Featured Crystal - Amethyst
Amethyst is an extremely powerful and protective stone. It has strong healing and cleansing powers and enhances spiritual awareness. Amethyst is extremely beneficial to the mind, calming or stimulating as appropriate. It's a good aid when meditating.
This stone facilitates the decision-making process, bringing in common sense and spiritual insights.
Amethyst enhances memory and improves motivation, making you more able to set realistic goals.
Crystals
A crystal is a solid body with a geometrically regular shape. Crystals were created as the earth formed and they have continued to metamorphose as the planet itself has changed. Crystals are the earth's DNA, a chemical imprint for evolution. They are miniature storehouses, containing the records of the development of the earth over millions of years, and bearing the indelible memory of the powerful forces that shaped it. Some have been subjected to enormous pressure, others grew in chambers deep underground, some were laid down in layers, others dripped into being ~ all of which affects their properties and the way they function. Whatever form they take, their crystalline structure can absorb, conserve, focus, and emit energy, especially on the electromagnetic waveband.
Taking time to cleanse your crystals is extremely important. Crystals are efficient absorbers and transmitters of energy. One of their functions is to cleanse and transmute negative energies.If you leave your crystals to do this without regular cleansing, most become saturated and unable to do their work, though a few are self-cleansing, e.g. carnelian or amethyst. The easiest way to cleanse crystals is to hold them under running water or immerse them in sea or salt water. Placing crystals in the light of the sun or moon for a few hours will also recharge them provided they are not stones which fade in the sunlight. You can also purchase purpose-made crystal cleansers over the internet.
Dedicating and programming your crystals helps them to work more efficiently.
It is part of the ritual of working with crystals. As crystals are powerful
beings in their own right, they need to be approached with respect. If you
do this, they will be only too pleased to cooperate with you. When you receive
a new crystal it can be dedicated immediately after cleansing. Dedication
is simple 
but
makes an enormous difference to how effective the crystal will be. Dedication
focuses the intention that the crystal will be used positively for the highest
good of all concerned. Hold the crystal in your hands, picture light surrounding
it, and state clearly that the crystal will only be used for the highest good,
in love and light. When you have finished the dedication, you can either move
directly on to programming the crystal or you can leave the crystal in the
light of the sun or moon to energize.