Gold — The Mythical Metal or the Flesh of Gods
This article offers you the view of gold in different cultures. It also brings the perspective of those who believe in white powdered gold as a conductor to improve the energy flow throughout the body to cure diseases, give strength and open up the mind to the spiritual regions.
Gold in Ancient Egypt and Nubia
Since much before the pharaohs walked the sands of Egypt, gold appears in temples, in kings’ palaces, tombs, and clothes.
The mortuary gold mask of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamon is an example. It is probably the most famous archaeological artifact in the world.
Possessing gold objects was a privilege of few people, and powdered gold was the rarest and most expensive kind in ancient Egypt.
Even then, there was no mystery involved in creating gold pieces, whichever color the owner fancied.
As Egypt has a lot of gold in its lands and as they also had access to the gold mines in Nubia, not only the very rich could afford the gold objects.
Nubian artists created spectacular jewelry. The ornaments recovered from ancient digs date as early as 1700 BC to AD 300. They provide clear evidence of Nubian goldsmiths’ and jewelers’ technical skills. Also, they show aesthetic subtlety and refined taste. The archaeologists found gold rings, earrings, bracelets, and artifacts of wood covered with gold sheets.
Gold was sacred in both Egypt and Nubia, belonging to the powerful sun god Amen-Re.
The Cushites were the ancient people from Nubia. They lived in the land between Aswan in the north and Khartoum in the south. They created elaborate amulets against evil, so archaeologists have found an abundance of such objects in their tombs. Their land provided most of the gold the ancient Egyptians used.
Gold nuggets appear in amulets from that time. It was the practice to cover ritual objects made of stone or wood in gold foil.
One of the coffins where Tutankhamon’s mummy rested is made of precious wood covered with gold.
Gold in Ancient Asia Minor
In Asia Minor, the Lydians were the gold miners. The black jasper, a rock from that region, is still used to test gold purity. The historiographer Herodotus mentions the river Pactolus in Lydia. From that source, scholars infer the Greeks regarded Sardis as an outstanding precious metals market. Ephesus is close to rich gold-bearing deposits on mount Tmolus.
The Greek Myths and Gold
According to Greek mythology, ingesting the golden apples from the Hesperides garden would make a man immortal.
The Hesperides were three sisters, daughters of the Titan Atlas.
After the Titan war, when Zeus and his two brothers, Hades and Poseidon, chopped up their father Chronos and took control of the Titans kingdom, the sisters received the order to live in the garden to take care of it and the hundred-headed dragon Ladon. The beast existed to protect the gold apple tree.
Hercules invaded the Hesperides’ garden, and counting on the help of one of the sisters took an apple as one of his twelve works.
King Midas is another important Greek myth related to gold. As a punishment for his greed, everything he touched became gold, including his daughter.
There is also the Golden Fleece that Jason stole from the cyclops Polyphemus. The fleece came from a special ram and possessed the power of resurrection.
Gold in Norse Mythology
Immortality would happen to those who ate Idun’s apples. They were gold apples too, and the ingestion of those was under Odin’s control.
However, in the Norse mythology tale, Idun’s apples made who ate them immortal for only a year. It was a different outcome from the Hesperides’ fruit.
Freya, the goddess of fertility, love, and beauty is associated with gold too.
According to the Norse lores, she was married to Odur who traveled frequently, leaving her behind.
The myth holds Freya so in love with her husband that she would go around the world looking for him and crying her solitude. If her tears fell on the dirt they would become gold as pure as her love and fidelity.
White Gold
There are many tales involving white powder gold. It appears in a variety of cultures related to spiritual and religious experiences.
The Illuminati called it the metal of wisdom, and the rabbis who practice the Cabala, consider the secret of white powdered gold the greatest of all times. So the meditation practitioners, there is a unique kind of white gold that is a help to the neophytes. It is almost transparent, and nothing like the metal you see in jewelry. This monatomic gold facilitates the flow of energy thru the body, according to their beliefs.
They maintain that if a person ingests the metal, energy will flow with little or no resistance, even without any additional external influence.
White monatomic gold is produced and sold freely nowadays, and there are studies to assess the reality of the practice, as old as time.
Yet albeit truth or myth it is undeniable many are using monatomic gold for its benefits, mainly its claimed ability to conduct electrical impulses inside the body. Many people believe it can give the cells more power to regenerate faster, providing a DNA cleanse effect.
However, the white gold used to create fine ornaments is not the same people drink for religious or health reasons.
Every goldsmith or jeweler knows where white gold comes from; it is an alloy and became very popular in the 1920s to make white gold diamond engagement rings. It is a substitute for platinum rings, more expensive. Platinum is also more difficult for jewelers to work.
The white gold found in ornaments is an alloy made from zinc and nickel added to gold. Because nickel is toxic, causing dermatitis, and it is carcinogenic, it is under strict regulation.
White gold bangle bracelets are trending nowadays, but they have almost no nickel in their alloy.
Gold — the Flesh of Gods
To the ancient peoples, white gold would increase the life span, and the ancient Egyptians called gold ‘the flesh of gods’.
They mixed gold with silver to create a malleable alloy. It became artifacts of extreme beauty and high price.
Gold in India
According to the Vedas, when the world was lifeless and formless, there was only water and darkness. The creator dropped a seed in this primal environment, and it turned into a bright, radiant gold egg from which came out Lord Brahma or Hiranyagarbha.
Although nobody knows with certainty how gold became so connected to the religions of ancient times and to the ones people have today it is possible to speculate that the unparallel characteristic of gold made room for those beliefs.
It never tarnishes, never loses color, and never corrodes. So the connection between gold and immortality seems logical.
Whatever reason you might infer from the old traditions and religions, it is impossible to deny the metal attracts and enchants.
As a good example, there is a multitude of temples covered in gold.
What no one could ever deny is gold was a sign of social status and financial power.
As it is nowadays.
