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Join Adam Barralet, Ashley Leavy, Kyle Perez, and Nicholas Pearson in Episode #5 of the Crystal Confab Podcast as they explore Spiderweb Obsidian meanings and uses, including:
- Spiderweb Obsidian & the Scorpio New Moon
- Weaving Threads of Magic with Spiderweb Obsidian
- Getting to know Spiderweb Obsidian (and any stone) in just a week!
- Spiderweb Obsidian for discernment
Tune in now and dive into the magical world of Spiderweb Obsidian!
Crystal Confab Podcast Introduction: Are you just starting with crystals? Or maybe you have a whole collection but aren’t sure how to use them? Join 4 crystal nerds, healers, workers, and lovers for crystal confab, a casual chat about all things crystals.
Nicholas Pearson: Hello, and welcome to crystal confab, a podcast where 4 crystal experts come together to confab about a new crystal each week. Join Ashley Leavy, Kyle Perez, Adam Barralet, and myself, Nicholas Pearson, this week for our conversation about spider web obsidian. So how’s everyone doing this week?
Adam Barralet: I’m really good and excited to talk about an Obsidian, but a bit of a rarer Obsidian that maybe doesn’t get as much attention as some of the others.
Ashley Leavy: I’m really looking forward to this conversation also, because here in the northern hemisphere, we are getting, you know, well into the deep autumn, and I love this idea of this spiderweb obsidian kind of tying into our end of the year seasonality here. So I’m really looking forward to this chat.
Kyle Perez: Me too. I am very excited, of course. This one, I had to do a bit of homework on. So I’m excited to share that. Yeah.
Adam: So let’s dive into it, Ashley. You know, as you do work move into the autumn time, you know, where is this crystal kind of really great for you at the moment?
Ashley: Yeah. So for me, this stone is really about the interconnectedness of all things. If we think about a spider’s web, it has each of these little strands that then get woven together and all connected. And I, you know, we can’t help but feel a little ripple, a little movement in one area when there’s something happening somewhere else. So we can see this on the microcosm, like in our own personal life, right?
If things are a little, not quite on an even keel, we feel some choppy waters over here. We’re gonna feel that in other areas of our life, but we can also really see and experience that on a larger scale when things are really out of balance and really out of alignment in the world, which they are, which they have been, which they will continue to be. We feel it. We feel it on the personal level. We feel it on the community level.
We feel it on the global level, and helping us understand our role in that greater, you know, macrocosm perspective of things, I think, is where this stone really shines. So acting as a touchstone, a reminder to show up in bigger ways, not just for ourself, not just for our friends and family, but for our greater community, really showing up to be of service, to care for one another, to do our bit, to make the world a better place, I think is one of the things, one of the lessons that this stone really has to share with us. And this isn’t, you know, just on the sort of mundane level, although it’s great to show up and do those important acts. This stone also reminds us that we can do this on a magical level. So, you know, this could look like community service, maybe volunteering at your local community garden plot or something like that, but this also is in this space.
So reminding us that our magical practice in whatever form that takes, our healing practice and whatever form that takes, isn’t just about self, that it should be really rooted in community care, because everything is so interconnected, because those ripples go out so much further than what we can see. So that’s one of my favorite things about the spiderweb obsidian. And so anytime you are considering doing some type of magical working, maybe this is ritual, maybe this is spell work, maybe this is healing work, taking some time to connect with that spiderweb obsidian, hold it in your hands, place it on your altar and light a black candle for that focus and concentration, on reflection and ask yourself, you know, how can I make the ripples of my magic be felt far and wide? How can I use, you know, the resources that I have at my disposal to create that little bit of extra good in the world? Where can I really shine and support and provide and nurture?
I think, you know, this is a stone that really helps us ask those questions and get creative with the answers.
Adam: So, obviously, obsidian is very fiery kind of, you know, we know they’re not crystals, but they’re very fiery stones. So they’re very much about that empowerment. And you’re kind of finding that because of that spider web pattern that we find on this obsidian, it has that real link to that kind of spider energy and that web of life type of energy, Ashley?
Ashley: Yeah. I mean, it’s about co-creation. Right? So fire is this very creative element, but then the web being woven. Thinking about how the web is woven by the spider, it’s an act of creation that the spider does from self.
So there’s a lesson in that, that we can create these large, beautiful, important structures in the world, from self, right? By giving, by showing up, by taking action. And so this is about bringing together lots of disparate pieces. Sometimes we may know that we have a gift, but we don’t see how it sort of slots in and fits into the hole. We don’t see where that sort of cohesive…where it can be transformative.
But letting ourselves be really inspired by that fiery energy, I think helps us think really creatively and helps us see new ways to go about things that we hadn’t thought of before. Spiderweb Obsidian is really also about this concept of integration and drawing a lot of conclusions from life experience, from lessons that we’ve learned so that we can become better creators, right? Because through all of those lived experiences, we can shift perspective. We see things in a new light. We have something unique to offer and share that no one else in the world will have that exact perspective because it’s really unique to us.
And when we can come together in community with other people and share that experience and put our heads together, we really can create something great. And I think that this is in a lot of ways, which sounds odd. For me, this is such a stone of hope. It’s such a stone of promise reminding us that, you know, we can come together in community to weave magic together. I think so often, and we were talking about this in our last episode, Adam, you brought this up, so often in the wellness space and the sort of new age space, if you wanna call it that, a lot of the focus is on just the self and self improvement and things like that.
And I think spiderweb obsidian helps provide this little bit of, impetus to get out there and do something great together, to take those individual life lessons, to take those things that we’ve learned and weave our magic together because we are so much stronger when we come together in support of one another, when we focus on the collective and when we work our magic for the benefit of all. And so I feel like there’s this great hope that exists within this stone. If we can remember to sort of tap into that and do big things together. Now I realize this isn’t always practical in every situation. Sometimes, you know, you might find yourself where you’re needing to make that little bit of magic.
You’re needing to do that creative work as, you know, just yourself. But asking yourself those questions, reflecting on that by maybe gazing into the surface of your obsidian, letting your mind and your eyes go sort of soft and get in that present moment and ask yourself, how can I form this into something that does benefit the collective even if I’m just one person acting? Or in what ways can I get creative about connecting with others to make this even bigger? Because I think, you know, when we’re all sort of starting to weave together the threads of that magic, that’s where we create more strength. That’s where we create more durability.
Think about if you were making some rope and you had just one strand, it wouldn’t be very strong. But when you come together with other people and you all put your strands and you all start to weave that together, you all start to twist that together. That’s when you come up with something of great strength. And so I think there are a lot of lessons here to encourage us to get really creative, and a lot of that is rooted in that fire element energy, Adam.
Adam: I wanna share with everyone an idea that popped into my head in the last 30 seconds that Ashley was speaking. And I wanna see whether you feel this would resonate with this type of obsidian. But we know that loneliness they say that we have a loneliness pandemic around the world, that especially younger people, although we’re more connected by the the World Wide Web, you know, feeling more lonely and misunderstood in these times. Now when it comes to people that love crystals, we sometimes are the weirdos or the oddballs and that kind of thing. And we may feel like with the black sheep that don’t fit in.
But as Ashley has been speaking, she’s been talking about the blessings of working together or waving magic together in that way. And do you think anyone who’s feeling lonely could actually benefit from working with spiderweb obsidian from actually realizing, no. No. No. I don’t need to keep excluding myself because I’m different.
I need to dive in and work with others because I have unique gifts to share.
Ashley: You know, I’ll tell you from firsthand experience and I would not have thought to frame it this way until you just asked this question. But for me, it’s rooting myself into my magical practice, rooting myself into my relationship with the trees on the land that I live on, the flowers, the herbs, the animals, that I don’t feel alone. And because this is a stone that really encourages us to tap into that magic and make that magic, even if we are by ourselves, we’re not alone because that magic is always available to us. And that magic is part of something greater. That magic comes from the land, the goddess, the universe, wherever you want to sort of, point to, it’s all those and none and more all at the same time.
And so I feel like when we are really tapped into making that magic and doing that magical practice, even if we are feeling lonely, it helps us recognize and remember that we’re not alone. And so I said, you know, speaking from personal experience, I’m thinking about how isolated all of us were during the pandemic, but for such a long time, I was definitely feeling lonely, especially during that time. Even though I wasn’t alone, I was feeling lonely. But turning to my magical practice, to my spiritual practice helped me feel connected, helped me feel tapped in even when we couldn’t be physically together. And I think this is a stone that is almost, just an important, like tangible reminder of that.
So if you are feeling lonely, this might make a great companion to have in your space to keep in your pocket as that physical touchstone, something that you can hold onto, reach out to as a reminder that when you’re tuned in magically, you are connected to more than you know and more than you feel in that moment. And I think that there is a lot to be said for that. That is so incredibly powerful and such a gift.
Adam: So almost like it’s a conduit for connection.
Ashley: Yeah. I mean, really, it truly is because think about the way that all of our social groups are set up. Right? So I might be friends with Adam and friends with Kyle, and Kyle has some friends that I don’t know yet. And but, you know, maybe I’ll meet them sometime.
Like, there are all these ways that our networks sort of reach out. Right? And remembering that when we take time to pursue those connections to show up in community, magical things really happen. I’m gonna give you an example. This is gonna seem slightly off topic, but I promise it’s going somewhere.
I, a few years ago, connected with someone in my community who I adore because we both have a love of gardening and growing food and very, very cool person. Because I met this person, and it was scary because I am such an introvert, so I don’t do, like, a lot of things that have me going out and, like, really meeting people in a big way. It’s so scary to me. But because I met this person, I ended up meeting someone else that they know who does some really cool art classes. And because I met this person, I ended up at this art studio last weekend.
And because I was at that art studio last weekend, I just got to add 2 new lovely adorable chickens to my flock of chickens. And this is just like it made me really reflect on and this just happened last Sunday. This made me really reflect on the magic of community and how when we open ourselves up and we sort of, I don’t know, put ourselves out there in new and scary ways, even if we are feeling a little lonely, just by making that little step to taking that little step forward and doing something outside of our norm, we create more connections. And when we really open ourselves up in a place of trust and service and companionship, There’s a lot that can happen and not just for us, but with us. Right?
Like, having us be part of what unfolds from that point. And there was something so beautiful about feeling the ripples of these small connections, this web that had sort of unfolded that led me to something so joyful in my life that I wasn’t expecting. And I feel like that is sometimes the way that magic unfolds in the universe. It can be small things. It can be seemingly mundane things, but things that ultimately can create more richness and more joy in our lives and help us feel so fulfilled.
And this is something that I think often we overlook or we maybe speaking from personal experience here, I don’t wanna project on anyone, but I know when I’m I’m personally feeling kind of lonely, I almost, like, shut down and go inward a little bit more even. And I feel like this is a stone because of that hope, because of that little boost of motivation and excitement really kind of pushes you to see what’s possible instead of feeling a little locked into places of sadness or doom and gloom. And to me, that was everything. That was everything. So I would encourage everyone to explore this and ask yourself kind of what’s possible.
Adam: I love that. I love that. Nicholas, have you had much experience working with spiderweb obsidian?
Nicholas: You know, obsidian has been such an important ally and catalyst in my life in general that I try to get to know every variety that I can find. And I only have one piece of spider web obsidian in my whole collection, but I I adore it. I have this really vivid memory of the exact moment that shifted my life away from, like, my corporate chapter and began to get me to where I am today. Like, this conversation we’re having is a byproduct directly of my relationship to Obsidian being my pocket stone one day on my way to work, and I just had this really visceral response, the really powerful kind of shift inside me. At the same time, I had the light bulb go off to like, oh, wouldn’t this be a cool project to research?
And then that turned into a list, which turned into an outline, turned into a chapter, and after a long time, eventually became a book. And then came another and another and another and another, and, there are more coming, of course. But, you know, Spider of Obsidian, because of how powerful just that little teeny piece of ordinary obsidian that was in my pocket that day, I’ve I’ve gone out to, like, sample all the flavors, if you will, from the obsidian buffet. And I find this such an interesting one. 1st and foremost, we don’t have any general scientific consensus on its origin or even whether or not it’s natural.
It it it appears to come through the same channels that produce a lot of the really beautiful Mexican material that’s mostly stuff like the sheen obsidian and the, the rainbow obsidian. And if they wanted to have a strangely colored form of glass, they would probably pick something that’s really obviously fake, because they usually do. So I suspect that it is in fact natural, though more obscure than its counterparts. And, like, the best theory that seems to hold up when we think about how it forms this spider web pattern is, from like a crack and seal kind of event. So, obsidian, like spiderweb obsidian, like all obsidians, cools as rhyolitic lava cools very quickly.
What that means is that it’s rich in stuff like silica and, the the same kinds of ingredients we’d find in rhyolite and diorite and granite, but they they cool so rapidly that if we look at the tiny components of it, like up close, we have what’s called short range order. There’s a cluster of molecules that resembles a crystal lattice, and then we, like, zoom out and it doesn’t connect to anything else, so it has no long range order. And that’s essentially what defines all glasses, this kind of short range, coherence. And, you know, when we zoom out and look at the long range stuff, it’s all a jumbled mess. And it’s a snapshot in time that gives us this glimpse of potential.
It could have become any number of things, but it didn’t. And when it comes to how those, like, spider webs occur, we’ve got this glassy vitreous mass. It’s brittle. It’s fragile. It is susceptible to cracking under the right conditions or the wrong conditions depending on how we wanna frame that.
And so what’s probably happening to form that pattern is this obsidian, undergoes a process very similar to like brecciated jasper where, through weathering, we’ve got little splinters and fragments. We call those breccia from the Italian for broken, and then something else comes in and seals them over. But in this particular case, rather than, like, usually chalcedony is the culprit with jasper, we’ve got a devitrification. So where the elements can, like, reach into the cracks, it begins to decompose the vitreous material, the glass out of which it’s made. But then we get revitrification.
It it knits itself back together and the degraded components turn back into glass in between and seal it back up. And so that’s why when, you know, it polishes so well, it fractures evenly because it has essentially re revitrified. It has woven itself, stitched itself back. And I think that, like, really underscores, like, the image of the spider’s web. It goes back to this idea of, like, building community, of networking of, you know, finding the sense of integral wholeness.
And I think some of the magic that we get through this process of, you know, breaking down and coming back together is discernment. Obsidian has been used for reflection for a very long time. You know, we have obsidian mirrors in Central and South America, but we also have, like, obsidian mirrors that are several 1000 years older in the Anatolian Peninsula and, like, sites like Catalhoyuk. I’ve seen very comparable items, from the indigenous people of Japan, you know, kind of, like, medieval in origin in terms of their timeline. So, like, we find this, like, reflective quality and obsidian known worldwide from very ancient point in human history, and it is only through this ability to kind of reflect and go inwards that we can confront things as they really are.
If we take an ordinary variety of obsidian and polish it, it’s, you know, jet black and very, very shiny. It reflects well, just not as much detail, as much color, as much depth as we’d see in, like, a silver kind of mirror. And with our devitrified and revitrified spiderweb obsidian, it loses even just a little bit more luster, and yet it knows itself better. It has attained enough life experience from this whole journey that it can lead us to the same place. It allows us to kind of process what’s happening in our lives, to question the why and the how of it, which is always a helpful thing to do.
I I I like to think that a healthy amount of skepticism is good in all areas of life. Just ask why and ask who benefits from this claim and ask how does this enrich my life or not? And there aren’t always concrete answers. There’s not like a single line in the sand we can draw and say everything on this side is true and everything on that side is false. Sometimes there are gradients.
Sometimes it’s a little of column a, a little of column b. But with the spiderweb obsidian, it invites us to wait until we can put enough pieces of the puzzle together to see the whole picture, before we act on it. And that allows us to, you know, filter out things that don’t serve us. It allows us to exercise healthier boundaries because maybe before we, like, over commit, we go, yeah. Let me think about that.
And we do some reflection and then we go, you know, actually, I don’t think this is gonna work for my schedule or my workload or anything else. I think it is a great one also for, like, building a deeper connection with all of our spirit allies, really broadly speaking, because that level of discernment is really good for the theme of, like, perception versus projection. Adam touched upon this a little bit last week, talking about, like, the emotions we feel versus the intuitive stuff that can come through when Ashley was telling her story about diopters, and I think we also see a kind of similar trend here with all Obsidian, but especially with with spiderweb Obsidian. It it helps us understand what all these little connections are. A psychic or an intuitive impression doesn’t have to come from outside of us to be valid, but if we know whether or not it comes from within or without, then we can apply the appropriate filters to remove bias.
We can go, ah, this is my subconscious finding a pattern. So I’m going to take a step back and see if that pattern connects to the bigger picture or if it’s a little fragment that I’m trying to interpret into something larger than it really is. Or we can say, this is exactly the kind of image or symbol or message I would get from my guide under normal circumstances, but things have been pretty abnormal lately. So I’m going to pause and reflect before I act on it and just see if that’s really in my best interest. I just think it’s so good for, like, the pause between receiving and doing.
It’s that space, that breath that we need. It’s like the space between the obsidian splinters that revitrified. We have to wait and see if it’s gonna gel before we act on it.
Ashley: Would you say that it in a way, in that space that it helps create, would you say it’s a stone that allows us to kind of reflect so that we can respond rather than react?
Nicholas: That’s such a good way to put it, I think. Yeah. Absolutely. Because, you know, wisdom is born out of experience and the wisdom of knowing how we want to respond, which, you know, sometimes is, like, full force. Sometimes it’s, you know, with our guns blazing or maybe some less violent metaphor.
And sometimes it’s going, yeah. This is no fun, and we’re just gonna go on to something else now. As much as I want to write that email or say that thing or tell that person what I think of them, I’m just gonna go, you know, it’s gonna cost me more than it’s gonna give me, and that’s not worth it.
Ashley: I would love to ask a follow-up question because you always explain this stuff so well, but that I hope I’m getting this right. Devitrification and revitrification. Do any of the other obsidians do that, or is it just the spider web that we think we see that happen in?
Nicholas: Actually, there is another Obsidian, that undergoes a similar kind of process. It’s not it’s not really the same, you know, like, line by line, but there is a kind of decomp and recomp going on, and that is with our pseudotektites, things like columbianites, saffordite, the so called anemogenitite, which were were at first mistakenly thought to be, obsidians or I’m sorry. 1st mistakenly thought to be tektites, but we’ve discovered that is not the case, and there are a few important clues. But one of those clues that tells us they’ve undergone some level of, like, more and less organization in their process is this kind of hazy color they take on. So if you get a really jammy colombianite or saffordite, especially, you don’t see it as much with the Indonesian material.
But, in the right lighting, someone will take on a slightly lavender or lavender gray tinge rather than just being that kind of neutral dark gray brown color. And that color is from tiny particles of magnetite crystals that have formed over time in its structure. So it doesn’t entirely devitrify and revitrify along specific planes, but there is a decomposition and a recomposition going on. And so there is this kind of, like, rebirth that takes place, and, we know that means it cannot be, a tektite because those form at such high temps that there would be no opportunity for as rapid as a temperature changes is gonna be from formation to cooling for those tiny little crystals of magnetite to occur. So that was one of the most important things that people figured out.
You’re used to figure out that the pseudotextites are not actually tektites and are therefore terrestrial obsidian. But what is so fascinating about this is that some of the locations they come from are so old that the actual remnants of their volcanic origin don’t exist. Like, they are the only artifact of that volcanic event left over. There are no volcanoes. There are no cones.
There are, you know, nothing. It is all decomposed, and these little shards of glass that have been worn smooth and etched and recrystallized, are the only remnants of these ancient mountains that have been grounded down by the passage of time.
Ashley: That is incredibly fascinating. This is, like, the coolest crystal I think we’ve talked about so far. I’m I know I’m probably being a little biased, but I love this stone so much. Kyle, what is your experience been like with the spiderweb obsidian?
Kyle: So my experience is awake. I have had to upon getting our list crystals to work with for the podcast recordings, I’ve gone, I’ve never heard of this. I’ve never seen it, and I need to order it from somewhere, and no I couldn’t find anywhere in Australia. I ended up ordering it from Singapore. And it took a little bit of time to get here, but these two beautiful pieces have arrived.
And you can see that sort of black with that beautiful greeny flow through. And when I say my week has been a lot, it has definitely tapped into that volcanic side, the cataclysmic side. I have literally had a volcanic side, the cataclysmic side. I have literally had a light bulb explode over me this week. Like, arriving at my place of work, no one no one else is there, turn on the lights, arrive where I normally sit in front of my computer, and right there behind me, a light bulb has exploded, thankfully, behind its little gel.
But it was no fault of like, it was me being there. It was definitely a connection to myself. I had the tingles go from the top of my head all the way through to my feet. And it was this, like, big things happening, big realizations. As Nicholas mentioned, the light bulb thing is happening, and it has really happened this week.
Like, I have a mindset where I feel like often I’m not doing enough, and it feels that, like, you feel like you need to be doing more. And when you’re doing what feels like the bare minimum, it’s like you don’t necessarily know if you’re contributing. And in my place of work, outside of this at the moment, is this really wonderful, gem and mineral show that by the time this is out has already happened. And there’s lots of preparation, lots of organization. And because of my body, I’m not able to do heavy lifting.
I’m not able to do a lot of that sort of stuff. But I am a qualified gemologist. I know about grading. I know about different small minerals. And my job basically has been grading, pricing, lots of little things and boxes and boxes of little things.
And it was literally that day, later that day at the end, where I was like, oh, it feels like I haven’t done that much. My boss is, you have done so much that I couldn’t have done, that that person couldn’t have done, that that person couldn’t have done. Right? You have actually done so so much as Ashley was mentioning, that interconnectedness, that that weaving, that all the pieces of string coming together to create one really tight piece of rope of strength, like, you may not feel like you have strength because you see other people doing things that you can’t do. But when you do what you do and you do it well and you focus on that, it contributes perfectly to the community.
That’s that interconnectedness, finding space just through being yourself, just through utilizing what you know, what you can do, and not forcing anything else. That whole, it takes a village. Right? And when everyone is able to find their place, when everyone is able to support each other, and those that can hunt, hunt, those that can cook, cook, those that can weave, weave, those that are meant to be the magical person and the healer, everyone finds their place, and everyone has their niche. And the more we try and be everything to everyone, the less authentic we are a version of ourselves.
And by being able to just be ourselves, know what we can do And sometimes we do need that outside, like, confirmation that you’re doing the right thing too.
Ashley: And that’s sort of like that pitfall of hyperindividualism. Right? Is that, you know, we’re just out for ourselves. We do everything ourselves. It’s all, you know, we can’t survive and exist the same way with the same level of magic and beauty and support as we can when we work in community.
And I love that this is like so fresh for you, Kyle, and that you’re just coming off of, like, this week of, yeah, I feel it. Like, I feel it. I lived it. I did it. Because that really shows exactly kind of that energy that this stone has.
So I’m curious what, if anything, kind of stood out to you during the week? I mean, I I love what you said about, you know, just not being able to do everything and and definitely really relate a lot to the idea of, like, looking at what someone else is doing and go, oh, I can’t do that and sort of placing a lot of, like, self judgment about that. But it sounds like and I don’t wanna speak for you, but it sounds like the stone, I don’t know, kind of helped you recognize that, cultivate some awareness around that, and I don’t approach the situation a little differently?
Kyle: Yeah. Absolutely. I think all Obsidians have helped me, like Nicholas, realize where things are right or not right. That, like, confrontation of truth, as it were, that can be really good, or the shadow, or whatever it is. It’s helped that, like, objectivity and going, okay.
This is me. This is what I’m doing. That’s what you’re doing. At the same time that this has been happening at work, personally, I’ve had all of this stuff shown to me from, like, 20 years ago, and who I was 20 years ago, what I was doing, and what has changed from a group of people that I was with at that time and how we’ve all changed, but also how much, like, this is quite conf con quite a confronting thing, but I’m not even 40, and how many people from our friends group have passed since that time through their twenties thirties. And it’s really confronting facing, like, death and young death and friendship death and realizing that, like, there are so many things that we can’t control.
Like, why are we so hell bent on trying to, a, relive things that are so far in the past, but also fitting into things that are not us. And I’ve been able to go…I am more comfortable with my weirdness. Then I was trying to explore my weirdness to fit in, if that makes sense. I was still trying to, like, grab at things. And now all these years later, I’ve been able to kind of go I’ve had to, like, follow my gut, listen to my intuition, fight really hard to get here, learn a lot, and it’s able to put me in a place where I can be myself authentically. I am able to not compromise myself anywhere near as much as I used to.
And also having that, like, understanding that the choices that I make like, life is short. I might as well make the choices that are gonna make me feel good, that are gonna put me into a place where I feel good around people that I feel good with, that don’t make me force me to be anyone other than myself. Like, there’s no point compromising it in that way because all it does is take away from me, takes away from you, takes away from experiencing the world in a way that is actually more joyous. And there are so many layers. There’s so many places that things intersect.
There are so many things that, like, as you mentioned at the start, like, this leads to this leads to this leads to this leads to this. And pain and frustration can also lead to joy. Like, it can actually sometimes be that you have to take that path because where you were wasn’t an authentic place of joy. It wasn’t you actually being yourself, and we have to go through these cataclysmic, volcanic, explosive events to get rid of what needs to be gotten rid of and to heal and to sometimes re heal, if that makes sense. I think it’s kind of my link, even though it’s a web for me.
It’s the mycelium thing, the way that the mushrooms connect to everything, and they are that void. They are that in between. They are that thing that turns life into death and then to death into life and brings nutrients to everything. And this is the kind of energy that I’ve gotten from spiderweb obsidian. It’s like that void connection in between everything.
It’s dirty sometimes. It’s messy. It’s a bit ugly and poisonous, and small doses are sometimes what you need.
Adam: So you said beautifully about what it’s brought up to you in the last week, but I’d love to take you back a step. And if you were to write the Kyle guide on working with a new crystal, obviously, your experience working with crystals, what can people do when they get a brand new crystal? Do they just look at it? What have you done with your spiderweb obsidian in the last week to build that relationship and then to have the experiences that you’ve had?
Kyle: So I was lucky that the day they arrived, I wasn’t home, but the day after, I was. So I got to go and collect them, and this doesn’t always happen. But if you do have a day that you get it and you have the time and you bring it home, sit with it as soon as you get home. Don’t, like, bring it home from the shop and then, like, put it on the shelf because, like, that can delay the connection a little bit. Like, if you can come and sit for 15 minutes, half an hour just holding them, and I basically went into my backyard.
I got 2 pieces, 1 in each hand, and my initial energy was sweaty palms. It was like the heat and the sweat in my palms, and I’m like, hello volcanic energy. This is gonna be interesting. And the rest of my week has been really busy. And so, basically, I have a really lovely little altar, several altars, but one lovely little altar that I use for new crystals.
And, basically, I put them there, and I’ve asked them with intention, can you bring through any messages, any guidance, anything, and associate it with your energy so I know it’s connected? If it’s a spider, if it’s a spider web, if it’s something like that, like, just help me to recognize this, please, because I can’t take them to work. After feeling what I felt in my background, I’m like, I can’t take this to work. That’s gonna be too much. So I’ve sat them there, and I’ve noticed things like spider webs on the mirror of the car.
I’ve noticed people with spider web tattoos. There’s been a couple of little things this week that I’ve picked up on that’s like, oh, hello little messages. Obviously, understanding volcanic energy being cataclysmic and the light bulb going off was a big connection as well. But for me, it was basically having my diary. I will always have a diary.
I’m showing off a little diary if you’re listening. And I have probably half dozen of them in different places so that whenever anything comes to me, I’m not thinking about it. I write it down straight away. And I’m able to put it somewhere so that when I actually have time and space, which was on the weekend, I was able to have, like, a break and a couple of hours where I could sit and connect and have a bit of time. I was able to kind of go over my notes that I’d written, confirm a little bit, do a little bit more research and actually look into it a little bit and confirm or deny whatever it is, like, actually align what I’ve been reading with what I’ve been thinking and feeling and experiencing, which has been really, really nice.
That high confirmation is lovely. But also knowing that a lot of my experiences are very personal, and they’re quite unique to what I am going through with everything. And it’s been about basically leaving them when you can, letting them speak to you, and writing down because being able to have a tangible place for what you’ve got, I think, is really important when you’re getting to know a crystal and getting to know an energy. But also, like, knowing that you still have to, like, go to work and do your life and all of that sort of stuff, don’t think about it if you’re not thinking about it. Like, just have that awareness of what’s happening in your life, and is there a connection?
And you’ll probably get home in the end of the day and go, oh, there was. And it’s just having that little bit of awareness. Jotting things down has allowed me to sort of put together what I’ve put together for this podcast, especially. But also, personally, it’s been like, oh, this has been a really interesting realization. This has been quite a big week personally, so it’s quite cool that it’s come through at such a big time.
Ashley: I like that you are trying to be present for the experience and, like, jot down those notes, you know, as you have them happening so you don’t forget about them, that sort of thing. But you’re also not trying to, like, this is a bad phrase, but, like, solve it. You know? You’re not trying to take the essence out of it right in that moment. You have separate times set aside to go back and really sit with it and reflect because it’s so hard to do both of those things at the same time.
Kyle: And so new. Right? As well, like, this is the thing. When you get a new crystal, you cannot expect to know everything about it straight away. And not just a new crystal, like, in your life, but, like, a new crystal that you’ve never heard of, like, to the point where you’ve never heard of it, you have no idea about it.
The best way to align yourself and to connect with it is to just give it space and to ask it why it has come to you at this time. What is happening in your life? Ask yourself these questions of what’s happening right now for me? Where am I in my life? What has been leading up to this point?
Where has, my journey brought me to? And why now at this point in time are you coming into my life when you’ve been in other people’s lives for years? Right? It’s really interesting that I can have as much experience as I can have. We can all have out there.
There’s still new ways to connect, and there’s still, so many things that we don’t know. And I think Spiderweb Obsidian has confirmed and affirmed for me that, like, ignorance is bliss in a way. Like, not knowing is actually wonderful. And the more you try and overload your brain, the more you’re probably gonna explode or implode.
Ashley: Adam, what has your experience been like with this stone?
Adam: Well, I really love that Kyle kind of alluded to the spider references and that spider tattoos and spider webs and you need to go clean your car, obviously, Kyle. But, you know, all those different things kinda came up. I think the medicine of spider is so closely linked to this and see that we really have to explore what spider can teach us, when looking at this stone. You know, spiders, probably one of the most feared animals or creatures on this planet, and I’ll kind of hearken back to that. But, you know, when we look at how we approach our lives or pretty much every animal on this, Earth approaches life.
When we need something, what do we do? We go get it. We bring in that kind of very protective, that very yang. We hunt it down in one way or another. We pursue it.
But when we think about what spider does, she spins her web, which is an extension of her cell, and then she knows that she has done enough, and she waits. And so she relies more on her inner magnetism rather than her projection. So it’s very, very feminine in that energy or very yin in that energy. And what I found so remarkable and why I fell in love, especially with this, crystal so much, is that I was actually finding it really great for helping to magnetize what I wanted into my life. And I would actually sit with this, and I remember doing this was it it was last year.
And I would visualize a web around me, and I would visual and I put my desires or what I wanted to bring into my life into that web. And I would then believe that I had done enough and that I could attract it into that magical kind of way. And this could be something really exciting for everyone to try with this stone is to just you know, it it may not be like, okay. I’m gonna manifest a meal tonight, but, like, just play with something simple. That’s how I learned that crystals work for me.
I play games and go, let’s see what happens when this happens. And so with your spider web obsidian, what I would do is I would hold it, visualize the web, visualize something I wanted to attract, and see if I was able to attract it. And I find because of that fiery type of energy, this was an amazing crystal for helping to awaken your ability to actually draw to what you need rather than what you are pursuing all the time. So I absolutely love bringing in that spider energy with it.
Ashley: I love this. I could almost see, for especially for people who have a harder time with visualization, but really for anyone, I can almost see adapting this too to make it kind of like a a little bit different style of crystal grid instead of following some sacred geometry. Maybe drawing out a spider’s web and writing all those little things that you wanted to sort of call in and placing that spider web obsidian in the middle to help anchor that energy. That could be really cool.
Adam: Yeah. I love that idea. I’ve never thought of that. And then really leading into the teachings of spider of but she…there’s nothing once she’s built her web, there’s nothing she can do. She just has the faith that the universe will deliver, and it’s kind of make or break in that situation.
So, but we know that Obsidian are so empowering that they help us to feel comfortable in that position that I’ve done enough. And when is enough is a really great question to meditate and contemplate when working with these crystals. So I love it for that kind of manifestation work.
Ashley: That sort of ties in with what Nicholas was saying about this ability to aid in discernment. And it got me thinking when you said that about spider, you know, she spins her web, she knows that she’s done enough, and she waits. And I was thinking, oh, that’s something I’ve always so struggled with. How has that shown up for you, Adam? Like, in what ways do you get those signals that you know you’ve done enough, or do you feel comfortable, getting ready for that time where you just wait?
Adam: Oh, I’m a control freak, so I’ve never done enough. And if I can do a little bit more, then I will. And so that I guess that’s why I love this stone. And, you know, I often find that we’re attracted to the crystals, like we’re attracted to people that will help us to learn a lesson in life. And this is probably one that to kind of realize that, you know, when we push push push push push, we don’t create that space for the wave to come back because we’re always sending out the energy one way type of thing.
So just like if we keep breathing out, we can’t breathe in. And so for me, I think it’s just a constant reminder. I’m drawn to the stone to kind of sometimes realize that I’ve done enough, to work out what enough is. And too…if it doesn’t come back, then there’s a valuable lesson in that as well. Does that mean I know I’m not good enough at manifesting?
No. Maybe it means that what I I need to review, what am I trying to attract? Is what I need to attract really what I want in my life? You know, I think of people that I I I speak to young people and some older people. They’re like, I really, really am in love with this person, and I’m just waiting for them to realize that, you know, that we’re meant to be together, and I know we’re soul mate, and I’ve had messages and all this.
I’m like, it you know, they’re kind of pushing this and they’re not allowing something to develop with whether it be with that person or any other person. And I think this is the great stone to just help you to sit, wait, be patient, consider, have I done enough? Have I built my web in the right space, angling the right way to attract the right things? Or am I trying to catch, dragonflies when I should be focusing on catching mosquitoes? I don’t know.
Bad analogy.
Ashley: Okay. I have to tell you how grateful I am for all of you in this moment because I feel like I know we just created some magic here in community collectively together, but I feel like there has been some real deep meaningful sharing happening in this episode, like big life stuff, like those important lessons that are are there for all of us to sort of take in. And I just wanna, I don’t know, take a moment to really honor that and honor each of us in this space and honor everyone who’s kind of listening and having their own realizations and things as we’ve been having this conversation because I feel like this is a big one. This is like big magic in this episode.
Adam: No. Thank you for pointing that out. And it is you know, it’s going to be a special week. It’s a new moon in Scorpio. So Scorpio is always a really interesting sign, a really, sometimes misunderstood sign.
It’s seen as being, you know, or is it Scorpios are nasty or evil, that kind of thing. But, you know, the Scorpio sign, one of their symbols is obviously the scorpion, but spiders are also linked to it as well. And Scorpio, for me, the aspect of life that governs, because each zodiac sign governs an aspect of life, is the unknown. You know, traditionally, in traditional astrology, Scorpio governs sex, death and taxes. So the things we don’t want to look at and things that are a bit of that we avoid and then a bit taboo.
So in a nutshell, I find that Scorpio is really the sign that helps us to look at fear. It’s a sign of fear. And when we talk about growth, we don’t grow by doing the same things over and over again. We grow by doing the things that we weren’t scared of. And once upon a time, we’re all scared probably to ride a bike and get someone and to drive a car and to do all these different things.
But Scott the new moon in Scorpio is a really great time to kind of sit and go, well, what kind of scary experiences would I like to attract into my life? What kind of how can I go that next level and do something that scares me in that way? And I find the new moon in Scorpio is a really great time to contemplate that. You know, I don’t think as we get older that it’s necessarily, okay. Well, now I need to go bungee jumping or, skydiving.
Those kind of things are scary, and that’s how it developed. I think the scary things are having those conversations with people that we’re scared to have. Maybe saying to a partner, hey. Listen. I know I’ve just been living this slide, but this isn’t good enough.
Or a child or a a coworker or a friend or to yourself admitting something of going, actually, I think I do have a problem here that needs to be looked at, and this is a perfect time to do that. New moons are like New Year’s Eve. We sit we reflect on what’s working and what’s not, and we make resolutions to go into the future. And I think what we’ve talked about with spiderweb obsidian is it allows us to feel if out of that loneliness, to not be scared to to step out, to attract what we want into our lives, and to actually start weaving some more magic into our lives so that we can grow as people. Because how we grow is by facing our fears and by embracing the scary parts of ourselves as well as life rather than just patting ourselves on the back because we’ve done another good job doing the things that we know we’re already good at.
Kyle: Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, right, and knowing that there is also, for me especially with Scorpio. I have a Scorpio rising, Scorpio Mars, Scorpio Pluto, so I love and I’m very connected to that Scorpio energy. Death and rebirth and the overlap that they have is like death and rebirth aren’t clear cut. Right? There are there’s always the things that lead up to it, always the things that overlap from it.
And so the things that you’re letting go of, you’re still going to be letting go of as you reset these new intentions or you set these new intentions to what you’re trying to attract to know that as things come in, you are still going to be letting things go and feeling that kind of echo, if that makes sense, of the the wobble of the spider web as it sort of flickers.
Adam: So I’d really encourage people, especially, like, you know, if you haven’t worked with spider web obsidian before, get your hot little hands on a piece. Or if you do, dust it off and bring it out and maybe, you know, I’ll pop it to the group as well, but sit and ask yourself questions, and just contemplate them. And my other question would be, what am I scared of most, and what can I do to face that? Because we often hear the saying that fear is, false evidence appearing real, and a lot of things seem a lot scarier than they actually are when we take the plunge, and growth is on that other side of fear. Group, any suggestions you’d ask for kind of journaling or or meditation questions this week with that new moon in Scorpio and working with spiderweb obsidian?
Kyle: Okay. Hi. Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Kat. For me, it’s analyzing and looking at what is dead, basically.
What is already finished in your life, what has already been coming, or whatever has already come to a conclusion in your mind, in your heart, in evidence. Like, it’s done. I’m happy with that. I’m comfortable with that. I’m gonna mark it off.
Thank you very much. So from here, where can that take me? That kind of knowing what has finished should help a little bit with where you’re going and open that door without knowing exactly. It’s just about, like, really opening it up.
Adam: Love that. So what’s dead and what needs what’s ready to die? Yeah. I love it. Ashley.
Ashley: For me, it’s kind of thinking about what Nicholas was talking about earlier with the way that this stone is forming with the cracking open and coming back together and cracking open and coming back together. It makes me think, you know, what continues to rise to the surface and crack wide open because we haven’t quite dealt with it yet. And then we kind of sweep the rug over it and it comes back together for a little while, but that crack is still there and sooner or later, it’s gonna split wide open again. So where do we need to focus our attention on the things that we haven’t wanted to face or haven’t wanted to deal with that, we really need to bring to the surface at this time and make a plan for?
Adam: I love that. Almost like, what have I been avoiding looking at? Yeah.
Nicholas: So, you know, one of the things that I like to take away from this, Scorpio gets a really bad rep. I’ve got a stellium in Scorpio as well, and I think it’s, like, just pure magic. But, the ruler of this sign is Pluto, and, you know, Pluto has more than one aspect. Pluto in Greek is Pluton, which is an older name for a god many of us know as Hades. He’s both the god of the underworld as Hades, but as Pluto is also the god of wealth.
He’s the wealth giver. When things don’t work out, when things die, when things break down, when things are fractured and fragmented, it’s space for new stuff to be made. If we don’t have defitrification, we don’t get revitrification. We don’t get those beautiful spider webs to appear in this stone. So I think it implores us to find those things that do scare us, that do make us uneasy, that maybe, like, we just gotta let go of and say, okay, this is now fertilizer for something new to be born.
This is the rubble I’m gonna sift through to find those precious gems.
Adam: I love that. I love that. Well, is there anything else we need to kind of explore that we’ve missed about Spiderweb Obsidian team? No. I think we’re all good on that.
Yeah. So the easy bit’s done. You’ve all listened to this week’s episode. You know what to do with spiderweb obsidian. Now the hard work begins.
It’s a new moon in Scorpio. Grab your spiderweb obsidian. Think about those questions that we’ve posted in the last couple of minutes and just allow yourself to sit with them. Like Kyle did, allow himself to sit with the crystal for a few minutes when he first got it. Just allow them to come up.
If you can sit outside at night, especially on the new moon night, that’s really gonna benefit you and just see what comes up. And acknowledging and answering that question is the first step. It doesn’t mean you have to boldly you might have to go to work the next day. You might not be able to boldly do that straight away, but acknowledge it and start moving towards it because on the other side of that fear is your next stage of great growth. In the back of the darkest, darkest cave, that’s where the treasure lies.
We’ll see you again next week. Thank you very much for joining us on Crystal Confab. Take care and blessed be. Bye.
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