Shelikes, what a great thread and read. I'm *really* going to have to bring home a tiny natural diamond or two! As you said somewhere, concentrated carbon packs quite a punch. I'm glad you brought the Herkimers into this. Herkimers are extra-hard quartz, not diamonds at all. I've had two crystal-clear, small Herks for years now. They amplify the energy of other stones, but do work of their own as well. Small Herks are plenty! I brought home two larger Herks from the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show two years ago, a highly unusual smoky, and a double-terminated smoky citrine. Most natural Herks sparkle, shine and flash so many rainbows, why would anybody want a diamond?!
It came to share this regarding diamonds--I worked with my sister's jewelry to make their aquaintance--consider using a heart stone like rose quartz along with the diamond. Years before stones came back into my life, I learned to always run everything through my heart first. The means actually *is* the end. The discordant separation game we play is not possible when the heart is consulted in all matters. To the heart there is no separation; only by bypassing the heart can we mistreat ourselves and others.
In the case of diamonds, we meet a superlative presence ready to join with us in amplifying and focusing everything about us. A diamond is completely committed. If one has cleared internal discord, a diamond alone would be wonderful. For the rest of us, a heart stone can sit quietly with us to *show our intent to the stones with our actions*. Then, even when our thoughts and feelings waver, even with our hidden agendas and drama we have yet to release, the stones see our intention clearly. This frees them to mitigate our unintentional mischief, so we can focus on, in this case, getting to know diamonds.
Some heart stones are: rose quartz, emerald (perhaps opaque for this use), rhodonite, rhodochrosite, ajoite, jade, aventurine, pink and green calcite, watermelon, green and pink tourmaline, petalite. But most of all, any stone that we feel warm and loving looking at and holding. Snow quartz (quarzite) and all kinds of quartz crystals and common rocks come to mind for me here. Now to look for some diamonds...
