How to Cleanse Crystals, Charge Crystals: Moonlight, Sunlight, More

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No, you can't just take it in the shower with you.

Crystals are prettyyy, but if you really want to work with crystals' energy, you can't just stick ’em on a shelf and look at ’em. These lil beauts are believed to vibrate at frequencies that we can work with, and that means they can pick up and hold on to the energy around them. You have to take care of your crystals in order to access their energy. And an important part of that is cleansing and charging them. No soap or charging cord required.

Crystals have a ~memory~. They absorb the energy of whatever's around them—the people who handle them, the environments they travel through, the gross vibes from the gum wrapper next to ’em in your purse. If you just got a new crystal buddy, who knows where that lil guy has been before it made its way to your bedroom? Sometimes the energies it picks up on are in direct opposition to the crystal's innate traits or oppose what we want to use the crystal to attract into our life. Those acquired energies can simply ~clog up~ the crystal, blocking it from working as it should. Cleansing sweeps away all those clingy vibes and brings the crystal back to its natural, pure state. Then it’ll be able to work the way you want it to.

Cleanse your crystals whenever you get new ones and definitely before you use them for the first time. If you have crystals you’ve owned for years but never cleansed, that's okay! You can start now.

If you’ve been wearing your crystal (like on a necklace) or carrying it around all day (in your purse, pocket, or bra), it doesn't hurt to cleanse them when you get home, especially if someone else has handled them. Crystals that you use for decor should take a once-a-month trip to the ~crystal spa~.

There are lots of ways to cleanse your crystals. Here are a few:

Water is an easy and popular way to cleanse your crystals. You can run your crystals under a faucet for a minute and pat them dry. If you want to get really witchy, you can seek out a natural source of running water, like a river or stream.

To banish any clingy bad vibes, cover your crystal in brown rice for 24 hours. The rice will soak up the ~bad vibes~ leaving your crystal just like new. Yep, just like a broken phone. (Make sure you get rid of the rice afterward.)

Leave your crystal on a windowsill, in natural light, from dusk until dawn, for at least 12 hours. That way, they’ll get a cleansing dose of both sunlight and moonlight. Bonus: Do this during a Full Moon for some extra-powerful vibes.

Submerge your crystal pals in a bowl of water and rock salt for a few hours to super-cleanse them. Or if you're near an ocean, go fill a bucket or tupperware with some ocean water. Then, pat them dry. One caveat: This is a great way to cleanse hard stones, like quartz, but not soft or porous stones, like calcite.

If you have a giant crystal that's difficult to move around or just a large collection (jeal), you can try sound cleansing. Sound a single tone or pitch (by chanting or using a tuning fork, a singing bowl, or even a cute lil bell) near your pals for 5 to 10 minutes.

You can bury your crystals underground (or bring a box of dirt inside) for some powerful cleansing vibes. Alternately, you can simply place your crystal on top of the ground. Just make sure you choose somewhere where you won't lose it.

Light incense, dried herbs, or a candle near your crystal and let the smoke waft over it for at least a minute. Just make sure you don't set off your smoke detector!

If you don't like to play with fire, you can also use a spray that contains special herbs or essential oils.

Hold your crystal in your dominant hand (or both hands) as you deeply inhale. Then, lift up the stone so it's close to your face. Breath out sharply through your nose onto your crystal. (Skip this one if you have a cold!)

A lot of people like to combine this technique with meditation. Either meditate or simply center your thoughts for a few minutes while you hold your crystal, and then picture light flowing out from your body, through your hands, and into your crystal.

Then your crystals are cleansed and ready for action, bb!

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Whatever you do with your crystals, they will eventually (a) pick up negative vibes (and need cleansing) and (b) run out of energy (and need recharging), just like a battery. Therefore, we need to cleanse the crystal and then charge it. Cleansing removes bad vibes, and charging restores a crystal's natural power and attributes. You need both to get your crystals in the best shape possible!

The good news is that the easiest way to cleanse AND charge your crystals at the same time is…SUNLIGHT. Leave them out in daylight on a windowsill for 30 minutes (even on a cloudy day), and the Sun will do the job. Some people like to charge their crystals under the light of a Full Moon, although not everyone thinks this is a potent enough power to charge a crystal.

If you have a large crystal cluster (particularly quartz, selenite, or amethyst), you can charge that, then place smaller crystals (like tumbled stones or jewelry) on it to absorb the cluster's energy and recharge. (But then you have to cleanse and recharge your cluster too, so, yeah, maybe sunlight is easiest!)

Kerry Ward has been reading and teaching tarot for over 25 years. You can book a personal, written tarot reading, which comes as a beautifully illustrated brochure, or pre-order her first book, Power Purpose Practice. Follow her on Instagram @mytarotbella for weekly forecasts, insights, and tarot teachings.

Erika W Smith (she/her) is the current Senior Astrology Editor at Cosmopolitan. In her 2+ years at Cosmo, she's worked on everything from editing weekly horoscopes, to reporting on how astrology influences album release dates, to launching The Cosmo Tarot. Before joining Cosmopolitan in 2020, she was a writer and/or editor for Refinery29, HelloGiggles, and BUST magazine. Her book Astrosex: How to Have the Best Sex According to Your Star Sign was published in 2021. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @erikawynn.

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