Very interesting information. Cant wait to continue to learn more and use the information for this book to learn more.

I enjoyed this. My niece is really into crystals so when I saw this pop up I figured I would read - informative

The Crystal Alchemist was not what I was expecting. It was more, and I am glad it focused on the mechanics of Crystal use, as opposed to an encyclopedia of different crystals, gems, and stones, and what they are better used for. Karen Frazier knows her stuff and provides many examples and exercises one can use to bring more Crystal energy into their lives. The subject matter is very accessible, in that if a beginner/novice is looking into using Crystal energy, Karen has made her guide easy to use and understand.

An interesting and appealing title about crystals and their significance in alchemy/crystal healing.

Absolutely fantastic book. Covered all facets and really informative. Would highly recommend to anyone interested in the fascinating world of learning about crystals.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

In my hometown there is a wonderful museum and in this wonderful museum there is the permanent mineral exhibit, which is my absolute favourite. Every time I’m at the museum, which is rather often, since I made my husband get me an annual membership, I first stop at the minerals exhibit to recharge. Sometimes that’s where I spend all of my time.

So, reading a reference guide (for lack of a better term) written by someone, who shows depth of knowledge and genuine enthusiasm in the topic is a real treat.

This is the first book on crystals and minerals I have found that took the time to explain things from the ground up, so to speak. It combines nuggets of scientific facts with spiritualism in a way that just works beautifully.

The author takes the reader on a very well informed guided tour of what crystals are, their colour and meaning, patterns and shapes, energy systems, using crystals correctly and safely, caring for crystals, wearing them and meditating with them.

It is a great source of information on all things crystal related and even though the author intends this book to provide the reader with fundamental knowledge to eliminate having to look up information, I will definitely use this book as a reference for the future.

Overall, I’m glad I stumbled on to this book of crystal wisdom and I know at least two people to whom I’m going to highly recommend this book.

One suggestion I would have, though, is to make sure to purchase it on paperback for easier referencing; I would just love to see the crystal images in colour, since my little Kindle is black and white.

This is a really handy crystal book for anyone looking into the healing properties of different stones, how to care for them, where to place them for maximum benefit. It describes lots of ways to incorporate crystals into everyday life, by ways of for example meditation or creating mantras.

The Crystal Alchemist is a great addition to any crystal lover's library. Frazier transcends your typical reference guide and tells us how to use and select crystals for different benefits in your life. I love the detail she goes into here and going into more than color but also stone structure and shape for the specific intentions you have in mind.

Whether you are new to crystals or have been drawn to them and used them for years I think you'll learn something here and be able to use this guide.

Many thanks to New Harbinger Publications, Inc. and Net Galley for the advance copy.

Very informative! Learned a lot about crystals that I didn't know before. Would definitely recommend if interested in this topic.

An extremely helpful and in-depth guide to crystals. As someone who has recently taken interest in crystals, I learned so much from reading this book. I appreciated the time the author took to list out the specific crystals, their properties, and their various uses. I also thought the real-life examples helped to explain the crystal pairings for specific situations. This is a great book to keep for reference.

I received a copy of this via Netgalley for an honest review
Really enjoyed this educational read and will referring back to it often.

Amazing book! Want to know everything you could think of to know about Crystal's, then this is the book for you. It teaches you how to choose the right Crystal's, how to focus Crystal's, how to recharge Crystal's, and what Crystal's are best for all different things!

A book that takes you to the basics and beyond on crystal work. Frazier has a simple style that makes you believe you are just talking with her, which makes it surprising when you realize how much you have learned from her! From selecting the right crystal, how to safely prepare an elixir, create grids, and more, this book has practically everything you may need to get started in the world of crystal healing.

I have to say, with complete honesty, that this book didn’t really have much to offer me. The writing is decent, and readily understandable even for those without esoteric background. Beyond that, though, there’s little on offer here that you cannot find elsewhere in more detail and with more depth.

It feels as if the author took the basic surface view of the subject (crystals and gemstones in magic), and seems to completely avoid delving into any of the underpinnings of the concept, or how and why it exists.

Most occult topics tend to be a bit like an iceberg, afterall - there’s a visible, obvious part, but also a large portion hidden. The hidden parts support the visible portion, and arguably sustain the whole concept.

With crystals, you have the (nominally) exoteric ideas that these stones can hold power and create change. This idea is sustained by a wealth of history and connections throughout spiritual belief systems worldwide. The Crystal Alchemist barely discusses most of that.

You won’t find much on the history of gemstones in magic. There are long lists of correspondences (Rose quartz for love! Amethyst for wisdom!), but absolutely nothing about why and how these correspondences exist.

The author tries to weave a lot of scientific-sounding words and phrases into this book. There’s talk of “frequency” and “vibration” and how some crystals will “raise your vibration.” Unsurprisingly, we’re not even given an inkling of how she’s defining these terms or how they relate to gemstones.

I get that the concept of “vibes” and “vibrations” is a nice working metaphor for certain mysteries we willworkers deal with, but this author either doesn’t know that and takes it literally, or is just repeating words she’s heard elsewhere.

“You can bring a crystal into your environment and without doing another single thing, the crystal will affect the energy in that environment. Crystals affect vibration with minimal effort.”

I think most willworkers, witches and mages would agree that there’s a connection between all things, so the addition of literally anything to a space will, in some way, change the energy of that space, the way it feels, and how we respond to it.

There’s really no discussion in this book of why the author believes crystals would be especially prone to this. There’s no reason given why a crystal would be more effective than, say, a glass of orange juice or a lump of beeswax.

There’s some talk of piezoelectricity, which is a real concept in science and is the reason crystals are often used in technology. The author fails to really make a true connection from “when subjected to mechanical stress… [crystals] will release an electric charge” to the idea of crystals having an “energetic frequency” that will “entrain” your own vibration for wellbeing.

If you actually look at how frequency is defined in physics, you’d realize all this talk of high frequency and correlated wellbeing is, well, rather silly. For example, if a person really wanted to vibrate higher, perhaps being shot through with gamma rays from deep space would do it, but it would probably kill you. As you might expect, spectrums of energy emission do not have a direct relationship to human emotions, morality, or well-being.

It would be a lot better if the author was willing to admit that there’s no proven link between piezoelectricity and gemstones as used in magic, and if she just dropped the attempts at scientism entirely.

A lot of these occult concepts, while real, aren’t well-understood yet and remain somewhat mysterious even to those who use them. It just seems disingenuous to shellack the whole thing with a veneer of (largely irrelevant) scientific jargon.

There’s a lot of pertinent issues about gemstones and crystals that I feel like the author should have addressed, yet she remains silent on it. You won’t find any discussion of where crystals actually come from, for example, how they’re mined, or any of the ethical/labor issues that arise around that.

The book does discuss the dangers of certain crystals, particularly those that dissolve in water or can leak dangerous substances. For that, I’m thankful, but there’s much more that The Crystal Alchemist could cover.
It seems like the author is trying really hard to be constantly positive with regards to this subject, ignoring some of the more practical issues or any controversies.

Disappointingly, there’s very little about alchemy in this book. I think the author is just using the term “alchemist” to mean anyone who seeks self-transformation. Fair enough, but I was hoping for something more specific to actual alchemical traditions.

If you’re mostly looking for a book of gemstone correspondences, you will find that here, though, as well as several crystal-based rituals that could prove interesting.

Don’t expect much history or context for the correspondences - the book will just say “This crystal is good for this purpose,” without much explanation as to why.

There’s a bit about chakras in there, as well as feng shui, and what gemstones work for each element in those systems. Tt’s very hard for me to contextualize those from such a small description, and I’m unsure how accurate those portions were.

Overall, I’m afraid I can only give this book one star. It simply wasn’t very good, nor did I find it helpful.

Very informative!
I found great use in the information provided. Recently experienced some needs for crystals and found this book very helpful.
Thank you NetGalley for a copy.

I love a good crystal book and this one did not disappoint. The sections were informative and delved a bit deeper than some crystal books, however it could do with some more pictures.

Karen Frazer knows her stuff when it comes to applying crystals to your life. By the time I was done reading Crystals in Everyday life, I realized how much not only does the author live by this but also how much research she has already done through the years.

I’ve been making jewelry for a couple of years now and have acclimated a lot of gemstones and I wanted to learn more about their priorities how I and others can apply them to my everyday life, so when I noticed this book on Netgalley I had to try it and fell in love.

This book gives you everything you need from what kind of crystals to buy for what you need it most to how to apply it every day to, cleaning your crystals and more. I really liked the section where she took instances from personal matters and directed how to use a crystal during that time.

The downside for some will be there are no images in this book. It’s easy for someone like me to know what gemstone is named what because I use them every day, but to most, they have no clue what sardonyx or smoky amethyst is so, please note you will have to Google for images of what kind of stone you need if you’re not familiar with one.

I recommend this book to anyone wanting to apply crystals to their everyday life.

This is a great resource FULL of information about how crystals are helpful. It was difficult to see the full effect of the text in ebook form, but it did share many examples of how crystals effect the energy in a room.

This is a resource worth having and references back to as needed for anyone interested in crystals and naturalistic/wholistic life.

Really fun and interesting, more in depth look at crystals and how they can aid us in healing. Absolutely beautifully laid out and easy to navigate.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of The Crystal Alchemist by Karen Frazier in exchange for my honest review.

What I primarily loved about this book was its detailed explanations on how and why crystals work. And by explaining the science behind crystals and crystal healing in an accessible and easy to read manner, Frazier affirms herself as an authority on crystals.

I wish that Frazier's explanations were accompanied by pictures. Images would have been helpful in the section where she explains how different lattice patterns in the crystals cause them to have different metaphysical properties. I found myself having to Google images of different crystals to get more comfortable identifying the lattice patterns.

As someone who is very passionate about crystals, this text gave me many new ideas of how to incorporate crystals into my life even more. However, some parts of The Crystal Alchemist were completely unusable to me as the advice relied on a belief in the chakra system. Since that believe isn't part of my practice, I had to skim through large sections of the book.