Touchstone Bracelets

When I was a girl, all the pockets would simply rip out of my clothes because I was always stuffing them full of rocks. Odd-shaped rocks. Olivine. Quartz. Shiny bits of mica. Pahoehoe lava with ropy, iridescent swirls.

When my family moved to Georgia, they teased me about trying to take all of Stone Mountain home with me.

I suppose it’s no surprise that my love for the earthiest of earth has led me to working with gemstones. I’m holding a wand cut from fluorite as I type these words.

I suppose it’s also no surprise that my ginormous piles of sticky notes written about the Enrichment Project sorted themselves into groups that I began to call Touchstones. They represent key concepts that I delight in, wrestle with, and consult daily. I must physically touch them, feel their weight, name their colors. And in the process, I connect with some of the purest aspects of myself.

Working with stones has bled over into my tarot readings; my Radical Ritual clients receive a Touchstone bracelet strung from semi-precious beads that create a positive anchor, a re-minder of an intention set and wisdom earned.

I choose two stones per moon cycle to work with, and when Radical Ritual clients book, they select one of the stones. Perhaps the stone itself attracts them, or the word aligned to the stone resonates with them somehow.

Then, together, we craft an intention for the reading. I draw a charm as a small divination at the end of the reading, and personalize the bracelet with three other stones I use my intuition to select, based on the key themes from our time together.

Touchstone Bracelets from Beaver Moon, 2018