Indian Iron Tantric Lingam

A smooth stone, balanced on its narrow end, and very little else to say.

This Tantric lingam comes from India, of indeterminate age, in quartz crystal with iron oxide inclusions. In Hindu tradition the lingam is the emblem of Shiva, and egg-shaped natural stones are honored as his form without any carving at all. Tantric practice also treats the shape as a focus for meditation. The surface here is a speckled, polished tan, flecked with pale spots. A band of brick red crosses near the top. A black block supports it in the photograph. Just under eleven inches high and six and a half across.

Stillness is most of what it does, and it does it well.