>>9301693Oh boy, someone asking about one of my favourite subjects.
It's one part alchemy, and one part Crusades folklore.
To begin with, most otherkin and witches associate theirselves with the three noble metals in alchemy, and their associated planets- Silver, gold and quicksilver, the Moon, the Sun and Mercury. The four base metals, Iron, copper, lead and tin, represent the imperfect parts of these three, the four elements. Iron/Mars is fire, and is the violent and rapacious aspect; So in its presence, the noble metals are forced to compensate by being peaceful and meek, and then the rapaciousness of iron drives them away.
On the note of Crusade legend, or rather, the history of the crusades... Before the Crusades began, ironworking in Europe was fairly uncommon. It was common, but things made of it rusted if not properly tended, it didn't hold an edge well (unless mixed with nickel and carbon to make steel, which generally only happened accidentally, i.e. meteorite forging, which was considered a form of sorcery), and so on. Bronze was a generally better material.
However, when the Pope called on able-bodied men to head out on the first crusade, the swords were to be made of iron (which did not yet have that name), the entire fucking element of which the Pope blessed in the name of Jehowah, so that those heretics and moslems slain with the swords, which were made to a specification to resemble a cross between a Cleadmah or Claymore and a Calvary Cross (that which Jesus was purportedly crucified on), so iron was named Iron (Old English for "sacred" or "holy"), and after the event iron objects were taken to be inherently holy and thus harmful to evil creatures such as witches, vampires and fairies, with iron blades being hidden under doormats, for example, to keep such things from the house.
Salt is, of course, a symbol of purification, and silver of purity itself.
