Magic stone

“ Naturally, many of the ancient gems which had been preserved from Greek and Roman times were recognized as being purely products of art, but in medieval and later times the idea of the magic quality of all engraved gems had become so deeply rooted that in many cases a magical132 character was ascribed to them entirely foreign to the intention of the engraver. Great ingenuity was often displayed in seeking and finding some analogy between the supposed significance of the design and the fancied power of the stone itself. ”

“ In a wonderful specimen now at the American Museum of Natural History there is an object like a small spider of hydrocarbon which sinks while a minute water-bubble rises. They are called fair-weather stones.
Tasmanian rain-makers use white stones in their magical rites; however, the stone by itself is not considered an effective talisman, for it must be dipped in the blood of a young girl to give it added power. ”

“ This Expanding Stone was believed to manifest its magic power by bringing to pass the wish expressed by anyone who entered it, provided he did not change his wish while he turned around within it. [74]
The natives of the French colony of New Caledonia in the southern Pacific, attach special importance to the fortuitous shape of stones in using them for talismans or amulets. According to their form such stones are considered to procure favorable effects against famine, madness, or death ”

“ Besides the “Philosopher’s Stone,” the chief object of their quest, the alchemists believed that several other stones possessing magic virtues could be produced. Among these was the “angelical stone,” which gave power to see the angels in dreams and visions, and also the “mineral stone,” a substance by means of which common flints could be transmuted into diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, etc. [29] Possibly some alchemists were glass-makers, and fused the quartz with various mineral salts into imitations of the gems, having the colors, but not the hardness or other properties. ”

“ Time passed on in the magician's dream, and little by little the caves were entirely deserted as men learnt to build huts of wood and stone. And as they advanced in knowledge they began to melt metals and pour them into moulds, making bronze knives and hatchets, swords and spears ”

“ All this he accompanies with incantations, and finally covers the whole mass up. In time it ferments, and steam, charged with magical virtue, goes up and makes clouds and rain. The wizard must be careful, however, not to pound the pepper too hard, as otherwise the wind might blow too strong.​ [1077] Sometimes the stone derives its magical virtue from its likeness to a real or imaginary animal. Thus, at Kota Gadang in Sumatra, there is a stone which, with the help of a powerful imagination, may perhaps be conceived to bear a faint and distant resemblance to a cat. ”

“ Lustrous stones are those which catch the light brilliantly and glow almost as though with an inner flame. The cutting of the gem may aid in this effect, as with the diamond. Vitreous stones are of the glassy type, not lustrous. These may be transparent, permitting one to see objects clearly through the stone, like a fine crystal; or they may be translucent, permitting one to see light and shadow but not distinct objects through the stone. When light falls upon such translucent stones as moss agate, moonstone and agate, there is a soft glow. ”

“ In England and Scotland snake stones strung together used to be given to cattle to chew if bitten by vipers. The stone was considered to be a very potent charm against the evil blasts of occult forces. Albertus Magnus carried a stone which guarded against epidemics, evil magic and the bites of serpents, and by the aid of which he was able to attract serpents.
92ORITE. This stone is described as black and round. If mixed with the oil of roses it will cure fatal wounds, protect from wild animals and prevent childbirth. ”

“ But while a general magical efficacy may be supposed to reside in all stones by reason of their common properties of weight and solidity, special magical virtues are attributed to particular stones, or kinds of stone, in accordance with their individual or specific qualities of shape and colour. For example, the Indians of Peru employed certain stones for the increase of maize, others for the increase of potatoes, and others again for the increase of cattle. ”

“ Other stones, such as ‘fired’ zircon, white sapphire, white topaz, and rock-crystal, may dazzle with brilliancy of light reflected from the surface or emitted from the interior, but none of them, like diamond, glow with mysterious gleams. No hint of colour, save perhaps a trace of the blue of steel, can be tolerated in stones of this category; above all is a touch of the jaundice hue of yellow abhorred. It taxes all the skill of the lapidary to assure that the disposition of the facets be such as to reveal the full splendour of the stone. ”

“ No man will attempt to polish the sponge, or paint a picture on the vacant air, or rear a stone cathedral on a sunset cloud. There is no lily-bloom without the sustaining stalk, nor magnolia grandiflora without the sturdy and stately tree. "Wood, hay, stubble," are not fit materials for jewelry; but "gold, silver, precious stones," may be wrought into a thousand forms of beauty, sparkling with myriad splendors. The solid marble superstructure resting upon its deep foundations of granite, firm as the seated hills, can scarcely be too finely finished or too sumptuously adorned. ”

“ One stone resisted drunkenness, so that the bearer could be able to drink freely without becoming intoxicated. A chalcedony made the wearer lucky at law, increased the vigour of one's body, and prevented illusions of the devil. Those acquainted with magical art concluded that all stones possessed virtues, infused into them by the influence of planets. Alexander, Hermes, Zoroaster, and several other ancients, entertained this opinion. Magicians were the first to set stones in rings—an invention which, if not beneficial to man and woman, has helped to adorn their persons. ”

“ INSTEAD of veering off and falling to the ground as from an impact with metal, the stone sank right through the surface of the Thing, as into a pool of protoplastic slime. When it reached the central core of the object, a more abundant life suddenly leaped and pulsed from center to circumference. Visible waves of sentient color circled round the solid stone. Stabbing swords of light leaped forth from them, piercing the stone, crumbling it, absorbing it. ”

“ We humbly submit it should be called the Philosopher’s Stone, not so much out of compliment to its learned and elegant proprietor—although, by the bye, he is wonderfully philosophic—as out of pure justice to the stone itself; for it certainly is the best substitute for the grand object of the chemist’s research that has hitherto been discovered. If the philosopher’s stone will convert metal into gold, the “warlock’s stone” will convert water into silver by a process perhaps more round-about, but equally certain. ”

“ From the bottommost stone to the highest there is never a break in the perfect line; and the plain massive base of enormous quarried stones, some of which, they say, measure ten feet by three, passes into the light octagonal spire, covered with its curious coat of mail or fishes’ scales, by imperceptible and inevitable gradations. It is a triumph of sheer beauty of proportion unaided by the art of ornament. ”

“ The magical stone discovers any person wherever he is concealed; while the angelical stone gives the apparitions of angels, and a power of conversing with them. These great mysteries are supported by occasional facts, and illustrated by prints of the most divine and incomprehensible designs, which we would hope were intelligible to the initiated. It may be worth showing, however, how liable even the latter were to blunder on these mysterious hieroglyphics. ”

“ Thomas Norton died in 1477. His grandson Samuel followed in his steps as an alchemist, and was the author of several Hermetic treatises, which are not very highly esteemed.
“The Ordinal of Alchemy” testifies that the stone is one. In appearance it is a subtle earth, brown, and opaque; it stands the fire, and is considered to be of no value. There is also another and glorious stone, which is termed the philosophical magnesia. ”

“ Shouldst thou find a stone on which is the figure of a man holding in his right hand a palm branch, this stone, with God’s help, renders the wearer victorious in disputes and in battles, and brings him the favor of the great.
Finding the stone called jasper, bearing graven or figured a huntsman, a dog, or a stag, the wearer, with God’s help, will have the power to heal one possessed of a devil, or who is insane.
A good stone is that one on which thou shalt find graven or figured a serpent with a raven on its tail. ”

“ A stone is merely a stone to most men. But within the interstices of the stone, and involving it like an atmosphere, are great and mighty influences, powers which are fearful in their grander operations, and wonderful in their gentler developments. The stone and the flower hold, locked up in their recesses, the three great known forces—light, heat, and electricity: and, in all probability, others of a more exalted nature still, to which these powers are but subordinate agents. ”

“ It is the legend of the stone that attracts them almost more than its beauty. It has for them something of the attraction of sorcery, and suggests a commerce with those occult influences which in spite of ourselves we involuntarily think of as ruling the romantic side of our lives. ”

“ Auto-suggestion may also afford an explanation of much that is mysterious in the effects attributed to precious stones, for if the wearer be firmly convinced that the gem he is wearing produces certain results, this conviction will impress itself upon his thought and hence upon his very organism. He will really experience the influence, and the effects will manifest themselves just as powerfully as though they were caused by vibrations or emanations from the material body of the stone. ”

“ In the production of engraved stones to serve as amulets, the influence of the respective planet was made to enter the stone by casting upon the latter, during the process of engraving, reflections from a mirror which had been exposed to the planet’s rays. In addition to this, the work was executed while the planet was in the ascendant, and the design was emblematic of it. ”

“ The factors that govern the properties of a brilliant-cut stone are large colour-dispersion, high refraction, and freedom from any trace of intrinsic colour. The only gem-stone that can vie with diamond in these respects is zircon. ”

“ A close-grained stone called lithographic stone (a kind of magnesian limestone) is ground perfectly even on the surface, and (if for being written upon) polished with pumice-stone, or (if for being drawn upon with chalk) grained with fine sand; the design is drawn with chalk or ink, each of which is made up of greasy materials—wax, soap, and asphaltum, colored with lamp-black. When the design is made, the stone is etched—washed over with a weak mixture of nitric acid and water—which answers three purposes ”

“ In each and every case the material form and color of the stone was believed to attract the favor and grace of the saint or angel, who would see in the selection of the appropriate gem an act of respect and veneration on the part of the wearer.
The old writers are never tired of insisting upon the idea that, while the image graven upon a stone was in itself dead and inactive, the influence of the stars during whose ascendancy the work had been executed communicated to the inert material talismanic qualities and virtues which it before lacked. ”

“ An old writer finds in the hardness of precious stones a reason for their retaining longer the celestial virtues they receive. After they have been extracted these vir341tues persist in them and they keep “the traces and gifts of mundane life which they possessed while clinging to the earth.”444 These “gifts of mundane life” signify the stored-up energy derived from the stars and planets, which penetrates the matter of the stone, and each stone is peculiarly sensitive to the emanations from a certain planet, star, or group of stars. ”

“ For, nothing of moment in the shape of implements, utensils, or appliances, made of other materials than stone, have as yet been found, nor with but few exceptions, any portions of the human skeleton. It must, however, be remembered how imperishable in their nature are flint and the other silicious stones used for these ancient implements, as compared with the other materials which, among a savage people, come readily to hand, such as wood, bone, horn, or hide ”

“ Flakes and splinters of silicious stone, whether flint, jasper, chert, iron-stone, quartzite, or obsidian, are to be found in almost all known countries, and belong to all ages. They are in fact the most catholic of all stone implements, and have been in use "semper, ubique, et ab omnibus." Whether we look in our old
Fig. ”

“ The vow was sworn while the engaging parties joined hands through the perforation in the stone; and though it is difficult to decide how much of the tradition may be ascribable to modern embellishment and the adaptation of a genuine heirloom of primitive superstition to the preconceived theories of local antiquaries, there cannot be a doubt of the popular sacredness attached to this sacramental stone in former times. ”

“ In the ‘Mabinogion’ such stones are frequently mentioned, usually in the favourite form of a gem set within a ring. ‘Take this ring,’ says the damsel with yellow curling hair, [173] ‘and put it on thy finger, with the stone inside thy hand; and close thy hand upon the stone. And as long as thou concealest it, it will conceal thee.’ But when it is found, as we find in following these clues further, that this Stone of Invisibility was one of the Thirteen Rarities of Kingly Regalia of the Island of Britain; that it was formerly kept at Caerleon, in Monmouthshire, the city whence St. ”