Chakra: Base/Sacral
Metaphysical properties:
Copper activates the base and sacral chakras, advancing and stabilising your energies of intuition, sexuality, desire and vitality. Native copper can provide a connection between the physical and astral bodies and helps align the subtle bodies. It can help you to stimulate initiative, optimism, diplomacy and independence and sends the message that you can seek and release all the restrictions we impose on ourselves.
Scientific properties:
Copper crystallises in the form of dendrites, free-forms, plates and rhombic dodecahedral crystals. The colour is copper red, darkly tarnished to brown, with a black or green crust. Copper is an excellent heat conductor and easily soluble in nitric acid. Copper was likely to be the first metal to be used by humans. Neolithic people are believed to have used copper as a substitute for stone by 8000 BCE. Around 4000 BCE, Egyptians cast copper in moulds. By 3500 BCE, copper began to be alloyed with tin to produce bronze. It is one of the few metals that occur in the "native" form without being bonded to other elements.
Crystal system: Cubic
