Odin Stone

The Odin Stone, often called Wooden’s Stone, originally stood just north of the Standing Stones of Stenness near Stromness, Orkney Island, Scotland.

A local farmer who claimed that people visiting the Stone were ruining his ground, destroyed this 5,000-year-old megalith in a single day during the winter of 1814. He also managed to destroy part of the Stenness Stones before neighbours put a halt to the destruction.

As part of the Orcadian wedding tradition, a couple whishing to become engaged, would first visit the Ring of Brodgar, known as the “Temple of the Sun,” where the man vowed his love to his bride-to-be. They then walked to the Stenness Stones where she would do the same. Then, from opposite sides of the Odin Stone, the couple knelt, placed their hands through the opening of the stone and declared their love to each other. This wedding rite was as binding as any mortal law.

The Ring of Brodgar, The Stenness Stones, and The Odin Stone are often referred to as “The Wedding.”

This particular stone was also associated with healing. Parents would often pass their small children through the opening, believing the magical powers of the stone cured and prevented illness. Similar stones have been found to have an unexplainable magnetic energy field surrounding them.

Odin Stone represents the mysterious forces and rarity of a blue moon. The gods, ever watchful in the heavens, fill the night sky. Blue, a healing color, honors that “something blue” in modern wedding traditions.