Sea Story

I got home and dumped out my finds from Gene's into the bowl where they sit until they have been purified. These didn't really need it. I have been mulling why all the stones were so ocean-y and blue today. Why didn't I select more variety. What moved my hand toward the stones I chose. Understanding the stones, their power and their purpose is part of the process for me. Lots of small tumbled stones subconsciously bought in 5's. The number 5 for me is intimately linked with Leonardo's Vitruvian Man and humanity in general. OK so something about humanity. I start collecting other stones that are scattered about my apartment without thinking about it. They are all blue and green. And the purpose of it becomes clear. We are going to build a healing grid for the Gulf and all the wildlife being affected by the Deep Horizon spill.

I bring out the bowl of stones and a placemat and tell Duz we are going to play. We sit and chat, I arrange a few, but Duz is not involved. I suspect he thinks I have some grand and great idea in my head. I don't. I rarely do. Or that my years of woo-woo experience somehow make me better at this than him. They most certainly DO NOT! I step back in after taking a phone call and find that Duz has completed the grid. He proceeds to tell me the purpose of each stone. It is such a great thing that I wanted to share it with you.

The grid is divided roughly in thirds. The lower third is full of red, orange and yellow stones - the land. The central portin is the mathematical looking grid that I started with - the ocean. The upper third is mostly blue-y greens - the air/ocean. And off in the corner are 3 small cubes of tumbled jet.

At left: These quartz points sitting on the citrine represent the nesting grounds of the sea birds and pelicans. He has placed them with the intention that the nests remain clean and unfouled by oil.


At Right: This piece of Libyan desert glass he says represents the wolf who stands in for all the land animals that they and their habitat remain as unaffected as possible. Other stones he used in this part of the grid include amber, red amethst, a shaman stone broken cleanly in halves,

This piece of azurite with the two quartz singers are to act as sentinels for this area. I wish I had asked him to expand on that idea a little, because his ideas around that may be different than mine, but I see them as guardians of the Gulf and protectors against future accidents of this magnitude.

He has anchored the upper right hand corner of his grid with this piece of celestite and a piece of ajoite to represent clean air over the gulf. Given the current method of burning off the surface crude and converting the oil fouled water into polluted air, I saw this as wise. Celestite for me has a very airy, some might say heavenly quality. And ajoite is just good EVERYWHERE! It is a stone of pure childlike joy.

In the upper left hand corner he has 2 pieces of kyanite and 3 pieces of tumbled jet. The jet represents the oil and he remembers that the kyanite is good for healing and cleaning other tools. So he has used the kyanite to isolate the oil (jet) away from the rest of the grid (ocean/land) and set the intention for it to clean the water as well. Personally I think this piece is brilliant.

The central part of the grid has a lot of things that we added over a couple days including small totems for the crab, turtle, the cowrie shells. It is anchored in the 4 cardinal directions with hemimorphite, chrysocolla, larimar, and lapis. Each covered with a piece of blue apatite. The very center of the grid is a piece of tumbled pink quartz that represents love. 4 small ruby corundums amplifying that heart-love. 4 quartz singers pulsing that love toward the heart of the Gulf. Above it a wave of blue green fluorite cubes that are the color of the perfectly untainted Gulf waters.

We activated our grid by lighting 4 candles. Next to it we placed my Dagara-inspired grief bowl to collect the negative feelings of people from around the world about what is going on in the Gulf. For 3 days it contained salted water and a small Day of the Dead skull bead. The salt and water in this tradition hold and heal the story of this accident. The Day of the Dead bead calls in the ancestors for assistance - and yes, I do know that is mixing belief systems and frankly I don't care. The water was offered to the ground to be transformed to something beautiful and pure and the water in the bowl replaced with clear unsalted water so that the energy of clean water could take its place. (Yes I know the Gulf is salt water. It is about intention more than science accuracy).

On the whole what started as "playing" turned into a very powerful healing tool. And the coolest parts of it were done by someone who has little formal woo-woo training, but great intuitive skills. If he would only believe that were true!!! I encourage you all to play out a pattern that feels good to you. Maybe get your kids involved. You don't need fancy crystals or bowls. Use whatever you have on hand - crayons, legos, spoons, bowls, swiffers, beans, books, index cards with your thoughts on them. Unleash your imagination and tell a story of healing for the Gulf.