Beyond Quartz & Sage: 30+ New Spiritual Items To Master Your Practice
Compartir
We all love Fall for its spookiness, the good eats, a reason to wear hoodies, and temperature relief for the all-black everything crowd. But fun aside, Fall is an intensely spiritual and energetically profound time of the year. So, it's a perfect time to examine our spiritual practice and make sure that it's aligning with the people and spirits that we want them to. To help, I’ve compiled a list of unique spiritual practice objects that can serve as inspiration for your personal spiritual practice.
My goal here to help your grow your idea of what spirituality looks like. I have a very casual, breezy but respectful relationship with it. Like most of you, I’m also from a place and people without a standardized spiritual practice. So, intuition and the knowledge of others’ is all we’ve got.
"Taking the time to build an intensely personal spiritual practice, learning from the spiritual knowledge of other people, and simply setting intention in any action will always yield better results than mindlessly grasping at or appropriating things that sound cool."
Yes, I am definitely going to be pulling things from many different spiritual practices. But we’ll only be gaining inspiration. Taking the time to build an intensely personal spiritual practice, learning from the spiritual knowledge of other people, and simply setting intention in any action will always yield better results than mindlessly grasping at or appropriating things that sound cool.
Heirlooms:
Yours or others. These objects can be absolutely anything. So, the example I'm going to give Is a personal one. When I was a child, I bought my grandmother a blanket. She used it until her death, and it was returned to me. My grandmother’s essence is in that blanket – it’s a connection to my ancestors. Not all heirlooms are going to work as a spiritual item - some things are just things. You should intuitively know what objects are calling to you. Sometimes they are just pretty but they should also speak to you on a more intuitive level.
Keepsakes – Your late cat’s collar, a loc of your partner’s hair, a coin, a gift to you while the person was alive, discarded clothing
Pictures – Are powerful ways to trap a person’s essence, to stay connected to them. Some cultures take photos down after a person’s death, other’s straight up burn them, some create shrines around them.
Metals:
You can use either the raw material or an object made from the material. Consider panning or mining your own. A common heirloom you're going to get is a ring or other forms of jewelry. These types of metals are going to be special and incredibly important to any spiritual practice. Even if it's not from your family, going to a place that's resells items will allow you to come in contact with objects that vibrate in a way that feels nice to you. In a practical sense, that usually means you just think it's pretty or neat.
"Bones, fur/hides, horns, antlers, claws, feathers, scales, teeth, ashes, dehydrated flesh, owl pellets, eggs, nests. All these items contain energy and materials that can connect you to deeper levels of awareness."
Here are my favorite metals to use in spiritual practice:
Silver & Platinum – Moonlight, shadow work, astrology, protection, harmony
Gold, Iron (Including Cast), Copper - sun, wealth, warmth, passion, desire, envy, stability, light work, reflection
Tungsten & Steel - strength, reliability, foundation work, resilience, anchoring, restricting, binding
Aluminum – reflection, flexibility, flow
Animal remnants:
While my inspiration for this behavior comes from various Native American practices I've picked up, there are examples of this in basically every religion or spiritual practice that has ever existed. Bones, fur/hides, horns, antlers, claws, feathers, scales, teeth, ashes, dehydrated flesh, owl pellets, eggs, nests. All these items contain energy and materials that can connect you to deeper levels of awareness. I personally own an Elk antler piece but would love to collect more.
Don’t be afraid of human parts either – teeth, amputations, blood, semen, tears, spit, skin, hair, nails. Lots of spiritual practices tap into our own bodies vs others. This could be as simple as
Herbs, Florals, Plants:
What can you do with them? Burn, grow, drink, eat, smoke, or whatever.
What parts should you use? Bark, stems, leaves, pollen, petals, seeds, roots, fruits, flowers, tubers. Obviously, some of these will be dangerous depending on the species and you should always do your own research. But the options are endless.
I’ve picked ones that are native to the Americas since that’s where I’m from. The list isn’t exhaustive, but it was exhausting to put together. I’ll start with my favorites:
Bee’s Wax & Honey are excellent examples of some less macabre animal remnants and botanicals that are both spiritually powerful, nutritionally beneficial, and medicinally useful. I love bee’s wax candles for the way they make my room feel. Honey is so comforting, and tasty.
Jade Succulent – A visual representation of your fortunes. I own 2 out of the 200 species.
Aloe Vera – Good health, always nice to have around. Many different species to explore.
Herbs & Plants: Rosemary, Lavender, Lemongrass, Nettles, Mint, Red Clover, Cattail, Saw Palmetto, Sage, Ginger, Prickly Pear Cactus, Mullein, Raspberry Leaf, Ginseng.
Flowers: Honeysuckle, Hemp/Cannabis, Wild Roses, Tulips, Hummingbird Blossom (Buck Brush), Magnolia, Calendula
Fruits: Blackberry, Pumpkin, Apple, Pomegranate, avocado
Anything homegrown – imbue it with energies you want. Grow close with the spirit of the plant. Grow it with intention. In truth a lot of the power of spirituality comes from the power that we put into things.
Stone type things:
Crystal – Hand crafted pieces to manipulate light and give you new perspectives
Stained glass – Hand crafted silicas blended with various materials to cast and filter light.
Building rubble – Ashes from a family home burned down, World Trade Center beams and concrete, demolished building parts – churches, schools, theatres, etc.
Technology:
The devices we use every day are highly undervalued for their spiritual importance. But you can trust your grandad’s still lingering on the remote he used to watch his football. You can trust your vibes are imbued into your phone. That’s not to mention devices you literally wear like implants, hearing aids, smart devices, etc. You might not think about it but, within your Pixel, Surface, Kindle, or Apple Watch lies tons of rare earth materials that we use in spirituality including:
-
Sapphire
-
Gold
-
Carbon
-
Copper
-
Silver
-
Tin
-
Lead
-
Nickel
-
Arsenic
-
Aluminum
-
Cobalt
-
Lithium
-
Silicon
What to do with all this stuff:
If you are new to building a spiritual practice and wondering what to do with all these items, start by holding them. Most of the things that I use for spiritual practice are used to keep me connected to things. So, I'm keeping things around to fill my space, to touch them, just to look at them. You could do spells, summoning, light work, shadow work, ancestral work, attunement, pendulums, cleansing, protection, or whatever kind of work you want.
This stuff has rules but it’s mostly about what’s in your heart and spirit. Approach all this stuff with an open and cautiously respectful mind. Let it be what it is.