As many of us know, crystals are a wonderful inclusion to our wellbeing practices. The stones hold our intentions, offer an energy boost as well as healing. However, it is essential to understand the materials and how to cleanse crystals properly:

What does ‘cleansing crystals’ mean?

Imagine wearing a white suit in a busy city – it would become dirty as you brush against other people, surfaces and air pollution. So you would need to clean it. This analogy is the same with crystal; when you cleanse them, you are removing any contaminants or unwanted, negative energy.

Why is it important to cleanse crystals?

1. To re-energize them. Much like a battery, your crystal’s store of energy depletes. Keeping your stones cleansed ensures that they continue to emit high vibrations.
2. It releases any negative or stagnant energy from them.
3. You are aligning the crystals to work with you and hold your intention.

How often should I cleanse my crystals?

The short answer is, it depends. If you use your crystals regularly on others, you’ll want to cleanse them more often than if you’re only using them on yourself. I personally don’t like other people handling my crystals without my permission, so I purify them after being exposed to a busy environment.

One thing that never changes is you need to cleanse newly acquired crystals. This is because you don’t know in what environment they were stored, and you need to align them with your intention and purposes.

How to cleanse crystals:

Cleansing is not a physical process – but rather a ritualistic one. The most important thing to remember is that it is the intention that cleanses crystals. The below are methods to focus this intention. As ever follow your intuition and experiment with the technique that resonates most with you:

1. Breath: This is the most versatile and portable method. Take your crystal in your healing hand (your non-dominant hand) and blow on the stones three times. Each time you do say out loud or internally – “I cleanse this crystal in the name of [what you believe in or pray to e.g. God/Goddess/Universe etc.]

2. Light: Take the crystal in the palm of your hand and imagine white light emanating from your hands, clearing the crystal’s energy, or use Reiki energy if you are attuned. Better still; you can place the crystal inside an upturned glass and cup your hands around it so that you are not touching the stone. Stop when the moment feels right (after approximately 5 minutes).

“Please send any negative energy back to Source, where it can be transmuted back into its highest potential for all beings and Mother Earth”

3. Air: Immerse your crystals in the smoke of our No.2 Space Clearing Incense, sage or Pola Santo until it seems to come back to life. Also, this method is the best option for larger crystals. Use a feather or your hand to waft the smoke around the stone. Allow around 5 minutes for smoke cleansing. It is important to note that smudging alone does not cleanse the crystal. Instead, the smudge stick acts as a sponge for the negative energy and subsequently needs to be sent away with intention. To do this, say aloud “Please send any negative energy back to Source, where it can be transmuted back into its highest potential for all beings and Mother Earth.”

4. Water: One of my favourite methods. First, fill a bowl with water and add a few drops of Bach’s Flower Remedy. Then, steep your crystal in this solution for a minimum of five minutes. What’s best, you can bundle crystal group in the same bowl, i.e. you can place all of your clear quartz stones in the water and cleanse together. N.B: you cannot steep all crystals in water. For example, selenite cracks over time if exposed to moisture.

5. Earth: Amazing for grounding and protective stones – put them back into nature or better still, dig them into the soil. However, be sure to tie a string around your crystal, or alternatively in a flower pot, otherwise, it might get lost; they tend to sink into the soil! Do this is dry weather and from one new moon to the next new moon, although a week will still work wonders.

6. Sound: By far the easiest method, but often the most infrequent, take your crystals with you to a sound bath. Whether it’s a gong bath or crystal bowl sound bath, it doesn’t matter, as it’s the frequency of the instruments that realign the stone’s optimal vibration.

Charging Crystals

One thing to clarify, as many people get this wrong, is moonlight and sunlight does not cleanse crystals but instead restores and charges them. If you put them out on the full moon, make sure to collect them first thing in the morning, so the sun’s rays don’t bake the power you have restored. (Ideally, you would be retrieving them before the sun comes up – but I can’t say I’ve ever managed!) In addition, some crystals prefer sunshine and other moonlight, for instance, you can’t place amethyst in direct sunlight, as it will beach out the colour.

Finally, if you have crystals in your house that you haven’t programmed to a task, I would suggest attuning them to sending out love and harmony, to either a situation, relationship, your home or out into the world. Remember, crystals are powerful things, not decoration.

Let me know in the comments below how you cleanse your crystals, and don’t forget to check out our shop to find the perfect crystal for you.