Prepare
yourselves, this time it is getting real thick.
It
was glooming over me the feeling I couldn’t possibly cover the experience of
life perfectly with my gems, but I decided to take the dare. I’ve decided to
identify all influential elements of the mindscapes I experience, even if
they’re subtle, unseen or even imagined.
It’s
important for me to know them all very clearly, so if it was feeling
overabundant before, this time its numbers skyrocketed (and I am just going
straight to fifth version because of that). They’re all getting to really big
number. But I am not annoyed by that, because at least it’s working, and for
that I am willing to sacrifice the simple and concise effort. I know even the
notion of crests is getting confused and might be in conflict with some
choices, but I’m enjoying the risk, I don’t even mind if it reaches up to one
hundred. I could name all 151 pokemon, why can’t I know by heart these things
that are basically the tastes of mine? Anyway, I first need to have something
before doing the correction or simplification. Also there’s one very positive
feedback about this that I feel I’m tasting life more thoroughly as I’m trying
to broad my spectrum of experiences and increasing my sensitivity as I try to
identify, separate and classify all these tastes.
So
here we go!
One
of the most important things of this version is that this time I wasn’t just
adding new gems, but I’ve made an accommodation to some loose stones that have
been making me uncomfortable. It was the sunstone, moonstone and similar of
kind. I had them called setting stones but I was taking them individually, so I’m
going for a change and tight them by calling them all Weatherstones. It’s how I
am going to analyze the condition of the surrounding climate. I’m still using
their names like before because it sounds cool. Is it daytime? Daystone!
Nighttime? Nightstone! Is there a moon hovering out there? Moonstone! Out on a
windy mountain? Windstone, and probably sunstone as usually that ball of fire
feels closer up there. Fogstone, snowstone. Whatever you want, there you have
it. Season Beryls are similar but they’ll stay there untouched, and they can
often be used along with weatherstones, like late summer/early autumn air and
windstone.
And
now I’ve just mentioned a mountain, there’s this other gem called Chrysoprase
that is going to relate to the landscape and overall geographical conditions.
Prairies, mountains, valleys, cliffs and caves. Open fields and broken
terrains. This ground here, made of earth, sand and rock. It is supposed to be
related with Chrysoberyls as the elements that encompass the landscape and
atmosphere. Chrysoberyls end up being more about the air and perception of
distance, proportion and weight, which makes it very close to the Chrysoprase,
like a distant mountain and all this air in-between, and all the space between
me on the top of this cliff and the ground way down below, with huge rocks now
looking so tiny.
There’s
one gem to represent water, and it’s called Turquoise. It’s weird to select a
whole gemstone for an element like this, but it seems to work. And it’s much
more effective I could ever expect. Apparently water is so important to us that
its mere presence plays with us. So if there’s a lake, pond, river, waterfall
or even an artificial source of water, it will do something to the ambient,
probably because of this feeling of peace (maybe the survival instinct being
relaxed). Also it’s something related to taking a bath, as for instance that
awesome feeling of going under the cold shower after a hot day of sweating , or
taking a shower before going out, and the difference between that and going out
unshowered.
So,
if there’s water, there must be fire. Agate would represent a rarer presence of
fire in my life. It’s the glowing heat and crackling sounds of a bonfire.
Depending on the circumstances, having a fire or oven lit nearby for us to warm
ourselves can be a great feeling, enough to become a gemstone. Strangely, Agate
is closer to Amber than Turquoise, the later being closer to Topaz. Um, and
there’s this influence that oven smoke has on me, I think it can be around here
because there’s no smoke without fire, right?
Bonfire
and hippie lifestyle has a gem of its own. I’m choosing Nephrite just because. It’s the laidback kind of
people much common around college grounds. Not something I go along really
well, but it had its influence to me. Nephrite encompasses the handmade
artifacts and anti-industrial attitude. Also classic rock, weed, psychedelic
art, weed, hallucinations, gnomes and mushrooms. They’re so into weed it’s
annoying. There’s something else to it, which could be another gem itself, but
for now I’ll leave that sort of esotericism in here.
Festivals
and other big events now finally have a gem of their own. And it’s one of these
very rare and very fitting names: Carnelian. It can even be used for holidays
like Christmas (and represent that time of the year). It’s there for weddings
and graduations, so it’s intimate with Ruby (it branched off from there, to be
honest). It can have ethnical topics, and so it can be mixed with Copper, as for
instance German or Japanese festivals or even about our own culture (my
favorite one being this one being translated as St. John’s Eve, and it’s a
malachite-celebration type of festival). It can be an imagetic gemstone
(usually followed by moonstone) but also is something that remains influential
in the air, like an unseen element: the anticipation for the party or event next
week or tomorrow already. I’m so excited/nervous/upset! Can you feel the
amethyst in the air? This will be the chance to invite her for a dance!
And
like nephrite and carnelian, there’s something else I don’t enjoy that much but
it has its own nice flavor once in a while. Ilite represents the drinks,
especially alcoholic. And it can also be the enthralling attraction of drugs
for those who fall for that lure. It’s naturally related to ruby and carnelian,
but they’re not always together, such as Christmas. New Year’s Eve has
champagne, so it’s carnelian with ilite, you see. I also have memories of ilite
with amethysts when I was taking courage to talk to that girl. Ilite is in that
feeling in your stomach when you’re getting home almost at dawn. Also, as there
can be wine, which can be more romantic, and so it’s more amethyst with amber
and topaz or sapphire and aventurine as you’re camping with friends next to the
lake by the fire and sounds of crickets rather than the usual rubian-carnelian
craze.
Following
drinks, there must be food! No, it’s not really far-fetched. The smell of food
does wonders to my brains, so it’s effective just like Turquoise. I’ve chosen
Bohmite because it probably reminds me of “bohemian” and also there’s something
that reminds me of Vikings somehow and it makes me think of a greasy boar steak
(I was affected by reading too much Asterix as a child). Vegetables are more
like olivine, while sugary things feel more like…
Alunite.
This one is another dissidence of Amethyst (Pearl being the first one, though they’re all
in fact fractalizations of Áine). So I realized that my taste for delicate
things wasn’t always or even mostly related only to the feminine, though it’s a
natural bond. Alunite is more likely my own feminine side. Cute little puppies,
silk touch and pastel tonality; koji kondo’s songs, pantyhose and cute female
footwear, jasmine scents, soft breeze at twilight, colorful sweeties and
candies. It has to do with the suave and smooth, the innocent cheerfulness
Nintendo always place their bet on. It’s for what is gentle to my senses. This
way, amethyst can be more about the romantic relation between man and woman, that is, the romantic effect women have on me as man (as it's in my heterosexual point of view, so if one
desires it can be man and man or woman and woman or some genderfuck
combinations, you go with what you like).
There’s
this taste of mine for trips, roads, travels. Tourmaline is about the
landscapes, cities, the sights and road signs, the asphalt and the awful smell
of burning brakes of trucks. So it goes along with zircon and chrysoprase,
chrysoberyl, howlite, peridot and even other unidentified elements: even
bohmite when you have to eat in those unsavory restaurants. As it can represent
the process of being in movement, it can be in minor scales like daily
commuting. One important aspect of tourmaline is that there’s always something
on the other side of the road (usually carnelian and it makes me wish the trip
could go on longer). It’s also in interstate bus stations, airports and
sometimes is followed by the feeling of endings and departures, and that can be
a more heart-breaking, tear-inducing feeling when you’re with watery eyes
watching the world pass by outside the window.
When
traveling through the country we meet several new places, and the aura of small
cities is something very particular. I’m calling it Zeolite. It has been a
subtype of Zircon so far, but now it seems better if it’s fractalized. Zeolite
represents a feeling of melancholy, but it can also be nostalgia (so that’s
more personal). These cities feel like they were lost in time, so it’s very
well connected with cobalt. It can be disturbing too, as if the abandonment of
the place will get to me and hold me there. Along with cloudstone it creates an
effect that is also mixed with tourmaline so I don’t know if it’s a diorama or
what. Anyway, in the process so far there’s Peridot, Malachite, Zeolite and
Zircon, and the process of urbanization seems more covered.
The
presence of animals is going to be called Feldspar. It ends up being more
easily associated with malachite and zeolite environments than zircon. Feldspar
stinks, and people who’ve been in farms know that very well, how pigs, horses,
cows and chickens shit just all over the place, mind your steps there. We’re
more used to pets so feldspar is in this feeling of tame friendliness.
Feldspar, on the other hand, can be related to the wilderness, therefore a
rather uncomfortable feeling when you’re all alone out in the woods. Feldspar
can also, understandably, be related to beasts and monsters as you imagine a
motherfucking tiger or bear roaming around your terrain during the night, so in
legends and scary stories it’s also present. It’s also curiously close to Opal
in their feeling of rawness and brutality, the opened guts and smell of decay
in their breath. Feldspar and Peridots also make for an interesting combination,
which makes me think of a cute rustic house with raw-looking wood and fur (and
agate/amber combination plus olivine for this presence of herbs and plants),
and having a bear or a white wolf for a pet (because I wish I was a badass
Scandinavian hermit).
And
now there’s this gem that made me quite intrigued as I never realized its
peculiar power. I’m calling it Marble and it’s the feeling of death and
mortality, though not a scourging one. It’s sad and melancholic, and there’s some
curious tint of religiosity to it too, especially churches, just riddled with
the feeling of marble. It’s close to garnet, as of eeriness, but can also be
something more smooth and neutral. It can be quiet, mysterious and still
disturbing, pretty much like death itself. Spooky stories about ghosts and
spirits have this aura of marble to them (and was when listening to people
telling those stories I crafted this gemstone). Zeolite has connections with
Marble, because of small cities seem to have more religious people. Zeolite, Marble
and Opal pretty much describe Silent Hill for me. Also worth mentioning,
there’s a bond between Opal, Garnet and Marble. Opal is the untamed, raw and
savage, marble is silent and garnet is moody and quite theatrical. There’s
probably more gems to come from there, but I can’t tell about that now. I can
tell, though, that I’m having one hell of fun comparing these three feelings.
Maybe
this next one will have something to do with the Garnet/Opal/Marble trio, but
as for now I haven’t recognized any relevant similarity. Jade is about the
mystical and dream-like things, maybe hallucinations. Something about the
surreal, and also poetic, so there could be something of Nephrite and Lazulite
coming to it. Fairy tales have something of jade to them, with a slice of
alunite enchantment. So not the opal-riddled Grimm’s tales. Hey, why not?
Taking
a different turn now, I was feeling a need to explain the feeling of indoors
ambience, and I’ll stay with Zinc. Most frequently it’s home, but it can also
be in other atmospheres. I usually think of academic or office rooms (with some
90’s cobalt to it). As for the houses, it follows the sense of place similar to
zircon, as each place seems to have an identity, smell and, why not, a character
of its own. Also, one of the usual aspects of zinc is how it depends a lot on
what’s outside. Sunstone? Rainstone? Is there an open field or a wall if you
stare out of your window?
And
now we’re back inside, let’s look at this gem that represents, primarily, the
cyberworld. I’m calling it Lignite, and it’s sort of a fractal of onyx. It’s
about all sites and web celebrities, all news and attractions it can offer, all
shows and vlogs and blogs and forum threads and podcasts, memes, movies, games,
books and series and overall onyx-related material we can find and learn from
there. And also people we meet there, we feel closer to the world, closer to
where it’s important to be. I think it’s because of this that we miss it the
most when we’re out of connection, it’s being no longer in touch with the rest
of the world (we linger around facebook because of emerald/sapphire?). It’s a
feeling I have connected with zircon, and lignite itself feels like a super
zircon or something that’s just above the urban scale. More peripherally, it
represents all gadgets, consoles and shiny letters and screens.
Light
has been present in so many of the other gems, like golden zircon, lazulite,
obsidian, topaz, howlite and even aventurine and now lignite too. Like
turquoise for water, Iolite is for lights as I wanted to refer specifically to
these enchanting lights but Lazulite had it most covered and yet it didn’t feel
right, so here it goes named Iolite and I feel quite free now. So it can be
light in simply illumination, but also the dots of lights and the shiny
effects. And here we go, Iolite seems to be present in this urbanization
process. Apparently electric lights make us feel comfortable, for some reason.
The more lights we see the more in contact with civilization we feel (are these
streetlights? I’m starting to feel safe). Being so scarily influential, maybe I
should try using restraint on iolite to see what happens, but how can I?
They’re enchanting us with iolite all the time!
This
notion of light and technology reminds me of another gem. Basalt is about the
technological advances. It’s felt in the engineering resolves and prowess of
each civilization. Basalt can be felt in torch-lit walls of african huts, brass
armor and shield of greek warriors, the stone fountains of the roman empire.
It’s in leather straps and fur clothing of Viking raiders, in dark and mossy
stone walls of medieval period, along with bull carts and smoke and flies. And
then gunpowder, steam and iron of following age of exploration (curiously
meeting again with the early tribal basalt in the new continents). Also in the
industrial revolution and engines from late 19th century and early
20th century and world war two uniforms, jeeps and airplanes, and
cold war space shuttles and air fighters. As it approaches our current
technology it becomes more like lignite, (though basalt can go futuristic too,
though not cobalt-riddled predictions like 60’s or 70’s visions of the future).
Basalt is made to be used along with copper, so it can deal better with matters
copper couldn’t resolve effectively (in fact, what took me so long to realize
it could be a thing I would now call basalt?).
And
the last one before some experimental gems, I’ll talk about Copal so it will
close with the weatherstones from the beginning. Copal is for the short
perception of time. I’ve chosen it because I remember an early mindscape post I’ve
talked about the effect the days of the week have on us, like a Saturday
morning or a Tuesday noon. It affects our mood. It affects indirectly all
mindscapes, it’s the primordial unseen element. Copal can be for both the
feeling of day, week and month. The copal that indicates daytime and the
Daystone are very similar too, but they have different purposes as Copal is
more about our human and social measure of time, while wheaterstone are more
natural periods (there’s a difference between sunset in itself and its meaning
as the ending of working hours). And Copal gets mixed with season beryls and
carnelian too (though hemispheres do distort it, so we will never get a
snowstone christmas). Copal starts being more like Cobalt around the notion of
year, which is a heavier notion of time like… realizing 2008 was half a decade
ago.
Now,
this one is highly experimental. Crystal
is about things that are mine. In fact, all gems are things that are mine, so
that’s what’s weird about it, but this is basically scattered pieces of
memories and forgotten tastes, and the important thing: things that are mine,
and not something related to Spy mindscapes and crests. I feel Crystals with pieces
of memory that usually give me a good feeling when retrieved, like seeing an
old toy I used to play with as a kid (and also the times of my life when I used
to be obsessed with other things like learning other languages or
unsuccessfully trying to master some line of knowledge). But you see, it’s not
conflicting with other gems as Crystals
don’t act like usual external, imagetic gemstones. Crystals are more like quartzes and diamonds.
Also, they feel quite important for trances as they seem to help me with my soul-reaching
attempts. It’s also because of crystals that when after the day of work I open
up my playlist and start thinking my thoughts freely that I seem to go back to
my world and can engage in trance-mode.
But,
pff, Crystals
is nothing compared to how complicated and delicate the next topic is. I call
them Craft Gems. They came from Howlite and the way feeling the howlite I was
feeling inspired for music, so it was very fortunate to spread it to other
areas. As a gem in relation to crests and trances, it usually followed the
notion of being related to my tastes and being in touch with them usually made
me feel inspired. As it’s about activities I’m afraid it could go for every
little thing, and that’s something I am not really willing to let happen. I’m
going too far in here, too far from where the quintessential rope can take me
safely. So I will stay with five of them (howlite being done already), and see
how they will turn out to be.
For
images I could feel the shapes and proportion and perspective and analyzing
vertices and seeing the nice effect of lines and colors and values and hues and
playing with each item of the list of mental modeling, and being inspired by
absorbing others’ art. This one is Hessonite. For writing it’s that nice
feeling of finding words to describe some thalassic thoughts. It’s the joy I
feel when I can express myself with words to an acute accuracy or finding a name
for things or creating them myself, or when I am reading something and I think
“wow, you can express yourself like that”. This is the reason I like English,
because we are encouraged to bent the combination of them words in these
exquisite manners for them to sound so appealing and, oh yes, this one is
Helvite. For my thoughts, it’s about introspection and the nice feeling of
seeing patterns and learning, thinking and finding solutions for problems. It’s
the joy of connecting things and making streams and this is really abstract and
for that I call Hiddenite. For the stories I am usually thinking about and I
need to focus somehow, I’ll call Herderite. It’s usually when I create an
interesting plot thread in my mind, or when I see some event that can be a
story structure, and it’s when I feel I’m doing the fictionalization. Reading
historical events usually is a way Herderite is triggered. These craft gems are
related to the concept of Zephyr Winds, judging by that feeling of opened
horizons that goes like “wow, I never thought this was possible”, and I love
how those moments blow my mind. So these are the five craft gems I am going to
experiment with and see if they will increase performance or something.
Aaaand that's about it for now. Twenty-three new gems and that's over fifty so far. I'm really positively exhausted to know precisely but I'm proud of what I've got here. I think the choice of names isn't bad for most of them and eve then eventually I got used to them and... I'm feeling more prepared to understand those mindscapes happening to me, and I will keep hunting down all these gem-defying events, as I've got some down already with this fifth version. But for more I'll have to wait for the next version.
