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In the myths, there is often one of the nine or eighteen maidens who is different. There is a mother, or father figure, sometimes in addition to the maidens themselves. In Scotland you hear that the nine maidens worshipped an older version of the Cailleach/Bride called the shining one. The extra stone would maybe represent the shining one and the nine or eighteen maidens who worshipped there?

White cows were sacrificial animals. Special breed of cow of which only a few herds remain now. The true celtic cattle, not the hairy highland cow as advertised on a million shortbread tins. Little white quartz stones were used by poorer people into fairly recent times as an alternative sacrifice to silver at wells too. Some white cow stones often have stories of a white cow hide full of treasure hidden under the stones, but when people tip the stone over, next day it is said to be upright again. Some white cow stones are said to be cows the Cailleach turned into stone here in Scotland too.

Lots of connections if you let your mind wander.

Branwen wrote:
In the myths, there is often one of the nine or eighteen maidens who is different. There is a mother, or father figure, sometimes in addition to the maidens themselves. In Scotland you hear that the nine maidens worshipped an older version of the Cailleach/Bride called the shining one. The extra stone would maybe represent the shining one and the nine or eighteen maidens who worshipped there?

White cows were sacrificial animals. Special breed of cow of which only a few herds remain now. The true celtic cattle, not the hairy highland cow as advertised on a million shortbread tins. Little white quartz stones were used by poorer people into fairly recent times as an alternative sacrifice to silver at wells too. Some white cow stones often have stories of a white cow hide full of treasure hidden under the stones, but when people tip the stone over, next day it is said to be upright again. Some white cow stones are said to be cows the Cailleach turned into stone here in Scotland too.

Lots of connections if you let your mind wander.

That's really interesting Branwen ... I did not know about the white cows of Scotland or any of the other bits of folklore information your post included.

Fascinating ... thank you!

That's very very useful. Thanks Branwen. I was reading an article about Manx monuments the other night (Vicki Cummings & Chris Fowler) and came across a line that seems to fit your 'mind wandering' trove. I'd considered that quartz would have meant different things in different places, but what if it represented a range of things in every place?

"Quartz was an anchor for a host of metaphorical connections that drew on its physical properties. The colour, translucence, texture and reflectivity of quartz meant that it could connote properties of the human body, the landscape and perhaps the wider cosmos. Quartz was therefore a key symbol in Neolithic cosmology, an ambiguous symbol that could be interpreted in many ways."

Thanks again,
Gordon

And talking of the Cailleach/Bride Branwen there is also the Kilmartin Glen the three little natural stone figurines, that must be on this site, but I can't find them.