One of the frequent questions we get at the store is how to cleanse crystals. Cleansing and programming a crystal are different functions. As a rock shop, Crystal Life is committed to cleansing its stones so that their new owners can work with them as they wish.

Programming means placing a specific request, idea or objective into the crystal and once the crystal goes to its new owner, that may be the owner’s objective (e.g. “help me to stop smoking.”) When the individual wishes to work on another objective, they need to clear the crystal of

Quartz Generator

the last “program” – we prefer to use the term “request” – and “program” or “request” its assistance on the next project.

I personally prefer to do my own personal work with a cleared crystal, seeing it as a distinct ancient wisdom who can assist me in various projects. This necessitates respecting the stone – remember some of these stones are millions of years old – and then receiving its energetic help. So I like to cleanse, not program, my own crystals. This means clearing conscious or unconscious information so that the crystal’s own million year old personality comes through, shines brightly and can work clearly with me as a wise old being. As the practitioner and the cleared crystal work together, as in any partnership you begin to deeply understand each other and adapt to the other’s needs. This is crystal work at its highest form.

Using this method, the crystal, because of its molecular configuration and it connection to its own specific family of stone beings, is especially good at clearing, holding and strengthening specific aspects of energy. For example: if you want to work with a green stone, green aventurine is excellent for stimulating healthy new growth while green malachite is excellent for clearing energetic obstructions. When used for their inherent purpose, they, like people, can really excell at their function.

Sometimes people tell us about products that are on the market that are “programmed” to do something specific, such as clear emfs, etc. It might perform this function for awhile, but if it is not what the underlying life form wishes to do, eventually the crystal will overthrow this imposition on its million year old personality and return to its natural energy. At Crystal Life, we are committed to cooperation, and work to help all our stones shine forth with their own personalities. Crystals and stones are committed to help earth, and are grateful to have the opportunity to work with a human.

Our staff loves it when a human picks up a crystal that is just right for them. The crystal perks up and shines from this interaction. Time after time a person will bring a crystal they discovered and “just love!” to the check out area and we are astounded at how this crystal, who just minutes before seemed rather plain, has suddenly blossomed into a very awake and beautiful energy. We love sending our “children” off to work with a new partner like this!

It is our policy at Crystal Life to go around the store and clear the energy of the crystals and stones, to keep them clear and active, after a day of being picked up and studied by many humans in search of their own new partner. This is one way of clearing that you can and should practice in your own home, on every surface of every room. Some of you will want to do this with sound such as a bell or an “aum”, others with incense or a sweep of your hand – there are many ways to clear. The central objective is to image all the dirt of the day being hosed off the stones, or your home bookshelves or walls, and down into receiving Mother Earth. You are giving the area an energetic shower! We like to tell the stones and our other products that we love them and appreciate them and we pray they get a good home where they can be of service! The same offering of love works in your own home with the objects you have about you!

If you are working with a stone or a crystal in a therapy session, on yourself or others, it is good to clear them afterwards. Stones are meant to hold energy for a place, pulling frequencies into themselves and balancing all. They will do that for you, too, pulling out imbalances from your frequencies. But stones don’t move all that fast – that’s the polar opposite energy from their function of holding – and so it helps for you to help your stones clear themselves. They need energetic showers from time to time!

You can perform this cleansing in a number of ways. If the issue is a normal one, it is always good to have a quartz cluster around that you can place a small stone or a piece of jewelry on. The function of the cluster is to send out balancing energy in many directions, and so it breaks up the stone or jewelry’s clogging, cleans up that energy and sends it off. Eventually the cluster also needs to be cleaned, but only once in awhile. I also enjoy placing the stones on moss – either harvested myself or even the preserved moss you get in a hobby store – the moss is very soothing to the stone: they are a good combination and often appear in nature together!

“Hard” stones like quartz, jasper, agate can be placed overnight or up to, but no longer than, three days on a bed of sea salt or kosher salt (not iodized salt), or in a salt solution. Then the stones are removed, and the salt poured down a drain – don’t reuse the salt for it now contains the pollution of the stone and might put it back into the next object. “Soft” stones like turquoise, malachite, lapis lazuli, sodalite and corals should not be cleared this way as the salt can pit them.

You can also clear by placing the stones outside in the full moon or in a thunderstorm. It is not wise to place clear crystals such as quartz in the full sun as – remember your folk lore – crystals can be used to start a fire, and on a hot sunny day could cause a problem for you!

Other ways to clear are to smudge the crystal with incense, place a number of stones of different types together so that their different energies clear each other, and to place a small stone in the palm of one hand and bring the other hand down over it, seeing the chakra points in each palm working together to clear the stone. You can also mentally vision the stone clearing.

Individual Crystals vs. Community Crystals

If you have a stone that you are working with on a personal level, to clear your own issues, it is good to keep that crystal to yourself and not use it on others. If you have a community crystal that is used to clear others such as a practitioner uses, it is good to keep it as a community crystal and not then use it for major personal clearing. These are two distinctly different functions for the crystal. If you have a personal crystal, it is your choice whether or not to let another person hold it. Sometimes another person will “pollute” the stone and sometimes they will energize the stone. In general, if you feel the other person has issues either personally or with you, you might wish to keep the stone private and even, in a combined living situation, hidden. If you feel the other person is a blessed individual, you might wish to have their blessings in your stone and you might even request they hold it and offer it some of their own higher energies!

Stones hold energy, and if you are buying a crystal from an antique store, you should decide if you wish to bring into your own energy field the good and bad energies of its previous owners, if you wish it to retain the essence of its experiences, or if you wish to cleanse it to start over fresh. And then clear it accordingly. When purchasing a stone from a rock shop, you need to consider whether it needs clearing before you start working with it, or whether you wish to use the combined good energy of the rock shop to help jump start your own actions.