Seer Stones

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Seer Stones

280 Primary Sources

Photograph of a brown, 5.5 cm seer stone associated with Joseph Smith — A photograph of a seer stone published by the Church in 2015.

What is a seer stone?

A stone used by practitioners of folk magic to "see" hidden things like missing objects or treasures.[1] Joseph Smith used a seer stone to assist in revelation.[2]

How is a seer stone different from the Urim and Thummim?

A seer stone is just a single stone, whereas the Urim and Thummim[3] (also referred to as "Nephite interpreters")[4] are described as being two transparent stones[5] set in a "silver bow"[6] and were referred to as "spectacles."[7]

Biblical scholars define the Urim and Thummim from the Old Testament[8] as a pair of objects used to answer questions by revelation or divine the will of God.[9]

Where did Joseph Smith find the seer stone?

Joseph had multiple seer stones—possibly up to five.[10] He reportedly discovered one near Lake Erie[11] and uncovered another while digging a well for the Chase family.[12]

Brigham Young said Joseph also “found two small stones on the beach in Nauvoo.”[13] A late source claims Joseph bought one of his stones from another seer.[14]

So are they just regular rocks?

Yes, probably.[15] Joseph used his seer stones to give blessings and to find missing people and objects,[16] so they seemed to have some religious significance to them.[17] The Church has at least one seer stone that it has photographed for public display[18] and it appears to be just a rock.[19]

Wasn't the "seer stone" really a type of "peep stone" which was something that was used in folk magic at the time?

Yes. Seer stones, peep stones, seeing glasses, divining rods, etc., were relatively common in Joseph Smith's day.[20] People used these objects to hunt for treasure or lost items and to divine hidden knowledge.[21] At the time, many people thought this kind of folk magic was compatible with Christianity.[22][23]

What did Joseph Smith use seer stones for?

Various sources[24] report that Joseph used seer stones to receive revelation,[25] translate the Book of Mormon,[26] uncover hidden objects and/or people,[27] and possibly even translate the Book of Abraham.[28]

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280 Primary Sources

Footnotes

BIOSarah "Sally" Chase
Sarah "Sally" Chase was a nineteenth-century Palmyra, New York resident and a sister of Willard Chase. She was an early associate of Joseph Smith. Chase was known to possess and use a seer stone to search for hidden things, including treasure. She claimed to see visions when placing a small green stone in a hat.
BIOHiram Page
Hiram Page (1800–1852) was born in Vermont and married into the Whitmer family in 1825. He was one of the Eight Witnesses of the gold plates in June 1829 and was baptized in 1830. That same year, Page claimed to receive revelations for the Church through a seer stone, but denounced these alleged revelations in response to a revelation from Joseph Smith. Page helped found the city of Far West in 1836 and eventually left the Church in 1838.
BIOEdwin Rushton
Edwin Rushton (1824–1904) was born in Leek, England. He joined the Church there and immigrated to Nauvoo, arriving in 1842. Rushton headed west with the Saints in 1846. He also claimed to have met a Cain-like figure in Nauvoo in 1847. Rushton is best known for being the source of the "White Horse Prophecy." He owned a seer stone that he said he found in Nauvoo that could give him a vision of where the tribes of Israel were "beyond the ice."He worked as a miller, farmer, and stock raiser until his death in Salt Lake City at age eighty.
[1]↩︎
In his discussion on the magical world, Elias Ashmole, a historian and alchemist, wrote in 1692 about how seer stones are used to find any missing person in the world.
In 1801, occultist Francis Barrett gave instructions for how someone could use a seer stone to find treasure.
- Elias Ashmole discusses Belief in "Angellical Stones" which can result in objects being found.
- Francis Barrett describes how a man can use a stone to find treasure.
[2]↩︎
Orson Pratt said that "sometimes Joseph used a seer stone when enquiring of the Lord, and receiving revelation."
David Whitmer recalled an instance where he forgot the names of inns and Joseph used his seer stone to locate them.
Isaac Hale reported that Joseph translated the Book of Mormon with a seer stone as well.
[3]↩︎
Joseph recorded finding the Urim and Thummim in the stone box where the plates were found:
"I looked in and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummin and the Breastplate as stated by the messenger"
- Joseph recalls his recovering the Urim & Thummim.
[4]↩︎
Both Oliver Cowdery and William Phelps referred to the translation instrument as Nephite interpreters, explaining that it was another name for the Urim and Thummim.
- W.W. Phelps calls Joseph's translation instrument "Nephite Interpreters."
- Oliver Cowdery says Joseph used the Nephite Interpreters to translate the BOM.
[5]↩︎
The Philadelphia Album and Richard McNemar described Joseph as translating the Book of Mormon with two transparent stones. The reporter in The Philadelphia Album named the two transparent stones as the Urim and Thummim. It's possible, but unclear if these stones in the spectacles are seer stones.
- The Philadelphia Album reports that Joseph used two clear stones to translate the Book of Mormon.
- Richard McNemar writes in his journal that Joseph translated with two transparent stones and a hat.
[6]↩︎
Parley Pratt described how Joseph used two stones set in a silver bow to translate the Book of Mormon.
Joseph himself also stated that the translation instrument was two stones set in a silver bow.
- Parley Pratt described Joseph translating the BOM with "two transparent stones, clear as chrystal."
- Joseph comments on translation process: he used the Urim and Thummim by the power of God.
[7]↩︎
Jesse Smith, in one of the early references to Joseph's translation, called the instrument "spectacles." Hadley and The Cleveland Whig also called this instrument "spectacles."
[8]↩︎
In Numbers 27, God instructed Moses to use the Urim and Thummim to receive revelation.
In 1 Samuel, Urim is referenced when Saul consults the witch of Endor after he is unable to receive revelation through the Urim and other methods.
- God commands Moses to use the Urim to receive revelation.
- Saul consults a witch after using the Urim did not work.
[9]↩︎
Non-Latter-day Saint biblical scholars have discussed the Urim and Thummim and its role in the divination process.
For example, in 2011, Jeremiah Unterman described the use of the Urim and Thummim in the Bible for revealing God's will.
In 1907, Thomas Kelly Chenye wrote about the same, specifically noting 1 Samuel.
- Jeremiah Unterman describes the use of the Urim and Thummim in the Bible.
- Thomas Kelly Cheyne places the use of the Urim and Thummim in the context of divination.
[10]↩︎
As recorded in 1855 meeting minutes, Brigham Young said:
Oliver sent me Joseph's first seer stone, Oliver always kept it until he sent it to me - the second seer stone Dr. Williams had - the third one was a very large. Joseph found two small ones on the beach in Nauvoo - a little larger than a black walnut without the shock on.
- B. Young discusses J. Smith's five seer stones.
[11]↩︎
William Purple, a Mason who took notes at Joseph's trial, recalled:
[Joseph Smith] said that the stone was under the roots of a tree or shrub as large as his arm, situated about a mile up a small stream that puts in on the South side of Lake Erie, not far from the New York and Pennsylvania line.
- Chenango Union publishes William D. Purple's notes on Joseph's 1826 trial.
[12]↩︎
The Chase family, along with others, recalled Joseph finding the stone while digging a well.
Abel Chase, in an 1881 interview with James Cobb, indicated that Sally was a seer and that Joseph got his stone from their family's well. The Chase family lived near the Smith family.
[13]↩︎
Thomas Bullock recorded Brigham Young explaining how Joseph acquired the stones in a General Church Meeting on September 30, 1855. He recorded Brigham saying:
Joseph found two small ones on the beach in Nauvoo - a little larger than a black walnut without the shock on. Joseph Said there is a stone for every person on the earth.
- B. Young discusses J. Smith's five seer stones.
[14]↩︎
An 1873 account reported that Joseph bought "a green stone, with brown, irregular spots on it" from Jack Belcher.
Belcher was drawing salt in Salina, New York, and purchased the stone because he believed it had magical properties. In Blackman's recording of Buck's narration, Buck describes how Belcher would place the stone in a hat.
- Blackman records Buck narrating how Jack Belcher's stone ended up with Joseph.
- D. Michael Quinn discusses the folklore of Joseph's green stone.
[15]↩︎
Joseph Smith's brown seer stone appears to be a banded-iron jasper rock, commonly called a Genesis Stone.
Christopher Kirkland, in his article "The Surprising Geology of Joseph Smith’s Brown Seer Stone," noted:
Banded-iron jasper is a “secondary” or “trace” fossil (rocks that are evidence of life, but don’t contain any primary evidence, such as bones). They are evidence of one of the very first forms of life on earth: photosynthetic cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae.
- Christopher Kirkland discusses the geology of Joseph Smith's brown seer stone.
[16]↩︎
Joseph Knight wrote about how Joseph used glass in order to see Emma Hale when she was not directly present. Oliver Cowdery also reported that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim when he gave Newel K. Whitney a blessing.
- Joseph Knight recalls Joseph using "glass" to see Emma Hale.
- Oliver Cowdery says JS used the Urim and Thummim for Newel K. Whitney's patriarchal blessing.
[17]↩︎
Joseph analyzed Hiriam Page's seer stone, declaring that Hiriam was not appointed by God to use a seer stone at that time.
- JS declares to HP that his seer stone is not of God, that HP has been deceived.
[18]↩︎
These photographs are accessible on the Joseph Smith Papers website.
- Joseph Smith Papers website provides photos of brown seer stone.
[19]↩︎
In 1893 James E. Talmage, a trained geologist, examined a seer stone that Edwin Rushton claimed to have found in Nauvoo and found it “to be a piece of glass, plain and simple.”
B. H. Roberts gave his opinion that Joseph Smith’s brown stone “was radium or had been made radio active by contact with radium.”
- James E. Talmage examines stone for "unusual values."
- BHR examines JS's seer stone.
[20]↩︎
In nineteenth-century upstate New York, some people, in addition to Joseph, used seers stones to find objects (such as treasure). Sally Chase was reported by Saunders to have a seer stone. Individuals like Francis Barrett wrote manuals in 1801 to help others use seer stone.
- Lorenzo Saunders recalled how Sally Chase had a seer stone.
- Francis Barrett describes how a man can use a stone to find treasure.
[21]↩︎
Elias Ashmole and Francis Barrett both studied folk-magic and seer stones as near contemporaries to Joseph. They documented how people believed that seer stones could find missing people or objects such as treasure.
- Elias Ashmole discusses Belief in "Angellical Stones" which can result in objects being found.
- Francis Barrett describes how a man can use a stone to find treasure.
[22]↩︎
For example, historian Keith Thomas noted that, for the common people in the sixteenth century, the abilities of wizards, scryers, and other figures were attributed to be gifts from God:
[The common people] were more likely to believe that the cunning folk were taught by God, or that they were helped by angels, or even that they possessed some divinity of their own. The common people . . . assumed that the power of these wizards came by 'some extraordinary gift of God'.
Seventeenth-century historian Elias Ashmole wrote how English "folk magic" was seen as "natural and honest" as opposed to "devilish."
[23]↩︎
Latter-day Saint historians Michael McKay and Nicholas Frederick wrote:
The non-institutionalized characteristics of folk religion and the occult was rarely incorporated into genteel religion or declared publically, but those who participated did not firmly distinguish between their own Christian beliefs and the occult.
- Richard Turley et al. wrote about how Joseph used a seer stone.
- Michael Hubbard MacKay and Nicholas J. Frederick offer scholarly background on folk magic.
[24]↩︎
While there are many sources, these sources vary in reliability. For example, Parley Pratt and Orson Pratt, who both were close to Joseph during the translation, stated that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim during the translation, but they do not indicate that they saw him do this.
Howard Coray in a late letter wrote that Joseph used a seer stone.
[25]↩︎
Orson Pratt told the Millennial Star that "Joseph used a seer stone when enquiring of the Lord, and receiving revelations[.]" This included D&C 34. David Whitmer also recalls Joseph "look[ing] into the hat in which he placed the stone, and receiv[ing] a revelation."
Multiple sections of the Doctrine & Covenants were received through the "Urim & Thummim." Whether this refers to the Nephite interpreters or Joseph's personal seer stone(s) is difficult to determine.
In the preface to Newel K. Whitney's patriarchal blessing, Oliver Cowdery wrote, "The following blessing was given by president Joseph Smith, Jr. through the Urim and Thummim, according to the spirit of prophecy and revelation, on Wednesday, the 7th of October, 1835, and written by president Frederick G. Williams, who acted as clerk."
[26]↩︎
In 1834, Isaac Hale indicated that Joseph used a seer stone in the translation of the Book of Mormon. The Philadelphia Album and Oliver Cowdery both reported that Joseph used an instrument with two stones to translate the Book of Mormon.
[27]↩︎
Multiple sources mention Joseph Smith using the stone or "glass-looking" for money-digging, recovering lost property, and/or fortune-telling. Smith was even brought to trial in 1826 over these activities.
Joseph Knight's undated reminiscence says that the angel told Joseph to bring "the right person" to recover the plates. When Joseph asked who, Knight wrote: "The answer was you will know. Then he looked in his glass and found it was Emma Hale, Daughter of old Mr Hail of Pensylvany, a girl that he had seen Before, for he had Bin Down there Before with me."
In an interview, David Whitmer relayed:
The journey required about three days each way, and it was necessary to put up at inns on the way. David having forgotten the names of the inns and their proprietors, Joseph looked through the seer stone and told him them. Oliver Cowdery made a note of these, and by inquiry on the journey found that the Prophet had stated correctly.
[28]↩︎
Several accounts are explicit about the use of the "Urim & Thummim" in the Book of Abraham translation. Others are more implicit in suggesting that a "seeric" object was used.
For example, Howard Coray claims he saw Joseph "translate by the Seer's stone." However, Coray was baptized in 1840. Joseph's previous translation projects (i.e., Book of Mormon, JST) were complete by this time.
While Coray could be referencing another instance of translation (or perhaps just exaggerating), it is likely a reference to the Book of Abraham.
[29]↩︎
The Bible documented examples of God speaking to prophets using weird objects. In Exodus, God appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush to speak to him. In Numbers, God commands that Moses use the Urim to receive revelation. Later, in Acts, the apostles had cast lots in order to pick the new apostle.
[30]↩︎
When Joseph declares that Hiriam Page is not using his seer stone correctly, Joseph said "Behold those things have not been appointed unto him."
In Orson Pratt's discussion of spiritual gifts, he includes Joseph's translation of the Book of Mormon and Book of Abraham as a gift, echoing Joseph's earlier language around this.
- JS declares to HP that his seer stone is not of God, that HP has been deceived.
- Orson Pratt say JS translated the Book Of Abraham by the same power as the BOM (i.e., revelation).
[31]↩︎
Numerous people—including non-Mormons—are reported to have had seer stones, including Joshua Stafford, Sally Chase, Elias Pulsipher, Jack Belcher, Elizabeth Whitney, and others. Seer stone use continued throughout nineteenth-century Utah.
Some early Latter-day Saints may have been influenced by Joseph Smith's teachings on the matter. Brigham Young recalled Joseph Smith teaching that "that every man who lived on the earth was entitled to a seer stone, and should have one, but they are kept from them in consequence of their wickedness, and most of those who do find one make an evil use of it[.]"
Canonized instructions from Joseph Smith state that a "white stone is given to each of those who come into the celestial kingdom."
[32]↩︎
Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal that Joseph Smith "saw [his stone] while looking in another seers stone which a person had." William Purple recorded something similar in his 1877 reminiscence.
- Chenango Union publishes William D. Purple's notes on Joseph's 1826 trial.
- Wilford Woodruff records BY saying how JS found first stone.
[33]↩︎
William Purple says it was "a neighboring girl." Sally Chase was known to have a seer stone and Joseph would "often came to inquire of her where to dig for treasures."
However, another source simply identifies the individual as "a man" who used "a dark stone."
[34]↩︎
D&C 28 specifically responds to Hiram Page and his stone:
And again thou shalt take thy Brother Hyram Between him & thee alone & tell him that those things which he hath written from that Stone are not of me & that Satan deceiveth him for Behold those things have not been appointed unto him.
[35]↩︎
In 1911, Secretary of the First Presidency George Gibbs wrote that Young's daughter possessed a seer stone and could "see persons & animals & things in it at will."
- George F. Gibbs mentions one of Brigham Young's daughters having a stone.
[36]↩︎
An unsourced reprint created in 1937 gave an account of Rushton's vision and retrieval of his seer stone:
I was caught away by the spirit and taken away from my home on a frequented footpath across lots . . . the earth on the right side of my opened to the same depth and I beheld a pot of treasure on top of which was a record on plates...and on top of these a beautiful Seer Stone, clear as crystal, which belonged to me...After a lapse of sometime, I proceeded to hunt for the stone shown to me in vision. . . . We obtained the stone May 4, 1846.
[37]↩︎
For example, in Acts, apostles had cast lots to select the next apostle. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible detailed how casting lots was an accepted oracular, priestly practice at the time.
Numbers 27 narrated how Moses used the Urim for revelation. Jeremiah Unterman described the Urim as an accepted priestly practice as well.
[38]↩︎
Brigham Young detailed that Joseph found his seer stone by the well. At the time, as occultist and historian Francis Barrett reported, seer stones were used to find various objects. Historian Elias Ashmole had commented that folk-magic expanded throughout various communities, especially with respect to the belief that people would use seer stones to find other people. Alva Hale discussed how Joseph used his seer stone for "peeping" before translating the Book of Mormon with it. The folk-magic culture that Joseph grew up in seemed to correlate with his translation method.
[39]↩︎
These photographs were published in the October 2015 Ensign.
- Richard Turley et al. wrote about how Joseph used a seer stone.
[40]↩︎
Welden C. Andersen and Richard E. Turley Jr. took photographs of the stone and the photos were then published by the Church History Library.
- Joseph Smith Papers website provides photos of brown seer stone.