Men are from Mars & Women are from Venus

The two standard sex symbols denoting male ♂ and female ♀ are derived from astrological symbols from the planets Mars and Venus which represent iron and copper respectively.

The two signs, planets, days, and metals sit diametrically opposed to each other at 10 and 2 o’clock on the heptagon above.   Woman and Man.  Venus and Mars, Friday and Tuesday.  Copper and iron.  The Norse and Germanic equivalents, Freya and Tiw, are also of course female and male.

Women are from Venus because Venus is associated with copper.  Women have about 20% higher copper serum in their blood than men.  Men have about 33% more iron in their blood than women.  Of course Mars is associated with iron, the brute and rustic metal, and as the axiom goes, that’s where men come from.

The deep significance of this fact is entirely ignored by modern medicine. Iron and copper levels are sex-linked in exactly the way expected from the gender symbolism of their planets. The level of copper in human blood is critical, being around one part per million by weight, and normally it remains fairly steady around this value.

Copper in women’s blood serum has a monthly cycle in tune with their menstrual period, peaking a week or so before the period arrives. This is because their serum copper exists chiefly as the protein, ‘ceruloplasmin’, whose metabolism is closely linked to the female sex hormone oestrogen. The Pill works by emulating conditions of pregnancy where oestrogen is high, and this has a drastic effect upon serum copper levels. During pregnancy, copper serum in the mother climbs up to double its normal level, reaching 1.9 parts per million. Conversely, iron in foetal blood also increases as the time of birth approaches, so a copper-iron polarity develops between mother and child. Insomnia, depression and changeable moods towards the end of pregnancy have been related to the raised copper levels. A woman taking the Pill has blocked off her monthly rhythm of serum copper, and instead retains a permanently high level corresponding to the ninth month of pregnancy. Evidence suggests that copper has a dynamic role in the reproductive process, rather than just being a by-product of the raised oestrogen.

In the early 1970s it was discovered that coil contraceptives using copper were much more successful than previous coil designs. The ‘copper-7’ coil became the most popular design and was marketed world-wide, used chiefly by women who have already had one child. Despite intensive research however, no-one had any idea as to the mechanism whereby copper in the coil helped prevent conception. Copper ions have a biological action on the inside of the uterus, preventing implantation of the fertilised ovum. Its modus operandi is thus quite unconnected with that of the Pill, where overall blood serum levels are raised. The sole connection is that in both situations a striking Venus-quality is shown by copper’s behavior.

Having compared copper and iron in the blood, let’s compare them in other aspects – as their two planets are nearest to us, one within Earth’s orbit and the other outside it. Pure copper is a metal of reddish-pink hue, and has a warm, beneficial glow which contrasts with the cold glint of steel. With something made out of iron one may feel ‘how strong’ or ‘how useful’, whereas with something made out of copper, the first impression is more aesthetic. Whether it is a copper bowl, a trumpet, or a green-domed copper roof, it is the visual appearance rather than the utility of the metal which first strikes one. It is such a soft and pliable metal that it needs to be alloyed with other metals, into brass or bronze, before it can be used for a structural purpose.

–Nick Kollerstrom

He who knows what iron is, knows the attributes of Mars.
He who knows Mars, knows the qualities of iron.  -Paracelsus

From the book Quadrivium (wooden books)

The above illustration is from the multi-book Quadrivium, which includes A Little Book of Coincidence in the Solar System  by John Martineau