The external environment can be a reflection of our internal psychic landscape. Our intimate depths can be reflected in the outside world, provided we have the right perspective. Everything that surrounds us, whatever it may be, can therefore resonate with our interiority and teach us.
Stones are elements of the landscape that are neglected, even despised, because they interfere with the fluidity of walking and the stability of the wheel’s movements. They are not even part of any self-respecting landscape, because they are too close, too small and unsightly. They are too numerous to be appreciated and recognized. Their strength comes from being underestimated.
And yet, they can hinder the movements of humans and injure or even kill. They are as little noticed as they are dense. A stone is part of the mineral kingdom, the oldest and most crystallized. In this sense, they already share a certain part of living beings, who also have a little mineral in them. This is their most archaic part.
A stone doesn’t move. It rolls at most tossed around by the rain or the kicks of walkers. It does not evolve, or at least its evolution is negligible compared to human temporality. Its evolution is the slowest in the entire visible environment. This stone represents the most sclerotic, most immobile part of us. This stone can be our certainties to which we cling like a lifeline, these crystallized beliefs bringing us meaning to our lives and an identity. To renounce it would be to renounce ourselves, to go through a little symbolic death. These beliefs are so anchored and stuck in us that it is impossible to perceive them. Like this stone in the landscape. And yet, a simple kick could make it disappear from our sight because it would roll off the path and disappear into the grass… So solid and so fragile at the same time. So omnipresent and so absent at the same time. A simple personal trial could in the same way sweep away our beliefs which nevertheless seemed the most solid.
This stone can also represent our strongest inner aspects. Because time ages trees and animals, storms sweep away living beings and plants, fires devastate landscapes. But the stone survives everything. It is the part of us that can go through the most harsh trials. It can inspire us to find within ourselves that indestructible center, strong enough and small enough to be neglected by the tumults of life. When everything is taken away, only our part remains, solid as the rock of the eternal. It represents our link to higher truths which endure and go through cycles, our timeless divine part.