Sometimes, the Universe has a great sense of humour. This is the story of how I acquired my beautiful crystal singing bowl, at the insistence of the Universe.

My beautiful crystal bowl

As part of the Seven Animals, Seven Chakras system, I have been making seven essences as part of the total healing process. To make the seven essences, I was very drawn to buy a singing bowl in which to make the essences. As it turned out, I had to embark on a bit of journey to get just the right one.

I had been researching singing bowls online, found that they were made of powdered quartz crystal, that was moulded and heated to create a bowl, that not all bowls were of the same quality (some had less percentage of pure crystal), and that they were very expensive. I had been led to the website of the Crystal Castle in Mullumbimby, near Byron Bay in northern New South Wales. I felt that my crystal singing bowl was there. However, I live in Queensland, four hours drive from Mullumbimby.

When I told my husband that I wanted to go to Mullumbimby, he immediately said, “Let’s go today.”

To set the scene, I was sitting in my pyjamas, it was a rainy day so we were lazing about, it was 11.15 am, I hadn’t fed the dogs, or the chickens, and I hadn’t rounded up the horses and brought them in from their morning pasture feed. New South Wales was an hour ahead (daylight saving time), and they shut at 5pm, which was 4 pm our time.

“I’m not going now,” I said. “I’m not driving like a lunatic to rush getting a singing bowl. I need time to play with the bowls, get a feel for them. And they’re really expensive. It’s not a decision to rush.” But my husband was insistent that we had to go that day. “We’ll muscle test,” he said. So, using some basic kinesiology, we asked the Universe some questions and the Universe was adamant that the right bowl for me was at The Crystal Castle, that we had to go that day, and that it wouldn’t be there any other time.

I am a person who likes to think about things before making decisions, but the Universe has a good sense of humour, and clearly decided to take that opportunity to gently show me that things can be done differently.

Sitting on rose quartz! (Had to go back and do that another day.)

We arrived at The Crystal Castle with twenty minutes to spare, passed all the glorious crystals, labyrinths and magical gardens and water features, and headed straight for the bowls. I had seven to choose from, each one attuned to a specific chakra of the body. The smallest one corresponded to the crown chakra and the largest one to the base chakra. I looked at the prices, tried not to let my mouth hit the floor, and declared that I should get the smallest (relatively cheapest) bowl. My husband disagreed and said that at least we should muscle test.

Into the quiet of the back room (library) we went and asked some questions, to be told that it was in fact the second smallest one–the one that corresponded to the third eye. Back outside, amidst the towering amethyst crystal caves and crystal balls (worth many thousands of dollars), I picked up my bowl and took it to the counter.

“I’ll just get you a pre-packed one,” the woman said, and disappeared. My whole face fell. The one I was holding was The One.

“Could we maybe take this one,” my husband asked, when she returned.

She seemed reluctant, so I suggested that I play both of them to see if I could get a feel for them. She carefully unpacked them from their foam packaging, and set them on their rubber rings on the bench. I picked up the wand, but the new one, the one from out the back, wouldn’t play. No matter what I did, it wouldn’t sing. The woman took the wand off me and tried to demonstrate. But it wouldn’t play for her either. It just wasn’t the right one.

So we packed up the one that had been sitting on the shelf, paid for the “new baby” and left just as they were ringing the bell to tell people that the castle was closing.

Our cat "Bucket (of Love)" playing with the bowl

We didn’t get home until very late that night, but we had our beautiful bowl onboard, and the only disappointment was that we didn’t get any time to play in the amazing surrounds of the castle. We would just have to go back another day.