“All creatures, objects, places, and elements have a spirit.” Patrick Saltonstall, Sugpiag (Aleut)
Are rocks alive?
Hmm. You might be visualizing a small stone or large boulder just sitting there…doing nothing. If life has to originate from a cell, then a no vote seems reasonable. Let’s give the Mineral Kingdom a few minutes to speak on behalf of its constituents: “Our rocky friends react to temperature, expand and contract; they can absorb moisture, and they can transform their makeup entirely, like petrified wood changing into stone.
- Taxonomy – In the 19th . century, rocks and minerals were first classified based on their chemical make-up. As with animals and plants, new members are added yearly to the mineral kingdom’s nearly 10,000 species.
- Movement – Rocks sure move around, from riding glacier waves, to being catapulted for miles out of fiery volcanoes to being gently tumbled downstream by…streams, and through time, broken down into sandy beaches. Or, if you’re pumice, you can simply float downstream at your leisure.
Any pebble has placed many travel stickers on its luggage finding itself in many lands during its long life.
Stalagmites and stalactites check off another life form requisite by respectively growing up and down in caves with the help of slowly dripping water.
Rock serves us well in concrete, road building materials, sculptures, and stone homes, all making us Salt of the Earth. - Reproduction and Growth – Kidney stones are minerals and salts formed in urine. They form and grow in the bladder and kidneys. The imbalance of too many minerals in the urine and not enough liquid causes the minerals to reproduce and grow.
- Cooperation – Practically all living things rise out of soil, which is a mixture of organic and inorganic magic. Plants need both. Animals need minerals too. Salty seas cover a major chunk of our planet providing a swimming pool habitat to countless known and still to be known species
- Awe Inspiring – Rocks are the basis for our most beloved national, natural treasures, from the timeless Grand Canyon, to Yosemite’s granite walls, towering Mt. Rainier, the sandstone Arches, and the Grand Tetons, among many others. We are moved to witness sunrise and sunset light beaming red, and filtered white on mountain peaks. We climb boulders; we summit mighty bare rock and snow-covered mountains for the view, for the peace, perhaps for the love, too.
- The Fine Line – Everything that is living on our precious planet originated with and within the rocky world, making it a challenge to separate the line between non-life and existence. We are made of stars. We are made of star spirit.
A wildlife biologist/naturalist reflects on lithologic ‘life’, Bill Weiler, January 2026