The story behind …

Magic Crystals, Sacred Stones

The Magical Lore of Crystals, Minerals and Gemstones

by Melusine Draco

Every book has a story behind the story of how it came to be written. It may be about a life-long passion, a personal journey, the need to share an experience or knowledge. It may have been fermenting in the brain for years, or sprung fully formed from a blinding epiphany.  Whether it be fact or fiction, sometimes the story behind the story is almost as interesting as the published book itself …

Although Magic Crystals, Sacred Stones is drawn mainly from European and British geological findings, the same lessons can be learned about any area of the globe, since all the continents were originally joined together by the great equatorial landmass of Pangea some two hundred and fifty million years ago. Discover what geological formations make up your part of the world, and which different crystals and minerals are peculiar to those rocks. The magical and sacred uses of the stones may differ slightly between continents and cultures, but the fundamental makeup of the rocks from which they come remains eternal.

This book is dedicated to the memory of Mériém Clay- Egerton, herself a Doctor of Geology, who had a life-long passion for archaeology and anthropology, and who brought both art and science into the realms of magical teaching. These activities led to an even more intimate association with the Earth and its rock formations by active participation in caving and climbing. Together with her husband Bob, they founded the first cave rescue team in the Peak District, and are both still remembered with great respect in caving circles.

Strangely enough, writing in the archaeology journal Time and Mine in June 2017 just five years after Magic Crystals, Sacred Stones went to press, Dr. Andy Jones and colleague Thomas Goskar from the Cornwall Archaeological Unit, observed that:

“As in many cultures where darkness is associated with the supernatural and the heightening of senses, it is possible that some activities at Hendraburnick Quoit may have been undertaken at night. Quartz has luminescent properties and reflects both moonlight and firelight. Given that the human eye perceives color and shade quite differently at night than by daylight and the art would have been visible in moonlit conditions, the smashed quartz at Hendraburnick could have been used as part of night time activity on the site in order to ‘release’ the luminescent properties of the quartz around the monument and ‘reveal’ the art in a particular way. After the ritual, the broken pieces, once they had fallen on the ground, could have effectively formed a wider platform or arc which would have continued to glisten around it in the moonlight, and thereby added to the ‘aura’ of the site.”

To add to the interest, Dr Jones and his team found a layer of slate beneath the 16-ton quoit, indicating it was dragged there from a site down in the river valley and is therefore not a natural formation. Fifty years after the quartz (and slate) factor was included in CoS magical teaching, it now comes to the fore again in archaeological circles, demonstrating how advanced the Clay-Egerton’s magical teachings were at the time.

Magic Crystals, Sacred Stones by Melusine Draco is published in paperback and e-book format by Axis Mundi Books.  ISBN 976 1 78099 137 5 : 186 pages : Price UK£11.99/US$19.95