ancient amber for anxiety, depression, and empaths…
My first encounter with Amber was back in middle school. I had always been sensitive to the world and people around me, picking up on all the different energies and emotions. I slowly began to learn how to differentiate between my own emotions, and emotions that I was picking up empathically. But, although I was sometimes able to identify that the emotions I was feeling were not coming from myself personally, I still struggled with being able to remove those emotions and energies from myself.
I grew up in private schools, so the class sizes were small (mine was 18 including myself), and you spent ALL your time with your class, learning the different subjects. Unbeknownst to me, one of my class mates was struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts/ tendencies. Not much time passed before I started to feel and exhibit the same symptoms. Although Therapy helped me to process what I was feeling, it still felt as though I was chaotically being thrown back and forth, and that much of what I was feeling was not my own.
My Mother packed me up in the car and we drove down to a local crystal shop. “Get whatever feels right to you.” With those simple instructions, I set about staring at all the different crystals and jewelry the shop contained. Finally my eyes settled on a small silver bracelet, made up of links of silver-set-Amber. “That’s the one Mommy.”
“Ahh.” My mother replied. “Amber. Very healing”.
Amber is as old as the Dinosaurs, found between 30-320 million years ago! It’s actually made of fossilized tree-resin. Like the life-blood of trees, Amber is a powerful healer—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Spiritually, Amber helped me to block out the emotions and energies of those around me, allowing me to focus and feel only what was my own. To this day, I still use Amber to calm, soothe, and untangle myself during times when being an empath is a little bit *too much*.
My partner has undergone 3 major reconstructive hand surgeries (all preformed by the same Doctor, as well as being of the same type of surgery). For her 2nd, I had gifted her an Amber pendant of mine to wear while she recovered. I say I gifted it to her, where as, in reality, as I was packing an over night bag to bring with me, the pendant practically shouted at me to give it to her to wear while she recovered. She wore it every single day and night while she was recovering. When I asked her if she noticed any differences between the surgery she did have the Amber for, and the ones she did not, she said:
“I feel it helped with how foggy my brain was from all the drugs, and that my scars healed faster and with less issues of spreading. I also gained movement in my fingers and thumb faster, as well as the ability to straighten my entire hand.”
I have also recommended Amber to a friend of mine who has been struggling with depression from a young age. She explained that for her:
“ It’s a comforting stone for me. Eases emotional pain. Soothing. I wouldn’t say it refused my depression so much as made it easier to bear.”
Amber has also been used as a “travelers stone”, protecting those who are traveling.
One last important thing to note:
Although there are many different kinds of Amber, there is also a fair amount of fakes. There are a list of different ways to test if your Amber is real. Below are a few of my favorite ways, that don’t involve potentially harming your Amber:
Use a black light. Shining a black light on your Amber should cause it to appear to “glow”. A word of caution: I highly recommend performing at least 2 out of the 3 recommendations listed because it is possible to create fake Amber using black light reactive materials. But! No glow? No go.
Hold your Amber in your warm hand. Like I previously mentioned, Amber is fossilized tree resin. But! What’s key is how long it’s been fossilizing. If your amber becomes hazy or sticky/ tacky when held, I’m sorry my loves but your beautiful baby came out of the “tree-oven” too soon, and is therefore known as Copal. However! I bet she smells great!
Friction baby! Rub your Amber vigorously against some fabric to create static electricity. Then, hold it close to a clean dry strand of your hair. If your hair floats, follows, or is pulled towards your Amber piece, congratulations! You’ve got yourself some real Amber! I recommend doing this test 3 times if at first you don’t see any results. It’s a tiny reaction you are looking for and is easy to miss.
No matter where you are in your crystal journey, Amber is a gentle but powerful addition to any collection.
May your day be sprinkled with Star Dust,
~Bijan
