What do rocks mean to me?

[stephbg]

azhure asked me a question in one of my rock posts: (and randomly, just out of curiosity, do you ascribe to any of the metaphysical properties of stone?). The short answer was yes and no. The long answer will hopefully emerge below.



I like rocks. I find them attractive, shiny, and fascinating. I've used them as a meditation aid, and for entertainment. I occasionally discover interesting metaphors for life amidst my rock stories. I grieved--there is no other word for it--when many of my rocks were damaged. I'd carefully selected each one over the course of many years of collecting. I spent a lot of time looking at them and admiring their unique beauty, and suddenly many of them were scarred. Even the tiniest chip stood out in glaring detail. It *hurt* to look at them.

That's the yes part of the answer, in the sense that my attachment to rocks is deep and possibly even spiritual, but it is the same attachment I feel for most things in nature. I like trees and water too, and animals and bugs and fish and birds. I have a special attachment to geological formations in the landscape because they speak to me of time measured in eons. One of the few places to which I feel the deep urge to travel is to Ireland to touch standing stones. There's a kind of pull that I don't really understand, but don't really want to examine too closely. It's just there.

The no parts of the answer (...do I ascribe to any of the metaphysical properties of stone) relate solely to the over-codified extreme hippy-type treatment of pretty rocks. I could almost go along with generic statements that pretty rocks help to settle and clarify the mind (they do), calm and thus heal the body (they do) and help you to tap into the energy of the universe (they do). Anything that gives you joy and makes you slow down and smell the roses does all that. I like flowers too. We've strayed back into yes territory here, but here comes the no.

What I find unacceptable about hippy mumbo jumbo is the assertion than different rocks have specific properties. X is energising while Y is calming. A will clear your lungs, but B is good for digestion. Not in so many words of course, but in a hell of a lot more words. That's what I really can't stand. That's what will make me complain about f&^%ing hippies wanting to cleanse my f%$#ing aura.

All of this tallies quite closely with my attitude to organsied religion. I'm more than happy with the "be nice to people" parts of religion, but the organised, codified, and ritualised parts are not for me. The most abstract parts of theory are good for me, the nuts and bolts of doctrine and practise, not so good.

If you happen to swing the way of crystal healing or strict Catholic observance by all means continue. I wish you peace and happiness. There is space for all.

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Well, azhure, did that answer your question? It was a good one, and I was also thinking of the issue because moonvoice recently added me to her circle on DW and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't offending anyone. I'm afraid hippies will always be f#$%ing hippies although I'm find with animism, shamanism, paganism, wicca etc. I'll try to unpack the linguistics of "hippy" if requested. I should stop now :-)