Properties of Bronze

Aeric

I own a few rings made from bronze, so I decided to explore its magical properties. Here’s what I came up with.

Alloys don’t get as much focus as pure metals in magic. The usual line seems to be that “alloys embody the magical combination of their metals.” But to what degree, and how? There’s also the notion that since naturally occurring alloys are rarer than pure metal, a metal that requires human manipulation to produce has diluted magical power. I don’t think that’s true.

Copper is the main ingredient in the two primary copper alloys: bronze and brass. While tin and zinc are their secondary metals, both often have a third element to some degree, like nickel, aluminum, or lead. But since the proportion of the third metal varies greatly between types of bronze and brass, I’ll focus on just the copper + tin.

So we have mostly copper mixed with a small quantity of tin, roughly 9:1. The large presence of copper would have great Venusian influences, but how are they transformed by the inclusion of Jupiter? If tin creates a harder metal than copper, we might look at the Venusian properties being hardened or strengthened by Jupiter, the king of planets.

The widespread development of bronze for tools hearkened a new era of human technology, following the short-lived Chalcolithic (Copper) Age of softer tools (or accompanying it, depending where you were in the world). Thus, similar to iron, steel, and other metals, bronze may enhance courage, practicality, and focus on work. If the Venusian properties of love and appreciation are hardened by Jupiter’s good fortune into a working tool, perhaps this might signify the self-love required for progress that is hardened and tempered by courage to accomplish great tasks. It combines the earthly

Bronze was of course used for weapons to kill, and this may extend to spiritual planes. A piece of old folklore relates how “cold iron” is a magically damaging metal to fairies and spirits, since it represents forging, therefore technology and progress, drawing a person away from resonance with natural substances. Bronze may have the same unfortunate application. The Hebrew altar in the Old Testament was made of wood overlaid with bronze, for sacrificial offerings, in contrast to the “loftier” altar of incense that was overlaid with gold. No utensils of bronze were used inside the tabernacle, only outside it, suggesting that bronze represented spiritual judgement upon earthly sin.

Nonetheless, bronze possesses a unique beauty that was recognized by many cultures. Copper and bronze were of course the earliest metals for forging mirrors. A bronze mirror is a prevalent symbol of beauty in the ancient world.

Tin darkens the red-orange of copper to a brown that can be polished to a lustrous tan. If gold is the Sun, and silver is the Moon, perhaps bronze is the brown of the Earth?

What do you think?
 

danieljuk

That is a great idea Aeric!
Some years ago I bought a keyring made of Bronze from a little market in France. I think it was a goddess on it and in the market they were a little tarnished and green. They looked old! They had a metal ring which you attach your keys and you handle it and have it in your pocket and the market stall owner said to me to look at the change. After a while it went really shiny and golden, rather than tarnished! Now I think what a clever idea but at the time I bought it as just a cute thing. Just from the handling it changed.

I like the idea of the mixing for magical properties. I want to see if my keyring has a magical affect now with the mixing. I would definitely try it out on a ring to see the effect it has for you.