Shamans and other animists recognize the stones as our eldest brothers and sisters, older than the trees and the animals. Some shamans have only stones as teachers and spirit guides. Such stones may be quite ordinary looking, or they may only exist in the spirit world.

Stones at Sacred Sites

At Enchanted Rock, a powerful sacred site in Central Texas, the quartz-filled granite that forms the Rock is undoubtedly connected to the power of the place. As quartz focuses and sometimes magnifies energy, it also seems to have recorded the interaction of humans, good and bad, with the Rock and its surroundings.

The land spirits are strong there, and they are not always welcoming. Unfortunately the park is close enough to two large cities, Austin and San Antonio, that its reputation as an unusual site has made it a fashionable hangout on weekends.

If you get a chance to visit, be sure to go on a weekday before or after the summer, and not during spring break or other school holidays. It is best to go up on the Rock at dawn. We recommend drumming as the sun rises.

Be sure to also climb the other dome if you can, and spend some time in the saddle area between the two domes. One reason to go when the park is almost empty is to experience the difference in energy among the three areas without the distraction of noisy tourists.

More information coming soon on stones and sacred sites.

Stones in Patterns

Stones arranged in patterns have been used by cultures worldwide for thousands of years.

Sacred Stones in Circles

The most famous stone circle is Stonehenge, but many thousands more still exist worldwide, including medicine wheels in North America and other patterns. Circles of standing stones like the famous Stonehenge exist not only in Britain but in Europe, Asia, and Africa. A few years ago the shifting of the sand dunes uncovered one in the middle of the Sahara desert.

The Energy of Patterns

Ancient peoples knew that patterns have an energy of their own, no matter they are made of. For example, walking a labyrinth can induce a trance, even if the labyrinth is just chalked on a pavement or painted on a canvas floor cloth.

Stone, though, makes especially powerful patterns. And, of course, not all those patterns are circles. Tibetan mandalas, for example, are based on squares, because they are aids for visualizing a sort of palace for a Buddhas (something that in physical ralitywould have been made of stone).

Consider this, too: Sand particles are tiny stones. Sand paintings, carefully replicating sacred patterns, are powerful magical, spiritual tools of Tibetan lamas and Dine (Navajo) healers on opposite sides of the Earth. The colored "sand" used for both kinds of traditional sand painting is composed of tiny bits of colored stone: turquoise for blue, malachite for green, lapis or azurite for dark blue, and so on.

Navajo Sand Painting Art Print
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Making Patterns in Stone

You don't have to use megaliths, as at Stonehenge, to use the power of stones in patterns. The patterns can be temporary or permanent. You can use a plain pebbles, animal fetishes, rough or polished gemstones, stone beads, mineral specimens, crystals, or small boulders.

You use what you have, when you need to. The act of making the pattern with intent, listening to the spirits of the stones to know where to place them, is part of what gives the pattern its power. The spirits of the stones, and the pattern itself, provide the rest.

You can use sacred geometry, deliberately arranging the stones in a formal pattern (possibly laid out by measurements in advance), or you can arrange the stones spontaneously as you are guided by the spirits.

This is very powerful work that can help you journey or can be uprotect you or others or to help anchor the results of your spirit work in ordinary reality. Try it.

Animal Fetishes

The origin of the beautiful carved stone animal fetishes of the American Southwest are thought to have been natural stones that slightly resembled animals. After a metaphysical experience, a person's eyes might be drawn to a stone that reminded them of the animal in the vision, and pick it up. That stone, considered a fift from spirit, would be kept and used as a focus for prayers.

The power of an animal fetish comes from the spirit and shape of the stone, not from a traditional assignment of particular animals to particular minerals. For more information, read Spirit in the Stone: A Handbook of Southwest Indian Animal Carvings and Beliefs on the making and use of animal fetishes.

More information coming soon on stone spirits and the use of different kinds of stones.

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Spirits of Stones and Rocks