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Do you have the stones to be a true Mormon?
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2023 6:10 pm
by sock puppet
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."
Re: Do you have the stones to be a true Mormon?
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2023 6:24 pm
by Res Ipsa
Closest I came was a lucky rock that I always took with me to court appearances. I rubbed it as well prior to presenting my argument to a judge. I can't claim that it gave me inspiration, although sometimes a judge reacted to an argument I had just made as if I were dumb as a rock.
Re: Do you have the stones to be a true Mormon?
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2023 6:36 pm
by Doctor CamNC4Me
Welp. There you have it. Yet another thing about Mormonism I didn’t know - magic rocks were taken seriously. No wonder my parents thought crystals has a little sumthin sumthin to them. Crazy.
- Doc
Re: Do you have the stones to be a true Mormon?
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2023 7:32 pm
by Dr Exiled
Thank whatever is out there, if any, that the railroad came and brought civilization to Utah and the surrounding areas. I can only imagine how crazy we'd be if still isolated.
Re: Do you have the stones to be a true Mormon?
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2023 7:45 pm
by Everybody Wang Chung
Some enterprising Mormon has already seized upon this idea:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1278928132 ... 1278928132
Re: Do you have the stones to be a true Mormon?
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2023 8:50 pm
by malkie
Might one use egg-shaped pieces of jade?
Re: Do you have the stones to be a true Mormon?
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2023 8:58 pm
by canpakes
malkie wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 8:50 pm
Might one use egg-shaped pieces of jade?
I make mine out of
unobtanium.
Re: Do you have the stones to be a true Mormon?
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2023 9:30 pm
by Res Ipsa
canpakes wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 8:58 pm
malkie wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 8:50 pm
Might one use egg-shaped pieces of jade?
I make mine out of
unobtanium.
I prefer eludium.
Re: Do you have the stones to be a true Mormon?
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2023 11:21 pm
by huckelberry
I pick up rocks occasionally because of their visual interest or perhaps shape. This rock friend idea seems kind of pleasant if not taken too seriously.
Re: Do you have the stones to be a true Mormon?
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2023 11:36 pm
by sock puppet
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.