The Seven Archetypal Stones: Their Spiritual Powers and Teachings

An Amazing Journey (and Resource)

I freely confess that when I agreed to review this book on stones, I thought it would most likely be dry and encyclopedic. But it’s turned out to be so far from the truth! This book leads the reader on a magical journey of self-exploration through the use of seven stones. These archetypal stones have been important to humankind throughout Earth’s history.

Author Nicholas Pearson is very knowledgeable about stones. The text itself, and the comprehensive notes and bibliography, show that he’s really done his research. Even so, he manages to make the book captivating where it could have been boring in other hands.

Pearson has arranged the book such that each chapter is about one stone. More than that, though, the chapters lead the reader along on a journey of exploring your own inner world and your connection with the cosmos. The archetypes he describes apply to each of us at different points in our spiritual journey.

In Pearson’s view, stones and crystals were put here on Earth in part to help us to realize a greater spiritual awareness. The goal is to become more enlightened, to expand our conscious awareness. Working with the stones supports both the individual practitioner as well as the evolution of human consciousness as a whole. As Pearson writes in the conclusion, “Seeing oneself as an integral part of the whole yields a crystallization of unity consciousness. This, in turn, endows the practitioner with untold strength, because no external influence is greater than the unconquerable love felt by connecting to Source.” The energies of the stones and crystals help us to discover our connection with that Source.

I was inspired to go out and purchase specimens of the stones that I didn’t already have in my collection (and I’m often drawn to stones and crystals, so I did have a few of them). It even made me curious about working with diamond, when before I had maintained that I was “just not a diamond person.” The attributes of each of the seven archetypal stones are both universal and unique.

The book also includes brief guided meditations to use with each stone. I like Pearson’s simple way of guiding the reader into working with the stone. The meditations were just detailed enough, while still leaving plenty of room for individual imagery to spring forth.

I’ve been using the book (and the archetypal stones) in the way Pearson suggests, as a tool for personal insight. However, you could also use it as a resource when you need to draw upon a particular stone. Each chapter includes a section about the crystal healing properties of the stone, as well as other varieties of stone you can use if you can’t obtain one of the “big seven.”

If you’re at all interested in or called to using stones and crystals in your personal spiritual work, I urge you to get a copy of this amazing book. It will help you to deepen your own journey, as well as gain awareness about the universal stories associated with the stone archetypes.

~review by Nikki Starcat Shields

Author: Nicholas Pearson
Destiny Books, 2016
pp.293, $18.95