The Spirit of Stones

Silence is intensified into a stone:
broken circles are closed:
--Pablo Neruda, Stones from the River

The Shiva Lingam rock is the sacred stone from India and gathered once a year from the Narmada River, one of 7 sacred places of pilgrimage in India. They are naturally formed gray and tan stones with reddish markings. Since the beginning of time, men have been collecting stones with the inherent belief that many of them were vessels that hold life force energy.
The message of the lingam stone is UNITY - balancing light and dark, and uniting all aspects of self and accepting the differences in others. I have a small collection of lingam stones in the bowl above.

The stone was there before the wind,
before the man, before the dawn:
its first movement was the first
music of the river.
--- Pablo Neruda, Stones of the River

Bill Dan balances rocks on top of other rocks without any glue or adhesives. He is an artist who defies gravity with his vertical sculptures. He has been creating these rock towers for 15 years along the San Francisco shoreline. He teaches workshops and tells his students when their sculptures fall over, "Nothing is permanent. Just go along with nature."

Nina Judin is an artist who makes one of a kind books as art. She made this book using stones for the covers. THE SKIN OF STONES is an artist's book about the silent life of stones and hidden things. You can find more of her wonderful hand made books at her website and blog here.


Fiona Watson, a Scotland artist, works with real stones. She also does etchings. Her beginnings in science led to her love of nature based art works. You can find her flickr.com stream of her photos of stones and other nature based objects here. You can find her flickr.com stream of artwork here. And you can find her wonderful website here.


Sometimes I sleep, I go back
to the beginning, falling back in midair,
wafted along by my natural state
as the sleepyhead of nature
and in dreams I drift on,
waking at the feet of great stones. --Pablo Neruda