Rocks with Faces

[helen99]

At first glance, rocks seem to be nothing more than chunks of planetary matter whose molecules have crystallized into rigid structures. They also seem to be relatively permanent, inanimate features on the landscape. Having observed the rocks in my yard for over ten years, though, I've noticed that they're by no means permanent. After several months, they dig little pockets for themselves themselves to rest in, and each year they slowly sink deeper into the pockets until they entirely disappear from view.

I've also observed a tendency of rocks to drift to new positions in the yard, especially after a severe storm.

Both the sinking and the drifting occur with the help of water, wind, and plant life. The water softens the earth, allowing the rocks to sink under their own weight. The wind buffets the rocks, perhaps moving them a few feet, especially if there is a heavy rain creating rivulets of water to further propel them. Vines grow up around the rocks, pulling them toward the earth.

It's probable that much of this activity is the result of random interactions between elements. However, sometimes the interactions between water, wind, plant life, and rocks seem to be a dance, inspired by the nature of the participants.

Rocks are among the oldest structures on earth, and are composed of hard elements and compounds, including silicon. Silicon is an excellent recorder and storer of information. Many rocks have been in existence for billions of years, and if they are able to record as well as I think they are, they will have stored a vast amount of information during that time. I believe that given enough time and enough information, anything can achieve sentience.

Rocks do not all have the same feel. To me, some feel "sentient" (not in the sense we understand sentience) and some do not. The ones with the sentient feel may be quite plain on the outside, or they may have intricately irregular surfaces that are twisted into interesting shapes.

Occasionally, I encounter rocks that appear to have faces, most of which feel quite sentient. Usually, a rock will have more than one face -- they've had enough time to develop many personalities, after all. The image below is a rock on the surface of Mars, which has remained undisturbed long enough to develop a rather interesting personality...



Whether these faces reflect the internal personality of the rock by some intentional dance between the rock and other elements, or if they are just the chance result of eons of erosion, is hard to say. Whatever the answer may be, I've kept a few of them with me for many years. One in particular (a little pinkish-white rock), has multiple faces. On one side, it's angry/scary but winking at the same time. On one side, it's sad. And in profile, it's laughing. I call it my laughing rock.

To the left is a picture of a bigger rock with many faces (not someone I know)... These rocks seem rather curmudgeonly, but then, what would one expect from someone over a billion years old.

The faces probably do not reflect any emotion I am familiar with, though, because a rock is not a warm-blooded, mobile, mortal creature with mammalian emotions. It is just a very, very old aggregate. On the other hand, they're born of the same earth that we are, so maybe there's more of a similarity than I'd initially suspect. Many of the rocks with faces come from the banks of the tiny creeks running through Maryland's wild places. Perhaps the water and the rock danced together to reflect the endless cycles of light, dark, and water that the rock "saw" for billions of years. Whenever I am in a wild place, I am the most fascinated by the deposits of rocks by the creek beds, where the rocks with faces like to dance with the water...

Some people believe that these are "Spirit Stones" (that nature spirits inhabit them). Maybe... But I think it's the intelligence of the rock itself, which is the intelligence of the earth. After thousands of years of information gathering, a rock may sink back to the earth's crust and return to the larger aggregate.

But before it does that, it may smile, frown, wink, or laugh in the direction of those who chance to see it...

Comments

[silvaerina-tael.livejournal.com]

And that could link up nicely with what Ri's talking about with the bees, and what you were just writing regarding rocks. Being able to sense, not only what is there, but communicating with it to determine how best to proceed. That whole we work *with* our environments, not against them. Which I can dredge up from a bloody in-character character journal. Actually, I have that section printed out somewhere... This could very well work...

[helen99.livejournal.com]

I had a feeling that it was already at least partially worked out (less work overall to put it together. Let me know if you're ok with putting the following on the workshop page (Please edit this to match what you've already written so it will match it better if mine is off mark:

"Ethical symbiosis with the land as a form/system of Elven magic: Being able not only to sense what is there, but communicating with it to determine how best to proceed. Working *with* our environments and not against them, creating a symbiosis that is more awake and alive than the sum of its parts."

[silvaerina-tael.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me.

[silvaerina-tael.livejournal.com]

Some people I've talked with seemed to think that they would like to see more of an otherkin "focus" at Thresholds, as all this getting back to nature stuff, while good on the surface, wasn't otherkin per say. Lots of "normals" were into all this permaculture stuff as well, and they could go to Gaian Mind if they wanted that sort of focus. I rebutted that Reiki isn't strictly otherkin either, far from it, yet we seem to have that occur every single year at Thresholds.

Somehow, I think that if something ain't abstract in form, that is purely theoretical or dealing with energies, it isn't otherkin oriented enough...

[helen99.livejournal.com]

We haven't had an official reiki class for a few years now, but you're right: Reiki was not a specifically "otherkin" workshop... The exceptions to that were the mutations that people like Railenne, Rialian, Eyovah, etc., applied to Reiki, making it into another form altogether. I think the same applies to "permaculture". I wouldn't even use that term really, since what we're doing is taking what works from all kinds of nature paths available, morphing what works so it fits together, and making something new for otherkin that involves a sort of magic.

This takes sustainability one step further and morphs it so it is no longer a chore, it's a magical path, including benefits to the practitioner such as increased vital energy. This is pertinent to the a strangely high percentage of Otherkin which have fibro, lyme, or similar ailments.

Magic that increases the interaction/exchange with the environment (rather than wholesale exploitation of the environment) will, in turn increase the vitality of the environment. This will increase the vitality and health of the practitioner probably more so than just a mundane application of sustainability would because there will be energetic intent behind it. Amplifying such with Jarin's matrix may even make the effects stronger.

Making the magical workings specifically elven (by focusing on things like spaces between, interactions, the dance between elements) would make the whole thing less "pagan" in flavor and more otherkin and possibly even alchemical.

Now this is not to say that I do not like just plain pagan or plain sustainability - but I'm trying to morph it so it will be more otherkin related.

One relatively mundane example happened when a group of us went to one of the last remaining meadows in the middle of some suburban sprawl to rescue some blackberry vines that we wanted to plant in the yard. Having taken the vines, we noted that there was a boatload of trash everywhere - people had been tossing their trash over the railing of the nearby parking area of the strip mall adjacent to the lot, instead of actually walking to the available trashcans. The dumpsters were marked "not for personal use", further discouraging people from cleaning up. We found bags among the trash and filled them up with the trash and took them to the forbidden dumpster until the damn thing was full, as it well should be (so there). The place wasn't perfect when we left, but it was a lot better. Thus an energy exchange happened rather than just a taking, focusing on the interactions and spaces between things (a forgotten lot between strip malls). This is probably a bad example, but it's similar to the kinds of energetic exchanges that happen during a magical working.

You probably have better ideas than these and already have a direction worked out, but thought I'd put this out here just in case it might be useful.

[silvaerina-tael.livejournal.com]

I agree. When Ri talks about how he relates with "permaculture" I see exactly what you've said above. And also having involved in clean-ups of that nature, I concur with the result. I also don't see how anyone can't see that, but that might just be me.

I think I'm also going to insert some of my languishing physics essay, how everything is interconnected. One just can't focus on energetics, and like matters as purely Elven/Other.

We have physical bodies, but they aren't purely physical, they are energetic as well - which we know. We cannot allow ourselves to forget the reverse.

If we want to bring what is "out there" more in line with us, harmoniously one hopes, we need to work with it. And as we generally want to live in healthier environments ('cause they ain't) that means getting down and dirty with natural systems. As mundane as it sounds, soil is a wonderfully complex system, a living system. This means that it isn't purely "physical" either, that it does have rich energetics there as well. In order for us to better understand how we can shift the system, we have to work 'with' the system. This is one of the ways we manifest as go-betweens with the natural environment.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

I like the description "go-betweens with the natural environment". That's what various forms of fae are, after all - they dance between elements, and underly the interactions in nature... Encouraging life to flourish rather than beating it into one's own image or using it up..

[silvaerina-tael.livejournal.com]

Exactly, and this is exactly what I've said in that character journal I mentioned I was going to loot for content... This even extends out how things are manufactured, and the mining practices that went into even that, where goods are obtained, and how the people were treated to obtain those goods. All of this is of course the ideal, however it is something to strive for.