Crystals for concealment

[stories_of_andruste]

What crystal/s would typically be used for concealment magic?

My antagonist has created a poison and wants to make sure that the ingredients/source of the poison cannot be detected at a later point in time. So this crystal would be used in a spell that hides the poison magic.

Obviously it's fantasy but I want it to match the associations/energetic properties in our world. Would appreciate advise from a modern-day witch or crystal hobbyist.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

What kind of poison is it? What’s are its effects? How will it be administered - powder, liquid, aerosol, ingestion, injection, etc?

If the crystal is going to prevent the poison being detected is the prevention BEFORE, DURING or AFTER the poisoning? Is it supposed to make lingering traces of poison in the body invisible, or just make someone not notice it at the moment of being poisoned?

What kind of fantasy world is this? How high magic / low magic are we talking?

Why hide it with crystals and not a spell or energy concealing charm?

I’m not a crystal specialist but I’d need a lot more info before I could even begin to try to answer a question as wide open as this one.

[stories_of_andruste]

Actually, the question is not that complicated. I have edited the original post for clarity.

I'm simply looking for a crystal that would be used in concealment magic in the real world.

Crystals are considered to have energetic associations in real life, but in my internet search it was not clear to me which one is associated with hiding things. That's why I'm asking for the opinion of an expert.

[newredshoes]

Gentle suggestion, but it might help to say in the post what you've already researched and why it wasn't satisfying, to avoid retreading unfruitful ground. Otherwise, your request looks like something that's a straightforward search for witchy/mystic crystal properties.

If you're having trouble, though, I wonder if crystals are necessarily a good fit for concealment needs — most of what I understand of those properties is about healing or amplification or deeper truths. You could also probably handwave an inversion, like with inverted tarot cards, by ~corrupting a crystal used for clarity.

[stories_of_andruste]

I believe that sort of magic is considered harmful magic (I don't know the correct terms). That's why it's not widely described or encouraged in magic blogs/websites.

[passingbuzzards]

Not a crystal, but have you considered having your character use some kind of nazar? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazar_(amulet) They're generally associated with averting harm/protection from the evil eye in particular, could stretch to averting gaze/attention from [whatever] (the poison, in this case).

[stories_of_andruste]

Nice idea, but I would prefer it to be a crystal since it fits with my existing worldbuilding/characterisation.

[azurelunatic]

So I'm not much of a crystal hobbyist anymore, but I am witchy. There are a bunch of historically attributed properties for crystals, but you're right, people tend to not list the less savory ones! For concealment, "privacy" might get more hits, as that's a positive application for concealment. Or things such as hiding one's self from enemies, and energetic shielding.

So if I was going for a crystal that could conceal, I would be looking for either a crystal that was opaque, or going with some other physical properties. My first thought was asbestos (as that's damaging when its dust is inhaled) and can sometimes be found in pretty rock specimens.

But then I thought about the dot or newspaper test for diamonds -- basically, a diamond has enough going on optically that despite it being a clear stone, you can't read through one that's placed face-down on a newspaper. And based on that optical property, I'd accept it as a potential crystal property, but I'd also specify a diamond in one of those cuts, and not a cut that could actually be seen through. And depending on how you introduced it, gemologists who are aware of that test for Real Diamonds might start feeling Very Smart when it's mentioned.

[stories_of_andruste]

Thank you for the helpful and relevant answer!

[ratha]

Crystals aren't typically used for concealment magic- you'd want a mirror or lead shield for that. So you could try adding powdered bits of a mirror or lead to your ingredients with the intent of concealing the actual poison from detection. If you're really set on using crystals, however, you could try corrupted protection crystals- any black stone like onyx or obsidian, tiger's eye, etc.

[winterbird]

(practiced witchcraft for 30~ years and have been a gemstone hobbyist from the side of 'ooo cool geology' and then also 'ooo cool associations,' and I've also worked in specialisation work (my arena is specifically animal teachers / animal spirits, but I did some work in crystal associations as well which is how I know a lot of it is just invented for Sales (TM))

So technically there are no crystals associated with "hiding things." Everything you're finding is probably unsatisfying because it's all mostly been totally made up / invented. *Some* crystals have been associated with real folklore (Lady Malachite of the Ural Mountains comes to mind), but most crystal associations you see relating to vibrations and stuff all come down purely to colour symbolism and/or someone published a book and everyone thought 'wow that's in book format it MUST be true.'

The reality is unless it's particular to a small esoteric practice somewhere, crystals aren't really known for "hiding things" or concealment, so instead you'd be looking probably then at crystals-by-association. For example, black tourmaline is often used to 'absorb' 'harmful vibrations/energies' from computers and technology, but from an esoteric perspective, this could also be used symbolically for absorbing other people's awareness etc. if you were to modify that with spellcraft etc. Black tourmaline has the added benefit of being very very well-known as a general protection stone overall among those in this area, so presumably if you want to protect the identity of the poison, you could go in that direction.

If your story is fantasy though, honestly, I think you're better off *inventing* crystals that can be perfectly matched to a fantasy world. So as long as you're doing secondary fantasy and not contemporary fantasy or something set in this world specifically, there's nothing to stop you from inventing "black malachite" which is specifically used by such-and-such a cult to conceal poisons in magic, but the rest of the time is used to conceal I don't know, bad flavours from children's medicine.

I've found honestly in my own fantasy worldbuilding I much prefer taking something from reality (like say, a type of 'retriever' dog) and then coming up with a new "version" that suits the world I've created.

It's really important to remember that about 90% of crystal 'associations' are invented specifically by people who wanted to make money from selling books or products especially in the 80s and 90s (and since then). I knew some of the people who wrote those books and invented those meanings, I suspect I'm not the only one here depending on the age in the respondents you get! It's not that it's "harmful magic" being the reason it's concealed, it's that this is just not what crystals - in most cultures and especially in neopaganism - have been used for.

And even in older cultures where you do have figures like Lady Malachite, often there actually isn't a ton of symbolism associate with the stone itself specifically, so much as the *mountain range* (malachite from other mountain ranges would not be considered to have the same associations!), and the Lady herself, and the folklore story.

But you can sell more crystals at higher prices if you say 'they do such and such and are amazing for this chakra (almost always colour association to the western appropriated concept of chakras)' vs. 'this is just a pretty stone that's shiny.'

I have zero problems with people believing in associations purely for the placebo effect and because the crystals really do look lovely! But that basically means that you're not going to get a concrete answer that's 100% verifiable or anything like that, which is why if it were me, I'd go in the direction of doing what many neopagans did in our society in the first place - invent something, except in your world, it can actually be provable and true.

Happy to talk more about associations if you'd like, though! Especially if you want to get into specifics. This kind of worldbuilding is some of my favourite to do.

[stories_of_andruste]

Thank you, that's really insightful. I have been thinking, I do have a more concrete path I could take in terms of the meanings of crystals that fits specifically with my world.

[melannen]

I want to back up what winterbird said about how there really isn't any kind of traditional crystal folklore, just a lot of people making stuff up, pretending it's ancient, and copying each other.

(There is actually a pretty long tradition of crystals in Western esotericism - the technical Hermetica has guides to properties of stones - and likely in other traditions too, but they aren't going to very closely resemble modern crystal practices, and even then you are mostly going to find stuff about healing and poisons themselves, not much more complex.)

If you do want to use crystals for concealment, it probably would work better to talk about the cut or shape of the crystals - crystals bend, shatter, and reflect light and can be used to distort or conceal or create illusions and that can be worked into a concealment spell, probably.

[stories_of_andruste]

Thank you!