FETISH STONES
By Sue Phillips
Since the dawn of time, simple boulders have been worshipped as the embodiment of a god on earth. These are termed fetish stones and are almost invariably completely natural. Generally, these stones are worshipped where they lie; though some are moved and legends attach to how the fetish stones came to be at their current location.
The holiest stone of the Hebrews was called Beth-El [dwelling place of deity]. It was kept in the temple of Zion in Jerusalem.
Pilgrims coming to Mecca in search of benediction visit the small black meteor of Ka'aba, the holy stone of Islam. This, they believe is the right hand of god on earth. Priests known as the Sons of the Old Woman attend the stone. To obtain blessing, the stone must be circled widdershins [anti-clockwise], against the normal passage of the sun, perhaps because it generates some kind of energy or resonance. In contrast, Buddhist pilgrims walk around their sacred Stupas in a clockwise direction, going with the flow, along the path of least resistance in keeping with their peaceful beliefs.
The ancient British, particularly the Celts were much inclined toward this kind of worship and several laws were passed during the Christianization of Britain and Europe, outlawing the worship of trees, rivers, wells and stones.
A sacred' Songline ` of the Warramunga tribe of northern Australia was disturbed when the mining town of Tennant Creek removed a 30-ton boulder at a rocky outcrop known as the Devil's Pebbles Aboriginal protests compelled them to replace it in 1981.
Beneath the feet of the statue of Apollo at Delos in ancient Greece lay the simple uncarved fetish stone worshipped long before the statue existed. This unimpressive looking rock was not disregarded when the new statue was carved; rather, the statue was erected to show the true nature of the fetish stone. Elaborate carvings were often made of the gods as civilizations progressed, but the most ancient totems and fetishes, often rude stones, were always considered to be the holiest and the truest earthly manifestation of the deity. In Achrean Pharre there stood 30 squared stones, each named after a god and worshipped as such.
According to Greek myth, when Rhea married Cronus, father of the gods, Heaven and Earth warned him that his fall would be brought about through his children. In an attempt to avoid his fate, Cronus swallowed them, as they were born, causing Rhea great grief. When she came to give birth to Zeus, she substituted a stone for the baby, which she wrapped in swaddling bands. Cronus swallowed it and the child was raised secretly. When Zeus grew up, he forced Cronus to disgorge his children. The stone, swallowed last, was brought out first. Zeus set the stone at Phylo in Delphi [the temple of the womb], where it was revered and covered with wool wrappings on certain feast days.
Another stone cut in a rough pyramid shape was worshipped as Apollo. The Argives worshipped a large stone they called Zeus Kappotas and the Thespians worshipped a stone they called Eros. The list goes on and on. In each case, these sacred stones were very humble rocks indeed- granite, sandstone, or similar.
Perhaps the oldest example of a stone valued in such a way was discovered in 1925 deep inside a limestone cavern inhabited by Australopithecus Africanus around three million years ago. It is a piece of red jasperite about the size of a duck egg that is thought to have originated in a streambed twenty miles away. The pebble was still in its natural form, with no evidence of any attempt to carve it, except by the water action of the stream. On one side is a representation of a modern human face. This remained in museum archives until Raymond Dart, a paleontologist with a flair for psychometry came across it whilst working through the store. He looked at the human like face, smiled, and inverted it. Another face appeared of a man with a low brow and heavy chin with a grin so broad that it was obviously a characature of Australopithecus. We have no way of knowing whether this `face changing' stone was venerated, but it was clearly treasured.
OMPHALOI
Stones marking the center of the world or omphalos as it is often called [after the Greek for navel] date back at least to the ancient Egyptians. They were generally elliptical in shape and most definitely not of any particularly precious material. The omphalos was the geodetic point where north, south, east, and west met. The center of Egypt, therefore the world as far as the Old Kingdom was concerned, was at Sakkara and was marked by the holy stone of Sokar, the god of orientation.
The original omphalos no longer exists, but drawings have survived showing it flanked by two birds of prey. In the twelfth dynasty, a stone set in the temple of Amun at Thebes replaced the omphalos at Sakkara, thus changing the geodetic center of the country.
The ancient Greeks adopted the idea and there is a legend concerning the determination of the center of the world.
Among his many other titles, Zeus was the grand geometer of the cosmos and in order to measure the world, he sent out two eagles from the Olympian heights, one to the east and the other to the west. They flew in straight lines and met over Delphi, which was therefore designated the center of the world.
This particular omphalos was originally marked by a baitylos or unworked markstone. It was revered as an emblem of Zeus and remained in place for several centuries, being dressed with ribbons, wool, and branches at festival times. It was later replaced by a more ornate elliptical omphalos which had a gold eagle attached to each side similar to the design of the Theban omphalos. Swags of wool or cloth were carved into the stone as a representation of the decoration of the original stone. The thing I find most interesting about this legend is that it appears to accept that the world is continuous and does not finish at the edges as later civilizations theorized, a remarkable concept for such ancient times.
A similar elliptical markstone exists at Turoe in County Galway, Ireland. The similarities between this and the Delphic omphalos are remarkable. It is the same shape, size and even has the similar spiral patterns over its surface. There are other omphaloi in Ireland, one at Castlestrange in County Rosscommon is cushion shaped and there are also the stone bases of ancient Pagan pillars at Mullachmast in Kildare and at Killycluggan in County Cavan, both of which were probably originally conical. Hellige hvide stene or holy white stones are another form of omphalos. They consist of a cylindrical pillar topped with a white stone hemisphere of marble, quartzite or granite. Although no written records have confirmed this, the phallic shape of these structures indicates that they were probably shrines of Yngvi-Frey, god of regeneration and chief god of the Vanir -the pre-agricultural Norse pantheon.
Lackmannan, Scotland, was once where Pictish kings were inaugurated. By the church stands a large omphalos column marking the center-point of the land where the spiritual essence is at its height. Similarly in London, the London Stone is reputed to hold the `luck' and mark the center of the city. The Blue Stone of St. Andrews in Scotland is attributed with the same function. In other areas, blue stones marked the centers of market towns and this practice even existed in the Netherlands.
An example of a hexagonal blue stone can be seen [and walked over] at Leiden. It seems that these stones not only marked the way but also acted to mark the place for open-air courts and meetings. Many town stones seem to have been used in the same way. In Scotland standing stones called Merkat crosses [pillars topped with a sphere and no cross in sight] provided the same function. In order for an announcement to carry weight it seems that the person had to be in physical contact with the stone.
It seems that the power of such stones was recognized until relatively recently and with the current fascination with earth energies, it may be that fetish stones are beginning to come to the fore once again. | 
