Crystal Connection: Black Tourmaline

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I have talked a lot about inner child work this summer. One thing that has been very validating for me is regaining control of my collections, specifically of my rock collection.

I have always loved rocks. I did not know that the rocks I loved so much were called crystals. My dad just always asked if I wanted to go look at rocks. I remember bringing a peacock ore to second grade show and tell. People made fun of my rock, and I just stopped telling people about them.

In the summertime, I would spend ours combing through the pea gravel in our backyard looking for agates. I always loved the red ones best (carnelian, I now know). I kept my collection under the trampoline because my mom did not like my rocks inside the house. By the time I moved out from the best, I had lost all of my rocks or had given them away because they were for children not adults.

My friend Jessi reintroduced me to rocks in 2016, but this time the word was crystals. I learned about pain and emotional management of crystals through Jessi. They jumpstarted my spiritual journey through them. I am eternally grateful for this reconnection.

The first two crystals that really pulled me in were black tourmaline and green aventurine. As I became more familiar with the crystals given to me by Jessi, I found deep, deep solace and connection within black tourmaline. I could feel my piece’s energy pulsating in my palm as I sat in pain, sat in anxiety, sat in fear.

Black tourmaline picked up some popularity (I could tell because the prices skyrocketed) around 2019-2020. People often only tout this crystal for cleansing and protecting. For me, the connection I have with this crystal is so much more. The properties that I associate with it, the energy I feel from it expands into so much more.

As I’ve talked about before, my beginnings with crystals, meditation, and exercising outside started with a lot of physical, emotional, and mental distress. The piece of tourmaline I had at that time grounded me in ways I can’t fully describe. I sat with it daily for years. It granted protection, care, and grounding. It also was a reminder every time that I touched it, felt it, saw it that it was there to help me change the negative energy, the spiraling anxiety and depression into productive energy. I would plan and envision my entire day using my little black tourmaline.

The grounding energies of black tourmaline are unmatched for me. The wieildiness of it in my hands, my pockets, my bra was a constant reminder that I had a body, and I needed to stay in it, stay present. A lot of people prefer smoky quartz or obsidian. My go-to will always be black tourmaline. To me, this crystal has the energy of the knight of pentacles. It is slow and steady, methodical and precise, but it gets the job done. When the horse wants to wander, instead we pull it back into productivity. I am not talking toxic productivity, but productive energy as in getting out of bed, making the food, eating the food, focusing on what needs to be done. I am talking that productivity in self-care and domestic tasks that often get lost and buried within the foggy haze of chronic depression and anxiety, within chronic pain.

I also keep two huge pieces on my bedside table. Black tourmaline is so good for protecting and grounding that I find having its energies near me when I’m in bed helpful. It is good for sleep. The smaller pieces are what I love to put on my hip bones feeling their weight sink into me, guiding me back into my body.

Black tourmaline was a first love for me. I will always be pulled to it more than just about any other crystal. It’s “boring” to look at compared to the amethysts and celestites of the world, but there is something in its simplicity and no nonsense energy that pulls me back time and time again.

What crystals were you first drawn to? What was your experience with them? Do you feel the same draw as you once did?

Wishing you well this week! May your life offer what you need in this moment.

With love,

Aventurine ✨