by Sarah Lyn
Stone has a beautiful language. Anyone who has ever had a rock jump out at them has heard it. Pick me! Pick me! Before you know it, you have either slipped it into a pocket, or you find yourself holding it in your hand, uncertain of how long it has been there.
Deep stone sleeps but the closer to the surface it gets, the more connected it is to us and our life cycles. Some rocks just want to introduce themselves and have a conversation. Some rocks will bite and want to be left alone. And some rocks have been looking for you to take them on a quest to some unknown corner of the world they have only heard about in the whispers of the deepest bedrock (even if that’s just your front yard).
[ALWAYS respect places that ask you NOT to take their rocks.]
The Trio
Different stones I encounter have different energies to them. Each sabbat, I put together a trio of stones to focus on for the following six weeks. It’s divination to me. I reach out into the web and see where we are in the world, creating a recipe of stone allies, and then I send that energy back out into the web.
I don’t usually use the same grouping of stones every year, but a couple of times I have. I will work with the stones I choose in my night meditations until the next sabbat, sometimes individually and sometimes as a group.
Spring Equinox is one of my favorite sabbats. Even before I understood that I was pagan, I would thrill as the early flower buds littered the yards with splashes of color. And there was always that first day when you noticed the first bud on a tree; and then the next day, it seemed, every tree would be bursting with them.
It’s time to start thinking about the Work we have done through the winter. It’s time to take those new pathways and take action to set them in motion.
We must all become the young shoots pushing up out of the rich soil.
So many of my beloveds are undergoing transformations and growth cycles right now. Some of them have even bravely chosen a new path.
The stones I chose for Spring Equinox this year have heavy growing properties: Moss Green Agate, Snakeskin Agate, and Amazonite.
Why the two agates? I always joke that if you don’t know what one of your stones is, it’s safe to guess that it’s either an agate or a jasper. Yes, they are that common, but they are also the extreme work horses of the metaphysical stone world. And agate, over jasper, reminds me of glass, which brings to mind the idea of lightning striking sand to create it. What a great representation for growth and change. Agate, the mineral, is a form of chalcedony, a form of quartz.
In my spellwork, Moss Green Agate always represents the Earth, the planet we were formed from and live upon; it’s an exceptional gardener’s talisman. It is semi-translucent, with inclusions of blue and green. Each one is different from the next. It helps me to use it as a foundation piece for any type of growth work—an anchor of who I am and where I am.
A particular stone that is important to transformation work to me, is Snakeskin Agate. It’s usually similar in orange color to carnelian, but the surface is broken up, giving the appearance of scales. I have heard that it can come in browns and whites, too, but I have yet to come across any in those shades. This stone is about movement and change. Its energy is like the kundalini energy rising up through your chakras, readying and preparing you to take action. It also has an undercurrent of joy and wonder at life that helps boost the positivity of the spell.
I often use the other two stones for Equinox work, but this third stone is important to this year. So many of my loved ones are struggling. Amazonite is the perfect addition to this trio. I have it in multiple shades of blue/green with white banding and markings. It is a creative talisman, and a good stone to add to work on change and transformation. It’s a creative stone that is also protective. Think of it like a shield you hold out in front of you. It adds a touch of grace to the mix, too.
Together this trio creates a well of energy you can tap into and access. We’ve been working on healing through the winter. Now it’s time to take what we’ve done and step back out into the world, with slightly different eyes. What growth are you bringing into the world with you this spring?
For Advanced Work
As Equinox is a sabbat of balance, one of the stones I use to work with balance is the Shiva Lingham. This egg-shaped rock is a sacred stone in India. Its shape is the phallic shape of Shiva, but it is formed by the waters of a river where seven currents merge. This stone is seen as a balanced piece. There is a village at this river that has spent generations hand-polishing the rocks they pull from the river for delivery to temples across the country.
My personal note—beware the shiva lingham that someone drilled a hole through to make into a pendant.
[Notes from Sarah Lyn: I never purchase rocks from people who do not know where they are sourced from. It’s important to know where your rocks come from so you can make informed decisions about where to put your money. For those of us buying tumbled stones at rock shows, we’re picking up the chips of what has already been cut from the earth, we are not part of the demand that influences the mining world. But know where your stones come from.]
All photographs © Sarah Lyn.