Useless Crystal

As pretty as it is pointless

Though their active ingredients are nonexistent and their therapeutic value is dubious, useless crystals cluttered the nightstands and bathtub ledges of beleaguered New(ish) Agers around the world. Devotees cherished these glimmering hunks of minerals as home decor, as meditative objects or as metaphorical hatchets with which to chip away at the very ideologies that oppressed them. In 2020 their popularity surged, largely due to a phenomenon known as the “placebo effect.” Archives provide us with statements including: “I know it doesn’t do anything — I just like it” and: “Can't I just have this one thing?”