By John Slack.
To maximise the effects of your crystals, they need to be cleaned and charged. By ‘cleaning’, we mean that all negative energies, along with any energies left behind by previous owners or casual handlers, need to be expunged. By ‘charging’, we mean filling your crystal with your own inner light.
Cleaning
There are many ways of cleaning crystals and I have included here methods for cleaning or cleansing your crystals using the powers of whichever element you prefer. Please note though, that some crystals will not respond well to certain elements and could be damaged by them. You must be aware of your particular crystal’s preferences.
Air
Using Sage or Lavender incense, sweep your crystal through the smoke, back and forth. Then, using your hand or a feather, sweep the smoke towards the crystal. Some people prefer to use a smudge stick rather than incense. This works equally well.
Earth
These are three Earth Element methods.
Using Crystals: place your crystals on a bed of hematite stones OR a bed of Amethyst overnight.
Using Rice: place a layer of uncooked rice in a glass bowl and place the crystal on the rice. Then cover the crystal with rice and leave for 24 hours. Throw the rice away when you’ve finished.
Using Earth itself: many people suggest burying your crystals in the garden for 24 hours, whilst others prefer a plant pot filled with soil for this purpose. Either is fine, but I would recommend changing the soil regularly if using the plant pot method. It does need to be soil though; potting compost is not earth.
Fire
Arrange a circle of tealight candles and place the crystal in the middle. Leave until the candles are exhausted.
If you are in a hurry, light a candle and pass your crystal through the flame a few times (be careful not to burn yourself). The more times you pass it through the flame, the cleaner it will become.
Water
Using Salt Water: If you’re using seawater, you must ensure it is clean. The South Pacific is the best place on earth to get clean seawater, but unless you live there, it’s hard to get hold of. Mediterranean seawater, or, for the UK, seawater from the west coast is cleaner than that from the North Sea. It’s a lot easier to make your own.
Mix cold water and sea salt (any) in a 1:1 ratio (1 millilitre of water weighs 1 gram, so add say, 200 ml water to 200grams sea salt). Be aware that some crystals do NOT like salt water.
Using Fresh Water: Hold your crystal in the stream of a river, brook or stream or if you can, a waterfall. Do not use stagnant or unmoving water (so not a pond, lake, well or bowl of tap water). Again, be aware that some crystals do NOT like water at all.
Charging
Now that your crystal is clean, it needs ‘charging’. I recommend you do this in a ‘special’ place you choose; it could be a clearing in a local wood, a favourite beach or park, or a favourite room or part of your garden. It needs to be a place in which you feel secure, safe and comfortable. If it has spiritual significance, all the better.
Hold your crystal and focus upon it, mentally pushing out any negative energies. Imagine the negativity leaving the crystal as a dark mist dissipating into the air around it. Then, in your mind, project a brilliant white light into the crystal. Imagine ‘pushing’ light into the crystal until it shines brightly and you feel it can become no brighter.
Your crystal is now cleaned, charged and ready for you to use.
Article by John Slack.
John has been a technical author, training course designer and examination compiler, lecturer and trainer. Today, he creates websites (like this one) and provides copywriting and other services from his website, reallyeffectivecopy.com