There are many reasons why you might want to cleanse and charge an amethyst crystal: if you’ve just bought or received a new amethyst, or if you’ve been using an amethyst for its calming and intuitive properties and it’s time to power up your crystal again.
The good news is that it’s very easy to cleanse and charge amethyst, often with things you already have around you…
Amethyst can be cleansed and charged with earth, fire, wind, or water. Place amethyst in healthy soil, in the smoke of a burning smudge or incense stick, in your own breath, or in salty water, to purify and rejuvenate the purple crystal.
Feel free to use only one method or to combine several. Have fun and test different cleansing rituals, until you find the one that resonates with you and brings you the most joy from your crystal.
By the end of this post, you’ll have 12 easy ways to cleanse and charge your amethyst crystal.
How to cleanse amethyst
You can cleanse and charge amethyst with…
Meditation and visualization
To cleanse amethyst with visualization and meditation, start by looking at your stone. Take note of the shades of purple and white in the crystal; the look, shape and feel of it; and even its weight.
Next, close the amethyst in your non-dominant hand, which is the hand you use to receive things from a crystal. So if you’re left-handed use your right hand, and vice versa.
Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Once you feel calm and centered, try to see the amethyst floating in front of you, still with your eyes closed.
Keep on trying to make the picture clearer until you have a good view of it in front of you.
Now imagine clean spring water gently washing over the crystal. The stream can be as strong or as gentle as you wish, and it can wash over the crystal for as long as you want to continue with your meditation. Trust your intuition and let the water wash negativity from your crystal.
Once you feel the crystal cleansing is complete, picture the amethyst rising from the stream into warm, pure orange and yellow sunlight. Try to see the water droplets that carry any negativity evaporating from the stone in the sun’s rays, until all that’s left is a shiny crystal in your hand.
Feel the crystal warming up in your hand as the sun’s rays charge it with pure light energy. Stay in this moment and say an amethyst affirmation if you want or need to (click here for a list of what you can say to an amethyst, if you need some inspiration).
When you feel the ritual is complete, slowly bring yourself back to the present, open your eyes and hands, and thank your crystal.
Soil
If you have access to healthy soil, either outside on the ground or in a plant pot, you can use this soil to cleanse and charge your amethyst. Healthy soil is dark, has good plant growth in it, and is alive with earthworms and other insects when it’s out in the open.
Cleanse and charge amethyst by placing it directly into healthy soil. Completely cover the crystal with the soil, so you can’t see any part of it.
You want the soil to touch the entire amethyst. Wherever it touches, it will absorb old energy and then recharge with fresh energy from the earth.
Leave your amethyst in the soil for at least 24 hours before rinsing it in soapy water, then clean water from the faucet, before patting it dry with a soft cloth.
Please be careful: Don’t ever leave your crystal where a child or animal might find it and swallow it.
Smudging
Smudges are made from dried herbs or plants. When these herbs are burned, the smoke that’s released is believed to have a cleansing and recharging effect on anything it touches.
A sage smudge is the most popular type for cleansing amethyst crystals, like these white sage sticks from Amazon, but you can also use smudges made from Palo Santo wood, cedar, sweetgrass, juniper, or yerba santa.
If you enjoy smudge cleaning your amethyst or other crystals and you want something prettier than the usual dried plants, try these handmade floral smudge kits to add some beauty to your ritual.
To cleanse amethyst with a smudge:
- Go outside or into a well-ventilated room, where the smoke won’t bother you.
- Light the smudge with a wooden match, if you have one. It’s always best to use natural materials like wood during a cleansing and recharging.
- Gently blow out the flame on the smudge. The smudge should keep on letting off smoke.
- Hold the amethyst directly in the smudge’s smoke. Make sure the smoke touches every part of the amethyst by slowly turning the amethyst over (like a rotisserie chicken) and circling the smudge around the crystal.
If you have a feather in your smudging kit, like the one that comes in this deluxe smudging kit, blow the smoke over your crystal with the feather to represent the element of air passing over your crystal for even greater cleansing and charging.
- Smudge your amethyst for as long as your intuition tells you to do so. If you’re unsure, it should be enough if the smudge smoke touches each part of the crystal at least three times.
- Once the cleansing is complete, leave the smudge stick to burn to the end or put it out sand. It’s important to make sure that it is completely dead before packing it away.
- Sprinkle any ashes from the smudging process on the ground outside or in the soil in a pot plant, for the soil to absorb the energy from the crystal and heal it.
Incense
You can cleanse amethyst with the smoke from incense, much like you use the smoke from a smudge stick.
To cleanse and charge amethyst with incense, light the incense stick with a wood match if you have one. Blow out the flame gently, so the incense keeps on smoking.
Any type of incense cleanses amethyst, but many people like to use cedar incense blocks, white sage, frankincense and myrrh, or organic sandalwood incense.
If you want to use a candle rather than incense or a smudge, try this pure white sage smudge candle.
Hold your amethyst in the incense smoke and slowly turn the crystal over three times, so the smoke touches, cleanses, and recharges every part of the crystal.
This should only take about a minute to do, but you can leave the crystal in the smoke for longer if you feel it needs more time. This is an intuitive process, so it’s important to listen yourself for guidance.
If you burn incense in a covered holder, like this handmade wood box, put amethyst inside the box, light the incense, close the lid, and leave your crystal in there to be cleansed by the smoke until the incense stick has finished burning. This is a great way to cleanse multiple crystals at the same time.
Throw any ashes from the incense stick onto soil outside, to release the energy it absorbed.
Breath
Your own breath is a powerful crystal cleanser as it’s one of the four natural elements – air.
To cleanse amethyst with your breath, sit down with the crystal closed in your dominant hand. Close your eyes and take 10 slow, deep breaths, breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Draw in crisp, clean air with every breath and try to feel the sparkle or buzz of this air as it moves through your nose, around your lungs, and leaves your mouth.
Once you’re ready, imagine a bright, warm light around yourself. Feel it snuggling you and warming up the air you are breathing.
Open your eyes and hands, then bring the amethyst up to your mouth.
Take in a deep breath of clean, warm air through your nose. When you exhale, breath out of your mouth with force so you blow the air onto the amethyst in your hands. Do this several times, making your breaths intentional.
As you do this ritual, imagine the light that is surrounding you passing through your breath and over your crystal.
Turn your crystal over after each exhale, to make sure your breath touches every side and inch of the crystal.
Do this for as long as you feel you should, but you can stop after about four full breaths if that is enough for you and you have breathed over the entire crystal.
Water
Water has both healing and cleansing properties, which makes it a great way to cleanse amethyst. Each crystal should be cleansed separately in its own water to avoid mixing crystal energies and reducing the water’s cleansing power.
Rainwater, water from a stream, sea water, running fountain water, or even water from a faucet can be used to cleanse amethyst. The water needs to be lukewarm. If it’s hot or icy cold, the crystal’s energy could be disturbed and become unbalanced.
To cleanse a new amethyst crystal, place it in a bowl of still water or sea water and leave it overnight. If you don’t have access to sea water, make a saltwater solution by dissolving a tablespoon or two of sea salt, rock salt, or Himalayan salt in warm water and let it come back to room temperature.
Salt makes the water’s cleansing properties stronger and has a fantastic purifying effect.
Choose a bowl or container made from natural materials, if possible. Don’t ever use a metal bowl for crystal cleansing.
If you want to cleanse and recharge a amethyst crystal that you already have, or that you need to remove negative energy from, use moving water. Place the crystal under running water, in a stream, in the ocean, or out in the rain for a few minutes to a few hours.
It’s believed that running water washes away all harmful and negative energy from the crystal and takes it back into the earth, where it is healed.
Once you’ve cleansed your crystal with water, pat it dry with a clean cloth. If you used saltwater or sea water, rinse the crystal with lukewarm water to remove the salt before patting it dry.
Sunlight
The right amount of sunlight can have a wonderful effect on amethyst, but avoid direct sunlight for too long on any crystal.
To cleanse and charge an amethyst using sunlight, place the stone in a sunny spot at dawn or in the morning before 10 am, before it gets too hot and bright. If you can, put it outside on healthy soil, so the soil can support the cleansing ritual.
Leave the crystal out in the sun for no more than an hour and don’t touch your crystal during the cleansing ritual.
Moonlight
The moon’s rays cleanse and recharge amethyst, with a wonderful calming effect on crystals. Amethyst can be cleansed by the moon when it is a full moon or a waning moon.
A full moon is when the entire moon is visible, so you see a bright, complete circle of the moon. A waning moon comes after a full moon, when the moon starts becoming smaller in the sky.
Click here to check when there will be a full moon or waning moon in your area –just type the name of your city in the top-right search bar on the website.
When the moon is full or waning, put your amethyst outside at sunset. Make sure the crystal is directly in the moonlight, with nothing blocking the moon’s rays from touching the crystal. Try to put the crystal on the ground, so the soil can absorb the old energy and support the cleansing and charging process.
Leave the amethyst out overnight and bring it in before the sun gets hot the next morning (before 10 am if it’s a sunny day).
Sound
Sound is a great way to cleanse and charge amethyst. As sound waves pass over the crystal, they push away old, negative energy and allow new, powerful energy to enter the crystal.
To cleanse amethyst with sound, place the crystal no more than 3 feet away from you. The closer your crystal is to the source of the sound, the stronger the sound vibration will be and the better the ritual will work.
The space between you and the crystal should be clear and free from any objects, so the sound vibrations can move freely through the air and surround the crystal easily.
When you’re seated comfortably, relax your body and start making your noise or sound. Make this sound for at least two to three minutes to fully cleanse your amethyst.
You could chant by making the “om” sound over and over, play a singing bowl like this one from Amazon, use meditation chimes, or play cymbals. It’s good to get involved and make the sounds yourself – don’t play sounds on your phone or TV.
When you’ve had some practice doing this, you can use two or three sounds at the same time. For example, you could chant and play chimes at regular intervals for greater cleansing and charging.
Selenite crystal
Selenite is a crystal that cleanses and charges amethyst quickly and easily.
To cleanse amethyst with selenite, put amethyst in a selenite crystal bowl. These bowls are known as “crystal charging stations” because they release old energy from crystals and allow new energy to flow in. These charging stations can be kept in a special spot in your home and used to charge any crystal.
Click here for a list of places to keep your amethyst and why.
If you don’t have a selenite bowl, put amethyst on selenite crystals. Try to get enough selenite sticks to wrap them around your amethyst – underneath, on its sides, and on top, so the selenite touches all sides of the amethyst.
If you don’t have selenite available, use another cleansing crystal, such as carnelian or black obsidian. All you need to do it make sure the cleansing crystal is bigger than or there’s more of it than the amethyst being cleansed. This makes space for the cleansing crystal to absorb the amethyst’s energy.
Himalayan salt
Salt has a wonderful purifying effect on crystals. It’s best to cleanse amethyst with Himalayan salt in a shallow glass bowl, drinking glass, or vase.
Fill the container with pure Himalayan crystal salt or larger salt stones. Bury the amethyst in the salt, and leave it there for at least 24 hours or longer.
Once a crystal has been cleansed with salt, rinse it under clean water to remove any salt residue, then pat it dry with a soft cloth.
A bowl of salt can be used many times to cleanse and charge amethyst. In fact, it can act as a storage container and charging station to keep amethyst when you aren’t using it. Simply replace the salt when you feel that it has lost its power and is no longer effective.
Another salt cleansing option is to use a pure Himalayan salt lamp: Place amethyst next to the lamp and let the crystal bathe in the lamp’s light for several hours. Then turn the crystal over to expose its other side to the lamp’s light.
Brown rice
Brown rice cleanses amethyst by absorbing negativity. Simply bury the crystal in a shallow bed of dry brown rice and leave it there overnight, or longer if you want.
When you’re done with the cleansing, thank the rice and throw it out. This is rather wasteful and is only recommended as a cleansing ritual if you cannot use any of the other methods listed above.
