The Planetary Metal: Lead

The discipline that comes from knowing who you are, what boundaries you need to have, and how to maintain that in the world we live in.

Welcome back, dear reader, I hope the last week has found you well. As you are aware, we have been covering the symbolism within the planets, metals, and days of the week as they are understood within alchemy. Today we will begin the weekend by discussing Saturday and in our next discourse we will finish the planetary metals with the study of Sunday and gold.

We will start off with the day of the week and its “patron god” if you will, Saturday. This day gets its name from the roman god Saturn, the god of wealth and agriculture and the father of Jupiter. Some of you may recognize this god better through his parallel, the Greek god Cronus, the father of Zeus, who led humanity and the gods during the time that the Greeks called the “golden age.” The stories from the golden age of Greece are full of the benefits Cronus, he was a foundational god who laid the framework for the future gods (his children) and provided the wealth and peace that comes through properly exercised discipline and wisdom. The traits of this god were also attributed to the planet itself, tying it to the planet in more ways than just a name.

The god Saturn is, of course, the namesake for the planet Saturn, the sixth planet in our solar system and the planet governing the sixth day on our current calendar. This planet is probably the most recognizable of them all to the public because of its large flat rings. These rings are actually a big part of how Saturn was discovered; the extra surface area and light reflected back to earth made Saturn one of the first planets humanity discovered and the “strange” shape helped convince early people there was something different about this body. It has even been said that Saturn being the first planet discovered was a reason it was given the name of the first god, but without primary sources this is an educated guess. Some other interesting information about Saturn is that while it is one of the two gas giants holding 92% of the mass of the solar system, it is incredibly light, scientists say that if we could place Saturn on a body of water it would float because all of the weight is tightly bound in the core of the planet.

While researching for this discourse I came across another interesting fact and theory that applies directly to our study of planetary metals. For a long time, we have known about a hexagonal shape around the pole of Saturn, it fits into the same visual category as the cloud rings on both gas giants but holds a specific shape for some reason. Scientists have noted in recent years that this hexagon’s rotation matches the speed that the planet releases radio transmissions and that this shape could possibly be a standing wave form related to these radio transmissions. Why this is interesting to the study of alchemy is because we state the planets emit or reflect an energy from themselves to the earth at a specific frequency which can interact with energies here. These energies can affect the subtle spiritual body and mind of the person all the way down to the more “primitive” bodies like metals.

The metal that is most highly affected by and embodies the traits of Saturn is that of lead. Lead is one of the most common elements associated with alchemy and there have been volumes written on its qualities. Lead is one of the first ores to be worked by humans and we have beads dating back to 7000bce showing that it was important in metalworking and jewelry for longer than most other metals. Part of the reason it became so important are its specific traits such as being able to be worked with little or no heat, being extremely dense yet extremely soft, and being easily melted and cast. The use of lead in alchemy overall did not only take the form of metalworking in western alchemy but in eastern alchemy practices the lead was often dissolved into an elixir and used for medicinal reasons. This practice has become less common in recent years much like the use of mercury in traditional medicine, because of the risk of toxicity, but it is still practiced by some.

So then with all of these uses and traits what does lead, or Saturn mean for us symbolically? The symbols of Saturn are the glyph sent to you with this discourse, the planet itself, lead, a square, a cube, the color black, or a black cube and all of these contain the same basic archetype, stability and foundation. Saturn gives us the structure of the square we discussed when covering shapes, like a table with four legs, it is completely stable. When this square is projected onto a 3-dimentional world it becomes the cube, symbolizing the deepening of the discipline and stability that comes from strengthening that foundation. Saturn, lead, the cube, Saturday, they all provide us with a place we can take our minds, freed from the chaos of the week and return to our true selves, the us that we know deep down regardless of what we decide to show the world, this knowledge of who you are is the foundation you need in order to perform the work of alchemy. Without knowing who you are you cannot know what aspects are good and bad, what is dross that should be removed for the purification of the soul, and what is the seed of gold inside the lead that will help change you into the stone. This is the true meaning of Saturn, yes it symbolizes wealth, discipline, and wisdom but those are the pillars that are able to rise from your foundation. The discipline that comes from knowing who you are, what boundaries you need to have, and how to maintain that in the world we live in. Once you understand that foundation about yourself, once you have found the lead you are working with, you can begin the work of remolding and transforming that lead into something more perfect.

I want to end this discourse here to allow the information to settle in your mind and spirit so you can understand the deeper layers that alchemy is hiding behind every truth. I truly hope you have been enjoying these planetary metals discourses, they have been a lot of fun to work on, and I look forward to bringing them to an end next week with Sunday, gold, and the sun. I hope the energies of Saturn resonate with you throughout this week and I hope the next week finds you well.

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