(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.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2024-12-19 01:53 pm (UTC)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.