Hagstones

When I went beachcombing along the Thames, I found several stones with holes through them. Our guide told us that these holes occurred naturally and that these stones were used by people to ward off the evil eye.

After some intensive research (okay, I went to Google and typed in ‘rocks with holes’), I learned that in England, these rocks were called ‘hagstones’ and were indeed used to ward off evil. In some places, hagstones were hung around the necks of horses and other animals to keep away diseases and farmers were known to pass milk through the holes in the stones when they milked their cows. Hagstones were also rubbed on children to ward off death or to help remedy sicknesses. (As a side note, perhaps hagstones will be reintroduced as a cheaper alternative to the National Health System.) To keep away nightmares, hang a hagstone from your bedpost.

Evidently (also a result of my painstaking research), hagstones are also considered sources of power by some pagan groups. There was some mention of using hagstones to amplify spells or something along those lines.