Selenite Meaning & Properties [Ultimate Guide]

Selenite is a stone of healing and purity. With a deep connection to the moon, it washes its keeper in a glow of peace and positivity. 

This is a stone that often doesn’t require a lot of practice to achieve some amazing results. That’s part of what makes it such a fan favorite among crystal enthusiasts. 

It’s also inexpensive, easy to find, and boasts incredibly strong energy for a stone with such a brittle physical form. That makes it a cherished crystal for new and seasoned enthusiasts alike.

In essence, this gem is strong enough to be of use for even the most experienced crystal healer, yet gentle enough for the newest beginner. All these factors combine into a gem that’s been a part of the human experience for countless generations.

Read on to discover the interesting selenite meaning, and the powerful selenite properties!

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History and Lore of Selenite

The story between selenite and mankind is a rich tapestry of cooperation and exploration. In fact, we’ve been working with this stone in one way or another for centuries.

Selenite earned the name we use most often for it today in Ancient Greece where the moon goddess was called Selene. They also used larger sheets of it like panes in their windows to let in more light.

Of course, with how widespread it is, it’s no wonder that other cultures have their own stories when it comes to this mineral. There’s a legend that God took in a breath while he was creating the divine light and breathed out sparkling particles that formed into selenite. 

In the 13th Century, there was even a king who believed that hanging selenite sticks from fruit trees would help them ripen faster. While we’re not certain of any fertilizing selenite properties, its popularity in crystal grids may lend some credence to the idea.

After all, selenite’s main purpose is to cleanse the negative and boost positive opportunities. This energy is so prolific that it was once used in Mesopotamian sick rooms to ward away whatever illness was being treated.

Mineral Makeup of Selenite

Despite all this praise, selenite isn’t exactly remarkable on the molecular level. Composed primarily of gypsum, it’s quite soft and melts when wet.

This low hardness makes it easy to carve into shapes like towers, hearts, and cabochons for various jewelry pieces. What it doesn’t lend itself to is rain.

As can be expected, selenite isn’t a crystal you’ll find just laying around on top of the dirt. Much like the wands that once hung from fruit trees, it would begin to disintegrate at the slightest hint of moisture.

For this reason, selenite is often found in dry caves and underground in places that don’t get as much rain. It can be found on just about every continent but is particularly prevalent in Morocco, Australia, Greece, and parts of the US. 

One of the largest deposits is in the Naica Mine’s Cave of Chihuahua, Mexico. Also known as the Cave of Crystals, this place is truly a wonder to behold.

Yet selenite doesn’t just come in shimmering rods, big or small. It also forms as clear sheets and concentrated criss-cross patterned balls known as desert roses. Typically, desert roses are a bit more substancial than the rod variety, but all selenite makes a powerful healer.

Metaphysical Selenite Properties 

Selenite is a stone of peace, creation, and healing. It helps us speak to our angels and spirit guides by connecting us to the realms in which they live. 

At the same time, it helps to ease open our psychic centers. In fact, many who work with this gentle stone report a much easier-to-handle process when they work on their own inner sight.

Simply put, selenite is a guide, a teacher. It helps us along our journey towards our full potential by cleansing us of the energetic weight each of us carries around. This results in a smooth, natural awakening.

Metaphysical Selenite Property #1: Connects to the Angelic Realm

Perhaps the most powerful effect selenite has on us is the way it connects us to the upper realms of the spirit world. For some, this could mean a path to the angelic realm during meditation. Others may find themselves communicating with guardian angels.

There are even those who may hear a sudden hotline to their spirit guides. That could still be angels or it could be something entirely different. It might mean you finally find your familiar or you could connect with an ancestor.

Another added benefit of connecting with the higher realms, such as the angelic realm, is the influx of positive energy that brings. These are places of pure light, love, and happiness, and opening up a tie to them is bound to plug you into that energy.

Metaphysical Selenite Property #2: Opens Psychic Centers

Selenite is a stone that cleanses us of our negativity and that includes any blockages we might be carrying around. Add that to the new influx of positive mojo and you’ve got a recipe for a psychic awakening.

Instead of adding energy directly to your third eye or pumping up your abilities like another stone might, selenite clears the way for you to do it yourself. The end result is a much smoother, gentler opening of your inner sight than some other methods provide.

In essence, this stone helps us get our own way and actually get things done when it comes to our spiritual journey. Of course, you’ll still have to want to see things unseen. If you don’t actually want to open your third eye or enhance your psychic awareness, then no amount of cleansing these areas is going to allow them to open.

Metaphysical Selenite Property #3: Cleanses the Aura

Auras are the usually invisible fields of energy that surround every living thing. Sometimes they can get a little gunked up. When we’re clouded with worry or hate or jealousy, then our aura might reflect that negativity that’s seeded us.

Since living with negative energy in this way is essentially like walking around in a constant cloud of poison, it’s to our benefit to clear the air every once in a while. If it’s especially bad, we may need some more targeted help for whatever darkness has burrowed into us. Generally, cleansing our aura leaves us fresh and open to new energies.

The good news is, selenite can do both. It can clear our energy and melt away the stronger ties that have coiled around our chakras. When we use selenite to heal ourselves and others, we leave no place for any negativity, in our auras or otherwise, to hook onto.

Emotional Selenite Properties

The other half of this coin comes in the emotional variety. That is to say, selenite helps us clear ourselves of negative emotions. Much like when it comes to our energy, this stone helps us find peace and to cut ties with feelings and relationships that are no longer healthy for us. Therefore, Selenite is one of the most powerful crystals for dealing with anxiety.

Of course, we can talk about that on paper and it all makes plenty of sense, but change is hard. By clearing out doubt, selenite allows us to see things for what they are and encourages us to stay positive and confident.

One very important thing to keep in mind is that no single stone, no matter how angelic, can replace the advice of a trained mental health professional. In no way is this us encouraging you to forgo mental health help if you’re feeling not yourself.

Selenite Emotional Quality #1: Clears Negative Emotions

Let’s be fair. Every single one of us has negative emotions. We all get afraid. We all get angry.

Sometimes we’re jealous of the success of a friend. Sometimes we’re frustrated at a lack of effort made by our partner. For many of us, these less than pleasant emotions are a daily occurrence, but even generally happy people have not-so-happy times.

Thankfully, selenite doesn’t just clear our auras. It also cleanses our emotions. In essence, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, then this stone can help ease your fears and settle your anger. 

Part of this is connected to selenite’s ability to clear out our auras, but it’s more than that. When this stone melts away our negativity it doesn’t just leave a vacuum. It fills the empty space with bright gentle positivity.

Selenite Emotional Quality #2: Helps us Cut Ties With Toxic Relationships

Every living being has doubt. It’s just a fact of nature. After all, doubt is just another version of fear.

Fear is one of those emotions that keeps us alive, but it can also hold us back. Sometimes that means holding us back from going for something we want, like our dream job. Other times it keeps us rooted in place.

Letting go of a friendship or romantic relationship can be hard. Humans are social creatures and we want our partners to be the people we need them to be. Maybe we just don’t want to fail or we’ve been tricked by the person holding us down.

Whatever the reason, we often end up fooling ourselves into thinking that we can make something work when we can’t. Selenite is great for this kind of thing.

By clearing our auras, it helps break the ties of our toxic relationships and clear us to see our reality clearly. With nothing left in the way to block us from seeing how truly awful someone is for us, we can begin to move on.

Selenite Emotional Quality #3: Encourages Positive Thinking

Letting go of things can be hard. In fact, life, in general, has its difficulties, but selenite helps us get through it a little easier. It does this by encouraging us to look on the brighter side of life and giving us the means to actually do it. 

Once your aura is clear and you’ve cut ties with toxicity, you’re free to see the silver linings. By cleansing us, this stone opens us up to opportunity and directs us back onto a positive. It’s a lot easier to see the good side of things when you’re not weighed down by any extra gunk.

In this way, selenite is the fuel on our positivity train, but we’re the conductor. It’s up to us to make sure the wheels stay on the track.

How to Use Selenite

Selenite might have a brittle physical form, but it’s pretty flexible when it comes to ways you can work with it. As a good beginner stone, this gem isn’t particularly picky.

If you prefer a more ritualized style of work, you can meditate with selenite over your crown chakra to help open up and balance your energy. You might choose to use incense or even candles during the event. White or silver is a fairly common option for working with this type of stone. 

Of course, if rituals aren’t really your thing, then you can simply sit quietly with your stone. You also might choose to leave a selenite statue somewhere in your home to fill the space with its glimmering energy.

While there is some selenite jewelry out there, this isn’t a gem that typically travels well. It scratches easily and begins to disintegrate the moment it comes into contact with water. 

Additionally, this stone has a habit of splintering into needle-like shards. A worry stone may wear out and leave you with a nasty gypsum splinter. For all these reasons, most do not use the selenite crystal for daily wear.

Another common way to use this stone is as a wand. That might mean directing your energy during ritualized work or laser pointing healing vibes at someone else. In fact, crystal healers often use selenite on their patients and in crystal grids.

Use Selenite If…

Selenite is basically a bright gleaming moonbeam of purity. Its energy leaves no room for anything else.

With that in mind, you probably aren’t going to be using this stone for something like revenge or to help you get that promotion at work. What selenite can help you with is clearing out the anger and jealousy that prompts the desire for retribution.

Basically, you should be using selenite to help you clear out any emotional or energetic gunk. It doesn’t matter if you need just a little boost or a full-on auric overhaul. 

You could also use this gem if you need to cleanse someone else, or even if you need to clear or charge another crystal. Along those lines, this stone makes a powerful addition to a crystal grid.

Best Cleansing Method for Selenite

While there are certainly those who disagree, selenite is one of the few stones that doesn’t need cleansing or charging. Simply put, its own energy connects to the positive so purely that it doesn’t require any of the usual tricks.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t cleanse your chosen chunk of selenite. Cleansing certainly won’t hurt anything. You just have to be careful about which methods you use.

Remember that selenite disintegrates in water and will begin to melt at the slightest hint of moisture. That eliminates the water and earth methods. Additionally, the easily scarred surface makes even using rice a bit of a gamble.

That leaves a couple of methods you can still use if you so choose.

Incense

An easy way to cleanse just about any stone that’s safe for selenite is with incense. All you have to do is choose a suitable incense, light it, and pass the smoke over your crystal. 

As far as what scent you choose for incense, that’s entirely up to you. Common herbs for cleansing include sage, sweetgrass, cedar, and lavender. 

Of course, you could always just choose a smell you like instead. While the ingredients have their own importance, it’s the intention behind the method that truly makes it work.

Visualization and Breath

If there was ever a stone that valued using your own energy as opposed to tools, it would be selenite. No tools also means no damaging the stone, so if you don’t have the ability to use incense, or simply don’t want to, you can cleanse your stone with just your mind.

It doesn’t matter if you hold your stone during the process. It can still work from across the world, but many people find physical contact helpful. To begin the work, simply picture the negative energy, the darkness in your stone being replaced by the light.

This might mean imagining it being pushed out, devoured by, or something else. It really depends on what you’re comfortable with.

A great addition to this method comes in the form of breath. All you have to do is breathe out the negativity and breathe in the positive. These simple methods can both be hands-off and are quite safe for a selenite crystal.

Similar Stones to Selenite

Unfortunately, not every stone is the right fit for every person. It’s entirely normal for certain stones to not mesh with certain energies. If that happens to you and selenite isn’t the miracle purifier you hoped for, then that’s okay. 

There’s nothing wrong with you or your stone. It may simply be a case of the two of you operating on different frequencies. 

You can try using a different specimen of the same stone, a new chunk of selenite if you will. You could also try cleansing your stone to see if any negative energies have somehow attached themselves. Of course, there are also other stones you can try that have fairly similar energies.

Similar Stone #1: Smoky Quartz

In many ways, smoky quartz is a less brittle form of selenite. Therefore, some of its properties are similar to selenite properties. It’s a protective, cleansing stone that opens up a window into the mysteries of the universe and teaches us to look more towards the positive sides of life. 

Smoky quartz helps us stay calm and happy and stimulates our creativity. Just like selenite, it encourages us to see the good alongside the bad. 

Unlike selenite, this irradiated form of quartz is a highly protective stone that clears its keeper of energetic gunk and creates a sort of shield against psychic attack. You can place it at the four corners of your home to ward off any negativity and keep your spaces safe from psychic attack.

Another way is to bury it underground for an unseen layer of protection. Though, it does need to be cleansed monthly at the least. The more you use it, the more often it will need a bath.

When it comes to the psychic front, smoky quartz is a powerhouse of inner sight. It helps us learn to peer through the vale so we can see our true selves for what we are. 

Similar Stone #2: Moonstone

Another stone of the moon, moonstone is a member of the feldspar family that comes in white, pink, yellow, black, and even rainbow. It can form with or without black tourmaline and is a powerful force of feminine energy.

Much like selenite, moonstone soothes anxious emotions and encourages us to see the positive side of life. It floats our energy on a sea of balance and teaches us how to deal with life’s ups and downs.

More than that, moonstone opens up our inner senses, so that we can see ourselves for our true worth. Overall, this gem helps cleanse its keeper of any negative emotions. It also fosters balance, and clarity while inspiring new growth. 

Similar Stone #3: Obsidian

Formed by the hot pressures of the earth, obsidian isn’t exactly a stone. It’s more of dark, volcanic glass, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a powerful healing tool.

This semi-precious gem comes in several colors with black being the most common. It can also form in green, blue, yellow, brown, and even rainbow. Naturally, each of these colors has slightly different properties and slightly different energy. With that said, they’re all excellent cleansers.

Not only does obsidian help remove negative energy from its keeper, it sucks the gunk right out of the air. While that does mean it needs frequent cleansing, it also means this stone is pretty much always cleansing you.