Today I want to talk about something that I’ve mentioned in a lot of posts, but want to go into further detail: how to cleanse crystals! Some of these cleansing rituals will work on some objects better than others, and other cleansing rituals will also work for spaces or people!
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It’s important to cleanse objects regularly – tarot cards, oracle cards, crystals, pendulums…because they hold energy. They capture the energy of your readings, or anything going on around you, and these need to be released every so often. Otherwise 2 things might occur – the energy might become blocked and you will not be able to get assistance from that object, or it will be holding negative energy.
If you’ve been working a lot with a particular crystal, it might take some of the negative energies and be holding it. If it’s not cleansed, then that negative energy might be released back into your space. This is not ideal.
These are 5 easy ways for how to cleanse crystals so they are ready to be worked with and you don’t have to worry about them holding onto negative energies.
1. Cleanse With Sage Smoke
Sage is a really great tool to use to cleanse crystals. This is also probably one of the fastest methods, and will work on just about every object, pendulums, cards, spaces, or your even smoke cleanse yourself and cleanse your own aura.
How to cleanse crystals with sage: burn the sage, and get it to just smolder (so no full flames). Depending on how many objects you’d like to cleanse, and how much time you have, you can use sage smoke to cleanse the objects two different ways.
- If you have a lot of objects and not a lot of time, lay all of the crystals you’d like to cleanse on the a table, your altar, or piece of fabric. Then slowly move the burning sage over each object, intentionally stopping at each crystal, even if for a second. Try to have the sage close enough to the objects to be surrounded by the smoke.
- If you’re looking to just cleanse a few, or give each object more attention, hold the crystal over the smoke. Make sure you have something to catch the ashes with so no accidental fires start! Watch how the smoke moves, if it’s going around the object, or doing any swirls. The smoke will likely change directions or shape once the crystal has been cleansed. See if you can notice an energy change.
Optional: During this smoke cleanse, have an incense burning. Having two dramatically different scents can have the air balanced. You could also move the crystal over the incense smoke after the sage. (Or you can get a sage/lavender bundle so you have both at once!) If you want to grow your own sage bundles, there’s a post on Breathing Garden!
2. Cleanse Your Crystals With Fresh Water
The second way to cleanse crystals is with water. This does involve submerging the crystal into water, so make sure the crystal can go under water! There are some crystals that cannot, because they might fall apart when submerged in water. Crystal Clear Intuition has great information on which cannot go under water. Others are pourus, and salt water going in might crack the crystal (you can read about those here).
How to cleanse crystals with water? Try to find a natural source of water, like a stream, lake, or ocean. If you can’t, running tap water is also acceptable if necessary. I prefer running water because the negative energies will be washed away. Hold the crystal under the water. Try to feel the energy of the crystal while the water is running over it. Hold the crystal under for as long as you feel necessary, but at least 10 seconds.
3. Cleanse With Full Moon Moonlight
This is one of my favorite methods to cleanse crystals, and all of my objects I use in my practices. It does require the full moon. But this is a great way to regularly cleanse crystals, and charge them with healing energy at the same time. You just have to remember what day the full moon is on each month. (Here’s a really cool moon calendar.)
What you do for this cleansing method – take everything you’d like to cleanse and leave it on a windowsill the night of the full moon. Leave them out overnight, and the moon will cleanse and recharge the crystals! The great thing about this is that it also works on cloudy nights.
For other full moon rituals, read here.
One thing I like to do after full moons is create a crystal grid for the next moon cycle with my freshly charged crystals (you can read about that here).
Keep reading: Do you need to cleanse your crystals every month?
4. Cleanse With A Selenite Slab
Selenite is an amazing crystal to have on hand. You can use this one on its own, but I also like combining it’s energy and the moonlight (not necessarily a full moon). Selenite is one of the few crystals that does not collect energy. So it’s a great one to cleanse with. It can recharge a crystal if you have a charging plate, or a small bar (for only a few crystals at a time).
How to cleanse crystals with selenite: all you have to do is leave the crystal on the selenite, for at least a few hours (closer to 24 is ideal). Then you can leave it on a windowsill for moonlight cleansing overnight as well.
5. Pendulum Cleanse
This final cleansing method for crystals only works if you have a pendulum, but it’s also one of the faster methods for cleansing objects. Here’s the full article about cleansing with a pendulum, or below you’ll find a short description of the method.
This method works better for individual objects, rather than cleansing a bunch at a time, but there’s no restrictions on what you can cleanse with this method.
In your non dominant hand, hold the object you’d like to cleanse. With your dominant hand, hold the pendulum over the object. Gently swing the pendulum clockwise to stir up energy, then counter clockwise to release the energy, and finally clockwise to add white energy back into the object. (Again, you can read more about this here).
I hope these have been helpful! I do want to share a few more ideas and thoughts before I go. A quick way to at least partially cleanse tarot cards or oracle cards is to shuffle them before a reading – for at least 2 minutes. This will remove thoughts left from the last tarot spread.
If you’ve been looking at this article because you’re having a hard time using your pendulum and think it’s giving you weird answers, I have a whole article going over troubleshooting your pendulum! If you’re still stuck or looking for other ways to cleanse crystals, message me on Instagram @moonofgemini!
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