Cuprum metallicum Anhang
[David Lilley]
Goddess of love and beauty
To the ancients and the alchemists, copper was imbued with the nature and
inner qualities of Aphrodite or Venus: the goddess of beauty and love, of
creativity and procreation and of sexual desire. Likewise, in astrology copper
is associated with the planet Venus, which graces the night sky with a radiant
beauty that outshines all other heavenly bodies. Copper delights the eye; it
has lovely warmth, richness and depth of colour, which is friendly and
inviting, and worn decoratively it clasps the arm with intimate, yielding
softness. Traditionally worn as a talisman to protect the wearer against the
risk of cholera and ease the stiffness and pains of arthritis, it is
protective, nurturing and caring.
There are various versions of the birth of this most exquisite goddess,
each revealing a different aspect of the collective unconscious. One of the
most ancient and primal was that she arose naked from the foam of the sea,
riding on a scallop shell, borne by gentle spirits of the wind, and alighted
on the island of Cyprus. As she stepped ashore, spring blossomed into fullness
and her joy, laughter and desire swept over the land. Wherever her delicate
feet touched the earth, grass and flowers sprang into being; everywhere she
drew forth the hidden promise of life. Petals of red and pink roses were strewn
in her path. Her five graces attended her: Flowering, Growth, Beauty, Joy and
Radiance. In this myth she is visualised as an aspect of the great mother
goddess herself, and symbolises the emergence of all life from the sea.
Botticelli’s masterpiece, The Birth of Venus, incomparably captures the
enchanting image of the goddess’ voyage towards Cyprus on her mollusc shell.
Significantly, Cyprus was the main source of copper in classical times.
The emasculated father
In later times, a more primitive, convoluted (psychopathological)
explanation for her birth was added: a story sometimes metaphorically relevant
to the emotional life of Cuprum. As Aeschylus tells us: “The great and amorous
sky (Ouranos) curved over the earth (Gaia) and lay upon her as a true lover.”
From this repeated union the Titans
were born. Ouranos hated and feared his progeny and hid them within the
folds of Gaia’s body. In revenge, Mother Earth persuaded the Titans to attack
their father.
Her youngest son, Kronos, lay in wait for him, and when Ouranos
descended to couple with Gaia, he severed his father’s genitals with a sickle
and caste the dismembered organs into the sea. Amidst the foaming of sea and
semen arose the form of a most beautiful woman – the goddess Aphrodite. This
myth establishes her primacy: she is
more ancient and primordial than the Olympian gods.
The mother-metal
Copper is the mother-metal of civilisation; the first metal to be
discovered and fashioned into useful and decorative implements. The Copper Age
gave birth to the Bronze Age through the alloying of tin to copper. Bronze
became the favoured material for the sculptor and was employed in the creation
of musical instruments. The dominance of copper coincided with the pre-eminence
of the worship of the feminine by many different cultures in the East and West.
The advent of iron and the Iron Age, which eclipsed copper, coincided with the
rise of the patriarchal society, based upon the power of the warrior archetype
(Ferrum). The mother was suppressed and minimised as these societies sought to
force the power of the feminine into an obscure and subservient role,
discrediting those of her symbols, such as the serpent, that could not easily
be assimilated.
The Cuprum remedy picture arises from the everpresent domination of the
feminine by the masculine principle, with all its attendant suppression,
injustice, discrimination and exploitation. The same sequence, of copper
yielding to iron, is seen in the evolving physiology of life forms. In the
transition from marine invertebrate to vertebrate life, the role of copper is
taken over by iron in the shift from haemocyanin, necessary for water
breathing, to haemoglobin for the breathing of air.
Copper is the mother-metal of the sea and its creatures.
A wanton metal
Aphrodite was sensual, seductive, and promiscuous and the protectress of
courtesans and prostitutes. Because of the ease with which the metal combined
with all the acids and transformed, the alchemists named
copper “the harlot (= Hure) of metals”. Homeopathy calls her “shameless”. In
mythology Aphrodite was married to Hephaistos, God
of the Forge, the divine craftsman and inventive genius (Roman - Vulcan;
homeopathic – Sulphur).
He had a misshapen foot and walked with a limp. In his subterranean smithy, he
used volcanic fires to fashion the most beautiful objects – exquisite artworks,
utensils, weapons and armour for the gods and heroes.
How often is a beautiful young woman seen in the company of an
unprepossessing, older man who, in return for her favours, keeps her, pampers
her and showers her with jewellery and expensive gifts? She may well be a
Cuprum and he a Sulphur. The archetype loves to be doted upon and spoilt and
delights in adornment and luxury.
They have a particular preference for wearing gold. In the myth,
Aphrodite and Ares (Ferrum) cuckold Hephaistos; together they form the eternal
triangle of husband, wife and lover. This triangle, fraught with passion, love,
jealousy, deceit, resentment, anger and hate, is reflected in the geology of the
Earth. The most abundant and important copper ore is chalcopyrite, a
copper-iron-sulphide: literally a combination of Aphrodite, Ares and Hephaistos
or Cuprum, Ferrum and Sulphur. Myth and fact walk
hand in hand.
Copper and colour
Copper and gold are the only metals that are vividly coloured but it is
the ores and salts of copper, not gold, that glorify nature’s palette with an
exquisite spectrum of colours. The pure metal varies from yellow-red through
orange-red, rose-red, sunset-red to brownish-red. It possesses a rich,
honey-like beauty. Honey
belongs to the language of love – honeyed words, honeyed lips and the
honey-colour of semen. When burnished, copper becomes fiery and shimmers
intensely like gold. It burns with a brilliant blue-green flame tinged at the
tips with red. Ultra-thin leaf-copper appears bluish-green.
Copper combines in nature with all the acids and in doing so transforms
into magnificent greens, blues and violet, as well as reds, oranges and
yellows. Cuprum is therefore an important fundamental remedy of the materia
medica and influences all the chakras. When exposed to the atmosphere, the
combined effect of moisture and carbon dioxide (carbonic acid) causes the metal
to develop a thin coating of green rust known as patina, which protects it
against further corrosion and adds a noble beauty to copper works of art. Once
clad in its mantle of green, copper can resist the ravages of time.
Green is the colour of the 4th or love chakra; Cuprum is a
remedy for the pangs of unrequited love and for obsessive love. Green is also
the colour of nature and plant life; Cuprum loves gardens and gardening.
Red – the first chakra
[David Lilley]
Orange – the second chakra
Orange is the colour most closely related to the nature and personality
of Cuprum, seen in the common yellow-red shade – a golden, honey-like colour.
This is the colour of the second or sacral (pelvic) chakra, which is associated
with the element water and functionally with the genito-urinary tract and the
lower, small intestine. Orange is feminine red and yin. In orange, the life
frequency has moved upwards, outwards and away from the dense earthiness,
groundedness and aggressive passion of red. The passion remains, but no longer
anchored to issues of survival and security; orange broadens life, looks for
change, moves on, initiates and seeks to express itself uniquely and
creatively. Like water, through expansion, orange and Cuprum can overcome
barriers, even shatter rocks and dissolve obstacles: a metaphor for the
breaking up and dissipation of deeply repressed emotions, destructive
habituation and the dire effects of suppressed function. The energy of the second
chakra is expressed through change, motion, duality, polarity, desire, freedom
and the interplay between yin and yang: a ceaseless flow that brings constant
change – a quality inherent in water, copper and electricity.
The orange/copper personality
Both orange and Cuprum are extroverts and sociable; they love parties,
dancing and singing, are full of fun, mirth and mischief and love to mimic and
tease. They are flirtatious, witty and socially and sexually confident. To
achieve its ends orange uses diplomacy, seduction and, if needed, deceit and is
willing to bide its time. In their negative presentation, however, they cease
to flow – they stagnate, contract, suppress and become closed, rigid and fixed
in their emotions, holding onto grief and grudge. Often there is outrage at
having been exposed to injustice, cruelty or severe abuse. Such an injured
Cuprum loses her burnish and becomes dull copper -mat and muddy- unsociable, introverted and restrained – yet
with seething, pent-up currents of repressed suffering always in danger of
venting violently, either by furious, emotional outbursts or through cramps,
spasms and even convulsions. When indicated, homeopathic Cuprum has the power
to dissolve, resolve and establish a healing flow.
Flow and sensitivity
Like silver, copper possesses an inner, fluid state revealed in its
plasticity: the ease with which it can be fashioned by hammering and pressing
without cracking (malleability) and its ability to be drawn into extremely thin
wires without breaking (ductility). This quality of liquidity and flow is
paralleled by the metal’s excellent electrical and heat conductivity; second
only to silver. Conductivity, in human terms, indicates sensitivity to both
their inner and outer environment, manifest in the Cuprum individual as intense
aesthetic and sensual awareness, which affords them immense pleasure. Their
love of beauty in all its forms embraces both nature and culture. Cuprum
espouses especially the ephemeral and elusive beauties, those that bud, blossom
and eventually blanch: a magnificent sunset, the freshness of dawn, the magic
of spring, the beauty of a garden, the loveliness of a countenance, the
fickleness of fashion and the act of love; ephemeral yet eternal, because
always renewable. Though transient, Aphrodisiacal beauty makes everyday life
more charming, more civilised and more passionate. However, Cuprum’s sense of
the beautiful can surpass that which simply pleases the eye – the formal
perfection of an image, the physical attraction of a lover – and can touch that
which lies beyond, as, when in profound sexual union, pleasure transports to
ecstasy and becomes sanctified.
Since antiquity, musical instruments have been fashioned out of copper
and bronze, hence it is not surprising that the copper-being loves music,
dancing and singing. They are hypersensitive to touch, especially an intimate
caress, and to being observed, especially the caressing glance of an admirer.
Their tolerance for pain is low. The charisma of
a strong, magnetic personality can easily infatuate them. They pick up
on human mannerisms and frailty and can make both the butt of their gift of
mimicry and their wicked wit. They have a telepathic awareness of other
people’s thoughts and feelings. These may impinge uncomfortably on their
emotional state. They have well developed “gut instincts” about people and
situations.
Cuprum and water
The spasmodic conditions of the Cuprum clinical picture – cough, colic,
spasms, hiccough and vomiting are all relieved by drinking cold water. All the
associations of copper point to its profound relationship to water; the same
conclusion was common to many traditions. Greek Aphrodite arose from the
ocean-foam. The Aztecs regarded copper
as the symbol for water and, by extension, equally the symbol for plant
life; a symbolism highlighted by the green patina of old copper. Green and red
were of equal potency, both expressing the life force and both vigorously
manifest in copper. With intuitive insight, their myth perceived that copper
coloured sunbeams are the celestial pathways
for water, only visible when they shaft through dank mists and storm
clouds, penetrating the earth to great depths where the water is transformed
into copper. The myth of another culture envisaged copper coming down from a
red heaven of blood, fire, war and divine justice in the form of thunderbolts that
cleave the earth and deposit the red, fiery metal.
The homeopathic provings of Cuprum enable us to unravel the veiled
wisdom implicit in these cultural myths, just as we can interpret the personal,
dream myths of patients.
In psychology, water represents the energy of the unconscious and also
its mysterious depths and perils. These depths are known as the shadow: the
personal abyss.
On the spiritual path of unfoldment, the energy of the unconscious needs
to be expressed: the repressed, unrealised and undeveloped aspects of the Self
must be resurrected, resolved and brought to fulfilment. These myths portray in
lurid metaphor the reverse process, by which the traumas, storms and battles
demanded by destiny in the “red heaven” of life, are violently thrust into the
interior as a Cuprum psychopathological state instead of being lived-out and
overcome. Implosion of such destructive energy must ultimately lead to
explosion. Note well the phallic words I have used to convey the myth image:
shaft, penetrating, thunderbolt, cleaving! The deadly inversion of copper
energy is often the effect of masculine oppression and abuse, often sexual.
Suppression – Cuprum’s Nemesis
Cuprum must flow outwards emotionally, sexually and functionally. Her
enormous, externalising energy may not be stifled. Throughout the clinical
picture of Cuprum we witness the phenomenon of suppression: things that should
come out on to the surface, fail to do so, due to either non-development or
suppression. On the emotional plane, powerful feelings and impulses – from
injury (head injury), shock, fright, grief, bereavement, disappointed love,
anger, jealousy, humiliation, assault, abuse and rape – are repressed. In order
to repress intense emotions, the Cuprum subject has to control and rigidly
close down all tender feelings, needs, instincts, self-expression and even
their sexuality. In achieving this they become extremely closed, serious, cold,
rigid and uncompromising. They adopt a bureaucratic-like fidelity to
responsibility, ambition, rules
and regulations, order and work. What is marked in Cuprum is the total
nature of the close-down and the tendency for this almost absolute control to
break down periodically and unpredictably, with outbursts of most violent
emotions. In extreme cases, in the throes of such an emotional convulsion their
behaviour is maniacal: they turn on their adversary with all the savagery of a
wild-eyed, harlot – spitting, scratching, biting, striking and pulling hair.
Repression of the feminine
In myth, the inherent Aphrodite energy within all women rose from the
bosom of mother ocean as an independent, all-powerful, generative, primal
force, ruling both heaven and earth, or was born out of the emasculation of
Ouranos, which symbolises liberation from the misogynistic domination of the
male principle. Repression of the feminine in any form is a transgression
against this freedom, independence and power and will ultimately bring
dysfunction or pathology, which may become a Cuprum state. A vital force that
is not recognised and valued becomes negative. The use of the contraceptive
pill is an abuse of the feminine through suppression of the procreative aspect
of the goddess and must exact its penalty. The often unconscious repression of
the feminine may be a defensive response against male chauvinism, abuse,
domination and neglect. The myth of the disembodied genitals has then another
meaning: the soulless, faceless phallus in the night may represent the rapist,
but also a barren relationship devoid of love, beauty and grace in which
release and self-gratification are the motive for intimacy. Sexuality has lost
its voluptuous magic; it is neither sin nor sacrament. Gone are its wondrous
colours, neutralised to the grey of sexual platitude. To survive, Cuprum turns
off the honey of her love, turns off Aphrodite, and she, the most tactile and
lovely of archetypes, becomes averse to touch and the eye of the beholder. She
withdraws her caring, nurturing, vulnerable, sensual, feminine nature and
asserts her critical, domineering, exacting, masculine aspect: a patina with
which she masks her grief, her humiliation and her indignation.
The return of Aphrodite – the apotheosis of Cuprum
Aphrodite always returns to the sea, immersing herself in the pulsing
rhythms of the tide and restoring her virginity. So it is between lovers whose
souls touch; immersed in the enveloping, aquatic world of the goddess; all is
flow, moisture, foam and wavelike movement; streams of energy which unite and
mount to climactic liquefaction, bringing that ephemeral moment when the
partner assumes an incandescent beauty and golden Aphrodite grants a glimpse of
eternity. It is always unique; it is always the first time: a paean to Cuprum!