ID my glass or crystal (obsidian?) ball

I was at an antique mall today, which is rare for me as I hardly ever find the time to go antiquing (like, once every 5-8 years!). While moseying around there was a corner stall with nothing else esoteric about it, but tucked in a bottom corner shelf I spied something that instantly drew me towards it. A perfectly round sphere on a brass/bronze stand, and when I picked it up, me and my son just oooohed at it.

Now, while I have loved stones since a child and dabbled in carrying stones for certain properties, I have never been into divination with them (but have been thinking about it the past couple months...) so have no experience with scrying stones or crystal balls. Regardless, the store was closing, I was out of town, and decided we had to take it home

My pessimistic side says its likely just a glass sphere, but I wanted to post some pics here to get some feedback from those who may know more. There is some iridescence to it that I only notice on one side (and after using flash on it, it shows up a LOT more!). I don't see any bubbles, the surface is immaculately smooth other than the tiniest chip/indentation in one spot. Also, there is a sticker it was made in Mexico, which I hear is a good obsidian source, but again guess it could still be glass.

I don't know the age on it either, but it measures 80mm in width, which seems a current standard size.

Flash (iridescent end):


No Flash (Mexico sticker):


On stand, no flash:


With flash, can see the teeny imperfection front and center just above the midline

It's beautiful Phenix! I would buy that even if I wasn't sure
I am sure there is people on AT better at me at looking at gem stones and crystals but just speaking about Obsidian generally....

Obsidian is actually classed as glass, it's from volcanic igneous rock rather than a precious gem stone or mineral. It naturally occurs from past lava flow.

If you search google for "Obsidian or Glass" there is many geology forum type places discussing how you find out which it is. We are not allowed to post to other forums here but it's worth looking for yourself. You can't be exactly sure which it is unless you read it with a mass spectrometer (that is so geology nerdy ).

from having a look online there is a few things that make it more likely to be Obsidian than glass but there is no definites -

- Glass is far more likely to have bubbles somewhere during manufacture. Obsidian can have bubbles but no bubbles means a greater chance it is Obsidian.

- light the ball from behind, glass (or glass glass) is transparent, Obsidian is translucent. The light will shine through but you cannot see through Obsidian and all the beautiful iridescence and marks on the sphere will show up and block the light coming through. A glass ball is different to that.

- Obsidian costs more than glass, glass is very cheap but that doesn't help from a vintage place.

- Certain places are good places for Obsidian (like you said). You can find it in any place which has had lava flows. Many states in America have it but South America is a great source from it and Western Mexico is a huge supplier of it! Outside of Mexico, Oregon and many African countries are the largest sources of it.

But reading geology forum posts, there is huge discussion and arguing over people's posting of pictures from experts! I think it's really hard to work out the difference and there is no simple answer or definites here

A beautiful obsidian with a cats eye - congrats, it's lovely!!!

A wild Rainbow Obsidian appears!

Nice find! Most spheres like that come out of Mexico, as your little sticker says. I love obsidian and have quite a few spheres, as well as a few stands similar to yours. Obsidian is often only semi-translucent. Most good carved specimens are opaque. You can tell it from black onyx by the lustre--onyx often looks waxy where obsidian looks vitreous or glassy.

One of my fave things is a tiger made from snowflake obsidian. It's opaque as most obsidian is, but the way they carved it, the snowflakes form the tiger's stripes. This came from China. I can tell by the carving style. It lives on my bookcase.

I live in AZ where obsidian is also abundant. Little pebbles are called Apache Tears for a reason. The local tribes made knives and arrowheads out of it, and if there wasn't enough, they'd trade with Mexican tribes for it.

Not sure what crystal it could be, but I agree, it IS beautiful!!! I absolutely LOVE it!

Now, no worries if it proves not to be a genuine crystal--if you are interested in scrying, you can STILL scry with it! You can scry with anything. and, I feel that if this beauty was calling to you--then it was meant to be yours and meant for you to try to scry with it.

I would advise you, (if you are still wanting to try scrying) to try scrying with this ball, rather then just allow it to sit there being pretty. You do not have to hold it, as it looks like it is probably very heavy. scrying balls, btw, do not have to be clear glass, and they do not have to be perfect--nothing is perfect anyway, right? I sometimes prefer those with some 'imperfections' as I feel it adds to the ball.

So, do sit quietly with your ball sometime, and see what it has to say to you. I feel this ball will be quite chatty with you, since you 'saved' it from life at the bottom of a shelf in the mall.

Mind you, when you first begin--don't spend too much time at it, as this is generally a skill you have to build upon. You do not have to stare into it either! blinking your eyes is normal-so don't think you have to stare w/o blinking!

The moment you begin to feel a headache or eye ache coming on, put the ball away for the day. Scrying can give you awful headaches--migraine type and eye aches and you do not need that! Take your time. You may not see anything at first--but keep at it maybe 10-15 minutes at a time when you can spend that with your ball.

Then, of course, post here with your experiences!!!

You are among some of the very lucky people to be so blessed with such a ball! I hope you enjoy it and find it very chatty for you in the years to come.

If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask here. I'm not a crystal ball expert by any means, but I do know a little about them and there are quite a few others who know even more then I do here. I am sure others here will jump in to help when you need it.

That is a beautiful item. You say you have knowledge of carrying crystals/stones so this really is a similar thing in my opinion the traditional 'Crystal Ball' is placed as an amplifier as in quartz crystal so in that sense knowing what you know about the crystal becomes amplified I guess with the size shape and focus etc.
I think it's a rainbow obsidian perfect for amplifying the Third Eye Chakra.

Allow a mineralogist to weigh in here: it's definitely obsidian.

It is gorgeous! Congratulations on your find. -Also the stand you have for it is really beautiful.

I concur....

Darkmage said:

A wild Rainbow Obsidian appears!

Nice find! Most spheres like that come out of Mexico, as your little sticker says. I love obsidian and have quite a few spheres, as well as a few stands similar to yours. Obsidian is often only semi-translucent. Most good carved specimens are opaque. You can tell it from black onyx by the lustre--onyx often looks waxy where obsidian looks vitreous or glassy.

One of my fave things is a tiger made from snowflake obsidian. It's opaque as most obsidian is, but the way they carved it, the snowflakes form the tiger's stripes. This came from China. I can tell by the carving style. It lives on my bookcase.

I live in AZ where obsidian is also abundant. Little pebbles are called Apache Tears for a reason. The local tribes made knives and arrowheads out of it, and if there wasn't enough, they'd trade with Mexican tribes for it.

Click to expand...

Looks like Rainbow Obsidian to me - I agree with Darkmage.

Thank you, thank you all for chiming in! I had a midterm the day after I posted, so apologize for the late followup, I have been recovering lol.

I very much appreciate the confirmation from all of you (and the gold star from the mineralogist, devilkitty!) on the obsidian. Even though I would still enjoy it if manmade glass, I do like to know the background of what I am working it, and this feels so special to me.

And I absolutely LOVE this little sphere to bits, and it has been growing on me since I brought it home. I have a feeling it wanted me to "rescue" it from it's dusty corner...and with the original sticker still on it, I think it has been wanting to actually be used! When I first got it, I kept thinking I saw hints of green and/or purple to it, which confused me...but when I shine a light to it, the gorgeous rings are of a deep purple and green . It also is very silky to the touch, and begs to be held. I usually have a hoarding tendancy, and if I have one thing I want another "variety" of it (tarot decks OMG coming out my ears even though I love them all!). But with this, I feel....satisfied, like I have everything that I need right here.

My favorite color is purple, and my son's is green (he is 11). Earlier that same day he got a "fortune" card from a Zoltar machine for fun (lol, it was holding some RWS cards and had a crystal ball) which was totally spot on with his character and he says he wants to save the card to show to his kids one day . Anyhow, just a few hours later the sphere found us... I think maybe it's not just for me, but maybe meant for him as well .



In regards to scrying, I gave it a whirl the first two nights before bed. I had a bit of a problem getting used to seeing my face, but I think I just need to change the lighting angle. The first night after a bit of looking into a "deep" area, it began to fill with what I thought of as a snowfall of fire - tiny golden sparks falling and blowing around. I tried to make it a goal to follow the path of just one, but I couldn't for long before I lost it.

The second night, I looked from a different angle, and I saw a shadow edge begin to morph and the impression of a veeeery small embryo on a bitty umbilicus to a rounded (placenta/uterus?) area took shape. Thank goodness there is NO WAY I could be pregnant otherwise I would have gotten quite nervous for myself, lol. I also *almost* got a face later, but it fizzled out. I'm wondering if the ball is trying to tell me things about it's past or that it is being "born" to me?

I have never tried to scry before, but as I have horrible insomnia, one thing that I have gotten pretty good at is finding patterns, colors, and shapes emerge from the darkness (butterflies are common) with my eyes closed. Sometimes they become "stories" that can take me to sleep...if I am lucky. I have not tried to interpret them, just used as a way to distract to take me away to sleep. But perhaps it was good practice to actually scry!

And I did let my kids hold/look, explaining they couldn't *try* to see things (my daughter was asking how she turns it on, lol), but to relax and *let* things come to them if they may. My son was much more receptive, but both gave up after a bit.

I see myself on the road to developing a good relationship with this gorgeous little new friend of mine! Thank you all for chiming in, this forum is such a treasure of knowledge!