Two Split-Filled Stones at Manitou Hassanash Preserve
Curious Features Among Potential Stone Prayers in Hopkinton, Rhode Island
Here’s a look at Two Split-Filled Stones at Manitou Hassanash Preserve in Hopkinton, Rhode Island.
The first one (click on any photo to enlarge):
Video of this first stone:
These two are quite different from the Split-Filled Stone I shared with you from the Hollow Near Richmond, Vermont.
Some images of the second Split-Filled Stone at Manitou Hassanash Preserve follow below. First, (repeating from the Richmond post)…
A little background on Split-Filled Stones:
Peter Waksman, Phd. has investigated Indigenous Stone Prayers since the 1990s and runs the essential Rock Piles blog which has chronicled this work since 2006. He released the book A Shadow Under The Rock (2023) last year, and writes:
Split Rocks
Boulders which are divided by a deep split. I spent a long time trying to interpret them, so here goes: One reads that Native Americans considered boulders to be “grandfathers” and that every rock contained a spirit. If that is so, then a split boulder is very significant, as the split creates a doorway between the outer world and the inner spirit of the rock. If it is a bad spirit, you want to wall it away, filling the split with lots of smaller rocks, and keeping the spirit trapped inside. If it is a spirit you want to control and communicate with, then a removable stopper — in the form of a single, smaller rock — is inserted into the split. Very rarely, when it is a helpful and benevolent spirit, a quartz stopper is inserted in the split, to amplify the spirit’s access to the outer world… a split that is filled with smaller rocks is called “split filled” and a split that is filled with one smaller rock is called “split-wedged”. (p.201)
Investigator Markham Starr calls these Infilled Boulders in his Ceremonial Stonework (2016):
“I am told these splits may represent earth entrances through which spirits pass from one world… to another. In some cases, the split in the boulder is held apart with multiple stones… …in many cases, the makeup of a stone placed into a split boulder or found wedged deep into crevices is, once again, quartz… …stoneworkers often filled the entire split with rocks. In many cases, the stones fill the gap entirely to the point of overflowing, while in others, the void is filled to the top. While wedged and infilled boulders seem related, single stones jammed into split materials give the appearance of holding gaps open, whereas infill work certainly seems meant to close the fracture entirely…” (p.19)
In Split Stones & The Underworld (2022), researcher Mary Gage writes:
Split stone spirit portals are most often associated with the Underworld but sometimes with spirits living within the rock. Underworld and the spirits associated with it were as diverse as the split stone structures as seen in the historical accounts. Diversity was found to be prevalent and useful in analyzing and reading these structures that are common at CSL sites throughout the Northeastern United States…
…the diverse use of the split stone as a ceremonial structure …ranges from the common split stone cairn found at many Ceremonial Stone Landscape (CSL) sites to its incorporation within complex structures and/or units of structures. In general a split in a stone that has been altered or integrated into a structure and/or unit shows it was utilized as a spirit portal. The spirit portal concept comes from numerous historical and anthropological accounts… a mix of spirits used the spirit portals such as the spirits of people alive and dead, Sun, Serpent, Guardian Spirit of Underworld, Little People, fish, animals like Moose and Blessed Manitou, the latter acquired from Christian beliefs. It was a complex belief system with one thing in common Underworld and Upperworld each had malevolent and benevolent spirits…Split stones documented by the author… show diversity and at the same time a single common belief. The common belief is a split in a stone is a spirit portal. Diversity shows up in how the spirit portal was utilized. (Abstract/Introduction)
Here’s the second Split-Filled Stone I came across at Manitou Hassanash Preserve in Hopkinton, Rhode Island.
It’s a very special place.
The above photos and video were also shared in the Ancient Stone Mysteries of New England Facebook Group. Here’s a little video of this second Split-Filled Stone and its neighborhood which is exclusive to this Newsletter:
More Newsletter-exclusive, raw, field footage video of this Split-Filled Stone:
You can also read about these other intriguing features at Manitou Hassanash Preserve:
More from this site to come.
The large stone in the second video here is interesting in itself. Did you notice anything when you were up close? One side has details that hint at something 'effigy-like'. (To me anyway...)