(continued from Famous Stones Around The World Part 1)
Ka’ba– Mecca, Saudi Arabia; holiest shrine for Moslems; probably a meteorite; Islam tradition states The Black Stone was sent down to Adam; an annual pilgrimage to Mecca, called the hajj, is made by over 2 million Muslims each year
Ile Longue – Brittany France; beehive shaped chamber topped with a flat stone; Neolithic grave architecture; symbolizes the pregnant belly of the Earth Mother
Moai – Easter Island, eastern Pacific Ocean; 600 monolithic figures 13 to 65’ high; cut from volcanic rock; face inland to guard over the community; used for ritual and as a burial site
Omphalos Stone – Delphi, Greece; found at Apollo's temple; means "navel” of the world, marked by the omphalos stone; markings on the stone may be geomantic, may be a form of longitude and latitude
Philosophers stone – to find the lapis philosophorum was the great goal of the medieval alchemist; believed to transform lead into gold; using the complex language of alchemy as a parallel to psychological process, the "stone" symbolizes the deep inner longing to find our true spiritual nature
Stonehenge – Wiltshire, England; 2200 B.C.E.; two concentric circles of massive stones, some weighing 50 tons, built around a symmetrical axis that points towards the summer sunrise; built and rebuilt in increasingly complex forms over a millennium and a half; used for rituals, especially those related to the Earth Mother and the seasons
Uluru – Australia; monolith of sandstone rising 1,115 feet above the desert plain; 1.5 miles wide and 2 miles long; sacred site of dreamtime which is Aboriginal time of creation that runs parallel to life
Windmill Tump – Gloucestershire, England; 3000 B.C.; holed stone passage, when crawled through, brought regeneration or cured illness; passing through the hole into the chamber within symbolized entry to the Earth Mother's womb
Stonehenge