Smoke and Mirrors is a splendid crystal skull carved from a botryoidal hematite specimen from the U.S.A. It measures 3.4 x 2.4 x 4.6 inches (86x61x117mm) and weighs 2.6 pounds (1163g). The black stand measures 3.1 x 2.7 x 7.1 inches (80x69x181mm), raising the Smoke and Mirrors sculpture up for a dramatic display of the beautiful hematite formation together with the remarkably detailed crystal skull carving. The fascinating natural botryoidal formation of this lustrous metallic hematite gives Smoke and Mirrors a surreal appearance of an illusory skull coalescing from a cloudy formation to impart clarity and wisdom, and once the message has been delivered, perhaps the crystal skull will transform back into smoke and disappear from sight.

Smoke and Mirrors encourages us to open our minds and hearts, to broaden our horizons, and to step forward into a world where we create what we want to be, rather than just consider how nice it would be if some other person made it that way. The Smoke and Mirrors hematite crystal skull gives us many opportunities to see ourselves for the limitless expressions of universal consciousness that we are. It inspires each of us to look through the illusions of the material world, to learn to not allow the minor details that detract from our spirituality to blind us any longer, while we still address and maintain the responsibilities of our physical existence.

The Smoke and Mirrors hematite crystal skull reminds us that we may also choose to see past the illusion of individuality and otherness. While we are all indeed, as human beings, unique and important individuals, on the spiritual level we are all one and the same, and there is no harm in applying this wisdom to our daily attitudes and behaviors in the physical world. Smoke and Mirrors invites each of us to consider this wisdom as an alternative to the ideas of separateness and competition, and perhaps to endeavor to find a balanced harmony between our human individual experience and our spiritual interconnectedness.

Hematite helps to connect, unify, and balance the mind, the physical body, and the spirit, and to regulate the emotions and temper one's experience and expression of emotions when necessary. It promotes equanimity, calmness, composure, inner peace, and a joyful optimism. Hematite helps to dispel internal and external negative energies by changing them to loving and peaceful positive energies, and has been used to find relationship partners and to bring love into one's life and environment. Hematite is considered to be an extremely effective grounding crystal, and is conducive to entering gently into meditations, helping to keep one physically and emotionally grounded, stabilized, and at peace during the exercise.

Hematite increases one's mental and intellectual capacities, and one's recall and memory, helping one to align one's thinking to particular situations or issues to gain greater understanding and comprehension. It assists with mentally managing large amounts of details and information, inspires ingenuity and creative thinking, and enhances one's ability to assess and understand new knowledge. Hematite can heighten one's mental skills and inspire methodical thought processes in regards to mathematics, science, mechanics, and various vocational fields, as well as any chosen field of study and experimentation.

Hematite helps to regulate one's mental processes to maintain a relaxed and tranquil state of mind, which in turn helps one to be physically relaxed and calm. At the same time hematite inspires one to move beyond one's current levels of knowledge and wisdom by setting aside self imposed limitations about what one may think one is and is not capable of. Hematite helps one to understand that as a spiritual entity, one is capable of achieving any goal when one accepts the unlimited capacity of the spirit.

By affecting the magnetic aspects of energies, hematite clears, balances, and stabilizes the energy meridians of the physical body, as well as the yin and yang energies, helping to increase the alignment of one's spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical expressions.

Hematite has been used to draw heat from, and to cool, the physical body, and to treat fever. It has also been used to treat disorders related to the nervous system, and the circulatory system. It can be used to soothe cramping of the muscles, for the healthy production of the blood and blood cells, for healing broken and fractured bones, and to align the vertebrae of the spine. Hematite has also been used for treating insomnia, nervousness and anxiety, and to control emotional outbursts and mood swings.

NOTE: Skullis does not prescribe treatment for medical issues. Skullis offers information for reference to assist with the selection and understanding of crystal skulls, including this hematite crystal skull sculpture.