Now we have to think back millions of years ago for the original creation of this beautiful fossil. It was created when the forests were buried under layers of sedimentary rock, and the plant cells were quite literally bathed in minerals that replaced the organic structures in the original wood. The final result still looks like a tree, even the rings of the wood are still visible. However, the material has the weight and feel of stone, and this is because it now has a microcrystalline structure, often called agate, made of silicon dioxide.
One of the largest petrified forests in the world, that actually covers 93 square miles in area is on the Green Island if Lesvos. There were found fossilized tree stumps still standing upright with root systems in the bedrock. Approximately twenty-five million years old, they have been identified as types of trees now native to Asia and the Far East, showing how different the European climate was in that period. Other petrified forests are found in Canada, United States, Australia, and Argentine, some of which are around 200 million years old!
The colours of petrified wood are mottled brown, black, reddish brown, almost a blue brown which all can depend on their mineral combinations.
Considering healing purposes, petrified wood teaches lessons of slow but inevitable transformation from one state being wood, to another becoming stone. Petrified wood cleanses both the liver and the blood and can aid stiff joints and arthritis. It can ease feeling stuck on old emotions around old issues that you need to let go of. It can clear old patterns linked to a difficult relationship, especially of ancestral origin. It is a symbol of slow evolution into new forms, so it helps to connect spirituality to the deepest history of our planet.
You can use on the pubic bone or over the base of the spine to stabilize the root chakra, and meditating with it can help to encourage the transformation of patterns that seem literally “set in stone”.
Sources:
Jennie Harding “Crystals”
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