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Three Ways to Work with Local Stones · Remember Why You Are Here

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  We have these guardians of our souls, these local medicines,
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  these beings wherever you are that actually want to help you make these
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  microadjustments, help you align to your path again.
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  Hello and welcome back to Remember Why You're Here,
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  a podcast for seekers and sensitives where you can relax, receive,
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  reconnect to yourself, and remember the most important thing of all,
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  why you're here. I'm Asia Suler, author, Earth Intuitive,
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  teacher. And in this episode today,
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  I want to talk about one of my favorite and most prolific medicines on the whole
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  planet. And that medicine is stones.
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  So my journey into healing really began in a lot
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  of ways with the plants,
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  but at the same time in my late teens,
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  early 20s that I was falling in love with the plants,
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  I was also falling in love with stones.
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  At the time I just was tickled to find a beautiful stone,
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  to lay my body on giant boulders in the woods,
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  to just be with the mineral realm. I did not know that stone
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  medicine is actually a really ancient form of medicine.
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  So stone medicine,
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  the concept of stone medicine arises directly out of this bedrock belief of
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  humanity that we call animism,
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  this idea that everything on the planet is alive and animated by its own
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  consciousness, its own sentience, and its own medicine.
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  That's why I say everything is medicine and so are you because we carry medicine
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  as well.
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  And stones are some of the most ancient medicine beings on the
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  planet. If you think about it,
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  stones reach all the way back to the formation of our planet.
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  They are record keepers.
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  They remember millions of years of history.
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  And we know that stone medicine has actually been used for healing in many
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  different cultures throughout time from ancient China and Egypt to the Greeks
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  and the Celts all the way to the Roman and Central American empires and
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  indigenous societies throughout Australia and North America. Stone medicine
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  even stretches beyond homo sapiens in humanity itself.
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  We know that we have found quartz crystals that were intentionally
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  gathered all the way back to the ancestors that
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  predate homo sapiens all the way back to the lower paleolithic.
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  So we have been working with and drawn to stones for a long,
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  long time.
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  Stones and crystals are mentioned in many ancient religious and medical texts,
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  including the Bible, the Hindu Vedas, the Quran,
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  and the divine farmers from China.
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  The oldest known written reference to stone medicine comes from hieroglyphic
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  papyrus dating back to 2000 BC. In Chinese medicine in particular,
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  stones are considered to be able to work on the deepest level of
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  our being.
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  So this level of our being that's called the Yuan that is characterized
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  by our unconscious, our dreams.
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  This is the place where symbols and instinct and divination lives.
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  It's where ancestral patterns are. And this is really where our soul growth
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  emanates. So the yuan level will bring us into the deep, deep.
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  It will bring us into past lives, karmic imbalances,
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  the divine blueprint of our lifetime, and the fulfillment of our destiny.
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  And so from a Chinese medicine's perspective, stones work, they go that deep.
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  And it's because if you think about this, stone medicine is ancient. It is deep.
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  Stones reside the deepest places in the earth. They are permanent.
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  They work on things that feel like they're fixed inside of us,
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  that feel as solid as stone. They can go there.
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  They can help us slowly orient to this
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  place of spirit within us and help us create alchemy in our lives.
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  I mean, truly stones are created by alchemical processes on the earth.
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  And so stone medicine is something I love to turn to when I'm really working
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  on subtle emotional spiritual levels. And
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  I've been thinking a lot about stone medicine recently as we are in this month
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  right now of what I talked about in the intuitive reading as this month of micro
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  adjustments so that we can really get ourselves aligned
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  with our paths and the runway that is bringing us through the rest of this year
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  really feels like there's an opportunity this month to just click in and
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  align a little bit more with what our destiny really is.
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  And so I've been working with stones a lot in my
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  meditations and it just felt like the right time to revisit
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  this recording from several years ago about how to work with local stones.
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  So we've got a little bit of a bedrock here,
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  a basis of understanding why stone medicine is actually so
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  deep,
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  so ancient and so effective at working on the deep layers of our being. And
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  now I want to talk about how to actually work with the stones that are around
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  you right now because oftentimes when we start getting into
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  the realm of stone medicine in the stone world,
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  we start feeling like we need to get the fanciest crystals from further away,
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  the biggest crystals, whatever it is.
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  But actually so much medicine exists in the stones
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  that already exist around you wherever you live,
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  that are already there in your environment and the landscapes that you are
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  moving through.
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  And this feels really in alignment too with our reading for this month as the
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  plant that came in through the cardpool this month was plantain.
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  So plantain is ubiquitous. It's everywhere.
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  It's just one of those plants you can find really in so many
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  ecologies and climates.
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  And the reminder for this month with the intuitive reading was that the medicine
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  is everywhere, that we have these guardians of our souls,
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  these local medicines,
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  these beings wherever you are that actually want to help you make these
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  microadjustments,
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  help you align to your path again. So the same is true for the
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  stones.
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  And I wanted to revisit this recording so you know how to work with local
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  stones in your environment as you continue to make these micro
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  shifts and adjustments as you're in the thick of it this month and really
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  aligning yourself naturally with the path that wants to bring you
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  forward in life. So with that,
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  let's go ahead and tune into three ways to work with local stones.
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  Stone medicine is ancient and powerful.
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  In the tradition of Chinese stone medicine that I was trained in,
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  stones are thought to work on the deepest level of our being.
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  Stones work on emotional, spiritual,
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  and soulful levels of healing.
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  So if you want to experience healing on the deepest level of yourself,
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  stones are the medicine to turn to.
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  Local medicine is powerful.
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  When I was in herbal school and in my training,
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  one of the things that I learned is that working with local medicine is actually
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  so much more potent than working with medicine that you import from elsewhere.
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  And the same is true for stones.
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  Local medicine creates a direct relationship between you and that medicine,
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  which makes the healing a thousand times more potent.
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  So even though it may seem like the fancy crystals in the crystal shop are more
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  exciting to work with,
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  the reality is that even the humble stones around your home carry really
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  profound medicine. And the truth is local stones want to work
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  with you.
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  Humans and stones have a very ancient relationship so I promise you the stones
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  in the landscape where you live are already calling out to you.
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  So the first tip is to do research to find out what stones are local to
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  your area, what minerals figure prominently.
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  You can do geological research, you can look up local field guides,
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  but you're going to be surprised by how many minerals and how many
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  different types of stones are going to be available in your local environment.
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  Things like quartz or feldspar,
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  agate or mica are very common in the world.
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  I have done a lot of rock hounding out in the world and I've been able to gather
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  all kinds of stones just from walking around certain environments.
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  Stones like garnets, cornelian, serpentine,
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  aquamarine, clear quartz, pyrite,
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  tourmaline. So get your hands on a local guide so you can at least know what to
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  look for and really do some research to figure out how does this mineral appear?
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  Does it also appear in the matrix of other stones?
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  And this can help you start to recognize that mineral when it appears in the
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  stones around you. If you live near a beach,
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  you can look up to find out what minerals the beach is made of.
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  One of the most common stones that you find in sand is quartz.
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  Quartz is everywhere on this earth and quartz is such a powerful and versatile
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  stone to be working with.
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  If you want to go rock hounding and find some local stones,
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  some of the best times to do it are after a rain and to go in places where the
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  water has flown. So riverbanks, storm runoff,
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  anywhere where water has flowed and new earth has been exposed is a great place
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  to find these stones. Now all of this said,
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  even if you never learn the name of any minerals or stones in your environment,
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  you can still work with stones.
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  There are still stones there that want to work with you and you don't need to
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  know what their common name is.
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  All you need to know is that you're being called to be with them.
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  So how do you work with these local stones? Well,
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  one of the first things I always recommend to folks is just to have it on their
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  body. So keep it in your pocket, put it under your pillow at night.
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  The more you are in physical relationship to the stone,
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  the more that medicine will be available to you.
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  You can also place that stone on an altar,
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  perhaps a special consecrated place in your home so that every time you see that
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  stone,
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  you're reminded of the work that you're doing with that stone and your local
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  landscape. If you've been able to identify the stone and the minerals that are
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  within it and you know that those minerals are safe for ingestion,
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  you can also make a stone elixir.
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  And this is done by putting that stone in water overnight and drinking that
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  water first thing in the morning.
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  If you're not absolutely sure that that stone is safe for ingestion,
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  then you can always make an energetic elixir by simply placing that stone
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  nearby, a cup of water, perhaps on your altar or on your bedside table,
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  and then just drinking that water first thing in the morning.
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  So the next tip is to work with a really unexpected source of stone that is
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  probably right around you right now, and that's gravel.
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  So often we disregard gravel, right?
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  It crunches underfoot and we don't even think about it,
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  but gravel is often taken from the heart of mountains. So this gravel,
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  this stone is sacred.
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  It's coming from the heart of the earth and it's around you everywhere.
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  And I have found working with gravel can really bring a lot of healing to the
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  planet because a lot of these practices of getting gravel is highly
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  extractive and intrusive.
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  And so working with gravel in a reparative process creates so
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  much healing for yourself and for the world.
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  You also might notice that this gravel has different minerals in it.
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  I often find where I live that the gravel contains quartz and mica.
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  So there's a lot of specialness to this gravel.
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  And I often find that the gravel is so happy when we are working with it,
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  recognizing it and honoring it for its medicine.
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  Children also love being able to rock hound in the gravel.
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  So if you learn about some minerals that might be in the gravel nearby you,
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  you can go out with your children and see what you can find. You'll notice that
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  kids don't draw boundaries between this is a special stone and this is an
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  unspecial stone.
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  Kids love all stones and they get really intrigued to pick through the gravel in
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  your driveway and find special treasures.
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  So your kids will also show you that the medicine is all around you.
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  The third practice is to find a gatekeeper stone.
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  So a gatekeeper stone is a prominent stone in your environment.
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  It could be a stone that was naturally occurring.
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  It could also be a stone that was imported or brought from elsewhere,
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  but see if you can find a stone in your local environment that seems to emanate
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  power and energy.
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  These gatekeeper stones are powerful places to leave offerings and to ask to
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  be in communication with the unseen world.
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  Often that gatekeeper stone literally works as a gatekeeper.
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  And so if you can approach that stone with honor and respect,
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  often it will open up a line of communication and dialogue with the wider world
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  and the landscape as a whole. I have a gatekeeper stone on the land where I live
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  and I often call in that stone and connect to that stone before meditation,
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  journey work, or channeling. And I find it really helps not only ground me,
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  but open that field of perception to the unseen world.
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  Because as I said at the beginning of this video,
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  stones have the ability to take us to the soul level.
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  And so when we work with stones,
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  we are inviting healing on this level of soul and spirit.
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  If you do any of these practices, if you end up connecting with a local stone,
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  I would love to hear about it. You could head over to my Substack.
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  Remember Why You Are Here.
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  I've been loving having conversations over there around these podcast episodes.
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  It's been so rich. You can also leave me a voice message over at
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  asiasuler.com/remember.
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  I really get the feeling this month that all the guardians,
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  all the guides are showing up now,
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  making themselves known in a stronger way so that we can really
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  orient to the openings that are possible for us here,
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  that we can stitch more of our soul to
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  our existence here, to our bodies,
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  that we can bring in that guidance from that wider place
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  so we can really take the next steps in our life to open more
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  fully to who we are,
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  to open more fully to our gifts here on this planet. So thank you so
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  much for being a part of this incredible ecosystem
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  here on the podcast and on the Substack.
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  It really just feels like we are in this collective of medicine and I'm
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  so grateful for the medicine that you are on this planet.
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  I'm so grateful for all the guides that are showing up for us right now,
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  including all of the guidance we've received through our dreams this month.
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  That's why I created the Dream Remembrance Recipe over on the Substack.
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  If you haven't checked that out yet,
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  you can check that out there and tune into the dreams that are here to guide you
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  because I have absolutely have stones. Come talk to me in my dreams as well.
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  Our dreams are one of the most direct lines we have into that Yuan level,
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  that place where we can access our soul's wisdom and healing. So thank you
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  for all the ways in which you are showing up in life. And may these guardians,
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  may these guides, may these aha moments,
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  readjustments and perspectives really help you remember that most important
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  thing of all why you're here.