Description
Black obsidian dragon carving, sitting upright on a round base with the crest raised, the wings folded and the front feet set square. 8cm tall and 200g. The eyes are set rather than carved, which is why they catch light the way they do in the photographs.
Obsidian takes a polish that no other black stone quite matches. It is volcanic glass rather than a crystal, cooled too fast to form a structure, and the surface here runs from a deep gloss across the chest and face to a softer matte where the carving is textured across the crest and the back.
About this black obsidian dragon carving
This black obsidian dragon carving was photographed on its own and the piece in the photograph is the piece that arrives.
Obsidian carries its own surface character. Fine swirl, variation in gloss and the occasional lighter grey cloud through the body are normal in the material and are part of how it formed.
The base is flat and wide enough to stand unaided on a shelf, a sill or an altar. At 200g it is heavy enough that it does not shift if someone knocks past it, which matters more for a doorway piece than a shelf one.
What a black obsidian dragon means
Of the five stones this is the pairing that the older lore backs most directly. The black dragon in traditional reading stands for mystery, hidden knowledge and the underside of things. It is the one associated with the subconscious, with what has not been looked at yet, and with the encouragement to go and look anyway.
Obsidian is worked with for exactly that. It has a long association with truth telling and with shadow work, the honest and unglamorous business of meeting the parts of yourself you would rather not.
So the black obsidian dragon carving is a threshold piece. Doorways, the edge of a desk, the corner of an altar, the place where one room becomes another. A black obsidian dragon carving is a guardian rather than a stone you sit and hold, and it suits people who want something that keeps watch while they do the work.
Traditional practice also puts obsidian at the root, with grounding and with holding a line. If you are setting protection over a space rather than over yourself, this is the one of the five to reach for.
Correspondences are traditional and are offered as part of a practice, not as a substitute for medical or professional advice.
Caring for your black obsidian dragon carving
Obsidian sits around 5 on the Mohs scale, which is softer than quartz, and being glass it is brittle. It chips rather than scratches. A knock against a hard edge can take a piece off the crest or a wing tip, and a fresh break in obsidian is genuinely sharp.
Keep it off the edge of a shelf and away from anything that could fall on it. Move it by the body, not the crest.
Fingerprints show on the polish more than on any other stone here. A dry microfibre cloth lifts them. No polish, no oil.
The set eyes are fixed with adhesive. Avoid hot water and avoid soaking, which is good practice for the glass in any case.
Obsidian also holds cold. If the room is cool the piece will feel cold in the hand for a while, which is the glass behaving as glass rather than anything being wrong with it.
To cleanse, use sound, breath or moonlight.
What you receive
The black obsidian dragon carving shown in the photographs. Wrapped and posted by Royal Mail Tracked.
See the rest of the crystal carvings, or everything currently in stock in obsidian.
For the dragon in older material culture, the British Museum China collection holds jade and ceramic dragons going back to the Zhou dynasty.
