From the Crystalvaults.com site:

AmberUses and Purposes

Amber is a protective stone for children and may be worn as a necklace, bracelet, sewn into an infant’s garment or placed in their environment to ward off negative energies and shield them from harm. It is also prized for energetically reducing teething pain, though it should never be placed in the mouth. It is highly beneficial when treating infants or children for the mother to wear the Amber first. [Megemont, 23][Fernie, 323][Eason, 82][Hall, 52]

Wear or carry Amber when recovering from an illness or injury to increase vitality and draw on one’s own essential strength and desire for wellness. Its vibration of life force brings warmth to the inner being and imparts more of this energy into the system. Amber may also be used to achieve longevity, and is a marvelous gem for the elderly. [Simmons, 24]

As a love crystal, golden-orange Amber is a symbol of beauty and tenderness, a good-luck talisman for increasing natural radiance and attracting lasting love. It may be used to call in a twin soul, or for protection against negative outside influences and interference. It is a wonderful gem for assuring promises and has been used in the renewal of marriage vows. [Eason, 43, 82][Lecouteux, 312][Melody, 107]

Believed to “electrify” desire, Amber is credited with helping to cure impotence and frigidity, and to aid female fertility and male potency. [Megemont, 23][Eason, 82]

Amber is an exceptional rubbing stone for discharging negative moods, relieving anxiety, or deflecting energy from others. It warms the more it is touched and generates a positive, uplifting current of energy. Carry in the pocket, wear in jewelry, or use in rosary or prayer beads. [Mella 72][Lembo, 61][Megemont, 22-23]

Use Amber to purify any environment before use, or to remove negative energy by placing pieces of Amber around the space, spray as an elixir, or burn as incense. It also provides an effective screen after the area has been cleansed. For healers who work with removing entities from one’s energy field, Amber can be a valuable ally for sealing the aura after extraction and clearing any lingering negative patterns. Amber assists those who are new to exploring their psychic sensitivity by providing a Light barrier against negative forces until they are able to control their intuitive skills. [Melody, 108][Ahsian, 25][101 Hall, 26]

Amber Emotional Healing Energy

Amber heals and supports the emotional body by drawing off the negative energies that steal one’s optimism and drive for life, and replaces them with an empowering frequency conducive to positive change. It is ideal for those battling suicidal tendencies, addictions, or who struggle with depression, anxiety or seasonal affective disorder to see light at the end of the tunnel. Amber helps remove the obstacles we place in our own way, as well as deflecting the negative energies of others. It lends the courage to set boundaries with friends, colleagues or family, and to recognize it is safe to be powerful in loving ways. [Lembo, 60-61][Eason, 82][Raphaell, 136-137]

Bringing balance and stability to one’s life, Amber encourages patience and flexibility. Its warm, bright energy promotes cheerfulness and trust, and strengthens the belief in oneself. Amber stimulates the intellect, improves short-term memory, and enhances the understanding of messages from one’s past to assist in decision-making and moving forward in life. It is a great tool for transmuting dreams into reality. [Melody, 107][Gienger, 12][Lembo, 61][Hall, 52][101 Hall, 26]

Amber Chakra Healing and Balancing Energy

The gold and orange shades of Amber stimulate the Navel or Sacral Chakra, located below the naval and above the pubic bone at the front of the pelvis. It controls the flow of energy and is the center of gravity of the body. It is the center of the Life Force of the body, and controls the flow of information from the body to the mind and from the mind to the body. Gut feelings, intuition, and other "non-linear" communication comes from this chakra. When it is out of balance the symptoms manifest themselves as confusion, over dependency on others, repression of feelings, inability to feel joy, fear of sensuality or sex, and frustration. Gold or orange crystals are used to unblock the energy flow and restore one’s sense of balance, understanding and appreciation of life. When the Sacral Chakra is in balance one has grace, feels pleasure in life, and experiences the flexibility to "go with the flow" and do so in good spirit.

The yellow hues within Amber activate the Solar Plexus Chakra, the energy distribution center and the chakra of relationships. This chakra is located between the ribcage and navel, and controls the immune and digestive systems. When physically balanced, it provides the strength to fight infections, frees one of allergic reactions, and utilizes nutrients ingested. If the Solar Plexus is spiritually imbalanced, one may feel fear - of the disappointment or displeasure of others, or to subordinating one’s life and pleasures to the will of others. Yellow crystals spiritually balance the Solar Plexus, freeing one to interpret the world through one’s own thoughts and emotions and not live in fear of violating the dictums of others.

Amber Spiritual Energy

Amber is a powerful protector, aligning one’s everyday self to higher spiritual realms. It is a valuable tool for tapping into ancient wisdom, and for recalling past lives, whether a regression from this life or from a past life, in order to break negative patterns or to gain a better understanding of how past experiences can better assist one now. [Hall, 52][Lembo, 60-61][Eason, 82]

Amber is fossilized with its Life Force energies intact, and is an excellent source of Light energy for the physical body and a tangible support for energetic healing. It can assist one in connecting with interdimensional and intergalactic Light beings, including Nature devas and faeries, and those who are on Earth to help mankind through the coming shift. [Ahsian, 24-25]

Amber Color Energy

Amber associates with the color energies of Gold. Gold color rays bring success, enthusiasm, happiness, and power. It is traditionally the color of kings, riches, and the sun. Gold touches a deep part of our minds, conjuring up images of mystical places and adventure. Light Gold crystals provide us with the simple pleasures of life - cheerfulness and contentment, while Dark Gold crystals have a deeper, more pronounced sense of devotion and commitment, providing us with a mature enthusiasm and ability to share a lifelong commitment of care and love.

Meditation with Amber

Amber is used in meditation when the desire is to connect to the earth wisdom of an earlier age. Its ancient energy is released as it is touched or held in the hand during a session. It can be used to purify an area for meditation, or to clear the mind, body and spirit in readiness for expanding the consciousness. Amber is a superb tool for past-life exploration, clearing family patterns, or cleansing karmic debris from one’s energy field. It is a powerful protector in shamanic journeys and for its ability to facilitate travel to the lower world. Focusing on the fossil in bright sunlight or by candlelight heightens

Amber Talismans and Amulets

Amber’s importance as a talisman is not based on crystalline structure, as it is amorphous, nor on its chemical composition, as it is not a mineral. Rather it is the organic essence of life and the energy of light within its structure that has resonated with the human spirit since the earliest man.

Because of its preservation of life, Amber was revered as a repository of souls, and amulets of Amber were used in funeral rites for mourning the dead and placed in burial tombs with other treasures to protect the soul during its journey to the afterlife. [museumcatalogues.getty.edu][101 Hall, 26]

Amber is a talisman of the lonely and nostalgic, often referenced in myths and legends of the sea as tears of gods or goddesses who mourned the death of a loved one, especially one of a young life. It is considered to provide great strength to widows or those who await a loved one, and to sustain one through the grieving process. [Megemont, 22][Lembo, 61][Lecouteux, 276]

Amber is a good-luck talisman, believed to be pieces of the Sun that fell off into the sea. It has long been used to bring luck to warriors, protect infants and children, and to increase radiance and attract lasting love. [Eason, 82][Melody, 107][Megemont, 23][Fernie, 323]

Amber in Ancient Lore and Legend

Amber was one of the first substances used by man for decoration, utilized as far back as the Stone Age for jewelry, amulets and funerary offerings. Pieces of rough Amber marked with circular depressions were found in Prussia, Schleswig-Holstein, and Denmark in deposits of the Stone Age, made both by natural causes and man-made borings, possibly to replicate the natural depressions. Dr. Hoernes, an Austrian geologist, theorized these hollows were likely considered to be the resting place of the spirit or spirits believed to animate the stone, and were conceivably the earliest talismans or amulets. [Kunz, 55][Hall En, 79]

Besides citing the legendary tales of how Amber came to be, Aristotle, and later Pliny and Tacitus, attested to Amber’s true origin as earth-born, a resin formed from the tree of an ancient pine genus. Because insects and plant matter were suspended, timeless within its form, they deemed Amber to be an apt metaphor for entombment and to represent the ultimate function of the funeral rite: to honor the deceased with precious gifts and make permanent the memory of their lives. Large amounts of Amber were found in graves across the ancient world; some discovered in Mycenaean graves date back to 8000 BCE. [Kunz, 55][museumcatalogues.getty.edu][Hall En, 79][en.wikipedia.org]

In antiquity, Amber was a symbol of loneliness and nostalgia, as well as grief, and its creation was often referenced in lore as tears.

The origins of Baltic Amber are associated with an ancient Lithuanian legend of Jūratė, queen of the sea, who lived in a palace constructed of Amber at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. She fell madly in love with a fisherman named Kastytis and brought him back to live with her in her Amber palace. When her father, thunder god Perkūnas, the most powerful of the Lithuanian gods, found she had pledged her love to a mere mortal, he flew into a rage and sent lightning bolts to kill Kastytis and destroy the Amber palace. He then chained Jūratė within the ruins for all eternity. The legend claims that even today, when storms rage in the Baltic Sea, small fragments of the underwater palace can be found washed up on shore, and one can still hear the grieving goddess cry for her lost love. [en.wikipedia.org][www.amberartisans.com][www.lithaz.org]

A more classic tale for Amber comes from its name, the Latin electrum and ancient Greek elektron, which originated from the term elektor, meaning “beaming Sun.” According to Ovid in Greek mythology, when Phaëton, son of Helios (the Sun) was killed by lightning, his sisters wept so grievously they were changed into poplar trees. Their tears, shed perpetually into the Eridanus River, thought to be the modern river Po, congealed into electrum, droplets of Amber. [en.wikipedia.org][Lecouteux, 138, 312][Fernie, 325][Kunz, 55-56][Simmons, 23-24]

In a lost tragedy of Sophocles, the origin of Amber was fabled to be tears shed by obscure sea birds from a “land beyond India” over the death of the Greek hero, Meleager. In a Celtic myth, Apollo, banished from Olympus, shed “tears of Amber,” and a Christian legend claims Amber was born from the tears of pine trees during the Flood. [Kunz, 56][Lecouteux, 312][Fernie, 263][Megemont, 22]

In Scandinavia, Amber is believed to be the tears of Freyja, the Viking Goddess of Love and Beauty. Women there used spindles with whorls made of Amber to spin protection into garments for their warrior husbands or sons. [Eason, 82]

Many in the ancient world believed Amber was the “juice” or “unctuous sweat” of the heated earth, or honey from the Ajan Mountains that was brought forth by the heat of the sun. Others saw it as brilliant droplets of the setting sun as it sank beneath the waves, where it was congealed by the sea then cast upon the shore. [Fernie, 263][Kunz, 56][101 Hall, 26][Eason, 82][www.gemsociety.org]

Because of its natural warmth, Amber was regarded as a living being, and in the Far East it was believed the souls of tigers metamorphosed into Amber at their death and brought courage to their wearers. [Hall En, 79][Eason, 82]

Amber was also known as lyncurium or ligure stone, reputed in myth to be the solidified product of lynx urine and a kind of earth the animal used immediately to cover its urine as he was jealous of the uses men got from it. Stones made of a male lynx produced a deep hue, while those of a female were pale. Ingested as a drink, it removed stones from the bladder, and drunk in wine or worn as an amulet cured jaundice and diarrhea, quenched thirst, and possessed hemostatic properties. It was also believed lyncurium came from animals called langures or langes which dwelt by the banks of the Po River. These stones were reputed to protect all houses from ill fortune, heal stomach problems, and were cited as being the anaphrodisiac of prostitutes. [Lecouteux, 207-208][Fernie, 323][Kunz, 56]

Purity and holiness were thought to be evoked by Amber. Ogmios, the Celtic deity of eloquence, is said to have led his devoted followers around with chains of gold and Amber representing the spiritual connection that frees people, as opposed to material chains that imprison them. Faces of the saints and wise men were often described as resembling this color, while in Europe during the Middle Ages, rosary beads made from this substance were so popular the available supplies were exhausted. [Simmons, 23][Megemont, 22][en.wikipedia.org]

To the Native Americans, Amber is a sacred stone, said to represent the east wind of grandfather Sun. Both Amber and copal were used in the fire ceremonies of ancient tribal leaders from the earliest pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, and is still in use by a number of indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central America today as an incense, during sweat lodge ceremonies and Sacred Mushroom ceremonies. [Melody, 108][fredalightfoot.blogspot.com][en.wikipedia.org]  

Because of its nature of housing once living things, classical worshippers of the Mother Goddess believed Amber contained the essence of life itself, the animating principle, or Akasha. [www.gemsociety.org][Fernie, 323]

Another Latin name for Amber was succinum, (from sucus “juice”) thought to have derived from an extinct species of pine (Pinites succinifer). It emitted a pine-like smell when rubbed, and burned with the odor and appearance of torch-pine wood. Succinum ignited easily and pieces were burned for its soothing aroma and disinfectant abilities, as it was believed to filter germs. Its smoke was highly esteemed for providing a sterile and conducive environment for childbirth, and in medieval times was utilized as an incense to drive away evil spirits and enchantments, and to repel snakes and mosquitos. As succinum was soft and easily carved, it was popular in Eastern cultures for making mouthpieces for pipes. It was customary in antiquity to have the pipe lighted by a servant and Amber was considered incapable of transmitting infection. Oil of Amber, as well as succinic acid, was made from distilling the resin, and the residue was used to produce varnish. [Fernie, 322-325][Mella, 72][Melody, 108][101 Hall, 26][Megemont, 23]

Amber was considered to be a protective amulet for children, and Pliny records necklaces were made of these nuggets and hung about the neck of infants to keep them from the evil powers of witchcraft and sorcery. It was also thought to help with teething pain. [Fernie, 323][Megemont, 23][Lecouteux, 312]

The medicinal virtues of Amber were highly prized in the ancient world. Worn on the body, especially around the neck, it was reported to protect health as well as to relieve the symptoms of fever and infections, sore throat, headache, toothache, and respiratory discomfort. Ground into fine powder and mixed with water or wine, it was prescribed for stomach distress and epilepsy. Mixed with honey and rose oil, Amber was believed to cure deafness and other afflictions of the ear, and crushed and mixed with Attic honey would ward off dimness of sight. Oil of Amber was given in small doses to aid in cases of hysteria, and was used externally as a natural antibiotic for healing wounds and as a salve for rheumatism and various physical pains and injuries. It was also rubbed onto the chest and back for the relief of bronchial problems and was highly favored for treating whooping cough. The handles of ancient Jewish and Arabic circumcision and surgical knives were often carved from Amber as it was thought to staunch bleeding. [Fernie, 3, 324-326, 355][Lecouteux, 104][101 Hall, 26][Mella, 72]