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Obsidian — meaning, properties & history
Obsidian
Volcanic glass traditionally used as a mirror for the shadow self.
Physical Characteristics
Associations
Healing Properties
- Protection
- Grounding energy
- Shadow work
- Space clearing
- Emotional release
- Boundary setting
Colour
About Obsidian
Volcanic glass traditionally used as a mirror for the shadow self.
History
Obsidian forms when lava cools too quickly to crystallise, leaving a natural glass that prehistoric peoples across the world knapped into the sharpest blades then available. Mesoamerican cultures held it in particular reverence: the Aztecs polished obsidian into scrying mirrors and linked it to Tezcatlipoca, the deity whose name means 'smoking mirror'. The same mirror tradition later reached Renaissance Europe, where a polished obsidian disc attributed to John Dee survives in the British Museum. The name descends from the Latin 'obsidianus', after a Roman named Obsius credited with bringing the stone from Ethiopia.