Beyond Fortune-Telling: How a Crystal Ball Can Deepen Christian Meditation
A Simple Tool to Deepen Prayer, Focus, and Inner Stillness
Dear eclectics, seekers, Nones, and fusion faith friends,
The crystal ball is not just for our witchy friends—it’s a tool everyone can use, even contemplative Christians.
Why? Because Jesus spoke in metaphors and parables, using the tangible world to reveal spiritual truths. His teachings often worked like Zen koans, nudging us beyond logic into deeper awareness.
Sometimes, stepping outside our analytical minds is the only way to hear what’s stirring beneath the surface—our subconscious, our spirit, or even the universal unconscious.
A crystal ball can do just that. Like a doorway into the “the cloud of unknowing,” it shifts us from overthinking into deep contemplation, prayer, and presence. It’s not magic—it’s a focus tool that can elevate any devotional or meditative practice, including Christian contemplation.
Before I get a ton of comments from people saying, “But Deuteronomy 18:8 distinctly says…” Yes, I know. You’re welcome to follow all the Old Testament laws to the letter if you want, but it’s not for me, thanks.
I’m too busy enjoying a ham sandwich (Leviticus 11:7–8) or a cheeseburger (Exodus 23:19), getting a tattoo (Leviticus 19:28), and NOT executing my teenager (Deuteronomy 22:21) for having sex before marriage.
Crystal use is an ancient practice
The earliest examples of humans using quartz crystal are somewhere between 75,000 BCE and 105,000 BCE. Historically, crystal balls have been tools for religious purposes as well as traditional healing, fire-starting, cauterizing wounds, and for scrying. Clear quartz crystals come from the Earth, and yet seem otherworldly.
The product of ancient volcanos, they grow in darkness for millions of years, and were born long before humanity began. Holding one in your hand is to hold time itself. Look through one, and you’ll see your world reflected perfectly, yet backwards and upside down. Hold them one to the sun, and whatever remains in its beam of concentrated light may burst into flame.
When you place your attention on a crystal, your consciousness shifts in subtle ways. Plus, they’re damned gorgeous.
A winter day, long ago in Boston
A friend and I wandered into an antique shop on Tremont Street—the kind that feels straight out of Diagon Alley. Victorian-era tin ceilings soared overhead, dark wood paneling gleamed, and a curving staircase in the back led to God knows where. Glass cases held jewelry and trinkets spanning from Sumer to the present.
My friend tried on an Egyptian necklace of lapis lazuli and carnelian; the label noted it as cursed. “Do you think it’s dangerous?” she asked the ancient proprietress.
“Nonsense,” the old woman laughed, incredulous. “It’s just a necklace.”
Meanwhile, I was mesmerized by a rutilated quartz in the front window—softball-sized, laced with golden inclusions, glowing in the January light. I wanted it.
The price tag: $1200—fifteen years ago, a month's rent. I left it behind, casting a last, wistful glance as we walked past to catch the T.
I still think about it.
That quartz is millions of years old and will outlast us all, here until the sun burns out. No wonder these things are so hypnotic.
Is there a contemplative use for the crystal ball?
People generally approach the crystal ball with awe — for their sheer beauty — but also skepticism, and often outright dismissal.
Let’s take a moment now, however, to consider their potential for something real.
Discernment: Christians having trouble discerning God’s response to their questions and prayer can sometimes find answers in the images that arise in their mind while gazing into a crystal. The relaxing, mildly hypnotic effect of crystal gazing can open up communication with the divine.
Meditation: A crystal ball can serve as a focal point. Its stillness mirrors the stillness we seek inside ourselves. Within the crystal is clarity, calm, silence, peace. It is a window into the reality beyond our everyday world. It also reminds us that this peaceful state is natural — quartz makes up 20% of the Earth’s crust. Grounding oneself is easy when contemplating this vital building block of our home planet. This is why artists, writers, and those under stress often use crystals to clear mental clutter. Looking into the ball provides a moment to “pause the noise,” and allows inspiration to arise in clarity.
For the those in crisis: For Christians in a dark place where communing with the divine seems impossible, remember that you’re holding a crystal. Imagine for a moment it’s a radio crystal; place any prayers, intentions, or messages into it. Picture your message going out, boosted to the divine receiver. God is always close, always listening, but sometimes depression, fear and anxiety takes us to dark, subterranean prisons. This practice can help “get a message through” when we can’t cut through our own despair.
How-to for beginners
Before starting, set your intention. Not necessarily to see something outside of yourself, but to be fully present, centered, grounded.
Place the crystal ball in a quiet, undisturbed space, or hold it in your hands. Sit comfortably, breathe deeply, and let your gaze soften as it rests either on the surface of the sphere, to a point within it, or a space slightly beyond it.
Don’t strain to “see” anything; instead, focus your attention lightly on the ball. As with any meditative technique, bring your focus gently back to the ball whenever it strays.
As you gaze, bring your thoughts out of the daily grind, and focus on the many truths that run alongside our daily lives of which we are rarely aware. Place your prayers, and your questions inside the ball and release them — imagining them transmitting directly to the divine realm.
If using a clear quartz crystal, use its clarity to ask for clarity in return. Contemplate the crystal’s depth, weight, and prehistoric age; use it as a symbol of boundless, timeless wisdom. Ask, where do I need clarity? What is God trying to tell me? Who and what today needs healing?
Just remember that answers often come wordlessly — as feelings rather than phrases. The answer may rise up to you later, as well, so keep your mind and heart open.
End with gratitude. A simple prayer like, “Lord, thank You for Your presence in all things, and in me,” or “I am grateful for your love and wisdom,” grounds the practice and integrates it into your day.
If this calls to you, give it a try
If you have a crystal ball a shelf — a souvenir from a long-ago metaphysical shop jaunt — why not dust it off? If you find one in a shop that speaks to you (and is in your price range) take it home.
Years after the afternoon in Boston, I found my crystal ball. My husband and I were vacationing in Mendocino, California — a historic seaside town north of San Francisco.
We stopped in the gem and mineral shop. Of the wide selection of crystal balls, we opted for two small ones. Quarter-sized balls; easily used, they fit within a small velvet pouch, suspended from a satin cord. I often wear mine around my neck.
They’re our own personal symbols of the divine, and would mean next to nothing to others who see them. I wrote on the importance of not pushing our religion on others via obstreperous Christian-themed neckwear in a different essay —
When So Many Hateful People Wear Crosses, I Just Can’t
and
Freethinking and Christianish? Choose One of These Cross-Alternatives for Your Neck
We use our small crystals from Mendocino to remind us that God’s presence is everywhere—on the rocky California coast, at the center of the Earth, the infinity of space, or at home in the woods of New England.
Hello, Enthusiasts! I’m a writer specializing in world religions. With M.Div. in hand, I’ve spent the past couple of decades exploring Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, various schools of Pagan thought, Shinto, and Incan tradition.
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BTW, Here’s my Bookshop affiliate link to the 1905 seminal text on this subject: Crystal Gazing by Northcote Thomas.
Great article! Really thought-provoking and evocative of something like "pragmatic spiritualism", shall we say.