The pebble key

In my last post, "Clavis avis, clavis Dav'is," I noted that I had posted an image of a bird with a small golden key in a post called "Update: Some additional pebbles have been seen," and I connected this with a scene in Johnny English Reborn in which Johnny compares the "small key" that will allow him to defeat his enemies with the "pebble" that brought down Goliath.

Joseph Smith's Seer Stones, by Michael Hubbard MacKay and Nicholas J. Frederick, quotes two sources that refer to the seer stones or spectacles as pebbles. Lockwood R. Doty describes the Prophet's discovery of his white seer stone thus:

Soon after locating here the Smiths, father and son, were employed by Clark Chase to dig a well. While engaged in this work, a white, glossy pebble, resembling a human foot in shape was found. The future prophet kept the pebble and soon pretended to have discovered that it possessed supernatural powers. In the pebble he claimed to discern happenings in distant places and to read the course of future events. This pebble became known as the "peek stone."

And David Whitmer gives this description of the specs:

In translating from the plates, Joseph Smith looked through the Urim and Thummim, consisting of two transparent pebbles set in the rim of a bow, fastened to a breastplate. He dictated by looking through them to his scribes.

In Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir, edited by Lavina Fielding Anderson, the Prophet's mother calls the specs a "key":

I trembled so with fear, lest all might be lost . . . . Joseph saw this, and said, "Do not be uneasy, mother, all is right -- see here, I have got a key."

I knew not what he meant but took the article of which he spoke into my hands, and, upon examination, found that it consisted of two smooth three-cornered diamonds set in glass, and the glasses were set in silver bows, which were connected to with each other in much the same way as old fashioned spectacles . . . .

That of which I spoke, which Joseph termed a key, was indeed, nothing more nor less than the Urim and Thummim (pp. 378-39, 389). 

Thus is the same object called both "pebbles" and "a key." The Doctrine & Covenants also associates a white stone with the Urim and Thummim and with the language of keys:

Then the white stone mentioned in Revelation 2:17, will become a Urim and Thummim to each individual who receives one, whereby things pertaining to a higher order of kingdoms will be made known; and a white stone is given to each of those who come into the celestial kingdom, whereon is a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. The new name is the key word (D&C 130:10-11).

As mentioned in my last post, syncs have often involved a pair of keys: one associated with red and gold; the other, with white, green, and silver. The first is the Rosary, while the identity of the second remains speculative. In the quotations above, though, the seer stone is white and specs are set in "silver bows." (A "bow" is also part of a key.)

The pebble-key link might also have something to do with Peter, whose name means "stone" (considered by some commentators to mean specifically "pebble"). As Matthew tells it, he receives with this name the promise of keys:

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matt. 16:18-19).