Tin

The Expansive Metal

In alchemy, the malleable metal of Jupiter representing expansion, lightness, sociability, and moderation.

Tin takes the sign of Jupiter unchanged. It is the metal that makes bronze out of copper, so the tradition read it as the expansive and benefic principle Jupiter also governs: the thing that enlarges what it is added to. Tin is soft, low-melting and cries audibly when bent, and alchemists took its readiness to alloy as generosity rather than weakness. As with all seven, the metal and the planet share a single glyph because they were not held to be two separate things.