The grocery store aisles are now a sea of red and pink; cascading with heart-shaped chocolate boxes, gushy teddy bears, rosy sentiments, and other plastic tokens of this grand concept called love. I always loved Valentine’s Day as a child. In class, we got to decorate little bags that our classmates would fill to the top with sweet little Valentine cards, making everyone feel special. As an adult, I do appreciate the concept of having a day devoted to celebrating love. It is the most powerful force in the Universe, and it is the whole reason for being. But I have been troubled by the overemphasis on romantic love that seems to define this Hallmark holiday. While romantic love is certainly special, it is just one small flavor of the heart’s expression. And if you don’t happen to have a beloved on Valentine’s Day, you can feel left out. The true energy of love is naturally inclusive of all beings and expresses itself in many facets. So why not redefine Valentine’s Day to match the true spirit of love? Let’s make it a celebration of love in all forms: love for your family, your friends, your pets, the divine, the trees, the ocean, the stars, all that is, and most importantly, yourself. Everyone should feel special and adored on Valentine’s Day, like I did in our elementary school parties. There is no limit to love. The more we are able to feel and give, the more we receive. The question is how can we open our hearts to feel and express even more love, in all of its delicious flavors? I believe that the answer to this, and almost any question, is healing our hearts from past hurts and loving ourselves even more deeply and unconditionally. February’s crystal of the month, Dioptase, is our perfect partner this Valentine’s Day for opening, clearing, and expanding the heart.
Dioptase, pictured above, is a translucent and sparkling green silicate of copper mineral found in copper ore deposits. Its copper content gives Dioptase its powerful heart-clearing function. Copper-based stones, such as Azurite, Cuprite, Malachite, and Chrysocolla, are a must-have in any crystal healer’s toolbox. They have the ability to help us to remove energy blockages and to promote energy flow in the chakras. Because Dioptase grows in translucent crystalline form and contains silicon, its energy and power is amplified even more than most other copper stones, giving it a radiant quality. This makes it one of my top choices for releasing and dissolving deeply embedded emotional traumas, patterns, and blockages.
Relating to other human beings gives us some of our most profound lessons and opportunities for expansion. We come into this world as sensitive beings, with our hearts wide open and trusting. But as we move forward in time, we all have experiences where the emotions of those around us become lower, negative, and discordant. At an early age, we are imprinted by the emotional content and patterns of our parents, family, and those around us. Even though our parents did the best they could to show us love, we may have absorbed some underlying stress, tension, anger, or issues they may have been experiencing. As we try to make meaning of the world around us, many times we subconsciously adopt the beliefs and patterns of those in authority. If they felt a lack of love or a need to shield the heart, we may have taken that on. And when they had to discipline us to keep us safe in the world, this may have felt distressing enough for us to begin closing the heart. Even if you had a relatively healthy family life, as I did, once you enter into school, it is not uncommon to be exposed to a cast of insensitive characters creating emotionally painful experiences.
Fast forward to the age of dating and relationships. Some of our initial experiences in the area of romance can set the tone for how we run our emotional energy in the world. Feelings are so intense when we are younger, so rejection can feel like the end of the world. Emotional abuse in a young relationship can be crippling, and betrayal can lead to trust issues. These things can establish patterns and beliefs that we are unworthy of love. Also, each time we have an emotionally charged relationship, whether it is a romantic, plutonic, or family, we can form energetic attachments or cords that connect us to them, even after the relationship dissolves. When our energy is connected to someone who is in an unhealthy space, we can be affected by that person. It might become more difficult to ascertain what feelings and beliefs are ours, and what belongs to someone else. All of the above situations can cause blockages and confusion in our emotional body and may affect how available we are to feel and express love now.
The good news is that we have the power to shift all of this, and Dioptase can help! Dioptase is a crystalline angel for the heart chakra. Working consciously with it can help you to become aware of these subconscious patterns so that you can release them once and for all, while it helps you to establish a higher pattern of evolved love. Are you ready to release old emotional attachments, cords, karma, soul contracts, or blockages in the heart? Have you or are you experiencing any abuse, trauma, or unpleasant emotional events in your family, or do you have relationships that feel karmic or dense? Crysal expert, Naisha Ahsian, explains that Dioptase can heal and clear all of these situations, and my experience with Dioptase confirms this.
What I have noticed when I meditate with Dioptase is that it feels like it scans my heart, subconscious, and emotional body. I have actually felt the sensation of a small vortex over different chakras or areas of my body, pulling out old energy for review and release. This is then typically followed by emotionally charged memories gracing my perception. The first time I tried a Dioptase meditation, I was taken back to several memories in elementary school. It was so vivid that I felt like I was back in my childhood body, experiencing the same level of consciousness and sensitivity I embodied in that era. The first memory was the first time I got in trouble at school. The teacher was out of the room, and for some reason I had the idea that it would be fun to stand up and make noises like an alarm. I declared that it was a fire drill, and we should all exit the building. When the teacher ran back in, asking who was making that ruckus, everyone immediately ratted me out. I got sent to the hall, and the teacher sternly let me know how disappointed she was in my behavior and took away my recess privileges. I didn’t understand what I had done wrong, and it felt like the most devastating thing possible. This was followed by memories about classmates being mean to me, and then my first elementary school crush rejecting me.
Reliving these memories helped me to realize in a deeper way just how much I was affected by these things. I had decided that the world was not safe and it was not OK for me to follow my instincts, be silly, or express myself; because I was punished for making noise and for doing something I didn’t even realize was wrong. Being tormented by a few classmates and rejected by my crush gave me a feeling of unworthiness, that I was not lovable. What is beautiful is that Dioptase helped me to become aware of the meanings I had attached to these events.
Once I had that awareness, I felt the energetic knots of these events begin to unwind and release. Dioptase emits an energy that can actually help dissolve and transmute these blockages. What’s even better is that Dioptase can assist you in going back even further and deeper, to past lives and to the patterns in your genetic code that created these things in the first place. It can help you pluck out the unhealthy patterns. In doing so, it can help you to heal any disease that may have manifested as a result of these patterns, such as heart disease, depression, anxiety, or reproductive issues.
Once the clearing is done, Dioptase then connects you to the Divine realm and establishes the patterns of love that the higher dimensions are based upon. It plants the seeds for more evolved ways of loving. These higher heart patterns are aligned with well-being, compassion, and joy. Coming from your higher heart will help you create healthier relationships with people who are more spiritually aligned with your truest self. It will support you in nurturing yourself, living with an open heart, creating abundance on all levels, and inviting in fresh, delightful new experiences
If you would like to experience the many benefits of working with Dioptase, here is a heart healing meditation that I recommend. Begin by cleansing your Dioptase, then call in your higher self and spirit. Surround yourself in a bubble of white light, which will keep you completely protected. Focus on your breath, and then place the Dioptase in the center of your chest, over your heart chakra. Place your left, receptive hand over the Dioptase. Stay with this for a few moments, then hold this intention in your mind, “I am ready now to release anything that is standing in the way of feeling, expressing, and embodying love.”
Now the Dioptase will begin working to help you heal your heart and emotional body. Keep an open, receptive frame of mind, and simply observe what happens next. If you begin to feel physical sensations in other parts of your body, this might indicate where you are storing old emotions or where you might have an unhealthy energy cord with another person. You can move the Dioptase and place it in the location where you feel the sensation to assist in dissolving this energy. Now be open to any thoughts or memories surfacing, and just witness what is shown to you. Know that you are safe at all times, and that you have the power to shift whatever is shown with your love and with the all of the wisdom you now carry. Ask your higher self and the Dioptase to reveal the meaning you attached to this memory, that might be causing a blockage in your emotional body. You can choose to replace it with a new, higher truth, based on what you know about life now. Send Dioptase-green healing energy into the memory, and feel free to change it with your mental imaging powers to a better outcome, thus rewriting the past and clearing the pattern.
When you feel complete with your Dioptase journey, you can open your eyes and journal about your experiences. If any memories surfaced, you could write those down, and then burn the page as a symbol of the major release work you have done. I would also suggest carrying Dioptase with you for a week, to lend continual support in your heart healing work.
It is my belief that when you get your heart and emotional body right, everything else in your life will fall into higher alignment. During the month of February, be sure to take care of the heart that matters the most–yours. Allow Dioptase to help you see the love that exists within you, around you, and underlying every situation that has ever happened to you. You are love, and I love you all!