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Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #12 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Citrine meaning, including:

• Working with Citrine during the Solstice
• Tapping into the spirit of celebration with Citrine
• Harnessing Citrine energy to unlock your full potential

Plus, tune in for a look at whether or not natural Citrine is superior to heat-treated Citrine!

Tune in now for a deeper look at Citrine meaning!

Podcast Transcript:

Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection, but aren’t sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.

Ashley Leavy: Hello, and welcome to another amazing episode of the crystal confab podcast. I’m Ashley Leavy joined by Nicholas Pearson, Adam Berlay, and Kyle Perez. And we are so excited to be chatting with you today about, I think, one of all of our favorite crystals, citrine. But even though this is one of our favorites, it is also a highly controversial stone for one big reason that many of you can probably already guess. Kyle, what is that controversy over citrine?

Kyle Perez: Well, I think we all know it’s natural versus heat treated. Those terms will always come up for citrine, but, weirdly, they don’t come up for other minerals. And I just want to start by saying, if you have a really nice ruby or sapphire, maybe even an emerald or topaz, it is more likely than not, especially in jewelry form, that it has gone through some form of heat treatment or irradiation. So it’s actually really important to know off the cuff straightaway that so many crystals and minerals go through the heat process. It is to clean them up, make them a nicer color, change their color.

All of these things happen, and it’s less out of malice and more out of need. It’s more out of desperation. Right? There’s not enough of it. There’s more desire for this.

So it has been happening for decades. It’s not something that’s new to the business, and it’s not something that I think we should be so up in arms about. Yes. There is some bad heat treatment that does happen to our poor amethyst, and it can make it a bit crumbly and a bit sad, but if the heat treatment is done correctly, it’s beautiful. And what the heat treated citrine actually represents is something that forms naturally, which is Madeira Citrine.

If you’ve ever seen natural Madeira Citrine, I have a couple of pieces that kind of replicate that sort of color. I don’t know if it’s gonna work very well because I’m on my phone this week. Madeira actually means wood in Portuguese, and so it has that orangey brown wood tone that forms naturally through the heating and the radiation that happens below the Earth’s surface. So it’s gonna have iron in it and likely trace elements of aluminum too. It has been heated to a certain point, and that’s where we get that beautiful range of color and tone from citrine.

There are 2 really important points that separate natural versus heat treated to actually see whether or not one is all of the other, and it’s dichroism. Dichroism is the play of 2 different colors or at least 2 colors. And what you will see with citrine is one color when you look at it down one axis, and then we call this the c axis when you’re looking directly down the point, and you’ll see a different tone. This is a beautiful African citrine coming from Zambia, nice and light. And what happens is that it just shows you that the crystal is natural.

It has an orientation, and that shows that natural citrine side. Your heat treated citrine will very not show the dichroism. It’s gonna show 1 rich, strong color, generally more orangey, generally more warm in its tone, generally stronger and more vibrant, and that’s how I like to break down and separate them energetically. I think both of them have their place. Both of them are amazing, and I will honestly meet someone in the car park if they don’t think either are valid.

I appreciate the fact that hatred is about focus. It is about direct focus, and this is one of my favorite guys. This is a great skull named Midas, the Midas touch, if you will, one beautiful natural point on the top with the skull face in it. And energetically taught me so much about doing. Just doing.

Get it done. Do the thing. Make it happen. Get enthusiastic. Be excited.

Be creative. Whereas natural citrine this is a lovely African natural citrine skull that I have that is more of a connection to doing things with more cadence, doing things with more pace, and allowing yourself to energetically have that enthusiasm and and excitement, but for a more long term thing. I think heat treated is more short term, really focused, do things quickly, do creative things, get yourself up off your bottom, try to get tasks done, unlocking creativity. Whereas I find natural Satrina, I’m called upon to wear it every day. I actually wear a piece in my ear every day as a day to day stone because it helps me stay buoyant.

It helps me stay flexible and adaptable. It helps me with clarity. It helps me with being positive, and I also find it protects with positivity. Whether it be the heat treated or the natural, I find citrine is one of the most powerful protectors that we can actually work with. Because when you are working from a place of positivity and joy and optimism, like, you’re kind of pushing away all of that other stuff.

You find yourself to be much more magnetic to the good, magnetic to the fun. This episode is coming out pretty much on my birthday, which I’m very excited about, and the solstice. And this week of the birthday and the summer solstice for us in the sum summit southern hemisphere is the time that I work with my citrine the most because it is a solar time. It is warm. It is hot.

We are engaging with that heat. We’re engaging with that celebration. We’re engaging with that. More is more energy of the summer solstice. Pleasure is at the forefront.

Family is at the forefront. Celebration and joy and being outside, and all of these things align to the energy of Satrine in such a powerful way. And that’s why I’ve been working with it all day, every day, pretty much for my whole crystal working life. Yeah, Adam.

Adam Barralet: I love what you had to say there. You were so poetic in differentiating, and I think what you said, the 2 citrines were almost like 2 different crystals, aren’t they? And I normally describe them as they’re both stones of happiness. Natural citrine is ah, whereas heat treat is more, woohoo, in that type of way. But I’d love to know from everyone else, you know, how are we feeling about this idea of humans tampering with crystals? You know, I think there’s a fine line. You know, the climate is getting hotter. Sometimes in natural environments, we can get that natural to train in that way.

Maybe when we have a 2,000 degree day, all our amethyst will turn to citrine. But, you know, is there a fine line between heating crystals and maybe injecting them with dye or something like that? What do you reckon, Ashley?

Ashley: I really have an okay relationship with heat-treated minerals. I’m fine with it because even though the process is a little bit different and helped along by humans, relatively kind of what’s happening is that the minerals are being heated. However, a lot of minerals that are heat treated are also artificially irradiated. We can have both to get these different color combinations and that sort of thing. You’ll find this a lot in topaz, zircon, things like that.

I personally don’t love working with artificially irradiated minerals. I just feel energetically a little disconnected from them. I just don’t tend to resonate with them. So if it’s something that’s been heat treated and artificially irradiated, I tend to steer clear. The same for me is true of dyed stones.

I know a lot of folks that work with them and if it brings you joy, I feel like going for it. There are some benefits that we could consider, like maybe the sort of magical properties of color that come into play when we’re working with a dyed mineral. But for me, knowing that there is something else other than that crystal just as it came out of the earth, this like artificial dye, even if it were a natural dye, I’d probably still feel the same way, it’s just something that’s not just the crystal. And for me, I struggle with that. But then, you know, we also think about auric quartz, which we just talked about in a recent episode.

We were discussing auric quartz and I’m kind of okay with that because at least you have the quartz and then you have these metals which are natural. So it really comes down to, I think, personal preference, personal experience, how you feel when you’re working with those stones. But, Nicholas, I’d love to know your opinion on this too.

Nicholas: You know, I I think I’m kind of in the same boat, or I’ve got a foot in each realm. There are some treatments that I feel pretty copacetic about and others that make my skin crawl. And, you know, there is nothing new under the sun. We chatted about this in previous episodes about how some of these treatments have been around for a very long time. You know, the making of black onyx dates back to, like, the Hellenistic period in ancient history.

And, we see similar things with the heat treatment of precious and semi precious gems to improve their color. So, I don’t really have anything against heat-treated gems. I don’t love irradiated ones. Stabilization is one I feel kind of ambivalent about. If it means I can afford something and it will last, I will get it stabilized.

If it means I cannot afford it and it probably will not last, I’m not gonna get the unstabilized version. So, it’s kinda something that I take on a case by case basis. And, I have a really deep love of citrine, and I am absolutely a 100% a citrine snob. I want it to be natural wherever possible. The composition, the constituency of natural citrine differs greatly.

The the, like, crystal lattice, although they are still fundamentally the same mineral species, quartz, is different in heat treated amethyst than it is in other varieties of natural citrine because most other varieties of natural citrine will have the same Brazil law twinning that makes space for those tetravalent iron ions to be in there that give amethyst its color. And what we’re doing is we’re breaking the bonds in those iron to change the shape of them. And that’s not how natural citrine derives its color in the first place. So, absolutely, I’m all for enjoying it, appreciating it, but I connect so deeply to this long, slow process of natural radiation rather than just heat that gives us the birth of citrine. So it’s something that I just have a deep love and connection to.

Ashley: Adam, what about you?

Adam: Yeah. I was really interested in what Kyle said before about how he works with the natural citrine all the time and wears it as an earring. Whereas the heat treated is more like a quick not a quick fix, but something that you’d want to you you’d use it for a burst of energy. And I think sometimes with that, maybe that fiery energy or that heated energy, there are times when we need to perform, where we need to shine big, where maybe we’re doing something on the weekend, where we need that happiness, we need that abundance, or something else that we’re gonna discuss about Citroen today. Yeah.

Go for the heat treated. But it may be worth looking at if you’re working with heat treated Citroen and wearing it all the time, are you shining too bright? Are you being too happy all of the time? And I’m not saying that we need to be, you know, negative nancies or sad all the time, but I think that the natural citrate will bring us that nice kind of contentment or that peacefulness where that false happiness or that false energy. Does that make sense?

Ashley: Definitely. Yeah. I can see that. You know, this kind of has me thinking a lot about how we’ve all mentioned Citrine’s kind of proclivity for, like, bringing us joy and happiness and that sort of thing. I personally, like, feel the most aligned and connected and in flow when I’m at that sort of state of joy.

And it’s not even necessarily like the, you know, acute joy that’s like, you know, elation when you’re really excited about something, but when I just feel happy in myself and happy in my life and happy with who I am inside. Like, that is the kind of joy that I most resonate even more than those big spikes and excitement and happiness and that sort of thing, and that brings this big sense of personal fulfillment. And I know, Nicholas, that’s something you definitely wanted to touch on in this episode about Citrine.

Nicholas: Yeah. You know, I’m I’m honestly surprised that the 4 of us so far haven’t addressed the elephant in the room about Citrine, about what we we as a crystal community that is greater than the 4 of us like to kind of pigeonhole it as, which is the money stone, the abundance stone, the merchant stone ad nauseam. And, I will tell you that while I’ve had success working with Citrine for that purpose, it has never felt like the whole picture of this stone. And for, like, lots of work and, you know, we’ll say insight from mentors, Like, finally, the pieces fell into place and things started to make sense to me. And, like, I’ve always found that the thing I get the most out of my relationship with Citrine is a sense of fulfillment, a sense of getting to where I’m meant to be in the grand scheme.

And, if we look at how Citrine works in those ways, its energy is kind of twofold. And remembering that some of our viewers appreciate show and tell, I’ve got some of my favorite quotes to illustrate. So I’m gonna start with one of my Brazilian ones that is etched. I really love hydrothermally etched quartz in all colors. I got this when my hubby and I got married in New York.

So that was my little memento for the trip as if, you know, getting married wasn’t the most important thing. I also got some rocks. I’ve got some really wonderful, and this is unusual, it’s amethyst on citrine. We could almost call it ametrine. This comes from Brazil.

But my favorite deposit of citrine in the world comes from Zambia, so I have 2 of my favorites for that. I’ve got this really stunning deep, deep, deep, dark one, almost smoky colored. This was one of those really special treats to myself. But when my dear friend and mentor retired, and sold her shop, one of the things that had been on the shelf that she was prepared to put in her personal collection finally made it to mine. And it is this Japanese twin, Zambian Citrine.

It’s got quite a bit of contact damage, so it was affordable, somewhat. It was a stretch, but I made it happen. And, I’ve always wanted a large Japan law twin, ever since I saw 1 in Japan and learned about the morphology and the twinning laws and all that stuff. But, to have one in Citrine is just like a dream come true. So the twofold nature of Citrine is perfectly expressed in this twofold stone.

One of the first things that I feel like Citrine does for us is it’s actually a process of letting go. It’s about unwinding the tension that holds old patterns in place. We get really rigid about stuff with our beliefs, our ideas, our behaviors, our programming, our routine, our habits, and it it’s hard to have a sense of fulfillment without also some flexibility in there if we aren’t being fulfilled by doing it this way and we continue new this way, we’re we’re never gonna get that sense of satisfaction in life. So Citrine is about unwinding the tension that holds these old patterns in place, and that strengthens our ability to let go. So in gemstone energy medicine, we use it as one of the principal stones of all processes of elimination in body, mind, and spirit.

It’s just letting go of all the things that hold us back, the unwanted, the filtering out, and that’s great. The other half of this is it’s kind of like smoothing the path of walking forward. It’s like leveling all the bumps in the road. And when you have a straightforward easy path and you’re unburdened, well, guess what? It’s really easy to walk along it.

So Citrine allows us to step onto this path with a sense of, knowing yourself, knowing what you aren’t anymore because you’ve let go of it, but you make space. We can’t talk about Citrine being a stone for abundance if we aren’t also making space for that concept of abundance, of universal abundance to flow through. And this is not to say that it’s about money. Money is a symptom of being fulfilled for some people, but there are other ways that we measure abundance. We do this through joy, like everyone’s been talking about.

We can talk about an abundance of other resources that aren’t financial or monetary, an abundance of support in your, you know, emotional network, your familial group, your chosen family, your community at large. It’s having other resources like time and sleep and nutrition and space for your hobbies, space for your loved ones. These are the true hallmarks of success. And if we only focus Citrine towards the dollar amount in our bank account, then we’ll get something out of that. But when we take a step back and we look at the big picture, Citrine’s inviting us to say, but is this fulfilling?

And how can we let go of something to make space for that fulfillment? And chances are, if we’re doing something that feels easeful, that gives us an abundance of other resources, we will probably also have, for many of us at least, some sense of financial freedom, some sense of, you know, monetary expression that comes with that. It’s, you know, not always a one for one situation for everybody, but it is really magical to see Citrine through a bigger lens than just letting it be about money.

Ashley: Wow. Can I just, like, jump in and say really quick? I feel like, Adam, I know that you outlined, like, our first few crystals for our first few episodes, and then we started to sort of collaboratively, like, put things in the schedule more and more and more and more every single week. I feel like the stones we are talking about and the things that we are discussing are, like, the most important messages. And, you know, I know that our episodes come out usually a couple weeks after we record them.

But through that whole time, from the time that we open this sort of container together to discuss these crystals until release day, I have been so immersed in the energy of these crystals that we’re talking about, and I feel like this is such a gift and such a blessing that Nicholas just shared to look at the ways in which we are blessed and the the ways in which we can find success and abundance of health, of love, of friendships and support, of money, of all of the different things that that are so meaningful and important in life and that make us sort of feel whole. Right? We need all those things. So my heart is full right now. I’m so grateful for you all.

Adam: I’m gonna risk becoming the shallow one of the group right now, I do wanna talk a little bit about money. And I did have a question. Maybe, Nicholas, you may know, a term that you often hear Citrine referred to is the merchant stone. Does that have a historical background? Do you know where that came from, or is it just something that you know, someone penned it, and then we all started penning it at the same time?

Nicholas: Yeah. I think it dates to about 19 eighties. I haven’t found a really firm example of its use prior to that, the moniker, the Merchant Stone prior to that. Certainly, one of the most popular places where it appears in print is Scott Cunningham’s, Encyclopedia of Crystal Gems and Metal Magic. I believe it’s there.

We definitely find it in Love is the Earth and some of the subsequent works. So it has entered our zeitgeist. It is something that collectively we respond to, which is, you know, part of what Citrine does. But, yeah, I think that’s about where it comes in.

Kyle: Can we talk about that being such an eighties thing? Right? The eighties was so about money and excess and all of that, so it might have felt appropriate even though it’s a bit inappropriate.

Adam: Mhmm. But I’d love to know as well, you know, to me I’m still keeping it shallow, and I’m apologizing for that because I do believe that Citrine exactly embodies exactly what Nicholas is talking about. But when you get people coming into your shop, maybe, Ashley, what are the main concerns people are asking about? I find the main 3 are normally love, money, and energetic protection. Would you agree with that?

Ashley: I would totally agree with those top 3, and I’d add for the 4th one, career. So love, money, protection, career. If I had to, like, throw another one in there, which you could say falls under the money umbrella. But a lot of people are coming looking for a change in career for their happiness, for their mental health, for their physical well-being. Like, there are lots of different motivating factors for their career change, but, absolutely, those are the top 3.

So it makes sense that it’s something we need to talk about. Right? It’s very alive and well in all of our lives. Like, money is unfortunately the thing that the world seems to run on, and so it makes sense that when we feel like we don’t have enough of it, sure, we’re gonna go do the things that we can do that are within our control, like outward type things, but that we might also wanna turn to some crystals for some energetic support. That just makes sense.

Adam: I want to say, it’d be remiss of me not to share probably my favorite crystal practice that I probably bang on a lot. So people who are regular listeners to myself, sorry for repeating myself, but this is my favorite crystal abundance practice. So what you’re gonna need is you’re gonna need a small citrine. And probably, I’m thinking, and I’m gonna throw this out to the group at the end, maybe a heat treat might be best, but you need a small citrine. You need some true pure bergamot or bergamot essential oil, and you need the highest dollar note or bill for your country.

So in Australia, it’s 100. I believe in America, a 100 is the highest you go as well. Is that right, guys?

Nicholas: For most of us.

Adam: Yeah. They comment on that somewhat. So what we do is we start off with holding the crystal in our hand and programming it with that desire for abundance, whatever that may be. Whether that is a career change, seeing an account balance, seeing a new possession, all that type of thing. Send that in there as long as you can program that crystal.

Now once you’ve done that, you then get the bergamot essential oil, pop a little bit over the crystal, pop a little bit over the note, and the crystal in the note goes into your purse or your wallet. Now how do these three things work together? Well, hopefully, crystal 101, you program a crystal, it’s holding that vibration. So even when you’re not thinking about it, it’s seeing that vibration out into your auric field and helping to attract that. Why the bergamot essential oil?

Well, for me, bergamot essential oil, I’ve found to be the best in 2 different ways. First of all, it’s really great for self worth and self esteem, as is Citrine. Now I’ve found that how you feel about yourself and how you value yourself, the world will actually respond in kind. Are you worth $10 an hour, $100 an hour, $1,000 an hour? And working with that self worth can be really, really great in that.

So when we smell that, we get that, but you also create what’s called an aromatic anchor. We’ve all smelled something before. It reminded us maybe of our grandmother’s house or that extra cologne that we hated. And so when you smell the bergamot, it takes you back to how you’re feeling as you’re programming that crystal and shift gears in your brain as well. Now the trick is with that high dollar currency note in your purse or your wallet is that you’re never allowed to spend it.

And what happens each time you open your purse or wallet is that you go, oh, I’ve always got money. You start to change the languaging of how you’re actually relating to money. Now I did this probably, 25 years ago. And to be honest with you, that $100 note, I had to keep breaking it because of an emergency, but I need that jacket. And I found that, you know, a few days before payday, I’d run out of money and I’d be like, oh, can I pay on Thursday when I get paid?

But when I actually became disciplined and to the point now where if I’m at a cash only event, I will go walking for blocks to go find an ATM to get cash rather than break that 100. I always have money to pay for what I need on the day. My money still goes up and down, but it’s still there as well. So this is something I’d really encourage people to try if they are wanting to. If they’re new to crystals that work as well, this is a very big one for me.

I’m kinda going, oh, wow. Something’s kind of happening here that I can’t explain beyond, you know, maybe the crystal is working. Some people make grids in a similar kind of manner. I know your shops. One of my friends, when they put the money in the till each day, they’d always put the money in a small tumbled citrine crystal.

And if someone forgot to put that in, then the day seemed to go bad at the shop as well. So I wanted to share that because I know people do have an interest in it. And my question to the group now is I’m wondering whether what I’m talking about, that’s where the heat treated might be good. But, obviously, we wanna keep money balanced and our perspective of money balanced. And maybe this is where we need to go back to our natural where we go through those deeper, more earthy, more what’s the word I’m looking for?

Other senses of happiness beyond just show me the money. What do you reckon, Kyle?

Kyle: I am 100% a believer that we oversimplify what crystals do. And if we compare crystals, then you’re going to get more out of them. And I will always champion yellow and green crystals together. When you pair the energy of being able to connect to your will and doing the thing and being in your gut instinct, but also listening to what your heart wants and what your heart needs as far as abundance goes and your physical reality, because we’ve talked about green crystals really aligning to our physical reality. When you pair them together, that’s where I’ve seen the most success, not just for myself, but for clients as well.

So for Citrine, it is as simple as pairing that with green aventurine or jade or peridot. When you pair those 2 together, you’re going to get more of a sense of what abundance truly means to you and how you can actually go after it, how you can actually actively pursue that which makes you feel more abundant, that it takes you more out of the like, thinking about it and more actually into the physical action of doing and connecting and bringing it all in. It helps you to be more connected to what you are trying to do instead of just going, I need money to be successful. Do you know what I mean?

Adam: I guess when you look at a chakra base, that yellow energy center is more about that kind of empowerment, whereas when you bring that brand in, you are bringing that heart into it as well, if you know what I mean. So yeah. Nicholas, I know next year we go, we’ve penned and you’re excited to talk about emerald as well. How do you think the citrate and emerald pairing would go?

Nicholas: So funny you ask because I have my favorite emerald right here as well because it’s been keeping me company. And, yeah, what a dynamic combo those 2 are. They’re ones that I work with pretty regularly. They’re I. I don’t wanna give anything away too soon about Emerald, but there is this kind of emphasis on a relationship to materiality, our our ability to be in the material. And I think with Citrine’s ability to help us let go of some preconceived notions and programming and baggage we might have around that and its ability to open us up to something that is a a greater, higher, deeper, more expansive way to go forward in it, they’d be great together.

Adam: I’d love to know as well you know, we’re talking about crystal pairings. I sometimes get some people messaging me on Instagram or on social media asking about, you know, crystal combos. I like the idea of pairing. When we start to get into trios and quads, I start to find the energy gets a little bit too overwhelming. Maybe if you’re doing a grid, that might be acceptable.

But would you how do everyone feel when we’re kind of getting, like, bringing in too many colors and too many energies at 1? What do you reckon, Ashley?

Ashley: I will say this is a question that I’ve gotten the entire time I’ve been doing this work. So for, you know, almost 20 years now, this is a question that people ask. This has always been my reply when people say, well, how many crystals is too many? The number that you’re actively working with, that doesn’t necessarily mean how many you have sitting around in your space or how many you have in your jewelry box or on your altar or whatever, but the number that you’re actively working with with intention. I think you keep that intention and that focus really clear on all at the same time.

For most of us, that is gonna be, like, 2 or 3. When we get many more than that, it’s a little harder to kind of keep a strong, clear intention in mind, and I think that’s kind of

Adam: the

Ashley: indicator. My exceptions do come in the form of a crystal grid because I feel like we’re sort of linking those stones together energetically. They’re sort of working together as one unit toward our intention. So maybe even if you have 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 types of stones in a grid, although I tend to keep those pretty simple myself, but, say, they’re a little more complicated, because they’re sort of all working together in one unit for intention for your intention, I think that’s fine. Similar to that, like a piece of jewelry, say you had a beaded strand necklace, and you specifically strung different types of crystals for different purposes.

You created it with a lot of intention or you had a pendant that was set with a few things. Again, to me, that works similar to the grid. You might have that pendant, that necklace, whatever it is for some reason. Maybe they’re all heart centered stones. Maybe they’re all stones for good luck.

Like, we all kind of have our little things that we do. And I feel like with jewelry, especially, it’s such a personal piece. It’s like a talisman. It’s something that we wear to bring that energy in. And so for me, that acts like one sort of cohesive unit too.

But I would love to know, Kyle, what’s your experience been like at that?

Kyle: So I am the far end of the spectrum where I’ve spoken about this in the past of maximalism. Like, a more is more approach is often how I do things, but it’s not all the time. Like, when I’m working, when I’m busy, when I’m doing, I will put many on because I put them on myself like a grid. I create a grid on myself with my jewelry, and that’s how I’m going to access what I need to access. But if I’m not working, it all comes off, and I’ve just got my citrine on, and then that’s my focus.

And it’s just nice and easy, especially if I’m not doing anything and you just need to be on that level. But if I’m especially doing psychic mediumship work, I generally need to load up a few extra. I will have a few extra around me. If I’m traveling to do those readings, there’s a selection that I will bring with me, and I’ll create my own grid that’s generally quite complex, but I know what they’re all doing. I know why they’re all doing what they’re doing.

You know, we can speak from the many years of experience a bit understanding, and I like to use the metaphor of I used to work in hospitality, and I used to manage and run cafes. And if you didn’t have every team member doing the right thing in their place, it wouldn’t run. And you could have maybe 10 to 12 people in the cafe, you need a tilt person, a couple of people on the coffee machine, a couple of people taking things out, a couple of people making food, someone doing dishes. And when everyone has their place, that’s like a crystal grid. The whole team is working together.

All the tasks get done, and it’s working on something complex. Instead of just going, I want a cup of coffee. I’m just gonna have coffee. You have to go, I’m going to a cafe, and that cafe requires people getting paid, people making the coffee, having like, there is so much more complexity to the world around us, and we oversimplify what crystals can do so much. And don’t put so much pressure on the poor things.

Like, don’t put so much pressure on yourself. Like, give them a little bit of a break and go, let’s work in a team. Like, let’s get a couple together. And if you can’t think, I always take clear quartz. Clear quartz is your master energy crystal that’s gonna take your intention and kind of direct it where it needs to go.

So if all else fails and you can’t think of what else to do, if you have a core crystal of your citrine, just add a few pieces of clear quartz. You can make really basic grids with 1 crystal and a lot of clear quartz, and that’s gonna amplify that singular crystal if that’s your singular task. But if you want to do something more complex, learn about, understand what you’re working with, and then with intention, create things that are more complex because there are many situations in our lives that are so so. But if I’m working with something more simple and I think I need a lot of energy towards it, this is one I’ll go for, like Nicholas showed. Not something nice and big that has a lot of energy.

This is a twinned crystal, not a Japan law twin, but a twinned citrine from Zambia. And this is one of those ones that came out of the box, and I was like, thank you. You’re coming home with me. I appreciate you very much. And it’s one of those things that I always find twin crystals.

I’ve spoken about having a twin in the past. It’s helped me to go, this is you. You’re okay. You can do all the things. You are connected to what you need to be connected to.

So I think it’s situational. I think, like, I could talk about it all day. Like, we really need to actually take a moment to think about the situation you’re working on, the situation you are in, what you are trying to deal with. Then you can go, okay. Is it really complex, or is that actually really simple?

It’s simple. I’m gonna focus on 1 or 2 crystals. We can get the job done. Actually, there are a lot of layers of intersectionality here, so I’m going to create a grid that has white complex energy, but I know why it’s doing what it’s doing. Does that make sense?

Adam: It does. And I find you know, my rule of thumb is maximum of 2 colors, not including white, clear, and black crystals when it comes to wearing as well. But it’s interesting what you said, Kyle, about how I actually feel when I’m at home and not around a lot of people just doing my own thing unless I’m doing something spiritual, I actually don’t wear any crystals at all, which is a bit of a crime. And I think it’s worth people looking at how many crystals they are subjecting themselves to. I am reminded of this lovely woman I met, in Singapore once at a fair, Isaiah kind of promoting my book.

And she not only had a different crystal ring on each of these thick knuckles, but a second one on each of them. Now she was that scattered. I kinda remember she bought a book in the end, but she came to talk to me about 15 times and went to get money out and then we’ll walk away, and she’s just all over the place. And Kyle and I both worked in the same crystal warehouse as well. I’m sure you’ve noticed when a lot of crystal energy is around, you can become scattered. And so I’d just invite people that are watching or listening to kinda consider, hold on.

I love my crystals, but I don’t have to have them all on me or around me all of the time and maybe let them speak. What do you find, Nicholas?

Nicholas: You know, I like to use a lot of analogies when describing this kind of concept to people. When it comes to mixing and matching stones, they’re all gonna get along. On one level or another, they don’t have personalities the way we do. They don’t have egos like we do. So that’s certainly not our issue.

But it’s like maybe flavor pairings is a good way to put it. Sometimes, you just wanna taste dark chocolate and you want nothing else. Sometimes, you want dark chocolate and almonds and cherries and whipped cream and, you know, all of the things. So there is a time and a space to elevate a single energy profile, a single flavor. There’s also some magic, some alchemy that happens when we pick things that blend well together.

Now in that instance, you know, chocolate is the star of the show, but, you know, maybe we’ll also use a little bit of chocolate and Chile and some other ingredients to make a savory dish where it’s not the star of the show, but it’s like the catalyst that brings the other stuff together. So it’s knowing how things work for the application. It’s knowing how we respond to that palette. Because at the end of the day, I might think those are objectively lovely combinations, but to someone else who, dare I say, doesn’t like chocolate or might be allergic to it, those are terrible combinations. So I don’t like to create hard and fast rules about which stones must go together because we have different energy palettes just like we have different gustatory palettes.

Adam: Just as long as there’s not chocolate and mint because that should be illegal and outlawed around the world. Coming back to Bitfine now, Ashley, it’s such a happy stone. It’s really quite celebratory, and I noticed myself often, I am someone who is very goal orientated. I work a lot. I love the work that I do, but I’ll achieve a milestone, and I’m kind of on to the next, you know, on to the next achievement.

So I don’t celebrate my victories, and we are also coming to the end of the year, which is a bit of a celebratory time. Do you think Citrine is good in that context?

Ashley: It absolutely is, Adam. And I wanna let you know you are not alone in that thinking at all. I think just with how fast paced modern society is, it is not unusual to be constantly sort of driven, whether from your own kind of internal pressure you may put on yourself to achieve, to do the next thing, whatever, or from societal pressure. But no matter what we tend to sort of go go go go go. And I will just speak from personal experience here as a neurodivergent person.

This is something that I really struggle with because I’m always like, okay. Ticked the box. That’s done. On to the next thing. I’m always kind of thinking 10 steps ahead.

And so citrine for me, although it is definitely a stone of happiness and joy and it’s also a stone of abundance and prosperity, it is a stone of celebration. But it’s not just the things that we’re celebrating right this minute. What I have found with citrine is that it actually asks us to pause and do a little reflection. So we’re sort of not only looking at the things that we have to celebrate or be grateful for in this present moment, but sometimes we come up a little short when we’re feeling overwhelmed, busy, whatever. So, you know, you may be sitting here thinking, well, I just don’t feel a lot of gratitude in my heart right now.

I don’t, you know, feel that excitement or joy or, like, I have anything to celebrate. But pause and think back on the past month, the past year, the past 5 years, and think of those things that maybe you didn’t give yourself the opportunity to celebrate in the moment. You didn’t give yourself the opportunity to recognize the achievement that you reached, the joy that you felt, the experience that you had in whatever area of your life. Let yourself celebrate that. Just because the moment has passed doesn’t mean that you don’t still get to honor that experience, that part of yourself.

I think so often we just feel a little strange, like, well, it’s too late now. I missed the window. No, you didn’t. No, you didn’t. And Citrine reminds you that you can take time to celebrate yourself, your achievements, your joys, your accomplishments at any time.

And I also have a citrine that I absolutely love, and this one, I’m hoping you can see, has a large window face right on the front, that little diamond shaped window, and this is actually the one that I use for this practice. I love to gaze into that window, you can even sort of hold one of those up to your brow, you’ll see this formation a lot in clear quartz but you find it in other quartz as well, amethyst, citrine, smoky, whatever. But particular with the citrine, holding that up to my brow and thinking back on those things that maybe I felt like I missed. Maybe they went by too fast. Maybe I didn’t get the opportunity to savor them.

And just sort of, you know, like in earlier, me in a bit of a way sort of programming that into the crystal, and like you were saying, Adam, with the abundance ritual, but very much that, but you’re holding space for that moment of celebration. And even if it’s something you did get to celebrate at the time, you did get to fully experience, and you’re just having a little bit of a blue day or a low day or low week or month, reaching for that citrine, connecting with it, and letting that fill you back up, it does bring that sense that, well, everything’s gonna be okay. Right? Things have been great in the past. They’ll be great again.

Going through a rough patch, it just reminds us that everything moves on cycles, everything ebbs and flows, and that that’s okay. It’s that natural part of life like you were saying, Adam. So, yeah, that’s one of my few things, very simple practice, just holding that citrine, maybe holding it up to the brow, filling it with, you know, that thing that you wanna celebrate. But also sometimes just inviting yourself the space to reflect on those things and recognize and have some awareness for all that you’ve achieved and all that you have to celebrate. Because so often we don’t give ourselves the space to do that and we miss it.

Adam: I think one practice has become really popular in the new ages, you know, writing down things or listing 3 things that you’re grateful for each day. And that’s something that I’ve started doing with my partner. We do it each night as we get into bed. But I heard a podcast and it’s kind of being echoed to me now from what Ashley just shared. I’ve actually added something about what you are proud of that you did today?

And I think that, you know, that mini celebration of, like, celebrating the big things when something massive happens. Definitely do something. But, you know, maybe you’re well done. You actually got all all the things on your to do list done or well done. You know, you actually, you know, spoke in public for the first time today.

All those little victories each day and celebrating that, you know, having had you know, they always talk about having a little bit more champagne in your life. Well, you know, maybe we didn’t have champagne, but maybe we could just celebrate those things as well.

Ashley: Okay. Adam, you’re inspiring me. I am going to celebrate finally packing all the laundry out of my suitcase from when I got home last week. I felt like it was taking me forever, but, no, I get to celebrate that because laundry in my nose. So that is happening.

I have, you know, speaking of celebration, we have up. A little bit of solstice for you right now, and it will be in the hemispheres. But how can we work with Citrine for the solstice?

Adam: Well, yeah, this is a perfect time. And I do also wanna just remind people, if you didn’t listen to our petalite episode from last week, we were talking about changing to a more positive mindset with that full moon in Gemini. And I think citrine is another crystal that you could actually bring in for that. But this week, we have a solstice. Now this is the fun between the southern and the northern hemisphere.

While you’re all gonna be shivering cold and maybe covered in snow, we’re actually sweltering and sweltering and sweating down here in the southern hemisphere. Today or 21st will be the solstice this year. It does move a little bit each year to year because our Gregorian calendar doesn’t line up exactly with how we rotate around the sun. Now each month, we celebrate the full moon. But I like to ask people sometimes, how many full suns do we have?

The answer, just one. The summer solstice is the day when the sun is at its peak energy. So this is a really great time to hone in into that joyousness, that happiness, but also that masculine energy, and anything you associate with the god energy or the yang energy. You know, one of my favorite practices to do with the summer solstice down in the, when we’re celebrating it is to either get a clear quartz or now maybe one of your favorite Cittrines and actually pop that out under the sun for the whole day and allow it to just like we’ve charged crystals with the moon, charged 1 with the sun. And when you need that solar energy, this is gonna be an amulet.

Now I have a clear quartz pendant that goes out every summer solstice for that full charging. And when I need that sheer sun power, you really, really wanna save that because we only get this one chance of the year. I like to work with the seasons of the year with the different chakras. So if you are in the southern hemisphere, this is a solo practice of time. And so citrine is the premier stone for that, and so it works really well there.

Now what about everyone who’s in the northern hemisphere? You’re like, well, that doesn’t matter about me. Well, I am an observer of the natural religion. So it’s at work with the cycles of nature. And many see the winter solstice, which is also known as Yule, and you often hear around Christmas Yule time greetings.

Yule is seen that night. It’s the longest night of the year, but the next day is considered to be the start of a new solar year. It is believed that the goddess gives birth to a new sun god, and he will get stronger and stronger each day as the days get longer and the sun gets warmer as well. So although maybe an amethyst might feel more appropriate in the winter solstice, it is also a great time to bring in a citrine. But I think here, a natural citrine with its real content energy would be really great to kind of start to think about, okay, what do I want to bring into this new solar year?

This works perfectly for you in the northern hemisphere as well because, obviously, we’re so close to the end of the calendar year. One of my things that I hate about the end of the calendar year is everyone’s like, thank God that year’s over. That was the worst year of my life, but the new year’s gonna be so much better. Well, it will. But if you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’re gonna get what you’ve always got.

And maybe sitting there and recognizing, like we talked about today, with your Citroen, what did I achieve? What am I proud of for 2024? And now, what can I boost my self worth with? How can I boost myself up? And how can I make my life more abundant overall like Nicholas was referring to and go into 2025 in that way?

So whether you wanna do that on the 21st around the solstice, whether you wanna do that on 31st December or January 1st, this is where Citrine is gonna be a classic regardless of whether you’re in the southern hemisphere or in the northern hemisphere.

Ashley: I love that. Well, time for our episode all about Citrine, but I wanna leave everyone with one last question. So here’s my question for everyone. Given what we’ve just talked about with Citrine, that I know we all have some Citrine with us, What is one thing you’re really proud of for yourself this year? Kyle, how about you?

What’s one thing you feel really proud of yourself this year for?

Kyle: For me, it pairs with this cluster of Citrine that’s from Broken Hill, and it’s a self healed one. And for me, this year has been about me taking care of myself, being able to look after my own needs, and being able to be positive despite many, many, many, many, many frustrations and challenges that have been omnipresent. It has been my ability to stay positive, to be a positive example for those that I’m here for, and to still be here doing this and enjoying it, I think, is something I’m really proud of.

Adam: Love that. 

Ashley: Thank you for sharing.

Adam: Needless.

Ashley: I’m proud of.

Adam: Sorry. We were jumping in a month. What am I proud of? I think, you know, there’s, when you’ve written a few books, you kind of start to, kinda go, oh, yeah. It’s easy just to churn out books.

But I’ve released 2 new books this year. 1 on the chakras and essential oils, 1 on combining oils with crystals. And to kind of reflect back on how much work actually goes into just getting a book out, I actually wanted to have another book out by the end of the year, on oils, and essential oils and, and an apology. It’s not gonna be out till later next year. But I’m kind of going, I’m proud of what I did do, not just looking at the things that I didn’t do.

So I’m proud of that. What about you, Nicholas?

Nicholas: My biggest accomplishment this year is outside of my career, and that’s really hard for me to say. I am, like, classic stellium Capricorn. My work is my work, and it is my life, and I love it. And it’s been a busy year there, but I auditioned for the International Pride Orchestra in spring, and I won the audition and got to go to New York to perform with this incredible group of musicians. And this comes almost 20 years after, like, hanging up that possibility.

I went to school for music originally, and after a year, I was like, I’m not cut out for this or this isn’t cut out for me. Either way, it’s not gonna happen. And, I spent about a year just kinda prepping the waters and diving in and starting the process of taking lessons again and having teachers and collecting instruments the way I collect crystals. And, it was the most magical experience. It’s also the very first time I’ve ever just taken a trip for me, ever.

And that was terrifying and amazing. And I still can’t believe I did this.

Adam: Amazing. Ashley, what about yourself?

Ashley: Something recent comes to mind for me, which is, I guess, this year, learning to redefine what success looks like in my life. And this is so deeply entwined with, like, the energy and message of Citrine for me. You know, I think if I’m being, like, just real vulnerable, like, in my early and mid and late twenties, success was very financially driven in this idea of what success looked like. This, like, you know, honestly, like, for white feminist idea of what success looks like, which is something I completely no longer resonate with. But it left me with a bit of an identity crisis and that, like, I don’t know how to define success in my life.

I don’t know what success feels like if it’s not that thing anymore. And I’m so glad to have been able to, like, work through that process, but I’m now in this space of kind of enjoying the exploratory process of what success can mean. And I think so much of what kind of each of us touched on in one way or another today about Citrine is success these days is looking like a little bit more rest, a little bit more comfort, a little bit more of caring for my physical self, a little bit more of caring for my emotional well-being, and that feels good. And although at the same time, it’s totally scary because change and transformation is scary, it’s something I’m really proud of that I’ve been able to learn. So, I just wanna say thank you all for kinda, yeah, opening up about some things that are a little vulnerable.

And, Adam yeah.

Adam: I was just gonna say one thing I think we all should be proud of. It’s that we, as a collective of 4 people, are able to pull together a website. Although we’re all in 1st world countries, we’ve been able to navigate the 3rd world Internet sometimes, and we’ve had mishaps and people not being able to make it on some episodes. But I hope that everyone is enjoying these episodes. And I really encourage everyone on whatever platform you’re listening or watching this, please share below.

If there’s a comment section below, just share one thing that you’re proud of, and let’s get a whole stream of things. So let’s kinda celebrate the year that was rather than kind of just bag 2024.

Kyle: Amazing idea. Amazing idea. I love it. More of the glimmers. Yeah. Exactly.

Ashley: You know, that also makes me think that we should just be incredibly proud of the fact that we got this podcast going and that we get to show up and hang out together once a week. It’s honestly such a highlight for me. I know it has been for all of you as well because we chat in our little group thread, and I, the people who are watching the video recording of this can’t see because you only see 1 speaker at a time. But when one of us or when Nicholas held up his big Japan law, Citrine, like, we all almost faint with excitement. Like, we’re all just here cheering each other out in the background.

It is so fun. Like, you cannot imagine how animated Kyle’s face was with Nicholas’ fake citrine. So that is really exciting. And I also wanna encourage everyone, if you’re listening, if you’re watching on your favorite podcast platform, please leave us a rating and a review. It really does mean the world to us.

I know that each and every one of us, we read those comments. We are paying attention. Engage with us. Have a conversation. This is about community.

This is about learning and sharing about our crystals. So those ratings and reviews go a really long way to helping others get to explore the show. And, you know, even better yet, if you have a friend you think would enjoy an episode, send them a link.

Adam: Exactly. Yeah. And we’re gonna keep talking about crystals. We’ve got another episode planned for you next week, and we’ve started planning for 2025. So we’re not going anywhere any time soon.

So if there’s a crystal that you’d like us to discuss, reach out to us and let us know. Although, you’re gonna have to fight the 4 of us because we’ve all been throwing in our favorite crystals as well. But we’ll be back next week to dive into another crystal con fact. Until then, take care and blessed be.

Are you interested in becoming a Certified Crystal Healer? Find out more about the CCH and Advanced Crystal Practitioner Program HERE!