How To Cleanse Crystals with Sage

Sage burning is a ritual where sage gets burned to clear an area, person, or item of negative or residual energy. Sage has many uses, such as cleansing and clearing your energetic body, and residual energies present in your crystals.

Keeping a bundle of sage handy is essential if you wish to work with crystals. Cleansing crystals with sage is a quick, easy and efficient way to clear your crystals, as to prepare them for usage without waiting too long. 

Crystals retain energies from the surrounding environment and people close to them. Clearing the energy that crystals hold onto is essential if you don’t want to draw in the energies of previous users or environments. 

Some gemstones can absorb negative energy, and these, in particular, require frequent charging. When you have used a crystal for a long period, it can lose its ability to benefit and influence your life over time, and cleansing your crystal can help bring it back to life.

Smudging crystals with sage is a quick way to bring them back to balance, and restore them to their original state. Sometimes, a crystal can hold onto a vibe it picked up a long time ago, and no matter how many times you put it in the sun, bury it, or soak it in water, it still holds onto that bad vibe. 

Sage is especially beneficial at clearing out past energies related to traumatic, negative experiences, making it much more helpful than other cleansing methods. 

Cleansing crystals with sage is also one of their risk-free cleansing methods. Some crystals do not react well to water, sunlight, or certain conditions needed to cleanse them.

However, smudging your crystals with sage, or Palo Santo, is a method that is guaranteed not to harm them. You can cleanse crystals with sage daily if you wish, but the general rule for crystal cleansing is once a month. 

Many people believe that burning sage kills 94% of airborne bacteria, but this has been proven false by the well-known, fact-checking website Snopes. In addition, Sage is famous for providing cleansing on an energetic and spiritual level, but how sage cleanses your energetic field cannot be proven scientifically.

Sage burning is practiced in many religions. Western Catholic and Eastern Christian faiths practice the burning of sage, or incense, as a ceremony when praying. Psalm 141:2 states, “Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.”

Sage and incense burning is a common purification ritual performed before prayer and worship in the Catholic and Catholic faith.

Cleansing Crystals with Sage

1. An abalone shell is one of the best items to burn your sage in, but you can use any heat-proof bowl or container.
2. Take your smudge bundle, and light the tip with a lighter or candle. 
3. After allowing the sage bundle to burn for around 30 seconds, extinguish the flame, and the leaf tips should be burning and emitting smoke. 
4. Spread the smoke around the crystal using your hand or a feather. Ensure that every portion of the crystal is in contact with the smoke. Keep doing this until the leaves have stopped burning. 
5. When burning your sage bundle, make your intention, for this ritual, to clear and charge your crystals.
6. Knowing what to say to cleanse crystals with sage is essential in manifesting your intention. While burning your sage, repeat the sentence, “Let the flames of this sacred plant burn away anything that does not serve my higher good within this crystal.”
7. Knowing what to do with sage when done can help prevent accidents or injuries. When the sage has finished burning, and you have completed your cleansing ritual, you must throw sand onto the sage bundle to thoroughly extinguish it. 

Safety Tips for Using Sage

• Never leave burning sage unattended.
• Avoid breathing in the smoke directly.
• Avoid burning too much sage, thus filling a room with too much smoke.
• Sage can be burnt indoors, but keep the windows and doors open to ensure adequate airflow (and to allow the bad juju to leave your home!).
• Be mindful of your smoke alarm, when burning sage, by not letting too much smoke accumulate in one room.

Types of Sage for Cleansing Crystals

There are many different types of sage for cleansing, and different regions have varying varieties of it growing wildly. Knowing what sage is good for cleansing can prevent you from burning the wrong kind of sage, thus, wasting your time. 

Avoid using any old sage you found in your kitchen herb cupboard! The best sage to use is Salvia Apiana, commonly known as White Sage, but other options are available that can work just as well. 

What are the Different Types of Sages for Smudging? 

• White sage (California white sage/Salvia Apiana)
• Blue African Sage or Blue Sage (Salvia Africana or Salvia Azurea)

• Sage mixed with other flowers and herbs, such as sweetgrass
• Lavender sage 

White Sage for Cleansing Crystals

The scientific name for White sage is Salvia Apiana, and it is a perennial shrub. White sage is native to the southwest United States and northwest Mexico, but it has been spread over the world over time, due to colonization. 

You might be wondering, how do I cleanse my crystals with sage? The best sage for cleansing crystals is White Sage, which should be the go-to sage when wanting to rid your crystals of lingering bad juju. 

White sage is also usually the most easily accessible, and commonly available, variety of sage, as it is known to host the most potent ability for cleansing negative energy, compared to other sages. 

Using sage can also help you enter a positive mind space and create a positive environment for you to meditate with your crystals, or to use affirmations for your crystals. 

Remember always to be safe when burning sage, and refer to the safety tips above to avoid accidents. You can also use white sage to make a sage spray. Sage spray is an easy, risk-free way to cleanse your crystals, and it is also easy to learn how to cleanse crystals with sage spray. 

When another person has touched your crystal, you can give it a quick spray with sage spray to wash away any residual energy that person would have left on your crystal. 

How to Make Sage Spray

Method 1

• Add 40 drops of White Sage essential oil to 120 ml/4 oz of clean, fresh water. 
• Mix the solution with any natural solubilizer that is available to you.
• Mix it up and start spraying! 

Method 2 

• Add 1 cup water and 1 cup white vinegar to a pot.
• Boil the water and vinegar mixture. 
• Remove the mixture from the heat, and add freshly ground or cut-up sage leaves. Use the amount that feels right for you! The more sage you use, the more powerful your sage spray will be.
• Allow the sage to soak in the mixture overnight, or for at least 12 hours.
• Strain the sage leaves out.
• Voila! You have a homemade sage spray, and can now start spraying your crystals.

Palo Santo for Cleansing Crystals

Palo Santo is a sacred tree native to Ecuador, Peru, and several other South American countries. The wood of this tree is regarded as “holy wood,” known to produce a pleasant aroma when burnt, and is used in spiritual and religious ceremonies.

You can burn the Palo Santo wood during a cleansing ritual, or use Palo Santo processed into incense sticks or cones to cleanse your crystals. Bees sage and crystals stock palo santo and myrrh incense, which do a great job at cleansing your crystals. 

Palo Santo essential oil hosts many medicinal benefits, and along with that, it is one of the most powerful tools to use, along with white sage, in cleansing and removing negative energy.

Palo Santo is perfectly safe to use indoors, but you might wonder, will using Palo Santo set off a fire alarm? If a large amount of Palo Santo is burnt in a small room, there is a high chance that it can trigger a fire alarm. 

Always ensure to purchase, and only use, Palo Santo that has been ethically and sustainably sourced, as the overharvesting of Palo Santo can lead to the species becoming endangered.

Other Sages for Cleansing Crystals

Garden Sage (Salvia Officinalis) 

Garden sage is an edible variety of sage, often used for cooking. Salvia Officinalis is the most common sage grown in gardens, as it adds a rich flavor to dishes. In addition, when combined with White Sage, it makes your sage bundle even more potent at purifying your crystals.

Blue African Sage or Blue Sage (Salvia Africana or Salvia Azurea)

Blue Sage is a variety of sage that grows wildly in South Africa, as well as South and central USA. Blue sage is used commonly in smudging rituals by traditional African and American natives, to ward off evil spirits, provide a spiritual detox, and attract abundance and happiness.

Lavender Sage (Salvia Greatae)

Lavender Sage originates from the USA, and is a highly aromatic plant that soothes anxiety and releases stress when its fragrance is inhaled and the leaves are burnt.

References:

• https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/burning-sage-kill-bacteria/
• https://biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/bible-verses-about-burning-sage/