My friend, Liz, is fond of stones. She is teaching me to think of them, cherish them, let them appear in my words. She says words are stones. Her stones are not cold inert things, not like a heart of stone. They are not to be thought of darkly. They are the bones of the world. The bones of life. When we eat, we eat stones leavened with solar energy and lunar gravity.
The oldest stones in the world are in Australia and on the Canadian shield. Australia is the most stable surface on the planet, and that’s why the stones are so old there. The Canadian shield has been scoured by the ice. Newer stone has been scraped away. I think that is how it goes. I believe that geologists claim that the entire surface has turned over at least once, that there is no stone that reaches back to the beginnings of the earth. The earth was molten for a long time, once enough of it coalesced.
Then as many scientists claim, something major happened. The History Channel explained it. I believe it’s the right story. A Mars sized body hit the early earth more or less head on.
The iron core in that Mars sized body sank into the center and so the earth has a bigger iron core than would be normal. The reflective bounce back put a large amount of material into orbit. That’s where the moon came from. The rest of the material settled down, all molten and so forming a spheroid with no wound in it, with the iron at the center because it is so heavy. The extra large core also includes heavier radioactive elements that heat it, creating currents that continue to this day.
They say that radioactive heat and the way the moon worked the planet through gravity is what started plate tectonics, and plate tectonics is a recirculation device that has played a major role in making life possible by renewing the surface periodically with fresh minerals. This is evident by observing how life loves the ejecta of volcanoes and returns in profusion to volcanic slopes in remarkably short time frames.
The moon has played as well the primary role in stabilizing the earth’s rotation, also making life possible by slowing down the planetary climatic and geologic changes to a time frame that evolution can handle. Thus the old astrological vision of Father Sun and Mother Moon is fundamentally correct. No life is possible without the energy of Sun and the stabilizing recirculation of Moon.
To know stones are holy as the source of all nutrients, all food, is as basic as worship of Sun and Moon. This is not an error, not at all. It is the wisdom of the ancients. Scientists are telling this story in new ways, but the human soul already knew long ago. It is our soulful heritage.
Here Are Stones
I have kneeled in front
of you and placed myself on
an altar of hope
amidst the garden
that perfumes the fact of love.
There as well I have
placed three stones, each old,
older than time I suspect,
so smooth, and each is
different, and so
I've offered a trinity
to mirror the world.
March 16, 2009 11:58 AM
Contraction
1 week ago
Stones - anchors to our past, symbols of our present, food for our future...You've made me think in a new way this morning.
ReplyDeleteThe stones in my life
Are covered now in white,
Waiting for the sun
To bring their worth to light.
...too early...
That is the most I can ever hope for, that you find new paths of heart or mind because you come to this place.
ReplyDeleteAs for too early, I was much too late in this post. It was the inevitable but unplanned consequence of my misbehavior.
Such marvellous stories... I love the one about the earth's absorbed twin.
ReplyDeleteThis post makes me feel humble and small... but important. :)
ReplyDeleteLucy, me too. I want it to be true if it isn't. It is a best guess for now. The way the History Channel production did it up, it felt really right. I have watched pieces of it maybe three times because they repeat it. It is a mainstream science story, not some offshoot. This doesn't lessen the marvel of creation one little bit. It is all "longshot" stuff, things that have to happen just so or else everything else doesn't work.
ReplyDeleteThis string of happenstance is an assembly of theoretical facts that are collected with others under what is often called the "weak anthropic principle". The weak anthropic principle is basically stated, that there is no observer (man) of the universe to remark on such things unless precisely those things actually happen.
The point of the extra large core, for example, is to give to the planet a more active core, with sufficient radioactive fuel to keep the heat going, plate tectonics going and thus a place for us to live. The smaller, original core would be dead by now, volcanism would have ceased long ago, plate tectonics would have stopped and the planet would look more like Mars does now.
I think it is actually, as Vinisha remarks here, a good humility checker to know these things. You know your right size if you understand that an early stage planetary collision is essential for all the rest to follow.
Funny how we offer up what is given to us.....I love stones, they speak do they not.
ReplyDeletexxx
They are also quite literally dragon bones.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't lessen the marvel of creation one little bit.
ReplyDeleteNo, in fact, to me anyways, it makes it seem all the more important. And yes size, us to it and to the possibility of it. It is grand. We are lucky.
Stones. They mean so much to me. Literally. Metaphorically.
xo
erin
(Your poem - your beautiful poem. When you write at my place I feel that ratio as well, small to grand. Thank you.)
{{{Christopher}}}
ReplyDeleteI worked all day today..had crabby kids to deal with most of the evening... felt tired and worn out and then I came here. :)
Thank you. I remember this poem. I remember the words holding me up. I remember feeling a sense of belonging somewhere.
I do so love the stones.
There are some religions that used to worship meteors, I've heard. And diamonds are forever, after all. I think your assessment of mineral importance is legit. :) "I've offered a trinity / to mirror the world" = excellent stuff!
ReplyDeleteErin, I often feel with your work that I am privileged to be among your readers. Isn't this the coolest part of blogging, that you find people you really want as friends?
ReplyDelete{{{Liz}}} If I can help you feel you are connected, that is a gift to me.
Joe, thank you for saying that about my post. Thank you for visiting so often. May I say, getting a positive response from you is very cool. You are one helluva poet!
I had a little boy come up to me last night at the ASC and show me a stone in his grubby little hand. He told me the stone's name was Rocky and that it was his friend.....I believed him :)
ReplyDeleteIt's a conspiracy of stones.
ReplyDeleteI loved your poem here Christopher. Trinity of stones. A simple offering with much weight.
ReplyDeleteThe stones seem so right. Grounding, I guess that's it; or maybe they serve as a marker, a way back.
ReplyDelete