Friends, FYI >The Nature of Substance >Rudolf Hauschka > >In many of its properties, silver is just the opposite of lead. Lead's >resonance is as dull as its luster. It melts easily, can only be cast, and >is a poor conductor. Silver gives out the most ringing of metallic tones and >gleams most brilliantly. It is very subtly workable, melts only at high
>temperatures, and has the highest degree of conductivity. The two metals >occupy opposite ends of the table of metals, like Saturn and Moon in the >planetary order. The moon's speedy orbit and ever-changing path give silver >an inner mobility. But silver manifests this trait quite differently from >mercury, as will be seen in the course of this chapter. >The chemistry of silver paints the first strokes of its portrait in the >striking phenomenon of its mirroring capacity. Everyone who has stored >silver nitrate has certainly noticed a very fine film of silver appearing on >the glass walls of the container. The coating gradually grows thicker, until >finally it forms a real mirror. This precipitation process can be hastened >by various reducing chemicals. The tendency to form mirroring surfaces is >one of silver's chief characteristics. >The chemical reactions of silver show the same tendency. It reacts, for >example, with chlorine to form white silver chloride. Under the influence of >light it throws off the chlorine with the same energy with which it first >attracted it, returning to its former pure metallic condition. Finely >distributed, it now appears black. This process is the basis of photography. >Photographic plates are coated with an emulsion of white silver chloride, >which is sensitive to light. When light streams through the camera lens on >to the coated plate, the illuminated parts react, while the rest stays >unchanged. The process is completed by developing, which gives us the >negative with its black (silver) outlines. The parts that were illuminated >are now black, while those untouched by light are still covered with silver >chloride in its unchanged white. The fixing bath which the negative is now >given removes the silver chloride, so that the dark objects on the >plate seem transparent. (A solution of sodium thiosulphate, which dissolves >silver chloride, is used for fixing.) >To get a positive print from the negative, the process is run through again. >Printing paper is now exposed to light, acting through the negative, and >given the same further treatment as the first plate. >This, then, is how photographs are made: they could be called mirrors of the >past. A mirror process is certainly also involved in their manufacture. The >Liesegang ring phenomenon helps to round out our picture of silver and of >the inner mobility that accounts for its reproductive power. When a drop of >silver nitrate falls on a glass plate coated with chrome gelatin that has >not quite hardened, the silver reacts with the chrome. A round reddish-brown >spot of silver chromate appears. It spreads in all directions, not in the >even way an ink spot does, but in wave after wave, each one of which makes a >concentric red-brown ring around the original spot. What is characteristic >here is the rhythmic repetition that forms concentric spheres, where one >might have expected to see just a single sphere as the spot spreads out? >There is an out flowing motion with a rhythmical wave impulse, like the >spread of a musically vibrating sound. This is another example of the >kinship between chemical forces and music; the chemistry of a substance is >like an inner music that organizes matter into ordered patterns. >The Liesegang rings recall the concentric ripple patterns that spread out in >rhythmically expanding waves from the place where a stone is thrown into >still water. We might call both reproductive. >When an object is reflected in a mirror, we speak of a pictorial >reproduction. We also speak of photographic reproduction. When we stand >between mirrors we see countless reflections of ourselves, very like the >concentric silver chromate rings in the chrome gelatin. Ceaseless repetition >and wave-like reproduction of some motion or condition of matter are >characteristic of the silver force. >Reproduction means, in a narrower sense, the renewal of species in the world >of nature. Just as the silver reaction described above spreads and spreads >in concentric circles, nature brings forth cycle after cycle of budding, >germinating life, as species reproduce their kind. And even in the single >organism the same living rhythm of growth goes on. The annual rings seen on >cross- sections of tree trunks are an expression of the same force that >makes Liesegang rings. Grains of starch seen under a microscope or the >cross-section of an egg reveal the same out flowing rhythm. >The silver process is the force responsible for all these life- rhythms. We >are referring here, of course, to the action of a universal force that finds >material expression here on earth in the substance silver. >In this connection it is natural to find silver tending more than any other >metal to the colloidal state. A silver salt need only be treated with a >protein solution to produce pure colloidal silver. We know that a colloidal >substance can be described as being neither completely fluid nor yet solid. >It has a potentiality for either state. This is an essential characteristic >of the living. Our blood, plant sap, and all other fluid carriers of >vegetative functions, are colloidal in character. >These silver forces are active in all growth and bodybuilding processes in >the human organism, and most strongly, of course, where physical life is >reproduced: in the sexual organs. The silver process works on a higher plane >in the brain, the organ that enables us to reproduce thoughts and to mirror >the world in our conceptual life. >The properties of silver as an earthly condensation of moon forces indicate >its therapeutic uses. It proves valuable as a medicament in the treatment of >regenerative and reproductive disturbances, providing valuable support for >recreative functions and permeating the fluid organisms with its vital >rhythms. Its many-sidedness leads to its use in a great variety of other >special therapeutic applications. >Just as lead brings the forces of Saturn to manifestation, so the silver >process reflects the action of the moon, whose immediate influence on all >the rhythms in man and nature is everywhere evident. >The rhythm of the tides is currently regarded as a product mainly of lunar >gravitation. This could be correct, although the assumption leaves some >difficult problems unresolved. > >In any case, there can be no doubt that the primary cause of tidal ebb and >flow is the moon's law of rhythm, noted in all manifestation of the silver >process studied in these pages. We know that sea water contains silver in >the ratio of 10 mg. to a cubic meter. It may be that silver acts as a focus >for lunar influences, and as a medium for transmitting moon forces and their >rhythms to the tides. And just as sea water rises and falls in accordance >with thc laws of lunar rhythm, so is there a tide of sap in plants, both >during germination and in later growth. >Plant growth is accompanied by a rhythmic increase and decrease of >substances, a tidal emergence and disappearance of matter subject to a >monthly rhythm. Certain disturbed states of consciousness, such as epilepsy >and somnambulism, worsen or improve with changes of the moon. >In some regions there are still farmers who cling to old traditions and >regulate the times of planting, harvesting and other such farming activities >by the moon phase. This could well be called superstition, if the method >were not proved right by the author's own observations and experiments. >Modern man should not depend on old traditions, but should rather >investigate the laws of life anew and then act rationally in accordance with them. >Now we might call silver a dense form of moonlight. It is a substance very >like the moon in brilliance and reflecting power. The moon reflects the >light of the whole universe. Starlight as well as sunlight comes to us in >moon reflection. We need hardly be surprised that this dark satellite >reflects the sun most obviously. Like a true mirror, it always turns the >same side toward us. Its surface is very like that of a frozen flow of >silver which has 'spluttered' while getting rid of the quantities of air it >absorbed while in a white-hot state, and comes finally to resemble a moon >landscape sown with craters. >In ancient times the moon forces manifested in these phenomena were felt to >be divine. Greek mythology attributes them to Diana, or Artemis. One of her >chief shrines was at Ephesus. The statue of the goddess there shows every >attribute of fertility. >The pupils of this shrine knew that the goddess ruled the cycle of the moon >and the various vegetative and reproductive processes in man and nature. >Celebrating their rites by the light of the full moon, they felt forces of >emergent life streaming down to earth. The forces of the new moon, on the >other hand, were felt as a stimulus to creative powers of soul and spirit. >In glorious visions they beheld the evolution of the aeons out of the >creative spirit of the universe. >Somnambulism is a strange, morbid modern echo of these old experiences. >Sleepwalkers go on highly dangerous expeditions at full moon, as though >their bodies were not subject to gravity. They even seem to be drawn up out >of the darkness of the earth exactly as the plant world is, during the full >moon phase. >At new moon, moonstruck individuals stay in bed, but often have astonishing >cosmic visions in their sleep, albeit mostly in distorted and fantastic >forms. We see in these abnormal cases the tendency which moon forces have to >alternate between physical and psychic influences. >In Greek mythology this latter aspect is represented in the virgin Diana or >Artemis, the twin sister of ApolIo, who in opposition to the Diana of >Ephesus - is not portrayed as being physically fertile. Hers is rather >psychic and spiritual creativeness, which is intensified when the moon is >new. Sometimes she is shown with a new moon crescent on her youthful brow. >Unlike Athene, who sprang in full armour from the head of Zeus, she does not >picture the austere, illumined life of thought and a striving for wisdom, >but is rather related as goddess of the moon to night, with its greater >depth of feeling, its creative fantasy. >In the chemistry of olden times, Diana was the name for silver. And just as >this goddess has two aspects, silver is found in nature in two different >forms: in knobs reminiscent of grape clusters, and in fine hair-like >threads, sometimes known as 'silver curls'. -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver List archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] OT Archive: http://escribe.com/health/silverofftopiclist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
