Shamanite Black Calcite Healing Crystals

Shamanite or North American Black Calcite by Charles Alan Mark
Among the most wonderful discoveries of our buying trip in February was a new stone of great benefit. It was introduced to us by a close friend, who had discovered it in the high plateaus of the Rocky Mountains. Moved by the power and intensity of the stone, he gave it the name Shamanite. In our work with this powerful mineral, we have come to agree about the name and purpose of the stone.
Master Shamanite is also known as North American Black Calcite, although the material is far more complex than simple Calcite. It contains a high concentration of almost pure carbon, as well as lesser amounts of included Pyrites, Marcasites, Quartz, Chlorite, Zircon and Strontianite. In addition, there are visible and microscopic fossils, including the shelly fossils known as the "Kings of Creation." Some appear within Shamanite as white spots and, more rarely, as minute white spirals. The colors of Shamanite vary through multiple shades of gray, with some tan or brownish varieties, and some specimens of mixed colors.
Our friend informed us that Master Shamanite has been treasured as a protective talisman by Native American tribes, with certain varieties being called "Toho" (the Mountain Lion). He also related that it was used for ceremonial carvings, amulets and bead jewelry. It is said to be known to present day native peoples of the Southwest as a protective stone, with the power to heal spiritual wounds, ancestral troubles and grief.
Robert Simmons writes: "Master Shamanite is aptly named. It can be very helpful for initiating inner journeying, and it can help one connect inwardly with power animals and spirit guides. It is a Stone of the Ancestors, aiding one in communicating with spiritual elders and guides on the other side, as well as loved ones who have passed. It is a stone of those who wish to walk between the worlds, and to heal others through soul retrieval. It can help dispel the fear of death through bringing one to a clear experience that death is not the end of one's being.
Master Shamanite resonates with the heart and third eye chakras, and it can activate a synergy of their energies to open the portal of the crown chakra. This is important for shamanic journeying, in which one wishes to leave and re-enter the body through the crown. The Calcite component of Shamanite facilitates a clear, calm awareness making it easier to remain centered through difficult moments of inner or outer life.
Master Shamanite resonates in some mysterious way with the beings thought of as inter dimensional. The impression is that these beings are present invisibly in higher frequency realms and wish to help humanity make its transition into expanded consciousness and wholeness, and that Shamanite used in meditation can help one become aware of them and their benevolent intentions. It also seems to expose the inner activities of so-called demonic forces which are working to keep humans in a lower state of awareness. This exposure dissolves the power of negative beings to hold one in a state of limitation.
Master Shamanite offers spiritual protection to those who simply wear or carry it, and it offers more to those interested in serious inner work. If one wishes to be a 'Warrior of Light,' Shamanite can be a powerful ally.
When I began to meditate with a piece of the Master Shamanite, my attention was drawn first to the carbon component of the stone. I suddenly recalled that carbon is used as an elemental purifier for water and air, and that carbon is the total composition of pure Diamonds. I feel certain that Master Shamanite, containing, as it does, a very high carbon concentration, is unsurpassed in regard to its capacities for spiritual cleansing and purification. If one is in any way afflicted by negative thoughts, dreams, memories, addictions, entities or psychic implants, Master Shamanite is the ideal stone for clearing one s etheric body and auric field of these limiting and debilitating influences. Master Shamanite has a powerful way of reaching down into the depths of the psyche - into the past, into the unconscious, into the hidden aspects of the inner realms, into the deep woundings of the soul, even those from past incarnations - and clearing away harmful forces, allowing for spiritual rebirth and growth into the pattern of one s highest destiny.
The attunement of Master Shamanite to the unfolding of one s highest destiny is symbolically and even physically represented in the high carbon concentration. A Diamond is the pure crystalline form of carbon. It is the destiny, one might say, or the highest potential, of carbon to become Diamond. In its common form, carbon appears "dirty," unworthy of praise. Within ourselves, the dark roots of what lies in our hidden pasts - in our imperfections, our wounds, flaws and limitations - appears to be negative. Yet just as the Diamond emerges from carbon s blackness, so the perfected human being arises from the roots within the dark, difficult, impure and even painful blackness of our old unconscious limitations. Fittingly, carbon purifies water and other substances by cleansing it of impurities. It can do this spiritually, as in the case of Master Shamanite, by removing the impurities from the Soul Body. Just as carbon can filter physical water, so Master Shamanite purifies the spiritual waters of the soul, enabling the emergence of one s Diamond Self.
Master Shamanite is preferable to other carbon materials for spiritual purification because of its Calcite component. Calcite caries an energy of loving gentleness which softens the impact of releasing old negativity, and which encourages the dissipation of stress. The fossil inclusions within Master Shamanite resonate with the template of life. One can be sure that Master Shamanite contains fossil forms of DNA within its matrix, and this molecule of life helps create a bridge between the living body and the mineral realm. This is the root of Master Shamanite s capacities as a healing stone. It purifying influence extends beyond the realm of clearing old limitations from the soul s history, into the pattern of one s physical and emotional wellbeing in this lifetime. Shamanite can act to clear the way for the healing influences of angels, inner masters, teachers and angelic beings, as well as the universal archetype of life itself.".

The name Black Calcite has been applied from time to time to a dark gray to black variety of calcite in metalliferous ore deposits in the western United States. Most of the material shows curved, roughly rhombohedric, scalenohedral crystal structure, typical of calcite. The color is due to dispersed minute grains of carbon, so dispersed that they rarely show any relation to cleavage surfaces or outward crystal forms. This study has concentrated on one of these locations and the specific description of this mineral, chemical makeup, geologic and palynological research and findings that make Shamanite unique.

General Location and Geologic History
Studies have been made by numerous geologists since 1888, involving magniferous black calcite ore in a western mining district located within a broad arc extending from southern Colorado to southwest New Mexico, southern Arizona and southeast California . Areas of disseminated silver and manganese mineralization include the Creede and Silver Cliff districts of Colorado.
The location of this Shamanite deposit and the concentration of carbon as a color source, instead of manganese/silver, is within the general area known as the "Ancestral Rockies. Northern American black calcite was originally formed in a large Pre-Cambrian shallow sea that ranged from present western Canada to the southern part of the United States. The calcite formed on the beds of this shallow sea and contain microscopic Pre-Cambrian life forms that existed a few hundred million years before the uplift of two large mountainous islands, known to geologists as Frontrangia and Umcompahgria. This uplift formed approximately 300 mya during the Pennsylvanian era. These two mountains are located roughly within the current locations of the Front Range and San Juan Mountains. Both consist largely of Pre-Cambrian metamorphic rock forced upward through layers of limestone laid down in the shallow sea throughout the early and late Paleozoic.
Interpretations of modes of origin of mineral deposits are based upon the assemblages of the minerals, their mutual relations, the nature of the host rocks and relations to the host rocks. In summarizing, the black calcite deposits in carbonate rocks that determine mode of origin.
Factors of dating this material to determine age is done in the laboratory, using specific instruments such as Light Microscope and Scanning Electron Microscope . Under the light microscope, extremely thin sections of fossil bearing rock are cemented onto glass microscope slides and searched/scanned to discover tiny three-dimensionally petrified fossils entombed in the mineral matrix. This is a reliable technique.
One of the methods used in this study is "Palynological Maceration." A concentration of the fossils was prepared by dissolving the rock in mineral acid. Acid-resistant organic walled fossils abundant in the resultant sludge-like material was then slurried onto a microscope slide for study.
Under the light microscope, forms were observed such as "Small Shelly Fossils" and "Acritarchs" -- single-celled planktonic algae (from the Greek word "Akritos", meaning confused or uncertain). The Acritarchs relation to living groups of algae are difficult to determine. The Acritarchs are abundant in offshore Pre-Cambrian shale deposits, so there is no doubt that they existed as floating phytoplankton in the ancient seas.
The "Small Shelly Fossils" that have been associated with early Pre-Cambrian epoch appeared after simple worm species -- and were subsequently followed by tiny simple shells, the so-called "Small Shell Fauna" of the earliest Cambrian or Manykian Age . This was followed by a more diverse group of shelly animals often referred to as the Tommotian Fauna . The relationships of Tommotian animals to living groups are not understood; but, it is likely that mollusks also evolved at this time. The Tommotian animals disappeared rather quickly and were followed by the "Cambrian Explosion" of modern groups of the last half of the Early Cambrian (Atdabanian Age). By the end of the early Cambrian (450mya), almost all of the modern phylla had evolved: mollusks, annelid worms, arthropods (including trilobites), echinoderms, and chordates.
"Small shelly fossils" were listed as first occurring 543 mya and increased diversity through time. Shamanite's unique variety of small shelly fossils were known as the "Kings of Creation" -- scattered beasties the size of a baby's toenail. The delicate spiral-shell fossils average 1-2 mm across; but, occasionally larger, more substantial variants occur.