Here is my Crystal reading for the year ahead - 2022 is looking like a huge opportunity for all of us to heal our own hearts, balance our relationships and join together in healing our planet.

I like to pull some oracle cards for my personal year ahead on 1st January. This year I also decided to draw some cards for the Collective - that's all of us! Collective readings are necessarily broad brushstrokes - but I was delighted to see that all three cards are truly heart-based crystals. 2022 has now officially been declared 'The Year of the Heart'.

Let's begin with where we are at the start of the year, on the left, watermelon tourmaline. This card is about our Feminine and Masculine balance. Balancing the polarities is a huge focus for humanity as a whole as we have been male dominant for far too long. The Divine Feminine is rising, not in an attempt to overpower the Divine Masculine, but to bring harmony back to our relationships and to the planet as a whole. Watermelon tourmaline is wonderfully heart-healing and brings a sense of peaceful equilibrium.

The central card represents a theme we will work through over the year. Rose quartz is the quintessential love stone and the image suggests that the heart-centred healing is supported by the influx of energies coming onto the planet from the Cosmos. Healing our hearts and our relationships is an important part of the process - don't expect the rest of the world to change and become more loving without looking at your own life - first you do you!

The final card shows us where we will be by the end of the year - I admit I said a little 'hooray' when this one showed up! Rhodocrosite is one of the strongest heart-healing crystals I know; it really helps us to face old heart-based wounds and transform our hurt into compassion. The image of rhodochrosite patterned butterflies gives me great hope for the future. The butterfly is a symbol of metamorphosis, of the emergence of our true selves. It is also an empowering symbol of the quantum effect - guiding us that our small contributions - like the gentle flutter of a butterfly's wings - can create dramatic changes. I see the many butterflies gathered on this card as a sign that by working in our communities and tribes, by participating in our healing circles, we can bring about incredible and beautiful changes on our planet, both for ourselves and for all the many beings, seen and unseen, with whom we share our precious Earth.

Wishing you all a beautiful, heart-healing and loving 2022!

For this reading I used the Aora Gemstone Oracle by James McKeon.