Another wonderful experience in the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains has been checked off the bucket list as I was finally able to visit the G&LW Gem Show in Franklin, NC, the “Gem Capital of the World”. This was my very first gem show experience, and I highly recommend you check it out!
After registering for the show, I entered the first tent, which was so large it felt more like a warehouse. Sparkling gemstone jewelry of nearly every variety lined tables, walls, and filled stacked drawers. Mineral specimens, crystal towers, cathedrals, and polished stones were carefully displayed across tables and upon shelves.
The energy was palpable, and it was a bit overwhelming not knowing where to start. As you can imagine, it was hard to make a purchase at the first few vendor booths when there was so much more to view. From loose raw diamonds to fossil jewelry, beautifully-crafted bowls to lapidary equipment—shiny, sparkling objects caught my eye in every direction.
I was blown away by the selection of heulandite available, and quickly purchased some. Heulandite is a member of the zeolite family and yields sprays of multifaceted translucent crystals, showing off beautiful soft color tones ranging from clear to black, brown, grey, green, yellow, pink, and white. It is high in vibration, which may stimulate the brain, as well as improve mental clarity, allowing one to feel safe, reorganized, and stimulated.
I also found a nice selection of nice quality calcite and stilbite. Calcite can be found all over the world and is often mixed with other stones. Calcite is a powerful cleanser and is good to have around you because it can clear stagnant energies from any environment. Stilbite is a compassionate stone whose soothing vibrations can be felt upon touch. Loving and healing vibrations emanate from stilbite and fills the entire environment it’s placed in with joy, passion, and uplifting energies. This stone connects our heart, third eye, and crown chakras together and helps one clearly see the emotions weighing on their heart space.
After spending a few hours inside (which felt more like minutes), I made my way to the open-air tents outside and found even larger crystals, flats for purchase, crystal sculptures, and even crystal sink basins!
I managed to find some Blue Chalcedony, hand-carved in the form of a stunning dragon’s head! The word “chalcedony” is named after the ancient sea port of Chalcedon, which is now known as the city of Kadikoy. The blue hue of the stone occurs because of the “Tyndall effect”, which is defined as light scattering by colloid sized particles. The color can range from a light transparent blue to a solid baby or sky blue. Blue Chalcedony is a calmer of the emotional body and is known to help one communicate their truest thoughts and ideas. This encourages deeper discussions with the ones you love, which will not only strengthen your relationships, but also help “awaken” their emotional bodies as well.
After a whirlwind afternoon of new discoveries, vendors began breaking down their booths as I did a little last-minute wheeling and dealing. I managed to score many amazing and unique finds that will be for sale at Raja Goods soon! Limited quantities will be available and they will sell fast—So visit us to check them out before they are gone!
Overall, it was an experience of true adventure and discovery. After getting my very first gem show under my belt, I now have an educated and well-focused “plan of action” for future visits and collecting customer requests seamlessly—and I am looking forward to visiting the largest gem show on the East Coast in July. You will want to stay tuned for more details and highlights!
To make a request for future gem shows as well as other products, please feel free to contact me at: mary@rajawellness.com; I’ll be happy to reach out with specifics and discuss your crystal needs, purchase, and pick-up options. Examples of previously requested items include amethyst cathedrals, ocean jasper, peridot, celestite, dumortierite, chalcopyrite, Ethiopian opal, and smoky quartz. With so much to choose from, I am always on the search for rare finds to add to the diversity to both my personal collection and at Raja Goods!
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After an action-packed weekend in the breathtaking Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, we are excited to be back in the clinic and share the details of our trip! We enjoyed a beautiful drive, mountain views, a six-mile hike along the Green River, learned new techniques, and partook in our favorite tradition—visiting the Asheville Herb Festival. It was quite a refreshing stay and an excellent change of scenery!
The 32nd annual Asheville Herb Festival was a blast as usual. Plant-lovers rejoice even at the first step into the door! We visited some of our favorite booths from years prior, such as: Mountains to Sea, Red Moon Herbs, Sister of Mother Earth, and Lunar Whale Herbs.
Our favorite things about herb fest are the creativity in how things are planted (they even offer workshops about this!), as well as the many rare plant varieties offered. They even have an eclectic collection of garden décor. We purchased some amazing finds such as: seasonings for cooking such as ramp salt and magic garlic dust, and a morning pick-me-up adaptogenic coffee blend (to keep the jitters at bay, and a calm mind through the day). We also collected some lovely ashwagandha, Jiao Gu Lian (aka poor man’s ginseng), arnica, patchouli, and St. John’s Wort plants—just to name a few. Look for these incredible and unique finds available for purchase at our locations.
While the rest of the crew spent time in Saluda, Hendersonville, and Asheville, JennyMarie Greenough, LAc traveled to Black Mountain to attend the NCSAAM Spring CEU event to expand her knowledge and learn new techniques. She took in lots of valuable information about acupuncture neurology and the latest research on how scalp acupuncture points correlate to the actual regions of the brain beneath them. For about 20 years, it appeared that some of these acupuncture points were "close" but not actually over the exact region; but a more refined understanding of the brain has actually validated the location of those points. Furthermore, fMRI with acupuncture has shown both scalp and distal points do have the ability to activate these regions of the brain. She learned a wealth of clinical refinements that will improve our ability to help people with TBI and post-concussive issues with more focused treatments.
The biggest "aha" of the weekend was learning the correlation between dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, long-haul COVID, chronic Lyme, and other puzzling, complex conditions. So far, a survey of some of our more difficult cases in the office has shown all of these have some history of severe concussion or whiplash and JennyMarie is excited to bring this new lens to our treatment approaches. JennyMarie continues her study of these subjects with some additional research into specific nutrition and herbal protocols to address these issues.
We’ve always joked about needing a clone (or two) of Jenny-Marie, and our desperation kicked in realizing she would miss out on the herb festival and gem mining fun while she was busy learning in Black Mountain. Her husband, Charlie had the fantastic (and hilarious) idea of bringing the next best thing to a clone—a cardboard cutout! So Jenny-Marie still managed to “hang out” with some of the Herb Fest vendors, visit our favorite gem mine, and even pose for a few pictures! Cardboard Jenny-Marie may just have to tag along to the gem shows with Mary in a couple of weeks! Check out our Facebook page to see more fun pics!
It was a lovely trip full of learning and adventure, but we sure are glad to be back in Kentucky continuing doing what we love—providing natural, compassionate, and effective healing solutions to our community.
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Spring is now in full swing (thank goodness!) and that means the Raja Wellness crew has some exciting adventures in our near future. We may not be able to take you with us, but we hope you will tag along in spirit! We’ll be deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina taking in the scenery, visiting with vendors, and attending some epic events centered around medicinal herbs, gardening, and crystals.
First up and fast approaching is the revered Asheville Herb Festival. This is the largest herb festival in the US and Canada—a yearly tradition we enjoy wholeheartedly. With a focus on Western North Carolinian growers, farmers, and herbalists, there are over 60 vendors to visit. Interestingly, this area of Appalachia has a climate that is nearly identical to that of southeast China, meaning that it is the perfect environment for many herbs and plants to thrive that are commonly used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. In fact, the Asheville Herb Festival is where we’ve met and grown relationships with some of our favorite vendors.
We’ll be navigating our way through a variety of culinary and medicinal herbs, tinctures, salves, handmade soaps, carnivorous plants, perennial flowers, trees, and bushes, and hopefully grabbing another glorious sample of ginseng wine before our day is complete. The herb festival is also jam-packed with gardening and herbal medicine workshops. Our staff is excited to bring back and stock our store with many curated favorites for clinic use, as well as for our own gardens and greenhouses. For more information about the Asheville Herb Festival, visit ashevilleherbfestival.org
In mid-May, Mary (our NC native), will be traveling to visit three gem shows. Combined, there will be nearly 200 vendors to peruse with crystals from all over the world, rare gems, cathedrals, fossils, unique jewelry, statement pieces, lapidary equipment, and more. Many of these vendors can also be found at the renowned Tucson Gem Show. During this trip, Mary will be mining for gems as well! Aside from a biodiverse region for growing a variety of plants and herbs, this region is also incredibly abundant and diverse in minerals and gemstones.
If you’re local to our area in Kentucky, we’d like to invite you to send any special requests to mary@rajawellness.com, we’ll be happy to reach out with specifics and discuss your crystal needs, purchase, and pick-up options. Examples of previously requested items include amethyst cathedrals, ocean jasper, peridot, celestite, dumortierite, chalcopyrite, Ethiopian opal, and smoky quartz. With so much to choose from, Mary will be on the search for rare finds to add to the diversity of both our collection at Raja Goods (and her personal stash!)
With these events just around the corner, you can imagine our anticipation and excitement! We hope our patients and customers will enjoy the stories and items we have to share upon our return and hope that you will follow along during our travels! We plan to share pictures of the fun on our social media accounts so keep an eye out for updates!
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