1. A Glance at the Breadth of the Theme
The breadth of the
tradition of ancient “stones” or “crystals” of power is impressive,
and before looking at the tradition that devotes the most detailed
attention to it — the Sumerian — a glance at the wider context is
in order.
From Mesoamerica, the
Mayan Popol Vuh recounts the giving of
a “power-crystal,” called the “Giron-Gagal,” to Balaam-Qitze by
“’the Great father’ of Patulan-Pa-Civan, the Mayas’ version of
Atlantis.”387 According to
Atlantologist Frank Joseph, the Giron-Gagal was a “symbol of power
and majesty to make the peoples fear and respect the Quiches.”
388 No explanation is
given as to how mere crystal could do this, but the clear
implication is that it was a component in a technological or
ritual-cultural matrix, or both.
In Australia,
aboriginal peoples have a tradition of a sunken “Land of Mystery”
with a similar “power stone,” in this case a large “crystal cone”
that had a “ ‘serpent’ winding up its length from bottom to
top.”389
Even the Slavs have
their own version of the “power stone” tradition. Their “Alatuir”
was not only a “magic stone” but “the source of ultimate power”
that resided at the very center of “Bouyan, a sunken island kingdom
from which the ancestors of the Slavic peoples migrated to the
European continent from the Western Ocean.”390
And one must not
forget to mention the Slavic tradition of “magic stones” without
recalling the curious association of Russian mystic and painter
Nicholas Roerich with the so-called “Chintimani” Stone. From the
Sanskrit for “magical stone from another world,” many researchers
have interpreted this, following the catastrophist paradigm, to be
a clear allusion to its being a meteorite. But Atlantologist Frank
Joseph reports that there is “an exceptionally clear quartz
crystal” now in the Moscow Museum that is the Chintimani
Stone.
As if that were not
enough, this curious tradition is known in China and Japan as well,
where the stone is known as the “Jewel- That-Grants-All-Desires.”
It was believed to have once ”belonged to the Makara, a dragon- or
dolphin-god, living in a palace at the bottom of the sea,
underscoring its Atlantean provenance.“391
Taken together, these
disparate traditions would seem to underscore the idea of “magic
stones” or “crystals of power” having once been components in a
technology of power and hegemony.