Stories from the Stones

Okay, I admit it. For most of my life, I thought of stones as dead rocks, and those weirdos who talked about using them for healing were complete flakes. However, the stones have since taught me differently, and I guess now I must confess
(a little painfully) I too am one of the flakes!

It was about ten years ago that I was driving through the Black Hills of northwestern Thurston county, headed off to one of my earliest training workshops in Plant Spirit Medicine. Highway 12 cuts through the the Black Hills; in fact the roadbed had to be blasted out of some of the only bedrock you can find in our area (the rest was covered up by glacial till in the last Ice Age).

So I'm driving along on a Friday, pretty tired after a long week, just anxious to get to the workshop and settle in for the weekend. As I'm driving through the cut bedrock, I look over and admire the dark basalt, the cascades of bright water flowing down, the clustered green ferns. And then, THE ROCK SPOKE TO ME.

I just about swerved off the road, I was so freaked. And then I remembered a line from one of the Harry Potter books, where Ron tells Harry that even in the wizarding world, it's not a good thing to hear voices. I had brief paranoid thoughts of the inpatient psych ward at our local hospital.

As it turns out, the rock was only saying hello and inviting me to come and spend some time with it. I had a strong sense (once I calmed down) that in the past, humans had connected very strongly with this stone, but it had been a long time since it had had such visits. It felt to me as if the rock was somewhat lonely and eager to reconnect.

Since that time, I have learned that many of the indigenous tribes used stones extensively for their healing powers. Many of these people knew that the stones were alive, just like plants or mushrooms, but living in a different time frame than ours. One of these tribes were the Cherokees; they especially liked to use quartz stones. It's probably no coincidence that part of my heritage is Cherokee and my favorite healing stones are those in the quartz group.

One final story: a couple of years ago I managed to break the fibula in my left lower leg. This was my first broken bone, and I was really shocked how much it ached, for months on end. The pain did not resolve well with the usual ibuprofen, nor even, surprisingly, with my herbal pain oils. Then once again, the stones spoke to me: my malachite stone offered to help. I happen to have a small flat one; I put it over the fracture site and taped it on with bandage tape. My pain calmed down within 5 minutes, and by the next day, was gone. After a couple of days, I took the malachite off; within hours my bone was aching again. I cleaned the stone by running it under water, then put it back on. Once again, the pain resolved. After several weeks, the bone healed, and the pain went away.

I have many other stories like that, too many for this post. Today, in my healing office, I have a shelf full of shining stones. I work with them on a daily basis, and they are a key part of my healing practice. They are also my teachers, my mentors and my friends. Though they come from a world of long ago, they have many lessons to share in this world of today...

Janet Partlow
Resources: Black Hills photo by Nancy Partlow