Ibis Jasper

Welcome to our very first Wisdom Circle blog entry. How exciting! Here is a little background. I have been teaching crystal classes locally  since 2013, and from these classes a wonderful group has evolved.  We meet in circle about once a month, and share our experiences with whatever crystal has come on the radar for us to work with and offer our combined experiences as a group after working with a specific crystal or mineral daily for at least a month.  It is quite a magical gathering of kindred spirits, and the depth of information that arises is amazing. From this we get a great picture of how each particular crystal is interacting and assisting with the current conditions in our lives and on the planet, and previously undiscovered gifts and properties have the opportunity to come forth and be known. I am  honored and grateful to share the wisdom of our circle through this blog. Thank you for joining us!

IBIS JASPER

You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold.  That is how important you are.--Eckhart Tolle

This quote carries a powerful message that Ibis Jasper has really driven home for me. I am happy and grateful to be sharing the properties of this wonderful new stone with you in this very first newsletter.

Our wisdom circle met in April and we had a enlightening and soulful sharing of our experiences with Ibis Jasper.  It has been a while since we have met as a group, and this was our first actual Crystal Wisdom Circle, a new format for our meetings. To say it was a successful gathering is a huge understatement.  Magical and beautiful comes much closer to describing the experience.

I just love how geology and metaphysical properties mirror each other when it comes to exploring the gifts of the mineral kingdom, and Ibis Jasper does not disappoint!  So here is a little background about this crystal.  Ibis Jasper is a new stone from Madagascar. It is a specific type of jasper called brecciated jasper. Brecciated jasper is jasper that has been broken up into fragments by earth movement or water and then glued back together by nature with another mineral. In the case of Ibis Jasper, this mineral is quartz, in a variety of forms.  So the basic properties of Ibis Jasper are grounding and nurturing, as are all jaspers, and replacing overwhelm and chaos with a sense of order, calm and tranquility--which are characteristics of all brecciated jaspers. And more. So much more.

Ibis Jasper helps to teach us that every single piece is absolutely essential to the whole. And that when our lives are in seemingly complete disarray and chaos, and as we begin to pick up the pieces to put things back together in a coherent way, that Divine order has other ideas about how those pieces shall now fit together. It all comes together in perfect timing if we just allow that Divinity to seep into us and fill all our cracks and "broken" places. When we allow this, the most amazing things start to happen. Guided by the hand of grace, things we could not even dream of come together in a magical way to build a whole new life.  You realize that you have been "broken just right". And now you have the opportunity to to embrace all those fragmented and wounded parts of yourself and be the person you are truly meant to be.

When our circle met up, it was astonishing how the common themes of experience with Ibis Jasper merged into a coherent whole.  We ALL reported very vivid and unusual dreams, with excellent dream recall.  We also experienced "fragments" (this word came up a lot) of memories coming up, sometimes in the form of flash backs. Brief, vivid, yet surprisingly gentle. Ibis Jasper encourages gentle integration of these memories and follows that with support and a sense of peaceful order.

Each one of us was dealing with a major transition in our life, and more than half of the group was currently displaced from their homes for various reasons!  Ibis Jasper carries a strong theme of unity, community, and group cohesiveness.  Who could have imagined this situation coming up in this timing? As we came together with a shared bond we were not even aware of, the magic of Ibis Jasper and Divine unity wove its way through each of us as we passed the talking stick and shared our insights. With each round we came deeper and deeper into coherence and wholeness as a group.  There was a wonderful feeling of rightness in our difficulties.  An acceptance of Divine order with faith and optimism for the path to unfold. We also had the recognition that every person present in our group was essential to each of our own personal healing along this path.  These are the gifts of Ibis Jasper. Every one of us was broken just right, in this time, and in this place, right now. And we came together in perfection. Right time, right place, right people. 

How cute is this?!

As we were sharing, we noticed that Ibis Jasper loves to play with words and double entendre.  Ibis Jasper has holes, eyes, animals and faces all over the place. Every piece is packed with images. It uses word play and imagery to convey concepts that are not easily described. Word combinations that consistently showed up were Eye/I, know things/no thing, whole/hole, seems/seams. It also has an incredible knack for helping you to realize what you are by showing you what you are not. Notice how those pairs of words are dual. Hmmmmmm.  Are we really broken? Can we really be lost when we are all part of one Divine whole? Let's face it, we do have to be "lost" before we can experience the grace of being found, right? When someone asks "Where does the dark go when you turn on the light?" you can't exactly explain it, but you can realize that darkness is absence of light. But---you cannot realize that until you see the light after experiencing the darkness! Again, showing you what you are not so you can realize what you are, beyond definition and duality.

Other coolness--at  exactly the same time Ibis Jasper came into her life, one of our wisdom circle members started connecting with a guide to the akashic records and having profound experiences in that realm.  Ibis Jasper is known for accessing ancient wisdom, akashic records, and providing support for working with past lives.

For my part, I had been spending a lot of time at a beautiful place near my home called Chinsegut Hill at precisely the same time I started working with Ibis Jasper. Chinsegut is pronounced Chin-SEE-gut. As I walked the property, I kept hearing Amazing Grace playing in my head. The phrase "I once was lost, but now am found" kept repeating over and over. Chinsegut is an Inuit word that means "the spirit of things lost and regained". 

The Manor at Chinsegut Hill

 I was also studying the art of Kintsugi (pronounced Kint-SOO-jee, a Japanese technique of repairing broken items with gold along the seams) to repair a very special crystal. I had been recovering from a long illness, and was feeling quite broken and more than a little lost.  Spending time at this peaceful place and contemplating repairing this crystal was sweet balm to my soul.  I had already ordered Ibis Jasper for our first wisdom circle.  It seemed perfect, as the Ibis is associated with the Egyptian god Toth, god of wisdom (Ibis Jasper is from Madagascar, and the Madagascan Ibis shares the same colors--brown,beige, and blue). All these themes--brokenness, things lost and regained, and the deep wisdom of honoring that brokenness as a valuable part of my personal history came together in a very healing way for me as I was working with Ibis Jasper. To top it all off, I was inexplicably drawn to watch the movie Hugo again. A line from the theme song, which is in in French, translates "Everything broken is made new again".  OOOOOOkaaaaayyy.  Just in case I missed it as it went by!  Ibis Jasper likes words, but certainly  not limited by language. Part of the theme of unity our group was experiencing..

The clear quartz and chalcedony that fills up the cracks in a piece of Ibis jasper is like the Divine glue, the common ground, that unifies us all in one big beautiful tapestry. The more broken we are the more space there is for Divinity to enter and fill our cracks to heal our perceived brokenness. We begin to get a glimpse of our true beauty, exactly the way we are. Our first Wisdom Circle, with Ibis Jasper-- stone of ancient wisdom-- was held at Chinsegut Hill. What a great beginning!