How and When to Clear Your Crystals

Anjie Cho June 15, 2022

It's no secret that we're fans of crystals and their incredible healing power. In fact, many basic feng shui adjustments include adding specific crystals in certain areas of the bagua to welcome love, abundance and more. Looking for love? Try rose quartz! Or add citrine to your desk to welcome wealth and abundance. You can even add quartz and black tourmaline to your space to ward off negative energy and ground you! There are so many great uses for various crystals, but one important aspect of using these tools is to ensure that they are properly cleared on a regular basis.

Crystals operate based on their vibrations, which are obtained during their creation deep in the earth. Because they generally have higher frequencies, they work to overwhelm lower vibrations of negative feelings and experiences and can thus provide positive changes in our lives. However, this only works if your crystals are on their highest frequency, and picking up these external vibrations can lower that! Enter crystal clearing.

When To Clear Your Crystals

The first time you'll need to clear your healing stones is when you get them. It may seem that a new stone is already clear and ready to work, but all things carry predecessor energy - even "new" healing stones. So as soon as you bring a new crystal into your space, take the time to clear it and imbue it with your intentions and qi.

Following that, there are a few ways to know when it's time to do a clearing. It goes without saying that your healing stones should be cleared before and after any intense work with them to ensure that they operate at and are returned to their highest frequency. For stones used regularly, for instance, as jewelry, clearing once per week is generally enough to keep them effective. If you've placed crystals in your holistic space, perhaps as feng shui adjustments, be sure to clear them at least once per year. Keep in mind that each stone is different, so some crystals, like black tourmaline, may need to be cleared much more often and others, including citrine and Super Seven stones, rarely require refreshing. As with many aspects of feng shui, it's a good idea to listen to your intuition when deciding whether it's time to clear your crystals.

How to Clear Your Crystals

Once you've decided it's time for a clearing, there are a many choices as to how to go about the process. In fact, again, listen to your intuition and choose the method(s) that resonate with you. We'll list a few of our favorites here, but if you know of or prefer other ways of crystal clearing, please feel free to share!

Sunlight / Moonlight - One of the easiest ways, and our favorite, to clear crystals, is to expose them to sunlight or moonlight. Simply place your stones outside or in a window for anywhere from a day / night to a week, and you're good to go! Do note that some crystals may fade in sunlight - if that's the case with yours, opt for moonlight!
Burial - Crystals came from the earth, so another great way to return them to their vibrations is to put them back! You can bury your crystals for a few days to a week for a full cleanse. Just be sure to remember where they're buried!
Sea Salt - Sea salt can be an incredible tool for crystal clearing, but it's important to take care. Placing crystals in sea salt for 24 hours can clear them of existing energy, and you can even store crystals here. For some crystals, a salt water bath is effective as well. The catch here is that salt water can damage porous crystals, so if you're using salt with these, be sure to use salt only (not water) and keep in a place with low humidity.
Smudging - Another of our favorites, smudging is an easy way to clear healing crystals. Just get your sage or palo santo smoke going and pass your crystals through the smoke. Another option is misting them with our space clearing blend from the Holistic Spaces apothecary!

There are numerous other ways to clear crystals including with fresh water, through use of other clearing stones and more. What's your favorite way to clear your crystals, and how often do you find you feel the need to?

by Anjie Cho

If you’d like to learn more about feng shui, check out Mindful Design Feng Shui School at: www.mindfuldesignschool.com

Q&A Sunday: Broken Feng Shui Objects

Guest User October 24, 2021

What should I do if a feng shui object breaks?

Have you ever hung a feng shui crystal only to have it fall and break? People often get worried when a feng shui object breaks, but I generally say that it’s not a bad thing. This means that the energy is moving through the object you’ve placed, and that the adjustment is working.

If you do place a feng shui object in your home and it breaks, I would recommend you do it again, but try something a little stronger or better quality this time. If it was a feng shui crystal ball, for example, maybe you need to hang it from a stronger string or with a more secure tack. If the crystal itself is broken, it’s best to get a new one.

If a feng shui object fell and broke, or if you received it broken, you can still reuse it for another purpose if you’d like. Not everything in your home needs to serve a feng shui purpose. If you do want to use something as a feng shui object, though, intentionally select something new to bring into the space.

The reason you want to bring in something new for a feng shui adjustment is because you want to bring in fresh qi. Be mindful of what you select. Choosing a damaged object or one that is in disrepair for a feng shui adjustment isn’t a great idea because that’s not the type of energy you want to bring in. It’s also not ideal to use a secondhand item as a feng shui object, because that isn’t really bringing in new energy. If you do choose to use a secondhand item, be sure to clear it.

Many times I’ve done consultations where I suggest adding a plant to a particular area, and people ask if they can use a plant that they already have. Usually, I recommend they get a new plant instead, so that they’re bringing new energy into the space. If you just have more of the same, you’re not really shifting the qi.

by Anjie Cho

If you’d like to learn more about feng shui, check out Mindful Design Feng Shui School at: www.mindfuldesignschool.com

Q&A Sunday: My Favorite Feng Shui Crystals

Guest User February 7, 2021

Photo by DDP on Unsplash — Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels

I’m curious about working with crystals, but not sure where to start. Do you have any favorites?

Thanks for your question! Crystals have been really popular lately, so I get a lot of questions about them. First, I’d recommend you read my post on following your intuition when choosing a crystal. It’s always beneficial to trust your intuition and choose the things that resonate with you the most, whether it’s colors, crystals, or healing modalities.

To give you some inspiration, I do have some favorite crystals to work with! First, I want to point out that in feng shui we often recommend faceted crystal balls, which are actually made of glass, and not a naturally occurring crystal. I recommend getting a crystal ball like this instead of a cheap glass one, because they refract the light so much more beautifully than plain glass.

When it comes to naturally occurring crystals, one of my favorites is clear quartz. I’ve had the same piece of clear quartz for some time - it’s been in my refrigerator, as well as other places in my home, and I sometimes even take a bath with it. I like to connect clear quartz to the bagua area called Dui, related to children, completion, metal energy, and the color white.

Clear quartz is a natural amplifier, and you can program it to amplify any positive intention that you have. For instance, your refrigerator represents your health and nutrition because it holds and cares for the food that you eat to nourish your body, so I like to program my clear quartz to amplify the nutrition of the food in my refrigerator. A great way to program your clear crystal is to first clear it with salt or sunlight, and then very humbly ask the crystal to receive your intention to increase the digestibility, nutritional quality, and life energy of the food in the refrigerator. It’s important to create some ceremony around this: meditate and calm your heart before you program your crystal, instead of rushing to fit it in between your everyday activities.

I also love rose quartz, which has a gentle pink tone. Rose quartz is calm, soft, and soothing, with a really warm, feminine energy, and it cultivates healing and self love. It’s a great stone to work with if you want to soften your heart or heal your heart to invite in love and partnership. For us to invite a partner into our life, we have to actually heal our own hearts and heal ourselves first. When we feel whole is when we can really attract someone to us that’s going to be a partner in our life, rather than someone who we think is going to fill a hole where we feel empty. We need to learn to fill our own cup.

Naturally, I associate rose quartz with the Kun area of the bagua, related to relationships, self love, partnership, marriage, the mother element, and the feminine principle. Kun is also connected to the earth element.

One way to work with rose quartz is to place it on your nightstand, because your nightstand is very close to you and a private place. If you want to invite a partner into your life, place a pair of rose quartz crystals to represent your openness to work on healing yourself and caring for yourself, in order to invite a partner that you can also care for.

If you want to go deeper when it comes to inviting love and partnership with feng shui, I encourage you to check out Mindful Design’s Feng Shui Love Story course!

by Anjie Cho