December 19, 2023
Whether we have one or a collection of crystals, we are told that they regularly need to be cleansed and charged. You may have wondered why do we need to do this? Or how often should we cleanse our crystals? And what is the best way to cleanse them?
Whilst there is no scientific proof that crystals help in healing, with many many in the scientific community stating that any benefits may be purely from the placebo effect, many people still love and get great pleasure and support from their collection of crystals. Those that do, want to look after them and get the best from them if possible.
In this article we hope to answer all the questions you may have about the intended reasons we cleanse and charge our crystals.
Crystals are said to conduct energy, so we want to ensure that the energy that is stored and transmitted from your crystals is high-level, clear and unhampered.
For millennia, humans have devised rituals where we cleanse ourselves and objects of the old and invite in the new. From religious rituals such as baptism and communion, to cleansing before a meal or occasion, there are obvious practical and hygenic reasons we do this as well as strong psychological beliefs associated with cleansing ourselves of the old, ready for the new.
In the same way that we feel so much better after cleansing our bodies, how we feel relief from “cleansing” our minds and dealing with problems and issues by letting them go, we also feel re-energised after cleaning our homes and the spaces we live in, as well as the objects we have around us.
Many of us love having crystals around us, we love their natural beauty and any inherent energy they may possess. We want to ensure they aren't “dulled” in any way by holding onto stale and negative energy they may have absorbed. So we have devised rituals to cleanse and re-charge our crystals.
Cleansing a crystal is intended to clear it of any absorbed negative or stale energy, to take it back to its inherent potential and enable the crystal to be cleansed and ready for recharging. Cleansing a crystal is a way of “washing away”, if you like, of the old ready to be replaced with the new.
Charging a crystal is where we hope to re-energise a crystal so that it may emit, if it does, its inherent vibration, unhindered. We can set intentions, say a prayer or visualise the crystal to help us in the way we intend and “reactivate” the crystal.
There are many ways we can cleanse and recharge a crystal and some methods do both, cleanse and recharge. Here we’ve listed them, in no particular order.
1. MoonlightProbably the most well-known method for cleansing your crystals, moonlight - particularly a full moon is believed to “bathe” the crystal with feminine, healing energy.
Moonlight is associated with a calming withdrawal into emotional healing, recuperation and introspection. The moon has, for centuries, been linked to feminine intuition and mysticism. For this reason, moonlight is the best way to cleanse and reenergise those crystals that are associated with emotional support and intuition. It is perfect for crystals used in meditation.
During the full moon the moon energetic effect of the moon is at its strongest and this is an ideal time to cleanse and recharge your crystals.
Place your crystals ideally outside where they will be in direct moonlight for several hours, or overnight. Ideally place them on a rock, grass or soil (a natural surface so that they can be grounded).
Failing that, you can place your crystals inside on a window ledge - the intention is still there.
Direct moonlight is the best, but a cloudy night is also fine - in much the same way that the moons effect on the earth doesn't stop in those places where it’s cloudy!
The earth is very energising - there are many who now promote walking barefoot on the earth to ground and re-energise our body. In the same way, placing crystals in the earth are said to cleanse and re-energise them.
We offer a word of warning … mark the spot where you have placed your crystals or place them in a container with soil inside and cover them over with soil, allowing the top of the container to protrude. I have lost a couple of crystals (years ago!) from placing them in soil in the garden to cleanse overnight, convinced (incorrectly, as it turns out) that I’d remember where I put them!
Natural running water, like a stream would be perfect. Many times I have cleansed my crystals under a running tap. Whilst some will say that our tap water is full of chemicals, I consider it pretty pure and I “intend” the crystal cleansed as I hold it under the water.
This method is not good for those crystals that are better kept dry, like selenite, kyanite or halite.
Salt water has been used for centuries to “draw out” unwanted energy. If you live near the ocean, grab an empty bottle and collect some seawater and soak your crystals in this. Otherwise add some sea salt to fresh water. Allow your crystals to be submerged in the salty water for at least 12 hours and up to 48 hours. Rinse well and dry afterwards.
Again, avoid this method with soft crystals.
For the same reason that salt water works well, sea salt is wonderful for cleansing crystals. Making a lovely display in pretty coloured sea salt is not only a great way to cleanse your crystals but looks fabulous.
Brown rice is believed to absorb negative energies and is good for those crystals that offer protection and nurturing. Place the crystal within the rice, so it is submerged, leave for 12-48 hours and dispose of the rice afterwards.
Sunlight is more energising, vibrant and high-energy than moonlight and so suits the energising, uplifting crystals, those that promote growth, resilience and strength.
Place your crystals again on a natural surface, when the sun is at its highest between the hours of 11 am and 3 pm.
Just as you can smudge your home or any space with sage to cleanse it, so you can too with your crystals.
Simply light your sage and hold in one hand whilst passing the crystal through the smoke from the sage. This is quite an intuitive method for cleansing your crystal and you may need to repeat the process until it “feels” right.
Have a heat-resistant bowl nearby to place the smudging stick of sage in as you work between crystals.
Certain crystals, like selenite, clear quartz, citrine and hematite don’t need cleansing and can be used to cleanse your other crystals. Selenite bowls like this one are perfect for this and many people hold their tumblestones in a selenite bowl to keep them cleansed.
It is believed that larger stones, like amethyst geodes, also can absorb the energy of smaller crystals and work well to cleanse them.
This method is based around “intention”. Breathing in through the nose and breathing out in short bursts towards the crystal whilst intending the crystal cleansed and re-energised.
Again this method is for those who are more confident in their own intuition. Imagine protecting yourself and your crystals by bringing down pure, white light, grounding yourself by imaging roots coming out of your feet deep into Mother Earth. Visualise the two energies meeting and dispersing throughout your body and out through your heart centre towards the crystals, bathing them in clear, pure energy, clearing them and cleansing them, removing any old, stale energies and replacing it with pure, white, source energy through the crystals natural energy
Sound has been used for centuries to help and assist heal and balance us. From Gregorian chants to Native Americans, the vibration of sound is used in many rituals even today. The Solfeggio frequencies have long been associated with healing us on many levels.
Crystals placed in or around a tuning fork or a singing bowl are thought to absorb the energy of the sound waves and re-attune. Again, visualising the crystal being cleansed and re-aligned helps this process.
A regular routine is a good idea as it can be surprising how many months can go by before we may think to repeat the process. A full moon is a great visual reminder that most of us notice. Every month at full moon you can quickly gather your crystals and choose the method that works best for you, it doesn’t necessarily have to be moonlight.
We'd encourage you to cleanse your crystals regularly. Not only with they look better but you'll probably feel better for doing so - it's surprising was a mini spring-clean of any area of our home or belongings is very therapeutic.
And it may just have the added benefit of removing negative energy from the crystal itself.
December 19, 2023
Rose quartz crystals are one of the most popular and loved of the quartz crystals. Named the crystal of love, along with the pretty pale pink colour means people buy rose quartz not only for their home but as jewellery, too.
Unpolished rose quartz looks equally lovely on display in the home as well as as a shaped, polished stone - whether that be a shaped like a rose quartz crystal heart, egg or the ever-popular tumbled stones.
This beautiful pink crystal makes pretty jewellery, too. As it can be shaped so well wearing rose quartz is a lovely way of carrying it with you.
As well as being the birthstone for January, rose quartz is also the 5th Wedding anniversary stone.
In crystal healing work, rose quartz is said to hold a gentle energy and placing rose quartz near you is believed to assist with emotional healing by helping transmute negative emotions.
There are many types of mineral quartz - from the deep smoky quartz, to clear quartz but pink quartz, known as rose quartz, is probably the most well known of the quartz family.
This pale pink stone is found abundantly in many places on Earth. Today much of the rose quartz found and sold is from India, Brazil, Madagascar and South America. It is also found abundantly in South Dakota, in the USA. It is easily found due it its natural pale pink colour.
The colour pink has, of course, long been associated with love. From those who love to light pink candles, buy pink diamonds for engagement rings and present pink roses to a loved one. So it's no surprise that this very pale pink stone signified love.
Said to be Rose quartz is the real "love stone", not diamonds, and is hugely popular - both as crystals and as jewellery.
The rose quartz crystals metaphysical properties are believed to be around love and compassion - both romantic love and platonic love. Believed to help the heart chakra many use rose quartz for unconditional love.
Many people wear a rose quartz necklace or carry a tumble stone in a pocket as a way to bring rose quartz healing crystal with them during their daily activities.
Rose quartz healing properties, whilst not scientifically proven of course, are said to open the heart chakra, assist with pure love energy understandably making it a stone for unconditional love - hence being a great "mothering crystal". It is also perfect as a tool for self love. This is a particularly wonderful act of self-care and self love to practice a rose quartz meditation. Called the heart stone due to its reputation for helping with emotional wounds and emotional healing. A rose quartz heart is an ever-popular crystal purchase.
The ancients used it to bring calm, lift anger and promote compassion.
In times past the healing benefits of rose quartz were believed to help with chest and lung problems, heart and circulatory system (although we wouldn't rely on that these days - please consult your health care practitioner).
Rose Quartz scores 7 on the Mohs hardness scale which means its a durable, robust semi-precious stone. This makes it good for jewellery as well as healings crystals and also means that it is perfect for carving and shaping. Many beautiful miniature sculptures are made from rose quartz.
Rose quartz, being quite a hard stone, means it is durable enough to use in any jewellery as well as tumbled stones for crystal healing. Many like to wear rose quartz on a pendant near their heart as a way of helping to open the heart chakra and attract new love.
When used in jewellery it is usually cut and polished as cabouchons rather than faceted as it doesn't offer the clarity that other pink gemstones have, such as morganite.
There are numerous ways to cleanse your crystals - see our blog post here on this subject.
Scoring 7 on the Mohs hardness scale, you can charge rose quartz with most of the cleansing methods including, of course, a selenite bowl as it it a hard enough stone to withstand all methods of cleansing.
As rose quartz is abundant throughout the world and it occurs naturally in large pieces, it is a relatively inexpensive semi-precious stone.
Rose quartz benefits of being abundant, relatively inexpensive, hard and therefore easy to shape and work with as well as its believed healing properties means there is a place for rose quartz both in the home and adorning your outfit as jewellery.
The rose quartz stone meaning is as beautiful as its appearance and we never tire of this stone. Every collector of crystals will find rose quartz is one of their first crystals they own.
December 19, 2023
Kyanite is a blue-grey crystal, sometimes green and can even be black, is also known as cyanite. Its chemical composition is aluminosilicate mineral, found in aluminium-rich sedimentary rock under extreme pressure, with the chemical composition of Al2SiO5.
Its name Kyanite comes from the word “kyanos”, meaning ‘dark blue’. The blue is a patchy, blotchy blue. It forms long, columnular crystals.
The colour blue is associated with the throat chakra and is therefore believed to help to express yourself and speak your truth. It is used for public speakers, performers and singers.
It is thought of as being a grounding stone and is good for meditation and contemplation on our life choices and path. Some people believe that it reveals and removes blocks to negative patterns that repeat in our lives. It promotes calm and enhances our psychic connection and some use it to promote connection to our spirit guides.
The crystal is believed to not hold negative energies and never needs cleansing.
Many people use kyanite to recall dreams.
It is associated with the Aries, Taurus and Libra.
The distinctive property of this crystal is the two different levels of hardness it has, with a hardness of 5.5 longways and a hardness of 7 across the length of the crystal.
It is extremely heat-resistant and strong. It is therefore used extensively in kilns, bathroom porcelain, cutting wheels and even the insulators in spark plugs.
Whilst kyanite is classified as a gemstone, but you will never very rarely see it set in jewellery from a traditional jewellers. Due to its varying hardness at different angles, it is a tricky stone to cut. For this reason, if you do own any jewellery with kyanite it is best to clean it with a jewellery cloth and not a ultrasound machine which would be too harsh.
You will occasionally find it set in jewellery from a stores that sell crystals and minerals. It can be quite collectible, particularly the rich blue variety.
Sometimes Kyanite can be found with ruby when it is called ruby kyanite. The mixture of the two minerals is believed to result in the supporting energy of them both - emotional healing of old patterns and confident self expression of the kyanite with an opening of the heart chakra for love and passion in your life.
All in all, Kyanite is a little-known crystal which is not only beautiful to look at but has unusual levels of hardness and may offer support in grounding and healing old patterns.
October 02, 2023
Along with its alternative birthstone, Tourmaline, October has the beautiful Opal as its birthstone.
With its fabulous rainbow of colours, known as a play of light”, this gem forms when rainwater enters cracks in rocks under the surface of the earth.
It has suffered a bad rap with lots of unfair and incorrect superstitions held about it.
Read on to find out more about this stunning precious stone and why it had a bad press.
ChloBo Silver Hoop Earrings with Opal
Opal is the birthstone for the month of October and the gemstone which celebrates the 14th Wedding Anniversary.
Opal comes from the Latin, “opalus” which derived from a Sanskrit word meaning “precious gemstone”, ‘Upala’.
Opal forms when rainwater trickles into cracks within rocks and mixes with silica and then hardens as the water evaporates.
It can contain up to 20% water and, because of this, is quite sensitive to heat.
Opals form in parched, hot areas on earth. About 80% of the world’s opals come from Australia but are also found in Ethiopia and Mexico.
Opal is the national gemstone for Australia.
Gold Pendant with Triple Opals
There are five types of Opals based on their predominant colours - White, Black, Fire (orange), Boulder and Crystal.
Centuries ago, opals were believed to be formed from flashes of lightning.
The gemstone had strong associations with good luck, good fortune, and protection.
People used to have Opal around their home to keep their children safe.
Napoleon Bonaparte presented Josephine with a red opal. Queen Victoria loved opals and wore them all of her long life.
A play of light is where you see flashes of colours, an iridescence, within the gemstone. This differentiates the precious gemstone Opal with the Common Opal.
Spheres make up the gemstone. The size of the spheres determines the colours that are created as the light hits them and has to bend around the sphere. Smaller spheres create one colour, say violet, where larger spheres create another colour like red.
Around the 1890s the most precious of all Opals were discovered in Australia and began entering and gaining in popularity the gemstone market. It seems that worried Diamond traders encouraged rumours of Opals, bringing bad luck.
Sadly, these old wives’ tales remained and are often still believed today.
This bad reputation wasn’t helped with Opal being a soft gemstone (only between 5-6.5 on the Mohs scale). This meant cutting and shaping it became quite nerve-wracking for the gem-setters as, regularly, they ruined gems whilst cutting them through no fault of their own.
We can imagine that this was particularly nerve-wracking after hearing that Louis XI had his goldsmith’s hands cut off after one of his opals was damaged beyond repair whilst cutting it!
The goldsmiths of the day seemed quite happy if stories of bad luck circulated, however untrue, causing their masters not to purchase the gem. They must have dreaded their master bringing them a prized opal to cut!
Opals are flourishing again and there is an enormous demand from China and India. Many young designers are using opals in their designs.
You can find Opal set in silver now, too, which has helped modernise the designs and encourage a younger age group to embrace this beautiful stone.
Great care needs to be taken of opal as it is soft. Store them in a box away from other jewellery which may be harder and may scratch the surface of the opal.
Don’t use strong chemicals to clean them - we recommend the Delicate Jewellery Cleaner here.
September 01, 2023
The fabulous birthstone for September, Sapphire, is one of the most loved of all the gemstones and rightly so!
The deep rich blue is the colour you most often think of when you think of sapphire but actually sapphires come in a whole range of colours (including the prettiest pink!).
Sapphire is part of the corundum family and comes in a range of colours. The colours are dependant on the other chemicals present as the gemstone is formed. Red corundrum is known as ruby but all the other colours are classified as Sapphires.
Created through variations in heat and pressure Sapphires are formed in igneaous and metamorphic rocks. The slower the magma cools, the larger the gemstone will be.
Blue sapphire looks great in yellow or white gold - and you can often see it set in silver now which is such a bonus for those who can't stretch to purchasing gold.
Sapphire is believed to inspire qualities of wisdom, loyalty and nobility - who doesn't want some of that?!
Some of the most famous sapphires have been the Star of India (a 563-carat gemstone!) and the Stuart Sapphire (104-carats) which is set into the British Crown jewels.
Sapphire measures 9 on the Moh's Hardness scale, meaning it is a hard gemstone and therefore perfect for everyday wear, including rings. It's robustness also makes it perfect for cutting and shaping for setting into jewellery.
You don't need to be born in September to wear a sapphire - as I can attest. I adore my sapphire ring and I was a January baby.
One of the most loved of gemstones, and rightly so, that goes with any outfit and the colour really "pops" next to diamonds.