a shovel flat....hehe.....I named my cave after the generous lady that I bought it from 'Bernie'  I havent named all my crystals (too many and not enough imagination to find names) but I have named those that took me years to manifest!  I say I manifested bernie as I wanted a cave since I was a child so to finally have one was so special!

I love the name you picked!  Any reason behind it doesn it mean something?

When it comes to cleasning a crystal what you hope to do is cleanse it of others vibrations and bring it back to its true vibration.  Then you can 'programme' your crystal.  So say for e.g you wanted the amethyst point to help you with your health after cleansing in the moonlight as you have done then you hold the crystal in your hands and like an affirmation say what your intent is for the crystal to help you with.

Choosing it the way you did is certainly the best way.  A crystal will always call you.  You will naturally feel drawn to a specific one and its always good to follow that call rather than pick one because it looks more expensive, or has better terminators etc etc.

I try to cleanse all my crystals but that has become too hard.  I used to take them out each full moon and then the next night bring them back in.  I just have too many so now I cleanse them with the house, I light sage sticks and use the smoke to cleanse the rooms and the crystals within each room.

Cleanisng your crystal is as individual as we are and some say that the sign you are Earth, Fire, Water, Air is the way you will feel attracted to cleansing it.  So earth people will want to bury it in soil or under leaves in the backyard, Air people will leave it out in the sun and moonlight, Water people will cleanse in purified water or salt water (not generally a good idea though if you dont know what your doing) and fire people will like to use teh smoke of burning herbs/wood like sage etc to cleasne their crystals.

The pic is great I'm very glad you shared it with us.  Yay we're converting you...haha....just kidding!  I say I converted my mum to crystals as after each visit to my home she will go out and buy another crystal of one I have as it intrigued her during her stay!  Oh they can become an addiction!

It had to be named after a Goddess. That much I knew in my heart.   Ishtar descended into the underworld and the amethyst came from it, so to speak, if I recall my school (so long ago) earth science.  Plus, and probably mostly, it just feels right to me.



Okay, I get that.  What can I expect the crystal to do?  Actually, I think I read somewhere that amethyst can be used to absorb negative energy or something like that.  I want to be more positive and use the amethyst to assist in that.  Does that make sense?



I can't claim to be that smart.  That amethyst called me from the get-go, but I didn't think that was the prettiest one in the bunch.  So I kept looking for better ones.  I think I was called back 2 or 3 more times before I realized that was the one that I was supposed to pick.



In my neighborhood?  I would never find my amethyst the next morning if I did that.




Well, cleansing in purified water (does distilled water qualify) seems intuitive to me.  Being a water sign probably helps.  Do I soak it?  Rinse it?  



My pleasure.  And I am not complaining about the conversion.  First of many, I hope.  I have been trying to locate runes made of citrine, but no luck.