My Heart-Stone
- Debbie Irvine
- Nov 7
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 12
My Heart-Stone
by Debbie Irvine
In the palm of my hand, I cradle you
My beautiful heart-shaped stone
Ancient volcanic Earth Mother
Come send me your Fires within
Alight the Flame in my Heart
Ignite all my passions and whims
My burning desires for belonging
Call for Love sustained through longing
Love burning brightly - bring Light!
To my sad and ravaged Heart.
I pulled you from the cool river waters
At the base of your mountain home
Amongst the Oregon forests
Of cedars and fresh scented pinecones
I sat and paddled my feet
That beautiful summer’s day
And dreamed between the years of my Life
And the places that I have been
The beauty and the longings
The hurts and the pains.
I speak to you my Heart shaped stone
My lover and my keen
Wrapped together through time and place
We warm each other’s dreams
You are my Past, and I am your Future
Together we bind the seams
I placed you on our Healing Altar
In the Inner Circle of our yurt
We drummed and rattled and sang to you
Fire Goddess Pele, and Kahuna Hale Makua
We called to the Sacred Directions
And for the Grace from all God’s names
I called for Love to ignite my Heart Flame
To course through my body
And to heal all my pain.
Surrounded in Love
I surround myself now
May your Flame burn so brightly
You never will die
May the Light of your Love
Keep me forever alive.
Ekphrastic Writing
Image Heart Stone
In 2020, I took a writing class with Sheila Bender in America, and we were asked to respond to an image using Ekphrastic Writing. This style of writing invited us to write in a personal and evocative manner in relation to the image we chose. I chose a photo of a heart-shaped stone and immediately I was drawn back into my week, July 2017, when I stayed at Breitenbush for my shamanic training in Spirit Medicine and Shamanic Clans with Hank Wesselman. Breitenbush camp-ground is built on ancient sacred land amongst the Willamette National Forrest in Oregon, USA and is a beautiful, remote, eco-tourist community offering workshops, camping, and nature in all her pristine beauty.
We were using a yurt by the Breitenbush River under the shadow of Mount Jefferson, a Volcanic Mountain, and amongst forests of beautiful tall cedar trees. Hale Mahua was Hank’s Hawaiian Kahuna mentor and friend whom Hank invoked during our Shamanic Journeys and Healing sessions, as well as sharing much of his sacred Kahuna Knowledge and wisdom with us.
One of the women in our Circle had found several Heart-shaped rocks in the river and brought them into our yurt and placed them on the central altar. She offered to take me to find my own, during our afternoon off. Together we paddled in the beautiful cool, clear water on a hot summer’s day and scoured the river for my own heart-shaped stones. I found two and brought them into our yurt and placed them on the central communal altar in the middle on the floor. The energies of the sacred river and land around us where indigenous Indians had lived for thousands of years imbued the stones and our shamanic ceremonies.
That evening Hank and the Circle selected me to be the recipient of the Healing Ceremony on the last night of our training. It is written in my essay, “My Shamanic Healing Ceremony,” and published by Sacred Stories.
The river linked me to other sacred rivers in my life, most recently the Ucayali River in inland Peru, the main tributary for the Amazon, and where I had traveled on it to participate in Ayahuasca Ceremonies, just a couple of months earlier.
I also remembered staying right beside the Ganges River in Varanasi, India for several weeks in early 2016 while doing Counselling as part of my Master’s training and watching the varied sacred ceremonies along the Ghats built on the river’s edge; the dancing, the fire ceremonies, and the cremation ceremonies. We went out one night in a small boat on the Ganges with candles and flowers we placed on the water as offerings while we watched the ceremonies and cremations as if we were part of them. The colour of the water, being brown, didn’t matter as the sacredness of Mother Ganga merged with the smoke, the dust, the incense, the silk colours and the music competing between one Ghat and another.
Little was I to know I would travel on, and swim in, the Nile in Egypt twice in the future, in 2023 and 2025, and again in 2026, adding to my connection with sacred rivers of the world and as a thread throughout my life.
We remember water as a source of purification, cleansing, renewal, and fertility; of New Life and purity; of our emotional body and the source of life itself. It provides movement and transportation, connection and new horizons, fluidity, and flow both in our outer lives and our inner.
My Heart-Stone connects many rivers in my life from childhood to currently living by a small local river in Brisbane, Australia. The sacredness of the Breitenbush River, the intensified sacredness of our shamanic group, Hank and his assistant named River, or Lady River as he called her, and the healing I received that night have all added to the healing power and sacredness of my special Heart-Stones.
I have carried them with me for healing for me, for others, and around the world. I place them on my altar at home and illuminate them with candles to radiate their beautiful heart shapes and energies.
May you also benefit from the gifts and blessings of these beautiful, heart-shaped, ancient,
sacred earth stones.
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