WHAT IS THE SCONESTONE?
Inspired by ancient Scottish carvings, the Sconestone is a hand carved sculpture that has been sent on a global
"Journey of Kindness" passing from person to person, each pledging to an act of kindness.
Designed by Zambian-born Warren MacLeod, the Sconestone was inspired by his keen interest in Scottish history and traditions stemming from his proud Scottish heritage and the stories he learned and the people he met whilst living near Inverness in Scotland.
The Sconestone will act as a symbol encouraging those who have touched it to pledge to an act of Kindness and ultimately help in their own small way to make the world a better place. Every person who cares for the Sconestone must keep it for no more than 7 days, get as many friends as possible to touch the stone and make the same pledge, tell their story on the Sconestone.com website and then finally to pass the stone onto a person who will embrace the same spirit of kindness to be the next Keeper of the Sconestone to continue the journey.
The sconestone was officially presented to the Reverend Neil Galbraith, the first keeper of the stone, by Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland, at Scone Palace on August 29th, 2009 at a live Runrig rock concert.
The Sconestone Bruce Guthro, singer for Runrig, describes the Sconestone
Sconestone embodies the spirit of kindness ... and will travel from hand to hand, keeper to keeper on a never ending journey of kindness around the world. What isn't so obvious or simple are the origins of the stone, its links to Scotland, and the symbology of the carvings on the stone itself.
The stone really has two inspirations that were brought together by Warren MacLeod, the first is the actual shape and design of the stone and the second is the spirit of kindness which the stone embodies and symbolizes. Having always been reminded by his Scottish father that he was a Scot before anything else (despite having lived most of his life in Africa and Canada), Warren always had an interest in everything Scottish, especially its history. In 2000 his wish to live in Scotland finally came true when his little family spent four wonderful years living just northwest of Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland. As a history buff, it was heaven for Warren and he soon became engrossed in the wonderful history of the Scots and their beautiful country. As an aside, Warren soon became hooked on the roman invasion of Scotland in 80AD and has actually begun writing an historical fiction novel about those fierce days in ancient Scottish history (Warren says not to expect it any time soon as he is now discovering the limitations of his grammatical skills). During Warrens research he came across photos of strange shaped stone orbs that were sculpted by the neolithic peoples who lived in the northeast of Scotland. Warren was intrigued by the fact that nobody knew what they were used for or what they could possibly symbolize. There have only been 387 neolithic stone orbs found and they vary in their shapes and complexity of design. Some appear very crude and could almost be visualized as primitive weapons, whilst others have intricate carvings on them and could easily be visualized as a religious or cultural symbol of some sort. Warren actually had the opportunity to talk with a local laird who owned the Brahn Estate just Northwest of Inverness and was told that he had actually found one of the orbs when he was harvesting potatoes from one of his fields. He handed Warren a bronze cast of the stone and he was instantly captivated. The seed was now firmly planted in his mind.
Photo of a few of the 387 neolithic Pictish Orbs discovered in Northeast Scotland
The next chapter of the story begins with Warren’s interest in art. He had always dabbled in oil paintings, but always felt that he could probably do better at carving or sculpting stone. The problem was that he just didn't know where to start. That was until he was driving down a road in Victoria, British Columbia and came upon a small store that specialized in selling gems and rock specimens. Well as it turned out they also sold some basic stone carving tools and some lumps of soapstone. Warren knew right away what he was going to attempt, carving or sculpting one of the neolithic stone orbs. He had three pieces of stone, the first was a small lump of green soap stone and the other two were similar pieces of grey wonderstone from Africa. Before long he had carved a very small orb out of the green stone. Warren is still amazed how easy it was to actually carve soapstone. Although easy to carve, he wasn't quite able to get the shape right and his first little treasure now sits on his wife Kari's dressing table and is a reminder of the new chapter in their lives. His second attempt was a gift for his sister Heather and her husband to be, Jim. They were getting married and Warren wanted to give them something special. So he used one of the pieces of the grey Africa wonderstone and carved an orb that he thought looked pretty good. His sister Heather was over the moon and cried when he first presented the stone to her.
So he had one more piece of the grey wonderstone sitting in his garage (after he moved from Victoria, British Columbia across the country to Windsor, Nova Scotia) and he struggled to come up with a purpose for the carving. Warren says that:
“Its strange but when I look back upon that time, I think that most artists (and I'm not an artist by the way, its only a hobby of mine) create a piece of art for its beauty and appeal. But I now know the reason I struggled to finish the piece was because I had been searching in my minds eye for a purpose or a destiny for the stone, beyond simply being a simple work of art that sits on a shelf.”
At that time, during the summer of 2008, Warren had carved the basic shape and left it sitting in a drawer in his garage next to his work bench. It wasn't until November or December 2008 that he came up with the idea that he wanted to combine the idea of the Brahn Seer's stone with the concept of the neolithic stone orbs. For most people who havn't heard of the Brahn Seer, he is a Scottish prophet who lived in the seventeenth century and made prophecies of the future when he looked through the hole in a stone he carried with him. The idea then came to Warren to combine the form of the ancient neolithic stone orbs with the idea of the Brahn Seer's stone. Warren combined the two concepts by carving three portals through the traditionally shaped six sided orb, connecting each of the six faces with the one opposite. His idea was that each portal would represent a view into the past, the present and the future, combining to represent the concept of "Wisdom". The wisdom to learn from the past, understand the present and plan for the future. Although he was happy with the idea of the portals representing the concept of wisdom, he still didn't have a clear purpose or destiny for the stone. The wheels were turning.
Warren MacLeod at his work bench
It was back to the drawing board again as he now had an orb with three portals and no carvings engraved on its surface. Christmas 2008 passed and soon valentine's day approached. He began thinking about his wife Kari and how she works tirelessly for her small family and is always doing small acts of kindness for them and never asks for anything in return. It was settled, Warren would do something special for her. Something he knew she would truly appreciate. And this is the part he can't explain, one morning he woke up after having a very restless night and came up with the idea that the stone should emulate Kari's constant acts of kindness to her small family and go on a journey of kindness. With every keeper of the stone pledging to do an act of kindness. So the trick was then to finish the carving and to explain to Kari when he gave her the stone on valentine's day that she actually had to let go of it again when we send it on its journey.
Kari MacLeod holding the Sconestone
Warren now had to focus on the designs to go onto each of the six faces of the orb. In honour of the neolithic celtic peoples who created the original orbs, he knew he wanted the designs to be celtic in nature and that he wanted them to be connected in some way to the number three or a multiple of the number three, a sacred number in the minds of the celtic races. He also wanted to make sure that the designs or symbols he picked would not already be strongly associated with any other theme, idea, religion or concept. Warren wanted his carving to be something new, but inspired by the past. This was important to him. So now when you look at the stone you will see three patterns on six faces, the matching patterns on opposite faces. The patterns themselves are designed on the basis of a triple theme and of course there are three portals (originally intended to represent the theme of wisdom to learn from the past, wisdom to understand the present and wisdom to plan for the future). The stone itself is circular in design and can also represent the earth with the portals being symbolic of the balance and connectivity of everybody on the earth. The stone is also decorated with a triple life pattern providing the foundation for each face. These patterns do not have any current identifiable associations and this is what Warren intended, he wanted these patterns to now be associated with the new spirit of kindness. Warren says that:
“It would be my dream that in future when people see these patterns they automatically associate them with the spirit of kindness and the Sconetone.”
Images of the Sconestone before Warren carved the sacred triple patterns on the six faces of the stone
As it turns out, Kari was overjoyed and immediately backed the idea. The story then switched to spreading the word and working to get the stone launched on its journey. Although this is another story altogether, Warren is happy to tell you how the stone came to be known as the Sconestone. Back in the days when he lived in Scotland, he met Calum MacDonald one of the founding members of the Runrig celtic rock band who are famous in Scotland, Denmark and Germany. He struck up a friendship with Calum and knew that he too had a strong interest in history and would appreciate what Warren was trying to do with the stone, which at the time he named the Karistone. Knowing that Runrig were having a summer concert at Scone Palace in Scotland, Warren worked on a word document with a photo of the stone, explaining its origins, purpose etc. and suggested to Calum that their concert at Scone Palace in Scotland would be the perfect venue for launching the Karistone on its journey of kindness. Calum loved the idea and immediately sent back some of his own ideas, one of which was to name the stone the Sconestone after Scone, which for all those who don't know was the crowning place for the kings of Scotland and before them the kings of the Picts. A very fitting venue and a very fitting name for the stone. Calum gave his apologies to Kari, but she embraced the new name and thought it was a fitting tribute to the Scots of old. Warren and Kari went ahead from this point and started the website and numerous other activities to get the idea launched and didn't even give a single thought to a possible problem with the name. For all those people who are not Scots it isn't a problem, but for those people who are Scots or who know about their history, the stone Warren carved is not to be confused with the Old stone of Destiny upon which the kings of Scotland were crowned and that is occasionally referred to as the Stone of Scone. As Warren likes to say, “My stone is a new stone ... with a new destiny ... to go on a never ending journey of kindness from hand to hand, keeper to keeper around the world.”
Kari and Warren MacLeod with the Sconestone
Rules of the Sconestone
The rules of the Sconestone are simple. Runrig have kindly offered to give the Stone a good sendoff by presenting it to a person they believe is the most worthy first Keeper of the stone with these simple instructions:
1. Do at least one act of kindness to a person, animal or anything that is good for the planet as a whole.
2. Keep the stone for no more than 7 days.
3 Encourage friends and strangers to touch the stone and pledge to an act of kindness. Be creative!
4. Pass the stone on to a person you trust will honour the purpose of the stone
5. And, lastly click here to tell us your Sconestone story on our website.
It is a very simple idea that could disappear into the world or it could as easily pick up a momentum of its own and carry with it a wave of kind deeds (many of which will hopefully be recorded on the Sconestone.com website). It is an exciting adventure and Warren looks forward to seeing where the journey leads.