The Ultimate Guide to Crystals & Stones: A Practical Path to Personal Power, Self-Development, and Healing - Uma Silbey 2016

Clearing Quartz Crystals
Basics of Quartz Crystal Energy Work

Quartz crystals are not only influenced by vibratory states that they come into contact with, but they also store these vibrations within them. These vibratory sources can be as varied as sound, light, touch, emotion, thought, or the surrounding physical environment. This stored vibration, in turn, can affect those who come into contact with the crystal. So, generally speaking, when we first receive our crystal and before we begin to work with it, we need to immediately clear it of all influences that may have occurred before we acquired the stone. This is especially true before and immediately after we use the crystal for any healing work. We also need to clear it when any undesirable influence has entered it, as well as whenever it looks dull or seems to lack vitality. In any event, to clear the crystal is to remove the energy imprinted and stored in it. This removal of stored vibration is called clearing the crystal.

Many effective methods can be used for clearing crystals. Here are a few methods that are good to try, all of which I have successfully used. To know which method may be the best, we should try them all, and then use the method that works best for us.

Smudging Method

The first method is a traditional Native American method that is effective to clear others, the room, or the environment that we occupy, as well as ourselves, and our stones and crystals. This is a good way to clear basically anything as well as to clear a lot at once.

For this Native American technique we use the smoke of burning sage, cedar, or sweetgrass. When using this method, find cedar trees and sage bushes where they grow wild, then pick small sprigs that can be dried so they’ll burn easily. Individual leaves can be used, but they are more difficult to burn than the sprigs. In a pinch, ground sage from your local store can be used with a charcoal block, but that is more difficult to work with. When using cedar, we should use the leaves from the tree rather than cedar chips. Sweetgrass is a particular type of wild grass that grows in many areas of the country. It is not the grass that grows in our front lawns.

Many health food stores carry these herbs. Of course, we have to be sure that we don’t select so much that we create an overly large and potentially damaging fire. If you do not have these herbs where you live, try finding out what the native healers, shamans, or other indigenous energy workers in your area use, since most of them work with clearing. Incense can also be used, particularly sandalwood or a rose—sandalwood mixture, although any incense that appeals to us and makes us feel good can be used to good effect. What is important is to use something, preferably something sacred, that produces smoke when burned.

First, put the sage, cedar, sweetgrass, or other material in a heat-resistant bowl. Some people use an abalone or other shell container. An incense burner can also be used. Next, light a flame to the material you have chosen for this clearing work, fanning or blowing on it until some fire and, more importantly, lots of smoke is produced. Then, move the crystal(s) through the smoke, or fan or blow the smoke over the crystals as we hold our intention to have the crystal be clear. We should continue doing this until the crystal actually looks clearer, or just seems intuitively to be clear. (When we feel something as being clear, it is the same feeling that we have when we finally straighten a crooked picture.)

Breath Method

This method works best with single crystals rather than clusters. If many crystals are being cleared at once, it is also more time-consuming than smudging. To use the breath method, we first hold the crystal in our left hand, about a foot away from our chest, with its tip pointing up. While holding the crystal in our left hand, we place our left thumb on the bottom of the crystal and the left index finger on its tip. Next, place the right thumb on any face of the crystal, then we place our right index finger on the opposite face.

This is the hand position for clearing a quartz crystal with the breath method. Notice the phantom within the crystal.

Now, we focus on the crystal, while we intend for it to become clear. While focusing, we should inhale through our nose and exhale forcefully through our mouth in the direction of the crystal, our breath carrying our intention that the crystal be clear. After that, we place the right thumb on the side next to the one that it covered before and place our right index finger on the opposite face. Again, inhale and forcefully exhale into the crystal, intending that it be clear. Finally, we switch our right thumb and first finger to the remaining two faces, again inhaling and exhaling into the crystal. In this way, all six faces are handled. After doing this, our crystal should be clear. If it doesn’t intuitively seem that way, repeat this process until it does.

Salt and Salt Water Method

Using this method, we place our quartz crystals in a bowl or other container of sea salt for a period of one to seven days. Either place our crystals partially in the salt, or bury them entirely. (Sea salt can be purchased from a local health food store and many grocery stores.) We should check our crystals periodically. When they physically or intuitively look and feel clear, remove them from the container. Wash the sea salt from the crystals with cool water, which not only removes the salt, but also charges them with your energy as they are rubbed. Since the small salt crystals have vibrationally absorbed what we have removed from the crystals, it is important to dispose of the salt. One way to dispose of it is to “melt” it with water that will then flow to an appropriate place. (Not in the soil under a favorite plant.) Saying a small blessing as the water washes away will restore positive balance from negativity.

The salt water method is similar to the sea salt method described above. First, fill a glass container with water and sea salt. Use about three tablespoons of salt to one cup of water. Place the quartz crystals in the salt water and ensure that the water completely covers them. Be sure to use enough water to account for evaporation. Store this container in sunlight for one to seven days, letting the salt and water combination clear and charge the crystals with light. Upon removing the crystals, wash them with cool, clear water. As with the sea salt method, dispose of the salt water in an appropriate way, saying a small blessing to help transform negativity to positivity and light.

Taking our crystals to the beach to clear them in the ocean water is quite effective. Of course, we have to be careful to have a good grip on our stones and, preferably, a calm ocean in order to clear them without losing them. Dry them off and wrap them in a natural fiber to keep them clear, or charge them by placing them in the sand in full sunlight. Then, wrap the cleared and charged crystals in the cloth.

Basically, these salt methods rely on the smaller, more numerous crystals of salt to draw out what is stored in the large crystal, leaving the large crystal clear of all intentional or unintentional programming. With the salt methods, however, we can’t be selective, clearing some influences but not others. Nor are these methods good for large numbers of crystals. (The smudging method is better for this.)

An important thing to know is that salt is not good for all stones. Generally, a hard stone is better in salt than a soft stone that can absorb the salt and then discolor and disintegrate to some degree. Quartz crystals are obviously fine, while fluorites, for example, may not be. If we do put a stone into salt or a saltwater solution, we should watch our stones, checking them frequently for any negative effects.

Visualization Method

It is quite possible to clear our crystals using visualization: seeing, imagining, or intuiting the crystal as clearing. There are many methods that can be used. One is to hold the quartz crystal or stone up to the sun, seeing the golden light from the sun enter through the tip and out the bottom of your crystal, gradually clearing the crystal as it goes. The negative energy leaving through the bottom flows into the earth, where it is transmuted. Another method is to hold our crystal up to the sun and visualize it clearing the stone, perhaps transforming it from a subtle grayness to bright clarity. If it is a colored stone, while holding it to the sun, envision the color becoming brighter.

Some people recommend holding the stone in the right hand, as if we are offering the stone for clearing, while others favor holding the stone in the left hand, point up if it is terminated, as if we are receiving the clearing. Others recommend just holding the crystal or stone in either our right or left hand on our upturned palm without the point facing any one particular direction. We should use what intuitively feels best to us.

Visualization is not as reliable a method as smudging, salt or salt water. If our concentration and intention loses its strength or focus, the crystals and stones won’t be completely cleared. In other words, our clearing will only be as complete as our ability to concentrate our intention.

Now that our crystal is clear, we can begin working with it. The remainder of this book describes the process and exact methods by which we can make use of our will, mind, and emotions to affect the vibrations in the crystal(s) to create appropriate changes in subtle, then physical, bodies.