Obsidian Mirror

Today, the British Museum owns the mirror, which is on display in London alongside two similar circular obsidian mirrors and a rectangular obsidian slab that may be a portable altar, reports Tom Metcalfe for National Geographic. Researchers had previously suspected that the artifacts originated with the Aztecs, and the new study confirms this chemically.

The Aztecs used obsidian for medicinal purposes and viewed its reflective surface as a shield against bad spirits. The volcanic glass was also associated with death, the underworld, and capturing the image and soul of a person.

According to Garry Shaw of the Art Newspaper, Dee may have bought the mirror in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic) in the 1580s. By that time, he was becoming increasingly interested in the occult practices of mediums who supposedly used mirrors and crystal balls to communicate with angels and other supernatural beings.

Natural Obsidian Magical Obsidian Mirror Face Aztec Calendar - Sun Stone Back Glossy/Smooth Beautiful Large Magical Mirror 24cm Diameter.Diameter: 24 cmThickness: 0.9 cm (individual mirrors may vary slightly approx. +- 2 mm)Country of origin: MexicoColor: black, opaqueThe front side is carved - Aztec calendar motif, the back side is polished and smooth. The mirror also comes with a stand.

Since the Paleolithic and Neolithic, obsidian has been used to make tools, mainly scrapers, spearheads or knives. The oldest archaeological find documenting the use of obsidian dates back to Mesopotamia about 9000 years ago. In South America, it was used by Native American tribes as protection against evil forces, and preserved objects made of obsidian have been preserved. To this day, magical properties are attributed to him.

Other obsidian mirrors also found their way to European collectors following the fall of the Aztec Empire, the most famous of which belonged to John Dee, an astronomer, occultist and alchemist at the court of Queen Elizabeth I.

The mirror has been many things; a gateway in time, a source of power in the future, and the obsession of more than one man. Venn believes he can use the mirror to recover something precious he has lost. Sarah knows that the mirror is capable of terrible things.. Jake Wilde knows only that his father.. disappeared, and is determined to learn the truth.First in a series, OBSIDIAN MIRROR is a spell-binding maze of mystery-filled pages full of unexpected twists and turns that will draw readers in like a black hole. The narrative follows the cast of intriguing characters, moving seamlessly to give the novel perfect pace. Fisher combines elements from the genres of fantasy, steampunk and dystopian.. fans of Incarceron will be enthralled with this must-read title..VOYA (starred review), Jan 2013

Scrying mirrors have traditionally been used as a divination tool. These Black Obsidian Scrying Mirrors can help reveal clairvoyant abilities to help you look into past lives, and your past, present, and future.

The Obsidian Mirror is an apparent NightWing animus-touched, oval-shaped piece of glittering black obsidian. Greatness was supposed to use it to spy on the RainWings, but did not, due to the fact that she did not trust any items created by animus dragons. It is said to not have performed as well after something may have been done to it by Stonemover. In The Brightest Night, Sunny described it as a kind of horrible, sick, slithering sensation through her blood, as if it were pulling something out of Sunny's heart. She said it has a chilling wrongness to it, like the NightWing tunnels, that made Sunny's scales feel as if invisible spiders were crawling all over her. There is a theory that the mirror was enchanted by Darkstalker, as in Moon Rising he says "Enchant this mirror to spy on whichever dragon I choose" as an example of a spell.

It can be activated by saying the name of the dragon that you want to see, then by breathing smoke onto it. The dragons appear as colored tendrils of smoke, making vision unclear, but voices and background noises can be heard perfectly clear. In order to end the connection, one must breathe fire over the surface of it, so this makes it impossible for IceWings, RainWings, SeaWings or any of the Pantalan tribes to use the mirror, as they cannot breathe smoke or fire.

Preyhunter salvaged it from the NightWing island before the eruption. The mirror was first used by Preyhunter to check if Glory and her friends had noticed that they had kidnapped Sunny. He stated that it didn't work as well as it used to, and that Stonemover may have done something to it before he disappeared. After she escaped, Sunny stole the mirror and used it to follow her captors to the desert. To keep it safe, she buried it in the sand before entering the Scorpion Den, following the NightWings. In the epilogue, Sunny tried to retrieve the mirror but she couldn't find it, not knowing whether it had been stolen or swallowed by the dunes.

Later, Qibli used it to check on Moon and Kinkajou, Turtle, Darkstalker, and Tsunami, who he finds is captured by an unknown dragon (later revealed to be Foeslayer). When they headed off, Qibli left the mirror with Thorn.

The Obsidian Mirror is an ancient and supernatural mirror that was created by the creator god Tezcatlipoca. The Obsidian Mirror acts like a mirror which shows an individual what would they look like with their potential unleashed. It appears as a circular finely polished mirror made out of obsidian material.

After saying "I submit to the Obsidian Mirror," in the language of the Aztecs, the individual will be given the power promised. The mirror also appears to possess some kind of sentience, being able to show visions of a future in which it submitted to its power to an individual, once they asked why would they submit to its power.

The mirror is also capable of reverting the state of its users if they look into the mirror a second time, taking their powers from them. However, mental or physical side-effects might remain. The enhancements provided by the Obsidian Mirror diminish both over time and with exertion.

Archaeologists from the University of Manchester have just completed a new analysis of several alleged Aztec artifacts currently on display at the British Museum in London. Of special interest was a shiny black obsidian mirror, which belonged to the famed 16th century magician, scientist, court advisor, and occult devotee John Dee . After completing a high-tech geochemical analysis of this object, the archaeologists were able to confirm that the mirror in question did come from Mexico, and was in fact manufactured by a skilled Aztec artisan.

There was never any question that the mirrors at the British Museum were made based on Aztec designs . This was confirmed by extensive Aztec imagery that features drawings of these mysterious black mirrors, often in association with the Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca. But there was no direct proof they had come from Mexico or had been made by Aztec artisans. They could have been replicas made in Europe, and later incorrectly passed off as actual Aztec artifacts.

To confirm their authenticity, University of Manchester archaeologists Stuart Campbell and Elizabeth Healey performed a geochemical analysis of the obsidian used to make the mirrors. With a high-tech piece of equipment known as a portable X-ray fluorescence analyzer, they were able to create a detailed geochemical profile for each of the four obsidian mirrors they studied. They then performed the same tests on obsidian samples obtained on loan from the University of Missouri, which included rock mined from four separate ancient Aztec quarries in southern and central Mexico.

As the archaeologists explain in an article in the journal Antiquity, this comparison between geochemical signatures closed the case. X-ray fluorescence proved that the four mirrors were made from obsidian that had been mined in Mexico.

As Aztec lore makes clear, the shiny black mirrors held at the British Museum belong in the latter category. The Aztecs believed these mirrors could open doorways into other dimensions in space and time, where trained minds could travel seeking contact with spirits and knowledge about the afterlife and the underworld.

These special mirrors could also be used to predict the future. The god Tezcatlipoca was renowned for his prophetic abilities, and depictions of Tezcatlipoca would inevitably show him wearing several circular black mirrors on different parts of his body. Aztec shamans and others who worshipped this deity may have gazed into these circular mirrors for extended periods, attempting to enter altered states of consciousness that would allow them to see into the future to determine their individual fate, or the fate of the Aztec people.

John Dee himself never wrote about the Aztec mirror. But he did write about his interest in spirit communication with deceased humans and with angels, and also about his interest in prophecy and divination.

The idea of personal mirrors as tools for self-monitoring presupposes that a great deal of people have access to them. At least in the developed world, this is an empirical truth because mirrors are visibly commonplace. But how did this come to be?

Reflective surfaces made of polished obsidian are the oldest "mirrors" in the archaeological record, dating back as far as 4000 BCE. The first evidence of mirrors as grooming tools dates to the 5th century BCE, in illustrations of elegant Greeks gazing at hand mirrors (these illustrations are found on antique pottery). These mirrors, made from a polished metal disk attached to a handle, did not contain any glass. The first real glass mirrors in the record are from the 3rd century AD, consisting of extremely small (a few square inches) concave or convex metal surfaces with glass coatings. The size and style of these early mirrors leads many archaelogists to believe that they were used as jewelry or amulets rather than for personal grooming (Melchoir-Bonnet 12). 2b1af7f3a8