Description
An obsidian disc engraved with a seal: two concentric circles, four cross pattées at the cardinal points, and a figure of signs at the center, all highlighted in gold. It is a figure from the grimoire tradition, reproduced as it appears in the sources.
These seals belong to the same family as the catalog’s seal of Saint Michael: figures copied from European grimoires, manuscripts from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century and then printed in the nineteenth. Their graphic vocabulary is stable, two concentric circles enclosing the figure, crosses at the cardinal points, and signs made of strokes and hooks. I describe the construction, I do not interpret the figure. The seal of Saint Michael is here.
What I can guarantee concerns the engraving and not the meaning: the figure is reproduced faithfully, the proportions of the circles are respected, and the signs are not an invented decoration that merely looks esoteric. Many pendants of this kind carry approximate tracings that nobody checks. This one is faithful to its source, and that is the only promise I make about it.
The reservation is the gold highlight, as on every engraved piece in the range. The gold is a surface fill, not a cast metal, and it will wear first on the edges of the outer circle, which rub against clothing. Count on two or three years. The engraved line stays and the figure remains legible: it is the fill that goes.
Crystal lore ties obsidian to grounding. No object protects from anything, none of this is proven, and no piece of jewelry heals anything. I have gathered separately what tradition attributes to obsidian, in the conditional from start to finish.
- Genuine black obsidian, engraved disc highlighted in gold.
- A figure reproduced faithfully from the grimoire tradition, proportions respected.
- No effect promised: the page places the object, it does not tout it.
- Adjustable braided black cord, no metal clasp.
What to know before you wear it
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The specifications
- Stone
- Black obsidian, volcanic glass
- Shape
- Engraved disc, hollows highlighted in gold
- Diameter
- About 1 3/8 in (35 mm)
- Decoration
- Double circle, four cross pattées, central figure
- Setting
- None, stone drilled and knotted
- Cord
- Braided black cord, adjustable length
- Gender
- Unisex
- Brand
- Bijoux Obsidienne
A geometry that does not forgive the center
On a figure made of concentric circles, the flaw that kills the piece is off-centering. Two circles whose centers are three tenths of a millimeter apart give a ring thicker on one side than the other, and the eye sees it immediately even when it cannot name what is bothering it. So the tracing is always done from one single center point punched with a center punch, never with a compass reset twice. Once the center is marked, you never take it again.
This piece sits alongside the catalog’s seal of Saint Michael, and the two answer the same demand. I chose to sell them while saying where the figures come from, which is rare on this kind of product and strikes me as the minimum. Both are here and the obsidian guide explains the stone.
Three tenths of offset between two circles, and the ring is thicker on one side. The eye sees it without being able to name it.
Obsidian does not mind water, but the gold highlight in the hollows comes off with an abrasive cloth or a brush. A soft dry cloth is enough, never an ultrasonic bath. Cleaning an obsidian piece covers the rest.
