A Clustering of Crystals

There is nothing in the slow moving, land bound caterpillar that would offer any clue that it would be encasing itself in a silken tomb, melting into a puddle of goo and reemerging as a graceful, winged, beauty.

Butterflies are one of the most beloved creatures in our world. I’m sure their pretty colours, soft wings and graceful flight has something to do with that. But I think we are most fascinated by the magic of their metamorphosis. Butterfly is one of my personal animal guides and having explored her medicine in a very deep way, I was surprised to find out something new about their metamorphosis.

While the caterpillar is in her chrysalis dormant “imaginal cells” (their actual scientific name) which hold the design for her destiny begin to awaken. At first the caterpillar resists and fights against the imaginal cells. So they begin to cluster together, becoming stronger with each new bond. The body of the caterpillar dissolves and she becomes the butterfly.

The wee white butterfly in the woods

The other morning when I was walking in the forest, I was thinking about those imaginal cells of the butterfly. I glanced down and there at my feet was this very tiny beautiful white butterfly. Surprised for sure, it being November in Canada this encounter was unexpected. I stood there for a moment admiring her graceful fluttering, in awe at the synchronicity of our meeting. Because in one moment butterfly was a thought in my mind and in the very next there it was, manifest at my feet.

She was really tiny. I could have easily missed her. I found myself wondering about all the synchronicities we don’t notice—how narrow minded we can often be. Like the villagers in the Stone Soup story I shared with you in a recent post, who did not consider pooling their resources together before the traveller with the magic stone came to town. Tricked into offering the ingredients for a fabulous meal, they made something together that they would not have enjoyed had they kept their meagre possessions to themselves. On their own, they had very little. Together they created a feast.

That got me to thinking about what we’ve created together as human beings: our cities, our art, our architecture, our science and medicine, our collection of knowledge, our games, our philosophies, our exploration of our world and beyond. We have done all this together. We support each other in so many ways. We protect each other, we heal each other, we teach each other. We do all this and more, for each other and with each other, yet we somehow can still feel so alone.

Crystals clusters

The clustering together—like the imaginal cells of the caterpillar or the villagers that made the stone soup—makes us more powerful and opens up the potential for greatness.

We have so many visible and invisible sources of support around us. When we become conscious of this, we will not ever feel alone. And when we come together with awareness and with intention, anything that can be imagined is possible.

Just as the cells in the caterpillar know this, the forest where I saw the wee white butterfly knows this. If you watch the trees you can see how they cluster together. They reach out to each other, almost as if they are taking each other’s hands—across species. I have a bush outside my house which wraps itself around the pine tree as if it is hugging her. The pine tree reaches her branch out to the birch tree as they are holding hands. They have grown in circle around the house enveloping me in a protective cocoon, shielding me from the toxic energies that affect my sensitive nature.

Just as the trees know this, the crystals also know this. They grow together in clusters. They can remind us that like the imaginal cells, we can cluster together with others who share our vision and make impossible things come to life. That’s the purpose of the Stone Soup (community crystal elixir) being co-created next month. Each participant adds their own special magic (their crystal’s energy and their own) to the mix, collectively creating a nourishing, transformational medicine, that could not be made by any one individual.

It’s easy to forget.

Our societies are set up in such a way that we can feel very isolated. There are so many messages playing over and over that tell us we’re on our own, that it's every woman for herself, and this is the way of the world. We go about our lives without thought to all the human beings who have come together to make it all possible. That’s why we need to remind ourselves every single day of our interconnectedness with each other, and with the earth and her many creatures.

We don’t have to do this alone. We can choose to come together with people of like heart and create our creative clusters to remind us to tap into that energy of belonging and to co-create something as amazing as the caterpillar does with its imaginal cells.

In the meantime reach out for your own crystal cluster—it can be a twin or a single crystal because like humans and trees, all crystals are connected. Tap into this collective energy. Sit with them in stillness for a moment and begin to remember that you are also part of a collective cluster.

Another reminder from the Universe

(As I finished this post, I found out about a forest grove of quaking aspens in Utah called the Trembling Giant, because it is actually a single organism of 47,000 or so genetically identical trees who share a single root system. This couldn’t have been a clearer message from the Universe about our interconnectedness.)