I'm confused here...just stumbled onto an Obelisk that I had previously shut down. Another priest and tin men...??? Are some of these like the Oblivion Gates and they just re-open? Wiki gives a reference to a console command but it isn't being recognized. Help, please

Obelisk dont respawn, but there are alot of them. Are you sure it was completly shut down? (it can be looted when it is, the loot is similiar to a boss chest).
You need to fill it with 3 order hearts from the knights AND kill the order mage, because the obelisk and the mage can resurrect each other.

Oblivion Gates don't re-open. Neither do Obelisks.



You can fill the obelisk and kill the order mage in any order. But there is a time limit otherwise everything will restart. And to make things a bit more difficult there is a limit to how fast you can put the hearts in the Obelisk. It can be tricky at first until you get used to it.

Thanks for the advice (and reassurance!). Went back and shut 'er down...think I had closed one in the same area but not this one. Now they're both sleeping! Love this game.

Actually, there's http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Shivering:Obelisks#Bugs that causes them to randomly re-activate. I ran into this a lot with my last playthrough of SI. So they're not supposed to re-open, but they can.