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Spirit Mirror, Used by Queen Elizabeth I’s Astrologer, Has Aztec Origins

Published on , by La Gazette Drouot

The mirror that belonged to John Dee, a 16th-century polymath and astrologer for the Queen of England, is formed from obsidian that came from modern-day Mexico. Obsidian held spiritual, medicinal and protective purposes for the Aztecs. How Dee came into possession of such an object unknown. (Antiquity)