P'Til Techelet & The Copper Snake

כ"ז בשבט תשס"ז

In an entry on Craftwork Of A Jewitch, I mentioned that mugwort, the witch's herb, contains copper. So, let's look at copper and the deep blue color threading through it.

If one takes a lowly copper penny and puts it into common household ammonia, it will turn a deep blue. Why? From Answers.com:

This first article discusses the Copper-Amine complex that forms during a reaction of copper and ammonia.

“When ammonia is dissolved in water, the interaction of the ammonia molecules with the water molecules results in the production of ammonium ions and hydroxide ions. One possible reaction for the copper(II) ions is the combination with the hydroxide ions to form a slightly soluble copper (II) hydroxide, which can be identified by the formation of a cloudy, pale blue precipitate.

Another possible product of a reaction of the copper (II) ions, perhaps less easily recognized from the reactants in this system, is the formation of a copper (II) ion ammonia complex, usually identified by a characteristic deep blue color.”

http://dwb.unl.edu/Chemistry/MicroScale/MScale33.html

“Copper(II) hydroxide (chemical formula Cu(OH)2) is the hydroxide salt of the metal copper, with atomic mass approximately 97.561 atomic mass units. The typical color of copper hydroxide is blue.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper(II)_hydroxide

Interestingly, both techelet (deep blue) and copper are materials we are taught in Torah to look upon to remember and to be healed. In other words, there is a mystical thread of connection between the deep blue of techelet and copper which, if we deeply investigate the connection, will cause us to remember and to be healed.

Ammonia, involved in the reaction above which turns copper deep blue, is a toxic waste product of the body's metabolic/catabolic breakdown of amino acids and proteins. If our bodies cannot get rid of the ammonia, we are indeed very ill.

Thus, one possibility of the connection of copper to health - in ancient times, copper could have been used to diagnostically assay the urine for the presence of ammonia. If the copper in the "medical assay" turned sufficiently blue, the patient was clearing the waste products from the body in a healthy manner. If the copper failed to turn sufficiently blue, the person was not clearing ammonia and the toxin would remain to build up in the blood and tissues, eventually causing death.

Consequently, the deep blue was a good sign that the lethal toxins were exiting the body instead of remaining in it.

Kabbalah & The Copper Snake
P'til Techelet

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