Hello and welcome back to The Schapera Show. Today, I’ve made a big decision. Even though I have spoken to Rose Quartz before on this show, I want to speak to Rose Quartz again today. Why? Because Rose Quartz was the first stone that I ever encountered, and these days, it has become one of my new “favorites.”

I will admit that historically, Kunzite has been my favorite heart stone, so it’s a very big surprise for me to feel this shift in loyalty. In my defense, it isn’t really a shift in loyalty, it’s an increase in respect that has come about from perceiving the deeper layers of what Rose Quartz can offer us.

Let’s go back to my first encounter with the Mineral Kingdom, when I met Rose Quartz. My father is from Namibia, then known as South West Africa. When I was five, our family went to South West Africa to visit, and then again when I was ten years old. My parents’ former neighbor, Karl Wurth, invited us to his home and I remember the experience very clearly. We entered the front gate, and walked through the front garden, complete with green lawn and blooming red hibiscus. Then we walked down the hallway that ran the length of the house, and opened up into the kitchen. We continued through the kitchen, and on through the back door, into the back yard. The back yard was true to the surrounding terrain – a desert. To the left was the washing line, with laundry drying on it, and to the right was a huge, glowing rock garden, built of Rose Quartz, and planted with succulents. I stopped in my tracks and just stared. For me, it was a moment of truth and right then and there, I said to my dad: “One day, I’m going to collect minerals.”

“Ha,” my dad laughed, “that’s an expensive hobby!” Now, I can testify, he was right and so was I. So, there was the first impact of Rose Quartz upon my life – it revealed my future to me – and set me on the path. What more can one ask? It’s ironic, because Karl’s comment about the Rose Quartz was: “It’s in the way. We have to blast past it to get to what we’re actually mining, but it’s quite pretty so I brought some home.”

“In the way?” I wondered. Retelling this story, I see it wasn’t “in the way,” it literally showed me the way. The true point of this story though, is that Rose Quartz makes a very particular kind of strong heart connection, and the heart and soul enjoy “oneness,” so the Rose Quartz was able to introduce me to my soul, and show me my soul’s journey in this lifetime.

I’m not exactly sure why I did this, but I subsequently dismissed Rose Quartz as a “beginner” stone. I should be grateful that the Mineral Kingdom is willing to put up with my stupidity, because I sure have some dumb thoughts when it comes to understanding crystals. Rose Quartz is actually a representative of one of life’s principles, namely: the thing and its opposite live in the same space. How so? Well, Rose Quartz is both very, very common and also extremely rare. More specifically, as a mass, Rose Quartz is common, but in a crystal formation, Rose Quartz is hard to find. When I think about it, several of my most prized stones are Rose Quartz. I have a sweet little Rose Quartz crystal cluster, a Quartz crystal covered with a layer that is studded with Smoky and Rose Quartz crystals, and believe it or not, a very large Smoky Quartz point that begins with a base of Rose Quartz. This particular piece stands on our family altar, together with all the photos of our relatives who have crossed over.

Rose Quartz is definitely a heart stone, no doubt about it. For starters, the color pink relates to the heart chakra. But that is just the first, “beginner” aspect, as I now discover how Rose Quartz goes way beyond that. Rose Quartz can profoundly penetrate the conundrum of how our emotions affect each and every layer of the heart chakra. By way of explanation, each of our seven major chakras gives rise to a layer of the energy field, and so each chakra has seven layers. The very first layer is the physical body. Rose Quartz can mitigate the emotional effects on the physiology and functioning of the physical heart. Neil and I experienced this firsthand during the pandemic. You may not be aware, but we work one-on-one with clients, and of course during the first wave of the pandemic we had to close our doors – and then create an online business to generate a new livelihood. This was somewhat stressful, to say the least, and our blood pressure rose accordingly. We bought a blood pressure cuff, and did a little experiment. We infused Rose Quartz into our heart chakras and measured our blood pressure before and after, to find that just one – two minutes of infusing Rose Quartz into our heart chakras significantly reduced our blood pressure. Please note, though, that our blood pressure was rising due to emotional reasons and I surmise that this is why the Rose Quartz could work so instantly in this circumstance.

When I ask Rose Quartz what message it would like to share with all of you, I get this answer: “Always bear in mind that humans should not place more value on what is rare, but rather place more value on what is common. Something that is common, or ubiquitous, becomes part of the scenery and becomes undervalued – because you are all forgetting that there is a good reason for something to be common – it is integral to life. For example, electricity is now common. Take a moment and imagine what your lives would be like if something disrupts your electricity supply. Your entire lives, as you know it, would cease. Your world would no longer function. Stop taking what is common for granted, and be sure to preserve access to all your “common” resources, most particularly … water.”

OK, I’m sorry to say this, but that’s kind of scary. And true. I know that I’m grateful to live in an area of the world where water is still plentiful. As a child, growing up in South Africa, we had frequent droughts and went through many periods with water restrictions. More recently, Cape Town, became the first city in the world to run out of water. When the rains finally came, it was certainly cause for celebration. I know exactly what Rose Quartz is talking about, and I’m certainly going to be seeing where else these wise words can be applied.

Thank you for joining us here on The Schapera Show, please tune in again next month.