Also called volcanic glass, Apache tears, smoking mirror, lapis obsidianus
Obsidian is natural volcanic glass, prized for razor-sharp blades and polished mirrors. The Aztecs tied obsidian mirrors to Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror, and John Dee's famous spirit mirror was Aztec obsidian. Today people treat it as a protective and truth-revealing stone.
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Take care: Broken obsidian is sharper than a razor, so handle raw pieces with care and keep them from children. If mirror-gazing leaves you anxious or you have a history of dissociation or psychosis, skip this practice.
Tezcatlipoca, whose Nahuatl name means Smoking Mirror, was a god of sorcery, rulership and night, often shown with an obsidian mirror. Priests used polished obsidian mirrors to see visions; the dark surface was said to show smoke clearing to reveal distant places or times.
Uses: polished obsidian mirror
John Dee, adviser to Elizabeth I, owned a round polished obsidian mirror now in the British Museum, labelled in later notes as the black stone into which he called his spirits. A 2021 geochemical study in Antiquity traced its obsidian to Pachuca in central Mexico, confirming it came from the Aztec world.
Uses: obsidian mirror
Small rounded obsidian nodules from the American Southwest are sold as Apache tears, with a legend about the grief of Apache women. The stones are real, but the story is a modern tourist-trade tale and is not an Apache religious teaching; treat it with respect and do not present it as Native tradition.
Uses: obsidian nodule
Obsidian forms when silica-rich lava cools too fast to crystallise, leaving natural glass. Stone Age people across the world knapped it into blades sharper than steel, and Mediterranean obsidian from islands such as Lipari was traded widely. Pliny the Elder named lapis obsidianus after a man called Obsidius, who he said found it in Ethiopia. In Mesoamerica obsidian edged the macuahuitl war club and was polished into mirrors linked to Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror.
After the Spanish conquest, obsidian mirrors travelled to Europe, and the one owned by the Elizabethan magus John Dee is now in the British Museum. A 2021 study in Antiquity matched its glass to Pachuca in Mexico. Modern crystal practice treats obsidian as a stone of protection and hard truths and uses black mirrors for scrying. Crystal healing has no scientific support: in a 1999 Goldsmiths experiment by Christopher French and colleagues, volunteers holding fake crystals reported the same sensations as those holding real quartz. Much cheap rainbow or coloured obsidian is actually man-made slag glass, and black glass is often sold as obsidian.
Gazing into a clear sphere of glass or quartz until images seem to form, then reading what you see. Famous from John Dee's angel sessions and the Victorian parlor, it is a form of scrying.
Gazing into a dark, still surface, a black mirror or a bowl of water, until images or impressions rise. Used to ask questions and to quiet the mind.
Mirror magic uses a reflective surface either to turn harm back outward, to look inward or into the unseen, or to work on yourself. It ranges from the Chinese bagua mirror over a door to the dark scrying mirror and the modern self-love mirror spell.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
