Discussions toward a better understanding of LDS doctrine, history, and culture. Discussion of Christianity, religion, and faith in general is welcome.
Hagoth wrote:From Quinn's Early Mormonism and the Magic World View:
A popular tradition in English folk magic was that Adam, Abraham and other Old Testament patriarchs also possessed "Angellical Stones." Writers insisted that modern people could also obtain such a stone that provides " Apparition of Angells, and gives a power of conversing with them, by Dreams and Revelations." An equally common view held that by using the biblical Urim and Thummim, "the Priest had his Visions in the Stone of the Breast-plate." (p. 40)
In Essex, Vermont, for example, a local treasure-seer in 1824 "carried in his hat the mystical stone in which he could see the precise locality and enormous quantitiy of the of the concealed precious metals..." (p. 40)
an academic journal noted in 1863 that divination by "seeing glasses" or seer stones "is quite common at the present day and by persons of good education." (p.40)
At Rose, 24.8 miles northeast of Palmyra, the local minister's son ("eighteen years of age and of good habits") had a "large, peculiar stone" with which this young man led a group of diggers in search of treasure.
At Rochester, twenty-two miles northwest from Palmyra, two local seers surfaced briefly. About 1815 the eighteen-year-old son of a British immigrant named Smith found "a round stone the size of a man's fist." For a time he guided Rochester's residents in search of buried treasure, "after adjusting the stone in his hat." About a decade later, a young man named Zimri Allen "came into possession of a small transparent stone, which he called a 'diamond': it was also termed a 'looking-glass,' 'magic-stone' and 'seer -stone' by others." He used this stone to look for treasure...when looking into his seer stone on one occasion, he said: "I am going down the vista of Time...I behold the red men as intruders in the land, expelling a race of men of exceedingly large stature, whom we would call gaints." (p. 41)
Quinn then goes on to list a number of other Palmyra area people, some of them friends and neighbors of the Smiths who owned, used and believed in the power of seer stones.
I find the bolded text above (my bolding) especially interesting because it demonstrates the common belief at the time that there had been another race of ancient people that had been wiped out by the Indians, and that you could learn their history by staring at a rock in a hat!
The story about Zimri Allen was cool. There were enough parallels with the BOM to make Hugh Nibley rise up and take note. Wow
The story about Zimri Allen was interesting.
God is Love. God is Truth. The greatest problem with organized religion is that the organization becomes god, rather than a means of serving God.
Now that seer stones are ok again will Desert Book be rolling out a new line of them for Christmas? And maybe something that looks something like a Ouija board but for communing with Jehovah. I think framed prints of the Smith family's magical treasure hunting parchments would look fantastic hanging in there family room alongside the Proclamation. Oh, and don't forget the Jupiter talisman stocking stuffers for the little ones.
“The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.” -Mark Twain
Jesus: "The Kingdom of God is within you." The Buddha: "Be your own light."
Hagoth wrote:Now that seer stones are ok again will Desert Book be rolling out a new line of them for Christmas? And maybe something that looks something like a Ouija board but for communing with Jehovah. I think framed prints of the Smith family's magical treasure hunting parchments would look fantastic hanging in there family room alongside the Proclamation. Oh, and don't forget the Jupiter talisman stocking stuffers for the little ones.
I see some un-tapped earning potential for some hard-core believers who have "always known" about magic rocks and such...
Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. -Frater Ravus
Hagoth wrote:Now that seer stones are ok again will Desert Book be rolling out a new line of them for Christmas? And maybe something that looks something like a Ouija board but for communing with Jehovah. I think framed prints of the Smith family's magical treasure hunting parchments would look fantastic hanging in there family room alongside the Proclamation. Oh, and don't forget the Jupiter talisman stocking stuffers for the little ones.
I see some un-tapped earning potential for some hard-core believers who have "always known" about magic rocks and such...
Why hasn't anyone started an MLM with seer stones? You can host your own seer stone party at your house and then become an independent seer stone consultant. I bet the seer stones work best if you are wearing your Ponderize It t-shirt.
...walked eye-deep in hell
believing in old men’s lies...--Ezra Pound
Hagoth wrote:Now that seer stones are ok again will Desert Book be rolling out a new line of them for Christmas? And maybe something that looks something like a Ouija board but for communing with Jehovah. I think framed prints of the Smith family's magical treasure hunting parchments would look fantastic hanging in there family room alongside the Proclamation. Oh, and don't forget the Jupiter talisman stocking stuffers for the little ones.
I see some un-tapped earning potential for some hard-core believers who have "always known" about magic rocks and such...
Why hasn't anyone started an MLM with seer stones? You can host your own seer stone party at your house and then become an independent seer stone consultant. I bet the seer stones work best if you are wearing your Ponderize It t-shirt.
Lookit that... My magic rock "likes" the MLM idea!
Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. -Frater Ravus
