Symbols - What does heaven look like
Gold
The symbol - one amongst many - for the Intelligence of the Sun.
For more details see Intelligences and their synonyms as well as Metal.
Gold can be seen as a generic symbol or a symbol used in the spiritual path. The two are not at odds. On a generic level Gold is equivalent to the Highest Intelligence levels – see Intelligences and their synonym. On the spiritual path, however, to attain Gold is to achieve Annihilation.
The following little bit of detail provides some extra useful background.
A Dictionary of Symbols – J E Cirlot
In Hindu doctrine, gold is the mineral light. According to Guenon, the Latin for gold – aurum – is the same as the Hebrew for light – aor. Jung quotes the delightful explanation offered by the alchemist Michael Maier in De Circulo Physico Quadrato to the effect that the sun, by virtue of millions of journeys round the earth or conversely, has spun threads of gold all round it. Gold is the image of solar light and hence of the Divine [Ultimate] Intelligence. If the heart is the image of the sun in man, in the earth it is gold. Consequently, gold is symbolic of all that is superior, the glorified or fourth state; after the first three stages of black, white and red [alchemy]. Everything golden or made of gold tends to pass on this quality of superiority to its utilitarian function. Chrysaor, the magic sword of gold, symbolises supreme spiritual determination. Gold is also the essential element in the symbolism of the hidden or elusive treasure which is an illustration of the fruits of the spirit and of supreme illumination.
Which is why all treasure is gold.
Alchemy
The prized goal of alchemy, in the more traditional sense, was the substance known as 'gold'. Gold has some interesting chemical properties—it is the most ductile of all metals, meaning, it can be reshaped into endless forms without fracturing. It is also largely immune to most corrosive agents of Air or Water, and resistant to corruption by Fire. Thus its great strength, and brilliant colour, makes it a powerful symbol for that which is both radiant and indestructible within us, our highest nature and true inner self.
Observations
For iPad/iPhone users: tap letter twice to get list of items.
- Ahmad Ahsai, Shaykh - Kitab Sharh al-Ziyara - On alchemical metals
- Ancient Egyptian - The symbolism of Nebu
- Ancient Egyptian - The symbolism of the stag beetle
- Arifi of Herat - The Ball and the Polo Stick - He bade them put the saddle on a steed
- Ashton R - Cave dive
- Asthma
- Asthma
- Atharvaveda - IV 10 The Pearl and its Shell bestowing long life and prosperity
- Atharvaveda - XII 1 Hymn to goddess Earth - Part 04 The time of purgatory of harm by Fire
- Atharvaveda - XIX 26 Gold
- Bacon, Roger - The Mirror of Alchemy – Chapter 02
- Bacon, Roger - The Mirror of Alchemy – Chapter 03
- Bacon, Roger - The Mirror of Alchemy – Chapter 07
- Ball, Dr Martin - The golden pyramid
- Baudelaire, Charles - Rêve parisien
- Beowulf - Stealing the Dragon's treasure hoard
- Beowulf - Treasure
- Beowulf - Arriving at the King's Palace
- Beowulf - Burial at Sea
- Beuys, Joseph - How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare 01
- Beuys, Joseph - How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare 02
- Black Elk - Native American Indians - Horses
- Blake, William - But silken nets and traps of adamant
- Blake, William - I will give you the end of a golden string
- Blithe spirit - Behind the veil
- Blithe spirit - Flying with the gods
- Blithe spirit - The Proposal
- Boehme, Jacob - Aurora - Spiritual path
- Braveheart - Follow the yellow brick road
- Braveheart - Islands, bridges and pencil cases
- Braveheart - Parallel bars
- Brennan, Barbara - Love and binding threads
- Bronte, Emily - The Philosopher - I saw a spirit, standing
- Bruno, Giordano – On Magic - The Metals and transmutation
- Bruno, Giordano – On Magic - Verbena
- Burne-Jones, Edward - The Golden Stairs
- Cartwright, Sir Fairfax Leighton - The Mystic Rose - Unity
- Cayce, Edgar - Meets his Higher spirit
- Celsus
- Chagall - Albertus Magnus
- Chagall - at the circus
- Coehlo, Paulo - The Alchemist - Metals
- Count of St Germain - A Philosophical sonnet
- County Meath - The leprechaun
- Crowley - 04 The Emperor
- Crowley - 06 The Lovers
- Dante - Paradiso - The Ladder of Paradise
- Dante - Purgatorio - Canto 09
- Denis - The ladder in the foliage 1892
- Dickinson, Edmund - When Phoebus with his rayes bright
- Dickinson, Emily - Dropped into the ether acre, Wearing the sod gown
- Dickinson, Emily - Through those old grounds of memories
- Dionysos - Villa of Mysteries Pompei - Ecstasy
- Dixon, Jeane - 'My cup runneth over'
- Dixon, Jeane - A vision in the cathedral
- Dixon, Jeane - The vision of the end of Catholicism
- Ernst, Max - Approaching Puberty 1921
- Ernst, Max - Montrant a une Jeune Fille la Tete de son Pere
- Father Bernabe Cobo - Inca Religion and Customs - Temple of Coricancha, Cuzco
- Father Bernabe Cobo - Inca Religion and Customs - Titicaca Temple of Sun and Moon 1
- Ficino, Marsilio - On the alchemical art - Chapter 01
- Flamel, Nicolas - Chymische Wercke - Hamburg edition 1681
- Flamel, Nicolas - Uraltes chymisches Werk A Eleazer 1760 6th illustr
- Flamel, Nicolas - Uraltes chymisches Werk A Eleazer 1760 2nd illustr.
- Frost, Robert - Nature's first green is gold
- Genesis - Trick of the Tail
- Gentling the Bull – 02 Finding the Traces
- Gentling the Bull – 07 Bull forgotten Man remains
- Green, Drs Elmer and Alyce – Experiment - A vision using biofeedback and visualisation
- Guaita, Stanislas de - Danae
- Hawker, Robert Stephen - The Quest of the Sangraal - The Queen, The Queen how haughty on the dais
- Hawkes, Jacquetta – A Land – Gold
- Heading for the light with Pneumonia
- Healer H - I’m the Fagan with the kids
- Healer H - Babies everywhere
- Hesiod - Works and Days - The five ages of man
- Hobson, Dr Allan - The effects of a stroke 05 - Imaginary reptiles conjured up by his drug-soaked thalamus
- Ibn Umayl - Al-Durra al-Naqīya
- In marble halls as white as milk
- Indus valley - Dholavira - 06 The ‘Smithy’
- Indus valley - Dholavira - 07 The ‘Hemispherical Constructions’
- Isa Upanishad
- Jason, medea and the teeth of the Dragon
- Keightley, Thomas - Coal and gold
- Khusrau, Amir - Ghazal 1002
- Khusrau, Amir - Ghazal 1400
- Khusrau, Amir - Ghazal 870
- Klee, Paul - The Goldfish 1925
- Klimt - Fulfilment and Expectation
- Klimt - Danae
- Klimt - Music
- Krishna - Arjunas charioteer in the battle-field of Kurukshetra
- Lalla - Charge your bellows with breath
- Lewis, C S - Dawn Treader - Sea horses
- London Bridge is falling down
- Lowell, James Russell - O Land of promise, from what Pisgah’s height
- Lowry, L S - The Bedroom Pendlebury
- Lu Tsu - Sowing the seed and reaping the return
- Lucian of Samosata – De Dea Syria
- Maier, Michael - Atalanta fugiens 1618
- Maier, Michael - The Secrets of Alchemy - The Tincture and Gold
- Mallarme, Stephane - The Window
- Masefield, John - A Creed
- Measles
- Meister Eckhart - Selected writings - No one comes to the Father except through the Son
- Mellery, Xavier - Art verges on heaven and earth
- Mellery, Xavier - Immortality
- Mesopotamian - Means of achieving spiritual experience 07 Sex High priestess with phyrigian cap
- Millais, John Everett - the Blind girl
- Miro - The Lark's Wing, Encircled with Golden Blue, Rejoins the Heart of the Poppy Sleeping on a Diamond-Studded Meadow
- Morrells, Luce and the eclectic city
- Morrells, Luce and the horseshoe shaped island
- Nerval, Gerard de - Towards golden
- Nietzsche - Thus spake Zarathustra - LIX The Second Dance Song
- Nizami – Makhzanol Asrar (The Treasury of Mysteries) – from The Second Discourse 01
- Nizami – Makhzanol Asrar (The Treasury of Mysteries) – from The Second Seclusion 01
- Norse - Gudme
- Omar Khayyam - The Rubaiyat - Leaden Metal into Gold
- Osty, Dr Eugene - Supernormal faculties in Man – M. de Fleuriere the importance of symbolism in understanding images of the past present and future, as well as character
- Ovid - Metamorphoses - The Story of Phaeton 1
- Pauli, Wolfgang - The World Clock Vision
- Plato - Critias - Atlantis and Athens
- Pliny – On the sacred role of mistletoe to Druids
- Reichel-Dolmatoff - South American shaman initiation
- Revelations 01:13
- Rider-Waite - 0 The Fool
- Rolling Stones - She's a Rainbow
- Rossetti, Dante Gabriel - Golden Water 1858
- Rumi - Divani Shamsi Tabriz - Yestereve I delivered to a star tidings for thee
- Rumi - Quote - On adversity
- Russell, George William - Song and its Fountain
- Ruzbihan Baqli – The Unveiling of Secrets – Riding with the Prophets
- Samavedas – 01 Book 04 Chapter 01, DECADE III [extract verses 7-8]
- Samavedas – 01 Book 05 Chapter 01, DECADE III Indra [extract verses 8-10]
- Samavedas – 01 Book 06 Chapter 01, DECADE III Soma Pavamana
- Samavedas – 01 Book 06 Chapter 02, DECADE III Soma Pavamana
- Samavedas – Book 02 Chapter 02, VII Maruts
- Samavedas – Book 04 Chapter 01, I Soma Pavamana
- Samavedas – Book 07 Chapter 03, X Soma Pavamana
- Samavedas – Book 08 Chapter 03, IX Asvins
- Samavedas – Book 08 Chapter 03, XII Asvins
- Samavedas – Book 09 Chapter 02, XIII Vena
- Samuel - The Water Drawing Ceremony
- Shakespeare, William - Merchant of Venice Act V scene 1
- Song of Solomon 3
- Sri Aurobindo - The Dreamboat
- Sting - Fields of Gold
- Stolz von Stolzenberg, Daniel - Viridarium chemicum 1624
- Surdas - Lord heed not my faults
- The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
- The Book of Taliesin - The Battle Of the Trees - 08
- The Gold Realm and White Room of Crucifixion Amanita muscaria by Space Elf
- The Marriage of Philology and Mercury - Harmony, Phoebus and Pallas
- The Papyrus of Ani – Spell 77 - To Assume the Form of a Hawk of Gold
- The professional guitarist, the car accident and the golden wall
- The Secret of the Golden Flower - 01 The Celestial Mind
- Tranströmer, Tomas - Under Pressure
- Twelve drummers drumming
- Ur - Bull's head of the Gold lyre 2600- 2400 BC Mesopotamia
- Von Stuck, Franz - 1889 Angel with the Flaming Sword
- Von Stuck, Franz - 1891 Orpheus
- Von Stuck, Franz - 1898 Pallas Athena
- Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry - Fata Morgana
- Weir Mitchell - The Effects of Anhalonium Lewinii [part 2]
- Willetts, Sam - Yarmulkah
- Wordsworth, William - The appearance, instantaneously disclosed was of a mighty city
- Yeats, W B - Collected poems - My mother dandled me and sang
- Yeats, W B - Collected poems - Of golden king and silver lady
- Yeats, W B - Collected poems - Sailing to Byzantium
- Yeats, W B - Collected poems - The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams
- Zohar - Bamidbar 183a - Aaron
- Zoroastrian - Symbols and concepts - Twin horns
- Zosimos of Panopolis - The Mushaf as-suwar - 11th Book about the other composition
- Zosimos of Panopolis - The Mushaf as-suwar - 3rd Book of the Weights
- Zosimos of Panopolis - The Mushaf as-suwar - 5th Book of Magnesia picture 8 - Resurrection
- Zosimos of Panopolis - The Vision of Zosimos - 06