Metallen Anhang 2
[Peter Morrell]
THE HEALING POWER OF METALS
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.
The seven metals are
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
sun - gold - aurum - heart and spine
moon - silver - argentum - brain and fluids
mercury - mercury - hydrargyrum - nervous system, lungs
venus - copper - cuprum - kidneys, nutrition
mars - iron - ferrum - blood, muscles and circulation
jupiter - tin - stannum - liver & gall bladder
saturn - lead - plumbum - skeleton and skin, hair, nails
Similarly the planets and metals correspond to certain colours. There
are various schemes. One such scheme is as follows:
moon - silver
- white,
cream, greens
mercury - silver, grey, yellow
venus - copper
- blues, pinks, pastel
shades
saturn - lead - black,
dark colours, purple, violet, indigo
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:
sun - sunflower seeds, oranges, eggs, grapes
moon - melons, cucumbers, yogurt, cheese, milk
mercury - cereals
venus - fruits, potato, chocolate, sweets, berries
mars - peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic, curry, meats, black pudding
jupiter - nuts, seeds, lemons, apples
saturn - coffee, carob, aubergenes, olives
Guide to the seven metals
A brief outline of the metals is as follows:
Iron: excess of Iron makes 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.
Copper: excess of Copper, like venus, makes 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.
Silver: excess makes 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.
Lead: excess makes dark and heavy, rather sombre or gloomy, rather
depressed or maybe a control-freak; 'don't touch that, it's mine!', etc. Like
coffee, dark clothes, winter, night-time and gloomy or highly structured music.
Tend to be rather conservative and love structure and strict time guidelines,
etc. They can be uptight and intolerant (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., Plb-met. Alum.
and Lyc.
Tin: excess makes 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. Chel. and
other liver remedies associated with Tin.
Mercury: excess makes a chatterbox, ceaselessly talking and gossiping,
sometimes harmlessly, sometimes bitchily. Merc. makes a good messenger,
diplomat or go-between, yet they can be two-faced and cannot keep a secret!
They appear as all things to all people, somewhat promiscuous in every sense
and rather changeable. they love books, letters, newspapers, magazines,
journals, correspondence, reading, writing, telephones, crosswords, languages,
jobs like teachers and writers, servants, doctors, diplomats, entertainers,
Merc., Tub., Cann-i. and Stram. are related remedies.
‡ Zur Harmonisierung und Stabilisierung der
Wechselwirkung zwischen Atmung und Zirkulation (katarrhalische bis eitrige,
auch chronisch-rezidivierende granulomatöse Entzündungsprozess der Luftwege.
Entzündung (Mandeln/Hals/Phyrinx/Trachea).
Ein
wichtiges Heilmittel finden. Gerade an diesem Stoffe bietet sich Gelegenheit,
die viel verteidigte und viel angefochtene Beziehung des Quecksilbers zum
menschlichen Organismus zu studieren. Das Quecksilber ist derjenige erstarrte
Prozess, der mitten darinnen steht zwischen den Fortpflanzungsvorgängen, die
innerhalb des Organismus dessen Wesen von ihm selber fast völlig absondern.
Die
Quecksilberkräfte haben nun die Eigentümlichkeit, diese abgesonderten Kräfte wieder
zur Resorption im ganzen Organismus zu bringen. Man kann also das Quecksilber
(man muss es in feinster Dosierung tun) therapeutisch überall dort anwenden, wo
im Organismus sich absondernde Prozesse bilden, die wiederum in die Herrschaft
des ganzen Organismus geführt werden sollen. Es sind dies alle katarrhalischen
Prozesse. Sie entstehen dadurch, dass durch äußere Einwirkung irgend ein Trakt
des Organismus aus der Herrschaft des ganzen Organismus herausgerissen wird.
Beim Luftröhrenkatarrh und allen in der Nähe befindlichen katarrhalischen
Erscheinungen ist das der Fall. Führt man dahin die Quecksilberkräfte, so
wirken sie heilend. Es ist eine schon mehrfach erwähnte Eigenschaft des
Schwefels, dass er sich wirksam erweist in dem Gebiete des Organismus, wo
Zirkulation und Atmung aneinander grenzen, also bei allem, was von der Lunge
ausgeht. Zinnober ist eine Verbindung von Quecksilber und Schwefel; es ist ein
wirksames Heilmittel für alles Katarrhalische in den bezeichneten Gebieten des
menschlichen Organismus. ‡
Silver is the sensitive metal of the emotions and the more refined
senses. Excess makes 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. Arg-met. Puls. and Ign. related to the Silver type.
Gold: excess makes 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.
1. 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!
2. 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.
3. 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.
A link is thereby established and repeatedly emphasised between man, the
earth-bound metals and the wider cosmos. In alchemy this link is seen as vital
for gaining any fundamental grasp of our nature, disharmonies in the body, the
earth or the cosmos. All are seen as intimately and inextricably interconnected.
By identifying deficiencies in one realm, for example, one can then apply the
appropriate change or re-tuning through the organ, metal or planet that
corresponds. In this way adjustments can be made in any realm and the harmony
of interrelationships that constitutes 'man-earth-cosmos' can be
re-established.
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.
This interrelationship means, amongst other things, that we
uncontrollably attract into our life that which is helpful or useful to us and
which reflects our inner nature. This includes people, relatives and friends,
as well as objects, plants, pets, etc. The inner and the outer natures
cooperate, reflect and reinforce each other. Yet also, through the polarity
principle, we can attract that which is the exact opposite. To some extent this
is why we can become ill from the very thing that will heal us and be healed by
that which makes us unwell - contraries and similars being to this degree
convergent. It also means we can attract into our lives the very things that
cause us ill-health. Yet, as Louise Hay and Edward Bach both indicate in their
little books, it is through developing love (and especially self-love) that we
can begin to liberate ourselves from the negative in our life - which is
perhaps the ultimate healing.
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!
The method we adopt is largely immaterial, it is the process of linking
and correspondence that is important, and bringing it more closely into your
life. By re-establishing your intimate correspondence with that metal in some
way, one initiates a healing process, which is in reality a harmonisation of
imbalances.
The precise method one uses to link up with the archetype is secondary,
varies from individual to individual and embraces all the healing arts
available.
A certain amount of harmless experimentation is required with this
technique to find for oneself what acts best.
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.
Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum