I am preparing to give a workshop in Edmonton on Speaking with Stones and find myself reflecting on this
chalk pastel drawing I created titled:
Ode to Stones that Speak. This is one of those mysterious shamanic paintings that keeps its full meaning hidden even from me.
For many years I have been able to receive messages from stones--not in images but as vibrations that translate into Yes and No, and also into phrases that have the potency of poetry. I first had this experience after attending a workshop with a student of
Michael Harner who had attended sessions at the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. We were supposed to receive images from the stone surface to translate into answers to questions we posed, yet I kept feeling a vibrating presence in the stone, and also hearing syllables that joined together to become phrases of archaic formality and beauty. I have courted this stone speech for many decades, and sometimes honor the presence I feel by creating art inspired by my experience.
This shamanic art of chalk pastel is a visual song to the mystery of stones that speak to me. While I cannot explain why things appear as they do--I am delighted and emboldened knowing that a stone knows that fish and whales can soar in water filled with the flight of birds, and that moss grows with a human face.
