Magic? Of Quartz!

crystals in a quartz stone found northwest of town

Many Nazareth people know at least the name Black Rock for the woods at the end of the Borough Park. Some have probably noticed the black rock it was named for, both under the stream and along Black Rock Road. Fewer will know that at one time people intended to grind the black rock--slate--into powder and start an industry there producing black mineral pigment.

But only people who are really paying attention notice that as you walk further back into the woods, the black rock stops and various-sized white rocks become more common. From the back half of Black Rock and on up the hill to the Indian Tower and Levis Road, white quartz is the predominant kind of loose stone, from medium-sized boulders to small pebbles, and in a small percentage of that quartz, there are tiny clear crystals, crystals of Nazareth quartz.

Silicon, the main element in quartz, is the second most common element on earth and some think it has spiritual qualities. Metaphysical practitioners say they use quartz for everything from protection and healing to energy storage and prediction. It is the most essential of all healing stones and no crystal healer would be without it. For believers in such things, these are powerful stones.

Even for the more mundane of us, quartz has a curious property. Try striking two pieces together in the dark and you will see what look like sparks. They're not sparks. The stone itself lights up as a result of the piezoelectric effect. Some Native Americans made rattles of very thin skin and pebbles of quartz inside so that when they shook them at night, the rattles lit up!

The Lenape people who preceded us on this land would have noticed the white and black rock so near the source of the Schoeneck. Quartz was significant to them. If it was of high quality, they made blades and weapons from it. They also used it to mark places and incorporated it into their ceremonial stone constructions. That, and the many springs, along with the cave, would probably have made Black Rock a very special, even sacred place for them.

Even technology of the 21st century needs and reveres natural quartz. The silicon chips in nearly all computers originate from pure quartz mined in North Carolina, near a little town called Spruce Pine [see BBC article here]. Quartz's special properties have put Spruce Pine "at the heart of a global billion dollar industry." It's a different kind of magic and a different kind of sacred, but those white stones scattered along the High Street extension still carry that silicon mystique into the internet era.

quartz stones on a path outside Nazareth