April 21, 2025 • 47 mins
Join Adam Barralet, Kyle Perez , Ashley Leavy and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #29 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they do a deep dive into Ammonite & Fossils meaning, including: Kitchen witchery & Fossils Opal and Fossils combining to make Ammolite Horns of Ammon, Avalon connection and Ammonite Tune in now for a […]
The post Ammonite & Fossils Meaning | Crystals for Kitchen Witchery & More! [Crystal Confab Podcast] appeared first on Love & Light School of Crystal Therapy.
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(00:03):
Are you just starting with crystals?
Or maybe you have a whole collection but
aren't sure how to use them? Join four
crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal
a casual chat about all things crystals.
Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of
crystal confab.
Each week, we like to talk about things
(00:23):
that are buried in the ground and have
been waiting for a long, long time for
us to discover them. But today, we're doing
something a little bit different because we won't
be talking about a crystal.
We're gonna be exploring the world of fossils
and things like amylenite
and ammolite. So I'm gonna be honest with
you.
Fossils don't really thrill me. So I've set
(00:45):
a challenge to the other three to see
if they can win me over by the
end of the episode.
So to dive in and explore these, welcome,
Kyle, Nicholas, and Ashley.
Kyle, I know you like the, the ammolites
and ammonites. Talk us a little bit through
them.
Well, for me, I am
kind of like you in the way that
(01:07):
I'm not a huge fossil
person,
but I know
other people around the confab
are much much bigger.
I will start us with fossil light,
ammolite. But what I wanna talk about first
is
the what I've seen as an explosion
of interest in fossils
recently. I don't know if the rest of
(01:29):
you have seen this as well, but
last year at the gem show that I
worked at,
people gave no crap about the crystals.
I had to learn on the fly about
the fossils that we had because that's where
a huge amount of interest was.
Our ammolite shells, our ammonites,
the,
megalodon
teeth, like
(01:50):
amber, green ambers, all of all these sorts
of things were, like, really excited. Have you
seen that sort of thing, or is it
maybe just a niche thing that's happening here?
Yeah. I'm pretty much seeing it industry wide,
but I would I would love to say
that it's probably people like Ashley and me
who might be bringing some more crystal folks
to the dark side. I haven't been to
any, like, really big trade shows in a
(02:12):
hot minute, but I know Ashley frequents them.
So she might have some more insight there
too.
Yeah. I
think if I really reflect on it, the
fossil boots might have been a little bit
busier than they normally are. Usually, I'm one
of all, like, two or three people shopping
at those booths for the store.
So maybe that is the case. I haven't
(02:34):
noticed it yet
trending amongst
the crystally people, the healy feelies, like all
of us.
I I feel like I'm always being like
the fossil
evangelist out there, trying to get people to
appreciate them a little bit. I know Nicholas
is the same. We actually did, an amazing
event last year hosted by Anwen Avalon
(02:57):
who did, like, a fossil symposium, and it
was Anwen, Nicholas, myself,
Brett Holyhead, and Moss Matthew. And it was
just, like, five days of fossils, and it
was super fun. But that is very much
not the norm. I think it takes a
little,
a little bit of special interest to get
(03:18):
people going.
I love that. I think it's really interesting
to see these trends that we see in
the industry.
Now we do digress. I'm going to talk
about amylites. Now amylites are the very
niche ammonites that have a really beautiful opalized
shell that you find in the Upper Western
Territories of Canada,
(03:40):
I believe, is where you're finding it. And
it's the,
sorry. Is it I can never remember exactly
where it is but I know it's on
the West Coast Canada, Alaska like that bridge
between the two and that you're kind of
only finding them there. And what's amazing about
them is they take these
shelves,
(04:00):
these ammonites
that we all know and love that we've
seen all over the place
and they become
opalized
and really
saturated in color and I'm just gonna be
a little bit annoying and pop my light
on and hopefully you'll be able to see
it in full quality.
We love it when we do this live
(04:21):
because we're not as prepared as we want
to be.
There we go you can sort of see
it's opalized that one this one has a
really beautiful
color. What I love about it is,
for me, it's about illumination.
The spiral path that the ammonites show us
for me is really omnipresent. It's like we're
(04:42):
on this spiral. When you work with them,
you're going inwards, you're going outwards. Energy is
coming and going in this beautiful flow.
And analytes have shown me the spiral path
can be
beautiful. We can illuminate and expand. We can
draw in magic
when we work with it in the right
way as opposed to feeling like I'm going
(05:02):
round and round in circles and I can't
get off the loop. Right? That's the dichotomy
of the spiral path. When we think about
going round and round in circles we can't
get out of it. We can't break the
cycle. That's really really frustrating. But when you
look at ammonites,
they radiate.
Right? And as they go outwards, they expand.
(05:22):
So as we go out and grow and
go forward
and do more and break through these cycles
they get easier. We get further perspective from
them. We're able to
shift what we're seeing and shift what we're
doing
with our life. We're feeling more
capable.
We're seeing more options. We're seeing a bigger
(05:43):
spectrum of color being illuminated in front of
us. That's the lesson for me that amylite
has really shown me. It's been like
yes it does go around.
Yes you will find these lessons come around
again. Yes you will hit a point where
you're seeing it again
but that's what we do. Right? The earth
goes around and around in cycles and it's
(06:03):
going around the sun.
And the sun is going around the center
of our galaxy, and the galaxy is spinning
and expanding, and everything is spinning and expanding
in this universe. And that's a big thought
process to think about when we're thinking about
fossils.
But if we can bring it back down
to us,
the journey is always expanding and growing. And,
yes, we will hit points where we've come
(06:23):
around and I thought I dealt with that
problem, but maybe you need to just grow
from it again. Maybe we need to continue
to experience these things because otherwise history repeats
itself.
Right? When we get too far away from
the problem and we've healed it all of
a sudden and it hasn't been around,
it comes back around again
(06:44):
because we've stopped talking about it. We've stopped
thinking about it. It hasn't been a problem
anymore. All of a sudden, a couple of
generations down the line,
you see the same thing happening. And we're
all seeing it happening, right, on the planet.
It's really important
that we're like, okay. Yes. It's a cycle.
How can we expand? How can we grow?
(07:05):
Right? We're in a different place and time
than we were when we were going through
similar things. How can I use a shift
in perspective that is more illuminated? And this
is where Amalites have really come into their
own for me because they show that full
spectrum. All opals
reveal a full spectrum of possibility,
a full spectrum of what you can do,
what you can dive into, what you can
(07:27):
actually achieve,
and it really
lifts
instead of the spiral going down and the
spiral going inwards and the spiral coming to
that point of my cart and closing us
off. I like to work with it in
that way of if I'm drawing it in,
I'm drawing it into me because I'm trying
to create something. I'm trying to bring energy
in. I'm not using the spiral to go
(07:49):
down. Does that make sense? Like, it's that
kind of
spiral thing. So when you work with your
beautiful ammonites,
doesn't have to be opalized, but you do
find ones like this that have a little
bit of that opally sheen. There are other
ones that are like light that really sort
of gray light opally.
Really beautiful. You can see them. They're so
so affordable. They're everywhere. Start with one of
(08:09):
those because the AMOLED from Canada is a
bit harder to get and a little bit
more expensive.
I have a question for you, Kyle.
A lot of times when people are
considering the ways in which they work with
their stones,
they're looking at color as part of that.
And when we have these, like, completely beautiful
(08:33):
rainbow filled amylites,
do you notice any difference?
Because it's rare to find a piece that
has, like, all the colors of the rainbow.
They kind of tend to be, like, a
little warmer
colors or, like, red, orange, gold or a
little cooler colors, kinda blue, green, violet. Do
you notice any difference between the two? Do
(08:53):
you have any,
like, anything to
share with folks who might be wondering about,
like, the color part of that and how
that fits in?
Absolutely. So I actually have another piece that's
really purple. I don't know if you can
see that on camera. It's got a really
indigo purple tone to it, and I find
this it's the most,
(09:15):
gentle. It's the least kind
of active of the ones that I have.
The ones that are yellowy orange definitely have
a more active energy, definitely have more
not pushy, but, like,
be bubblier, if that makes sense. Whereas this
one, I think, is much more subtle. So
if you can find ones in the blue
purple spectrum,
(09:35):
it will give you, I think,
less of a shove and more of a
gentle push into that expanse whereas the brighter
colors I think are like let's go, let's
do, let's jump feet first. It's that
kind of enthusiastic energy that I think it
brings which I really love. And so this
is why I really love they have a
(09:56):
groundedness.
They have a settling nature that supports us.
They have been through
the ringer. They lived in the ocean. They've
been fossilized. They've been unearthed. They're here again.
Like, we we can go through some processes
and we can still be beautiful. We can
still be appreciated and we can still grow
and expand and find a way forward. Like,
(10:16):
when you don't know where you're going, I
just think reach for an ammonite. Reach for
an ammonite. You might be surprised at how
illuminating the way can be for you.
I love that. That's really yeah. Okay.
We're maybe starting to sign some uses for
these, which is really interesting. But I wanna
I wanna see what Nicholas has to say
(10:36):
because, Nicholas, I know you love them. You
and Ashley are often talking about ammonites and
everlites. First of all, can you differentiate between
the two? There's ammonite
and ammolite.
Is the is the light the one that
sparkles, the opalized one?
So,
it ammolite is a trade name given only
(10:56):
to the ammonites that are found in the
uppermost region of the Rocky Mountains here in
North America.
Nearly all of the,
we'll say,
mining of any, like, economical value on them
is done in Canada.
Although I have heard of similarly iridescent deposits
coming from elsewhere in the rockies,
the iridescence on them comes from tiny platelets
(11:19):
of aragonite.
And there are other ammonites worldwide that when
they it's believed that when they form in
softer substrates,
so, like, soft sedimentary rocks,
that are carbonate rich. It can undergo a
similar kind
of aragonatization
instead of a calcitization
or pyrotization
or a silicification that we see in in
(11:40):
other forms of them that are out there.
And so they can retain iridescence. But it
seems like that Canadian material is by far
the most, we'll say, resplendent
of any of them that at least I've
seen. And when you do get to go
to Tucson and go to the really high
end mineral galleries, and they have ones that
are,
like,
(12:01):
huge and intact.
It's it's really hard to love any other
one after you've seen one that's, you know,
$200,000.
So I don't own any amylites despite how
much I love
them in theory.
My my taste has been spoiled. So I
I have a lot of the more humble
ammonites,
and, you know, some of them range from
(12:23):
little teeny guys like this one here from,
Somerset.
This one formed in a kind of chalky
substrate, so it's mostly carbonate
minerals in there. I've got one that would
have formed in
more of like Elias,
and
this one has a little snake's head carved
into it. More on that in a moment.
And I see Ashley has her her twin
(12:43):
there.
And,
of course, because,
I got challenged as as the
the size queen last week. I I have
my big ammonite, which normally sits on my
altar. Wanted to make sure that I was
I was in the contender for largest rock
this week.
I adore these stones. So the name ammonite
comes to us,
(13:06):
from,
an old expression
that refers to a kind of composite
deity.
So
the original Greek would have sounded something along
the lines of or
or amonas cornua, which meant the horns of
the god Ammon,
a m m o n, which is the
(13:27):
sort of Greekified version
of Amun, a m u n, in ancient
Egypt. And we're gonna, like, get back to
that point in a moment,
but, essentially,
they resemble the coiling horns
of rams and goats. And so I'm I'm
wearing my my goat head right here to
to be on brand for the week,
(13:49):
as our, token Capricorn in the group.
These are rocks that have a truly
ancient history with human beings. The archaeological
record suggests that for at least twenty thousand
years, hominids have intentionally gone out of their
way to collect these stones,
probably because they were unusual shapes and could
(14:11):
be found in nature and that sparked who
knows what kind of ancient practices.
We have a few a few things that
we can conjecture from what we found. We
know that they were used ornamentally. They were
sometimes pierced to be worn or carried as
amulets or attached to tools.
We have some that were buried with the
dead. They were also frequently used as votive
(14:33):
offerings either to the deceased or to spirits.
A really famous instance of the use of
this stone as a votive offering is on
top of Glastonbury tour. In the nineteen sixties,
there was,
a scholar by the name of Philip Rotz
who was
digging up lots of Glastonbury,
and he was able to do a partial
(14:53):
dig on top of the tour and found
a collection
of more than 400
of these ammonite fossils that were intentionally placed
there. Many strata beneath the current stone tower
that stands, the remains of,
Saint Michael's that's on top of the tour.
And
we are not entirely sure, but this is
probably, like, pre Romano,
(15:16):
Celtic era, so before the Roman occupation,
and maybe the result of a kind of
very ancient
pagan worship site that was there. These could
have been offerings to a particular god, which
we're gonna speculate about in a moment,
or maybe to the gods in general. But
the inherent otherness of this stone is what
makes them so special. And one day, we'll
(15:38):
do a deep dive into the otherness of
fossils as a whole.
But when we find them in
these kind of traditional settings, whether it's
the very far back into the stone age
or, you know, into the medieval period,
they are just incredible. They've been intentionally chosen
(15:59):
as
building materials,
fossiliferous
limestones
adorned with these
spiraling forms, these whorls.
We see them dug out of cliff faces
and used by ancient and medieval peoples alike,
oftentimes
associated with healing, protection,
connection to the landscape, to the deceased, and
(16:20):
to the dreams.
Pliny the Elder can considered them to be,
wonderful stones for prophetic dreaming.
But the most obvious appearance that they the
most obvious thing they they resemble is a
serpent,
or a dragon in some instances, which has
won them lots of names, serpent stone,
or
dragon stone in in German,
(16:41):
snake stone, and and so many others.
There are a lot of fun myths about
their formation
often attributed to
figures like Saint Hilda, Saint Kiena, Saint Cuthbert,
and a few others.
But we see that there is this kind
of connection between,
say, divine intervention in the formation of these
(17:04):
stones long before we understood what fossilization
was as a process. There were a lot
of these really poetic descriptions
of how these unusual rocks came to be.
Because they were considered similar to serpents, we
see them connected to things like protection from
poison, whether those were venomous creatures and the
things that, you know, slink by on the
(17:25):
ground or
buzz by us and can sting us, but
also
spiritual poisons, protecting us from ill thoughts and
harmful magic and,
you know, bad spirits and things depending on
where you are in the world.
As
horn like formations, though, if we consider that
they resemble those kind of,
spiral horns,
(17:47):
they are
there for a few other purposes.
So Plato records that the Ammonos Kanuwa,
is most prized stone in Ethiopia that resembles
a ram's horn, that it brings prophetic dreams.
And he's attributing this to Ethiopia, but he's
he's probably off by a little bit in
his geography because Ammon is
(18:08):
an Egyptian deity.
And the he was at one point the
chief god in Egypt's empire,
because different different ages prioritize different deities depending
on allegiances to different temples,
not unlike we see elsewhere in the world.
And when we get that kind of Hellenic
period,
(18:28):
the, the deity Zeus or Jupiter or Jove
or Yove is synchronized with them. So we
get this kind of,
dual deity,
Jupiter Amon or Yove Amon,
who is otherwise presented like Zeus or Jupiter
would be, but has adopted the horns.
And rather than using the kind of long
(18:49):
twisted horns we see in the Egyptian representations,
they are coiled ram's horns close to the
head. Alexander the great was even depicted with
these selfsame horns that resemble an Ammonite because
he wanted to kind
of, up his street cred by resembling the
very gods that he was drawing power and
strength from.
Elsewhere in the world, though, we've got a
(19:09):
see the same connection to horns. In China,
they were known as,
which means horn stone,
among the,
Blackfoot Confederacy
here in
the the so called new world, so called
America.
We have them called,
which means buffalo stones because the individual compartments
that break out resemble sleeping buffalo or sleeping
(19:31):
bison who are horned creatures.
And then, of course, we get that connection
to Glastonbury Tor.
There's a really lovely chap by the name
of, Aaron Aaron Leech,
who has written a handful of books on
Glastonbury and Avalon, all these mythos, and
he has one speculative book that looks at
all the evidence we've got that suggests
(19:53):
what the kind of pre Christian rites of
worship might have been. And in the Roman
period,
if we
look at what little evidence we've got plus
those really ancient,
offerings
of the, Ammonites buried there, he suggested it
might be possible
that a horned figure like Jupiter Amun was
(20:15):
syncretized with a native deity who might also
have been horned or more likely antlered in
that part of the world.
And so this could have been originally
associated with gods
like, you know, Pan, Carnunos,
and taken to other parts of the world
to
associate with Dionysus
and the like.
(20:35):
And
there's a really interesting
astronomical phenomenon that kind of underscores this,
and that is a special alignment that takes
place on Glastonbury
tour when the sun enters the sign of
Capricorn, the goat with its horns. And
all of this might have come together to
(20:55):
suggest that the magic of Ammonite is deeply
steeped in the magic of the land. These
deities that we see, particularly they they're sometimes
depicted as antler god Gwynapneath, who is said
to dwell in a crystal castle inside the
heart of Glastonbury Tor.
They are often the stewards
of livestock as well as of game, so
they feed us. They're
(21:17):
living through these cycles of birth and death
and represent the kind of vegetative
death and rebirth that occurs with the turning
of the tides of the season.
When we work with ammonite, it brings us
into such deep communion with the elementals,
with the consciousness
of the stones,
with the very spirits, the soul of mother
(21:37):
earth beneath us. And even for a lot
of modern mystics who explore earth energies, the
symbol of the spiral is how we visualize
those intersecting lines of force
like the vortices that we see
in Glastonbury
or Sedona or Stonehenge or anywhere else in
the world where these Earth energies converge.
And it it creates for a really dynamic
(22:00):
stone that is born of such humble origins.
These are these are such incredible
stones that symbolize
birth and movement and change and transformation
just like Kyle,
was talking about. I almost love to think
of them as a spiral labyrinth, and I
will use them as a kind of finger
labyrinth in meditation.
If you've got one that's you know, doesn't
(22:21):
have to be this big, but one that's
big enough that you can follow the lines.
Even if it's been cut in half and
polished, they work so well. You can put
all your attention
right on the fingers
as you trace inwards
toward the center, imagining that you're kind of
contracting your awareness to the core of your
being, descending into that subconscious
state to touch and see and and experience
(22:42):
everything that we kind of sweep under the
rug.
We can reverse the spiral and start from
the inwards and move outwards
to have an expansive effect on our consciousness
either to come back to our normal state
after we've we've gone inwards or when we're
in our normal state to go into that
state of the superconsciousness,
the higher self, the divine self, to get
that kind of eagle eye view,
(23:04):
and and see everything happening at life and
understand how the parts and pieces come together.
And, another practice that may be truly ancient,
is using them as dreamstones,
not just because Pliny the Elder talks about
them,
but there is one other famous occurrence of
them in
Somerset,
and that is in a place called Abilene's
(23:25):
Hole, and it's in the Mendip Hills,
which produced some incredible rocks that maybe we'll
talk about another week very soon.
But there were
a series of
remains that were found there of individuals that
lived over 10,000
ago.
And among some of the skull, there are
fragments of seven different ammonites
(23:46):
seemingly placed beneath their heads.
One of my favorite authors in the world
of earth science is a guy by the
name of Ken McNamara,
and he writes about this occurrence in one
of his books and suggests the stones might
have been placed under the heads of the
deceased
as these kind of tokens of dreaming their
way into the other world. Not just putting
(24:08):
them under our own pillows for our own
dream time journeys, but it's as if they
open portals
to all the other realms. So if we
wanna commune with the ancestors,
the gods, our higher
self, our personal spirits and guides and guardians,
the
beings in the land, the consciousness of the
land itself,
Ammonite is there to help us
(24:29):
forge those connections and tend to them to
keep them going ever onward to nourish us
each and every day.
Nicholas, I love what you're saying about the
meditation with, you know, tracing with your finger.
I think that's a really great practice for
people to do. As you're talking about the
haunted gods and their connection to the haunted
gods around the regions,
(24:49):
would you say that Ammonites have a yang
energy or a more masculine energy?
Not necessarily. There are just as many instances
of connecting them to figures of the defined
feminine.
We find,
churches in Italy where the the
amenitized
red marble, it's really limestone, is placed distinctly
(25:09):
at her feet when she's carved stepping on
a serpent. We find instances of female saints
like Saint Hilda performing miracles,
and that may actually be a kind of
memory that links the serpent to a very,
very ancient idea of the goddess as
the the earth mother.
The word serpent
(25:30):
is ultimately related to a root that means
something that that crawls along the ground. This
is actually reference in another earth goddess we
might know. I'm sure we're all familiar with
the myths of Persephone,
who is, we'll say, very salient around the
turning of the the seasons. But in in
Latin, her name is
from the same root of
(25:51):
or serpent.
So, yeah, I think this is a both
and kind of stone, not just one or
the other, but has has a the option
to be a portal
to either ends of that spectrum or anywhere
in between.
I wanted to jump in with something that
you, like, just touched on, Nicholas, like, just
in passing,
(26:12):
which is you mentioned, like, there were a
lot of thoughts about these being very magical
before we understood the process of fossilization.
And I think it's really important
to kinda touch on the fact that, like,
we have really only understood that process
for less than two hundred years. I mean,
this is, like, very recent. There were these
(26:32):
oddities, curiosities,
anomalies.
So it's kind of no wonder
people thought that they had these magical qualities
from, like, thousands of years ago, very ancient
peoples,
to, like,
more modern kind of folk magic type charms.
This is a, yeah, like, such a long
standing part of our history is connecting with
(26:55):
these stones this way. Absolutely.
And
really And I also
oh, sorry. I have, like, one quick show
and tell.
My grandpa gave me this recently. It is
an ancient Roman coin.
It was one of the only ones that
he kept in his collection still, and you
are not going to believe, but it depicts
(27:17):
I don't know if you can see this
the horns,
the spiral horns.
So, for those of you watching the video,
this is on my little ancestor altar with
my ammonites.
That's incredible.
I love that.
That is very cool indeed. I love this.
As we've been talking, you know,
(27:38):
we it's almost as though it feels like
the ammonites have a
and I'm I'm sure this is an absolutely
correct, but it feels like they just have
this real ancient energy about them and that
they've been, you know, celebrated for such a
long time.
One of the things I love to work
with is the chakras and everyone knows the
chakras and the main seven, but there has
been some expansion of the concept of the
(28:00):
chakras over the last few decades as our
consciousness has risen.
Now
these are a little bit more ambiguous, and
it's really hard to try and find a
universal set where one type. Right? These are
the extra chakras beyond the seven and that
type of thing. But I think if we
go lower
so we've got our base chakra, which is
(28:20):
to do very much with,
do we feel safe? Do we feel secure?
Can we provide for our basic needs and
that type of thing? And they won't resonate
with that. And you know, like my my
red amylites that I'm wearing today, I think
would be possibly could work with that. But
then the next chakra that's normally connected to
going lower is known as the earth star
chakra.
(28:41):
Now whereas the base chakra is about your
relationship
with just kind of fit your connection to
the earth and how you feel, The earth
star chakra is your relationship with the earth,
every other human, every animal, every plant, and
every rock, every mountain, everything. And how connected
you feel? And, obviously, as we,
(29:01):
evolve over these last few decades and so
on, we've become a lot more conscious of
our impact on the Earth. Probably in the
nineteen fifties and sixties,
the the large majority of people were just
going about their lives and didn't worry about
things like climate change or polluting the oceans
or different things like that. But we've become
more in tune with mother earth. And, you
(29:23):
know, obviously, there are civilizations
and cultures all around the world, a lot
of the indigenous cultures that are a lot
more in tune with the earth, but a
lot of people didn't have that connection. And
I think the earth star chakra really helps
with that. But then as we go a
little bit lower so the earth star chakra
is said to be about,
few inches or 30 centimeters below our feet,
(29:44):
normally resonates with the color like an earthy
reddy brown. But then we go below that,
and there's another chakra that people refer to,
and I refer to it in my latest
book called the incarnator
chakra.
So the incarnate of chakra
still has this concept of our connection to
people, planet
Earth,
you know, animals, plants, and so on. But
(30:07):
it goes beyond just your connection right here.
And now
It goes your connection through space and time.
So the incarnated chakra is often associated with
your connection to your tribe, your
ancestors, your clan.
And there are, you know, there there are
theories. Obviously, we have our bloodline, which is
kind of where our body is passed on
(30:27):
from generation to generation,
but there's also
our spiritual,
ancestry
as well. And I I find it really
interesting. Why is it that
for someone like maybe myself that has European
ancestry
has a drawing to other cultures around the
world. You know, the Egyptian mythology really appeals
(30:48):
to me and, you know,
some of the North American
kind of background also interests me as well.
Was it possible, and we're not gonna solve
this question in in this episode, but was
it possible that we lived other lifetimes in
other parts of the world? And I think
ammonites
would be a really great one for helping
you to connect with that ancient aspect of
(31:10):
yourself
because sometimes that can be comforting. Sometimes we
can find power in that, and we can
also,
draw on that,
for
allowing us to navigate through our lives in
this present. So I think this would be
a really great one for exploring that both
the Earth Star chakra
and the incarnated chakra. And I would suggest
(31:30):
just simple meditation.
I love what Nicholas said about, you know,
the drawing of the finger going in or
coming out.
Or another one is to simply place it,
place an ammonite about 30 centimetres
to six inches,
below your feet, and kind of feel that
connection with the earth and see what comes
up for you as well. So that that
(31:50):
could be another practical to working with this
stone or this fossil, I guess we should
say, Ashley, what about yourself? You're always good
for some practical ways of using these. How
do you use ammonites?
I love this stone for a bit of
kitchen witchery and hearth magic. This is something
I've talked about a little bit before in
previous episodes. I'm really big on this practice
(32:13):
because,
you know, most of us, we end up
spending a decent amount of time in the
kitchen each week, so you might as well
take some of that mundane
kind of day to day sort of tasks
and make them a little bit magical.
So as Nicholas mentioned,
ammonite fossils were found
at Glastonbury Tour and Glastonbury is often said
(32:35):
to be the heart of the world.
And so if we look at that as
sort of the macrocosm
on the microcosm
on a smaller level,
our kitchen is usually the heart of the
home.
This is where we prepare meals and we
nourish ourselves and our loved ones.
This is where great conversation
happens.
(32:56):
It's also,
you know, this very fiery,
energizing,
transformative
space.
So ammonites kind of exemplify
this
as above, so below in terms of the
fossil world.
So
for kitchen magic, we have the spiral form
(33:19):
of ammonite,
and I have one of these little
Whitby
snake stone ammonites also, which, Nicholas and I
got together a couple years ago.
These are from Whitby in Yorkshire in The
UK, and Nicholas actually also mentioned Saint Hilda.
And when these ammonite fossils were found in
Whitby, it was thought that they were
(33:41):
basically like petrified snakes that Saint Hilda had
turned to stone. So, again, before that understanding
of fossil fossilization like Nicholas mentioned.
So this
spiral energy
is something that we, I think,
really can tap into in the kitchen.
(34:03):
This,
energy really represents transformation. The symbol of the
spiral represents transformation.
And so it's mirrored
in the cauldron,
in the cooking pot, the place where we
perform, you know, these daily bits of alchemy,
transforming
something,
like all these raw ingredients
(34:24):
into a beautiful
soup or a casserole or whatever it is.
But creating all these nourishing dishes
from little bits of the earth that we've
gathered up together and put into our cooking
pot, into our cauldron.
So this spiral form
is representative of that alchemy and that transformation,
(34:44):
but it's also mirrored in the way in
which we stir the cauldron,
and we create that sort of spiral of
energy and magic.
So one of my favorite
practical ways to work with ammonite, and this
is one that I talk about in my
fossils for hearth magic and kitchen witchery class,
(35:05):
is to have your trusty wooden spoon.
Most of us who spend a good time
amount of time in the kitchen have a
favorite wooden spoon or maybe that's my neurodivergent
showing, but I have
a a favorite wooden spoon for sure. And,
one of the things I like to do
is place my wooden spoon on my kitchen
altar
(35:25):
and in the hollow of the spoon, the
little bowl of the spoon,
place your ammonite fossil
right in the hollow of that spoon and
let it charge up on your altar overnight
because it's sort of imbuing
that spoon now as a magical tool
with that transformative
(35:47):
spiral energy of the ammonite. So now when
you stir that pot and brew that magic,
you have this kind of enchanted tool, becomes
like the kitchen witch's wand in a way.
And so after you charge that
spoon with the ammonite,
I recommend, like, painting or drawing a little
(36:08):
spiral
on your the handle of your spoon, not
in the part that's gonna go in your
food, but on the handle of your spoon
so you know this one has been
magically
charged up, and you can find your extra
special spoon for cooking up some magic. You
can also wood burn this in. Mine is
kind of
coming off just from washing,
(36:29):
and you can recharge this anytime you like.
Just put it back on your kitchen altar
with your ammonite fossil
overnight and let it charge back up.
Thank you so much for sharing that, Ashley.
I must admit that's such a beautiful way
to talk about the wooden spoon because the
last woman who was wielding a wooden spoon
was my mother. Because when we used to
(36:50):
get misbehaved,
one of them would go across the backside.
So that's gonna
heal a bit of past past trauma out
there as well.
I'd love to ask, both Nicholas and Ashley.
We've obviously
we're talking a little bit fossils and we've
obviously zoned in and talked a lot about
ammonites.
And when we talk about fossilized things, there's
obviously things like amber and jet and petrified
(37:12):
wood as well. But there are all these
other and, Kyle, you would have seen them
where you work as well. All these other
little
critters and things that have been caught in
stone, and some of them look like what
we call here in Australia, splaters and things
like that. Do you work with, I think
they're called trilobites. There we go. Some of
them go ahead. Do you ever work with
any of them as well?
(37:33):
Yeah. I'll I'll jump in. I have hundreds
of fossils.
I love them. They are, to me, the
oddities, the curiosities,
the remnants of the past.
Just like I love to work with crystals,
I also love to work with plants.
I think a lot of folks who do
a bit of magic might call in the
energy of some animal familiars from time to
(37:55):
time.
Fossils are like the records of the Earth.
They're like
they're the books of the Earth. I don't
know how to if that makes sense, but
they they are these amazing record keepers. And
so if I wanna connect with the energy
of the plant kingdom, I might pull out
one of my favorite
fern fossils from Maison Creek. I might pull
(38:17):
out some belemnites, some fossil echinoids.
There are so many
different fossils, and so many of them have,
like, the most amazing histories.
And
the author that Nicholas mentioned, Ken McNamara,
Nicholas turned me on to his books. They
are
so well researched,
so full of information and knowledge. And if
(38:37):
you are, like, on the fence about fossils,
read any one of Ken's books, and you're
gonna be, like, head over heels for life.
I also
have grown to appreciate fossils
quite a bit, but it didn't start out
that way. Honestly, Adam, I was like you.
I found them kind of interesting,
(38:58):
and there were very few that spoke to
me. You know, I think petrified
wood is probably the most accessible
gem fossil that we get,
in in crystal stores with the exception of
amber and jet, which, I mean, not that
long ago, you didn't find tumbled as often
as you do today.
And so I kind of got examples of
(39:20):
these just so I could have a well
rounded crystal collection. But the
the first experience I have of a fossil
really speaking to me goes back to childhood,
and it was visiting my grand my great
grandmother's home on the Gulf Coast Of
Florida, and she lived right on the Gulf.
And I I didn't really love the seashore
(39:41):
there. It wasn't my favorite beach of my
hometown in Southeast Florida. It was rocky and
craggy, and,
the the water did different stuff because it
was not the open ocean.
But when the tide would go out and
I would play among the hunks of limestone,
I would find all of these curious
dome shaped
stones with five pointed stars on them, and
(40:03):
they were
magic. I still have some of those fossil
urchins in my collection today.
Some of the ones from those trips to
my great grandmother's home have actually appeared in
some of my books.
And
after, we'll say, lots of exposure therapy, I
started to find other fossils equally as charming,
so much so that if I can do
(40:24):
just a tiny bit of shameless self promotion
in my next book that's coming out,
the witching stones,
There there are quite a number of fossils
in this book. There's an entire chapter just
about ammonites. There's a whole chapter on urchins.
There's a chapter devoted
to,
amber and jet together. And then there are
(40:45):
some other fossils that you're gonna find in
there too because they have such an incredibly
long history
of this
human
stone relationship, and it's that relationship
that excites me.
And I'm just so glad to see more
folks trying to explore that in the modern
world.
And I really love that we're still finding
(41:06):
new ones.
Like,
the one that blew my mind recently
was the
shell.
Like, prioritized
amylites are so so cool, but to see
it like an emerald crystal
shell, like, that blows my mind. Just research
Google.
It's been GIA, like, looked into. They know
(41:26):
exactly what it is. Like, they're fossil like,
there are crystalized fossils in ways we just
don't even expect.
Do you think,
actually, Nicholas, if someone was, like, okay, I'm
gonna give fossils
a shot,
what would be maybe your top three or
four that you think they should maybe try
work with getting a collection, that type of
(41:48):
thing? Do you have a do you have
a list, Ashley?
I honestly don't know if I could choose
just three or four. It's so hard. I
I really am
super partial to the fern fossils
from Maison Creek. Like, those to me are
they're just so cool. You have these long
little
they just look like nothing, and they're often
(42:08):
sold in pairs. And you open them up,
and inside,
you just see
the most beautiful magic, especially if you're a
plant lover.
Sometimes you can see so much detail in
the leaves of those ferns just completely trapped
there.
Amazing.
I would definitely say ammonite. It is
(42:29):
probably
my favorite fossil,
but ammonite,
fossil urchins, and belemnite
are kinda like my trifecta
of goodness.
Those are the three that I tend to
work with the most. But there are some
really, really cool things. Like,
I have a fossilized piece of an ancient
(42:49):
tortoise shell.
I have
an Oreodont
bone, which is really long, almost like a,
I don't know, like a small piece of
femur that is very cool. There are just
some neat things,
but dino eggshell is also really cool
for me as, like, a chicken mom.
Like, that appeals to me very much.
(43:12):
So, you know, connects with my little dinosaurs
out in the backyard.
I just think, you know, find the things
that you're really attracted to. It is a
world
that is equally as big as the world
of, like, the crystals that we are also
familiar with. There are always new things to
explore like Kyle said. So, yeah, just see
(43:32):
what you're drawn to.
Nicholas, would you agree with that list, or
are there any others you'd throw in after
working on it for your next book?
Well, how about one that didn't make it
into the book, and that's fossil coral. We
find this in so many different parts of
the world, but
as as our token Florida resident, like, it's
one of our most iconic,
(43:54):
geologic materials here in the state. We have
this gorgeous agatized
coral that you can find in places like
Tampa Bay and the Withlacoochee
River and so many other places, but we've
got
great examples
of of fossil corals that come the world
over, whether they're in c two in limestones
or we find the agatized versions, the silicified
(44:14):
versions in,
the Great Lakes here in North America. In,
Wiltshire,
there is a really fun variety of agatized
coral that was once known as star flint
and astroites
because the little polyps resemble the stars of
the night sky if we use our imagination.
Indonesia
produces some incredibly beautiful and colorful
(44:36):
fossil coral. So I think that's a really
accessible one. You can find it in jewelry
relatively inexpensively compared to a lot of other
things. If we really love gems as well,
you certainly couldn't go wrong with some agatized
dinosaur bone, which is also super cool to
look at and makes for gorgeous jewelry.
(44:57):
I have very, very little of it in
my collection,
but I I think that's a great one.
And,
I think probably
the the only other fossil that gets a
lot of attention in, like, day to day
life. I mean, I love them all, but
one that I interact with every day.
They are the, calcitized
shells that you find in Florida and also
(45:18):
the
calcitized
fossiliferous
limestones that they're found in. So you can
find little whelks and clams, and sometimes they're
not so little. I've seen clams as big
as my head that are just filled with
transparent,
lustrous,
gold, dog tooth calcite, and they are incredibly
fluorescent under an ultraviolet lamp.
What's cooler than a fossil that glows in
(45:40):
the dark? Well, there is one thing that
neither of you mentioned, which I know,
I
Kyle works where I used to work kind
of thing, and it's one of the things
that's always a talking point in the fossil
area of the shop where we where we
frequent, Kyle,
cropolyte.
Cropolyte?
(46:00):
Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that.
Fossilized,
dinosaur poopies.
That's so funny. I love it. We sell
it by the kilo and people come in
and it's like I'll have half a kilo
of fossilized poop thank you very much.
It's brilliant.
The formations are amazing like I I think
(46:21):
it's one of the most unique and hilarious
things and people buy them as gifts all
the time and, yeah, we just have a
big tub of it and it makes me
giggle every time I walk past and notice
one that's like the perfect shape.
Oh, honestly, that that dinosaur or whatever had
had good fiber in their diet.
Yeah. Exactly.
(46:42):
Well, that may be a crap way to
end this episode, but that's the way we're
gonna do it. Have we won you over
when it comes to fossils or not? We'd
love to know by commenting below. And, of
course, if you've got someone else who you
think might,
enjoy this episode, make sure you send it
to them as well as subscribe and like
and all those different things. Because when you
do that, a dinosaur comes back to life.
(47:05):
So join us next week. If Jurassic Park
isn't active yet, it means you haven't been
sharing enough. We'll see you then take care
and blessed be
Are you just starting with crystals?
Or maybe you have a whole collection but
aren't sure how to use them? Join four
crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal
a casual chat about all things crystals.
Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of
crystal confab.
Each week, we like to talk about things
(00:23):
that are buried in the ground and have
been waiting for a long, long time for
us to discover them. But today, we're doing
something a little bit different because we won't
be talking about a crystal.
We're gonna be exploring the world of fossils
and things like amylenite
and ammolite. So I'm gonna be honest with
you.
Fossils don't really thrill me. So I've set
(00:45):
a challenge to the other three to see
if they can win me over by the
end of the episode.
So to dive in and explore these, welcome,
Kyle, Nicholas, and Ashley.
Kyle, I know you like the, the ammolites
and ammonites. Talk us a little bit through
them.
Well, for me, I am
kind of like you in the way that
(01:07):
I'm not a huge fossil
person,
but I know
other people around the confab
are much much bigger.
I will start us with fossil light,
ammolite. But what I wanna talk about first
is
the what I've seen as an explosion
of interest in fossils
recently. I don't know if the rest of
(01:29):
you have seen this as well, but
last year at the gem show that I
worked at,
people gave no crap about the crystals.
I had to learn on the fly about
the fossils that we had because that's where
a huge amount of interest was.
Our ammolite shells, our ammonites,
the,
megalodon
teeth, like
(01:50):
amber, green ambers, all of all these sorts
of things were, like, really excited. Have you
seen that sort of thing, or is it
maybe just a niche thing that's happening here?
Yeah. I'm pretty much seeing it industry wide,
but I would I would love to say
that it's probably people like Ashley and me
who might be bringing some more crystal folks
to the dark side. I haven't been to
any, like, really big trade shows in a
(02:12):
hot minute, but I know Ashley frequents them.
So she might have some more insight there
too.
Yeah. I
think if I really reflect on it, the
fossil boots might have been a little bit
busier than they normally are. Usually, I'm one
of all, like, two or three people shopping
at those booths for the store.
So maybe that is the case. I haven't
(02:34):
noticed it yet
trending amongst
the crystally people, the healy feelies, like all
of us.
I I feel like I'm always being like
the fossil
evangelist out there, trying to get people to
appreciate them a little bit. I know Nicholas
is the same. We actually did, an amazing
event last year hosted by Anwen Avalon
(02:57):
who did, like, a fossil symposium, and it
was Anwen, Nicholas, myself,
Brett Holyhead, and Moss Matthew. And it was
just, like, five days of fossils, and it
was super fun. But that is very much
not the norm. I think it takes a
little,
a little bit of special interest to get
(03:18):
people going.
I love that. I think it's really interesting
to see these trends that we see in
the industry.
Now we do digress. I'm going to talk
about amylites. Now amylites are the very
niche ammonites that have a really beautiful opalized
shell that you find in the Upper Western
Territories of Canada,
(03:40):
I believe, is where you're finding it. And
it's the,
sorry. Is it I can never remember exactly
where it is but I know it's on
the West Coast Canada, Alaska like that bridge
between the two and that you're kind of
only finding them there. And what's amazing about
them is they take these
shelves,
(04:00):
these ammonites
that we all know and love that we've
seen all over the place
and they become
opalized
and really
saturated in color and I'm just gonna be
a little bit annoying and pop my light
on and hopefully you'll be able to see
it in full quality.
We love it when we do this live
(04:21):
because we're not as prepared as we want
to be.
There we go you can sort of see
it's opalized that one this one has a
really beautiful
color. What I love about it is,
for me, it's about illumination.
The spiral path that the ammonites show us
for me is really omnipresent. It's like we're
(04:42):
on this spiral. When you work with them,
you're going inwards, you're going outwards. Energy is
coming and going in this beautiful flow.
And analytes have shown me the spiral path
can be
beautiful. We can illuminate and expand. We can
draw in magic
when we work with it in the right
way as opposed to feeling like I'm going
(05:02):
round and round in circles and I can't
get off the loop. Right? That's the dichotomy
of the spiral path. When we think about
going round and round in circles we can't
get out of it. We can't break the
cycle. That's really really frustrating. But when you
look at ammonites,
they radiate.
Right? And as they go outwards, they expand.
(05:22):
So as we go out and grow and
go forward
and do more and break through these cycles
they get easier. We get further perspective from
them. We're able to
shift what we're seeing and shift what we're
doing
with our life. We're feeling more
capable.
We're seeing more options. We're seeing a bigger
(05:43):
spectrum of color being illuminated in front of
us. That's the lesson for me that amylite
has really shown me. It's been like
yes it does go around.
Yes you will find these lessons come around
again. Yes you will hit a point where
you're seeing it again
but that's what we do. Right? The earth
goes around and around in cycles and it's
(06:03):
going around the sun.
And the sun is going around the center
of our galaxy, and the galaxy is spinning
and expanding, and everything is spinning and expanding
in this universe. And that's a big thought
process to think about when we're thinking about
fossils.
But if we can bring it back down
to us,
the journey is always expanding and growing. And,
yes, we will hit points where we've come
(06:23):
around and I thought I dealt with that
problem, but maybe you need to just grow
from it again. Maybe we need to continue
to experience these things because otherwise history repeats
itself.
Right? When we get too far away from
the problem and we've healed it all of
a sudden and it hasn't been around,
it comes back around again
(06:44):
because we've stopped talking about it. We've stopped
thinking about it. It hasn't been a problem
anymore. All of a sudden, a couple of
generations down the line,
you see the same thing happening. And we're
all seeing it happening, right, on the planet.
It's really important
that we're like, okay. Yes. It's a cycle.
How can we expand? How can we grow?
(07:05):
Right? We're in a different place and time
than we were when we were going through
similar things. How can I use a shift
in perspective that is more illuminated? And this
is where Amalites have really come into their
own for me because they show that full
spectrum. All opals
reveal a full spectrum of possibility,
a full spectrum of what you can do,
what you can dive into, what you can
(07:27):
actually achieve,
and it really
lifts
instead of the spiral going down and the
spiral going inwards and the spiral coming to
that point of my cart and closing us
off. I like to work with it in
that way of if I'm drawing it in,
I'm drawing it into me because I'm trying
to create something. I'm trying to bring energy
in. I'm not using the spiral to go
(07:49):
down. Does that make sense? Like, it's that
kind of
spiral thing. So when you work with your
beautiful ammonites,
doesn't have to be opalized, but you do
find ones like this that have a little
bit of that opally sheen. There are other
ones that are like light that really sort
of gray light opally.
Really beautiful. You can see them. They're so
so affordable. They're everywhere. Start with one of
(08:09):
those because the AMOLED from Canada is a
bit harder to get and a little bit
more expensive.
I have a question for you, Kyle.
A lot of times when people are
considering the ways in which they work with
their stones,
they're looking at color as part of that.
And when we have these, like, completely beautiful
(08:33):
rainbow filled amylites,
do you notice any difference?
Because it's rare to find a piece that
has, like, all the colors of the rainbow.
They kind of tend to be, like, a
little warmer
colors or, like, red, orange, gold or a
little cooler colors, kinda blue, green, violet. Do
you notice any difference between the two? Do
(08:53):
you have any,
like, anything to
share with folks who might be wondering about,
like, the color part of that and how
that fits in?
Absolutely. So I actually have another piece that's
really purple. I don't know if you can
see that on camera. It's got a really
indigo purple tone to it, and I find
this it's the most,
(09:15):
gentle. It's the least kind
of active of the ones that I have.
The ones that are yellowy orange definitely have
a more active energy, definitely have more
not pushy, but, like,
be bubblier, if that makes sense. Whereas this
one, I think, is much more subtle. So
if you can find ones in the blue
purple spectrum,
(09:35):
it will give you, I think,
less of a shove and more of a
gentle push into that expanse whereas the brighter
colors I think are like let's go, let's
do, let's jump feet first. It's that
kind of enthusiastic energy that I think it
brings which I really love. And so this
is why I really love they have a
(09:56):
groundedness.
They have a settling nature that supports us.
They have been through
the ringer. They lived in the ocean. They've
been fossilized. They've been unearthed. They're here again.
Like, we we can go through some processes
and we can still be beautiful. We can
still be appreciated and we can still grow
and expand and find a way forward. Like,
(10:16):
when you don't know where you're going, I
just think reach for an ammonite. Reach for
an ammonite. You might be surprised at how
illuminating the way can be for you.
I love that. That's really yeah. Okay.
We're maybe starting to sign some uses for
these, which is really interesting. But I wanna
I wanna see what Nicholas has to say
(10:36):
because, Nicholas, I know you love them. You
and Ashley are often talking about ammonites and
everlites. First of all, can you differentiate between
the two? There's ammonite
and ammolite.
Is the is the light the one that
sparkles, the opalized one?
So,
it ammolite is a trade name given only
(10:56):
to the ammonites that are found in the
uppermost region of the Rocky Mountains here in
North America.
Nearly all of the,
we'll say,
mining of any, like, economical value on them
is done in Canada.
Although I have heard of similarly iridescent deposits
coming from elsewhere in the rockies,
the iridescence on them comes from tiny platelets
(11:19):
of aragonite.
And there are other ammonites worldwide that when
they it's believed that when they form in
softer substrates,
so, like, soft sedimentary rocks,
that are carbonate rich. It can undergo a
similar kind
of aragonatization
instead of a calcitization
or pyrotization
or a silicification that we see in in
(11:40):
other forms of them that are out there.
And so they can retain iridescence. But it
seems like that Canadian material is by far
the most, we'll say, resplendent
of any of them that at least I've
seen. And when you do get to go
to Tucson and go to the really high
end mineral galleries, and they have ones that
are,
like,
(12:01):
huge and intact.
It's it's really hard to love any other
one after you've seen one that's, you know,
$200,000.
So I don't own any amylites despite how
much I love
them in theory.
My my taste has been spoiled. So I
I have a lot of the more humble
ammonites,
and, you know, some of them range from
(12:23):
little teeny guys like this one here from,
Somerset.
This one formed in a kind of chalky
substrate, so it's mostly carbonate
minerals in there. I've got one that would
have formed in
more of like Elias,
and
this one has a little snake's head carved
into it. More on that in a moment.
And I see Ashley has her her twin
(12:43):
there.
And,
of course, because,
I got challenged as as the
the size queen last week. I I have
my big ammonite, which normally sits on my
altar. Wanted to make sure that I was
I was in the contender for largest rock
this week.
I adore these stones. So the name ammonite
comes to us,
(13:06):
from,
an old expression
that refers to a kind of composite
deity.
So
the original Greek would have sounded something along
the lines of or
or amonas cornua, which meant the horns of
the god Ammon,
a m m o n, which is the
(13:27):
sort of Greekified version
of Amun, a m u n, in ancient
Egypt. And we're gonna, like, get back to
that point in a moment,
but, essentially,
they resemble the coiling horns
of rams and goats. And so I'm I'm
wearing my my goat head right here to
to be on brand for the week,
(13:49):
as our, token Capricorn in the group.
These are rocks that have a truly
ancient history with human beings. The archaeological
record suggests that for at least twenty thousand
years, hominids have intentionally gone out of their
way to collect these stones,
probably because they were unusual shapes and could
(14:11):
be found in nature and that sparked who
knows what kind of ancient practices.
We have a few a few things that
we can conjecture from what we found. We
know that they were used ornamentally. They were
sometimes pierced to be worn or carried as
amulets or attached to tools.
We have some that were buried with the
dead. They were also frequently used as votive
(14:33):
offerings either to the deceased or to spirits.
A really famous instance of the use of
this stone as a votive offering is on
top of Glastonbury tour. In the nineteen sixties,
there was,
a scholar by the name of Philip Rotz
who was
digging up lots of Glastonbury,
and he was able to do a partial
(14:53):
dig on top of the tour and found
a collection
of more than 400
of these ammonite fossils that were intentionally placed
there. Many strata beneath the current stone tower
that stands, the remains of,
Saint Michael's that's on top of the tour.
And
we are not entirely sure, but this is
probably, like, pre Romano,
(15:16):
Celtic era, so before the Roman occupation,
and maybe the result of a kind of
very ancient
pagan worship site that was there. These could
have been offerings to a particular god, which
we're gonna speculate about in a moment,
or maybe to the gods in general. But
the inherent otherness of this stone is what
makes them so special. And one day, we'll
(15:38):
do a deep dive into the otherness of
fossils as a whole.
But when we find them in
these kind of traditional settings, whether it's
the very far back into the stone age
or, you know, into the medieval period,
they are just incredible. They've been intentionally chosen
(15:59):
as
building materials,
fossiliferous
limestones
adorned with these
spiraling forms, these whorls.
We see them dug out of cliff faces
and used by ancient and medieval peoples alike,
oftentimes
associated with healing, protection,
connection to the landscape, to the deceased, and
(16:20):
to the dreams.
Pliny the Elder can considered them to be,
wonderful stones for prophetic dreaming.
But the most obvious appearance that they the
most obvious thing they they resemble is a
serpent,
or a dragon in some instances, which has
won them lots of names, serpent stone,
or
dragon stone in in German,
(16:41):
snake stone, and and so many others.
There are a lot of fun myths about
their formation
often attributed to
figures like Saint Hilda, Saint Kiena, Saint Cuthbert,
and a few others.
But we see that there is this kind
of connection between,
say, divine intervention in the formation of these
(17:04):
stones long before we understood what fossilization
was as a process. There were a lot
of these really poetic descriptions
of how these unusual rocks came to be.
Because they were considered similar to serpents, we
see them connected to things like protection from
poison, whether those were venomous creatures and the
things that, you know, slink by on the
(17:25):
ground or
buzz by us and can sting us, but
also
spiritual poisons, protecting us from ill thoughts and
harmful magic and,
you know, bad spirits and things depending on
where you are in the world.
As
horn like formations, though, if we consider that
they resemble those kind of,
spiral horns,
(17:47):
they are
there for a few other purposes.
So Plato records that the Ammonos Kanuwa,
is most prized stone in Ethiopia that resembles
a ram's horn, that it brings prophetic dreams.
And he's attributing this to Ethiopia, but he's
he's probably off by a little bit in
his geography because Ammon is
(18:08):
an Egyptian deity.
And the he was at one point the
chief god in Egypt's empire,
because different different ages prioritize different deities depending
on allegiances to different temples,
not unlike we see elsewhere in the world.
And when we get that kind of Hellenic
period,
(18:28):
the, the deity Zeus or Jupiter or Jove
or Yove is synchronized with them. So we
get this kind of,
dual deity,
Jupiter Amon or Yove Amon,
who is otherwise presented like Zeus or Jupiter
would be, but has adopted the horns.
And rather than using the kind of long
(18:49):
twisted horns we see in the Egyptian representations,
they are coiled ram's horns close to the
head. Alexander the great was even depicted with
these selfsame horns that resemble an Ammonite because
he wanted to kind
of, up his street cred by resembling the
very gods that he was drawing power and
strength from.
Elsewhere in the world, though, we've got a
(19:09):
see the same connection to horns. In China,
they were known as,
which means horn stone,
among the,
Blackfoot Confederacy
here in
the the so called new world, so called
America.
We have them called,
which means buffalo stones because the individual compartments
that break out resemble sleeping buffalo or sleeping
(19:31):
bison who are horned creatures.
And then, of course, we get that connection
to Glastonbury Tor.
There's a really lovely chap by the name
of, Aaron Aaron Leech,
who has written a handful of books on
Glastonbury and Avalon, all these mythos, and
he has one speculative book that looks at
all the evidence we've got that suggests
(19:53):
what the kind of pre Christian rites of
worship might have been. And in the Roman
period,
if we
look at what little evidence we've got plus
those really ancient,
offerings
of the, Ammonites buried there, he suggested it
might be possible
that a horned figure like Jupiter Amun was
(20:15):
syncretized with a native deity who might also
have been horned or more likely antlered in
that part of the world.
And so this could have been originally
associated with gods
like, you know, Pan, Carnunos,
and taken to other parts of the world
to
associate with Dionysus
and the like.
(20:35):
And
there's a really interesting
astronomical phenomenon that kind of underscores this,
and that is a special alignment that takes
place on Glastonbury
tour when the sun enters the sign of
Capricorn, the goat with its horns. And
all of this might have come together to
(20:55):
suggest that the magic of Ammonite is deeply
steeped in the magic of the land. These
deities that we see, particularly they they're sometimes
depicted as antler god Gwynapneath, who is said
to dwell in a crystal castle inside the
heart of Glastonbury Tor.
They are often the stewards
of livestock as well as of game, so
they feed us. They're
(21:17):
living through these cycles of birth and death
and represent the kind of vegetative
death and rebirth that occurs with the turning
of the tides of the season.
When we work with ammonite, it brings us
into such deep communion with the elementals,
with the consciousness
of the stones,
with the very spirits, the soul of mother
(21:37):
earth beneath us. And even for a lot
of modern mystics who explore earth energies, the
symbol of the spiral is how we visualize
those intersecting lines of force
like the vortices that we see
in Glastonbury
or Sedona or Stonehenge or anywhere else in
the world where these Earth energies converge.
And it it creates for a really dynamic
(22:00):
stone that is born of such humble origins.
These are these are such incredible
stones that symbolize
birth and movement and change and transformation
just like Kyle,
was talking about. I almost love to think
of them as a spiral labyrinth, and I
will use them as a kind of finger
labyrinth in meditation.
If you've got one that's you know, doesn't
(22:21):
have to be this big, but one that's
big enough that you can follow the lines.
Even if it's been cut in half and
polished, they work so well. You can put
all your attention
right on the fingers
as you trace inwards
toward the center, imagining that you're kind of
contracting your awareness to the core of your
being, descending into that subconscious
state to touch and see and and experience
(22:42):
everything that we kind of sweep under the
rug.
We can reverse the spiral and start from
the inwards and move outwards
to have an expansive effect on our consciousness
either to come back to our normal state
after we've we've gone inwards or when we're
in our normal state to go into that
state of the superconsciousness,
the higher self, the divine self, to get
that kind of eagle eye view,
(23:04):
and and see everything happening at life and
understand how the parts and pieces come together.
And, another practice that may be truly ancient,
is using them as dreamstones,
not just because Pliny the Elder talks about
them,
but there is one other famous occurrence of
them in
Somerset,
and that is in a place called Abilene's
(23:25):
Hole, and it's in the Mendip Hills,
which produced some incredible rocks that maybe we'll
talk about another week very soon.
But there were
a series of
remains that were found there of individuals that
lived over 10,000
ago.
And among some of the skull, there are
fragments of seven different ammonites
(23:46):
seemingly placed beneath their heads.
One of my favorite authors in the world
of earth science is a guy by the
name of Ken McNamara,
and he writes about this occurrence in one
of his books and suggests the stones might
have been placed under the heads of the
deceased
as these kind of tokens of dreaming their
way into the other world. Not just putting
(24:08):
them under our own pillows for our own
dream time journeys, but it's as if they
open portals
to all the other realms. So if we
wanna commune with the ancestors,
the gods, our higher
self, our personal spirits and guides and guardians,
the
beings in the land, the consciousness of the
land itself,
Ammonite is there to help us
(24:29):
forge those connections and tend to them to
keep them going ever onward to nourish us
each and every day.
Nicholas, I love what you're saying about the
meditation with, you know, tracing with your finger.
I think that's a really great practice for
people to do. As you're talking about the
haunted gods and their connection to the haunted
gods around the regions,
(24:49):
would you say that Ammonites have a yang
energy or a more masculine energy?
Not necessarily. There are just as many instances
of connecting them to figures of the defined
feminine.
We find,
churches in Italy where the the
amenitized
red marble, it's really limestone, is placed distinctly
(25:09):
at her feet when she's carved stepping on
a serpent. We find instances of female saints
like Saint Hilda performing miracles,
and that may actually be a kind of
memory that links the serpent to a very,
very ancient idea of the goddess as
the the earth mother.
The word serpent
(25:30):
is ultimately related to a root that means
something that that crawls along the ground. This
is actually reference in another earth goddess we
might know. I'm sure we're all familiar with
the myths of Persephone,
who is, we'll say, very salient around the
turning of the the seasons. But in in
Latin, her name is
from the same root of
(25:51):
or serpent.
So, yeah, I think this is a both
and kind of stone, not just one or
the other, but has has a the option
to be a portal
to either ends of that spectrum or anywhere
in between.
I wanted to jump in with something that
you, like, just touched on, Nicholas, like, just
in passing,
(26:12):
which is you mentioned, like, there were a
lot of thoughts about these being very magical
before we understood the process of fossilization.
And I think it's really important
to kinda touch on the fact that, like,
we have really only understood that process
for less than two hundred years. I mean,
this is, like, very recent. There were these
(26:32):
oddities, curiosities,
anomalies.
So it's kind of no wonder
people thought that they had these magical qualities
from, like, thousands of years ago, very ancient
peoples,
to, like,
more modern kind of folk magic type charms.
This is a, yeah, like, such a long
standing part of our history is connecting with
(26:55):
these stones this way. Absolutely.
And
really And I also
oh, sorry. I have, like, one quick show
and tell.
My grandpa gave me this recently. It is
an ancient Roman coin.
It was one of the only ones that
he kept in his collection still, and you
are not going to believe, but it depicts
(27:17):
I don't know if you can see this
the horns,
the spiral horns.
So, for those of you watching the video,
this is on my little ancestor altar with
my ammonites.
That's incredible.
I love that.
That is very cool indeed. I love this.
As we've been talking, you know,
(27:38):
we it's almost as though it feels like
the ammonites have a
and I'm I'm sure this is an absolutely
correct, but it feels like they just have
this real ancient energy about them and that
they've been, you know, celebrated for such a
long time.
One of the things I love to work
with is the chakras and everyone knows the
chakras and the main seven, but there has
been some expansion of the concept of the
(28:00):
chakras over the last few decades as our
consciousness has risen.
Now
these are a little bit more ambiguous, and
it's really hard to try and find a
universal set where one type. Right? These are
the extra chakras beyond the seven and that
type of thing. But I think if we
go lower
so we've got our base chakra, which is
(28:20):
to do very much with,
do we feel safe? Do we feel secure?
Can we provide for our basic needs and
that type of thing? And they won't resonate
with that. And you know, like my my
red amylites that I'm wearing today, I think
would be possibly could work with that. But
then the next chakra that's normally connected to
going lower is known as the earth star
chakra.
(28:41):
Now whereas the base chakra is about your
relationship
with just kind of fit your connection to
the earth and how you feel, The earth
star chakra is your relationship with the earth,
every other human, every animal, every plant, and
every rock, every mountain, everything. And how connected
you feel? And, obviously, as we,
(29:01):
evolve over these last few decades and so
on, we've become a lot more conscious of
our impact on the Earth. Probably in the
nineteen fifties and sixties,
the the large majority of people were just
going about their lives and didn't worry about
things like climate change or polluting the oceans
or different things like that. But we've become
more in tune with mother earth. And, you
(29:23):
know, obviously, there are civilizations
and cultures all around the world, a lot
of the indigenous cultures that are a lot
more in tune with the earth, but a
lot of people didn't have that connection. And
I think the earth star chakra really helps
with that. But then as we go a
little bit lower so the earth star chakra
is said to be about,
few inches or 30 centimeters below our feet,
(29:44):
normally resonates with the color like an earthy
reddy brown. But then we go below that,
and there's another chakra that people refer to,
and I refer to it in my latest
book called the incarnator
chakra.
So the incarnate of chakra
still has this concept of our connection to
people, planet
Earth,
you know, animals, plants, and so on. But
(30:07):
it goes beyond just your connection right here.
And now
It goes your connection through space and time.
So the incarnated chakra is often associated with
your connection to your tribe, your
ancestors, your clan.
And there are, you know, there there are
theories. Obviously, we have our bloodline, which is
kind of where our body is passed on
(30:27):
from generation to generation,
but there's also
our spiritual,
ancestry
as well. And I I find it really
interesting. Why is it that
for someone like maybe myself that has European
ancestry
has a drawing to other cultures around the
world. You know, the Egyptian mythology really appeals
(30:48):
to me and, you know,
some of the North American
kind of background also interests me as well.
Was it possible, and we're not gonna solve
this question in in this episode, but was
it possible that we lived other lifetimes in
other parts of the world? And I think
ammonites
would be a really great one for helping
you to connect with that ancient aspect of
(31:10):
yourself
because sometimes that can be comforting. Sometimes we
can find power in that, and we can
also,
draw on that,
for
allowing us to navigate through our lives in
this present. So I think this would be
a really great one for exploring that both
the Earth Star chakra
and the incarnated chakra. And I would suggest
(31:30):
just simple meditation.
I love what Nicholas said about, you know,
the drawing of the finger going in or
coming out.
Or another one is to simply place it,
place an ammonite about 30 centimetres
to six inches,
below your feet, and kind of feel that
connection with the earth and see what comes
up for you as well. So that that
(31:50):
could be another practical to working with this
stone or this fossil, I guess we should
say, Ashley, what about yourself? You're always good
for some practical ways of using these. How
do you use ammonites?
I love this stone for a bit of
kitchen witchery and hearth magic. This is something
I've talked about a little bit before in
previous episodes. I'm really big on this practice
(32:13):
because,
you know, most of us, we end up
spending a decent amount of time in the
kitchen each week, so you might as well
take some of that mundane
kind of day to day sort of tasks
and make them a little bit magical.
So as Nicholas mentioned,
ammonite fossils were found
at Glastonbury Tour and Glastonbury is often said
(32:35):
to be the heart of the world.
And so if we look at that as
sort of the macrocosm
on the microcosm
on a smaller level,
our kitchen is usually the heart of the
home.
This is where we prepare meals and we
nourish ourselves and our loved ones.
This is where great conversation
happens.
(32:56):
It's also,
you know, this very fiery,
energizing,
transformative
space.
So ammonites kind of exemplify
this
as above, so below in terms of the
fossil world.
So
for kitchen magic, we have the spiral form
(33:19):
of ammonite,
and I have one of these little
Whitby
snake stone ammonites also, which, Nicholas and I
got together a couple years ago.
These are from Whitby in Yorkshire in The
UK, and Nicholas actually also mentioned Saint Hilda.
And when these ammonite fossils were found in
Whitby, it was thought that they were
(33:41):
basically like petrified snakes that Saint Hilda had
turned to stone. So, again, before that understanding
of fossil fossilization like Nicholas mentioned.
So this
spiral energy
is something that we, I think,
really can tap into in the kitchen.
(34:03):
This,
energy really represents transformation. The symbol of the
spiral represents transformation.
And so it's mirrored
in the cauldron,
in the cooking pot, the place where we
perform, you know, these daily bits of alchemy,
transforming
something,
like all these raw ingredients
(34:24):
into a beautiful
soup or a casserole or whatever it is.
But creating all these nourishing dishes
from little bits of the earth that we've
gathered up together and put into our cooking
pot, into our cauldron.
So this spiral form
is representative of that alchemy and that transformation,
(34:44):
but it's also mirrored in the way in
which we stir the cauldron,
and we create that sort of spiral of
energy and magic.
So one of my favorite
practical ways to work with ammonite, and this
is one that I talk about in my
fossils for hearth magic and kitchen witchery class,
(35:05):
is to have your trusty wooden spoon.
Most of us who spend a good time
amount of time in the kitchen have a
favorite wooden spoon or maybe that's my neurodivergent
showing, but I have
a a favorite wooden spoon for sure. And,
one of the things I like to do
is place my wooden spoon on my kitchen
altar
(35:25):
and in the hollow of the spoon, the
little bowl of the spoon,
place your ammonite fossil
right in the hollow of that spoon and
let it charge up on your altar overnight
because it's sort of imbuing
that spoon now as a magical tool
with that transformative
(35:47):
spiral energy of the ammonite. So now when
you stir that pot and brew that magic,
you have this kind of enchanted tool, becomes
like the kitchen witch's wand in a way.
And so after you charge that
spoon with the ammonite,
I recommend, like, painting or drawing a little
(36:08):
spiral
on your the handle of your spoon, not
in the part that's gonna go in your
food, but on the handle of your spoon
so you know this one has been
magically
charged up, and you can find your extra
special spoon for cooking up some magic. You
can also wood burn this in. Mine is
kind of
coming off just from washing,
(36:29):
and you can recharge this anytime you like.
Just put it back on your kitchen altar
with your ammonite fossil
overnight and let it charge back up.
Thank you so much for sharing that, Ashley.
I must admit that's such a beautiful way
to talk about the wooden spoon because the
last woman who was wielding a wooden spoon
was my mother. Because when we used to
(36:50):
get misbehaved,
one of them would go across the backside.
So that's gonna
heal a bit of past past trauma out
there as well.
I'd love to ask, both Nicholas and Ashley.
We've obviously
we're talking a little bit fossils and we've
obviously zoned in and talked a lot about
ammonites.
And when we talk about fossilized things, there's
obviously things like amber and jet and petrified
(37:12):
wood as well. But there are all these
other and, Kyle, you would have seen them
where you work as well. All these other
little
critters and things that have been caught in
stone, and some of them look like what
we call here in Australia, splaters and things
like that. Do you work with, I think
they're called trilobites. There we go. Some of
them go ahead. Do you ever work with
any of them as well?
(37:33):
Yeah. I'll I'll jump in. I have hundreds
of fossils.
I love them. They are, to me, the
oddities, the curiosities,
the remnants of the past.
Just like I love to work with crystals,
I also love to work with plants.
I think a lot of folks who do
a bit of magic might call in the
energy of some animal familiars from time to
(37:55):
time.
Fossils are like the records of the Earth.
They're like
they're the books of the Earth. I don't
know how to if that makes sense, but
they they are these amazing record keepers. And
so if I wanna connect with the energy
of the plant kingdom, I might pull out
one of my favorite
fern fossils from Maison Creek. I might pull
(38:17):
out some belemnites, some fossil echinoids.
There are so many
different fossils, and so many of them have,
like, the most amazing histories.
And
the author that Nicholas mentioned, Ken McNamara,
Nicholas turned me on to his books. They
are
so well researched,
so full of information and knowledge. And if
(38:37):
you are, like, on the fence about fossils,
read any one of Ken's books, and you're
gonna be, like, head over heels for life.
I also
have grown to appreciate fossils
quite a bit, but it didn't start out
that way. Honestly, Adam, I was like you.
I found them kind of interesting,
(38:58):
and there were very few that spoke to
me. You know, I think petrified
wood is probably the most accessible
gem fossil that we get,
in in crystal stores with the exception of
amber and jet, which, I mean, not that
long ago, you didn't find tumbled as often
as you do today.
And so I kind of got examples of
(39:20):
these just so I could have a well
rounded crystal collection. But the
the first experience I have of a fossil
really speaking to me goes back to childhood,
and it was visiting my grand my great
grandmother's home on the Gulf Coast Of
Florida, and she lived right on the Gulf.
And I I didn't really love the seashore
(39:41):
there. It wasn't my favorite beach of my
hometown in Southeast Florida. It was rocky and
craggy, and,
the the water did different stuff because it
was not the open ocean.
But when the tide would go out and
I would play among the hunks of limestone,
I would find all of these curious
dome shaped
stones with five pointed stars on them, and
(40:03):
they were
magic. I still have some of those fossil
urchins in my collection today.
Some of the ones from those trips to
my great grandmother's home have actually appeared in
some of my books.
And
after, we'll say, lots of exposure therapy, I
started to find other fossils equally as charming,
so much so that if I can do
(40:24):
just a tiny bit of shameless self promotion
in my next book that's coming out,
the witching stones,
There there are quite a number of fossils
in this book. There's an entire chapter just
about ammonites. There's a whole chapter on urchins.
There's a chapter devoted
to,
amber and jet together. And then there are
(40:45):
some other fossils that you're gonna find in
there too because they have such an incredibly
long history
of this
human
stone relationship, and it's that relationship
that excites me.
And I'm just so glad to see more
folks trying to explore that in the modern
world.
And I really love that we're still finding
(41:06):
new ones.
Like,
the one that blew my mind recently
was the
shell.
Like, prioritized
amylites are so so cool, but to see
it like an emerald crystal
shell, like, that blows my mind. Just research
Google.
It's been GIA, like, looked into. They know
(41:26):
exactly what it is. Like, they're fossil like,
there are crystalized fossils in ways we just
don't even expect.
Do you think,
actually, Nicholas, if someone was, like, okay, I'm
gonna give fossils
a shot,
what would be maybe your top three or
four that you think they should maybe try
work with getting a collection, that type of
(41:48):
thing? Do you have a do you have
a list, Ashley?
I honestly don't know if I could choose
just three or four. It's so hard. I
I really am
super partial to the fern fossils
from Maison Creek. Like, those to me are
they're just so cool. You have these long
little
they just look like nothing, and they're often
(42:08):
sold in pairs. And you open them up,
and inside,
you just see
the most beautiful magic, especially if you're a
plant lover.
Sometimes you can see so much detail in
the leaves of those ferns just completely trapped
there.
Amazing.
I would definitely say ammonite. It is
(42:29):
probably
my favorite fossil,
but ammonite,
fossil urchins, and belemnite
are kinda like my trifecta
of goodness.
Those are the three that I tend to
work with the most. But there are some
really, really cool things. Like,
I have a fossilized piece of an ancient
(42:49):
tortoise shell.
I have
an Oreodont
bone, which is really long, almost like a,
I don't know, like a small piece of
femur that is very cool. There are just
some neat things,
but dino eggshell is also really cool
for me as, like, a chicken mom.
Like, that appeals to me very much.
(43:12):
So, you know, connects with my little dinosaurs
out in the backyard.
I just think, you know, find the things
that you're really attracted to. It is a
world
that is equally as big as the world
of, like, the crystals that we are also
familiar with. There are always new things to
explore like Kyle said. So, yeah, just see
(43:32):
what you're drawn to.
Nicholas, would you agree with that list, or
are there any others you'd throw in after
working on it for your next book?
Well, how about one that didn't make it
into the book, and that's fossil coral. We
find this in so many different parts of
the world, but
as as our token Florida resident, like, it's
one of our most iconic,
(43:54):
geologic materials here in the state. We have
this gorgeous agatized
coral that you can find in places like
Tampa Bay and the Withlacoochee
River and so many other places, but we've
got
great examples
of of fossil corals that come the world
over, whether they're in c two in limestones
or we find the agatized versions, the silicified
(44:14):
versions in,
the Great Lakes here in North America. In,
Wiltshire,
there is a really fun variety of agatized
coral that was once known as star flint
and astroites
because the little polyps resemble the stars of
the night sky if we use our imagination.
Indonesia
produces some incredibly beautiful and colorful
(44:36):
fossil coral. So I think that's a really
accessible one. You can find it in jewelry
relatively inexpensively compared to a lot of other
things. If we really love gems as well,
you certainly couldn't go wrong with some agatized
dinosaur bone, which is also super cool to
look at and makes for gorgeous jewelry.
(44:57):
I have very, very little of it in
my collection,
but I I think that's a great one.
And,
I think probably
the the only other fossil that gets a
lot of attention in, like, day to day
life. I mean, I love them all, but
one that I interact with every day.
They are the, calcitized
shells that you find in Florida and also
(45:18):
the
calcitized
fossiliferous
limestones that they're found in. So you can
find little whelks and clams, and sometimes they're
not so little. I've seen clams as big
as my head that are just filled with
transparent,
lustrous,
gold, dog tooth calcite, and they are incredibly
fluorescent under an ultraviolet lamp.
What's cooler than a fossil that glows in
(45:40):
the dark? Well, there is one thing that
neither of you mentioned, which I know,
I
Kyle works where I used to work kind
of thing, and it's one of the things
that's always a talking point in the fossil
area of the shop where we where we
frequent, Kyle,
cropolyte.
Cropolyte?
(46:00):
Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that.
Fossilized,
dinosaur poopies.
That's so funny. I love it. We sell
it by the kilo and people come in
and it's like I'll have half a kilo
of fossilized poop thank you very much.
It's brilliant.
The formations are amazing like I I think
(46:21):
it's one of the most unique and hilarious
things and people buy them as gifts all
the time and, yeah, we just have a
big tub of it and it makes me
giggle every time I walk past and notice
one that's like the perfect shape.
Oh, honestly, that that dinosaur or whatever had
had good fiber in their diet.
Yeah. Exactly.
(46:42):
Well, that may be a crap way to
end this episode, but that's the way we're
gonna do it. Have we won you over
when it comes to fossils or not? We'd
love to know by commenting below. And, of
course, if you've got someone else who you
think might,
enjoy this episode, make sure you send it
to them as well as subscribe and like
and all those different things. Because when you
do that, a dinosaur comes back to life.
(47:05):
So join us next week. If Jurassic Park
isn't active yet, it means you haven't been
sharing enough. We'll see you then take care
and blessed be
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