Crystal cabinet
Snowflake obsidian
Volcanic glass, the same material as obsidian, with white cristobalite inclusions that look like snowflakes.
The ground is black, glassy obsidian, with scattered white or gray starbursts and patches that can look soft and are still embedded in glass. The spots do not wipe off. A chip from the black ground is shiny and curved, like bottle glass; if the white is a surface paint, a fingernail at the edge of a junk bead may tell you, and it may also scratch a real piece, so confine experiments to objects you do not care about.
What it actually is
| Name used here | Snowflake obsidian |
| Mineral or material | Volcanic glass, the same material as obsidian, with white cristobalite inclusions that look like snowflakes. |
| Hardness | About Mohs 5 to 5.5 for the glass. Sharp when chipped, like other obsidian. |
| How it forms | Silica-rich lava chilled to glass, and afterward cristobalite grew in radiating clusters inside it, the white flowers in a black freeze. The pattern is a cooling and crystallization story; it is not frost, and it was not designed as a symbol of purity. |
Trade names and mix-ups
Snowflake obsidian is a descriptive trade name, not a separate species and not a winter spirit. The white spots are usually cristobalite, a silica mineral that crystallized in the glass, not feldspar in most cases and not literal snow. It is sometimes confused with dalmatian stone, which is a different, crystalline, black-and-white rock, and with painted black glass; Apache tear is a different obsidian nickname this cabinet already distrusts; do not merge the two into a legend.
Care
Wrap it as you would any volcanic glass. Do not knock it on tile, do not leave chips in a pocket, and do not thermal-shock it with boiling water or a freezer. Salt does nothing but invite moisture into cracks and scratch nearby soft stones; do not store it in a salt bowl. A cool damp cloth and a full dry are enough for a smooth tumble. Keep it out of the sun's heat on a sill only because heat-shock is boring and preventable. If a snowflake pops out as grit, that grit is still sharp silica; sweep it, do not soak it.
Provenance
Commercial snowflake obsidian is quarried and tumbled, much of it from the American West, and it is common enough that a high spiritual price is the main red flag. Some obsidian sources are culturally important to Indigenous nations; a named sacred site is not a personal collecting trip; buy finished commercial stone or none, and do not sand it in a garage because the contrast is pretty.
Symbolism
- a pattern misread as a picture
- cristobalite stars
- wrapped glass
- purity as a story you can decline
Folklore, only where it exists
Obsidian as a whole has deep tool-making and mirror histories, including Mesoamerican ones, and those histories are discussed on the obsidian page of this cabinet. Snowflake obsidian does not have a separate ancient magical file. The white flowers are cristobalite in glass, and the reading that they are purity emerging from darkness is a modern metaphor, useful if you label it as a metaphor and dishonest if you call it an old rite. The Wilde Altar will not paste Smoking Mirror theology onto a spotted gravel, and it will not tell you the spots balance your shadow. What you can do is look until you notice you have turned a mineral inclusion into a picture, then write down both the picture and the correction. Same cautions as any obsidian: it is volcanic glass, it is sharp, and it is not a drink.
Cautions
An original practice
The Misread Pattern
- A smooth snowflake obsidian, wrapped when not in use
- A thick cloth
- A notecard with two lines, I thought it was and it is
- A pen
- 1Unwrap the stone onto the cloth. If you find a fresh sharp chip, wrap it again and stop. The practice needs a tumbled surface.
- 2Look at one white mark until your brain offers a picture: a flower, a face, a map. Write that picture on the first line.
- 3On the second line write what it is: cristobalite in volcanic glass, or at least white mineral in black glass if you want to stay modest.
- 4Read both lines. You are allowed to prefer the picture and you are required to know it is a picture. If the picture was a judgment about a person, including a judgment about someone's purity or their body, cross it out twice.
- 5Wrap the stone so no edge is bare, put it in a drawer, and leave the card where you keep corrections rather than omens.
I saw a snowflake because I know snowflakes. The rock grew cristobalite instead. A pattern is not a verdict on anyone's cleanliness.
Close the drawer. Do not rinse the glass, do not set it in salt, and do not leave it unwrapped beside the bed where a chip can find a foot in the dark.
A practical action. If the crossed-out judgment belongs to a real relationship, replace it with one accurate sentence the next time you speak to that person, or with silence if silence is the respectful choice.
Substitutions
- A black paper circle with a white paint spot you made yourself, labeled drawn by me
- A piece of ordinary obsidian and a grain of salt on the cloth, the salt thrown away after, not stored with the glass, so you can see a white speck that is only salt
Beginner questions
- What are the white spots? They are usually cristobalite, a form of silica that crystallized inside the volcanic glass. They are not snow and not a separate magical stone.
- Is snowflake obsidian safer or softer than black obsidian? No. It is the same glass, just spotted. It still chips sharp. Treat it as obsidian.
- Can I soak it so the white pattern charges the water? No. Do not make elixirs with obsidian of any pattern. Glass in a drinking glass is a bad idea, and the spots will not purify it.