Don’t get scammed! What is ‘Agni Manitite’?
Following on from the recent explosion in popularity of Moldavite, a new material has reared its somewhat mysterious head.
There are posts on every mineral sales group I’m a member of offering “Agni Manitite”. The sellers insist it is “just like Moldavite”, an ‘extra terrestrial stone’, or go far enough to insist that it is a tektite. It is not.
This material seems to mostly be sold by Indonesians, and then to crystal healing/new age shops, who are advertising it with all sorts of claims lies.
The names used include “agnimanitite”, “pearl of fire”, sometimes “cintamani”.
There is a type of language that often seems to be used in the posts – the language refers to everyone as being in a ‘tribe’, or a family, or as brothers, or sisters, part of the family.
So what is this material?
The correct term for it would be “Obsidian”, or if you want to be generous, a pseudo-tektite (fake tektite). These are nothing more than water rounded nodules of Obsidian. It can’t even be called rare – I found numerous Facebook posts offering hundreds of kilograms each.
The cheapest piece of this on eBay UK currently is £9. It’s 9.6 grams. I sell 100 grams packets of black Obsidian for just under £2, or rounded nodules known as ‘Apache Tears’ for 75p. The most expensive pieces of Agni Manitite on eBay can be hundreds of pounds.
A trained eye will quickly notice that this new material doesn’t have any of the characteristic shapes of tektites.
I don’t have a piece of what is being sold as “Agni Manitite”, but I did have some Apache Tear Obsidian and some Indochinite tektites handy. Here are some photos for your reference. Note that the Tektites are significantly more opaque – we’d have better results with thinner pieces, but you can see that the Obsidian is significantly more transparent and has a flatter grey-brown colour – coincidentally just like the Agni Manitites…
If you happen to have purchased one of these and wouldn’t mind me having a look, I’d appreciate it! Also, sorry I’ve ruined it for you.
apache tear collage
indochinite tektites
If you do have any questions about Tektites, I would recommend the Facebook group ‘Tektites’.
By all means I don’t support mis-selling or false claims of formation etc. But from an energetic point of view I found mine to be very strong and effective in spiritual development. I would recommend working with one rather than getting hung up on human involvement and then avoiding them. Buy one, work with it, feel it. It would be a shame to be overlooked as it really can aid significant transformation.
Oh lighten up… it’s. Mystical tektite. Do your research!
No, it isn’t. It’s Obsidian.
Your information about agni manitite is rather wrong … its not Obsidian…. might want to learn more about how tektites are formed…
Did you actually read the post Simon? It makes it quite clear that I know what tektites are, and that ‘Agni Manitite’ is nothing but a misrepresented Obsidian masquerading as a tektite.
Try and find anything about the legitimacy of it without using a website that uses words like ‘healing’ or ‘magic’.
John, this is a good, short article clarifying that the metaphysical market calls this a tektite, when it’s origins are clearly volcanic. I used to own such a mystical store that sold crystals, etc., but it was disappointing to see how many naive people latch onto these magical marketing stories that are churned out for the industry by a small minority of marketers who saw an opportunity to take advantage of a mostly gullible market audience. The products sold like crazy but it gets discouraging after years of trying to educate folks beyond the stories that sell people on these stones and greatly inflates even the bulk, wholesale market price. Fanciful stories about crystals have always been part of the metaphysical market, but it got out of control after Robert Simmons Book of Stones hit the market in 2005. The book had a coffee table quality with larger, glossy hi-res photos and a format of ‘stone stories’ that worked perfectly for selling all the stones and crystals that Simmons” crystal supply & crystal jewelry wholesale distribution business marketed to the retail stores at much higher prices than other suppliers of the very same semiprecious stones. Of course I steered clear of his greatly overpriced wholesale supply chain propped up by his coauthored book of channeled stone properties, but the book was everywhere in that industry and most customers were influenced by it. I don’t remember if Simmons description mentioned that this stone had terrestrial, volcanic origins, but there were other books on the properties of crystals that, while calling it Indonesian tektite, actually went on to state its true geological origins. All that long wind of text said, i had a plumber over about 8 mo. ago and when he saw a piece of moldavite i had in a case in my living room, he got to talking about tektites and returned to his truck to retrieve a duffle bag of various tektites that he seemed to keep with him at all times. I have been out that field for 9 years now so it was strange to have all of that stone energy talk come back into my life. Btw, i am sensitive to crystal-stone energies but i’m not unduly influenced by the imaginitive stories that often accompany them. I got involved with them 20+ years ago when doing in depth lucid dream exploration and when i reread my dream journal entries, the dreams i had when i slept with a given crystal seemed to have common pattern of influence on the dreamstate so it only my expansion of love rockhounding.
Long story slightly shorter, this plumber pulled out a sizable gob of this ‘cintamani’ stone and i asked him what it was as there is no geological reference to cintamani and that’s when he mentioned it was Indonesian ‘tektite’. I know it is only my subjective experience and counts for nothing just that, but when i held it, i felt a rush of kundalini up my spine like i hadn’t felt it years. It sounds ridiculous because the stone was created much like any other obsidian yet i have never had much, if any response to obsidian. I’ve wanted to buy some just to retest it and see if i had the response again bur the business side pf me can’t bring myself to pay the crazy markup for what is essentially obsidian.
Egads..fill in the missing words with your mind when you read my long comment..thought i included them but didn’t proofread. I’m bad at smartphone typing.
https://www.mindat.org/locentry-138573.html
NOT new age. From a valid source with citations from experts around the world, extensive history of Angi Manitite, including the chemical make up (see Periodic-Table) of Tektite versus Obsidian. Tektites from a given locality have similar susceptibilities, it’s irrefutable evidence. This is a valid Tektite.
I suggest you read the study I shared before writing this off as “essentially obsidian”. Like Libyan Desert Glass, this mineral will fetch a high value as supply decreases. Molvadite can be found by farmers plowing their fields. It’s common and reoccurring making it useless to a serious collector.
Hi Stacy,
Correct, there are tektites from Indonesia – I’ve never argued against that. In collectors terms they are typically referred to as javaites or billitonites. However, they are not the same material as this ‘Agni Manitite’. There is no comprehensive history of Agni Manitite, because it doesn’t exist. This is purely a scam.
Actual Tektites from Indonesia are available, however, they are not widely available to the extent of ‘Agni Manitite’. For your reference, someone offered me 500kg of it last week. I don’t think it could be considered rare by any means.
Moldavite is absolutely not common (200-300 tons total found) and the worldwide supply has almost completely dried up over the past year or two, taking the price from around £1/gram to £20/gram…
Well of course you’re offered low prices. This is the first red flag for any collector. Fakes exist, especially with tektites since the production cost is minimal and demand is high. I can sell you a “AAA Ruby” and say it’s a real Ruby because both fluoresce. It’s up to you to have it certified as authentic, especially if the price is too good to be true. As far as the Moldavite, anything less than 20g is useless to SERIOUS collectors. My “High end” collection exceeds $10,000, yet I only have 5 minerals. Slivers are readily available on the market is more correct to say. A nugget is not collection worthy unless you simply want a tiny piece of “extraterrestrial”. Agni hasn’t been studied extensively enough to declare it as fake Tektite. Especially since it’s not usually sold as a “tektite”. You only find that description in places you shouldn’t be purchasing high quality stones from in the first place. ESPECIALLY Facebook. That’s a poor example to use. Until more studies have been released, it’s subjective to declare obsidian or Tektite..unless you have unpublished studies of your own?
I think you’re somewhat missing the point of this post, which is to warn people (including non high end collectors!) off buying a fake stone from Facebook, ebay, etsy, etc.
Please feel free to post a link to a piece of Agni, described as Agni, on a “high quality” retailer – I have not been able to find one. It is only sold on social media and websites offering metaphysical items.
You referred to Angi as “This new material”.
A non-fiction book was published in 1966 (not new age) regarding a collectors search around the world for Angi Manitite.
Fire Pearl: Magic Gem From the Moon by
This book is also one of the first mention of Tektites in a book as extraterrestrial, theorizing Tektites as stones as otherworldly. It’s quite rare and out of print but still obtainable. There’s a rich history of Angi beyond the internet is my point here. It’s not simply a fake material with no worth, it has a rich history next to Tektites that’s quite notable beyond “new age” hype.
I’ll be purchasing bulk Angi from America as well as Indonesia to do my own testing and research on the comparison made here in the article with Apache Tears in the near future. I’ll share my findings with links and test results as well.
Whether it be extraterrestrial or terrestrial, Angi Manitite isn’t as useless as this article makes it seem. I’d actually like to thank you for shining light on this particular mineral for me.
Should buyers be aware of it being sold as an “extraterrestrial” stone? Oh absolutely!…but never dismissive of the entire history. It may mean more to them than what they were looking for.
Hi Stacy,
I am referring to the material which has appeared online as a “new material”, yes – because people were not selling it as Agni prior to a year or two ago.
I’m fully aware that people have been referring to Agni Manitite for years; I am saying that this material offered online is not the same material and that it is not a tektite. Javanite tektites exist. The materials currently being sold online as agni are not Javanese tektites.
I did have a look on the British Museum and NHM archives to see if the pieces mentioned as being donated to historical figures were donated/displayed anywhere but hit a blank.
Tektites, according to current understanding aren’t extra-terrestrial in the sense that they are most likely pieces of the Earth that have been catapulted into the upper atmosphere by meteoritic impacts.
While I’ve read this thread entirely , I have to agree with both sides of the argument. The issue here is that there are people off loading wholesale lots of obsidian as agni. As someone who is on the ground in Indonesia 3x a year, this material is everywhere and looks identical to real agni. So while 95% of what you see online is obsidian being sold as agni , there is real agni out there. I myself have occurred a large collection from over the years. Make no mistake real agni is a tektite , not a pseudo- tektite or a meteorite . It formed when a meteorite hit , fussing w earths crust sending millions of pieces into the upper atmosphere. One thing I should also mention is that real agni is also found in China. When this meteor hit the earth the damage spread for miles. Most of the real meteorite pieces were lost in the ocean.
Well anyone that knows anything beyond book knowledge knows as soon as they touch it what the value is… Only an idiot would write it off as a scam… I paid 10$ for both at a local crystal shop, i was instantly drawn to them, i had no idea what they were until i got home… But however as soon as i picked it up i knew it was obsidian… Ive never seen anything saying anything false about it… In fact everywhere ive seen it saws ots not from impact of a meteorite. . It’s created from lava being shot into the atmosphere atmosphere… To write ot off as fake or anything other than magnificent makes you look bad … Get your nose out of the books go experience things… As long as its not man made its a gemstone… Cosmic or Earthly… You shouldn’t have the voice to speak on this matter
Not even sure where to start here.
– anyone that knows anything beyond book knowledge knows as soon as they touch it what the value is:
No, they don’t. This is especially obvious as this has very limited value and is found all over Java laying in riverbeds.
– Ive never seen anything saying anything false about it… In fact everywhere ive seen it saws ots not from impact of a meteorite
Pretty much every single google, ebay, and etsy search result will tell you its a tektite. Which it isn’t.
– It’s created from lava being shot into the atmosphere atmosphere
That would be how a tektite is created; terrestrial material catapulted into the upper atmosphere and melted during reentry. However, this material is Obsidian, which is formed when lava cools rapidly and doesn’t form crystals.
– As long as its not man made its a gemstone
That’s not remotely true. A gemstone is a material which is rare and precious, typically used for jewellery. This is neither.
– Cosmic or Earthly…
No part of this is in any way cosmic. It’s terrestrial Obsidian.
– You shouldn’t have the voice to speak on this matter
Yes, the internet would be a much better place if only the people lying about this material were allowed to speak on this matter.
I bought one yesterday. I had never heard of it, which surprised me, because I am well versed on the subject of minerals and identification. It was indeed marketed as a tektite. I spotted a piece that was super cool looking, but didn’t take the time to look it up (I try to stay off my phone as much as possible). After reading this, yes, it is a crappy thing to do when you advertise a stone as something it is not, but unfortunately, you also have to be aware that people will always market certain stones as something that they are not (for example, colorfully stripped “onyx” is actually calcite).
Oh dear. I just bought one?
If it called to you, it’s for you. Don’t feel bad or like you got scammed. The energy in it resonated with yours. Enjoy it.
There’s some controversy about the actual origin/formation of the stone but I’ve worked with that and its power is incredibile, for me even more effective than Moldavite. When I got my first piece I didnt even know it was Agni Magnitite. Give it a try, work with that, get into magic and have fun.. it has not to be always about discernment and control.
I’m writing this for the people who will read your article and will get worried about buying a piece. Just buy one since it’s so cheap and try yourself.. if you’re sensitive to crystal energy this one will blow your mind. Peace?
I so agree with you on this . I work with agni manitite, I have many pieces and the energy it has is incredible. call me crazy and many will , but to me the energy to me feels like the stone is alive. I bring it with me whenever I do meditation , work as a medium or card reader and it is phenomenal. people just need to work with it make it part of your work.
I agree. Agnimanitite is even more powerful than the over rated moldavite. even campo del cielo is even more powerful than moldavite.
i wonder why that green glass is over priced?
Do you not think that the Owners of moldavite would want this material getting out as it will kill there outrageous rip off price structure!!
Who else would even care about this , only the moldavite mafia
Well, I’m not Czech and I’m not selling any Moldavite. Weird that.
you didn’t get scammed it is phenomenal, if your a intuitive it is great for 3rd eye work. meditation. as you work with it you can feel it heat up and vibrate . I have 8 piece I keep them together and work with them all together. it called to you .it is meant for you to work with it.
This person who wrote the article wasn’t trying to take the wind out of your sails , he was trying to educate you , and help you be aware of how you are spending your hard earned money! If I buy a Colombian emerald , it had damn well better be from Columbia ! Same with this stone …..if it’s not a true tektite , but obsidian , I deserve to know that if I’m buying it! All over Etsy , it’s being sold as a tektite which it’s not ! If it’s obsidian , then sell it as such!?
well someone gave my wife a piece and told her something she couldn’t remember except that it was from Indonesia and obsidian [ we lived in Bali for 20 years and I never saw one like it] I Buy and sell a lot of crystals so was curious – when she showed me I thought it did have a similar look to moldavite so I looked up Indonesian tektite and found bits that looked like what we had – on that site it was listed as
– Agni Manitite / Pearl of Fire / Agni Mani / Pseudo Tektite / Obsidian / Agni Manitite Crystal / Raw Agni Manitite / Java Stone / Agni Stone
Price:$7.70+
HMM Pseudo Tektite – so I looked to see if there was such a thing as real Indonesian Tektite – only got this far so far – ok so when it comes to “andara” which in Indonesia comes in Many colours – I get it GLASS – Manmade Glass as apposed to obsidian – so the price of that and the hype ,, I can appreciate the disdain, and I guess I also feel its equally bad to call this a tektite or even psudeo Tektite [ which to me would rais alarm bells but… 🙂 – of course in the crystal Marketing business as in, to the new age buyer, a glamorous name makes it sound more desirable – now my gemologist friend and crystal shop owner Hates it when a customer comes in and says what does this or that stone will do for them what is its healing energy – or will this attract love or abundance AND YET he sells crystals labelled Lemurian lasers. they [ as far as I know and he would agree ] don’t come from Lemuria and have only a meteforacal connection to lasers – the same is true with the name ” apache tears” which I think [ or was told ] they were given that name by native Americans and had some legend around them regarding the European abuse – what ever !!! I like Pearl of fire 🙂 and if it were labelled that with a description of how it was formed it would not bother me at all – and if the price is to high and I don’t seek a comparison and find out later that I paid to much I will write it of as a teaching expense and only blame myself – now I know what this is I rather like it more than when I firs saw it – looking like a dul moldavite greyish brown – I recon I will buy some more for my collection [ and pay the right price 🙂 however thanks for the explanation –
I’m at a loss is it fake is it to be shunned. Even if it is just Obsidian it looks amazing, for more transparent, lighter in color like a grey transparency? What’s wrong with it?
It is not what it is sold as – it’s not acceptable to sell a piece of Quartz as Topaz, afterall!
“You shouldn’t have the voice to speak on this matter.” What’s with the hostility? The article doesn’t say it’s “fake.” It says that the stone is marketed incorrectly, and that it is actually obsidian. Also, Mr. Burrows schooled you… Hats off you, sir.
I’m from UK but in Chiang Mai north Thailand right now. I just bought a piece from a trustworthy Italian guy who owns an excellent mineral shop here. I paid 900 Thai baht for a 25 g piece.
So, what happened….I was sat on a chair leisurely browsing and I picked up a small bag with 4 pieces inside. No label on bag. I held the piece I ended up buying and was blown away by the overriding fire element energy. I have been meditating for over 25 years and have studied with some of greatest Enlightened Masters in the Indian Yogic and Tibetan Buddhist tradition, so I’m quite sensitive to vibrational frequencies.
I wear a particularly special piece of Tektite and have been interested in minerals most of the 46 years of my life….so I have some reasonable experience in feeling different mineral energies and I have a collection from over the years, including various fossilized objects. This is not like anything I have ever held….it does have some of the Moldavite type energy and some tektite type frequency, but it’s amazing how it is so saturated with fire element.
The shop owner told me what it was after I had made my own perception on the stone. So I bought it and am now sitting in a restaurant doing some research.
Of course in all probability, as in usual situation, there are real and fake ones. Anyway, I have no doubt this is genuine Agni Mani but I need to meditate more to understand how it was made.
I’ve spent many many years in India and been close friends with various shop owners who have massive varieties of beautiful mineral collections for sale…..many months I’ve spent with these friends in their shops and still, with this whole mineral history I have, never have I held any type of volcanic or Tektite or anything that has such an intense fire element stored within it. I’m both surprised and very very interested in what exactly this is?
I’m not quite sure why we are still arguing this, I’ve replied to this thread twice now and it seems my input was overlooked. the writer of this. article and the skeptics on both sides are all correct on this matter. its a classic crystal industry switch up.
The issue here is that there are people off loading wholesale lots of obsidian as agni. As someone who is on the ground in Indonesia 3x a year, this material is everywhere and looks identical to real agni. So while 95% of what you see online is obsidian being sold as agni , there is real agni out there. I myself have occurred a large collection from over the years. Make no mistake real agni is a tektite , not a pseudo- tektite or a meteorite . Real agni is also found in China, When this meteor hit the earth the damage spread for miles. Most of the real meteorite pieces were lost in the ocean.
The likelihood of a shop carrying a real piece is very slim unfortunately.