Cleaning and Purifying Your Gemstone Jewelry

Many of the products we use every day could degrade the quality of your jewelry over time. For example, you should keep your bracelet away from perfumes, hair and skin care products, sunscreen, shower products, and even soap and saltwater sometimes, depending on the type of gemstone.

Just as the rain cleans the Earth and we clean our own bodies, clothes, and homes, gemstones need cleansing, as well. They can absorb negative energies from anyone who handles them. Proper cleansing is necessary to restore the gemstone’s brightness and to ensure their healing properties are working their best. Gemstones have the strongest effects when they are clean.

The phrase “clean space, clear mind” doesn’t just apply to pick up a cluttered home. It also applies to the importance of recharging your gemstones to enhance their properties. Every time you work with your gemstones, they pick up energy from anyone who handles them on their journey. If you never clean them, they will continue to store more and more energy until they are no longer useful as conduits. That’s why it’s so crucial to clean and purify their energy; it keeps them at their most effective.

Methods of Cleaning Gemstones

  1. To charge your gemstones, first, you’ll need to clean and purify the energy they have already absorbed. There are several ways to do this.
    Smoke: An easy and risk-free method of cleaning without discoloring or damaging the stones. Light a stick of sage or Palo Santo and blow it out until it produces a steady stream of smoke. Hold your gemstone directly in the plume of smoke and let the smoke rise around the sides of the stone. This can proceed for 3-5 minutes, but trust your gut instinct for how long to smoke the gemstone.
  2. Water: Some gemstones (such as coral, selenite, halite, Ambar, hematite, pyrite, et al) are sensitive to water, warm water, mild detergent, and soft brushes, so it’s important to know your gemstone, or else it could dissolve in the water. If you want to clean with water, soak your gemstone in saltwater (either seawater or a half-gallon of water mixed with 3 tbsp of sea salt) for 12 hours. Alternatively, you could leave it in the rain for 12 hours (if the rain is too strong, use your best judgment for how long the gemstone should be out). River water and spring water are also viable options.
  3. Nature: Hanging your gemstone from a tree or from the branches of a healthy houseplant for 24 hours can clean and rejuvenate it. Another nature-based method is placing the gemstone in the soil for 24 hours, which will clean and revitalize it as well.
  4. Positive energy is another method of clearing out negative energy it may have picked up. Placing the gemstone on a cluster of amethyst, citrine, or clear quartz for six hours will purify and charge your gemstones without depleting the energy from the clusters.
  5. Your own energy can charge your gemstone jewelry. Concentrating on your gemstone for a few moments while you focus on it, take several deep breaths, relax your body, and clear your mind. Just imagine the gemstone soaked in golden healing energy. This works on individual gemstones, but you can also recharge them all at once with this method. Using your own energy helps the stones stay focused and activated so they’re working at their highest potential.

How to Charge Your Gemstones

  1. After you clean your gemstones, the next step is to charge them. Your intuition plays a big part in this process. There are several methods.
    First, place your gemstones in a spot where they will receive at least 6 hours of direct sunlight.
  2. Expose your crystal to moonlight, exposing it to direct moonlight for at least 6 hours.
  3. Lay your gemstone on a piece of quartz or clear quartz, amethyst, or citrine for 6 hours.

How Often Do I Have to Purify My Gemstones?

Many people wonder how often they need to purify their gemstones. The simple answer is, the more often you use a stone, the more energy it collects. Follow your intuition, but at the very least, clear all your stones once a month, if not more.

How Do I Know If My Gemstones Have Been Cleared?

The best way to know if they’ve been cleansed is to hold your uncleansed gemstones, take a couple of deep breaths, clear your mind, and then feel the effect the stones have on your whole body. Then follow the cleansing process and then hold them again, repeating the process and noting how differently the gemstones feel.

Setting Your Intention and Asking the Gemstones To Work With You

After you clean your gemstones, it’s time to dedicate it. Hold it between your hands, take deep breaths, clear your mind, focus on the stone and ask that it may be used for your highest good and for light, love, and goodness for all. Then ask for what you want from the stone: healing, spiritual growth, love, or happiness. Send your message and your vibrations into the universe.