A Big Huge List of Tons of People Who Used Seer Stones

Joseph Smith staring into the bottom of a hat to translate a book is a funny picture to some. Perhaps ‘to most’ would have been a better way to end that sentence. This was definitely left out of all my primary classes – but I learned about it in books readily available in the church-owned Deseret Book. It’s not really the secret angrier-corners of the internet would have you believe.

Not only that – but Joseph Smith didn’t invent seer stones. He wasn’t the first one to throw a stone into a dark place to better see its stories. No, no – hippies love them too. Hippies and Joseph Smith. That’s the complete list of everyone who cares about seer stones. No more no less. Oh – except Io, the god of the Maoris. And boatloads of other Americans. And according to ancient Jewish lore, Adam, Abraham, Noah, Joseph of Egypt, etc… The list really goes on. It goes on long enough, in fact, that Joseph Smith goes from being a lonely stone-starer to one of alleged dozens.

It’s actually a huge list of scryers if you break it out into individual people that claim to have used seer stones. That’s what I’m going to do here. It’s so long your legs will probably fall asleep. I’m worried about you, actually. Don’t forget to get up to stretch every now and again. Otherwise you’ll look like a giant paraplegic gecko as you drag across the floor the next time your doorbell rings.

I’m going to lay out a very large, though far from complete, history of seer stones. You know what? I’m actually more worried about you getting bedsores. Maybe you should lotion yourself first. No, that doesn’t sound like a good preventative measure.

Read this first for safety: https://www.healthafter50.com/healthcare-and-costs/article/how-to-prevent-bed-sores. Then pop on back here and start below. (Please don’t forget to roll yourself over occasionally. This thing is really long)

The sections will be laid out like this if you feel like skipping around:

A.   Joseph Smith’s seer stones

B.   Other historical LDS-Related seer stones

C.   Non LDS seer stones

D.   Seer stones in ancient Jewish lore

That last section has some pretty great stuff I haven’t seen floating about too much. The Joseph of Egypt thing is my current favorite. But that is a good place to end. Lets begin with the obvious.

A.   Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones

He had a bunch of them. Joseph had so many seer stones it’s actually hard to put a number on it. The time line for the individual stones is a little blurry. Here’s a super-fast take on it:

“Joseph first used a neighbor's seer stone (probably that belonging to Palmyra seer Sally Chase, on the balance of historical evidence, though there are other possibilities) to discover the location of a brown, baby's foot-shaped stone. The vision of this stone likely occurred in about 1819–1820, and he obtained his first seer stone in about 1821–1822.”

(https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Book_of_Mormon/Translation/Seer_stone)

The second stone was found pretty deep down while digging a well for a local named William Chase (related to Sally Chase above). That Chase describes the stone-finding like this:

“In the year 1822, I was engaged in digging a well. I employed Alvin and Joseph Smith to assist me.... After digging about twenty feet below the surface of the earth, we discovered a singularly appearing stone, which excited my curiosity. I brought it to the top of the well, and as we were examining it, Joseph put it into his hat, and then his face into the top of his hat.... The next morning he came to me, and wished to obtain the stone, alleging that he could see in it; but I told him I did not wish to part with it on account of its being a curiosity, but I would lend it.” (https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Question:_How_did_Joseph_use_his_seer_stones_as_a_youth%3F)

There were also, of course, the two Jaredite stones that came with the gold plates. Joseph Smith was pretty excited about those according to Joseph Knight:

“After breakfast Joseph called me in to the other room and he set his foot on the bed and leaned his head on his hand and says, “Well, I am disappointed.” “Well,” say I, “I am sorry.” “Well,” says he, “I am greatly disappointed. It is ten times better than I expected.” Then he went on to tell the length and width and thickness of the plates, and, said he, they appear to be gold. But he seemed to think more of the glasses or the Urim and Thummim than he did of the plates for, says he, “I can see anything. They are marvelous. Now they are written in characters and I want them translated.” (The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother By Lucy Mack Smith, Susan Easton Black)

Sometime after 1825, while in the Susquehanna Valley, he was given a green stone by one Jack Belcher, a diviner and salt digger. This stone is very possibly the same one listed in the Philo Dibble section below. (The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844 By John L. Brooke)

Smith found two more stones along the banks of the mighty Mississippi during the Nauvoo era. These may have been seer stones in name only. No record of him ever scrying with them. (https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Question:_How_many_seer_stones_did_Joseph_Smith_have_in_his_possession%3F)

There may be others. I haven’t seen anything about them yet but never say never.

Now the obvious question is “What did Smith do with these stones?” He did a lot of things with them. He used them to receive revelation from God. But before he was burdened with his prophetic mantle he used them to look for mystical treasure buried by the ancients:

“Some Mormon historians have argued that Joseph Smith used his seer stones as a crutch before he was able to receive revelation directly from God by inspiration without a device to help him. By implication, even though God apparently sanctioned seer stones, they were described as cultural tools, essentially prophetic ‘training wheels.’ This didactic model addresses Joseph Smith's money-digging experiences by admitting that he used seer stones in a cultural way to find buried treasure, then used the same cultural process to learn how to receive revelation from God.” (http://www.ldsliving.com/Why-Joseph-s-Use-of-Seer-Stones-Make-More-Sense-Than-You-Thought/s/84018)

“There was a company there in that neighborhood, who were digging for money supposed to have been hidden by the ancients. Of this company were old Mr. Stowel--I think his name was Josiah--also old Mr. Beman, also Samuel Lawrence, George Proper, Joseph Smith, jr., and his father, and his brother Hiram [Hyrum] Smith. They dug for money in Palmyra, Manchester, also in Pennsylvania, and other places. When Joseph found this stone, there was a company digging in Harmony, Pa., and they took Joseph to look in the stone for them, and he did so for a while, and then he told them the enchantment was so strong that he could not see, and they gave it up.” (http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/sermons_talks_interviews/harrisinterviewtiffanysmonthly.htm)

For the record, my early twenties self armed with a seer stone would have definitely looked for lost treasures of the ancients. Or lotto numbers. There’s a lot less dirt-digging with lotto numbers. Now I would just use it to find the mates to all my mismatched socks. Seriously – last Sunday Bishop looked at my non-matching ankles and was like “Listen, I have this storehouse…”

Ahem.

JS, however, would also use his stones to find other people’s lost property. For example:

“E. W. Vanderhoof [writing in 1905] remembered that his Dutch grandfather once paid Smith seventy-five cents to look into his ‘whitish, glossy, and opaque’ stone to locate a stolen mare. The grandfather soon ‘recovered his beast, which Joe said was somewhere on the lake shore and [was] about to be run over to Canada.’ Vanderhoof groused that ‘anybody could have told him that, as it was invariably the way a horse thief would take to dispose of a stolen animal in those days.'” (https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Book_of_Mormon/Translation/Seer_stone)

Here’s an on-topic fact about Martin Harris - Joseph Smith’s scribe for part of the Book of Mormon translation process. He was a skeptic. If someone told you they could read a stone you’d probably question it. So did Harris. So he set up a couple of tests:

“After continued translation they would become weary, and would go down to the river and exercise by throwing stones out on the river, etc. While so doing on one occasion, Martin found a stone very much resembling the one used for translating, and on resuming their labor of translation, Martin put in [its] place the stone that he had found. He said that the Prophet remained silent, unusually and intently gazing in darkness, no traces of the usual sentences appearing. Much surprised, Joseph exclaimed, "Martin! What is the matter? All is as dark as Egypt!" Martin's countenance betrayed him, and the Prophet asked Martin why he had done so. Martin said, to stop the mouths of fools, who had told him that the Prophet had learned those sentences and was merely repeating them, etc.” (https://www.fairmormon.org/evidences/Category:Martin_Harris/Translation_of_the_Book_of_Mormon#cite_note-1)

More cautious than Dana Skully in a room brim-full of alien corpses, here’s another test Harris threw at an unsuspecting Joseph:

“…Joseph had a stone which was dug from the well of Mason Chase, twenty-four feet from the surface. In this stone he could see many thing to my certain knowledge. It was by means of this stone he first discovered these plates.

    "In the first place, he told me of this stone, and proposed to bind it on his eyes, and run a race with me in the woods. A few days after this, I was at the house of his father in Manchester, two miles south of Palmyra village, and was picking my teeth with a pin while sitting on the bars. The pin caught in my teeth, and dropped from my fingers into shavings and straw. I jumped from the bars and looked for it. Joseph and Northrop Sweet also did the same. We could not find it. I then took Joseph on surprise, and said to him--I said, ‘Take your stone.’ I had never seen it, and did not know that he had it with him. He had it in his pocket. He took it and placed it in his hat-- the old white hat--and placed his face in his hat. I watched him closely to see that he did not look one side; he reached out his hand beyond me on the right, and moved a little stick, and there I saw the pin, which he picked up and gave to me. I know he did not look out of the hat until after he had picked up the pin.”

            

           Quite literally a needle in a haystack.

B.   Other LDS-Related Seer Stones

Interestingly enough, Joseph Smith wasn’t the only person in LDS history that could stare into a stone and see things. Granted, he was the only leader who used one, but the use of seer stones was much more common than you’d expect.

This first one is probably the best known to anyone with a quad (D&C 28). It’s regarding Hiram Page and his black stone. Emer Harris, the brother of Martin Harris, recounted this seer stone story:

“…Bro. Hiram Page dug out of the earth a black stone [and] put it in his pocket. When he got home, he looked at it. It contained a sentence on paper to befit it. As soon as he wrote one sentence, another sentence came on the stone, until he wrote 16 pages. Bro. Joseph was told of the fact. One person asked Joseph if it is right. He said he did not know, but he prayed and got revelation that the stone was of the devil. Then it was broke to powder and the writings burnt. It was a work of the power of darkness. Amen.”

Not all stones were used in an attempt to plunge the church into darkness. No – some were used for giggling girl talk! Like this one:

“The [seer stone] references come from a few letters written to Joseph F. Smith during his first mission to the Hawaiian Islands, one from his younger sister, Martha Ann Smith, and two 
from Martha’s close friend Jane Fisher (who may have, as other letters seem to suggest, had romantic feelings toward her friend’s older brother). JFS was 15 at the time he left on this mission, in 1854. The first reference is in a letter from Martha Ann. On July 18, 1856, she wrote, “Ma[r]y Jane has been looking is [sic] the peap stone for you and she seen you[.]” The Mary Jane referred to was JFS’s cousin Mary Jane Thompson.

“The other references are from letters by Jane Fisher, also referring to Mary Jane Thompson’s use of a peep stone. Referring to the same event Martha Ann wrote of, Jane wrote: “Mary Jane saw you only last Friday, Martha will tell you how” (Jane Fisher to JFS, Great Salt Lake City, July 20, 1856). Jane again wrote to Joseph F. Smith, again mentioning the peepstone, on May 11, 1857: “I think you have stayed long enough, away, and if you do not come home soon, more than mary, Jane, will take a look in the peepstone. I should like to see you, in little grass House.” (http://juvenileinstructor.org/young-ladies-absent-missionaries-and-the-peep-stones-that-bind-them-1850s-utah-territory/)

Or like this one:

“Harriet Maria Carter Thomas remembered that as a young girl in her teens, “there was a lot of talk about Peep­stones.” “If you found your Peep­stone,” Harriet recalled, “you could look into it and see your future.” On one occasion while visiting a friend, Harriet looked through her collection of “rocks and curious stones” and was struck by a “beautiful creamy stone.” Assuming that this was her own “Peep­stone,” Harriet took the stone home and looked into it. She saw nothing at first, but then she remembered it had been said “that all would be dark at first, but if you looked long enough it would clear and then you could see your future”:

“Well, I had it up to my eye, with both hands cupped around it, so that no light could get in. At first it was all dark, and then gradually it cleared, and I could see a room. Hanging in the centre of this room was a beautiful, bright chandelier, and at the far side was one door. As I looked for a few seconds, this door opened, and in came a very tall man. He walked to the centre of this room, under the chandelier, so that I could see every feature of his face clearly and distinctly. Then he smiled at me and made a sweeping bow, and the scene was gone. Harriet believed she had seen the man she would eventually marry.” (Mormon Women as “Natural” Seers: An Enduring Legacy by Ian G. Barber P.171-172)

That is 100 times more anonymous than facebook stalking, really. An app has yet to be invented that can trace back to a peep stone.

One of Brigham Young’s daughters had one too. The second prophet doesn’t seem to have been too alarmed:

“…one of Young’s daughters had found a seer stone. She “could see persons and animals and things in it at will, and could tell the whereabouts of lost property. Brigham Young had the stone carefully kept until she would be a responsible woman.”” (http://juvenileinstructor.org/brigham-young-natural-seers-and-seer-stones/)

Brigham Young recorded another stone in his office journal. No big deal, really:

“Bro Jas. W. Cummings told the President the circumstances attending the discovery of a Seer Stone by a Danish brother; this brother informed him [that] a personage appeared to him in a dream and took him away to a cave in the mountains and shewed him the Stone; the next day he searched for the Seer Stone and found it in the same place described in the dream–he can tell where cattle are that have strayed away; usually he can see hieroglyphic characters; he made a promise that he would not show it to any body for the space of three years, which time Expires next May. Bro Jas. Cummings further observed that he had questioned often about the Stone and he always told the Same story; he looked in the stone to discover a bed of Coal and the glass presented a coal bed.”

(http://juvenileinstructor.org/brigham-young-natural-seers-and-seer-stones/)

Here’s another stone discovered in a dream:

“Edwin Rushton dug in the ground in the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, as a dream had previously shown and obtained a seer stone about five feet underground, on May 4, 1846. He was a resident of Nauvoo at the time he obtained it. The stone, which still exists, appears to be a little smaller than a quarter of a baseball, and is crystal clear. He never tried to use the stone, as far as we know.” (Urim and Thummim, by Arch S. Reynolds, p. 24)

Edwin Rushton may not have ever used this stone, but that doesn’t mean nobody could:

“Apostle James E. Talmage, a geologist by training, was once invited to inspect Edwin Rushton’s seer stone by his wife when he called at her home in company with Angus M. Cannon on February 21^st, 1893. “To my surprise Sister Rushton suggested that we take the stone with us, and have it tested. Pres. Cannon advised me to take it. While examining it in the house of Bro. Rushton, a tiny flake, scarcely larger than a grain of wheat, fell off from an end. This I took care of, intending to use it for a simple chemical test. During the afternoon I made a careful examination of the stone. It is transparent, of a greenish tinge, low fusibility and hardness, specific quantity of 2.5, contains silica. And the alkalies, in fact, appear to the eye and under test to be a piece of glass, plain and simple. It weighs 66 grams (nearly two and one fourth oz.). The chemical tests were confined to the flake which broke off in our hands, as I did not wish to mutilate the stone in any way. This determination of the simple lithological nature of these stones in no way to my mind removes the possibility of them possessing unusual values.

“The stone is quite ancient and has it’s origins with the Brother of Jared on Mount Shalem, where it along with 15 others, were touched by the finger of the Lord himself. This egg-size stone of “molten glass” has been used a number of times since its discovery by certain faithful men and women possessed of seership capabilities to find lost objects, people, or animals, usually with very good success. It is presently in private hands, but could very easily work again for anyone worthy enough to operate it by childlike faith, submissive humility, and unlimited compassion. For this seerstone still contains the inert virtue that once illuminated it with life and light for the benefit of traveling Jaredites. And that virtue could be unlocked at any given time under the right kind of circumstances.” (Hidden Treasures of Ancient American Cultures By John Heinerman P. 160)

With a good peep-stone, I’ve heard, you can see absolutely anything you want to – even to the detriment of the stone itself:

“Presumably in the Kirtland area, Elias Pulsipher found a brown colored stone about 2 inches wide and 6 inches long with two holes in it. The Prophet Joseph examined it and declared it to be a seer stone. It is not known if Elias could use it but his daughter could. She located drowned persons, lost cattle and other items for people who sought such information. Her daughter also could use it and after would see whatever she desired. One strange thing happened though: she once asked to see Satan‐‐which she did‐‐but that was the last time that stone ever worked for anyone.” (Statement by Elaine Mullins, descendant of Elias Pulsipher.) (http://seerstone.blogspot.com/2006/01/former-lds-mormon-on-seers-and-seer.html)

A man named Philo Dibble also had a stone. He didn’t find his – he saved it:

“Philo Dibble was a faithful Saint whose history was near to the Prophet Joseph Smith. He was also famous as a veteran of the Haun's Mill Massacre‐‐healed from the wounds of death by Newell Knight. It was he who made the death masks of the Prophet Joseph and Hyrum. At the time of the martyrdom, he rescued a small seer stone, at the Nauvoo Mansion House, from falling into the hands of the apostates. He brought this seer stone across the plains. Later, as a curator of Church history, he showed the death masks, the seer stone, and other items of historical value on his lecture tours throughout the territory of Utah.

“As time and possessors of this stone have passed on it came into the hands of Norman C. Pierce in 1936. He is now residing in Salt Lake City and still possesses this stone.

“This seer stone, which came into the hands of the Prophet Joseph at one time, may be the Belcher stone [mentioned above] because of the similarity of description.

“Belcher bought it because it was said to be a seeing stone. I have often seen it. It was a green stone, with brown, irregular spots on it. It was a little longer than a goose's egg and about the same thickness. When he brought it home and covered it with a hat, Belcher's little boy was one of the first to look into the hat, and as he did so, he said he saw a candle. The second time he looked in he exclaimed, `I've found my hatchet.' He immediately ran for it to the spot shown him through the stone and it was there. The boy was soon beset by neighbors far and near to reveal to them hidden things, and he succeeded marvelously. Even the wanderings of a lost child were traced by him. The distracted parents came to him three times for directions, and in each case found signs that the child had been in the places he designated, but at last it was found starved to death.”(http://seerstone.blogspot.com/2006/01/former-lds-mormon-on-seers-and-seer.html)

Searching for seer stones actually seems to have been common place, and happened in multiple locations:

“Mormon women seem to have operated as seers as early as the 1830s in Kirtland, Ohio. As S. F. Whitney recalled years later, “Mormon elders and women often searched the bed of the river [while in Kirtland] for stones with holes caused by the sand washing out, to peep into.” Whitney borrowed the stone of his sister-in-law, the wife of early Mormon bishop Newel K. Whitney, to search for a lost medicinal cot on one occasion. She protested, saying “it was wicked to trifle with sacred things.” In sworn testimony William S. Smith also recalled that “a widow Petingail … had a vision” of a location where money had been buried. She pointed out the spot, and the location was dug.” (Women and Authority Re-emerging Mormon Feminism Chapter 6 Mormon Women as “Natural” Seers: An Enduring Legacy by Ian G. Barber P. 169-170)

Parowan, UT was a real hot spot for them too, according to Priddy Meeks:

“Seer stones, or peepstones, as they are more commonly called, was very plenty about Parowan, I rather being a gifted person in knowing a peepstone when seeing one altho I had never found one yet I could see in.

“A seer's stone appears to me to be the connecting link between the visible and invisible worlds. I am not prepared to say to what extent discoveries may be made in the invisible world through these means, but I am prepared to say that truthful discoveries, (I am fully convinced) have been made by those means on certain conditions. It is not safe to depend on peepstones in any case where evil spirits have the power to put false appearances before them while looking in a peepstone. If evil influences will not interfere, the verdict will be as true as preaching. That is my experience in the matter; also the Patriarch, Hiram Smith, the brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith held the same idea, but stated that our faith was not strong enough to overcome the evil influences that might interfere, but seemed to think that time would come. I have seen peepstones as well polished as a fiddle with a nice hole through one end that belonged to the ancients. I asked Brother Smith the use for that hole; he said the same as a watch chain to keep from losing it. He said in time of war the Nephites had the advantage of their enemies by looking in the seer stone which would reveal whatever they wished to know. I believe a peepstone is of the same piece with the Urim and Thummim, if we understood it.

“After I settled in Parowan some time, I went to the city. I inquired for some boy who needed a home, as I needed one, but did not make a raise of one. Sometime after I got home President Daniel H. Wells sent a boy to me by the name of Wm. Titt, some twelve or fourteen years of age. He was born a natural seer, but no knowledge of the fact was had until after he came to live with me, that I ever knew of… Now this Wm. Titt was the best seer in peep-stones I ever was acquainted with. He was a good boy but was full of youthful peculiarities like other youngsters. No particular bad habits for a boy having a stepmother that he could not live with, and I believe that Satan and his gang saw the danger his kingdom would be in through Win. Titt and the peepstone that they did their best to destroy him; and they told him if it had not been for that old Meeks they would have destroyed him, but told Wm. Titt that they could do nothing with old Meeks. (Wm. Titt told me what they said about me.)” (http://mldb.byu.edu/pmeeks.htm)

                 

Just to be clear, this section – the Other LDS Seer Stones Section – it could go on forever. When I started all this I thought I had a comprehensive list but I don’t. I keep finding more and if I include everything that turns up I’m afraid I’d rub off the lettering on my keyboard. Then I’ll either have to hand paint the key characters back on with whiteout or buy a completely separate laptop to reference that keyboard while I’m typing on this one. Horribly inconvenient, really. If you want to see more on LDS seer stones I recommend you not just search the terms “Seer stone,” “peep stone,” or “Joseph Smith stone,” but include some of the individual people’s names from this list too. It’ll probably bring up lists with other seer stone users on it. The amount is almost overwhelming.

C. Non-LDS Seer Stones

Seer stones are not relegated to Mormonism. Crystal collecting hippies with rented spaces at farmer’s markets love them too. I’ve heard they generally store them in fanny packs they wear underneath their Navajo shawls. That’s just what I’ve heard.

I’ve never heard that. But when one thinks of crystal gazing, beaded curtains usually make up a good portion of the imaginary backdrop.

It doesn’t always, though. Sometimes it’s just someone’s grandpa working the stones:

“The method of my grandfather was quite simple. He constructed a small box out of wood about the size of a square shoe box and lined the inside with black velvet. This box had a hinged door that opened on the top. Within it he kept his crystal ball on it’s small wooden stand. When he wished to gaze into the crystal, he would set the box on the kitchen table and open the lid, then completely cover the box and his head and shoulders with a large piece of black velvet as he sat on a chair before the table peering through the darkness at the crystal.

“This always struck my mother as very odd, because, as she said, it would have been impossible to see the crystal itself, never mind what was inside the crystal, so she and the rest of the family always wondered what he was staring at. My grandfather was uncharacteristically close-mouthed about his crystal visions. He would not talk about them. When anybody asked him about the crystal, he put them off and began to talk about something else.” (Scrying for Beginners P. xiii By Donald Tyson)

PS. Mr. Tyson’s grandfather actually would talk about his crystal ball viewing sessions occasionally, according to at least one account is in the book. It says he could use the ball to see people’s relatives in England. That sounds quite familiar.

Here’s another one. There’s a book called “Love is in the Earth.” It’s written by a one name monikered-author who goes by Melody. Good Reads gives a description that, in part, reads like this: "This book is meant to facilitate the continuance of ones intimate journey into the subtle realms of crystal energy, via the application of "laying-on-of-stones" in symbolic arrays from ancient times. The combinations bring one toward additional avant-garde adventures in the world of the mineral kingdom."

To the uninitiated stone layer-onner this may sound a bit strange. This next part, however, will ring all the LDS bells:

“Melody, in her book "Love is in the Earth," is of the opinion that when used for gazing, [stones] provide access to sacred text of the ancients.” (https://www.howlatm.com/seer-stones-meanings-and-uses#sthash.RvIqp13S.dpbs)

That, too, sounds quite familiar.

This next stone is a looming part of LDS history, but it is not an LDS stone. It’s the Sally Chase stone. That well that was being dug by Joseph and others on Chase property – same family here. That was his second stone. The first stone Joseph found by using Sally Chase’s green stone. That stone has also been described as green glass rather than actual rock. Sally Chase used her own stone to help locals (including the Chase family) attempt to cash in on the golden plates:

“Sally Chase reportedly had a “green glass through which she could see many wonderful things” and had begun to apply her talents on behalf of her brother’s efforts to locate and obtain the [golden] plates.” (“Take Heed Continually”: Protecting The Gold Plates By Andrew H. Hedges)

For the record, Chase wasn’t the only diviner to try their hand at finding the plates:

“Conjurors  including Sally Chase with her green glass and another diviner brought in from sixty miles away tried to locate the plates by the stone.” (http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CHASE/2003-11/1068990043)

Although Chase got pretty close to finding the plates – finding the box in a barn from where they had just been moved – she never moved faster than Joseph Smith.

Lastly – and we’re traveling across the ocean for this one. The Maoris of New Zealand have a long tradition of sacred stones. These sacred stones came in a couple of different forms – like this one:

“When the historic canoes landed in New Zealand, the new arrivals deposited their sacred stones (kura, or mauri-kohatu) in the forests to preserve the hau of the birding-grounds, that is their power of productiveness.” (http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-CowYest-t1-body-d1-d4-d3.html)

This next one is an old Mauri legend about a hero named Tane who ascended into heaven to obtain 3 baskets of knowledge and two sacred stones. He met with their god, Io:

“"Are you alone?" Io asked.

"My elder brother, Whiro-te-tipua, is ascending by way of the side of the realms", replied Tane.

Io replied that he would not succeed for the winds of Tiritiri-o-Matangi are fierce. "Why are you here?"

"To obtain the baskets of knowledge and the sacred stones", said Tane.

"Tane was then taken to the place called Rauroha where the male and female beings of Tikitiki-o-Rangi are, and where he underwent ritual ceremonies to prepare him to receive the knowledge…

"He was then conducted to Rangiatea, the house where the knowledge is kept to get the three baskets and the two sacred stones, and again was subjected to ritual ceremonies…

"The sacred stones are used in the graduation ceremony of the Whare Wananga, house of learning.” (http://maaori.com/whakapapa/ngakete3.htm)

See? The Maoris love stones. Now we’re getting to the most relevant part. This is regarding their supreme god Io – who has a stone of his own:

“There is an old half­ forgotten myth concerning the existence at this place of a peculiar stone tablet or some such form, by gazing at which Io could see what was going on in all other realms.” (http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Bes01Reli-t1-body-d4-d3.html)

Here’s a similar bit but with new wording from a second source:

“In connection with this tapu repository, apparently, was a marvellous magic stone, by looking at or into which Io was enabled to see whatever conditions prevailed in all parts of the universe.” (THE MAORI SCHOOL OF LEARNING Its Objects, Methods, and Ceremonial by ELSDON BEST)

D. Ancient Jewish Seer Stones

There is surprisingly rich lore in ancient Judaism regarding stones. This legend touches, according to some, on all the prophets. The most resonating example is found in Genesis 6:16 reads:

“A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.”

The word window up there has a footnote in the LDS version. That footnote reads as follows:

“HEB tsohar; some rabbis believed it was a precious stone that shone in the ark.”

That window word shows as tsohar in the original Hebrew. Tsohar is not translated as window anywhere else in the good book. Not only that, but there are at least two Bible translations that actually don’t translate tsohar in this verse as window. The same verse in the Darby Translation reads as:

“A light shalt thou make to the ark; and to a cubit high shalt thou finish it above. And the door of the ark shalt thou set in its side: [with] a lower, second, and third [story] shalt thou make it.”

That verse in the American Standard Version is:

“A light shalt thou make to the ark, and to a cubit shalt thou finish it upward; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.”

Light not window. But wait – there’s more:

“God instructs Noah to illuminate the ark by tzohar taaseh/ "A "brightness you will make." This term, (transliterated as either tzohar or tsohar), which literally means "Bright/glittering/noon light" (The Hebrew word for noon, tzohoriyim, is derived from the same root), is not further defined in the Hebrew Bible. Some translate this simply as "window." Jewish esoteric tradition, however, regards the tzohar to be a kind of luminous gemstone holding the primordial light of creation.” (http://ejmmm2007.blogspot.com/2008/10/tzohar-miraculous-light-of-noah-window.html?m=1)

Lest anyone think glowing stones in prophet-laden ships is all too convenient for an LDS-centric blog post – let us throw this out for you. It’s from the website for Ark Encounter. If you were to accuse anyone behind Ark Encounter of being Mormon, they’d probably grab 100 fiery torches and chase you until you guzzled coffee, tea or eat a dozen pounds of meat in one sitting. I’m just saying – don’t go in there with that chip on your shoulder unless you’ve properly stretched first and remembered your track shoes. Also, maybe bring some sugar you could blow in their eyes before you make your getaway. By the time you were flying terrified out the front door they’d still be blinking profusely!

I’m just worried about you.

Ark Encounter is an awesome-looking life size replication of Noah’s ark hoping tourists will come in twos. Or threes. Or hundreds. Better schedule ahead for groups of hundreds. Anyway – this is what their fascinating website has to say about the tsohar:

“Concerning the Ark, Genesis mentions windows only twice. The second reference is in Genesis 8:6. “"Noah opened the window of the Ark which he made."” Here’s where it gets interesting. In this verse, the Holy Spirit inspired the use of the word challon, “a window.” In the first reference, however, He used tsohar, “a light.” Tsohar comes from the Hebrew root tsahar, “to glisten.”

“Did God perhaps instruct Noah to build “a light that glistened”?

“Of the 24 times tsohar is used in the Old Testament, it is translated “window” only once. The 23 other occurrences refer to “noon” or “the noonday sun.”

“…An ancient Hebrew tradition says the tsohar was a very large pearl or gem that Noah hung in the rafters of the Ark, which powered itself and illuminated the Ark. That’s highly speculative to consider, of course, but it is something we have come across in our research.” (https://arkencounter.com/blog/2012/09/07/when-is-a-window-not-a-window/)

Who cares about glowing stones, right? We came here to talk about seer stones! Well the legend of the tsohar encompasses prophet-friendly seer stones. It starts with the creation. God created light on the first day, but waited until day 4 to create the sun. What was the initial light? According to Jewish myth it was a primordial light through which Adam could see from one end of the world to another.

But then he and Eve got apple happy and lost everything – including this special light. God preserved a small part of this light in a stone so that Adam could take it with him. This stone was called the Tsohar and was passed down from prophet to prophet. According to the legend Adam gave it to Seth, Seth gave it to Enoch who gave it to Methuselah who slept next to it. This is why, some say, he lived to such an old age. Methuselah gave it to Lamech who gave it to Noah who hung it in his Ark. Jonah, similarly, is said to have had access to it inside the whale. We’re skipping through bunches of these prophet-tsohar legends to get to two examples of using it as a seer stone.

The first is Abraham. Although the Bible makes no reference to Abraham ever having a seer stone, the Book of Abraham as translated by Joseph Smith does. The seer stone, as is common in LDS culture, are here referred to as the Urim and Thummim:

“The Book of Abraham 3: 1-4

“1 And I, Abraham, had the Urim and Thummim, which the Lord my God had given unto me, in Ur of the Chaldees;

2 And I saw the stars, that they were very great, and that one of them was nearest unto the throne of God; and there were many great ones which were near unto it;

3 And the Lord said unto me: These are the governing ones; and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me, for I am the Lord thy God: I have set this one to govern all those which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest.

4 And the Lord said unto me, by the Urim and Thummim, that Kolob was after the manner of the Lord, according to its times and seasons in the revolutions thereof; that one revolution was a day unto the Lord, after his manner of reckoning, it being one thousand years according to the time appointed unto that whereon thou standest. This is the reckoning of the Lord’s time, according to the reckoning of Kolob.”

Here we have Abraham using the stone (or stones) to learn about the stars. “I saw the stars,” “the name of the great [star] is Kolob.’ It’s an astronomy lesson taught by the ultimate astronomer through a tsohar astrolabe urim and thummim.

There are other non-biblical references to revelatory stones used by Abraham. This is an interesting one:

“Urim and Thummim as described in the Book of Abraham with regards to Abraham's possession has no parallel in Jewish literature. However, Abraham did possess certain stones that could be described as forerunners to the organized Urim and Thummim as described in the Book of Exodus. They were most possibly the exact stones that were in Noah's possession and they had some revelatory aspect to them.” (A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM IN THE LIGHT OF EXTRA-CANONICAL JEWISH WRITINGS by
Rabbi Nissim Wernick)

Getting back to Abraham’s study of the stars - aside from the Lord asking Abraham to count the stars in Genesis 15:5, there is no mention of Abraham studying the night sky in the Bible. Outside the Bible, however, you have things like this:

“Abraham wore a glowing stone around his neck. Some say that it was a pearl, others that it was a jewel. The light emitted by that jewel was like the light of the sun, illuminating the entire world. Abraham used that stone as an astrolabe to study the motion of the stars, and with its help he became a master astrologer. For his power of reading the stars, Abraham was much sought after by the potentates of East and West. So too did that glowing precious stone bring immediate healing to any sick person who looked into it.” (http://www.umsl.edu/~schwartzh/samplemyths_7.htm)

Notice it says he used the stone as an astrolabe. The stone’s glow and healing factor go to show it was believed to be much more than just a star-charting tool.

Now for Joseph of Egypt. This one is interesting because the Bible itself mentions him as being a diviner – it’s just not too specific about how he was a diviner. The extremely watered down synopsis is that Joseph’s brothers who had thrown him in a pit and then sold him into slavery, well they got too thin and skinny during the famine and had to go up to Egypt to find food. They end up in Joseph’s court but don’t recognize him. Joseph, however, recognizes them and misses them terribly. And then, as Genesis 44:1-5 details it:

“1 And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man’s money in his sack’s mouth.

2 And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack’s mouth of the youngest, and his corn money. And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken.

3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses.

4 And when they were gone out of the city, and not yet far off, Joseph said unto his steward, Up, follow after the men; and when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?

5 Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? ye have done evil in so doing.”

Then in verse 15 Joseph really drives home his divining hobby. It’s after his brothers have been brought before him again:

“15 And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?”

Strange thing to throw out there, right? And it doesn’t sit well with most Biblical scholars (https://www.gotquestions.org/Joseph-divination.html, https://answersfromthebook.org/2010/11/01/did-joseph-use-a-cup-for-divination/, http://baptistbulletin.org/the-baptist-bulletin-magazine/joseph-practiced-divination/). Remember the topic of this post isn’t divination – it’s divination through seer stones. We’ve talked of the legend of the tsohar being passed down from prophet to prophet. The lore includes Joseph of Egypt as one of those prophets. The story is that Jacob gave Joseph the stone but didn’t tell him what it was. It started to glow in the pit his brothers threw him into, showing joseph that this necklace was much more than a rock. Then this:

“When Joseph was imprisoned in the dungeon, he discovered that if he placed the Tzohar inside his cup and peered into it, he could read the future and interpret dreams. That is how he interpreted the dreams of the butler and baker, and later the dreams of Pharaoh that prophesied the seven years of famine. It was that same cup that Joseph hid in the saddlebags of Benjamin, about which his servant said , “It is the very one from which my master drinks and which he uses for divination.”” (Tree of Souls the Mythology of Judaism P. 86 by Howard Schwartz)

An interesting thought here. Joseph Smith used a seer stone to help translate the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon contains a bit about Joseph of Egypt Prophesying about Joseph Smith. Here’s an excerpt from 2 Nephi Chapter 3:

“15 And his name shall be called after me; and it shall be after the name of his father. And he shall be like unto me; for the thing, which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand, by the power of the Lord shall bring my people unto salvation.

“16 Yea, thus prophesied Joseph: I am sure of this thing, even as I am sure of the promise of Moses; for the Lord hath said unto me, I will preserve thy seed forever.”

Now this part. A man named Lorenzo Brown records the prophet Joseph Smith as saying this:

"After I got through translating the Book of Mormon, I took up the Bible to read with the Urim and Thummim. I read the first chapter of Genesis and I saw the things as they were done. I turned over the next and the next, and the whole passed before me like a grand panorama; and so on chapter after chapter until I read the whole of it. I saw it all!"

(http://scottwoodward.org/bookofmormon_translationprocess_debunkingmyths.html)

“Saw it all” was how he ended that statement. If Joseph Smith was staring at a stone in a hat and watching Joseph of Egypt, and Joseph of Egypt was staring at a stone in a cup watching Joseph Smith, do you think they each saw the other? Think their lines of vision crossed paths? Could they each have seen themselves being seen by the other?

Perplexing. Mind Boggling. Awesome.

The wrap up!

There are a lot of repeating patterns up there. One of which is the need for darkness to better see the stones. The four examples that really pop off the page are:

·      Joseph Smith “placed his face in his hat” while he was “intently gazing [into] darkness”

·      Harriet Maria Carter Thomas “had it up to [her] eye, with both hands cupped around it, so that no light could get in

·      Grandpa Tyson “would completely cover the box and his head and shoulders with a large piece of black velvet as he sat on a chair before the table peering through the darkness at the crystal.”

·      Joseph of Egypt, according to the legend, would [place] the Tzohar inside his cup and [peer] into it.

The bottom line is that although we really don’t hear about people using seer stones in today’s day and age, there is a rich and long history of people doing exactly what Joseph Smith claimed to do: staring through darkness at an informative glowing stone.

Check the ground every now and again. If you find one I call dibs.

Thanks for reading. Schedule all leg rubs, should you now need one, in the comments. I feel like I owe you if you read all this. You should know my massage technique is quick uncoordinated blows with my elbows.