Stone Magic
There was a stone pile on my grandmother’s farmland - not decorative, not arranged, just a collection of different-sized boulders pushed together, the result of clearing fields. But to us children, it was everything - a Kingdom. We knew every stone, which ones were stable, which wobbled, which had just the right flatness to lie on and stare at the sky or the slow crawl of moss. The pile became our map, our maze, our theatre stage, our secret place. We jumped from one to another like it was a sacred rite or a maze. Our feet knew the path by heart.
And then there were the beach rocks. Out in the water, slick with seaweed and mystery, they beckoned like thrones of mermaids or wise sea spirits. Reaching them was a quest. Sitting on them, dripping, breathless, sun on our backs, was the reward. A quiet sort of triumph. You didn’t need to say anything. Just sit or lie down, immersing your hands in the water and playing with seaweed that looked like wild green hair swirling in the waves.
Today, I came across this magic again: that one big rock in the middle of the water near a walking path. There’s always someone on it, a stranger with a coffee, a pair of lovers, a kid pretending not to pretend. Like grown-ups still carry that same childishness: to travel from stone to stone, leap over the deep, and reach that place in the middle of the water. Not just to sit, but to be stilled.
Maybe, I’m only saying so I don’t sound too woo-woo, he he, we’re drawn to stones because they hold something. Energy.
1. Stones as Anchors of Stillness
Sitting on a stone, especially one nestled in a river, lake, sea or ocean, invites stillness. Stones are unchanging in a world of constant motion. Their solidity grounds us. Water flows and changes, but the stone stays. Sitting on it is like stepping outside of time.
2. The Contrast: Stone + Water = Balance
Water represents emotion, flow, and intuition. Stone represents stability, structure, and earth. When you sit on a stone surrounded by water, you’re quite literally sitting on groundedness while surrounded by feeling. It’s a place of perfect contemplation: the body finds rest; the mind flows.
3. Ancestral Memory & Myths
Humans have gathered around stones for millennia: for rituals, for rest, for reflection. Think of:
• Druidic stone circles
• Shamanic cairns or devil's stones
• Stone altars or thrones
• Monolithic sacred sites
We may not always consciously know why, but we carry the memory of these sacred relationships in our bones.
4. The Energy of Stones
In many spiritual and energetic traditions, stones - especially those in or near water - are believed to absorb and hold energy. Water cleanses, and stone remembers. Some believe these places radiate grounding energy that can:
• Help reset emotional overwhelm
• Connect you with Earth’s frequency
• Facilitate introspection or visioning
5. A Natural Throne
There’s something symbolic in sitting on a large stone: it makes you feel held and witnessed by the natural world. It can feel like you’re claiming space in the landscape, just as you are. The world isn’t rushing you.
6. A Mirror for the Soul
Water reflects. Stones don’t. Together, they create a metaphor: look in the water to see who you are; sit on the stone to know who you’ve always been.
A rock in the middle of the water is a portal - not to anywhere, but to here. To yourself. To the part that still knows how to play. The part that still believes in magic.
When was the last time you climbed up on a stone or pressed your palms or body against it for no logical reason at all, just because it called you?