Obsidian Crystal Benefits & Uses

crystals

13 min read

Crystals and stones can help with many aspects of life. Many people find that they bring a sense of calm, inner peace, confidence, and other feelings they struggle to harness. Certain crystals have unique properties that make them helpful in reaching certain goals. For example, Amethyst is a protective crystal, quartz is balancing, and citrine inspires positivity. Black obsidian's properties make it a very desirable addition to any crystal or stone collection, too.

Obsidian is one of the most sought-after stones, and it’s easy to recognize thanks to its smooth, glossy surface. Physically, it’s a beautiful stone and quite unlike anything else. Its value comes from more than its beauty, though. Black obsidian crystal benefits are well-suited to help with many aspects of life. It can be powerful and influential - something you’ll want to keep in your collection. Once you have it on hand, you can rest assured that your obsidian gemstone has meaning in abundance, including black obsidian's metaphysical properties.

That’s easy enough to say, but what does obsidian mean? A simple definition is the easiest way to understand why it’s useful to have in your collection.

Obsidian Meaning - Obsidian is a protective stone that combats negative energies, relieves stress, removes emotional blockages, and inspires growth.

That short definition shows that black obsidian has uses that can aid anyone, regardless of what your current struggles look like. Who wouldn’t benefit from stress relief and less negativity? When you need a boost to get beyond the emotional struggles that are holding you back, you can reach for black obsidian as a helping hand. Keep reading to explore some of the most important aspects of this beautiful stone.

What Is Black Obsidian?

On a basic level, obsidian forms when lava from a volcano is rapidly cooled. It’s typically black in appearance, but some obsidian may have red or brown. It can also appear as gold sheen obsidian or have mottling that adds a gray, green, or yellow coloration. The properties of obsidian and the way it forms mean that it’s a type of volcanic glass.

The black obsidian crystal's benefits transcend its alluring physical appearance, although that alone would make it worthy of collecting. As mentioned previously, obsidian's metaphysical properties help to remove negativity, relieve pent-up emotions and blockages, reduce stress, and so much more. If you’re looking for help to move beyond difficult life events or you can’t seem to leave behind heavy feelings, an obsidian gem has meaning and power that can alleviate some of your struggles.

There are plenty of ways to reap these benefits and keep the stone close to you. Many people use obsidian in jewelry and it's used to create statues, sculptures, and other interesting pieces. You can use them throughout your home to absorb the negative energies that might be present there. Raw obsidian has a meaning, too. You can display it in your home or keep it on hand in its natural form.

Regardless of how you choose to use or carry obsidian, it can help you to move forward in your life and get beyond the gloom weighing you down.

What Does Obsidian Do?

This article will take a deep soul-healing dive into the most valuable obsidian stone benefits, including its positive effects on health and the best magical and metaphysical properties. Many other aspects make the stone an excellent tool for meditation, stress relief, and growth, too. Before delving into the specific properties and ways the stone is used, here’s a brief overview of the most exciting, impactful elements of obsidian.

Obsidian Stone Benefits

Different varieties of obsidian are used in various types of spiritual work. It can be very useful in grounding exercises since it helps reestablish the connection to your body and the Earth itself. If you’re seeking a way to be more “present” then incorporating obsidian into your life may prove helpful.

Additionally, obsidian can be useful in helping to explore your shadow and learn more about the parts of yourself that you’re prone to rejecting. It could also be useful in different dream-related activities and exercises, like lucid dreaming.

Obsidian Health Benefits

Black obsidian’s healing properties focus on relieving internal strife. It can eliminate and absorb unwanted energies that lead to poor physical and mental health. Constant stress and tension can break you down in several ways, so a powerful tool that helps you disperse those feelings and achieve calm will have an impact on your whole being.

Obsidian can also help you to purify and remove bad energy from your home or environment, too. After all, the body and mind are affected by their surroundings.

Does Black Obsidian Help You Spiritually?

black obsidian stone - Energy Muse

Your obsidian crystal has benefits that will prove invaluable to your spiritual journey. If you’re on a quest to feel better about yourself and make improvements to your mind and body as you move through life, an obsidian stone will have energy that boosts your ability to meet those goals. The magical properties of obsidian can be an aid in getting in touch with yourself and your spirituality.

Black obsidian's magical properties allow you to cleanse your mind and remove blockages of the spirit. Do you spend too much time locked away with your worries and can’t seem to free yourself from them? Negative, stressful preoccupations can eat away at your spirit and health. Doing what you can to eliminate or lessen their impact will have an uplifting effect on your life. Obsidian’s ability to help you do that makes it a powerful spiritual aid.

Feng Shui

Feng Shui is the practice of arranging your home and its contents to achieve balance. The end goal is harmony between you and your environment. When you’re at peace with your surroundings and have a sense of belonging and calm, you may feel a renewed sense of peace, happiness, and passion. Practicing good Feng Shui can also create a newfound sense of spiritual harmony.

Obsidian benefits you in many ways, but it is especially useful in Feng Shui because of its strong ability to absorb negativity. Too much dark, heavy energy in your home can make it hard to foster or form a connection with yourself and your spirituality. Removing it should be a priority, and placing black obsidian throughout your home can help to combat it. You can use the stone in its raw form or opt for pieces that are made of or contain obsidian.

Obsidian can help eliminate unwanted energies and ward off further negative energy from invading your home and your heart. It fits in perfectly with the very idea of Feng Shui.

Spiritual Cleansing

If you’ve never heard of spiritual cleansing before, the easiest way to explain it is by comparing it to detox. Instead of eliminating impurities from your body, you’re getting rid of the disrupting energies that weigh down your spirit. It’s a way to separate yourself from lower vibrational energy and reach for something higher.

The obsidian stone has protective properties that make it ideal for spiritual cleansing and freeing yourself of the things that are pulling you down. That could be something literal like divorce or a relationship that ended, losing someone important to you, or traumas that you can identify. It could also be a sense of darkness that you can’t seem to shake off on your own. Whatever the case, if there’s something in your life (even if it’s just a feeling) that you can’t seem to separate yourself from, try cleansing with obsidian for a healthier, happier, more free spirit.

Does Black Obsidian Have Healing Properties?

It’s well-documented that stress alone can cause a whole host of health problems. Issues can range from physical problems such as heart disease and obesity to struggles with mental health like depression and increased anxiety. Eliminating and reducing stress is a sure way to increase your health and black obsidian's healing properties allow you to do exactly that.

By incorporating obsidian crystal benefits into your routine, regardless of the way you choose to do it, you can enjoy a myriad of improvements to your health. Obsidian is uniquely suited to creating a stress-free environment and will help you to let go of past traumas, troubles, and tribulations that continue to drag you back down. By reducing the amount of stress you feel daily, your physical and mental health will improve.

The black obsidian stone has a meaning rooted in the idea of healing. As defined at the very beginning of this article, it can offer stress relief and removal of the negative energies that continue to cause it. That facilitates both physical and spiritual healing.

Grounding

Obsidian provides a grounding effect that is unmatched. It facilitates forging a connection to yourself and the Earth, allowing you to focus on what is most important and desired in your life. By using the stone in meditation and focus exercises, you can tap into obsidian’s magical properties and get in touch with your body again. By feeling your body’s unique energy, you’ll be better able to forge it into something positive and light.

Sleep

Achieving a sense of inner calm and ridding your environment of unpleasant and undesired energy (through Feng Shui or other practices) often means you’ll get better sleep. Tapping into the obsidian properties that promote high vibrations means you’ll be able to rest soundly and allow your body and mind to recover at the end of each day. Good quality sleep is an excellent way to start things off fresh and positive each time you wake up, and doing so will have a profound impact on your health.

Black Obsidian & Chakra Work

Obsidian and chakra healing go hand-in-hand. If you’re working on balancing your chakras, you can use obsidian to open your sacral and base chakras (otherwise known as the Root Chakra). It’s useful for cleansing and correcting your energy alignment.

If you’re dealing with specific concerns, black obsidian can help you cut out bad habits, as it helps cope with your darker, more shadow-oriented side. If you overeat, drink, smoke, or have another habit you want to kick, obsidian can be a highly useful tool.

How to Make Obsidian Work for You

Now that the magical properties of black obsidian, its health benefits, and spiritual effects have been explored in some depth, it’s time to focus on how to harness those obsidian crystal benefits for yourself.

Because obsidian is a type of volcanic glass, it can be used in different types of crafting. It’s naturally non-porous, which makes it easy to clean and care for once it’s polished. Working with obsidian is fairly easy, too, as it can be shaped with diamond-tipped tools made into wearable jewelry. It’s sharp when it breaks or shatters, so it’s also frequently been used for weapons like knives and arrowheads.

Since obsidian occurs around volcanic areas, it’s simple to acquire. Older obsidian is rare, but there are benefits to be gained from the stone regardless of when or where it was formed.

Regardless of the form obsidian goes on to take - whether it’s used in a statue, something you wear, or simply left in its raw form - it will continue to carry its special properties. With that said, obsidian can be shaped in ways that add additional value and meaning to the already impressive stone.

Obsidian Star Meaning

Stars have come to symbolize a great many things in spirituality. They’re often seen as symbols of guidance and finding light amid the darkness. This makes the star a perfect pairing with obsidian, which allows you to accomplish the same thing. Obsidian can aid you in exploring your shadow self and casting off the darkness that pulls you down. Obsidian that has the shape of a star could double that effect - lending you more strength than either symbol alone.

Obsidian Sphere Meaning

An obsidian ball's meaning emphasizes the grounding properties of the stone. A sphere made with obsidian is a helpful tool if you feel untethered or are trying to get back to yourself. The shape brings out the most mystical and mysterious properties of black obsidian and can help imbue your environment with the higher energies you’re seeking, as well as reestablish your connection with the earth.

Benefits of Wearing Black Obsidian

Obsidian gemstone jewelry is incredibly popular, and several things make it desirable to wear and work with. The obsidian stone properties that make it so visually appealing also mean it’s easy to turn into necklaces, bracelets, earrings and any other type of jewelry an artist or jeweler wants to create. It’s also an easy stone to care for. It can be polished with water, unlike many porous crystals that need more painstaking maintenance.

It has already been explained that black obsidian can be very useful in achieving Feng Shui in your home, but choosing to wear it and keep it close to your body has amazing benefits as well. It can be especially helpful if you’re using the obsidian crystal benefits oriented toward healing your body and spirit.

Certain types of obsidian jewelry have added benefits in much the same way as different shapes can emphasize particular elements of obsidian quartz meaning. Keeping the stone close to certain parts of your body can bring clarity in a more focused, determined way.

Obsidian Beads Meaning & Uses

Like the stone they’re made from, obsidian beads are rich in meaning and can be used to help the mind and body. Obsidian beads can be paired with other crystals and metals to enhance or add to the healing and magical energies present in the stone. Wearing obsidian beads is a way to invite in positive, cleansing energy and rekindle your connection with the earth, your spirit, and the good vibration we all strive to harness.

Obsidian beads are a fantastic way to harness black obsidian's positive detoxifying properties, too. The stone is said to aid with digestive problems and may even create a warming effect, making it useful for the entire body.

Obsidian Necklace Meaning & Purpose

obsidian necklace - energy muse

Earlier, it was stated that obsidian can be highly effective for chakra work and healing. A black obsidian necklace sits close to the throat chakra, or Visshuda chakra, which regulates communication and expressing your truths (among other things). Since one of the biggest benefits of obsidian is its grounding effect and cleansing, protective qualities, that can be useful in opening the throat chakra. Obsidian helps harness the power of your true self, and an open Visshuda chakra helps present that to the world.

Obsidian Bracelet Benefits for Health

While obsidian can give you a spiritual and emotional boost, wearing it as a bracelet can give added health benefits. Black obsidian can help improve symptoms of arthritis and joint pain, which many people feel in their hands and fingers. Keeping obsidian could lessen some of those troublesome issues.

Wearing black obsidian as a bracelet also keeps the stone close to the palm chakra. The palm chakra, which is present in both hands, is a minor chakra associated with energy healing and regeneration. By this point, it’s likely obvious how obsidian could be beneficial for those goals. Obsidian is a strongly protective stone and is frequently used to remove negative energy, which would pave the way for healing and regeneration.

Final Thoughts

obsidian stone - energy muse

If you’re searching for a new crystal to bring into your life, you can’t go wrong with black obsidian. Everyone can do with reducing stress, removing negative energy, and getting on a path of growth.

FAQS

Black obsidian has many benefits to be explored. If you have questions about the mysterious obsidian stone and its meaning, you’re not alone. Below are some of the most commonly asked questions about its abilities.

What is Obsidian Used For?

There are metaphysical properties of obsidian and physical components that make it ideal for meditation, healing exercises, sculpting, making jewelry, creating art, and many other things.

The healing power of black obsidian shines when it’s used in jewelry. It can sit close to important chakras of the body as a necklace, bracelet, ring, or anything else you’d like to wear. That proximity makes it easier for the stone to dispel negative energy and achieve a balance between your mind, body, and spirit.

Black obsidian can also be a formidable tool in Feng Shui. It acts as both a cleansing force and a ward - ridding your space of unwanted energy and keeping it out. Black stones are linked to the water element in Feng Shui, and enhancing the water element is supposed to open your life up to business and career opportunities, increased wealth, and success in life.

Obsidian is frequently used for art and sculpture, too. Certain symbols can enhance the effects of the volcanic stone. For example, an obsidian Buddha's meaning seamlessly blends the symbolism of the Buddha statue with the most desirable qualities of black obsidian. It promotes inner peace, spiritual cleansing, and positivity.

What Are the Health Benefits of Black Obsidian?

Many of the most effective obsidian healing properties relate to its positive influence on mental health. It plays out as a kind of domino effect. Black obsidian removes negative influences from your life and increases positivity and self-awareness. As a result, you’re less stressed. Many physical and mental ailments are the result of stress - from heart disease to anxiety - and alleviating it in a major way can drastically alter your overall health.

Its effect on stress isn’t all the stone is capable of, though. Obsidian crystals have meaning and use that stretches beyond lifting spiritual and emotional burdens. It always helps with specific physical ailments. Do you suffer from digestive issues? You could benefit from keeping obsidian close by, using it in healing exercises, or including it in meditative practices.

As mentioned in the portion of the article focusing on jewelry, black obsidian can also improve outcomes for people who suffer from arthritis and joint pain. Those ailments can be debilitating, and black obsidian is powerful enough to provide some relief from the symptoms.

Obsidian can also help relieve menstrual cramps, enhance circulation, and even improve vitamin absorption. It’s an incredibly versatile stone and is as useful as it is beautiful.

In addition to healing the body, black obsidian has metaphysical properties that make it ideal for spiritual cleansing. Recovering, reestablishing, or even forging a new connection between your body and spirit can have a profound effect on your overall health. When you reach those higher vibrations and harness positive energy, you feel better everywhere.

Is Obsidian Good Luck?

The gorgeous obsidian rock's meaning is tied to luck more than most other stones. It’s considered to be one of the luckiest crystals of all! Black obsidian has a heavy association with financial gain and increased fortune.

The good luck properties of obsidian are present when it's used in Feng Shui. This was briefly touched upon earlier. Black crystals and stones like obsidian represent the element of water. In Feng Shui, that element is tied to financial success, opportunities, growth, and all the aspects of life that black obsidian helps with.

With that said, if you’re looking to attract new personal or professional opportunities into your life, find a way to incorporate obsidian into your home and rituals, or you can wear it. Its energy is powerful enough that you’ll soon find your own answer to this question.