Cleansing Crystals With Himalayan Salt: 3 Things You Need To Know

Cleansing crystals with salt; this is frequently recommended by practitioners of all levels of interest and experience.

Before you drop a bunch of cash on the pink pretty Himalayan salt, here’s three things that you need to know before you start using the salt.

Cleansing Crystals With Himalayan Salt Can Damage Them

Using salt with your crystals is not something you should do lightly.

In just about every article on our site about minerals and crystals (regardless of what you intend to do with them), we recommend that you first learn about the material you are working with.

Some materials are hard, while others are soft.

Some materials can be handled with your bare hands, while others should not touch your skin.

Some minerals (like selenite, for example) are water soluble, and can’t be cleansed in a solution of salt water because the crystal will dissolve (and the added salt will make it happen faster).

Others may not dissolve in water, but the addition of salt to the water can encourage the growth of microscopic cracks or fissures in the piece leading to a large crack or break in the stone.

Others may create toxic fumes when placed in a water and salt solution.

Some materials are soft, so soft that they will scratch and get dented if they are mixed in with dry salt crystals.

Some materials are very reactive, and should not be mixed in with other chemicals or elements.

And before you argue that salt isn’t a chemical or doesn’t have chemicals in it, remind yourself that salt is actually sodium chloride.

We aren’t saying that you shouldn’t ever use salt to cleanse your crystals, or Himalayan salt for that matter.

This section is about knowing your material well first before you cleanse it.

If you don’t know much about your material, and you don’t know or haven’t investigated whether salt (either dry or dissolved in water) will cleanse your stone without damaging it or you, then you need to use another method until you learn more about your crystals and salt.

And just know that some practitioners never place their stones or crystals of any kind in a solution of salt and water, regardless of the kind of crystal for fear of damaging it.

Take some time to develop your cleansing plan for your new crystal.

Suggested alternatives in the meantime include placing the crystal in the moonlight, smudging, mediation, and breath.

Himalayan Salt Contains Only Traces Of What People Claim

In general, when people look to Himalayan salt over standard table salt, they are thinking that the Himalayan salt is perhaps more pure, it less likely to include toxins or other additives, and may also possess other helpful minerals.

While the salt is pretty, Himalayan salt is pretty close to exactly the same as regular salt.

In most cases, Himalayan salt is 96-99% sodium chloride, which is table salt.

Any trace minerals exhorted by companies as a selling point compose less than 1% of the material.

In most cases, the trace amounts of the minerals are so small as to be negligible.

You may find Himalayan salt that is not table/food grade.

There may be impurities in the salt, which makes it unfit to use on your table.

If you purchase Himalayan salt which is not pure enough sodium chloride to be used in food, then there could be any number of other materials in the salt which you wouldn’t want to use in cleansing your crystals.

Let me say this again: you might not even know what is in the Himalayan salt.

It is important to note this because you won’t have positive reactions to every stone/crystal/material you work with.

There may be materials that don’t resonate well with you.

These are not the types of materials that should be used in a cleansing.

Himalayan Salt is Much More Expensive Than Table Salt

Himalayan Salt can cost up to 20x what you’d expect to see regular old salt sell for.

If you are planning on using Himalayan salt in cleansing, you won’t be able to use that salt again for anything.

If the salt cleansing is effective, the salt should be full of negative energy.

You need to get rid of it. If you are cleansing crystals on a regular basis, that is quite a lot of money just getting thrown away.

In general, money in your crystals practice is better spent on your crystals than on your cleansing products.

Intention Matters When Cleansing Crystals

Cleansing crystals isn’t about products.

It isn’t about having the “most pure” or the “most beautiful” or the “most expensive.”

Even if Himalayan salt is better at cleansing crystals than regular salt, spending that extra money won’t matter if your intention and mindset isn’t right.

Products are not required to cleanse a crystal, though they can do it and can help.

Crystals can be cleansed with other crystals, with your breath, with sound, and with meditation. Together with your intention.

If you allow yourself to get distracted by the need to use the “best salt” or the “purest rice” or the “freshest herbs” then you are missing the point.

You are focusing on the wrong aspects of cleansing.

You can use Himalayan salt if you want to. You can accept that using the special expensive salt is better for cleansing and helps you more than regular salt.

But we would argue that if it does produce better results, it is because of your belief, because of your mindset, because of your commitment to the method, that produces the results.

And you don’t need Himalayan salt for that.