Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic

If you’re into crystals and metals for healing and manifestation, this book is an excellent resource. You can’t go wrong with any of Scott Cunningham’s titles.

okay, so yeah....the thing about the polished stones working better than raw material or crystals in their natural state, should be taken as the authers opinion. any educated person knows that in most books there are many things we disagree with, it doesnt mean they are bad books. not only that, but anyone who has studies crystal therapy or any other type of healing or even divination with crystals knows the form does not matter but rather the energy and how it is recieved, interpreted, and directed by the person utilizing it. i think this is a wonderful book and i have been practicing crystal therapy for nearly 8 years now. i was trained by a shaman and have regular patients i work with whose ailments run from HIV to migraines. while this book will not teach you about crystal therapy it will give you tons of folklore and correspondances for stones which anyone involved in wicca or witchcraft will find vital to creating their own spells and magick. i use this book in one of my lessons for my neophytes when they need to find the corresponding number, zodiac sign, element, magick type, and chemical composition (vital to know in crystal therapy) for a certain type of stone for a specific type of magick. i dont know what the other reviewers were expecting from this book, but if you can read a book and find only one thing you disagree with you need to re-read it, and if you can't find any other flaws consider it a treasure. we all know scott cunnigham is a wonderful author (goddess bless his spirit) and this book is no departure from that. the only thing i will say about this book that may stray from the positive is that the few colored pictures included aren't that great; they are either of specimens that are of museum and unobtainable quaility, or of specimens that are of very low grade and look almost nothing like what you would purchase. the pictures will give you a general guide to follow when looking to purchase stones, but there are much better pictoral guides such as the crystal bible or melody's books. this book is in no way a waste of money. i have led three covens and if i am willing to shell out money for this book for my students, trust me...it's a good book.

If you get only one book on gems/crystals/metals and thier magickal correspondences, buy this book! I refer to this book almost daily; it has a brief history of each stone alphabetically, their magickal uses/correspondences and even color pictures of the different stones. A very complete guide that is good for any magickal use, written in the wonderful style of Scott Cunningham.