Graphic by Abigail Potter / MTSU Sidelines
Vibrant banners hang from the ceiling at a small store in the heart of Murfreesboro. The walls display a variety of peaceful herbs, positive scented candles, and enchanted stones. Relaxing music plays softly through the radio to create an easy going environment. The calm and tranquil aroma fills the air inside Stonekeepers to rid any negative spirits to replace those with ones that will bring spiritual empowerment.
Stonekeepers isn’t so much haunted, but rather a place to purge ghostly or negative spirits out of the body. Stonekeepers believe that the human body isn’t the only place where negative energy or spirits reside but the very soil and roots of the earth.
Owner Carrie Adams’s parents opened the store when she was 13-years-old in 1996. Stonekeepers grew out of their home garage in Murfreesboro and was originally meant to just clear space. Adams mother and father were fascinated with stones and what they could do. Her mother even used the stones to make jewelry. For Adams, what began as a hobby in her garage for cutting and polishing stones turned into a business to promote prosperity and spiritual healing.
Even Adams was unaware of the stones potential until her customers started to pose the question, “Did you know these stones do things?”
From that moment forward it became an interchangeable bond between Adams and her customers where both parties learned from one another and began to grow a greater knowledge and respect for stones that were more than just decoration. The bond and relationships that Adams has built through Stonekeepers has helped her find more about her own beliefs and spirituality.
“Our customers were spiritually minded people and they kind of took us on a spiritual journey and discovering a lot of different things such as meditation,” Adams said. “Today, our purpose is to help people find spiritual tools that empower their goals or what they are working towards.”
The stones distinct colors represent a certain mood or emotion for each person to connect with. The stones can also be used to alleviate stress and sooth the body and mind. Adams said that a few people will even come into Stonekeepers just to smell the fragrance of the store without any intentions to shop, but to have a sense of cleansing negative spirits. Mainly, the stones or burning of candles allows a physical representation to be made so a connection can be formed between the object and individual.
“It’s like a physical manifestation of a spiritual or emotional or physical goal. Whether they’re using stones or candles, it helps them focus their spiritual energy to manifest the things they’re wanting to do in their lives,” Adams said.
There is a meaning between the bonds of people and the stones, whether it be the colors or shapes, and the candles will give a scent of relaxation or motivate oneself. According to Adams, the combination of the two will give people a chance to focus their own spiritual energy.
Another main source of vanquishing negative spirits is by burning herbs such as sage. A process known as sage smudging can be done to an object such as a stone to give bring clear energy and purpose. The sage can also be smudged throughout a room into open air which allows the mind to calm and think clearly on positivity and concentrate on personal objectives.
“As the sage burns, the smoke represents the spiritual energy and that energy has the intention of cleansing their space and the smoke can go where they cannot,” Adams said. “The smoke can be used to purify and cleanse negativity and removing negative spirits.”
Stonekeepers recently embarked on a journey known as the Crystal Grid Project. The Crystal Grid Project is meant to cleanse the earth of any negative spirits and give positive ones back to the roots of the earth so it can prosper. The process is also meant to have a personal meaning so the mind and body of oneself can prosper also. The place of the burial is meant to be significant to the owner and buried with positive intentions so that the earth can reap the benefits of the uplifting purpose it was buried with.
“We’ve given out over a thousand crystals that we charged with peace, protection, and prosperity, and we buried the first one at the Geographic Center of Tennessee. Then we started giving them to people and getting them to bury them with that intention of spreading peace, protection, and prosperity,” Adams said. “It’s the actual physical action of putting that energy back into the earth.”
Stonekeepers can be used as a tool for anyone who may be frightened that they have negative or ghostly spirits to put their body and mind at ease. Stonekeepers allows the opportunity to remove those spirits and replace them with positive ones. It can provide help for those looking for a fresh start on the day or maybe even life. Adams and Stonekeepers started an unknown journey that transformed into an objective driven store to help those who may be fighting with negative spirits. Stonekeepers still remains true to its main goal as Adams has said.
“Our main mission is to uplift people.”
This story originally ran in MTSU Sidelines’ September 2017 print edition. For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Brinley Hineman at [email protected].
