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When I wrote my previous article, Spheres, Stones and Skulls, (which you can read here), I was unaware of some research that had been done into the Spheres. Since then I have been sent two message links that contain posts which scientifically prove these items are perfectly natural objects – and not of any alien derivation. You can read both of the relevant posts here:
http://www.hallofmaat.com/read.php?1,332478,332478#msg-332478
March 2, 2005
And here:
http://www.hallofmaat.com/read.php?1,332478,332835#msg-332835
March 3, 2005
While researching my Spheres, Stones and Skulls article I came across references to some other very strange stones. Throughout the centuries it seems that black stones, most of which appear to have been meteoric in origin, have been very highly revered.
Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947) was a Russian artist, poet, writer, explorer, and mystic. Having spent some time in America he eventually went to live in India, and finally settled in a Himalaya mountain village. However, he also travelled back and forth to the USA, and in 1935 he was instrumental in establishing what is known as The Roerich Pact, signed in the White House by members of the Pan American Union. It is a treaty aimed at the protection of Religion, Art and Science as aspects of Culture during times of war, and it is still in force. He was also prominent in the Roosevelt administration, and a key player in having the Great Seal of the USA placed on the dollar bill. You can find complete information about him at the Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York site, here:
http://www.roerich.org/nr.html?mid=bio_rus
During the 1920s Roerich led an expedition to Tibet. One of the reasons behind this journey may have been to return a stone, The Chintamani Stone, to the fabled city of Shambala. Legend has it that this stone may have been a piece of meteorite, or Moldavite, and that it came from either the constellation of Orion, or that of Sirius. It is said that a fragment of this stone was sent out to help establish spiritual missions that were of critical importance to the human race; and that the piece Roerich was taking back had been in the custody of the League of Nations.
At some point during his journey through the mountains he reported seeing a UFO; which he described as a flying disk before that term came into common parlance. The local guide who accompanied him maintained that the UFO had come from the city of Agartha – the ancient name for Shambala. And while Nicholas Roerich was willing to listen to stories of Shambala, and other mythical places, he was far more interested in the spiritual ideas that lay behind them.
It is only around one hundred and fifty years since the idea of Shambala was first popularized by a French author who’s conception of it was, in essence, as a highly evolved land that was hidden beneath the earth somewhere in Asia. Of course, evidence for such a place has not yet been found. However, Roerich wasn’t the only person to be associated with the story. There was also a man, called Ferdinand Ossendowski (1876-1945), who was a Polish scientist. He had lived in Russia but had fled during the Revolution. He too was a great traveller and visited Mongolia, from whence he returned with stories of Shambala although he referred to it as Agharta. He claimed to have heard these tales from a fellow Russian refugee, a priest named Tushegoun Lama, who also asserted that he was a good friend of the Tibetan Dalai Lama. The outcome was that Ossendowski came to believe that it was all more than just a myth, and that some potent force really did exist in that region of the world.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a darker side to the myth of Shambala. In an article by Alexander Berzin he states that:
"Many foreign myths have grown around the legend of Shambhala found in the Kalachakra literature. Some were spread to win military or political support, such as the identification of Russia, Mongolia, or Japan as Shambhala. Others appeared within occult movements and mixed Buddhist ideas with concepts from other systems of belief. Several even spawned expeditions to find the fabled land."
It concludes by saying that Nicholas Roerich implied that there was a resemblance between Shambala and Thule – another hidden land. This time Thule is supposed to be somewhere beneath the North Pole, and its purported existence was connected to the Nazi idea of such a secret place. But Roerich never made a connection between Thule and the Nazis. You can read what else Berzin has to say here:
http://www.berzinarchives.com/kalachakra/mistaken_foreign_myths_shambhala.html
An article by Joseph George Caldwell entitled On Edward Bulwer Lytton: Agharta, Shambhala, Vril and the Occult Roots of Nazi Power makes interesting reading. And another of his articles also addresses The Shaver Mystery. Shaver was the gentleman who contributed articles to the Amazing Stories science-fiction magazine, from the middle of the 1940s. One such story told of an underground world, and introduced us to:
"deranged robots" or "Deros." He knew from experience of their machinations, of the efforts by another underground race, the "Teros," to counteract them, and much more that inevitably included sex and violence – necessary ingredients in any pulp magazine."
As most Ufologists will recall, Ray Palmer was the magazine’s editor, and he "discovered Oahspe, the 'New Bible' revealed to John Ballou Newbrough in 1881." This was a parallel story to that of Shaver’s, except that Palmer told his story from an occult viewpoint. The whole Caldwell article can be found here:
http://www.foundationwebsite.org/OnBulwerLytton.htm
Nicholas Roerich always travelled with his wife Helena. She too was extremely talented, and she wrote a book called Legend of the Stone. In this work she gives the reasons behind her husband’s painting entitled Chintamani. It seems that, while crossing the Gobi Desert by pony caravan, the painting shows what is being carried by one of the donkeys. This appears to be a box that radiates with colour, and in her book Helena says that:
"When the Son of the Sun descended upon the Earth to teach Mankind, there fell from the skies a shield which bore the power of the world.” Some believe this “shield” was a piece of meteorite or perhaps some strange artifact of extraterrestrial origin. Either way, incredible powers were attributed to it. Its rays were thought capable of influencing events and happenings over the entire world."
Another piece of the same stone is professed by some to be that known as the Black Stone of the Kaaba, at Mecca. And here:
http://www.crystalinks.com/blackstone.html
You can read that:
"The Black Stone of the Ka'ba, a dark meteorite set in gold in the outer wall of Islam's holiest shrine, the Kaaba, in Mecca. Muslim sites make it clear that the Black Stone is not worshipped and not considered holy in itself.
It's merely a much-loved marker, the official starting point of the walk around the Kaaba that forms the core of the holy pilgrimage called the hajj. The stone itself is a Muslim object of veneration, built into the eastern wall of the Ka'bah (small shrine within the Great Mosque of Mecca) and probably dating from the pre Islamic religion of the Arabs. It now consists of three large pieces and some fragments, surrounded by a stone ring and held together with a silver band. According to popular Islamic legend, the stone was given to Adam on his fall from paradise and was originally white but has become black by absorbing the sins of the thousands of pilgrims who have kissed and touched it."
On the same page of that site you can read of other curious black stones. These include Aphrodite, Cybele, Astarte, and Artemis. The last named was also known as Diana, and the oldest known sculpture of her was said to have been carved from a black meteorite. The article continues by adding that:
"..… on Cyprus is another highly venerated Islamic site - the third most important after Mecca and Medina - the Hala Sultan Tekke. This, too, has a black rock, said to have fallen as a meteorite as part of the tritholon over the shrine. The shrine is to a woman - the aunt and foster mother of Prophet Mohammed. Could this, like Mecca, have been originally a goddess shrine? Unfortunately no other clues are forthcoming. There allegedly is a Black Stone at Petra. Numerous standing stones in the British Isles are reputed to have fallen from the stars. The now-lost Star Stone marked the meeting of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire; an also vanished stone at Grimston, Leicestershire, was also said to have such an origin."
Finally, on the subject of the Kaaba Stone it is interesting to note that:
"The Black Stone has just one legend, and it's a good one. It's said that when Abraham and Ishmael, patriarchs of the Arab people, were building the Kaaba, the stone was delivered to them by an angel from heaven. That story would suggest that the Black Stone is a meteorite, and indeed meteorites have been prized and revered by many different peoples around the world."
There are, however, other curious Black Stones scattered across the globe, so here’s a quick look at some of them.
Other Black Stones
The island of Cyprus, is in the same part of the world where find the Canary Islands. Here, at Güímar, there are a series of six step pyramids that are made from black volcanic stones. 
They were found during the 1990s, and Thor Heyerdahl of Kon-Tiki fame, who spent a lifetime researching the cultural origins of ancient civilizations, made a study of them. He proposed that they had the same architectural characteristics as those found in Mesopotamia, Mexico, Peru, Polynesia, and Sicily. 
They had also been built according to the astronomical alignments of the winter and summer solstices. A few years later archaeologists made excavations beneath Pyramid 1 and found a long cave containing artefacts from the Guanches era. They were the pre-Hispanic occupiers of the island, and date to a period between 680 and 1020 AD.
On the other side of the world, along the Hawkesbury River in Australia artefacts occasionally come to light. One of these was found near Richmond, and it was two large stone heads with carvings on them. They were identical to models of the sun god Mithra and the earth mother goddess Demeter. The Phoenicians worshiped these gods almost three thousand years ago.
At the same time, and in the same place, workmen unearthed a small black stone, eighteen feet beneath the surface. This bore the Phoenician letters of the word 'thuffi'– but we’re not told if it’s been translated.
From February 2005 comes a story of a Mysterious City of Black Stone. It concerns what legend holds might be the ancient lost city of Kota Gelanggi in Malaya. Local villagers claim to have either seen the city itself, called Kota Batu Hitam (Black Stone Fort), or to have seen relics from it. The description of one artefact portrays it as being about ten inches long, made from jade, and resembling part of a decorative table stand. Local tradition has it that strange things happen at the city, and one villager maintained that he not only accidentally came across the site, but remained there as a guest for a few days; adding that it was very well populated.
It seems that this city has been cited in various historical documents, and researchers have been trying to find it for a long time. However, another local villager also related that each time he went to the site the position of some of the stones had changed.
And lastly, to return to the beginning, I thought I’d see what science tells us about Moldavite. This belongs in the Tektite group, and is an unevenly shaped stone with no crystal structure. It’s similar to Obsidian, but Moldavite has no connection to the volcanic process. Science still doesn’t really understand Moldavite, and its chemistry is unique and, to some extent, unsolved. 
Currently it is thought to be the result of meteorite impact as Moldavite is often found in the areas surrounding meteor craters. Much is found in Moldavia, the country that used to be known as Czechoslovakia, but that deposit is believed to have come from a meteorite crater in Germany. It can also be found in Georgia, Australia, southeastern Asia, Thailand, and the USA.
Obsidian forms when volcanic lava mixes with water, resulting in a glassy consistency. 
It comes in numerous varieties and often contains air bubbles, which give rise to the different names for different types. But it, too, lacks any crystal structure, and is often confused with smoky quartz as they have similar properties. Large deposits can be found in Italy, Mexico, and Scotland, together with the American states of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Texas, and Utah.
Moldavite and Obsidian references, including their physical characteristics, can be found here:
http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/mineralo/tektites/tektites.htm
But, when we consider the ancient cults of sky/sun/ and/or moon/stars worship it isn’t so strange that these civilizations should have venerated anything that fell from the sky. To the Ancients the origins of meteorites, Moldavite, etc: were unknown, but with modern eyes we can see how such objects came to be held in such high regard. As for those 'angelic envoys,' perhaps they were today’s equivalent of aliens. Science has moved on, and we know how these rocks were formed. But even with our scientific and technological evolution I wonder what we’d truly think if a real ‘nuts and bolts’ UFO landed in Parliament Square, or on the White House lawn!!!