Beach day!

I've suddenly been very busy with school and life, I have already neglected the new blog. Bad!

A few weeks ago I had a lovely day at the beach. Living near the coast for my entire life has given me a deep love and appreciation for the sea (no pun intended), and I'm excited to share it with my son. I've also always felt drawn to the sea in a spiritual sense. When I was younger I began to talk to Poseidon - as Greek mythology was the only type I had been exposed to - and I've been talking to the ocean ever since. I spent a good deal of the beach day mulling over the sea ... I am now beginning to learn about Manannan mac Lir, the Irish sea God, and exploring the beginning of that relationship. I think my connection to the ocean and interest in Manannan are not coincidental.

Whilst lost in these deep thoughts I stumbled - quite literally - upon a unique stone.

It's looks like a liver!

I thought that this stone would be useful to me in the future for healing work. I found a few other interesting stones that day - a naturally holey stone, a basalt stone with a vein of quartz, and a pretty blue striated stone. I'm always on the lookout for interesting stones.

From what I understand (thanks to Healing Threads by Mary Beith!) in Scottish tradition stones shaped like body parts were popular for healing. Sometimes the stone would be dipped into water and rubbed on the body, or the patient would drink the treated water. There are many healing sites where votive offerings  often shaped like afflicted body parts, were left, presumably to cure the corresponding part of the living patient.

The rest of our beach day was lovely. The weather was fantastic, the tide was very low; my sister and son and I climbed around tidepools full of ocean life! There were so many starfish, hermit crabs, anemones  and we even saw a few tiny fish.