Pride Stories and Crystals

Hello beautiful people! I’m so excited for the Pride issue, and I’ve decided to do something a bit different than my usual crystal article. I’m going to be sharing my perspective on how those in the LGBTQIA+ community are an essential part of the spiritual community. I’m also going to be giving a few of my favorite people in the community a voice to share their stories and also shed light on issues still affecting this community today. Each of these people will be associated with a color of the pride flag and will have a crystal of their choice with the corresponding color featured with some quick facts!

People in the LGBT community are masters of introspection, shadowwork, and freeing ourselves from indoctrination. I’ve experienced this myself and seen it in every single member of the community. We are people who’ve spent years of our lives digging deep into ourselves and figuring out how we feel on the inside. We have to spend so much time with our inner selves dissecting who we are, our childhoods, what society has told us, etc. Everything in our lives has to be sat with and processed. There’s also trauma we experience just from being gay, queer, or however we choose to identify. There’s a lot of work we put in just to live an authentic life and to find our voices. All of these mirror essential parts of the spiritual path. LGBT community members can be great spiritual advisors and teachers because these tools and traits are so deeply ingrained in us. We have some degree of consciousness around these really important tools and understand the compassion that’s needed to teach them to others. 

Red – Daya Molayne Chaunte is a 21 year old Drag Queen from Sault Saint Marie MI.

Red is the color that represents HIV/AIDS awareness. What people need to know is that it can be treated. To the point where they maintain an undetectable viral load (the amount of HIV in the blood) that you cannot transmit HIV sexually to others. They do this by taking antiretroviral therapy every day. This is referred to as U=U. There is also something called PrEP which is a preventative pill taken daily that can prevent HIV and only HIV. Do not be scared of people with HIV; they are people too. Have the conversation, wear a condom, get tested regularly. We all need to do our part to destroy this evil monster.

Bloodstone – Aries
Spiritual: provides protection, good for money/abundance manifestations, warding/banishment
Emotional: encourages bravery, gives mental clarity, helps heal deep emotional wounds.
Physical: purification of blood (HIV, leukemia, etc.), detoxifies the liver, intestines, kidneys, spleen and bladder. 

Orange – Kami Seewald is a 21 year old Energy Therapist from Muskegon MI.

To me, orange represents the Sacral Chakra and sexual energy/wounds. Sacral trauma affected my ability to discover and accept my sexuality. I have a long history of sexual abuse from men beginning when I was a really young child, as a result I became hypersexual and also grew up in a christian household where being gay was never an option. I also had a deep rooted subconscious need for male validation as I based my entire self esteem around getting it, and I would do anything to get it for a really long time. It wasn’t until I really started my healing journey that I was able to look at the things I went through and realize none of my behaviors ever came from an authentic place. I realized I could never get wet when I was having sex with men and I used to think there was something wrong with my vagina until coming into my sexuality. I’m finally in a place where I’ve learned to listen to my body’s wisdom and it’s so incredibly freeing.

Sunstone – Libra, Leo
Spiritual: shines light on the darkness, represents sun gods and their energy (Ra, Sol, Helios, etc.) bringer of luck
Emotional: encourages grace and compassion, enhances sensuality, helps reclaim energetic sovereignty
Physical: good for joint pain and rheumatism, helps heal sexual wounds, encourages healthy metabolism

Yellow – Julia Pietila is a 22 year old Bartender working towards a career in law to protect underserved populations from Finland. 

Perfection was a word that I clung to when I was younger. Growing up in a migrant household made me acutely aware of the many differences between myself and my peers. My family wasn’t like the others, and I always strained to be as perfect as possible so I wouldn’t be made fun of. Eventually, that meant not taking the time to explore sexualities that seemed taboo or imperfect for society. But one day, I heard a complete stranger define pansexuality. That definition felt so connected to my inner feelings and seemed to amplify my thoughts. It truly felt like the color yellow, filling me with so much joy and sunshine. I have since learned how to intently listen to my desires and my inner self through learning about my pansexuality. I recognize that my healing journey is not over, yet, but I find a lot of peace in understanding myself better and in reminding myself that my version of perfect doesn’t have to align with society’s.

Honey calcite – All Zodiac Signs
Spiritual: teaches the use of power, boosts personal energy, good for cleansing
Emotional: provides emotional endurance, increases confidence, reduces stress
Physical: good for skin issues, helps with bloating and inflammation, supports healthy bones

Green –  Maki Webb is a 23 year old Nursing Assistant from Rockford MI.

Coming out doesn’t mean leaving something, it means entering a world full of loving people who understand you and have faced the same criticisms you have. The lgbtq community accepts everyone for who they are. I’m forever grateful for the support I’ve had. <3 

Green Agate – Virgo
Spiritual: balances Yin and Yang energy, grounds energy body, opens communication with nature spirits
Emotional: helps heal from toxic relationships, brings hope, stimulates intelligence and creativity
Physical: encourages fertility, stimulates the immune system, helps prevent digestive issues.

Blue – Kody Colburn is a 24 year old Upholsterer from Fruitport MI.

I am a transgender man. My conscious gender and physical sex do not match. I started having dysphoria when I was 10 and I didn’t understand what it meant at first. I struggled with my trans body but when I was 18 I finally started HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) and when I was 19 I had finally gotten top surgery. I’m 24 and I’m the happiest me I’ve ever been. I found spirituality and have learned so much more about gender and gender fluidity.

Blue Calcite – Cancer, very good for all water and air signs
Spiritual: enhances psychic abilities, good for dreamwork and astral travel, communication with higher realms
Emotional: aids in soft communication, boosts serenity, creativity
Physical: lowers blood pressure, enhances absorption of minerals/vitamins, soothes nerves 

Violet – Rylee McNeela is a 23 year old cell phone repair technician from Guatemala. 

Discrimination against members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color (POC) is well-known to the majority of people. On the other hand, many people are unaware of the unique set of difficulties that come with being a member of both of these communities. As a POC and a proud lesbian, I’ve faced many challenges that made me who I am today. The process of coming into my true self was a journey, and a hard one at that. I grew up in a town where the majority of the population was white and straight. There was no place for me to fit in. It took me getting out of my hometown to really be proud of who I am as a person despite the microaggressions and discrimination I faced. The color violet is associated with the Crown Chakra, which helps to heal delusions and brings spiritual insights and renewal. My crown chakra has healed through my hard inner work to love and accept myself for who I am. Finally, being renewed and healing those damaging delusions that I am not good enough because I’m so called “different”. 

Charoite – Sagittarius, Scorpio
Spiritual: connects to Gaia, helps open third eye, prevents psychic burnout
Emotional: believed to strengthen relationships with family, helps avoid unnecessary conflict, enhances self esteem
Physical: encourages liver and pancreas healing, aids those on the autism spectrum, helps sooth pain from headaches to menstrual issues

ABOUT KAMI

I’m a 21 year old woman (a baby i know!) who resides in Muskegon MI. I was born into a christian and republican family which left me extremely indoctrinated for a lot of my adolescence and untimely forced me to repress all of my gifts. When I was an early teen I started questioning things. By that I mean I started questioning EVERYTHING, however I still wasn’t sold on the idea of anything spiritual and even became an atheist for a few years of my life. Fast Forward to just before my graduation from high school, I was extremely depressed, anxious severely suicidal and prone to self harm, add in living with an abusive parter and it felt like my life could never be a happy one. I met this woman by chance who identified as a psychic and I decided to go see if this could be a real thing as I was still extremely skeptical of it. Within minutes this woman changed my life. it was really like a flip switched and everything I had always been experiencing finally was making some sense. She showed me undoubtedly that she was the real deal and even explained how all of the science I loved and believed fully integrated and even proved a lot of spirituality. She taught me Reiki and spell work, how to channel, read tarot/pendulum and other forms of divination and I felt she really wanted me to succeed as a healer. She always always gave me the energy that showed she was going to empower me. However that all came crashing down when I spent all of my savings on a studio to start practicing on others, suddenly her energy switched and she was saying terrible things to me and because I respected her so much (too much) I believed what she was saying was true. Now I see that came from a place of feeling threatened by me on a subconscious level and have been able to stop internalizing that while still keeping the good information I learned from her and weeding out the bullshit. With the help of Astara in the initial fallout i learned my magick didn’t come from what this woman was saying to or about me. It ALWAYS came from me. I’ve learned to trust my own inner knowing and every part of my practice has gotten better for it. Yes the purge was hard but the expansion I gained from it gives me goosebumps to think about. I’m currently an Energy Therapist/Healer who offers a multitude of different healing modalities to help various emotional and physical ailments in people like myself who’ve struggled throughout their lives. I specialize in body work and energy manipulation.