It comes to me in bits and pieces, stories and references to our human pasts. Stories of the common fixation with certain substances of our earth, a fixation that seems irrational and greedy and also seems distinctly human.
Millennia of human endeavors have been in the vain quest to gather more of these precious and rare commodities. Gold, silver, topaz, emerald,opal, ruby, diamonds, copper all have some rather unique qualities that draw people to them, and the fact that they are found within the very soil beneath our feet has peculiar gravity over us.
Cultural Obsession
Whole imperial expedition have been funded by and for the acquisition of more precious metals and stones. They create value and can hold place for commodities and labor. Even up to today gold is considered worth more on planet earth than even recorded. Gold and diamonds seem readily available today, but beside ornamentation and heirlooms gold has little impression on most our lives. Because there are stores where I could trade cash for a rare opal or diamond does not mean I am familiar with them or necessarily that I have access to them. They are still somewhat of an enigma, out of ordinary grasp.
They are a commodity of desire, something craved but never satisfied. With the understanding that there is a finite amount on planet earth, it becomes something of important value.
Many stories of the past are fixated on imaginary sums of gold and gems, tales of such sums of wealth beyond practical use, the wealth as a looming shadow of any great power. Does this obsession only develop because of the implied worth of these precious metals and stones? Or the power that it incurs?
I think not. The fascination for gems is captivating and goes beyond their value, and is a reaction to their inherent beauty and intangible colors. Gemstones and precious metals are stunning beyond their rarity, and their aesthetic beauty is also an aspect of influence on their possessors.
Familiar are the classic tales of a thief or king mesmerized into a frenzy because of his fixation to the the gold and gems with their timeless and luminous colors and shine, one who is overcome and crazed by his own wealth. What man or woman would not want to stare at and admire the glistening gemstones or gold chalices if they had them? It would be tempting for me at least.
I think that the epitome of our fixation and greed to shiny metals and luminous gems is wonderfully illustrated by a particular mystical legend, common in most major and familiar human cultures. The mighty serpent dragon, commonly among an obsessive collection of treasure.
So obsessed with its wealth of the dragon that it does not leave the company of its most prized possessions and that which it would defend with its life. As the nature of gold and gems has burdened man and beast alike to fixations of earths rarities, the dragon becomes the best allegory for the long and painful addiction to gems, treasure and gold that has plagued mankind through the centuries. Every generation provides individuals with enough tenacity to reach for the wealth, but tragically the wealth becomes their own downfall.
Sources of Knowledge
Gemstones and rare metals do not in life always lead to a tragic end of course, and wealth can be accrued and accumulated without harm. I suppose it is the fool or ignorant who is cut by the double edge sword of such things.
In fact, during the European Rennaissance, and during the development of rationalism and scientific development, gold become not only a source of wealth, but of knowledge. Alchemy is often described as a quasi-science with the end goal to chemically change the composition of matter into gold. While it's mystical influences differ much, alchemy and its fixation on gold undoubtedly lead to new discoveries.
Leonardo in his notebooks describes gold as the metal of the sun; mesmerized by they way gold aesthetically resembles the bright warm yellow of the sun and which we as well as Leonardo might have assumed is actually produced in the death and destruction of stars themselves. Gold, as well as gemstones, have long inspired many artists, scientists, merchants, philosophers and engineers alike.
"Of money and gold
Out of cavernous pits a thing shall come forth which will make all the nations of the world toil and sweat with the greatest torments, anxiety and labour, that they may gain its aid."
Leonardo Da Vinci
The great renaissance man describes well the contradictory circumstances of gold and gemstones, where both good and harm can come from their benefits.
Additive growth and the study of crystallization has revealed the very mathematical formulas that influence how things form on earth. Studying crystals has brought confirmation to many of sciences greatest inventions in mathematics that have influenced culture and arts since classical times.
There is something universal in the way we experience these substances.
Eternal Substances
These substances have influenced man through the ages, and has influenced many artists and craftsman. The luminous nature of stones has inspired the advent of colored and stained glass. Massive and intricately laid glass compose magnificent stained-glass windows, of which can be witnessed in grandeur within the great cathedrals of Europe. The intricate and Gothic style surely was inspired by the way multi-faceted stones seem to change the nature, color and tone of light.
Even today chemists and scientists are creating magnificent new crystals composed of different elements like , and grown in a lab. Our fixation with the sublime and beautiful formations of crystals continue to bedazzle us and drives some to create artificially grown gemstones made out of elements like bismuth.
It isn't all that remarkable then, to say that I share this affinity form gems, crystals and metals but that it is a common fixations among man and animals. Does the magpie or raccoon also hold onto small shiny stones for the same reason as me or the dragon. How peculiar that was it that I loved the dragon so much as a child. At the hands of these fragments of earth, space dust from stars and minerals formed within the crust of the earth, perhaps there is a certain influence they have on the eyes that really is universal and ultimately indescribable.
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Image above:
Untitled (crystal watercolor), 2016. Watercolor on Vandyke Brown print.