Crystal Care
In this section we’re going to discuss caring for your crystals. The three primary areas
we’ll cover include how to clean, charge, and store your stones.
Before we get started with those topics though, I’d like to revisit the issue of respecting your crystals.
If you remember from the “Working with Crystals” page, we talked about the importance of treating your crystals with respect. Let me reiterate that the way you treat all of the people and things in your life creates a vibration that is transmitted to the universe,
and that returns things to you in a like manner. This means that how you treat others;
and others include those things you own, live or interact with, is how you’ll be treated. Sound familiar?
In another vein, remember that respect is a first cousin to gratitude. And gratitude is
a heavy-hitter in the area of manifesting the things you want in your life. Working
with crystals to improve your life is a great start. But if you are always displeased with everything and everyone around you, and treat others with a negative or disrespectful attitude, and can’t see all the things you already have that are awesome, I promise
you that crystals aren’t going help.
You must begin where you are, with what you have, and shift your perspective; your vibration, to one of respect and gratitude. That alone will start to positively affect how
your life is unfolding. Then add to that your work with crystals, and you could experience some truly amazing results.
Moving on.
Cleaning Your Crystals: The subject of cleaning your crystals covers two distinct areas:
the physical cleaning, of dirt, debris and potential germs, and the spiritual cleaning of
other people’s thoughts and intentions. “Other people” refers to all those people
who came into contact with your crystals prior to you. From the miners, to the sellers,
to the warehouse people who packed them, and the mail service people who handled them along the way. All of these people could have left residual thought-prints
with your crystals.
Let’s talk about physical cleaning first. When you first receive (or bring home) your
crystals, they should be physically cleaned. Always! The easiest way to clean crystals is
with water. However, it’s not necessarily the best way to clean certain stones.
Now you may or may not know that some crystals really shouldn’t come into contact
(or prolonged contact) with water. Stones like Selenite will dissolve if left to sit in water. Other stones that contain iron, like Hematite or tangerine quartz, will rust if left in water.
If your stone has cracks, or is porous, water could get into the cracks and cause
damage to the crystal as well.
Having said that; with most of these types of crystals, the damage occurs only if the
stones are left to sit in water for an extended time. In general, you should be able to
take a damp cloth (not soaking) and wipe the outside of the crystal. Also, most smooth tumbled stones can be cleaned with water. Just be careful if they have cracks or raw areas.
The stones I would be most careful with are crystals that chip, flake or peel easily, like Kyanite or raw Pyrite. You might want to take a soft brush (an old make-up or paint
brush?) and gently clean the surface.
With the majority of other crystals, especially those in the quartz family, you should be
able to clean them by running them under water. Do not use any chemicals with your crystals. Gently rubbing them under water should be enough.
With crystal jewelry, always follow the manufacturer’s instructions for cleaning.
Once your crystals are physically clean, you really should think about spiritually cleaning
or clearing them. There are just so many people who could have come into contact
with your stones. And any one of them (or more) could have left thought-prints in the crystal. In order to get the most positive vibrations from your crystals, you should
always start with a clean slate.
There are many ways to clear your stones. I have a few that I use regularly and there
are some methods that I’m not particularly fond of. But remember, this is just my opinion and what I have found works best for me. If you feel that something is working great for you, please continue to do so.
Some of the more common methods involving placing your crystals into a bowl of
another substance like salt or rice. I have no idea where these came from. Salt is very drying (it is the way humans preserved food until refrigeration was invented), and the
small salt crystals can scratch or otherwise damage delicate crystals.
And rice? I’m even more confused. Is it because when cooked, rice or other starchy vegetables absorb so much water? I don’t know. It has no particular vibration known to absorb negative energy and when raw/dry, can be damaging to stones as well.
Sand could be used. After all, most sand is primarily quartz. But again, the sharpness
of the crystals could do damage to your stones. For this reason it’s not my favorite
method (but at least it makes sense to me). If you're going to use sand, purchase one of
the finely ground sand products (such as those used for the sand ceremony at a wedding). The crystals in this type of sand are much smaller and less likely to do damage.
Another popular method of clearing stones is by smudging them. Smudging refers to
the practice of running your stones through the smoke of a smoldering herb known for
its ability to cleanse or clear. Palo Santo wood (one of my favorites) as well as sage,
cedar, and juniper are all used for this purpose. Do not use cheap incense for smudging your crystals. If you’re going to employ this method, purchase the real herb bundles
made for smudging.
There is yet another group that states that certain types of crystals never need to be cleared for one reason or another (some say they don’t absorb negative energy in the
first place. Others say they can transform negative energy). Ipso facto, people believe
these stones can be used to clean or clear other stones.
Crystals such as Citrine (probably the most well known), Quartz clusters and Kyanite are
all stones said to have this quality. And the list seems to grow every year. Some say
Selenite has this quality (hasn't everyone heard this one?), as well as Celestite and lots
of other "Angelic" crystals.
This may very well be. My opinion is that all stones have the ability to absorb energy, positive and negative. Some may be able to take in or hold considerably more energy before they need clearing and others may be able to transform the absorbed energy,
but I believe that at some point, they all need clearing.
At the very least, I have the attitude of better safe than sorry. It does no harm to
regularly clear my crystals. But it could be harming them if I don’t.
Which leads me to my favorite method of clearing- Sound! Think about sound for a moment. It is said (in many different cultures and beliefs) that sound created the
universe. Also, almost every ancient culture knew about the sacredness of certain
sounds or of the power of speaking words aloud (as opposed to just thinking them).
The evidence for sound is extensive.
Charging Your Crystals: Once physically cleaned and spiritually cleared, you might want
to charge (re-charge?) your crystals. Charging a crystal is just what it sounds like;
giving the crystal a boost, if you will, of energy. For stones that may have had a lot of thought-prints from other people, or maybe they were stored in an environment that depleted them, a little charging could reinvigorate them. And again, it shows respect
for your crystals.
As with clearing, there are a myriad of ways to charge your crystals. However, some of
them can be damaging to certain types of crystals and so caution should be exercised.
For example, some people feel that placing their stones under a bright sun for the day
is a great way of charging them. And theoretically, it is. The sun is a great source of
energy. The problem is that many crystals will fade (I’m talking become a clear or
near-clear stone) in the sunlight. Amethyst is one of these crystals. Imagine putting
your Amethyst out in the morning, and in the late afternoon when you retrieve it,
there is no purple remaining. EEK!
You can also use moonlight, and the good news is that it won’t fade any of your stones. The not so good news is that you might want to be careful about leaving crystals outside overnight because of the possibility of moisture damage, wind damage, animal damage and so forth. As long as you’re careful (maybe put your crystals in large glass jar in the moonlight?) you should be able to use this method. If you can put your crystals on a windowsill that receives moonlight for at least a few hours, that would also work well.
If you’re trained in some sort of energy healing work like Reiki, you could use that to
charge your crystals.
Also, pyramid energy can be used to both clear and charge crystals. I tend to use
this method most frequently.
Placing crystals on a clear Quartz cluster is another way to charge your stones. Maybe
this is where the clearing idea came from? The vibration of Rock Quartz (as Clear Quartz
is known) is very high, and the fact that a cluster is a community of Rock Quartz all
vibrating towards a single purpose, makes it a great choice for charging crystals.
I’m fairly sure there are dozens of other systems for cleaning, clearing and charging
your stones. For me, some of them are just too expensive, are not based in science
or fact, are way too complicated, or there’s too high a risk of damaging some of
your stones.
Storing Your Crystals: For some people, the question of storing their crystals is a
non-issue. For example, if your collection consists of 5 or 6 prized possessions, you may choose to always have them on display somewhere. The matter of storage does come
into play when you have a more sizeable collection such that, they cannot all be
“out” at the same time.
Storing crystals is all about preventing them from being damaged. Generally speaking,
you wouldn’t want to put all your stones into one box or tray. This could allow them
to become scratched or broken too easily. If you only have one container to use,
you might want to consider wrapping each crystal to protect it.
If you can afford it, a multi-compartment container would work better. Then each
crystal can have its own space without the risk of hitting against other stones. Do be
careful of the material the container is made from though. It should be something
that cannot damage a crystal.
I use those plastic multi-compartment containers they sell at hobby stores for crafters. They’re fairly inexpensive (I think $2.99) and since they’re plastic, they won’t damage my crystals. In addition (over-kill girl), I cut up pieces of white felt and put in the bottom of
each compartment to provide a little more protection.
Some of these containers even have reposition-able dividers that allow you to make sections larger or smaller. This is great if you have different size crystals.
For smaller stones or egg shapes, I’ve heard that some people use empty egg cartons.
This could certainly work well for your smaller gridding supplies for example.
If you collect crystal spheres, you could possible use Christmas ornament boxes. They come already divided into compartments. These might not be good for smaller stones,
but would certainly work for medium to large ones.
Use your imagination and what’s around your house. Think outside the box (so to speak); something that wasn’t expressly designed to store crystals may just be the right thing.
But please do protect your stones. While energetically some of them are extremely strong, physically many of them are easily scratched or broken.
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Take care of your crystals and you’ll have them to enjoy for years to come.