How to cleanse and charge your crystals
Many people like to cleanse a new crystal when it arrives and then refresh it now and then, especially after a hard week or around the full moon. Here are the gentlest ways to do it, plus the stones that need extra care.
Gentle ways to cleanse
- Moonlight: leave your stones on a windowsill overnight, especially during a full moon. Safe for almost every stone.
- Selenite: set stones on or next to a selenite plate or wand for a few hours.
- A cluster or geode: rest small stones on an amethyst or quartz cluster.
- Sound: a singing bowl, chime or bell rung near your stones for a minute.
- Smoke: pass stones through the smoke of an herb bundle or incense you love.
- Earth: bury a hardy stone in a plant pot overnight.
- Breath and intention: hold the stone, take a slow breath and picture it clear and bright.
Charging with an intention
After cleansing, hold your stone and say or think what you'd like it to help you with. Keep it short and in the present tense, like "I am calm" or "I welcome abundance."
Keep these stones dry
Water can dissolve, flake, rust or dull some stones. Use moonlight, sound or selenite instead for:
Selenite, desert rose, all calcites (honey, orange, blue, green, Mexican), lepidolite, fuchsite, ruby fuchsite, malachite, chrysocolla, lapis lazuli, howlite, hematite, pyrite, bornite, apatite, soapstone and dolomite.
Keep these out of strong sun
Bright sun can fade amethyst, rose quartz, citrine, fluorite and smoky quartz over time. Moonlight is always safe.
How often
There's no fixed rule. Once a month, at each full moon, is an easy rhythm to remember. Our cosmic forecast shows when the next one is.