Do you have the stones to be a true Mormon?

[Philo Sofee]

In the 1970s, it was a fad for a short time to have a Pet Rock (and there were people selling them, some came in a small box, and had a name and brief background included). My sister got one. I laughed my butt off then; I had no idea then about Joseph Smith's stone, and much less that a church authority had a stone in his pocket that he rubbed for inspiration as late as 1958.

If rubbing the rock in your pants doesn't work for inspiration, there is something else you can rub in your pants that might work...

[Tom]

The use of magical stones by Mormons did not end with Joseph Smith. See page 255 of D Michael Quinn's "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Salt Lake City UT, Signature Books, 1998) which refers to a November 19, 1986 written statement by James Wirthlin McConkie II that reads:

"When I was twelve years old [in 1958], my grandfather, who had been a mission president in the 1940s, gave me a small stone. He was a Latter-day Saint who frequently had visions and dreams. Grandfather said that he found this stone while he was pondering the significance of the Prophet Joseph's seer stone. Grandfather held this stone in his right hand as he spoke in Church meetings, and rubbed the stone between his right thumb and index finger. He said that when he rubbed this stone it gave him the spirit of inspiration to speak. Grandfather said he carried it in his pocket all the time, and used it whenever he spoke in Church. He told me to carry it with me, and that it would give me inspiration as I spoke."

Sounds like a reference to Oscar McConkie, who was a mission president in California in the later 1940s and whose children included a son named Bruce. I checked the first edition of Early Mormonism and found that the book attributes the above statement to "Anon. 1986."

[Dr Exiled]

In the 1970s, it was a fad for a short time to have a Pet Rock (and there were people selling them, some came in a small box, and had a name and brief background included). My sister got one. I laughed my butt off then; I had no idea then about Joseph Smith's stone, and much less that a church authority had a stone in his pocket that he rubbed for inspiration as late as 1958.

If rubbing the rock in your pants doesn't work for inspiration, there is something else you can rub in your pants that might work...

But to Sock's point, I remember the pet rock fad and hearing whispers at church about it. I was too young to understand, but, perhaps some adults were making the connection?

[Moksha]

Whether pet rocks, worry stones, or seer stones with a galaxy-wide communications array, rocks are where it's at! So keep your eyes on the ground and get your rocks off of where you spot them.

A true measure of a faith tradition is the rocks it keeps company with.
-- Rock E. Balboa, Granite Stake

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Huh.



Lithomancy. -_-



I … didn’t know enough people were into … magic rocks to write books about it. Oh my god. My parents sold crystals from their shop - they thought crystals “had properties.” Oh my god. Tfw you come from a long line of dimwits. Oh my god, that moment you realize why your brain hurts when it maths. Everything is so clear now. Crystal clear.

- Doc

[Philo Sofee]

@ Doc...

[High Spy]

Might one use egg-shaped pieces of jade?

Bat dung works best.

[drumdude]

There's got to be MLM potential in selling rocks to Mormons.

[sock puppet]

Rocks with "Ponderize" etched into them might be a big seller along the Mormon Belt.