Why is gold considered so precious, when it is soft metal? It can be easily bent and chipped. It resembles other yellow metals but gold is more fiery and sparkling. Why then is it surrounded by so much myth, fascination and beauty? Why is kept guarded so heavily? Why is it thought of as precious? Why is it that people are driven to savagery and murder to get at it? Why do people view Gold as tops? Why is it seen as the ultimate metal of metals when others, like granite, steel, copper and silver take the back seats? Why do people prefer to have gold jewellery than replicas? Why is it considered pure? Why is everyone so obsessed with gold? It seems to be an obsession that's always been around. How far back in history is that interest in gold? Where did it begin?
Gold is a soft precious metal. It reflects infrared radiation and is used in technology and medicine. It is a strong sparkly yellow colour. Gold leaf can be edible as a decouration in food but it's a tasteless E number. Because of it's conductive nature, gold is used in industry and electrics. It's said that gold originally came from meteorite impacts during the earth's formation. Gold can be found as a variety of shapes and sizes in their natural setting. There are golden nuggets, gold flakes and crystalline gold. Very rarely are people allergic to gold metal. My cousin has a gold allergy but she can wear silver. However the purer the gold, estimated by it's karat (K) number, the least harmful it is on those with metal allergies. I think she was given impure gold. There is gold found in the human body and generates physical electricity and mobility. Gold never rusts.
Gold appears heavily in a lot of ancient myths. Sometimes gold is seen as having the ability to heal and procreate. The ancient Greeks believed that gold metal was a mixture of water and sunlight. There are famous stories of hero Jason's quest to find the golden fleece. This was a sacred object with healing powers that was guarded by a dragon with seven heads. Jason's mother, Danae, encountered the god Zeus as a "shower of gold". In Germanic mythology, Fafnir the dragon guards a hoard of sacred magical gold. Draupnir is a gold ring owned by the god Odin and this ring creates eight new rings on every ninth night. Gold in myths also give immortality such as the golden apples.
The colour gold, even if it's not gold exactly, is favoured by people since time began. Sunlight, fire and it's warmth is golden in colour, and may appear like gold metal. Bread, cake, potatoes, rice, honey, vanilla, cheese, maize, wheat and butternut squash are golden coloured foods. In beauty itself, blonde hair is a pale gold shade that has been considered the most attractive and desired colour by women for thousands of years. Women have used all methods of wigs, lemon, saffron and poisons to dye their hair blonde and golden. Recently now, golden skin tones have become fashionable and purchases of self tanning sprays and lotions have boomed. Gold itself in human psychology means wealth and power.
In magic and divination as well as chemistry, gold attracts electricity. It also generates energy! Gold has certain traits that absorbs emotions, especially intense ones. Gold drinks in and then breathes out energy like forests breathe in carbon dioxide and breathes out oxygen. Gold heals and eases away negative feeling. Gold is able to store energy. Also another special ability with gold is that it can dowse and assist in emotional well being. The only other element that behaves like this is the quartz crystal! Both quartz and gold are of the sun and fire. Often they have similar mirroring traits as these are usually found together in the earth. Is gold the metal sister of the quartz?
Gold has the ability that, unlike the quartz, is able to hypnotise and intoxicate. Gold does this simply through visual only. Gold is eye candy and wars have been over it. People have been butchered over gold. The lust for gold has been extreme and deadly. Perhaps gold needs to be understood another way and not as a symbol of money, power and greed.
In the ancient Americas, certainly in Aztec and Inca cultures, there was an abundance of gold. Gold was seen as magical and beautiful. Gold statues and artifacts were produced. Gold signatures were put throughout the landscapes to represent the gods.Many of them haven't been discovered.
It's possible that gold, not so much the metal itself, but as a notion, idea, a symbol of restoration and strength is what people attain for. There is gold inside us. There's gold everywhere, in the light and contained in electrons. Gold is a colour, and it represents the ultimate life soul and vigour. To be strong, healthy and wise is to be golden. Gold is visually important. If we don't meet gold jewellery, we encounter gold as colours, energies and feelings. Gold is a magic of light. It's pureness and softness is like liquid, like sugar and honey. Gold is the transformed human, the next step, the new born, refreshed, powerfully charged and compassionate. Gold can be at the very essence of the psyche.
