Why should you clean your crystals? Well the simple answer to that question is that you use crystals to direct energy, so you should remove any unwanted influences to make sure that the energy flow is not affected. Whenever you buy a crystal you should clean it, as it may have been sitting gathering dust or have been handled by many people. Think of a crystal in a shop absorbing the energy it is exposed to like a sponge does water - until it is saturated.
Cleansing methods
There is a wide variety of ways to clean crystals. You can use water or salt, bury them in the earth, breathe on them of subject them to sound waves. In the middle ages, crystals were polished with honey to restore their lustre. Crystals may also be cleaned in simple ceremonies using the elemental energies to purify them.
When to Clean Crystals
Crystals act as focal points, absorbing energy that can then be redirected for either therapeutic or magical purposes. This mans that a crystal can absorb negative energy as well as positive, particularly if it's being used for healing and protection. If you carry a crystal to protect you from negativity in your office, for example, it would constantly be absorbing negative energy.
Negative Build-up
This absorption process obviously leas to a build-up of energy and when the crystal is saturated with negativity it will start to bleed through and affect you adversely.
Cleansing timetable
If you wear or carry a crystal all the time, you should clean it every three months. If you only use it occasionally, clean it annually.
Cleansing Your Crystals
You don'y need any special ingredients to clean your gems. These methods explain how to cleanse crystals using the elements, sight and sound, and even other crystals.
Using the Elements
The elements are involved in the formation of crystals, therefore, they are also good for cleansing crystals.
Air crystals can be passed through joss stick or incense smoke, which provides a medium for the negative energy to be carried away.
Fire is known as the great purifier, and the energy of a candle flame can transform negative energy when the crystal is passed swiftly through it.
Putting your crystal in fresh spring water (not tap water) allows the negative energies that have built up to be absorbed into the water. This is because the negativity will be drawn out into the pure medium of the water element.
The earth element absorbs negativity like a sponge. Therefore, putting a crystal on or in earth will draw stale energies out.
Sight and Sound
The simple energy that comes from vibration techniques or from sound vibrations can clean crystals.
Use visualisation combined with breathing to cleanse your crystals. When you breathe in and out, you are moving prana (life force) energy. By breathing on a crystal you can send some of that life force through the crystal, picking up the negativity as it passes through. Visualise the breath of life as white smoke passing out of your mouth through the crystal and coming our the other side coloured grey by the negativity it has absorbed.
Sound is also a good cleaning method. Ring a bell over a crystal and imagine the golden sound waves passing through the crystal and pushing all the negative energy out.
Using other Crystals to Clean Crystals
A bed of crystals, such as amethyst, actually provides an ideal base on which to place a crystal for cleaning. The large mass of crystal clusters will draw the negativity out of the smaller crystal and is so effective that this method ensures a crystal only needs annual cleaning.
To carry out this method a crystal should be placed on the cluster on a window sill, where it can receive light and be left for at least 24 hours. This ensures it is exposed to the light of the Sun and the Moon.
Light is also energy, so the rays of light passing through the crystal can help carry the negativity out and into the bed of crystals underneath.
Another way to clean a crystal with crystals is to place it in the centre of a purifying layout. Quartz crystals are ideal for this use, although stones such as zircon and topaz are good too. Use crystal points - wand shaped crystals - and place six crystals in the shape of a hexagram, points facing inwards. With another quartz draw a hexagram in the air connecting the six crystals, seeing it as a golden light in your mind. Then place the crystal to be cleaned in the centre for 24 hours.