Apr 22, 2022
Kathryn Hudson talks to us about working with crystals.
You can find her book on the subject at Amazon: Discover Your Crystal Family: Working with Stones and Their Angelic Messengers
Thanks Kathryn!
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TRANSCRIPT
Please note we do not guarantee 100% transcript accuracy. The below
reflects a best effort. Thank you for your understanding.
Jim Harold 0:00
Fleeting glimpses of things seen through a veil, darkly. Do we
understand the meaning of these visions, of life? Why we are here
and how little of our existence we truly understand? Tonight, we
will talk of these things on the Other Side.
Welcome to the program. I am Jim Harold, and so glad to be with you once again. And a topic that we have covered numerous times on the show, but not in this way, I don't think, is that of crystals and the energy that is imbued with them and how you can use them in your life. And today, we're gonna have a fascinating discussion, we're going to talk about a recent book from a repeat guest who is always interesting. We're going to talk about the book, Discover Your Crystal Family: Working with stones and their angelic messengers. And so glad to have Kathryn Hudson again on the line. She is a certified Angel therapy and crystal healing practitioner and teacher, also a Reiki Master Teacher, Kathryn writes, speaks, and teaches all over the world on opening up to the spiritual side of life. She lives in France and in the United States. And we're so glad to speak with her today. Kathryn, welcome back to the program.
Kathryn Hudson 1:17
Thanks so much, Jim. You know I love to come back and visit with
you and with your audience.
Jim Harold 1:21
Thank you so much. So crystals. I mean, a lot of times when I've
talked to other people about crystals, you kind of think, Okay,
well, you have this crystal, and this crystal has this property,
and you can work with it this way. And it can do this thing for
you, or add to your life in such in such a way. But you talked
about the concept of crystal--your crystal family, what do you mean
by crystal family?
Kathryn Hudson 1:48
So, Jim, thanks so much for this question. It is kind of a twist of
a title. And what I mean by that is I go a little bit further than
the sort of bandaid or bandage approach to crystals and--and in
suggesting that the crystals that are around us are not around us
by accident, that uh, well, they're--all things are made of energy,
including us, including crystals, and that there is a connection
that's deeper than simply a tool that one would use like I would
use a hammer if I wanted to drive a nail. That even for the people
who are not so interested in crystals, I always say well look
around and see if you have any in your house, then, "oh yeah, in
fact I do, I have a paperweight, I have a crystal somebody gave me
I have--" Well, I would argue that those--those are family numbers,
and they're waiting for us to recognize that they are indeed part
of the family, that they're there to--to help us evoke within
ourselves a certain quality, a certain movement along our paths. So
the connection between family is, of course, very close, I would
argue that our connection with the crystals that we are attracted
to or have attracted consciously or unconsciously into our lives,
that that's family. That these are soul contracts, that were meant
to be relying on them in a more conscious way than simply you know,
having a crystal decorate your living room.
Jim Harold 3:20
Now, how does one--let's say someone has always been intrigued by
crystals, but they've never made the plunge. They've never
purchased a crystal, they've never done anything with crystals. How
do they dip their toe in the water and get involved in this?
Kathryn Hudson 3:36
I love that. So I would say um, and at the risk of repeating
myself, I'm going to repeat myself. The first thing I asked
somebody is, "do you have any crystals?" And so often the the knee
jerk reaction is no. But okay, well just--just go double check in
your house and see what might be there. Because sometimes we might
have a vase that's made of crystal, or we have jewelry that have
crystals in them. Because all--all semi precious and precious
stones are crystals, just to get a sense of what's already around
us before running off and buying crystals or, you know, making an
investment sometimes, which are you know, sometimes those are big
investments. Because that gives an idea of what is already
supporting us in day to day life. And we can amplify that by doing
it consciously. So that's--that's the first thing. The second thing
that I say right off the bat, especially like if I'm teaching, is
to recognize it's an invitation to recognize that the--the crystals
don't do anything in our place instead of us. So if you have, for
example, an amethyst is an extra excellent stone for for healing
addiction. So sometimes I get moms who say, "Well, can I slip this
into my teenager's room and will that help?" No, it won't help.
Because nobody--there is no--no support in the universe that's
going to disrespect our free will. The person has to be willing to
work with a crystal and then consciously accessing the energy of it
for it to be effective. Basically, the way it works is every
crystal has a certain emanation. The energy of it is creates an
aura or an emanation energetically around it. And it evokes,
because energy seeks equilibrium, it evokes the same energy or the
same quality that is already within us. So it helps us to access
these qualities that are latent within ourselves, and use them,
have access to those qualities more on a day to day basis.
Jim Harold 5:51
What's your favorite crystal?
Kathryn Hudson 5:54
Amethyst. I'm holding it even as we speak, for a number of reasons.
But the main reason is because when my crystal path started, and I
had already always been attracted, and Amethyst is, by the way, my
birthstone as well. I was working in a bank, a million years ago in
the middle of Manhattan. And I was little hungover as I recall. And
I was trying to dodge clients, I didn't want to be working with
anybody. And a woman came into the bank and came straight for my
desk. So I got up and gave her my back and pretended to be very
busy. And instead of going to the other bankers that were calling
her over to try to render service, she waited for me, she sat down
at my desk and waited for me to turn around. And when I did, I
wasn't really happy about it. By the way, I was really not feeling
too great at the time, I was in a darker place, let's say
completely dark place. Nothing like now, but I extended my hand
dutifully. "Welcome to the bank. My name is Kathryn Hudson, how may
I help you," and she did not take my hand. Instead, she said, "I'm
actually here to help you." And she placed the amethyst crystal
that I have in my hand at this moment, she placed it in my hand and
said, "this will help you with your addictions." And then she left.
So I didn't even realize, I didn't even see her go, I was in such
shock. And I looked down at the stone in my hand, which at that
time, it was like 98. So stones were not everywhere at that time.
This was a really weird, weird thing that was happening. And my
head was trying to make sense of it. You know, I was really trying
to figure out what what the heck's going on here. And then I
thought I understood, I lift up my head to say, "Excuse me, ma'am,
we're a bank, we're serious. You don't sell things like that," I
thought she was trying to sell it to me. And then I lifted my head
to tell her so, she was already out the door. This is why I connect
angels with crystals. Because this woman walked in off the streets
in the middle of Manhattan, never saw her before or after, to hand
a very confused young banker (laughs) a crystal with a message that
was very pointed, Angel messages are like that, they're not always
fluffy wings and butterflies. So--so that's my favorite--it's my
favorite crystal in general, amethyst. Amethyst helps us to release
that which no longer serves, and so align with our highest self.
And specifically the amethyst that's in my hand which comes from
that day.
Jim Harold 8:35
And you actually anticipated. My next question was how do stones
interact with the angelic realm? How does that work? How common is
it? And you just gave a lovely example of it. Can you talk to us
about that more?
Kathryn Hudson 8:50
Absolutely. It's one of the differences of my book, there's so many
wonderful, marvelous crystal books out there. And of course,
everyone should just follow their own inclination and feel which
one attracts them. But the specificity--one of the specificities of
this book is that I talk about the link between the angelic realm
and the crystal realm. And as I just mentioned, I am--some people
ask me if that was my--if I thought that was an angel that walked
in. And I would go further and say it was my guardian angel that
got tired of me not listening, that actually came into my earthly
experience, to--to give me a palpable reminder. But as I was
teaching, and I teach about angels, and I teach about crystals, and
I do it separately, or I did it separately, as two different paths
that one can follow to reconnect and realign with our highest and
best in this lifetime, and in all lifetimes. And as I was teaching,
suddenly, I had the inspiration and found it very interesting that
my--I teach connection with a go to group of 15 archangels, and an
archangel is an expression of God or source and carries a certain
quality of source. So of course, there are innumerable qualities of
God of source, but it--I was teaching 15, the 15 with whom I work
and have these--these type connections with. And then I realized
that as by accident, but not at all, as by coincidence, but not at
all, I happened to be also giving to my crystal students 15 stones,
15 stones to work with. And then I'm like, "Oh," I probably was
teaching both of those things separately, for a few years before I
realized that the symbiotic--the structure of the two was not an
accident. And I came to understand that. As Archangels carry
qualities of source, the crystals are carrying qualities of source
but through the earth and manifest in physical ways so that we can,
more easily for many people, it's--it's easier to connect with
crystals than angels, that really depends on the person. So once I
realized that certain crystals are connected to the archangelic
energies that carry the same quality, that's what this book is
really based on. It's noting that there--there's so much support
trust, and support for us is not limited to earth or sky, but
really, it's--it's really both. And of course, there's no place
that source or God is not. So this, you know, in a very harmonious
way, it's like a big hug from above and below.
Jim Harold 11:53
Now, are there any cautions? Are there any things that we have to
be careful of when dealing with this? Because it strikes me anytime
that you deal with anything that has, quote, magical properties,
that--that there has to be some caretaking? Are there any
cautionary tales? Or just things to watch out for and make sure
that you're not misdirecting what you're doing? Or--well, you know
what I mean (laughs).
Kathryn Hudson 12:17
I do, I do. Absolutely. So the first thing that I want to say is
that if--if one chooses to be conscious, and invite angels into any
work, whether it's crystal work or anything else, that that
maintains a high level of energy, and so protection. So that's the
first thing we can dodge--we can dodge a lot of bullets that way,
or energetic bullets. The other thing, the only caution, the
only--and I'll speak about the other caution afterward. But the
only real caution that I would suggest and that I would--yeah,
more, it's more than a suggestion, I'd say. Is that we cannot
presume to work with crystals without the accord of the person
that's concerned. So going back to the half kidding, but no, I've
actually had the experience. Yeah, going back to the example of a
mother who would like her son to stop doing drugs. And so can I
slip in Amethyst in his room. Two things happen in such a situation
one, it doesn't work, because the son hasn't given his accord he's
not--he's not open and willing to work with the crystal, the
crystal doesn't take over the free will of the sun. And so first of
all, it's not going to work. The second thing is a little bit more
subtle. And it's really not good. And so I would say this is a
warning. If we act really with good intentions, it's most often
with good intentions. But if we take an action to have an impact on
someone else, energetically, without their accord, their approval,
their permission. Well, it's black magic. It's almost the
definition of it. I mean, it's not the formal ways that people
experience that in the world. But taking action to impact someone
else energetically without their approval has enormous karmic
weight.
Jim Harold 14:19
Even if you feel it's to their benefit?
Kathryn Hudson 14:22
Yes, because the free will of the person must be respected.
Basically, you're taking--you're--you're taking power over the
person, you're taking the person's power away. You're imposing your
will. And so even when it is positive, if we're doing it, it's
doing something in kind of a sneaky, energetic way and they're not
aware and they're not saying yes, yeah, it's got--it's got real
karmic cost to it. There's a penalty to it, because every single
soul no matter what they're experiencing, to our human perspective,
every single soul is experiencing what they're experiencing for a
reason. So, yeah, it's not like somebody's choking, and we
intervene, the person is aware that they're choking. And you know,
we're not doing it subtly, we're not hiding it. But when we're
talking about energy, we have to be even more clean and even more
clear, and be very mindful. Now, of course, we're not going to be
effective if we're slipping an amethyst into somebody's room, so
they stop drinking or whatever. But, but there's a weight to it
energetically. And that would be my only caution. All of the other
cautions that you can hear about crystals, and there are so many,
you know, oh, yeah, certainly, there are situations that are best
avoided, like, you don't want to take the Selenite crystal, which
is basically, at its nature, its base is salt. You don't want to
clear--you don't want to clean it in water, because you'll get a
glass of water at the end of it, the crystal will be gone. Or you
don't want to clear up pyrite and water because it's going to rust,
and you don't want to put an amethyst to clear it in the sun,
because it will lose its powerful purple color. And so it'll lose
some of its power.
Jim Harold 16:15
And another one that I recall, I think we talked to and I know, you
know, Nicholas Pearson, we talked to him about this, I think
something about people trying to use crystals to somehow energize
water in drinking water. And that's something you have to be very
careful about because it can be poisonous and dangerous, right?
Kathryn Hudson 16:35
Yes, absolutely. This is--that's such a good point. And, and really
those, I mean, there are certain--there are certain stones that you
know, that can work with. And if you--you'll see these things, if
you spend any time on the internet, you quickly come to understand
what's possible and what's not. But there's putting them in water
or combining them with water and other things. Without knowing, if
you don't have a scientific background, it's never a good idea to
just imagine that it will be well, if you're going to ingest
it.
Jim Harold 17:07
And I think--I think what Nicholas, and again, if I'm wrong, this
is just based off of memory. What he suggested was is if you wanted
to work with stones and drinking water, you put the drinking water
in a container, a totally separate container with no stones in it,
then you could place, on the outside of the container, the stones
around the container. I believe that's what he said.
Kathryn Hudson 17:31
Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's really, of course, if you're going
to do that there's--it is a ritual, there's intention. And it is
not--it is not less effective. And it is absolutely safer in many
instances.
Jim Harold 17:47
So don't put your crystals--do not put your crystals in drinking
water (laughs).
Kathryn Hudson 17:52
(Laughs)
Jim Harold 17:52
I want to get that out there. We also have that discussion when we
talk about herbs and things. We've had a few people on talking
about herbs. That's something you can be extremely careful about
because the wrong plants can kill you. So be careful out there.
Kathryn Hudson 18:07
(Laughs) Don't try this at home.
Jim Harold 18:08
(Laughs). In the book, you try to sum up. You talk about crystal
chakra meditation. What is crystal chakra meditation and how does
it work?
Kathryn Hudson 18:20
Yeah. So in the book, there's actually I've written out a crystal
chakra meditation that came to me. And it was kind of a funny
story. I was--I was teaching about angels for many years, and I've
got two enormous geodes, Amethyst geodes, of course, in my--in my
living room. It's two half of an enormous rock, like three feet
tall. And I was cleaning around them as I was preparing for a small
class I was holding here on angels. And I heard well, "when are we
going to start, you know, working together?" And then so suddenly,
"I'm like, oh, yeah, what a great idea. I'll teach about working
with crystals. I've been doing it for so many years, of course, and
that--that connection with angels would be there." So that's what
started it. And I set up a little weekend and I thought, Oh, this
will be nice, because when I teach about angels and when I teach
anything intense, I mean, there are people that have, that
experience deep transformations. There's you know, people--people
are crying, people, you know, there's stuff going on. So I thought,
"oh, won't this be nice? We'll have tea. This will be a nice light,
not very deep, you know, just an enjoyable workshop." This is what
I thought. And then two days before it was to begin, I woke up in
the morning with this crystal chakra meditation. I saw it, I heard
it, and I experienced it, and I ran to write it down, to type it
out. And basically what it is, is I got guidance about seven stones
and um, you picture yourself, I saw myself coming into like into
the base of a mountain. And from one cave chamber to another that
was filled with that particular stone, there were messages. Oh,
yeah, really, really powerful stuff. But anyway, I--I thought, "oh,
that will be good for the second day, people will be kind of
already used to the stones and we'll do a nice crystal meditation
for the connector with the chakras." And it was just a small group,
but one person was--so yeah, it's really super powerful. So, you
know, do it gently. But one person actually did get sick, you know,
she was vomiting as a result. So I thought it was going to be this
light and fun workshop weekend. But finally, and that's my very
first class. That's where I learned kind of what you're touching
on. How much respect is to be accorded these seemingly
inanimate--inanimate members of our families, seemingly inanimate
objects, because they really can, if people are ready, they can
really get things moving within us. So there are seven stones and
seven messages. Each message brings us more into alignment with our
being and they absolutely are in accordance, in connection with the
activity of the seven chakras.
Jim Harold 21:24
Do different stones, in essence, not play nice with other stones?
Do they counteract each other? Or is that a misnomer? Is that a
myth? Or they're like you have this one stone to help you
accomplish A, and you have this one to help you accomplish B, but
the combination don't work particularly well together?
Kathryn Hudson 21:47
Yeah, I love this question. In fact, I wanted to touch on it when
you said are there warnings? Because when you look at the internet,
boy oh boy, are there warnings, warnings all over the place. I've
got my New York accent there, warnings,
Jim Harold 21:59
The warnings.
Kathryn Hudson 22:00
Warnings. But anyway, there are warnings. And, "oh, you can't clear
it this way. And you can't put these two together." I would argue
that this is anthropomorphism. Yes, there are some humans that we
shouldn't put together. But stones come from the same--from a
different frequency, and they're in unity and harmony with the
earth and with each other. We may, that said, two things to note.
One is working with crystals, the most important thing about
working with crystals is being very clear in our intention. And so,
and the book is filled with the importance of intention, but also
different ways to work with them. So as long as our intention is
very clear, we will get from each stone what we need without them
having any cross interference, let's say. So yeah, it's a match.
It's a legend. And I would argue it is senseless to bring anything
fearful into any kind of energetic activity because energy seeks
equilibrium. And if we're in fear, we're going to, our emanation is
going to attract experiences that will confirm the fear, you kind
of get what you--what you're waiting to get. But yeah, so the
crystals get along very well. I would say, let yourself be guided
by intuition. You know, there are stones, and it could change from
day to day, I might feel, "oh, yeah, yeah, let's put them a little
bit at a distance today, or let's put them together," let yourself
be guided. But there are no hard and fast rules and there is
certainly no animosity between their energy. If you're going to
work with a stone that's really powerful, like an azurite, or an
obsidian, rainbow obsidian, and you have a heavy duty crystal that
amplifies, like, you know, it's important to be aware that certain
stones will amplify the impact. And so, you know, you could get
dizzy, you get maybe a little--a little nauseous. And the idea is
to also go along and reap the, from the experience that you have,
adjust what you're working with and how you're working with
them.
Jim Harold 24:22
Now, you gave us that great story about when you were working in a
bank in Manhattan in the 90s. And that experience, do you have any
other story? And you probably have many of them. But a story of
someone took these principles using the crystals in this way with
the angelic realm where it really in one way or another made a
major, major difference with them?
Kathryn Hudson 24:47
Yes. And it's one of--it's one of my earlier, earliest classes. I
had a woman come who was very unhappy, deeply, deeply, deeply
unhappy in her work. So she was basically working just to pay the
bills. But every day, she got out of bed and didn't want to get out
of bed, didn't want to go to work. And she came to the crystal
class kind of on a lark, she came kind of on a lark, she, you know,
we had met, she liked me well enough. And she said, "Well,
this--this will be interesting, a distraction," do something to
lighten up the burden that she was feeling that her life was at
that time. And when we were doing the work, what came out, we
worked with a Labradorite. And Labradorite is, I like to call it
the Merlin stone, although there are other stones called that. And
the reason is, there's this bright light within. And at first
glance, we might not see that light. But if we sit with the
Labradorite and we turn it around, we're going to get these flashes
of bright, brilliant light and color that's within. And, you know,
we were talking about the fact that so often our passing along, you
know, going through grade school, in high school and etc. Sometimes
our shine, our light does indeed get covered over, you know, so you
can't always see it. And we were talking about, you know, working
with that stone to find our joy, to rekindle the light and the
shine that's within. And this person who had come to the class and,
you know, she was listening very intently, taking notes,
didn't--didn't talk much. She did have, in the beginning, no
initial experience. But after the--it's and it was just two days,
but pretty intense. At the end, she was really feeling, and she was
like crying. And you know, it was obviously moving for her. Well,
she took--basically what everything that's in the book is what I
put in my class, it's so that people who can't come to Paris, for
example, where all my rocks are, can--can still do the learning.
She contacted me, I didn't hear from her for a while, you know,
this is how life goes on and people find their own ways. And then
she contacted me. And she had completely, completely transformed
her life. She was in fact, working with crystals. She--she had left
her day job completely. She was--she had spent a significant period
of time rendering deeper her connection with crystals, and had
started up her own business of working with crystals, sourcing
crystals, you know, sustainable sourcing from different places from
Africa, from all around France, from all around Europe. And this
was her path, and she was shining bright and a light at the end of
it. So she does both crystal healing but also the other side of it,
making crystals more accessible to people in the world. So I
mentioned the example that comes to mind when you posed this
question. A lot of my students have used crystal knowledge to
fortify healing that they're doing or therapy work that they're
doing for clients. But it's--it's Catherine, and her name is
Catherine also. Spelled differently, but it's Catherine that comes
to mind when you when you ask the question. So I think that
the--the takeaway is this, if you're attracted to crystals, even
mildly, even mildly curious, because a lot of people are not and
there are many paths, but if you are, and you're willing, crystals
can absolutely have a transformative impact on your path. Yeah.
Jim Harold 28:47
Well, it has been a fantastic discussion, we've been talking about
the book Discovering Your Crystal Family: Working with stones and
their angelic messengers. Our guest has been Kathryn Hudson.
Kathryn, I know you have a lot of books, you have more books coming
in the future, and this one of course, where can people get this
book, your other books and tap into everything you do?
Kathryn Hudson 29:10
Oh, thanks so much. So yeah, for my books, the ones that are out in
English are Inviting Angels into your Life and this, Discover your
Crystal Family. They're available on Amazon. They have been in
Barnes and Noble, but books don't always stay--stay on the shelves
there. So best thing to do is to take a look at the Inner
Traditions site, which is part of Simon and Schuster and they are
the publishers, or are on Amazon, my book, Discover your Soul
Mission. Your life purpose is coming out very soon. Just in a--in a
month or two, so that's--that--that's new and exciting. My website
is kathrynhudson.fr. Kathryn spelled weird. It's K A T H R Y N
Hudson like the river.fr because I live in France. And if you'd
like to check out what I get up to, I do a lot of distance work. I
also have been doing daily Angel messages one that I do one in
French and then I do one in English so if you hear the French look
a little bit further and you'll see it, and they're available on
Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
Jim Harold 30:17
Very good. Our guest has been Kathryn Hudson. The book is Discover
your Crystal Family: Working with stones and their angelic
messengers. Check it out. Kathryn, thank you once again for joining
us.
Kathryn Hudson 30:29
My pleasure. Thanks so much, Jim, for having me. And have a great
day.
Jim Harold 30:33
Thank you, and thank you for tuning in. We appreciate it, and we
will talk to you next time. Have a great week everybody. Bye
bye.