Witchcraft Wednesday #1: How to cleanse and charge crystals

Cleansing and re-charging your crystals is vital to get good results from using them, cleansing them removes energy they may have picked up and recharging them replenishes them with positive energy making them fit for use, luckily you can often combine cleansing and recharging which is what I like to do. Please please please research the crystals you have and make sure that they are suitable for the cleansing method you want to use so that you don't end up damaging them or weakening them.

Sea Salt.
Sea salt is a pretty standard method of cleansing and charging and you can do this with or without water, you can mix sea salt and water in a glass container  and then submerge the crystals in the salty water, or you can use dry sea salt and bury the crystals, as a general rule I leave them for 24 hours.

Earth
Another easy way to cleanse is to return the crystals to the earth for a time, just bury them and leave them for a little while to soak up the energy from the earth. Make sure you know where you've buried them though, or you could bring a small tub of earth inside and bury them in a container.
Moonlight
This is the method I normally use, I put my crystals outside or on the windowsill during a night of the full moon and during the night of the new moon, this way I am reminded regularly to cleanse and charge my crystals and it's a super easy method too. You can either put them on a windowsill that catches the moonlight or leave them outside. This is my favourite method because to my knowledge it works and is safe for all crystals.

Sunlight
This is a really easy and popular way to cleanse and charge, simply put your crystals outside in the sun, it provides lots of energy when charging but the sunlight can be damaging and draining to crystals so please do your research into what the effects on your crystals might be.

Running water
Simply place the crystals under running water, this is great if you're in a rush and to physically clean the crystals too. Make sure that you dry them properly after visualizing all the negative energy being washed away.

Smoke
There are several methods of using smoke to cleanse, it's really popular to use sage to cleanse the inside of a house and crystals are no different, you could burn herb or sage bundles and waft the crystals through the smoke, you could also do exactly the same with incense sticks, or you could throw the crystals through a candle flame