Introducing the Mystic Parcel Atlas: Explore the World One Stone at a Time

I didn't set out to create the Atlas.

I was working on a new tumble set and trying to figure out how to make it more interesting than five stones in a bag. I kept thinking about the old mineral collections I've seen—the little specimens mounted in cases, each one identified by name and locality.

I love those old collections because they don't just tell you what you're looking at. They tell you where it came from.

Then I looked at the tumbles I had chosen and realized something: five stones, five different countries.

Russia. India. Brazil. The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Madagascar.

And suddenly I wasn't looking at a tumble set anymore.  I was looking at a tiny map of the mineral world.  That's where the Mystic Parcel Atlas began.

The First Atlas: World

The first collection had to be World because that was the idea that created the Atlas in the first place.

Atlas Tumble Set: World brings together five tumbled stones from five different geographic origins:

Shungite — Russia
Shiva Lingam — India
Rutilated Quartz — Brazil
Malachite — Democratic Republic of the Congo
Kambaba Jasper — Madagascar

Five stones. Five origins.

Together, they create a miniature tour of the mineral world.

And I didn't want the stones to be chosen simply because their colors looked good together or because they could be grouped under a particular intention. I wanted the reason for the collection to be something you could explore.

In this case, that connection is geography.

Each stone represents another place on the globe and another geological story.

More Than a Bag of Tumbles

Once I understood what the collection was, I knew I didn't want to put it in a traditional bag set.  Tumbles are wonderful because they're tactile. They're meant to be picked up, turned over in your hand, carried, studied and used. I didn't want to lose any of that either. I also wanted the collection to have context.

So I went back to those old specimen collections that had inspired me in the first place.

Each Atlas Tumble Set is presented in a clear acrylic collector case on a custom vintage atlas-inspired card. Every stone has its own place on the card, identified by both its name and geographic origin.

The stones are lightly secured so they stay in position for display and transportation, but they're not permanently mounted.  That was important to me.

You can leave the Atlas together and have a compact educational mineral collection. You can use it to learn about the stones and their origins, share it with someone who is beginning to explore minerals, or simply put it somewhere you can enjoy looking at it.

Or you can open it.  Take out a stone. Hold it. Look at it under a light or magnifying glass. Carry it with you. Use it for meditation or another personal practice. Compare it with the others.  Then put it back in its labeled place when you're finished.

Display it. Study it. Use it.

I wanted the Atlas to make sense whichever way you choose to interact with the stones.

Connecting the Stone in Your Hand With the Place It Came From

This may be the part of the Atlas that matters most to me.

We talk about stones in many different ways. We learn their names. We notice their colors and patterns. Some of us are interested in their geology. Some connect with their traditional, energy, or metaphysical meanings. Some simply think they're beautiful.

I don't think any of those ways of appreciating a stone has to exclude the others.

But somewhere along the way, it can be very easy to forget that the thing you're holding is an actual piece of the Earth that came from somewhere.

And I find the question “Where did this come from?” fascinating.

Why is shungite so closely associated with a particular part of Russia?

Why are Shiva Lingams connected with a river in India?

How did those needles of rutile become enclosed inside quartz?

Why is the Democratic Republic of the Congo known for extraordinary copper minerals such as malachite?

What is the geological story behind the material we call Kambaba Jasper from Madagascar?

You ask one question, and suddenly you have five more.

That's collecting to me.

It's one of the reasons I can spend an unreasonable amount of time researching a single rock.  The more I learn about a specimen, the more interesting it becomes.

That's What the Atlas Is Really About

The Atlas isn't intended to replace the personal, spiritual, or intentional ways we connect with stones.

It adds another layer.

You can appreciate what a stone represents to you while also wanting to know what it is, how it formed and where it came from.  For me, those things belong together.

That's also why I don't think every future Atlas needs to follow exactly the same formula as World.  The Atlas isn't really about five stones.  It's about the connection between the pieces and the story they impart.

World Is Only the Beginning

Once I finished World, I immediately started looking at other stones differently.

What else belongs together?

Sometimes the answer might be geography. Sometimes it might be geology. Sometimes it might be a shared formation process or a group of natural materials that look similar but actually have very different stories.

What matters is that every Atlas should be able to answer one question:

Why are these pieces together?

If there's an interesting answer to that question, there may be another Atlas.  And that might be my favorite part of this whole idea.  There is no shortage of things left to explore.

Explore the World One Stone at a Time

A stone doesn't have to be large, rare or expensive to lead somewhere interesting. Sometimes all it takes is turning one over in your hand and wondering where it came from.  The first Mystic Parcel Atlas started with five tumbles sitting on my table.  They came from five different places.  That became World.

And now I want to see where the Atlas takes us next.

Five stones. Five origins. One miniature tour of the mineral world.

Explore the world, one stone at a time.