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The Healing Power of Metals
The Healing Power of Metals
by Peter Morrell
There are seven metals in the ancient alchemical system of healing, which
have resurfaced from time to time in medical thought. With growing
interest in this area, this article gives merely an outline of them, their links
with disease and materia medica and thus hopefully an introductory
portait of their perennial relevance to natural healing.
The article is basically divided into two parts - first a part that describes the 7
metals and their symbolic links; second a discussion of how this knowledge can
be applied to heal your life.
gold
silver
mercury
copper
iron
tin
lead
They correspond respectively to the planets sun, moon, mercury, venus, mars,
jupiter and saturn. These in turn correspond with certain key qualities or
personalities described in detail in astrology and Hermetic science. Stated
simplistically and for brevity, mars is seen as masculine and active, venus is
feminine, artistic and passive, jupiter the theorizer, saturn the lord of death,
mercury the communicator, sun the day-king and moon the night goddess.
They are also deemed to correspond to the parts of the body as follows
Similarly the planets and metals correspond to certain colours. There are
various schemes. One such scheme is as follows:
Because foods can also be classified as the seven metals, one may change one's
diet so as to reduce foods that are harmful for you and increase your use of
more helpful foods. This applies generally, not just to considerations of which
foods might be rich in which metals. Some food correspondences are shown:
A person who has excess Iron is hard, strong, active and assertive - an 'Iron
Man'. It is the masculine metal that will fight or argue if pushed, or even
without pushing. They make decisions quickly, they speak abruptly and
forthrightly, they move quickly and are always busy, moving on to new things.
They gravitate naturally to military, metal-working, butchering and police
matters where they find others of their own kind and a job they thoroughly
enjoy. They think on the hoof, rarely reflecting on what they do. They are
activity centred, spending most of their time fully occupied. They like sports of
all kinds. Many business people fall also into this category. They are accused of
being hard, selfish and aggressive. Some incline to violence or criminality. Iron
is softened, domesticated and improved with silver, copper or gold. The iron
type needs to be less assertive and more kind, needs to be mellowed and made
more passive and receptive to others' needs. Nux vom and Coffea types abound
here. Also Sulphur and Ferrum met.
People with an excess of Copper, like venus, are mild and artistic, goes with the
flow, creates harmony, will never upset others needlessly. It is prominent in
artists of all kinds; they like sweet things, sloppy films.
Like silver people, with whom they match very well, they are inspired, poetic
and romantic. The copper type has the needs of others just as clearly in mind as
their own. They are kind, deep, generous and warm-hearted. They like their
creature comforts, food, etc and a romantic life. Copper people love life and
people; they love to socialise and mix with others. They have strong family ties
and the presence and companionship of friends and family are very important
to them. jobs like designers, film-makers, artists, actors, musicians. The copper
type needs to develop more confidence, more structure, more strength, more
grit. Copper can be strengthened either with iron or lead. Pulsatilla is a key
remedy for copper types.
Persons with an excess of Lead are dark and heavy, rather sombre or gloomy,
rather depressed or maybe a control-freak; 'don't touch that, it's mine!', etc.
They like coffee, dark clothes, winter, night-time and gloomy or highly
structured music. They tend to be rather conservative and love structure and
strict time guidelines, etc. They can be uptight and intolerant especially of
interference from others, which they dislike. They are often too wrapped up in
themselves to bother much about others. They fail to see how others can't also
lead a strict and orderly life. They tend to be very serious, to think too much
and to dwell in the past. Jobs like architects, bankers, accountants, solicitors.
They are rather conservative and set in their ways. They dislike change and
upset of any kind. Interested in politics. The lead type needs to loosen up a bit
and develop more spontaneous joy. It is chiefly mellowed and improved
through gold, copper, tin or silver. Close remedies are Calc, Plumbum,
Alumina and Lycopodium.
Tin people are the theorizers; even when there is nothing to think about; they
like to speculate, maybe gamble a little, a flutter on the horses is not beyond
them; they also like travel and long journeys abroad. They might be accused of
having a suspicious mind and of seeing things that aren't there. Their love of
theories comes from their ability to clearly see patterns in events and data.
These patterns are often not visible to others. From these patterns and trends
they build up theories to explain the world around them. They are natural
philosophers. They often have a well developed sense of humour. Tin types
need to develop more action and less thought, to live less in themselves and
more in the outer world. It is the inquisitiveness, expansiveness and growth
tendency of jupiter that makes tin people so obsessed with patterns and
information. They tend to be excessive and obsessive in the things they do.
This also stems from their great natural enthusiasm. jobs like university and
college lecturers, philosophers, bishops, clergy, professors, travel agents. Tin
can be livened up a little with iron, made more artistic with silver or copper and
deepened with lead. Chelidonium and other liver remedies are associated with
Tin.
Silver is the sensitive metal of the emotions and the more refined senses.
Maybe they are clairvoyant or just oversensitive; they like to be treated kindly
and will not tolerate any roughness. They do not get on with iron types, for
example, who they find far too rough and insensitive. Like copper they have a
fine artistic sense and prefer family and friends most. The lunar silver type is
the most caring and compassionate of all the metals; they like people and want
to mother them and care for them. In this sense they are the archetypal feminine
type. People with excess silver may find life rather painful and constantly on an
emotional roller-coaster, as they react to negative and positive things so
intensely and with powerful emotion. They need to develop some lead or iron
to harden and protect them from the harsh realities of life, by reducing the
intensity of their emotional response. mothers, childminders, nannies, nurses,
teachers. Argentum, Pulsatilla and Ignatia are related to the Silver type of
person.
Gold is king, proud, refined and naturally superior. Vain, arrogant and
somewhat haughty, the sun type is nevertheless very warm-hearted and kind.
Once you get past the vanity, you see that they are kind givers who love to
throw parties and splash out on big shows. They are music lovers and
especially like opera. They make loyal friends, and though intent on big
schemes, will always help others in need. Gold people succeed very easily and
are gifted as natural winners; they come top, come first, get the gold medals,
strive to win or win without even trying; they can be proud, aloof, smiling, aim
to succeed, become famous; kings, queens, bosses, directors, music lovers, etc.
Remedies like Aurum, Platina.
Discussion
To utilise metal therapy directly, you need to search through your life and
identify all those qualities that mark you out as being lead, tin or silver, say. By
checking your likes and dislikes for example, you can eventually narrow this
down. In this way you will eventually discover your own unique metallic blend.
You can build up through a few days thinking a quite complete profile of
yourself in relation to the qualities of the 7 metals. This is quite easy. You just
set yourself a questionnaire about colour and food preferences, etc. Then you
can determine where your metallic strengths and weaknesses lie. The end-goal
is to restore the metallic balance and acquire a more even blend which likewise
promotes a balance in health and well-being.
There is a very accurate but complex astrological method for determining the
precise blend of metals in one's make-up and for showing in numerical terms
which metals are strongest and weakest in one's make-up. But such a method is
too complicated to describe here.
There are three possible outcomes of your search. Firstly, you may find you
have an even blend of all the metals and no problems in life. Make the most of
your good fortune, you are unusual! Secondly, you might have several metals
even, with one or more deficient, in which case it is those deficient one's that
you need to boost further. Thirdly, it may turn out that you have all the metals
even but one or more standing out as having a much higher score. This
indicates that you have an excess of this one metal in your life. To reduce its
effect upon you, you need to push it further away from you by discarding all
colours etc that relate to it and adopt qualities, colours, etc, that are its opposite.
This will neutralise its overall effect and restore the balance.
One's life contains two distinct kinds of 'metallic' things. There are things you
like and have by virtue of a metal excess, and there are those that you have due
to a metal deficiency. You must search for both. If you like blacks and dark
blues, sleep easily, but are hard to rouse and lack energy then you have a clear
excess of lead. But you may also feel brightened by reds, which is your second
favourite colour. This indicates a lack of iron. Thus this person should reduce
the lead in their life and heighten the iron. By making this kind of adjustment,
they can compensate for the lack of one and excess of another. They will lose
their tiredness and gain a more positive outlook, just through making quite
subtle changes to the contents of their life.
As a general rule, men need to cultivate more silver or copper to tone down
their mars, and women need to develop more lead or iron to balance their
copper and silver.
It is well to bear in mind that although we all contain aspects of all the metals,
nevertheless, one or more will tend to be dominant (in excess or deficient) in
any one person.
Rationale
In a sense 'as above so below' the heart in the body is seen in alchemy as
equivalent to the gold of the earth and the sun of the heavens; brain of the body
as silver in the earth and moon in the heavens; nerves and lungs of the body as
mercury in the rocks and mercury in the heavens, etc. The reasoning behind
these close correspondences is that they share similar qualities and resonate
with each other on many different levels.
It is inherent in this view of life, that any imbalance in the cosmos which has
become imprinted in your makeup will inevitably manifest as an imbalance
within your life, often as disease. The imbalance may lead you inexplicably and
intuitively to favour a particular food, colour, plant, metal, etc over others. By
searching through these like and dislike patterns in your life, you can begin to
express that imbalance in terms of the 7 metals. And then you can begin to deal
with it.
They both also point to the power of another great imponderable in healing -
that of belief. Belief has immense power. Whether we choose to 'rationally'
scoff at it or accept and use it as a tool in healing, the choice is ours. Not just
belief in the practitioner or the therapy, belief in yourself. In this sense, belief is
the difference between wanting to do something and actually doing it. It is the
power of belief not science, that built the Pyramids and Stonehenge and other
wonders of the world. In this sense too it is belief that sets the healthy apart
from the sick.
A simple example of alchemical re-tuning would be to wear a tin or orange
bracelet if a person was prone to liver problems. Kidney complaints could be
improved by 'bringing copper more intimately into your life'; nerve disorders
through bringing silver; heart through bringing gold, etc. This sounds
deceptively simplistic, but it conveys the essence of a profound teaching and its
ordinary application in our everyday life. Of course, the world is very complex
and we must also take into account not only the seven metals, but also certain
plants, minerals and animals, including homoeopathic remedies, as long as they
are viewed or classified as 'aspects of the seven metals' and thus used as agents
of natural healing.
Many other methods exist. One might just place in one's home or garden the
metal or a mineral, plant or animal that corresponds and fill that 'gap in one's
life' in that way.
If, for example, it turns out that you are an excessively 'lead or saturn type'
person, then you can reduce or eliminate the wearing of blacks and blues, stop
eating black cherries and drinking coffee, and start using brighter colours and
eating other foods. If however, you have a deficiency of saturn-lead, then you
would take the reverse steps, and bring this metal much more into the forefront
of your life by so doing. Through simple and harmless experimentation of this
kind one can come to test the usefulness of these ideas very easily and maybe
come to know profound truths.
Thus the phrase 'bringing some metal more into your life' can be interpreted in
many different ways, each having the potential of bringing about the desired
healing effect. So it does not just mean the metal - it means the archetype the
metal has come to represent. It may mean a colour, a metal, a herb, a food, a
crystal or an animal. Once one's metallic deficiency or excess - or what we
might term one's 'simillimum metallicum' - has been identified, then one can
explore different ways of bringing that metal into your life and adjusting and
exploring the right intensity or dosage of one's intimacy with it. The essence
can be placed under one's bed, made into a pillow, put in your bath, placed on
the tongue, held in one's hand, sewn into clothes, incorporated into a bodily
ornament or piece of jewellery, used as a lotion or ointment, or as tablets in the
mouth, etc. The possibilities here are endlessly exciting.
I recall with some shame now my own scepticism when told by a patient some
years ago about a local Muslim healer she had visited for her sick son, who
mostly used Islamic prayers written in Arabic on pieces of paper to be placed in
the bath of the sick person. I privately scoffed at this idea at the time, yet now I
can see its more subtle significance. Perhaps the lesson to learn here was that
we do not know everything and should always be open minded even towards
the apparently ludicrous - especially towards the ludicrous!
One might meditate upon a certain colour, metal or flower, immerse oneself in
a certain phrase or poem that encapsulates the quality one seeks to acquire.
These might include acquiring a cat (gold), dog (mars), fish (tin), tortoise (lead)
or horse (tin) as a pet, wearing a certain colour more often, placing of crystals
upon one's body or the use of Flower essences or essential oils.
One can find in Britain simple remedies that are useful. They occur in fields,
waste-places and gardens. They can be prepared in homoeopathic form by the
usual methods or by flower essence preparation using spring water and pressed
juice, preserved with some vodka and then potentised in the usual way. Gems,
crystals and mineral remedies can be used directly or prepared using the Rae
potentiser. Remedies can also be introduced into your life by being with them,
holding them, placing them within your active environment. This especially
applies to colours, crystals, metals, plants and minerals. It is the original
method of Bach with his flowers. It is also worthwhile considering removing
some elements from your life that might be harmful to your health. Some
colours, foods, fragrances, plants etc that you have around you may be
producing mild provings in your health or are counteracting more subtle forces
that would otherwise enhance your health.
For each remedy it is important to gain some insights about its healing
properties, some astrological links and also associated colours, etc. These will
help people who wish to meditate upon each remedy before using them.
Perhaps the remedies a person needs grow right outside their own house. And
we attract to us the remedies we need. So looking beyond the very commonest
plants that are found in your garden - including foreign plants - pick those
unusual ones that only grow or thrive in your garden. It is safe to assume that
these plants are specifically attracted to you. Choose those and make tinctures
or a mixed tincture to potentise or as an oil to rub behind the ears. This acts like
the Bach remedies. They can also be brought closer to you by bringing them
indoors, placing them in the bedroom, etc.
All of these are perfectly valid methods of bringing the desired healing quality
into your life. They represent different methods of 'imbibing' a metal into one's
psycho-physical system. In this way they are all methods of 'bringing a metal
into one's life' and activating a healing response or re-tuning of one's life. They
are also different expressions of the same law of similars, which is the driving
force behind homoeopathy.
From the above it becomes possible I hope, to more fully appreciate the
otherwise silly sounding sentence that 'jupiter in the heavens is tin in the earth
and the liver in man'. It is a remarkable correspondence of qualities and
functional processes that is being revealed, an organic vision of universal
wholeness, not a logical or scientific claim.
It is surely exciting to feel that here is a system of very profound and yet
relatively simple natural healing. It can be explored by anyone truly interested
in healing their lives in the fullest sense. It recommends itself as safe, harmless,
universal and effective. Worth trying.
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