In much of folklore the holed stone is an important magical talisman used in protection against the evil eye and fairy mischief. When I say holed stone, I mean a large or small stone with a natural hole `worn through it from water, be it rainfall or stream. The circular pattern of the holed stone might have suggested the eternal in the same way as any other circular shaped pattern such as rings or wheels suggest eternity.
Such stones, if small enough, could be worn as a necklace and used as a talisman or charm to ward off witches and malicious fairies. Sometimes holed stones were hung over a doorway of houses, barns, and stables in much the same ways as horseshoes. Large holed stones were often seen as a potential doorways into the fairy realm and as symbolic pathways into the womb of the Great Mother (Nature). Thus such stoned were connected to both fairies and the Goddess.
In one of the pictures of a holed stone, the stone resembled a prop from the old Star Trek TV series, the episode with the time portal. I’m sure that it’s no coincidence. Many smaller holed stones were used as spindle whorls. And throughout the ancient world the practice of spinning was perceived as magical and even sympathetic magic with spinning and weaving being connected to the weaving of fate. The story of Arachne, the Mother of the Spiders, as prime example of a story of magical spinning.
At any rate, the holed stone was also a charm against the evil eye, since it also resembled an eye. Sometimes small holed stones are placed under a pillow to ward all nightmares. In the ancient world such a naturally formed stone could not help but seem to be the creation of fairies or other magical beings. If it took such effort to create a stone carving, and yet one could be found out in the natural world, how could it not be enchanted? I have even read of beliefs in divinity stones among the gypsies and Pennsylvania Dutch which I’m sure is likely relic to this ancient form of Stone Age Shamanism.