Cleansing clears what a stone is held to have picked up, charging is said to fill it again, and activating gives it its work. Clear it with smoke, sound, moonlight, selenite or a quick rinse, charge it under the moon or by contact, then activate it.
Crystal practice holds that a stone picks up something from everywhere it has been, so a new one arrives carrying the shop. A stone you have lent to a friend needs clearing for the same reason, and so does one that has started to look dull on the shelf.
Activating is the odd one of the three, since it looks ahead to the work instead of back at what the stone has been through. In casual practice the three usually blur into a single quiet minute with the stone, which is fine.
Clearing a stone
Smoke is the most visible of the methods that never touch the stone. Pass the stone slowly through the smoke of a smudge bundle or a stick of palo santo, turning it so the smoke reaches every side. Burn the bundle or stick over a heat-safe dish with a window open, and keep the smoke away from anyone with asthma and away from pets. Never leave it burning or smouldering in an empty room, and put it out fully before you put it away. Buy smudge herbs and palo santo from someone who sources them with care. A bell or a few words of release are the smokeless way, and a night under the full moon is held to clear a stone while it charges it.
Contact is the second way. A night on a piece of selenite is said to leave a stone clear by morning. A hardy stone can also be buried in a pot of soil for a night or two and brushed clean afterwards. Dry salt is used with the stone standing in a small glass set into a bowl of salt, so that the two never meet.
Water is for the everyday quartz stones. Rinse amethyst, rose quartz or clear quartz briefly under the tap and dry it with a soft cloth; running water is held to carry off what the stone has gathered. Selenite, a form of gypsum, dissolves in water and stays dry. Pyrite is cleared dry and stored away from damp air, and vanadinite, which contains lead, stays out of water. The list of crystals that should not be put in water covers the rest of what you own.
Charging it again
Charging turns first to the moon. Stones go out on the night of the full moon, on a windowsill, and come back in the next morning. Selenite does both in crystal practice, so the clearing night on a plate can count as the charge.
Carnelian and sunstone, the warm stones crystal writers link with the sun, get a brief time in morning light instead of a whole day on a bright sill. Amethyst is kept out of long, hard sun, because some amethyst can lose colour in strong light. Rose quartz is generally stable in light and can go in sun or moon.
Activating, and how often
Activation comes last, once the stone is clear and charged, and how to activate crystals goes through it for each kind of stone.
A stone in daily use is cleared and charged about once a month, with an extra clearing after anyone else has handled it. There is no schedule you are failing to keep.
Stone by stone
Each stone below carries the association crystal practice gives it, with the methods that suit it.
- Rinse amethyst or pass it through smoke, then charge it under the moon or on a cluster. It is the stone of calm, kept by the bed for quieter nights.
- For rose quartz, the heart stone, a rinse, smoke or sound will all do.
- Selenite, kept for clarity, is cleared only in the dry ways.
- Moonstone, the intuition stone, is charged under the full moon and cleared with smoke or sound.
- Raw black tourmaline, the protection stone, can be a bundle of columns grown side by side that chips and sheds as it is handled, so clear it where it can lie still, with smoke or a night on selenite.
- Citrine, the merchant’s stone, goes through smoke or sound and stays off a sunny sill, since some citrine can fade with prolonged exposure to intense light.
- Pyrite, carried for confidence, goes through smoke or sound and is stored somewhere dry, well away from bathrooms and steamy kitchens.
- The vanadinite in the collection here, red-brown hexagonal crystals on a palm-sized piece of rock, is kept out of water entirely, and whoever has held it washes their hands afterwards.
- Clear quartz, the all-purpose stone, takes every method on this page, so a single tumble of it is the easy stone to try each method on first.
Sources
- GIA, Amethyst Care and Cleaning: “Some amethyst color can fade with prolonged exposure to intense light”; amethyst can be safely cleaned with warm soapy water.
- GIA, Rose Quartz Care and Cleaning: rose quartz is generally stable when exposed to light and heat; warm, soapy water is always a safe way to clean it.
- Geology.com, Quartz: quartz is highly resistant to both mechanical and chemical weathering.
- GIA, Citrine Care and Cleaning: “Some citrine color can fade with prolonged exposure to intense light.”
- National Park Service, White Sands, Gypsum: gypsum dissolves in water; selenite is the crystalline form of gypsum.
- Canadian Museum of Nature, Pyrite disease: pyrite oxidation is triggered by humid air, so the museum keeps its pyrite in low humidity and in dry, impermeable containers.
- Handbook of Mineralogy, Vanadinite: formula Pb5(VO4)3Cl, a lead mineral.
