Selenite is a crystallised form of gypsum, and it is the softest stone most people will ever own — 2 on the Mohs scale, which means a fingernail marks it. Bowls and flat plates are cut from it and sold as places to rest other crystals.
Water destroys it. Not damages — destroys.
Gypsum is soluble. A selenite plate left wet does not simply get water marks; the surface dissolves, goes chalky and never comes back. This is the single most important thing to know about the material, and it is why selenite is the one stone you must not "cleanse" with water.
Even humidity matters over time. A selenite bowl on a bathroom windowsill will dull. Dust it with a dry cloth and keep it out of steam.
What "charging" actually means here
The claim usually made is that selenite cleanses or recharges other stones placed on it, and that unlike other stones it never needs cleansing itself. There is no mechanism for this that we can point to, and we would rather say so than dress it up.
What a charging plate genuinely does is give your stones a designated place. That sounds like a downgrade and it is not — a defined spot where things are put deliberately is the practical core of most ritual, and it is the reason people find these useful whether or not the energetic claim holds. It is a good object doing an honest job.
Bowls, plates and the difference
A flat plate suits tumbles and jewellery laid out where you can see them. A bowl suits collecting things — rings coming off at night, small stones, chips. Bowls are cut from a thicker block and cost more for that reason.
Choosing one
Look for even translucency and few internal fractures. Selenite naturally has fine parallel striations running through it, which are part of the crystal habit and not flaws. What you do not want is a plate with a crack running across the grain, because that is where it will break — and it will break, eventually, because a hardness of 2 does not survive being dropped on tile.
Rough edges can be smoothed very gently with fine sandpaper, dry. It really is that soft.
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