Just diving into the metaphysical world of crystals, stones and healing minerals?
From powerful healer crystals, to career and confidence boosters, to sacred stones that speed you to enlightenment, here are the best starter crystals every beginner needs:
- Clear Quartz
- Rose Quartz
- Garnet
- Citrine
- Lapis Lazuli
- Fire Opal
- Agate
- Amethyst
- Amber
- Bloodstone
- Carnelian
- Selenite
- Pyrite
- Onyx
Table of Contents
What Crystals Should I Start Out With?
If you want to get into crystals, you should start with crystals that are easy to use.
Think about it—if a crystal overwhelms you with its energy, it won’t be any good to you regardless of its touted benefits.
Some of the top recommended choices are clear quartz, rose quartz and citrine for energy amplification, negativity clearing, love, happiness and abundance.
The truth is, beginner crystals can be just as powerful and life-changing as intermediate or advanced crystals for an individual user.
You just have to find what resonates with you and the benefits you want to receive.
Below, we’ve graded the best starter crystals based on user-friendliness and how much practical benefit they can bring to your daily life.
Read Next: Best Crystals for Positive Energy
Best Starter Crystals
1. Clear Quartz
- Amplifies your energy and increases other crystals’ effects
- Great for manifestation
- Radiates positive energy, mental clarity
Starting this list with the granddaddy of energy amplifiers, clear quartz turns up the volume on energy coming from you or from its environment.
One use for it is to better project your energy into a room so others take notice—say at a work meeting, or at a party.
Clear quartz is something of a “customizable” healing crystal, which means you can program your intentions into it and use it to manifest them.
Paired with other stones and crystals, clear quartz intensifies their effects.
Just be sure to pair it consciously so you don’t get caught off-guard by their strength.
As a high-vibrational crystal, clear quartz has massive benefits for all your chakras and your entire being, enhancing positivity, mental clarity and your overall well-being.
2. Rose Quartz
- Attracts love and romance
- Enhances self-love
- Heals emotional wounds
What’s not to love about rose quartz?
A respected member of the quartz family, rose quartz is pure, compassionate love.
It’s famously used for attracting love and romance into your life. But it can be used for enhancing self-love, too.
In particular, it makes it easier to let go of emotional wounds that might be holding you back.
Rose quartz has a gentle energy humming with happiness and peace.
But under the surface, it actually does some serious work on your heart chakra, opening you up to give and receive love.
Rose quartz will make you more empathic, loving and comfortable with yourself.
3. Garnet
- Gives energy and stamina to accomplish your goals
- Puts you in a good head space and chases away doubt
- Good for skin as well as internal inflammation
If you feel sluggish or a lack of motivation, garnet will come to your rescue.
Garnet gives you the drive and stamina to see your goals and projects through.
Like a headrush, garnet will give you a jolt of physical energy as well as creativity.
Mentally, garnet will not speed you up—it actually encourages you to live in the here and now.
It’s excellent if you have a little nagging voice in your head that doesn’t let you stop worrying about trivial details or the unknowns of the future.
On top of this, garnet reduces inflammation, enhances libido and promotes healthy, glowy skin.
4. Citrine
This crystal is like a drop of pure positivity.
Citrine attracts money, success and abundance your way.
But it’s also great for uplifting your spirits, putting a positive spin on whatever comes your way.
It’s an optimistic crystal that will change your perspective for the better and just make you feel good.
Like carrying sunshine with you everywhere you go.
And when you’re feeling that good, you’ll have more self-esteem and feel more empowered.
If you feel depressed, low vibrations or like you just can’t get ahead in life, it’s recommended that you keep citrine close to you.
5. Lapis Lazuli
- Promotes enlightenment
- Leads you to your inner truth and spiritual self-awareness
- Good for dream work
In the ancient world, this hypnotic blue piece of metamorphic rock was used as a symbol of truth, power and spirituality.
Lapis lazuli is a stone of enlightenment, providing a bridge to your higher consciousness through your third eye chakra.
It assists you in attaining self-knowledge and awareness, which it then channels through your throat chakra to express your inner truth, ideas and perspectives.
Ever wanted to do lucid dreaming? Lapis lazuli will also harness your dreams for guidance, lucid dreaming and astral projection.
6. Fire Opal
- Channels your passions into work, love life and hobbies
- Increases creativity and your sense of purpose
- Reconnects you to your significant other emotionally and sexually
Has work gotten stale? Relationship in a rut?
Fire opal captures the essence of your deepest passions and what makes you happy, then redirects it into your career, your love life and anywhere you want.
Fire opal will fuel your creativity, vitality and desire.
Using your desire as a guide, it will lead you to action. If you want to live your best life guided by what sparks joy for you, reach for fire opal.
In relationships, it inspires deeper sexual and emotional intimacy.
In a nutshell, fire opal will stoke the flames of your passions and bring more personal meaning and joy into your everyday existence.
7. Pyrite
- Manifests what you set your mind to
- Gives “boss energy” and confidence
- Assists in self-mastery
Pyrite, famously called “Fool’s Gold,” is a powerful manifestation tool.
It’s grounding and keeps out bad vibes, but most impressively, you can use it to create your reality.
Set your intentions, and it will draw into your life what you want.
Pyrite will also give you the determination to not be deterred. You will think like a boss and act like one, too.
With its reflective surface, pyrite invites you to truly see yourself. What is it that makes you tick? As it pulls you toward answering this question, pyrite aids in self-mastery.
Using pyrite, you’ll find that you have just a little more belief in yourself and that you like what you see, flaws and all.
8. Amethyst
- Promotes “big picture” spiritual development
- Releases negative emotions
- Strengthens your connection to your spiritual guides
Amethyst is a must for every crystal enthusiast’s collection.
Though it vibrates strongly to the divine, amethyst is a nurturing crystal that embraces all, from beginners to advanced lightworkers.
It attunes you to a higher spiritual purpose as well as your spirit guides.
This is a “big picture” crystal, meaning it shows how we’re all interconnected in the spiritual universe.
Emotionally, amethyst enables you to release what doesn’t resonate with your higher self, like jealousy, fear and anxiety.
All in all, it’s a great crystal for self and spiritual growth.
9. Agate
- Balances the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies
- Promotes better decision-making and rational thinking
- Gives you good luck
Agate comes in a wide variety of subtypes, including blue lace agate, moss agate and fire agate.
And though each has its own distinct colors and meanings, agate in general is known to balance and realign all parts of your being—body, mind, emotions and spirit.
For one stone, it accomplishes a lot.
Agate bestows good luck and fortune, physical health and energy, emotional stability and mental sharpness.
This is a very earthy stone with many practical applications, such as helping you to think rationally, get motivated and even improve your digestion and metabolism.
10. Bloodstone
- Increases courage and emotional resilience
- Ups physical energy levels and heals the blood and body
- Shields you from harmful influences
Bloodstone is a guardian stone historically worn by warriors going into battle. It promotes courage and strength of body and spirit.
It’s fantastic at keeping low-vibrational energies in your environment at bay.
When you’re experiencing a tough situation that’s hard on your mental and emotional state, use bloodstone to help you bounce back.
There’s a wealth of physical healing properties in bloodstone, too. It’ll improve blood circulation, fortify your immune system and is even said to guard the body from injury.
Want to get your muscles regenerating after a grueling workout? Increase health, vitality and emotional resilience?
Reach for bloodstone.
11. Carnelian
- Increases willpower, confidence and feel-good emotions
- Picks you up if you’re tired and low energy
- Purges the physical and emotional bodies
This potent healing stone has long been used to enhance personal power and, for both men and women, fertility.
Do you tend to do a lot of negative self-talk? Carnelian will help you break free and stop fearing failure.
Carnelian will also increase your willpower, making it an excellent stone for anyone who feels stuck or like they can’t overcome.
If you need more pep, carnelian will energize you like a shot of caffeine, and lift up your mood to boot.
Just be sure to have an outlet for all the energy it can unleash!
Since carnelian also purifies the body, emotions and spirit, it may purge some unexpected emotions, and even physical aches and pains.
12. Selenite
- Cleanses negative influences and protects your personal space
- Gives you access to higher consciousness and spiritual knowledge
- Assists spiritual evolution
This warm and welcoming crystal offers rich rewards to its users.
Selenite is all about raising vibrational levels, whether in your environment or in your energy field.
Frequently, it’s used in the home to cleanse it and make it lighter and more peaceful.
It will ward off even the nastiest energy attacks, remove blockages in your aura and gently replace negativity with a sense of tranquility.
It’s so potent, it can heal you as well as others even at a distance.
Working with selenite, you open and purify your crown and third eye chakras. As a result, you’ll intuitively channel knowledge from the spiritual realm and higher consciousness.
13. Amber
- Protects you from bad energies
- Taps into the wisdom of your ancestors
- Grounds you and fights anxiety
Amber is fossilized tree resin, and though it’s not a crystal nor a stone, its use for its mystical properties stretches far back through human history.
With its warm brown hue and calming effect, amber is an excellent protective “stone.”
It will trap negative energy, sooth anxieties and give you a self-confidence boost.
Carry it on you any time, anywhere to feel centered, balanced and relaxed.
Ancient as the fossilized organisms many amber pieces contain, amber will also awaken knowledge passed down from generation to generation that you hold within your DNA.
14. Onyx
- Gives self-control to change and break bad habits
- Provides powerful emotional healing
- Helps you build boundaries and move on from the past
Strength, discipline and self-control are what onyx brings to the table.
Emotionally, onyx carries a very cleansing and centering vibration.
If you’re frazzled, deal with anger issues or have a lot of ups and downs, onyx offers stability. With onyx, you can refocus that energy into something positive and constructive.
It can also help you kick bad habits through strength of focus and willpower.
You’re better able to resist and remove yourself from situations you don’t want to be in, if that’s what you want.
This can be amazing for changing relationships that aren’t good for you, freeing you to find a better job or move on from a difficult past.
Crystal FAQ
How do I start buying crystals?
There are two methods you can use to get started on your journey:
- Do research first. You can find a wealth of information online to learn about the various types of crystals and stones, their benefits and their drawbacks. If you have a crystal shop near where you live, you can visit that, too. This can give you the chance to ask experienced professionals in-person what they would recommend for you based on what you want to achieve.
- You can simply use your intuition to guide you. Go to a rock shop and hold any pieces you feel attracted to in your dominant hand. See if they feel good to you, or if they repel you. You can also choose to do a version of this online, where you buy the pieces that call out to you. However, you’ll probably inevitably pair this route with online research.
What crystals should not be in your bedroom?
Overly stimulating crystals should probably not be in your bedroom, but it does matter what you’re trying to accomplish.
Better sleep? Dream recall? Spicier intimacy with your partner?
These goals are all going to affect what crystals you keep in your bedroom, and where.
You wouldn’t put some peppy carnelian near your bed to cure insomnia, but you might if you want to increase libido.
However, if you want a more restful sleep, here are some stones that can cause disturbances:
- Moldavite
- Malachite
- Hematite
- Carnelian
- Tiger’s eye
- Libyan desert glass
- Tourmaline
- Selenite (unless thoroughly cleansed)
Crystals for work success
For work success, you want crystals that will increase your willpower, self-assurance, determination, creativity, mental agility, communication and powers of persuasion.
Here are some top recommendations that will give you the upper hand:
- Sunstone
- Pyrite
- Tiger’s eye
- Carnelian
- Citrine
- Melanite
- Fire opal
- Green aventurine
- Amazonite
- Andradite
- Bloodstone
Best crystals to carry daily
Looking for crystals that won’t throw you out of whack if you wear them every day or use them regularly?
These options will continue to provide substantial benefits without creating imbalances:
- Citrine
- Clear quartz
- Rose quartz
- Amber
- Pyrite
- Amethyst
- Agate
- Smoky quartz
- Tiger’s eye
- Green aventurine
What crystal do I need for anxiety?
Some of the best crystals you can use to soothe anxious nerves and defend yourself from attacks are as follows:
- Amethyst
- Amber
- Rose quartz
- Hematite
- Black tourmaline
- Bloodstone
- Smoky quartz