Black Obsidian Crystal: Meaning, Healing Properties, & Uses

Mariam Gudzuadze
18 Min Read

Black Obsidian is a naturally occurring igneous rock that is formed as a result of the rapid cooling of lava extruded from volcanoes. That being said, Black Obsidian carries powerful energies of transformation, strength, courage, and protection.

Due to Black Obsidian’s healing properties, it’s widely used in healing, grounding, and spiritual practices. 

As I’ve already tested the healing power of Black Obsidian crystals, I would love to share my knowledge as well as experience with any beginner crystal enthusiast out there.

By the end of this article, you would have learned more about the history, origin, symbolism, healing properties, and practical uses of Black Obsidian.

I’ll also teach you how to take proper care of your crystal to maximize its healing potential. 

Black Obsidian Crystal Properties

CrystalBlack Obsidian
ColorBlack
TextureGlassy
OriginVolcanic
RarityCommon
Chemical FormulaSiO2
Hardness on Mohs Scale5 – 5.5
Zodiac SignsSagittarius, Scorpio
ElementEarth, Fire
PlanetPluto, Saturn
ChakrasRoot Chakra
Crystal CombinationsBlack Tourmaline, Selenite, Hematite, Amethyst, Rose Quartz, Red Jasper

History and Origin of Black Obsidian

History and Origin of Black Obsidian

The discovery of Black Obsidian dates back to prehistoric times. At that time, early civilizations found volcanic glass or igneous rock that was formed when lava erupting from volcanoes was rapidly cooled.

Due to the nature of the rock, it’s hardly possible to tell when Black Obsidian was actually discovered. However, evidence shows that it had been widely used for various purposes by ancient people.

Back in the day, Black Obsidian was used for making weapons, tools, jewelry, and ornaments. In some cultures, Black Obsidian even had numerous spiritual meanings and was commonly utilized as a crystal for healing along with protection. 

Meaning and Symbolism of Black Obsidian

Black Obsidian has a rich history as a healing crystal, often being associated with different symbolic meanings that highlight its strength. Some common Black Obsidian symbolic meanings are:

  • Transformation
  • Purification 
  • Courage 
  • Resilience 
  • Strength
  • Protection
  • Grounding
  • Clarity
  • Spiritual insight
  • Divine wisdom
  • Self-reflection
  • Intuition
  • Psychic vision

While Black Obsidian is associated with numerous characteristics, they’re mainly connected to inner strength, spiritual wisdom, power of divination, transformation, and manifestation.

Black Obsidian Healing Properties

Black Obsidian Healing Properties

Black Obsidian has metaphysical and healing properties that make it a powerful stone for cleansing emotional, physical, and spiritual aspects of life. It is also helpful for activating and balancing the energy centers of your body, which in turn promotes overall well-being. 

Here’s how you can benefit from using a Black Obsidian crystal for healing, grounding, and protection. 

Emotional Healing Properties of Black Obsidian

Black Obsidian has helped me deal with a myriad of emotional issues that were negatively affecting my overall mental health. By having your Black Obsidian crystal nearby, you can receive the following emotional healing benefits:

Improved Emotional Stability

As Black Obsidian possesses strong grounding abilities, it can help you gain a sense of emotional stability. It also teaches you how to let go of past emotional traumas to boost your overall mental health. 

Ability to Practice Self-Reflection

Black Obsidian is a crystal of courage and transformation, which lets you evaluate your thoughts, perspectives, and desires to fully understand your emotional behaviors.

Black Obsidian healing properties make it an ideal stone for gaining a better understanding of who you are through a mental process called self-reflection.

Emotional Purification

If you ever feel that you need an emotional detox, consider using Black Obsidian for healing. It’s an excellent stone that pulls up your negative emotions, fears, anger, sadness, and anxiety to then clear them away. Black Obsidian acts pretty much as a reset switch for your emotions. 

Physical Healing Properties of Black Obsidian

Black Obsidian metaphysical properties make this stone suitable for improving certain issues related to your physical health. If you’re curious about the physical healing characteristics of Black Obsidian, here are some of the main benefits:

Releasing Toxins from Your Body

Along with giving you an emotional detox, Black Obsidian is capable of facilitating the release of toxins from your body. By supporting your body in the detoxification process, Black Obsidian stones enhance your overall physical health and well-being. 

Boosting Wound Healing Process

While your physical wounds will gradually heal on their own, the process is sometimes overwhelmingly painful.

Using Black Obsidian as a healing crystal will promote your body’s natural restoration processes to make wound healing much smoother.

Ensuring Restful Sleep

By relaxing your body and relieving muscle tension, Black Obsidian enhances your sleep quality. That said, if you have trouble falling or staying asleep, consider incorporating Black Obsidian stones in your healing rituals to finally get your well-deserved restful sleep. 

Spiritual Healing Properties of Black Obsidian

Spiritual Healing Properties of Black Obsidian

Black Obsidian is renowned for its spiritual healing benefits, especially for individuals who’re trying to awaken their inner psychic powers. 

Since I’ve personally used Black Obsidian to assist me as a healing crystal throughout my spiritual awakening journey, I guarantee that it’s one of the most powerful stones you can use for healing. Some of the Black Obsidian spiritual healing properties are:

Spiritual Grounding

Spiritual grounding is a practice that helps you improve your physical and emotional health by aligning your mind with your inner divine self. 

While there are a few easy techniques for getting grounded, Black Obsidian can actually make the grounding process much more effective and insightful. 

Enhancing Psychic Abilities and Intuition

Many crystals possess the power of enhancing your psychic abilities, Black Obsidian being one of them. Through its metaphysical properties, Black Obsidian supports you throughout your psychic development journey. 

That being said, Black Obsidian’s healing properties play an important role in strengthening your intuition and extrasensory perception. 

Divine Psychic Protection

Whether you’re just developing your psychic abilities or you’ve already unlocked your supernatural skills, protecting yourself against psychic attacks is crucial. 

Based on my personal experience, Black Obsidian is a powerful shield against psychic attacks and negative energy that you may encounter throughout your psychic or spiritual awakening journey. 

Energy Healing Properties of Black Obsidian

Black Obsidian is an ideal stone for chakra cleansing and alignment. While its energy-healing properties enable you to balance all energy centers of the body, Black Obsidian is mainly associated with the Root Chakra. The benefits of using Black Obsidian for energy healing include:

Healing the Root Chakra

Black Obsidian is associated with the Root Chakra, the energy center of the body which is responsible for providing the foundation for not only other chakras but also many different aspects of your life. 

By cleansing and balancing your Root Chakra using the Black Obsidian stone, you’ll develop a sense of security while being firmly connected to the earth. 

Purifying the Aura

When it comes to the energy-healing properties of Black Obsidian, we shouldn’t forget to mention its powerful aura-cleansing abilities. In fact, Black Obsidian is one of my absolute favorite crystals to use for purifying my auric fields. 

If you’ve noticed that your aura has been contaminated with random energies of other people, make sure to incorporate the power of Black Obsidian into your healing practices. 

How to Use the Black Obsidian Crystal for Healing

While there are many advanced crystal healing techniques, starting with more basic options will help you master the art of bringing stability and balance to different aspects of life through the power of crystals. 

For any crystal enthusiast out there, I’ll share 5 easy ways to use Black Obsidian crystal for healing. Feel free to choose the one that works for you best. 

Receive Healing by Wearing Black Obsidian Jewelry

First things first, wearing crystal jewelry for healing is one of the most popular ways to benefit from these precious gemstones. By simply utilizing Black Obsidian as a pendant, bracelet, or even a ring, you can receive healing and protection throughout the day. 

Black Obsidian jewelry can help you make important decisions with confidence or even protect you from any unpleasant situations you may face in life. 

Just Keep Your Black Obsidian Stone with You

As you may not always feel like wearing Black Obsidian jewelry, consider an alternative healing technique, which involves simply carrying the crystal with you. You can place Black Obsidian in your pocket or purse to enjoy the healing and balance it invites into your life. 

Create Good Feng Shui in Your Home and Office Using Black Obsidian Crystals

By arranging your space according to Feng Shui principles, you can bring balance, harmony, and peace to your daily life. In fact, you can even use crystals to create good Feng Shui, Black Obsidian being among the suitable options. 

By placing Black Obsidian stones in the center of each room, you’ll create a shield that protects you from any external negative influences. This will also make your spiritual awakening more insightful while enabling you to have clear psychic visions. 

Enhance Your Meditation Practice with Black Obsidian Crystal

Involving Black Obsidian in your meditation can help you refocus your intentions while giving you a sense of calm, balance, peace, and protection. 

To meditate with your Black Obsidian, you can simply hold it in your hand or just have it around. Even if you hold or focus on another crystal, keeping the Black Obsidian stone nearby will do wonders during meditation. 

Infuse Water with Black Obsidian Healing Properties

Since Black Obsidian ranks 5-6 on the Mohs scale, it’s safe to place the crystal in water. However, extended soaking is still not recommended as Black Obsidian is slightly softer than other healing crystals. 

To infuse water with Black Obsidian healing powers, you should place your stone in water for about an hour. Then let the crystal dry under natural sunlight to gain its true healing potential back. 

I personally like to spray crystal-infused water around my space or use it for washing my hands. As there are no rules about using crystal-infused water, you can do whatever works best for you, as long as you consider the chemical properties of the crystal to handle it safely. 

Caring for Your Black Obsidian Crystal

By taking proper care of your Black Obsidian, you’ll ensure that its healing properties are always on point. 

When cleaning Black Obsidian crystals, use warm soapy water or a damp cloth while being gentle. You should avoid using any brushes as Black Obsidian can be scratched pretty easily. 

Besides, keep harsh chemicals away from Black Obsidian as warm water and mild soap are totally enough to properly clean the crystal. 

FAQs

If there’s something else you’re curious about, here are the answers to frequently asked questions about Black Obsidian as a healing crystal. 

Q1. How to Tell If Black Obsidian Is Real?

The easiest way to tell if a Black Obsidian is real is by observing its color intensity, translucency, and density. 

Black Obsidian is a black or gray stone featuring brownish streaks. When looking at real Black Obsidian under the light, it shouldn’t look like black glass but instead show golden, brown, silver, and blue hues. 

True Black Obsidian crystals tend to be heavier (denser) when compared to fake Obsidian crystals, which are usually made of dyed glass. 

You can also do the scratch test to check if your crystal is real. Typically, Black Obsidian stones are scratched pretty easily as they are more on the softer side.

Take a look at this video to learn how to identify real and fake Black Obsidian bracelets.

Q2. Does the Black Obsidian Crystal Require Cleansing and Recharging?

Yes, you should cleanse and recharge your Black Obsidian from time to time to maximize its healing potential. This will clear any negative energy that they have absorbed while healing you. 

To recharge Black Obsidian, clean it thoroughly, then place it under the natural sunlight. Leave the crystal for at least a few hours to let it recharge itself with positive energy vibrations.

Q3. Can I Use Black Obsidian Elixir for Healing?

Crystal elixirs are widely used for boosting the healing properties of given stones. 

While Black Obsidian has lower toxicity than other crystals, I would not recommend consuming Black Obsidian elixir as it may still be hazardous to your health. 

Alternatively, you can use Black Obsidian crystal-infused water to receive all its healing benefits without actually drinking it.

Q4. What’s the Difference between Black Obsidian and Black Tourmaline?

Black Obsidian is often confused with Black Tourmaline while these two are completely different crystals. 

The main difference is that Black Obsidian has a smoother texture whereas the surface of Black Tourmaline is lumpier. 

In addition, Black Obsidian has a glassy reflective finish while Black Tourmaline features rough and grooved straight layers of silicate mineral.

Q5. Can I Use Black Obsidian with Other Healing Crystals?

Yes, you can absolutely pair your Black Obsidian with other crystals to receive an even broader variety of healing benefits. 

Some of the crystals that work well with Black Obsidian are Black Tourmaline, Selenite, Hematite, Amethyst, Rose Quartz, and Red Jasper. 

While you can also use other crystal combinations with Black Obsidian, these are some of the most powerful options I’ve been testing for years.

Summing Up

Black Obsidian is a crystal that has been used for making weapons, decorative items, and jewelry since ancient times. In various cultures and civilizations, Black Obsidian was also considered a powerful stone with exceptional healing, protective, and grounding energies. 

Although thousands of years have passed since then, Black Obsidian is still a popular healing option among professional healers, reiki masters, and crystal enthusiasts. It can heal your emotional traumas, improve your physical health, assist you during spiritual awakening, and cleanse your auric fields. 

By keeping an open mind and the right mindset, you can receive all the healing powers of Black Obsidian stones. Besides, simple healing techniques allow you to make the most of your Black Obsidian, even as someone who’s just getting the hang of how crystals work. 

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Mariam is a skilled writer with a strong interest in things beyond what we can see and touch, like supernatural abilities and unexplained events. She loves understanding how the universe works. After spending years learning about Tarot Cards, Crystals, Astrology, Numerology, and Palm Reading, she decided to use her writing to share what she's learned.