Reiki and crystals are paired because, in the practitioner's telling, they do the same job from two directions. Reiki is the flow: warmth moving from a trained pair of hands into the body. Crystals are the anchors: a stone on each chakra that holds an intention still while the flow passes through it. Put together, practitioners call it crystal Reiki, and they say a session with stones goes deeper and settles longer than one without. ✨
Below: the seven-stone layout used on the table, three other ways stones come into a session, a ten-minute home version, and the small kit to start with.
What Reiki is
Reiki is a Japanese laying-on-of-hands practice for relaxation and healing. The word joins rei, the higher power, and ki, life-force energy. The practice rests on the idea that this energy flows through everyone and can be topped up. The style most of us meet today began in March 1922, when Mikao Usui came down from Mount Kurama with the method he named Usui Reiki Ryoho.
A Reiki practitioner does not learn it from a book. The ability is passed on through an attunement from a Reiki master, then built with practice. In a session you stay clothed, lie down, and the practitioner rests their hands on or just above the head, chest, belly and limbs for a few minutes each. People describe warmth, tingling and a heavy, pleasant calm. Our guide to Reiki for stress covers what a first session is like.
Why practitioners pair Reiki with crystals 🔮
In crystal practice every stone holds a job: rose quartz for the heart, black tourmaline for a boundary, clear quartz to amplify. In Reiki, the hands supply the flow. Practitioners say a stone on the body gives the flow somewhere to go and something to hold onto once the hands move on. The heart stone stays on the heart for the whole session; the hands visit it for four minutes. That is the synergy: the crystal keeps the intention in place, and the Reiki keeps it moving.
There is a second reason, and it is practical. A stone shows the practitioner where to work. Set out seven stones from feet to crown and you have a map of the session on the client's body, and clients often say they can feel which stone is "the warm one" before the hands arrive.
Can any of this be measured? People have tried, and the instruments came back quiet. The practitioner with her hands over a rose quartz and a client who has stopped clenching his jaw has a different instrument, and so does every Reiki lineage since Usui. We stand with them.
Seven stones, seven places: the crystal Reiki layout 🌈
The classic crystal Reiki session lays one stone on each of the seven chakras, matched by colour, and then gives Reiki over each in turn from the feet up. Most practitioners set the root stone first, so the session starts grounded, and finish at the crown.
The stones are the ones you would expect. Red jasper, an opaque, hard-wearing quartz, or hematite, which is iron oxide with a red streak under its grey shine, goes at the root. Carnelian at the sacral, citrine at the solar plexus, rose quartz at the heart, sodalite or blue howlite at the throat, amethyst on the forehead, and a clear quartz point just above the head with the tip turned outward.
A packaged chakra stones set gives you seven small tumbles, one per chakra, for less than the price of a coffee and a scone.
Once the stones are placed, the session runs the way a plain Reiki session does: hands on or just above each stone for three or four minutes, moving upward. Practitioners describe the stone warming under their palms, and the client's breath slowing at the heart. If one chakra is the reason the client came in, they spend longer there. Best crystals for each chakra gives alternatives for every position, and crystal layouts for chakra balancing has seven layouts if you want more than a straight line.
Three more ways crystals come into a Reiki session
A grid under the table
Some practitioners set a crystal grid on the floor beneath the treatment table or at the four corners of the room. A clear quartz sits at the centre. Around it go the stones for the session's intention: amethyst for calm, black tourmaline for protection, rose quartz for grief. Reiki is given into the grid before the client arrives. The idea is a settled field to lie down in, so the room is already doing part of the work.
A selenite wand to clear
Selenite is the clearing stone of crystal practice, and it takes its name from the Greek for moon, for its pearly shine. Practitioners hold a selenite tower or wand a hand's width above the body and comb it slowly from head to feet at the start of a session, and again at the end, to sweep the field clear. A 16 cm selenite tower is the right size for the hand, and between sessions the seven chakra stones can rest against it overnight to clear too.
A stone charged with Reiki to take home
The part clients love most. The practitioner holds a clear quartz between both palms, gives it Reiki for a few minutes and sets the client's intention into it, then hands it over. The client keeps it in a pocket, under a pillow or on the desk, and holds it when the day wobbles. It is a piece of the session that goes home. A rough clear quartz piece is the usual choice because in crystal practice clear quartz takes any intention; our clear quartz guide explains why.
A ten-minute crystal Reiki session at home 🌙
You do not need an attunement to borrow the shape of a session. Reiki practitioners give themselves Reiki daily, and the version below is what many of them teach clients to do between visits. If you have been attuned, give Reiki as you would; if you have not, let your hands rest warm and let the stone do the holding.
- Set the room. Lower the lights. If you like scent, light a stick of Reiki energy incense and let it burn away from curtains and out of reach of children and pets.
- Lie down with two stones. Rose quartz on the centre of the chest, amethyst on the forehead. If you own the chakra set, lay all seven.
- Hands on the heart stone. Rest both palms over the rose quartz. Breathe in for four, out for six, for three minutes. Notice when the stone stops feeling cold.
- Hands on the belly. Move both palms below the navel for three minutes. This is where practitioners say most of us hold the week.
- Hands over the forehead. Hover, do not press, for two minutes. Let the amethyst do the last of the settling.
- Close. Take the stones off from crown to root, hold the rose quartz in your fist for ten slow breaths, and say what you want the day to be. Put the stones on the selenite tower until tomorrow.
Ten minutes, most mornings, is what practitioners recommend rather than an hour once a month. For a longer seated version, crystal meditation for beginners is the next step, and top crystals for Reiki meditation ranks the stones for it. If a session brings up old patterns, crystals for Reiki karmic release is the companion piece.
Choosing a crystal Reiki kit ☀️
Start with the stones you will lay on the body, then add the clearing stone, then the take-home piece. Prices are from our listings in September 2026.
- Under NZ$20: the chakra stones set (NZ$11.99) covers all seven positions on its own. A rose quartz heart in a pouch (NZ$15.99) is the heart stone most people end up buying separately because it is the one they hold. A natural amethyst tumble (NZ$9.99) sits on the forehead, and a rough clear quartz piece (NZ$6.99) is the take-home stone. Reiki energy incense is NZ$4.90 a pack.
- NZ$20 to NZ$35: the 16 cm selenite tower (NZ$35) for combing and clearing. A hematite point pendant (NZ$20) is the root stone you can wear out of the room. A black tourmaline bead bracelet (from NZ$27) is what practitioners wear on the wrist while they work.
Loose stones for any position are in the tumbled crystals collection and the calming and grounding collection, and on the counter at Rivendell in Westfield Manukau, where you can hold a heart stone before you choose it.
Caring for the kit
Keep selenite dry. It is soft enough to scratch with a fingernail and dissolves in water, so dust it with a soft brush, never rinse it, and keep it away from heat. The quartz-family stones are easy: rose quartz, amethyst, citrine, jasper and clear quartz all take warm soapy water and a soft cloth, dried after. Skip steam and sudden heat for tourmaline and amethyst alike.
Two stones dislike the windowsill. Amethyst and citrine can fade with long hours of strong sun, so charge them in moonlight or on the selenite instead. Hematite is tough but brittle, so keep it in its own pouch. Cleansing between sessions is in how to cleanse and charge your crystals; hematite meaning and care has the rest on the root stone.
Reiki and crystals: your questions
Which crystals are best for Reiki?
The seven chakra stones first: red jasper or hematite, carnelian, citrine, rose quartz, sodalite, amethyst and clear quartz. Then selenite to clear, and black tourmaline for the practitioner's own wrist. If you only buy three, practitioners say rose quartz, amethyst and clear quartz cover the heart, the head and the take-home stone.
Where do you place crystals during a Reiki session?
One on each chakra, from the feet up. The root stone goes between the feet or at the hips, the sacral stone a hand's width below the navel, and the solar plexus stone on the upper belly. The heart stone sits at the centre of the chest, the throat stone at its base, and the third eye stone on the forehead. The crown stone rests just above the head with its point turned outward. The stones stay in place while the hands move.
Can Reiki charge crystals?
Yes, and it is one of the nicest parts of the practice. Hold the stone between both palms, give it Reiki for a few minutes and set the intention out loud. Practitioners charge the chakra set before a session and charge a clear quartz for the client to take home. Clear the stone on selenite first so it is holding only the intention you gave it.
Do I need to be attuned to use crystals with Reiki?
To give Reiki, yes: it is passed on through an attunement from a Reiki master. To use the layout, no. Lay the stones, rest your hands and breathe, and you have the shape of a session. Many people do the ten-minute home version for months before they book a Reiki I class, and the stones come with them.
What does crystal Reiki feel like?
Warmth under the hands, often at the heart first. Clients describe the stone on the chest warming, a heaviness in the limbs, and a slowing of the breath that arrives without effort. Some feel a tingle at the crown; many fall asleep. Practitioners say the calm lasts longer when stones were used, and they send you home with one so it keeps going.
Where to start
One heart stone, ten minutes, most mornings. 💎 If you have never had a session, book one and ask the practitioner to use stones; take the rose quartz heart with you. If you already have a practice, the chakra stones set and a selenite tower are the whole layout for the price of a takeaway dinner. Whichever way you begin, the stones hold what the hands started.
Sources
What Reiki is, the meaning of rei and ki, Mikao Usui's 1922 beginning on Mount Kurama and the attunement are from the International Center for Reiki Training. Gypsum and selenite's hardness, water solubility and name, hematite's composition and toughness, and jasper's make-up are from the International Gem Society.
Rose quartz, amethyst, tourmaline and citrine care and light-fading are from the Gemological Institute of America. Which stone goes on which chakra, the grid, the wand and charging a stone with Reiki are Reiki and crystal tradition and practitioners' experience. Prices and stock were read from Rivendell's live listings in September 2026.