Simply Elemental 2017

19. The Myth of Boulder Birthing
By Diane Relf (with assistance from Dave Angle)

Ancients recognized earth as a living organism and all parts of earth as having the same source of life. Thus, it was natural for them to explain how boulders would reproduce through a birthing process similar and yet distinct from other organisms. According to this view boulders grew and grew, stretching their covering until they reach full size. Then, through an internal metamorphosis they formed numerous new boulders, some of which contained smaller boulders ready to emerge and grow. After finding a suitable bed of rocks the matriarch boulder split symmetrically in two, releasing a glorious diversity of large and small boulders, some already birthing, some settling down to grow until their turn came to make the world a more fascinating place.

You can witness this miracle of birth in the dry stream bed west of the Hahn Pavilion.