As I was thinking about this week’s blog, I was trying to decide what stone to feature, as the Stone People were asking to speak. As I was thinking about quartz, petrified wood pushed its way into my thoughts. It immediately reminded me of our trip to the Petrified Forest in Holbrook, AZ many years ago.
Petrified wood, Blue Mesa, Petrified Forest National Park
According to their website, over 200 million years ago, during the Triassic Period, the logs washed into the river and were buried quick enough and deep enough by massive amounts of sediment and debris, that oxygen was cut off and decay slowed. Minerals, including silica dissolved from volcanic ash, absorbed into the porous wood over hundreds and thousands of years and crystallized within the cellular structure, replacing the organic material. The wood structure was maintained, but the wood fibers slowly changed into stone. Sometimes the crushing or decay left cracks in the logs. Here large jewel-like crystals of clear quartz, purple amethyst, yellow citrine, and smoky quartz formed.
It is an amazing site to see acres of these stone-logs strewn around like they were twigs. Some of them were almost as big around as we were tall. To this day, I vividly remember the journey I was taken on by the stone person who invited me to sit that day. I was instantly transported to a time when this desert was once covered in lush trees and foliage. The trees were huge. And as I was sitting there marveling at what I saw, I began to hear the sounds of dinosaurs walking my way. It was like a scene from Jurassic Park! And I got to visit this particular tree when in was growing in this forest. Then I was led through the life cycle of this tree up to present time, living as a Stone Person in a totally different forest. The stone-tree was happy to have some to listen to its story.
Petrified wood works with the root chakra. It is a stone that’s good for grounding and stabilizing emotions. It’s particularly useful in calming survival-based fears and helps to make one feel safe and secure. This stone can give one a sense of peace during times of change and hold us grounded during crisis.
Petrified Wood to helps us connect with the energies of the Earth. Meditating with Petrified Wood may take you back to connect with a time when your spirit was cradled by Nature. Carrying Petrified Wood with you when you feel disconnected from Nature can help you re-connect and ground.
Many people like Petrified Wood for its ancient energies and its ability to access information from ancestral DNA or past lives, and ground these insights into our present reality. It helps teaches patience and understand how to allow life to evolve in perfection. Working with its grounding energies can encourage one to live life as a spiritual being having a human, physical experience.
So, we invite you to find yourself a nice piece of Petrified Wood and sit with it, asking what information it has for you or if it has a story to tell. And you may want to carry a piece in your pocket if you have difficulty grounding. (Check out next week’s grounding meditation at Shaman’s Blog .)
Until next time –
Mitakuye Oyasin (A Lakota prayer reminding us we are all related),
Debbie