Charging is an old term for offering energy to the crystal. Some find this term offensive because they feel that it carries the concept of crystals as tool rather than as companion beings. Charge as I learned it from the Crystal Deva is to offer energy as a gift to the crystal .
Both for healing and as an exchnge of energy and information to and for the crystal.

Many of the techniques for clearing crystals also charge and restore them and no other attention is needed for this purpose . An overworked stone will sometimes want and need to rest a while before being reused. Crystals May not need to be charged at all. Tune into the crystal before you offer charging.

Crystals are part of the universal or Divine wisdom totality and are effective and alive always without need for activation now sometimes we beings in our choice of playing the game of separation may choose to"need" the intervention of an activation or a ritual. The crystals and the Deva also aspects of the wholeness are always in active connection with that essential divinity not having chosen to play this game of the illusion of separation.
Do simply love and be open to give and to receive it is never about power it is always about harmony.

Crystal charging is a way of offering attention and energy to the crystal beings which they are free to accept. It is also one way of sharing your spiritual song with the crystal and helping you to be attuned to and aware of the crystals purpose and life force.

Crystal do not always need charging but will often accept it. Sometimes even a cleared crystal will seem under energized or even lifeless. With the agreement of the stone it can be charged ,amplified or restored by using any of several methods. These techniques are always to be done with respect for and in harmony with the nature of the stone. These are ways of restoring, helping and healing the crystal. Often the ajustment may be more in your awareness of the crystal than in the crystal themself othertimes however there will be a true healing for the crystal.

Begin with a stone with clear energy. Some of these methods are simply ways to give the crystal time to revitalize themselves .

You can place your stones to be charged on a clear quartz cluster to be charged using four singly terminated clear quartz crystals points inward toward the cluster in a cross formation one in each compass direction East , South , North and West will boost the effectiveness of this method you can leave your crystals on the clusters long as you want.

You can charge the stones with universal life force and / or any healing shakti you have access to by running the energy into the stone while holding or touching it (if you are skilled at remote work you can do this without touching the stones even from a distance). The shakti in the Crystal Deva empowerments were given to me by the crystals before I had studied crystal work at all and seem to be accepted by most crystals most of the time.

You can imagine / visualize a beam of healing light ,White ,golden or rainbow entering your crown and flowing down your arms into the crystals you hold, vitalizing the stone . Light can also be beamed from the heart .Other locations for beaming light from can be used but are most often used in a programming charge for specific purposes rather
than general purpose work .

I usually hold the stone and intend that its natural energies be restored and/or amplified using a scale of one to ten .(actually I use a scale of one to thirty but that range is acquired gradually through over a year of specialized training ) in accord with maximum good and highest purpose.

There are attunements that can facilitate this and other energy work and crystal work processes . I find that many people can access these procedures quite well without formal attunements. It takes less than a minute for most of these intention techniques to work and many will run to completion by themselves even if you do not retain focus on the
stone. Simply intend that the stone's energy be raised to its highest most healthful level or restored to its ideal state.

Intention when used this way means to focus your will clearly on what you wish done. You do not need to sweat this it is not an intense forces of concentration just a clearly formed focus of thought and will a mental command or request .
Visualization is often used with intention but as used here this does not mean that you actually need to see something in your mind just that you find a clear way to communicate your intention. The most common difficulty people have with intention processes is that they may work too hard at it.

You can also use intention to personalize a stone for your self or others this will call in harmonious energies and turn off
inharmonious ones. You can also use intention to recover programming or memories that have been cleared out previously if you need to.

In most cases if you have a piece of the same stone that is fully energized you can place the under charged stone next to or on it and ask intend that the weak stone match it and restored to the full level of its potential.

You can ask your Solar Angel and high self to charge and restore a stone or bring in the Guide or Deva most suitable. to do this. You can of course request that the Deity/ies and or Spiritual beings that you work with personally, charge the stone Do this in accord with those traditions and procedures you use in working with that source.

Sunlight, moonlight, wind and other Spiritual intervention will raise the vibration and restore wholeness to your stone's energy.
A few hours in bright sunlight or under a full moon will be enough for most stones . If you run crystal shaktis or stone spirit energies you can charge your stone simply by running the stone shakti of that stone into it .

Taking a stone into the presence of a great spiritual teacher or to a sacred site or in the presence of some sacred or blessed object . is a time honored way to charge them . Sometimes it is possible to invoke healing energy into the stone from a site or spiritual teacher without being in the actual presence.
Remember of course that not all famous Spiritual teachers are really spiritually advanced and you also might well find an enlightened master at the Laundromat or scrubbing floors in an office building .

A sacred place may be some area of forest or a temple or the seashore not just those officially so designated . It may take only a short time for a crystal to become clear in a sacred site perhaps less than an hour in some cases.

Toning and playing sacred or beautiful music can charge a stone too. Classical music drumming and Gamelion music are among the possibilities for charging with sound.

Most people develop an intuition over time about When the crystal is charged and how long it will take for the crystal to be charged. The crystal may seem brighter clearer lighter, shiny It may feel more pleasant.

People using energy methods of charging will usually have these stop when the work is done . They may feel that energy shift happen . People who get information or signals from their high self or angels or from deva or guides may get some kind of prearranged signal when the work is done or when they ask such as seeing a light or having their nose or ear itch
If you do not get a sense about how long it takes allow three to five minutes for intention directed methods and possibly 24 hours or longer for resting on crystal clusters The time will vary from item to item and person to person there is no
way I know to give you an absolute time frame

Many people mentally visualize a meter or gauge and imaging the needle or other indicator giving you a read out as to the percentage of charge that is done.

Try some of these methods out . I am sure there are other ways you might find to charge your stones . These techniques are always to be done with respect for and in harmony with the nature of the stone .

Please share your suggestions and experiences with us . Do You notice a difference when you charge your stones ?