The Language of Stones

“The Large Tortoiseshell and the Chieftan … discuss the enigma of beginnings and ends.” Photograph by D. Stanimirovitch.

“Infinitely acold from the satellite of flowers,” sighs Novalis. What astir the satellite of stones! And wherever on the mode bash we prime up the thought that we cognize what we’re talking about?

Of course, the question lone makes consciousness to those who judge that thing astir them tin beryllium successful vain, that everything indispensable someway interest them; that a cognition recurring infinitely from the greeting to the nighttime of life, similar that of the entity generically called stone, could not beryllium purely self-contained and stay a dormant letter. The learned classifications of mineralogists permission them wholly unsatisfied. Indeed, these scientists are to them lone a class of those “eloquent naturalists” who cling to the disposable and tangible and of whom Claude de Saint-Martin could accidental that “they disappoint our anticipation by not satisfying successful america this ardent and pressing need, which drives america little toward what we spot successful sensible objects, than toward what we bash not spot successful them.”¹

Without turning to earthy gemstones, the mining of which implies traveling to assorted latitudes and deploying an full apparatus, thing is easier than accessing the consciousness of the peculiar dignity of definite stones. It’s capable to stroll astir the Orangerie oregon on the banks of the Seine, preferably successful the prima aft a airy shower, and fto your eyes to driblet occasionally and participate the shimmering of flint that carpets the Paris basin similar fewer others. From there, for those who clasp the freshness of youth, it would beryllium but a azygous measurement to prime up a peculiarly striking shard and crook it implicit successful your manus to marque the airy play connected it from each side. Indeed, for a kid it is an instinctive gesture.

In this way, stones let the immense bulk of quality beings who person reached adulthood to walk them by without holding specified radical up successful the least, but those fewer whom they negociate to clasp are arsenic a regularisation ne'er released. Wherever they are recovered successful abundance, they pull these individuals and delight successful making of them thing similar inverted astrologers. The veil of utter restitution that had momentarily held their regard connected the stones has gradually lifted; successful its spot the necessity of a quest is mysteriously imposed connected them and grows much demanding by the day. This increasing request leads them to progressively value, progressively exclusively, those kinds of inputs that let them to transcend ever further the astir meaningless thought the mean idiosyncratic has of the world. In different words, this mode leads into the realm of clues and signs.

Gaffarel,² librarian of Richelieu and chaplain to Louis XIII, dedicated the sanction of gamahés (a word, helium thought, derived from camaïeu, bastardized from chemaija, which means like the h2o of God) to stones marked with hieroglyphs, among which helium ranks “figured agates” first. Stanislas de Guaïta³ observes that his mentation differs small from that of Oswald Croll who, successful his Book of Signatures, argues that specified imprints “are the signatures of elemental Forces manifesting successful the 3 little kingdoms” and that, agelong earlier them, Paracelsus had studied gamahés astatine length, attributing healing powers to them. This sentiment prevailed successful scholarly circles of the seventeenth century, a information to which this punctuation from a Prussian author⁴ attests: “Sometimes it conscionable truthful happens that beams of airy fallen from stars (provided they are of the aforesaid nature) unite with metals, stones, and minerals, which person fallen from their highest position, penetrate them entirely, and signifier an amalgam. It is from this national that the gamahés issue: they are permeated with this power and person nature’s signature.” Monsieur Jurgis Baltrusaitis, successful a beauteous caller work,⁵ wherever 1 of its 3 chapters concerns “pictured stones,” recalls that the German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher⁶ believed helium could laic retired the nomenclature of the antithetic types of minerals that interest america and sermon the causes of their anomalies, which could lone beryllium authorized, of course, by divine “Providence.”

In defence of the observers and researchers of the past, it tin rightly beryllium argued that integrated fossil forms were not recognized arsenic specified until the efforts of Bernard Palissy: that we mistook these for the fortuitous figurations which involvement america could lone multiply the sources of confusion. Camille Flammarion⁷ emphasizes the information that contempt Steno’s declarations successful 1669, “Fontenelle, Buffon, Voltaire stay unsure arsenic to the quality of fossils and bash not surmise the mode of sedimentary terrain formation.”

Removed from the agelong and abusive interference of fossils, it is striking that the empire of the gamahés has mislaid nary of its prestige successful definite eyes. Indeed, creation has ne'er felt the request to graft itself onto fortuity truthful overmuch arsenic it does contiguous (look nary further than “frottage,” “fumage,” “coulage,” “soufflage,” and different modes of chance composition successful painting). Deep down, sensation has not evolved overmuch since 1628, erstwhile Archduke Leopold of Austria awaited a portion of furnishings from Tuscany “draped with agates, carnelians, chalcedonies, jaspers with miniature paintings executed successful oil” (ars und natura mit ain ander spielen).⁸

It’s rather different thing, I tin ne'er accent this enough, to manifest a curiosity for antithetic stones, arsenic beauteous arsenic they whitethorn be, but astir whose find we had not an inkling, and to fall prey to the search, bolstered present and past by the uncovering of specified stones, adjacent if those that came earlier objectively eclipse them. It’s arsenic if our destiny is someway astatine stake. We wantonness ourselves to desire, to the entreaty acknowledgment lone to which the entity successful question tin exalt itself successful our eyes. Between it and us, arsenic if by osmosis, a bid of mysterious exchanges volition rapidly unfold, via analogy.

The aged miner, known arsenic the “Treasure Seeker,” whom Heinrich von Ofterdingen meets, speaking of the riches that the mountains of the North person revealed to him, declares that helium sometimes believed himself to beryllium successful a magic garden. I’ve had the aforesaid feeling connected a formation successful Gaspésie, wherever the oversea tossed retired and often reclaimed earlier 1 could scope them, ribboned and transparent stones of each colors, which glowed from afar similar truthful galore tiny lamps. Last year, arsenic we approached nether a airy rainfall a furniture of stones we had yet to research on the Lot River, the suddenness with which respective agates of a quality unexpected for the portion “jumped retired astatine us,” persuaded maine that with each step, ever much beauteous ones were soon to uncover themselves, wrapping maine for much than a infinitesimal successful the cleanable illusion of treading the crushed of heaven connected earth. There’s nary uncertainty that the persistence successful pursuing glimmers and signs, which the “visionary mineralogy” discusses, acts upon the caput similar a narcotic. There are adjacent minds that look ill-​equipped to defy it, definite “gamahists” whose enactment gives them each licence to live successful their ain small world. J.-A. Lecompte⁹ believes that “fear oregon convulsive impressions, spiritual oregon governmental fanaticism, tin provoke the spontaneous instauration of a gamahé”; J.-V. Monbarlet,¹⁰ aft galore years of “studies,” takes for granted that successful the full Dordogne valley, determination is not a azygous pebble, a azygous flint that has not been sculpted, engraved, and painted by man—the Gallic artist, according to him—in specified a mode arsenic to contiguous some without and within (as a ace occasionally reveals) “mysterious pictures” successful countless combinations. These 2 authors judge they should corroborate their thesis with galore drawings oregon photographs which, of course, could bash thing but person america of their “paranoid” formed of mind.

It’s lone from the infinitesimal specified ambitious systematic constructions are erected that, successful my view, the rights of visionary mineralogy are overstepped. Among the alluvial stones of a stream similar the Lot—to instrumentality to what I cognize best—I’ve often thought those that, during a radical search, delegate themselves, by their qualities of substance oregon structure, to each individual’s attention, are those that connection the maximum affinity to their peculiar constitution. It seems definite to maine that, connected the aforesaid walk, 2 beings, unless they lucifer each different successful immoderate unusual sense, could not perchance prime up the aforesaid stones, truthful existent is it that we find lone what meets a heavy need, adjacent if specified a request could solely beryllium satisfied successful a wholly symbolic way.

“Every transparent body,” judges Novalis,¹¹ “is successful a higher state, and seems to person a benignant of consciousness.” I couldn’t person said it amended myself. In passing, helium leans connected Ritter, who, wholly occupied with scrutinizing the “universal psyche arsenic such,” holds that “all outer phenomena indispensable go explicable arsenic symbols and eventual results of interior phenomena” and that “the imperfection of the 1 indispensable go the organ revealing the others.” Some of america inactive respond successful this way. Internal ribbons of agate, with their constrictions followed by abrupt deviations suggesting knots present and there, look to bespeak our ain “nervous impulses” successful an elective abstraction from the infinitesimal we archetypal laic eyes connected them. This tin effect successful the astir disconcerting “telescoping,”¹² for which I tin connection nary amended illustration than by reproducing present a chromatic wherever the woman’s sex, superbly described, opens betwixt swirls of the brain.

“… a chromatic wherever the woman’s sex, superbly described, opens betwixt swirls of the brain.” Photograph by D. Stanimirovitch.

The hunt for stones with this peculiar allusive power, provided it’s a genuinely passionate one, leads those who indulge successful it to autumn rapidly into a trance, the indispensable diagnostic of which is hyperlucidity. Setting retired from the mentation of an exceptionally absorbing stone, this rapidly encompasses and illuminates the circumstances of its discovery. It tends to beforehand a magical causality assuming the indispensable involution of earthy factors with nary logical narration to what’s astatine stake, thereby disconcerting and confounding habits of thought, but nevertheless overpowering our minds.

Last summer, my person Nanos Valaoritis¹³ was benignant capable to grounds for maine the observations prompted by the find of the precise beauteous chromatic successful the signifier of a seated figure, reproduced here.

Marie W.,¹⁴ erstwhile astatine night, connected the tiny roads of the Causse plateaus, she drove america backmost from the “beaches” of the Lot wherever we’d lingered, ne'er failing to stop, for fearfulness of sidesplitting oregon hurting it, erstwhile a nighthawk, dazzled by the headlights, froze successful beforehand of us. Thus, connected September 14, we counted 9 stops, caused by arsenic galore birds, seemingly of the aforesaid species. The satellite Mars, which the newspapers study is exceptionally adjacent to Earth, holds our attraction for the amended portion of the journey.

Again connected the fifteenth, with A.B., exploring a tiny formation adjacent Arcambal. I find a fewer steps away, successful the river, the chromatic successful the signifier of a seated figure, whose nighthawk caput looks astatine me. While we’re examining it, the “grand Mars changeant” oregon “purple emperor,” a comparatively rare, ever fascinating butterfly, starts fluttering astir us. It insistently lands connected the canine accompanying us. Another stone, which I discover, resembles adjacent much strikingly the owls of the nighttime before.

On September 17 Mars volition beryllium closest to Earth.

A fewer days later, I learned of a survey by A. Lemozi, astir a Neolithic burial precocious discovered successful Tour-de-Faure (Lot). The chromatic that covers this burial would diagnostic an owl head, which prompts the writer to reason that the Neolithic radical of the portion worshiped a goddess with an owl’s head, a tutelary deity of tombs. Right oregon wrong, the much we considered it, the much the chromatic I recovered seemed to beryllium a depiction of this goddess.

“… the much the chromatic I recovered seemed to beryllium a depiction of this goddess.” —Nanos Valaoritis. Photograph by D. Stanimirovitch.

Such a stone, whose intentional facet is taken truthful far, so poses a seemingly insoluble problem. As it stands, owed to the ambiguity of its origin, it holds for maine the immense prestige of the hesitation into which it throws us, which tends to confer connected it a key position betwixt the “whim of nature” and the enactment of art.

Lotus de Païni¹⁵ argues that the signifier of Intuition historically opens to the quality taxon from the infinitesimal “where the psyche penetrates to the bottommost of the chromatic and definitively acquires the powers of the SELF. The stone,” she adds, “gave to the quality contention the precocious privilege of symptom and dignity.” In immoderate case, it seems beyond uncertainty that lone by conceding immoderate of his astir precious faculties has antheral travel to see stones arsenic junk. Stones—especially hard stones—continue to talk to those with ears to perceive them. To specified people, they talk a connection tailor-made for them: by mode of what they know, stones instruct radical successful what they aspire to learn. There are besides stones that look to telephone for each other; erstwhile brought together, 1 tin drawback them talking among themselves. In specified cases, their dialog has the immense payment of lifting america retired of our information by casting the precise essence of the immemorial and the indestructible into the mold of our ain speculations (the roadworthy workers volition not suffice). It is, successful my opinion, from this space that for our greater oregon lesser edification—it is wholly up to us—it is worthy observing the Large Tortoiseshell and the Chieftain arsenic they sermon the enigma of beginnings and ends.

Originally published successful Le Surréalisme, même, No. 3, Fall 1957.

1 Le Crocodile, 1799.

2 Curiosités inouïes sur la sculpture talismanique des Persans, 1637.

3 Le Temple de Satan, 1891.

4 Johannis Grasset, Physica naturalis rotunda visionis chemicœ cabalisticæ, successful “Theatrum chemicum,” 1661.

5 Olivier Perrin, Aberrations, légendes des forms, 1957.

6 Mundus subterraneus, 1664.

7 Le Monde avant la création de l’homme, 1896.

8 Cf. J. Baltrusaitis, op. cit.

9 Les Gamahés et leurs origines, 1905.

10 Le Secret de pierres, 1892.

11 Journal intime, trans. G. Claretie, 1927.  Translator’s note: Novalis’s “transparent body” is not virtually see-through, but metaphorically refers to a heightened authorities of substance that reveals interior information oregon “consciousness.” For the Romantics and the Surrealists aft them, these bodies (such arsenic stones) symbolically span the seen and unseen, carnal signifier and spiritual meaning.

12 Translator’s note: Breton seems to beryllium utilizing “telescoping” to suggest speechmaking an representation into an accidental, people occurring feature, analogous to uncovering images successful da Vinci’s hypothetical stained wall, alternatively than successful its cognitive intelligence sense.

13 Translator’s note: Nanos Valaoritis (1921–2019) was a Greek writer and postwar subordinate of the Paris Surrealist Group.

14 Translator’s note: “Marie W.” refers to Marie Wilson (1922–2017), an American creator who was a postwar subordinate of the Paris Surrealist Group and joined to Nanos Valaoritis. Breton included her creation successful his collection.

15 Pierre “volonté,” 1932.

An adapted excerpt from Cavalier Perspective, Last Essays 1952–1966, translated from the French by Austin Carder, to beryllium published by City Lights Books this July.

André Breton (1896–1966) is considered the person of French Surrealism. Exiled to the United States during the Nazi occupation, Breton would instrumentality to Paris successful 1945 and proceed to pb the question until his decease successful 1966.

Austin Carder is the translator of Poetries by Georges Schehadé. He received a B.A. successful English from Yale and a Ph.D. successful comparative lit from Brown.