As always, we must be very careful when we define a family. In Massimo’s understanding, there is no clear relationship between the salts of these metals. We cannot consider these 7 metals ‘a family’ in terms of the real concept of a family. We may, however, find some things in common. Hahnemann lived in a time when the border between alchemy and pharmacology was not as defined as it is nowadays. It is a fact that our Western pharmacology comes directly from alchemy. It is interesting to consider these 7 metals from the symbolic point of view so that we can see why these metals were so important for our ancestors.

Each one of these metals is more than an element or a remedy. Each is associated with a powerful archetype. Even if we don’t do it consciously, we build many things in our daily life upon these 7 basic concepts – our definitions of time, music, the day of the week, for example all use this cycle of 7.

We need to start by giving a concept to these symbols, starting right from the beginning.

2

We can start by looking at the number ‘2’. It is something that can be seen in many ways since the existence of man – we have a Sun and a Moon, night and day, male and female and many other things that can be divided in two. A common representation of this is the movement of the Sun.

6am 12pm 12pm

When this is split into four, we see the well-known yin-yang symbol.

In numerology, the first ‘odd’ number is not 1. The first odd number is 3. ‘1’ is the father or mother of all numbers. In many cultures, the idea of zero did not exist. It was the Arabs who explained that the concept of ‘nothing’ could exist. Even in Greek and Roman culture that were sophisticated in terms of their philosophy, there was no concept of zero.

The circle is a symbol of the infinite. There is no beginning and no end.

If you read the experiences of mystical people, one of the most common feelings is that they are a part of everything. This is the same for Buddhists, North American Indians, Christianity or whatever; the concept is the same. In the right moment, you can perceive the beauty of God and transcend your own individual life. At the same time, this omnipotent idea that you can merge with the universe means that in that moment you are nothing else. If you are everything you are also nothing. Nullity and totality are a part of the same concept.

3

Out of the concept of ‘2’ comes the concept of ‘3’. There is something that is male and female / sun and moon and something that is both of them, or in between. A common representation of this in many cultures was the use of colours. We have three basic colours from which we make all other colours:- Red, Yellow and Blue. This is the minimum needed to make colours according to our perception. Commonly the red colour was associated with male, blue was related to female and yellow was something in the middle that is not male or female. The symbols associated with them were commonly:-

Red Male Circle Spirit

Blue Female Semi-circle Soul

Yellow In between A cross Body

It is interesting that the circle and semi-circle correspond to the Sun and Moon. What is our perception of the Earth represented as a cross – the correlation between something horizontal and something vertical.

The combination of these 3 symbols were used to explain the 7 planets that we can see with the naked eye.

Saturn is represented by a cross on a semi-circle:-

Only Mercury combines all three of the symbols. In the same image we can see that the combination of the first 3 colours makes up the first 7 colours. The combination of these 3 symbols makes up the next 7 symbols and therefore planets. We can also see that mercury represents this white colour, which is a combination of all the colours – when light is completely reflected. It is also the only type of matter, which is different to the others, since it is a liquid metal.

Of course, all of these are symbols. These were the only known main 7 metals at the time. When we are dealing with Ferrum and with Mars, we are dealing with something that is male, that is in between the body and the spirit, that is in between Plumbum (the most heavy element) combined with Aurum.

On the female side, we see Cuprum, which is Venus – a combination of the energy of Plumbum and Argentum. We see Stannum, Jupiter, is something that doesn’t touch the idea of the body