The Eyes Have It by Collen Marquist   Petroglyphs Seven years ago, the first Messages in Stone column was printed in July. This month, the column comes full circle to its last topic. Fittingly, the topic that emerged for saying adios is petroglyphs, especially those found in the Pacific Northwest. July, August, and September are excellent months for traveling to petroglyph sites. One picture is worth a thousand words. Messages in Stone, for me, has been about listening to voices: the voices of living minerals, people, and places. Until I considered petroglyphs, fossils provided the closest link to the ghostlike energies of life passed. Petroglyphs, along with ancient cave paintings, cairns, pyramids, and stone monuments such as Stonehenge, evoke stories yearning to be told through time. A petroglyph is a stone drawing made by pecking, incising (carving), scratching, or abrading. Petroglyphs are the most common form of rock art in North America, according to Rock Art of the American Indian by Campbell Grant. Rock art is more common in the western half of the United States due to the availability of exposed rock, especially in the Southwest and Great Basin. From Wrangell and the Kodiak Islands in Alaska to Trinidad, California, rock carvings of the Pacific Northwest most commonly feature eyes, the human face, and circles. In other regions of the continental United States such as the Southwest, life-sized ceremonial figures are common, as are sun images and hunters on horseback. Eastern Washington differs from the coastal areas of the state, because its ecosystem relates to the Great Basin of Idaho, Utah, Nevada, eastern Oregon, and California. Accurately dating the age of petroglyphs is difficult, but researchers place the beginnings of rock art culture in southern Puget Sound to as much as 3,000 years ago, or 1000 B.C. (see The Rock Art of Western Washington by Daniel Leen). The eye motif is associated with shamanic symbolism. Researchers tend to agree that rock art holds religious and ceremonial significance. Some carvings may be related to vision quests and rites of passage. Some rock art around Agate Pass, for instance, appears casual, as if carved to while away the time waiting for the tide to change. Some art was created to mark traveled areas. Two petroglyphs were moved to indoor locations. The Washington State Capitol Museum in Olympia houses a petroglyph removed from Eld Inlet on Mud Bay. The boulder has deeply incised designs of one large outlined face, one smaller outlined face, a rake, a pit, and a groove. Another granite boulder was removed from the Allison site on Hartstene Island to Tumwater Falls State Park in Tumwater, Washington. Among other carvings on this boulder are one outlined face, seven non-outlined faces, and one pair of eyes with eyelashes. A boulder located just below the high tide line at Agate Point on Bainbridge Island has three outlined faces and five outlined faces with headgear or forehead ornamentation as well as other designs. A sandstone boulder on the southwest end of Lake Whatcom has an incised face. A large granite boulder on the west side of Lummi Island contains a single non-outlined face. Local residents say that the stone was thrashed with bull kelp to make storms stop. In the area of Black Diamond, a large sandstone boulder juts into the Green River. It has crudely pecked designs of a fish, a deer or elk, and a human with two lines projecting from the head. This boulder is surrounded by water during periods of maximum runoff, usually from late fall to late spring. Other carvings are located at Ozette and Wedding Rock, Cape Alava, Sequim, Squaxin Island, Point Grenville, and Chuckanut Bay in Washington. She Who Watches, near The Dalles on the Columbia River, is a famous petroglyph protected by controlled access. In British Columbia, petroglyphs are found in Tyee, Bella Coola, Bella Bella, and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, to name a few. Personally, I’m an enthusiast of stone rubbings. My mother and I did gravestone rubbings across the street from my high school in Virginia when I was 16. I have since inherited my grandmother’s gold-crayon-on-butcher-paper gravestone rubbings from England. The two rubbings, one of a knight and the other of a lady, both holding their hands in the prayer position, hang in my office. In my living room is a rubbing done by Daniel Leen of Copper Woman from Bella Bella, British Columbia. I found Leen one afternoon when I was recessed from jury duty at the courthouse selling his rubbings at Pike Place Market. I had read the book Daughters of Copper Woman by Anne Cameron, and instantly upon viewing the rubbing, knew what I was seeing. Leen says that the Bella Bella site can be accessed only by shallow draft boats such as a dinghy. It has long been my desire to make the journey to see Copper Woman in her glory and to sit and meditate on her. For now, the rubbing is a hint of a memory. Copper Woman had green eyes, and her story is the creation story of the Haida people. I have green eyes and copper highlights in my hair. Copper is the mystery link, according to Zechariah Sitchin, to genetic engineering done in Assyrian times. I encourage you to read Daughters of Copper Woman. I recognize it as a cogent "bible" story, more authentic in its simplicity than any other tradition I have studied. Anne Cameron tells the story of just one petroglyph in our large region, but it may be the most important. I’m thankful that her ancestors gave her permission to share as much as she did. Saying Goodbye In 73 articles for this column, rocks and minerals revealed their essential role in the development of consciousness, from the all-encompassing universal to the very specifics of place from Seattle to Tasmania. Every mineral property from color and structure to optical and chemical was discussed, allowing the essence of each mineral to reveal its role in healing, communication, meditation, grounding, centering, and a myriad of other aspects. The mineral and rock work of seven special individuals brought insight to ancient amulet construction (Kevin Petrilli, Arizona), fetishes (Hal Zina Bennett, California), sacred geography (Chuck Pettis, Medina, Washington), labyrinths (Toby Evans, Missouri), waterfalls (Debb Goss, Kirkland, Washington), lightbraries and dragon crystals (Kathleen Greco, Seattle, Washington), and geobiology (Penelope Bell, Woodinville, Washington). I thank the editors and publishers of The New Times for this writing opportunity to express my life purpose. My life purpose is to explore, communicate, and serve spiritual freedom — my own as well as that of others. Every rock and mineral topic explored in this column rendered me speechless each time the article was complete. I found unfailingly that the mineral kingdom ably spoke for itself through me, and as I surrendered to the role of servant over these seven years, my being has changed. I experienced spiritual ecstasy as the vessel of energies seeking expression. I thank the many readers and supporters of Messages in Stone who reported their positive response to The New Times. My detective nature revels in leaving no stone unturned in the task of bringing the mineral kingdom closer to daily experience, and many people found value in what they read. I’m now working at the University of Washington as the program manager of a five-year EPA research grant on particulate air pollution and health. I’m on a huge learning curve! For example, I’ve learned that fine grains of rock travel to the Pacific Northwest from China. This phenomenon has been nicknamed the Pacific Dust Express, and you can find out more about it on NASA’s Web site <http://science.nasa.gov/>. Also, I’ve learned that we are much healthier overall when we ingest sand and grit in our food. It tones our immune systems and makes us stronger. When you go out this summer in search of ancient rock art, have a picnic on the beach. Be sure to drop your food in the sand before you eat it. Tell yourself, "The rocks made me do it!" Hasta luego. It’s been wonderful! Collen Marquist is the co-author, with Jack Frasl, of Crystalline Communion 2000. This book combines and updates three earlier volumes of Crystalline Communion. She can be reached for Reiki attunements and crystal healing sessions at (425) 820-0244 or <earthlight@w-link.net>.