Gold - The Mythical Metal or the Flesh of the Gods

Tutankhamon Mask - click on the image and learn more

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.

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.

Using gold was a privilege of few people, and powdered gold was the rarest and most expensive kind.

People know 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. However, white gold is an alloy made from zinc and nickel added to gold. The latter being toxic, causing dermatitis, and under strict regulation because of its carcinogenic effects. White gold bangle bracelets are trending nowadays, but they have almost no nickel in their alloy.

However, 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. To 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.

Nowadays, there are studies to assess the reality of the practice, as old as time.

It is undeniable many are using monatomic gold for its ability to conduct electrical impulses. Many people believe it can give the body cells more power to regenerate faster, providing a DNA cleanse effect.

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. 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 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. 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 was of precious wood covered with gold.

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.

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.

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. They had to take care of the garden and the hundred-headed dragon Ladon that protected the gold apple tree. Hercules invaded the Hesperides’ garden and took an apple as one of his twelve works.

King Midas is another important 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.

Immortality would also happen to those who ate Idun's apples. They were also gold apples, 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. They were also gold apples, and the ingestion of those was under Odin’s control.

Freya was the goddess of fertility, love, and beauty. 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.

In Vedic belief, Lord Brahma was born from gold. 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. As a good example, there is a multitude of temples covered in gold.

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.

Gold was and is a sign of social status and financial power.