Like so many of the earth’s resources, crystals are often ripped from the earth with no thought to the fact that it may take millions of years for a crystal to be formed. They often come from poorer regions like South America, where the miners are paid a pittance for their labours, and where whole areas are stripped bare of their coverings.

 

Some of the rarer crystals are artificially faked. “Citrine” may prove to be baked amethyst; “turquoise” may be dyed howlite; irradiation may have been used to turn ordinary clear quartz into smoky quartz.

 

Think carefully about what you buy, and whom you buy it from. There may be a good reason why one dealer is cheaper than another. Trading in crystals may soon be regarded with as much suspicion as trading in fur or elephant ivory. Try to be discriminating, and don’t feed unnecessarily an industry which may be based on very dubious ethics.