How To Cleanse Crystals – 11 Powerful Ways To Charge Crystals

Wondering why your beautiful piece of black tourmaline is starting to crumble into smaller crystals? 

Surprised when your favorite piece of clear quartz cracked?

Feeling sad because your silvery selenite crystals literally exploded?

Don’t worry – broken crystals happen to everyone, especially in our most stressful times, when we typically need healing crystals the most.

So, how can you avoid letting your magical stone collection slowly turn into crystal shards? 

The answer lies within their energy. Once you know why stones tend to break, it becomes easier to keep them whole and powerful.

Why Did My Crystal Break?

There are many reasons that gemstones can break, so let’s start with a little troubleshooting.

Once we’ve ruled out any mundane reasons, we can turn to the metaphysical.

If your crystal fell or was hit by something harder than itself, it broke from force or pre-existing stress fractures.

If your it went through an extreme temperature change, it broke from sudden expansion or contraction from hot or cold.

But if it broke while you held it or it has been safely padded in your pocket or purse for quite some time, chances are your crystal broke from too much negative energy.

If your crystal broke for no reason, it’s time to cleanse your crystals of unwanted energy and help them return to their natural vibrations.

11 Ways To Cleanse Your Healing Crystals

The energy stored within your stones can be used to power spells, strengthen protection through crystal grids, help with healing, and more.

But what happens when a crystal’s energy is used up?

How do you stop negative energy from clouding your stones’ true power?

You cleanse them!

Each crystal in your collection is different, so we’re sharing 11 different cleansing methods to reset your crystals and stones.

Crystal cleansing is an important step for anyone who normally uses a crystal’s energy for spells, protection, healing, and more!

Try each cleansing method and discover which resonates best with you and your specific gemstones.

1. Remove Unwanted Energy From Crystals With Smoke Cleansing

To cleanse your crystals using smoke:

1. Choose your favorite spiritually cleansing dried herb, such as sage, palo santo, or angelica.
2. Light a charcoal tablet and place it into a heat-safe bowl.
3. Place a pinch of your dried herb onto the lit charcoal tablet.
4. Once the herb begins to smoke, place your crystal into the stream of smoke.
5. Visualize the smoke breaking apart any old, unwanted energy around and within the stone.
6. See the stone as being surrounded by clean, white light.

Why does this work?

When herbs are burned, they release their energy in a burst of power. That power symbolically travels upwards in the form of its smoke.

Which herbs can cleanse my stones?

• Sage
• Angelica
• Rosemary

When these herbs are burned, their vibrations raise the energy levels around them to their highest state. The heightening of low or harmful energies to their highest and most pure form elevates and clears those energy patterns, thus cleansing crystals.

2. Recharge Light-Safe Crystals In The Sun

To increase your crystal’s positive energy: 

1. Optional, but recommended: Check your crystal’s spiritual correspondences to find out which day and hour is the best for sunbathing.
2. Take them outside and place them in direct sunlight.
3. Feel how the sunlight feels on your skin and recognize that your stones are feeling the same power surge.
4. Bring your stones back inside before nightfall.

Why does this work?

This method works by increasing the energy of your gemstone. 

Think about when you take a moment to step outside and feel the warmth of the Sun; that exposure recharges the crystals just as it gives you an amazing boost of energy!

Can crystals be damaged by sunlight?

Yes, some crystals are light-sensitive and can be damaged by sunlight.

Be cautious with this cleansing method, as some stones, such as amethyst, fluorite, rose quartz, and colored calcite, fade in the sunlight.

3. Rinse Unwanted Energy Away With Running Water

To clean your gemstones with water:

1. Take your crystals to a naturally running, clean water source. If you don’t live near a running river, a faucet and sink will work perfectly!
2. Hold your stones in the water and visualize that clouds of dark energy are rinsing off of them like dirt.
3. Feel how clean you are when you step out of a shower and know that your crystals feel the same.

Why does this work?

Water is a natural cleanser of deep emotion, and being clean and balanced heightens our connection to the earth. 

When we take a step into moving water, dirt is washed off of our bodies, and spiritual “dirt” is removed from our subtle bodies. This is the same for crystals! 

Can crystals be damaged by water?

Yes, some crystals are water-soluble or dissolve in water. If you have water-soluble crystals like calcite, gypsum, halite, pyrite, and others, please use another method to cleanse them.

For this method, we also recommend using only larger stones, because a smaller stone can be quickly washed away.

4. Return Your Stones To Mother Earth To Cleanse & Recharge Them

Give your stones a deep clean by letting them thrive in their natural environments by:

1. Take crystals outside and bury them in your garden or place them into non-fertilized planter pots, if you don’t have a garden.
2. Mark where you’ve buried your crystals.
3. Let them sit outside for at least 24 hours.

Why does this work?

The earth is a natural “vacuum” for harmful and negative energies, sucking them out of our bodies and recycling them into new, healthy energy. By placing crystals back into their original environment, they are naturally attuned to their original states. 

Which crystals thrive best with this cleansing method?

Healing crystals and protective stones tend to hold, process, and transmute the highest amount of negative energy; they also give away the most positive energy. By letting them rebalance in Earth, they can gently return to their best selves.

5. Dissolve The Negative Energy Around Your Crystals With Reiki Or White Light

Gently cleanse any stone by:

1. Holding your stone in the palm of your hand.
2. Visualize Reiki light flowing into it. 
3. If you are not attuned to Reiki, visualize white light flowing down from the Universe, into the top of your head, down your arms, into the palm of your hand, and into your gemstone. 
4. Once you feel that the stone is purified, thank the energy and close the connection by visualizing the light stream ending, as a faucet stops dripping water.

Reiki is a great, safe way to cleanse soft stone pieces.

6. Raise The Vibrations Of Your Crystals’ Energy With Sound

To cleanse crystals with sound:

1. Pick out your favorite singing bowl, tuning fork, musical instrument, or vocal note.
2. Optional: tune your instrument to the note that resonates with your crystal or your goals.
3. Place your stone next to your instrument.
4. Strike or play your instrument and visualize the vibrations shaking your crystal into tune.

Why does this work?

Science states that the frequency of one item can alter the frequency of an item that’s near it. 

By using sound, we can cause the subtle energies around a gem to shift away from their harmful state and into a different, more beneficial state.

7. Bathe Your Crystals In A Saltwater Bath

To clean your gems in a saltwater bath:

1. Make sure your crystal is not water-soluble.
2. Make sure it cannot be damaged by salt.
3. Mix 1 teaspoon of natural salt, such as pink Himalayan salt, into 1 cup of room-temperature water.
4. Let your stones sit for a few moments.
5. Rinse them under running water to remove any excess salt.

It’s important to note that certain gemstones can be damaged by salt and water; use a different cleansing method for water-soluble stones.

8. Balance Your Crystals’ Natural Energy With The 4 Elements

Witches and Wiccans will resonate with the method of using the elements to cleanse their gemstones.

To clear your stones’ energy with the four elements:

1. Gather a bowl of salt or dirt to represent the element of Earth.
2. Light your favorite cleansing incense stick or cone to represent the element of Air.
3. Light a red candle to represent the element of Fire.
4. Fill a bowl, chalice, or cauldron with fresh water to represent the element of Water.
5. Pass your gemstones through each element or touch the stone to each, and ask for each element’s blessing.

9. Soothe Tired & Used Stones Under The Full Moon

Cleansing crystals under a full moon is the most gentle, relaxing way to reset the healing properties of your favorite gemstones.

To cleanse your crystals with the light of the full moon:

1. Once the sun has gone down, place your stones on a soft cloth in a place where they will receive the most moonlight.
2. Set an intention that the silver moonlight heals and resets each stone.
3. Bring them back inside before the sun comes up.

10. Naturally Vacuum Away Negative Energy With Carnelian

It is said that some crystals never need to be cleansed. These gems, such as carnelian or selenite, have strong subtle vibrations that can help elevate the energies around them indefinitely. We call these “cleansing crystals”.

To cleanse and charge things using carnelian:

1. Place your carnelian into a bowl filled with all of the crystals you’d like to cleanse.
2. Alternatively, you can create a crystal grid that connects carnelian stones to any crystal you want to reset.
3. You can also store your them with a carnelian piece to keep them ready at all times!

11. Keep Crystals Clean Ready-To-Use In A Salt Bed

Keep salt-safe crystals ready to use at all times by:

1. Filling a bowl with natural salt, such as sea salt.
2. Place your stones on top of the salt and keep them there until you need them.

Be careful, though, if you have softer, tumbled stones, they can easily be scratched by the grains of salt.

What are your favorite methods for recharging your crystals?

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