01/12/2026
I’ve been thinking about rocks lately. The problem is I don’t know how, or what, it is that I feel I need to say. It’s nothing new, it has been said before, but people forget, or don’t notice (the rocks/stones/mountains).
The world, or at least the humans upon it, are well within a state of upheaval. If there ever was a time to walk away and remember what it is to be a part of nature, it would be now. The plants have wisdom to convey to us, as do the waters of the Earth, but the rocks, the stones, the mountains, they really hold the wisdom of time.
I was always fascinated with rocks (it could just be a kid thing, but maybe the kids actually “know”), searching for the most glittery stone, the smoothest round pebble on a beach - they hold so much potency.
I’ve had a few numinous experiences, the first one that made me really aware that rocks were not just rocks was when I was in Australia (in Australia, they are an ancient beyond ancient).
This summer, I was climbing down the backside of Mt Argus. My climbing partners were scrambling down a gully ahead of me, and I was waiting my turn. I had my hand on the mountain (last photo). The mountain spoke to me in vibrations, deep and resonant. My hair stood on end and I cried. It wasn’t sadness, it was gratitude and awe, and a vast glimpse of perspective.
It’s like seeing the scale of time, feeling all of the things the mountain has seen in a matter of seconds, having a flood of emotions that conveys at all.
I read a book recently, after I explained this experience to a friend. He said the only other time he had ever heard someone talk about what I was talking about (the mountain) was in a book he had read called Sand Talk, by Australian Aboriginal author, Tyson Yunkaporta. In that book he described putting his hand on the ancient stones and hearing/feeling them say “DOUM”. (that’s not quite the right way to spell what he said - what you want to hear is the sound of a drum, booming and echoing). The rocks were speaking to him in their ancient language. A language we have much forgotten and need to learn again, before everything goes to hell in a handbasket.
