I wasn't someone who got stones at first. I remember growing up I didn't totally understand
why people were into crystals or geology. It just didn't sink in until i was an adult, and then it
was as if a light bulb went off. For me it started with the plants, and the plants were the ones who
really helped open up this gateway so that I could really see how sentient and magical this world was
around me. And once i started interacting with the world as my kin and as my teachers
I realized—stones are our elders. If we only learn how to work with stones as these wise teachers,
then we can receive so much guidance and support on the journey. I'm Asia Suler of One Willow
Apothecaries, and this video is a guide to working with the stones as your ancestors.
On a very literal level stones are the building block of existence here
on our planet. They are the minerals that make up our body and our bones and our solar system.
So stones and minerals are the foundation of life. Even plants require minerals in order to grow.
So not only are the stones our ancestors, they are also the ancestors of the plants.
The stones connect us even to who we were before we were earthlings.
The minerals that make up the stones just like the minerals that make up our bodies come from
distant stars. And some stones are very literally meteorites that come from outer space. So not only
are the stones helping us to connect into our deep ancestral roots here on this earth, but they help
us connect to our ancestral roots that stretch back even further beyond. The qualities of the way
in which stone medicine works are similar to the qualities that are held and beloved in our elders—
patience, depth, slowness, the ability to go all the way to a heart of an issue
in their own time in their own pace. In the five element system of Chinese Medicine stones are
thought to work on the yuan level, which is the deepest level of our energetic formation. This
is the level where our life blueprints are stored, our between-life memories, our past life memories,
the deepest parts of our dreams and our subconscious. Stones are able to go all the
way down onto that level and work with us from this dna, ancestral depths really, of our soul.
I love working with stones going to this level particularly to connect to the ancestors.
All of our ancestors are here because of stones. Heck there's even a whole age named
for stones—the paleolithic. We existed in the paleolithic for a long period of time,
and what marks the paleolithic era is how good we got at using stones. If you've ever
turned up an arrowhead in your garden then you have connected first hand to the ways in which
earlier humans used stones to make their lives possible. We all were stone whisperers at some
point. If we weren't then we wouldn't be here today. One of the most powerful symbols of the
ways in which our ancestors used stone technology were the megaliths that started to be built in the
neolithic era, the era that came directly after the paleolithic. The neolithic era is known for
its standing stones, its stone circles—these monuments of stones that began actually with
dolmens, which were simple two stones with a stone cap on top that cropped up around the world. So we
often think of stone circles, standing stones, or dolmens as existing in Ireland or parts of the UK,
but we can actually find these in many places around the world. And what's amazing is that
this technology and this building technique seem to have developed at the same time at
distant places in the world, without any logical explanation of how these disparate cultures would
have been able to communicate to each other. One of my theories is that the stones simply told them
how to start building these sanctuaries and these places of prayer with the stones themselves.
One of my greatest passions is actually being able to visit these different sites around the world.
The feeling, although it changes depending on each place I go,
is somewhat similar. To me being with these megaliths, these stone structures,
there feels to be the sense of time out of time. As if time itself dissolves and there is only
depth. There's a slight electricity to the air, as if something could run across your field of vision
or come floating in before your eyes that you've never seen before. There is a sense of numinous
magic there. There's a reason why there's many tales of people going through the Standing Stones
and ending up in other places and times. Because when you're with these monuments,
it actually feels as if you've stepped into a different place energetically. And i truly believe
that this was intentional. Our ancestors got so good at working with stones, that they kind of got
to an apex of technology with them. And that's how I think about these stone circles and monuments
as pieces of technology. Now we may think that we're pretty fancy with our technology now,
but most of our technology is really lacking that sense or that feeling of being something
that's actually a conduit to the divine. But with stone circles, you feel it intimately.
No matter where you are in the world and whether or not you have access to these ancient monuments,
you can still interact with stone medicine as a way to connect to the ancestors. So why were our
ancestors creating these different monuments around the world and working with stones?
Well one reason might be that many of the stones, if you look at the chemical composition of the
stones that were most often used, many of them have high silica content. Silica is what makes up
the basics of our quartz crystal technology, and it's because silica is able to encode and store
so much information. So one theory about these monuments is that they're actually devices that
store information, that were encoded with information, that perhaps we even need now. So
you can feel this when you work with a silica-rich stone that maybe is in your environment,
or even a piece of quartz. Quartz itself is full of silica and when we find silica rich stones in
our environment, what we're often looking for is stones that have inclusions of quartz inside of
them. So you can try this, get a piece of quartz or go rock hounding around where you live to see
if you can find a stone that has silica content, and try holding it in your hand and just seeing
what you download. You might even specifically ask to connect to the ancestors through this stonem
and just see if there might be any information already held within that crystal or that rock.
Interestingly, one theory about why these stone circles were created is that they are a vast
mnemonic devices. Basically that people encoded their information as they began moving from mostly
nomadic peoples in the paleolithic era to more sedentary type lives with developing agriculture,
that they created these circles to actually record all of the vast information that they
kept in their heads and that they stored in the landscape and that they accessed as they walked.
I think this is a fascinating theory. And I think beyond just the stones themselves acting as
mnemonic devices through their cracks and their crevices, I think that information was very
literally stored in these stones. So you can find stones in your environment and actually
see if you can download information or connection to the ancestors through them. Other people think
that these monuments were at times placed on what are called "ley lines." Ley lines are energetic
lines that move through the earth, similar to how in acupuncture we think about our meridians
through our bodies. So one theory is that these stones were actually placed on specific spots
on the earth to help get the energy flowing or moving well, or even to create kind of a vortex of
healing. So one way that you can connect into our ancestors and this ancestral knowledge is to work
with stones on your body as well. Now you can go and study some meridian points that you might like
to work with, or ask your acupuncturist, but you can also do this intuitively. Find some stones,
whether they're stones you already have in your collection or even stones you might
just find outside your house, and just ask them intuitively where they should go on your body in
order to create greater flow, or maybe even open gateways of energy or potential inside of you.
Interestingly, some people say that modern acupuncture—where we place needles in certain
parts of our bodies—actually developed from a more environmental form of feng shui, where they were
placing stones in places of the landscape in order to create better energy flow. And in the tradition
of Daoist stone medicine I've been trained in, the Jade Purity lineage, there is the story that the
first acupuncture needles were actually made from stones—from opals in particular—but that stones
were the way that we actually began even working with the energy in our bodies. Stones have so much
to teach us and so much to tell us. As the literal elders of our earth, they are the wisdom keepers,
they are gatekeepers to accessing deeper fields of energy and potential, and there's so much
that they have within them that they're wanting to share. But just like a beloved elder,
they need to be asked. We need to learn how to sit with them, how to communicate with them,
to listen to what it is that they have to give us. So if you're interested in really deepening
your relationship with the stone realm, check out my online course How Stones Communicate.
This course is a training and learning how to talk directly to stones, so that you can take out any
middleman or even any stone dictionary and learn how to receive this information directly from the
stones themselves. I promise you that so much of our technology as paleolithic peoples, and perhaps
even today, were actually coming from directly being able to communicate to these ancient,
wise, and benevolent beings. So you can find this course over on my website.
OneWillowApothecaries.com. And once there you can also sign up to become a part of the inner circle,
where i share these videos as well as different meditations, reflections, and gateways to help
you learn how to develop a deep relationship with the natural world. I send these missives to your
inbox two times a month so you know that no matter where you are in your life, these opportunities to
connect will land right where you need them. So if you have a practice with stones already, or
you work with stones in your own journeying to your ancestors, I would love to hear about that in
the comment section below—how have stones opened a gateway for you in your life? I think that we
are just on the tip of what it is the stones are here to tell us and download to us right now,
and so I, for one, am so excited for all of the wisdom, knowledge, and healing that is to come.