Phoenix
by Dale J. Sprague
Reveries
7.1997 I liked walking on a back country road or along beaches when I was very young. I still do, but then I was a serious collector of stones. I liked stones that had intense color set in all kinds of texture, and I liked those that were translucent. Agates were always a good find. Their clearness inspires purity, truth. When seeing through something, I thought this must be what it is like to experience truth. The varied'colored stones inspire intensity of feeling or variety of moods. I sensed then, that the value of crystals and gems is not what they keep, but what they give back or let pass through.
As a boy, I collected beauteous stones. Bits of rock, pretty, intriguing, mysterious, unusual. All the great sensations that I wanted to prolong. I clasp them until they became warm in my hand. Intense multicolored stones I inspected closely, the pure colors, their varieties, all its subtleties I wanted to see, experience up close. Translucent stones and crystals I would hold until warm..grip them, feel them..roll them on my palm. I wanted to experience, be as close to its incandescent light as much as I could; for its essence to enter me, as much as it would. The best I found, I kept for a later time, for them to warm in my palm again.
Many kinds of crystals and gems have passed through my hands. Many beautiful ones have always been available from merchants, but the ones of most value were those I found in nature. I found a piece of rock on a beach once that was a dull opaque green, worn smooth. It filled the palm of my hand completely. A rock expert said it was a piece of jasper, and on my bookshelf, it inspired me for years..being unique without the need to compete; that being individualistic, developing one's sense of soul, sole self; that one distinguished from all else is more a process of seeing one's self than upstaging someone else. For many years this jasper gem inspired me to hold these thoughts until it was no longer necessary. Jasper became a part of me.
Before I was tutored by the jasper, I found a piece of quartz that reflected many colors, all set in the opaque white, characteristic of quartz. I called this rock my philosopher's stone, which celebrates all the colors of philosophies that could be, all set in pure iridescent white. It taught me that the "universal" and the "unique" are together, that I am a dichotomy between the two, a dichotomy of many things and some of them mutually exclusive, but equally valid, and therefore always energized and evolving. If I were to try to station myself predominately one way or the other, something profound and vital would die. Quartz is known to hold gold. This is my gold.
Many varieties of natural occurring crystals have passed through the palm of my hand. They still inspire me. Clarity of thought, purity of form. If a book on geometry was made to incarnate, it would be a crystal of some form. A crystal may inspire me to ask, "What came first? Someone's geometry or the crystal inspiring the geometry? Or is there no first; just a reciprocation of dichotomies between the mind's inescapable relationship with matter." All crystals teach me the intricacies, the subtleties, the basics of law..or reminds me...whichever.
Currently, in my possession, is a very unusual stone. One of the few that I ever bought for its beautiful mystique. It is pearl'escent white, translucent, and conducts images from one of its surfaces to another. It sits near my bookcase, and inspires communication and purity of expression. The power of this crystalline substance comes from its inability to absorb and reflect, but rather from its ability to capture and conduct. As a naturally occurring fiber optics technology, it reminds me that no matter how clever and inventive science can be, it is always derivative of what nature already is..and what is in nature, has been for an eternity
In common with all crystals and gems, is the contemplation of matter, itself. Experts on matter are not altogether happy with their terms, equations, and theories..because they still do not know what matter is, nor color. This is convenient, for the value of any crystal or gem, from what was rejected or allowed to pass through, is what we make of it..what beauteous thought, treasured feeling, or complex of them we want to keep.