BY STEPHANIE VALENTE

I'm new to the world of crystals.

As teen and new adult, I long heard the echoes and poetic waxings on carrying a piece of rose quartz for love. I distinctly remember a granola-leaning, witchy college friend tucking a sliver of the pink stone in my hand at a house party in Greenpoint.

"This is for self-love and the rest of your life," she said.

That sentiment always stuck with me. But, like most small moments, I let it stick in the back of my mind and didn't give it much attention otherwise. In the last few months, I've been reaching out for crystals more. I'm letting this all happen at an organic and steady pace, and there's one crystal I've been drawn to and it's a staple on my bedside table: selenite.

Selenite is also known as satin spar or desert rose (so dreamy!), and it's qualities are simply astounding. The milky hue looks like a beam of light. It's almost as if a piece of the glowing moon chipped off and fell down to the earth, still radiating white light. And, the moon connection is precisely how this special stone got its name. Selenite is derived from the Greek goddess of the moon, Selene. The pearly sheen stone is long associated with moon manifestations, dreams, and sleep.

For myself, I created a private sacred ritual and charged the stone under the moon. After setting my lunar intentions, I set my selenite wand on my bedside table to send beams of light into my dreams, and become an integral part in my dream-spell work.

Stephanie Valente lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works as an editor. One day, she would like to be a silent film star. She is the author of Hotel Ghost (Bottlecap Press, 2015) and Waiting for the End of the World (Bottlecap Press, 2017). Her work has appeared in dotdotdash, Nano Fiction, LIES/ISLE, and Uphook Press. She can be found at her website.