A Circle of Stones: Journeys and Meditations for Modern Celts - Erynn Rowan Laurie 1995

Building the Circle

To make your own Circle of Stones, you will need beads, a needle, some glue, and strong beading cord. Stone, bone, wood, or glass beads are preferable. You may want to get a book on basic beading techniques as well. Glass is a good material because of the wide variety of colors, shapes and textures available. Stone is more expensive and tends to be much heavier. Wood is good because it is inexpensive, very light, and comes in a variety of shapes and colors. Any metal beads or medallions should be made of silver, brass or bronze. According to Celtic mythology, iron, and presumably its alloys, interferes with magic. Along with the beads that symbolize specific things, you should have a good supply of smaller beads to use as spacers to make the circle easier to handle.

The cord will need to be strong enough to withstand a lot of handling. Waxed cord will be stronger than unwaxed. Refer to the accompanying illustration for details on positioning the beads.

Your Circle of Stones may be as plain or ornate as you desire. Spend time looking for beads that are pleasing to the eye and interesting to the touch. Glass will be more expensive than plastic or clay, and semi-precious stone will be more expensive than glass. A good size for the beads of the three realms is 10mm to 14mm, although larger is certainly possible. At this size, using larger beads to represent the four treasures, you might be able to wear your circle as a necklace. Smaller beads would make a circle of a good size to fit in your pocket or purse.

Choose seed beads of a color that compliments the rest of your beads for spacing. You will be putting these between each bead to give you more space to handle the circle as you meditate. Three or five beads can be used between the different types of beads, for instance between the wind beads and the realm beads. This will give your fingers a tactile clue that you have reached the end of a series.

It is easiest to make the section with the Gate of Divine Mysteries and the Inner Flame separately, and then attach them to the body of the circle. Make knots between each group of beads so that if your strand should break at some point, you will lose fewer of them, and your entire circle won't fall apart. The Gate of Divine Mysteries should be a large stone, medallion or bead, preferably triangular or circular. You can paint or engrave it with a triskele on one side, and the Fionn's Window glyph on the other. They should be red, or a deep red-orange. Carnelian, red agates, or garnet are all appropriate. See below for a left spinning tuthail and right spinning deosil.

The Double Spiral Gate may be a convenient holey-stone, or a large oblong bead or medallion which might be painted or engraved with a double spiral. There are a number of variants on the double spiral that are shown in the accompanying illustrations.

To the right of the Double Spiral Gate is a large dark colored bead that represents Danu. This Double Spirals may be amber, jet, bone, or wood. These are appropriate because they are all things that were once alive in one form or another.

Next are two beads which are slightly larger than your spacers, but not as large as the beads representing the three realms. They should be a distinctively different color or shape than the spacing beads. Clear or cloudy crystal would be good. These are two of the four winds that surround the bead representing the Treasure.

Each of the four Treasures should look approximately alike, but need not be identical. You may wish to use long oblong bone or wood beads, or metal medallions engraved or painted with an equal-armed Celtic cross, or with four-fold knotwork or Pictish key patterns. Circles or squares are appropriate shapes for the Treasure beads. Four-fold knotwork also comes in a variety of forms, some of which are illustrated to aid the imagination.

After each Treasure are two more wind beads. Following the wind beads are nine beads representing Sacred Land. These may be deep green, brown, black, or some other Fourfold Patterns earthy color. Jet, tigereye, moss agate, black onyx, picture jasper, or other similar stones are all good.

The beads for Endless Sky should be blue. This may be a deep blue, like sodalite, or speckled lapis lazuli, or it might be a lighter blue like blue agate or a blue quartz variety. White or grey can also be appropriate, as the colors of mist and cloud.

Eternal Sea should be light green or blue-green. Malachite, jade, aquamarine, periodot and green turquoise are all appropriate colors. The ocean itself is a deep green color on stormy days.

At the end, the bead for Bile should approximately match the Danu bead in size and shape, but should be a lighter color. Wood, amber, horn, antler or bone would all work nicely. Once again, these are materials that were once living. This bead should be attached to the Double Spiral Gate, completing your circle.