The second primordial archetype. Where Sulphur strides out of Eden puffed with pride, Calc-carb experiences the full weight of what it means to be human — forsaken, isolated, nakedly exposed to an unpredictable world, and driven by an oyster-like need to build a shell against it.

Dr Lilley traces Calc-carb from the cyanobacteria of the Mesoarchean era — the first organisms to secrete calcium carbonate, building the great limestone stromatolites that endure to this day — through the oyster, the whale, the pearl and the goddess Hestia, keeper of the sacred hearth. Every symbol illuminates the clinical picture with a precision no keynote list can match.

The essay covers:

The evolutionary origins of Calc-carb — stromatolites, molluscs and the matriarchal energy
Two physical types — the flabby, indolent and self-indulgent, and the sturdy, industrious and enduring
The Calc-carb infant and child — the floppy baby, the slow developer, the tortoise who outstrips the hare
The fear picture — abandonment, separation, the dark, disease, poverty and insanity
Hestia and the hearth — the divine hearth-keeper, the pearl of wisdom and the spiritual path of karma
Calc carb is Yin; Sulphur is Yang