EPISODE 011: The Psychic Toolbox - How To Use Hag Stones with Ann Théato

If you’ve ever wondered what a Hag Stone is, why they were and still are used as amulets for protection or how you might use one in a psychic reading, this is the podcast for you!  Ann Théato shares her deep knowledge of these ancient stones, describing some of the fascinating myths and legends that surround them.  She explains why they are known by so many different names and how you, yourself, might find one, or have one find you!  Do these stones really possess magical powers or are they just lumps of metamorphic rock with a hole in?  Ann invites all those with a curious mind, to listen and decide for themselves.

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Ann Théato, CSNUt, Psychic, Medium and Spiritual Tutor, investigates psychic development, mediumship techniques, and paranormal science, so that you can come to understand your own innate psychic ability and expand your knowledge, whilst learning to develop a curious mind.

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Hi there, my name is Ann Théato and I am here to teach you proven techniques for spiritual and psychic development from the comfort of your own home. I’m also here to investigate the teachings of experts across the globe, to bring you their wisdom, their advice and their spiritual wealth.

In this and future episodes, I’m going to be talking to you about some of the tools that psychics use in order to pick up information from their client or from the world around them.  In this first look into the Psychic’s Toolbox, we are going to be exploring a divinatory tool called, The Hag Stone.

Intrigued?  Let’s begin!

You’ll Learn

• Where to find a Hag Stone

• How you can do a psychic reading using a Hag Stone

• How they are created

• Why they were placed inside the walls of homes

• How a Hag Stone might find you

• Why they are known as many other names

• The importance of trusting your own intuition and insight

• How to glimpse the other world and

• The myths and legends that surround these stones

TRANSCRIPT

Hello everybody! My name is Ann Théato and welcome to the Psychic Matters Podcast – episode number 11. 

In this and future episodes, I’m going to be talking to you about some of the tools that psychics use in order to pick up information from their client or from the world around them.  In this first look into the Psychic’s Toolbox, we are going to be exploring a divinatory tool called, The Hag Stone. 

Intrigued?  Let’s begin!

I’m sort of laughing to myself because I’ve got everything set up here in the studio, and just as I’m starting to record, the people next-door are drilling. I mean, what bad timing is that? I’ve sat here all day, not a sausage of a drill and then the minute I put the microphone on, there’s a little bit of drilling. So if you hear anything in the background, that’s what it is, and it just goes to show that I’m not in a professional studio, I work from my desk.  Now, this episode is all about Hag Stones and I’m going to be teaching you how you can do a psychic reading with one of these. But first I thought I’d tell you about all the myth and the legend about them and all the sort of mysterious fictional stuff. 

In this episode I will be telling you how you can do a psychic reading with a Hag Stone.  Now, I’ve got four, it’s a bit greedy having four, I don’t really need four but when I find one you can’t help but take it home with you because they are quite rare.  So um, that’s why I have got four of them.  Now let me go first back in time, I want to take you on a sort of journey through the myth and the legend about these stones.  So let’s … There’s different things I want to talk to you about, I want to talk to you about the history of them, I want to tell you the facts about them and then I want to tell you how you can actually go ahead and do a psychic reading with them, if you happen to possess one.  If you don’t possess one, no worries, you can use anything that you can look down the centre of, frankly.  It doesn’t have to be a stone.  It could be an emptied-out biro or a polo mint or anything you like.  You can draw a picture of a holey stone, cut it out, cut out the hole and then read through that, it really wouldn’t matter. As everything, it’s not really to do with the tool that you use it is to do with your own intuition and your own insight, so you use the tool as a point of focus and everything else comes from within side yourself. Let me tell you a few facts about a Hag Stone. 

A Hag Stone is created when water and other elements pound through the stone, and eventually it creates a hole at the weakest point on the stone’s surface. Rainwater and other types of water are often slightly acidic. But it the hole often starts with a weakness in the rock which could have been naturally made as the rock was settling, so for instance a worm burrowing on the beach might have started off the hole or the hole might have been created by a crack created by high pressure water when the rock is deep, deep under the ground. So once the weakness allows water to get through, the acidity slowly dissolves the rock and that’s what forms the hole.  They are often found in streams and rivers, or even at the beach.  I think I picked up two of mine at the beach, one I can’t remember where I got it from and the other one I dug up on my allotment, it was buried in the soil, my allotment  is in the middle of London, so how did it get there?

Many of these stones with holes in were made, or certainly started off by a burrowing bivalve mollusc called Pholas dactylus, which people used to eat.  There was a Roman author, philosopher and commander of the early Roman Empire called Pliny The Elder and he spoke of the luminescence in the mouths of people who ate Pholas, the rock-boring shellfish.  Isn’t that an incredible thought?  Think that you eat all the shellfish and then your mouth has this beautiful luminescence about it.  And interestingly as well, poor old Pliny the Elder, apparently, he is believed to have died at the age of 56 in AD79 while attempting to rescue his friends and family by ship from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius which had already destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. And apparently, the wind caused by the eruption, didn’t allow his ship to leave port. Isn’t that sad?  Who knew that?  Well you do now.  Anyway, back to the Hag Stones.

There is actually no telling how old any Hag Stone you find might be.  They have been found inside the walls of many old homes, so they were put in the walls while the home was being built and they’ve been found years later during restoration and renovation they are discovered.  People used to put them inside the walls of their homes to prevent malevolent spells on their families or they’d put them in the wall as a protection against Pixies or if you lived in Cornwall, Piskies.

So what are they actually made of?  In many cases the actual stone with a hole through it will be flint or a pebble.  Mine, the four that I’ve got, they could either be limestone or a metamorphic rock.  But it does seem that Hag Stones are not restricted to one particular type of stone. But essentially a Hag Stone, is any stone that has got a hole through it. And clearly the more rounded and smooth the stones, they’ve been eroded, they’re the ones that have been eroded by water and abrasion in rivers and so on and so forth.  They’ve been tumbled with the tides or moved with a fast-flowing river water, which is why you can often find them on a beach or by a river, funny enough.

Hag Stones are known by other names in different regions. They are known as the holey stone, not as in Holy, Alleluia, Amen, but holey with a H-O-L-E-Y, with a hole in the middle.  They are known as an Adder stonebecause they were believed to protect the wearer from the effects of a snake bite. In parts of Germany, there is a legend, that says adder stones are formed when serpents gather together, and their venom creates the hole in the centre of the stone.   They are also known as the Great Mother Stone; a Witch Stone; a Faerie Stone; a Wishing Stone; a Seeing Stone; Hex Stone; an Eye Stone, probably because you look through it with your eyeballs; or a Nightmare Stone; or a Witch-riding Stone.

They are also known as  Odin Stones, which is most likely a tribute to this huge monolith with a massive hole in it, which stood on the Orkney islands, for 3000 years, quite close to the Standing Stones of Stenness, before it was smashed into pieces in 1814 by a man who went by the name of Captain W Mackay.  Now, Captain Mackay was not from the Orkney Islands or he might have known better about the centuries old traditions that took place around the Odin stone, but he woke up one morning and decided that the hordes of people visiting these ancient sites was ruining his land so he got up and decided to smash it into pieces.  Thanks Captain MacKay for that one.  Anyway, that was the Odin stone, it doesn’t exist anymore, but these little fellas are a little tribute to the Odin stone which is why they are sometimes named after it.  Now, it is actually quite rare to find a natural Hag Stone; they are more common on beaches like I said, but they can sometimes be found inland, I did find mine on my allotment in the middle of London.  And why is that?  Well, it could be that there once upon a time, was an ancient river and it ran over the land and that’s how the stone got formed. Probably that’s not the case, I imagine it was probably delivered there in a sack load of pebbles by a prior allotment owner, who was doing something far more constructive than I ever did with my allotment when it belonged to me.

Now there are plenty of myths and legends around this stone and I find some of the myth and legends really fascinating.  They are considered you see, a doorway, or a key to the doorway into the faerie kingdom. And it is believed that if you look through the hole of one of these stones, you can gain a glimpse of the Otherworld and see faeries. And by peering through the hole in the moonlight, you can see visions, and spirits, and unworldly beings.  Now that is the myth and the legend.  There is some basis for truth in this, which I’ll tell you when I explain how you can use it as a psychic tool.  But it’s not like, I don’t know, looking through a keyhole and seeing action on the other side.  If that’s what you do.  You weirdo!  Looking through key holes!  But there is some truth in being able to look through it.  I’ll explain it towards the end when I give you the exercise of how you can try it for yourself. 

It was believed that magic cannot work on running water and since these rare little Hag Stones were formed by wind and running water, then it was believed that they possess a powerful protective force from magic. And of course magic and myth and superstition was absolutely rife centuries ago when people didn’t have access to education to books and learning. They are believed to be excellent for meditation and creative visualization and it is said that the best Hag Stones are the ones which come to you. … A Hag Stone which is found by accident, they say, is thought to be luckier than one actively sought out and the reason that they are called “hag” stones is that during these olden times, there was great fear of the “Night Hag” and apparently, she was responsible for the theft of horses and children at an alarming rate. Now, what were they used for?  They were used for all kinds of magic.  Now, I’m telling you the facts and the fiction, I’m not saying this is the truth, I’m just telling you what I’ve learned about the myth and the legend that surround the stones, I will tell you my personal beliefs about them, when I share with you an exercise you can do to read through your own Hag Stones. 

They were used for fertility magic, healing, banishing of illness, the warding off the spirits of the dead, for, as I said before, seeing into the realm of the Fae, preventing bad dreams or night terrors and people used them really for protection.  They used them to protect people, or livestock, or property.  Sailors would use them on their ships, they were used to protect cows and cars.  People if they found them, they would bring them back home to serve a special purpose and that purpose was protection from witches and witchcraft.  Because back in the day, there was a genuine fear that a local witch might cast an evil spell on your livestock or you know, stop your cows from giving no milk, or they might stop your hens from laying eggs and there was a very strong belief that witches stole horses away at night and ‘hag rode’ them hard across the moors and when they re-appeared the next morning the poor beast would be in such a state that it was useless for any kind of work.  Basically a witch could do all kinds of horrible things and inflict harm if you incurred her wrath – witches rode along the hedgerows at night. I mean they were obsessed about witches.  So obviously back in those times people weren’t educated and they didn’t have the knowledge that we have now, so they listened to superstition handed down from parent to child and within communities so they went all out to protect themselves from such things and it was thought that a stone with a hole in it would do the job.  So you might see

Stones like this in barns or outhouses and people still put them there to this day to protect the animals inside. 

Here in the UK, fishermen also adopted the Hag Stone as a protective charm against malevolent witchcraft and many fishermen, and as I said you know, boats and sailors they still use these stones today as the superstition is still quite strong. 

You can put this on a rope or string around your neck, so when you wore it around the neck, the hex stone acted as an amulet and it protected the wearer from the ‘evil eye’ and the theory was that anyone who attempted to use the evil eye would have their attention drawn to the stone and therefore they would be unable to make their black magic work.  People believed the stone would protect them against the chances of being led away by the pixies or Piskies.  If anybody suffered from repeated nightmares, the simple remedy was to hang a hex stone on the bedstead and its powers would then stop any visits from the ‘Night Mare’ or the night hags.  I guess in a way we still do something similar by hanging dream catchers above our children’s beds and things like that, trying to give them some sort of comfort, don’t we?

Stones… Ooh, I nearly dropped it.  Gosh, that would be awful wouldn’t it if I broke it.  They would be hung near a pet’s sleeping place to guard and protect the pet as well in the house.  And it’s not uncommon to see people wearing a Hag Stone on a cord around their neck and quite often you will see in certain crystal shops or shops, they will sell these circular discs with holes in as an amulet for protection.  If you put these on a string, you can tie them to anything that you’d like to have protected: a boat, a cow, a car, your husband, I don’t know, whoever, whatever.  I’m not suggesting you do do this.  I’m still talking about the myth and legend that goes with it.  So I’m not saying that these are my personal beliefs, I’m just sharing… Disclaimer!

Now, what else can I tell you about them?  You can tie a Hag Stone to the bedpost not only to ward off your nightmares but also to help facilitate pregnancy, or you could carry it in your pocket for the same reason.  And in some areas, there are naturally holed stone formations that are large enough for a person to crawl or walk through. If you happen to see one and you’re trying to get pregnant, think of it as a giant Hag Stone and go on through that stone.  And good luck!  You might also have to actually, you know, do the thing that makes babies get made.  I don’t think just crawling through a giant stone with a hole in it will quite do the job.  Sometimes you might see old buildings with really big old keys and attached to the key there may well be a string with a holey stone tied to the end of it, again for protection, protection of the building.  And apparently you could ease your rheumatic pains by placing a hex stone under the mattress. You don’t find Hag Stones, they find you, and that makes me very happy because I’ve got have four.  Four of them have found their way to me.  Yippee!

Okay, they were used for healing purposes.  They might have been rubbed on the body of somebody who was sick, to assist the body’s natural healing process, people would bless and charge a Hag Stone to absorb the disease. You can place the stone in a bath of warm saltwater and have a soak for 20 minutes, that was meant to be very good for you for a sort of weekly cleanse of the body.  And they were also said to improve eyesight because you look through the hole and that was meant to help your eyesight, how amazing.  I must take off my glasses and give it a whirl later. Now how do we use this psychic stone in this modern day, I’ve told you all the myth and legend, how they are made, how they are formed, how you can possibly find one for yourself.

So how do you use the hag stone?  Again, like any psychic tool, it’s about your own intuition.  It’s nothing to do with the tool.  The tool doesn’t hold the magic.  There are some beautiful stories about hags and witches and protection and all of that was lovely to hear but, my personal point of view is, it’s just a stone with a hole in it and you can use a stone with a hole in it as a psychic tool and make it your point of focus.  You could use a stone without a hole in it frankly.  You could use, I don’t know, a pencil, what am I looking at there, you could use anything, a book, a spot on the wall, it doesn’t matter what you use as your psychic tool, because your own soul power and your own soul knowing comes up with the information.  It doesn’t come out of the tool; it comes out of you 

Having said that, a Hag Stone, holds its own unique energetic vibration.  Science has proven that energy is everywhere, and Hag Stones are the perfect conduit.  We are naturally receptive to the vibrations of gemstones as they can align our own vibrations with theirs. They act as a focal point for visualisation and they can become a doorway into the astral plane.  Hence, when folks of old used to say that Hag Stones opened a door to the faerie realm, they were in a way correct. When reading a Hag Stone you are using a psychic faculty called “scrying” and scrying allows the reader to achieve the state of mind required for entering trance.  So, by gazing into the hole in the stone, and stepping into your power, you enter a semi-altered state – a light trance state. Because the Hag Stone also holds its own vibration, it amplifies the reader’s vibration plus that of the sitter.  It is always good protocol, to never touch another person’s crystals or psychic tools without permission. This is because they may be highly attuned to the owner’s frequency and by touching them, you will be imprinting them with your energy.  Many tarot readers do not allow the client to touch their cards.  I’ve been reading tarot for 35 years now and I always ask those people I am reading for, to shuffle the cards – specifically for the purpose of getting their “energetic imprint” upon the cards.  If I am reading with a Hag Stone for a client, I may or may not ask the client to hold the stone. It would depend on how I felt intuitively at the time.  Nothing is the ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ way to do something.  You must always work with how you feel in the moment.

So here is an exercise you can do at home to read your Hag Stone. First, you need to cleanse it.  Because they are created by water and movement, I like to hold mine in my hand under a running tap, until it feels “enough” ‘til it feels right.  Then I air dry them on a piece of kitchen paper.

Secondly, whenever I’m doing a psychic reading, I like to do a little ritual to prepare the space.  You do not have to do this.  It is perfectly fine to read anywhere at any time, but I find if I take time to clean the space I am about to read in, light a candle, and burn some aromatherapy oil, smudge the space and put on some music, it changes something in ME, and I am preparing my soul to read for another soul. Next I will centre myself and sit in my own power for a short while, just 2 or 3 minutes, focussing on my breathing and allowing my all-knowing soul self to become a greater and great expansion of itself. Once I feel peaceful, expanded, alert and focused I will then hold my intention in mind.  Perhaps my sitter will be seeking the answer to a question, or if I am reading for myself, I may set my intention for the Hag Stone to reveal information from my Higher Self or from those who guide us in the second realm.  Whatever you want answers to, hold that intention in your mind. Then begin to look into the hole.  You can either have both eyes open or one eye closed if you wish and bring the stone right up to the eye and look through and then what you are trying to do is you are trying to almost look beyond what you are seeing.  So that your images are going to come from your psychic knowing and your psychic mind.  You just look down the hole, blur your eyes, look at the imagery that comes up and feel if it is significant within your heart self and your solar plexus.  You may see images or symbols which you can interpret in whichever way feels appropriate, you may become aware of smells or sensations, or music.  Don’t ever worry if your recipient can take the information or not.   If you have got a perception about something it can never be wrong.  It might be that your interpretation is slightly wrong.   But your perception will always be correct if it truly comes from your gut instinct, your sixth sense and your intuition then it will never let you down.  The images that you see may well appear within the hole in the stone.  They may be static, or they may be moving.  You might see a symbol, or you may see a moving person walking along the road.  They may appear in the hole, or in your mind’s eye or a mixture of the two.  However those symbols appear, trust what you are getting and give the information to your client or recipient. Interpretation is like learning a new language, and the more you practice with it, the fewer mistakes you will make. The more you practice, the easier and more fun you will get from reading Hag Stones.

Well, I hope you enjoyed that episode on Hag Stones and if you’d like to carry on the conversation, please write a post on our Psychic Matters Podcast Facebook Group Page – I’d love to hear from you!

I’ve been making some great meditations to help you with visualisation; relaxation or sitting in the power, and they are for sale over on my website, www.anntheato.com/shop so do head over there and check them out.  You may find them really useful for your psychic and mediumship development.

It just remains for me to say a very big thank you to all of you, Psychic Matters Listeners, I really appreciate your time and thank you so very much for listening.  Please do make sure to hit the subscribe button, so you don’t miss out on any of my upcoming episodes. And a huge thank you to everyone who has taken the time to write a review for this podcast. If you haven’t done so yet, please can I ask you, to go over to Apple podcasts and write an honest review.

Just to remind you that there is a full transcript of this episode available over on the show notes for this episode on my website so head over there if you’d like to pick this up.  And, have a fantastic couple of weeks everybody and until next time… my name is Ann Théato and thank you for listening to PSYCHIC MATTERS!