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Today, if someone is asked to find Silver or gold color in nature
the chances are their eyes, by reflex, will search skyward to
the attendant lights of our sibling planets, gold to the sun and Silver to the moon. But, the colorful relationships drawn
between terrestrial metals and celestial bodies are far from
being tenuous reveries, they form the very framework on which
civilization is built. |
It all started in the ‘Chalcholithic’ period of western Anatolia,
modern Turkey, after the first discoveries of a series known
later as the ‘Seven Metals Of Antiquity’. Preceding both iron
and bronze ages the ‘Chalcholithic period’, translated into
plain English as the ‘Copper Age’, marked the transition of
Neolithic man and his use of stone, obsidian and flint tools
into the first organized societies. This stage in humanity’s
evolution is based upon the use of ores transformed into metallic implements and items of jewelry such as rings, earrings, pendants, necklaces and bracelets.
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For a period of more than 7000 years, from 6000 B.C. until 1400
A.D., there were only seven metals known to man. These metals are known collectively as the ‘ Seven Metals Of Antiquity’: Gold,
Silver, Copper, Iron, Tin, Lead and Mercury (Mercury was mistakenly
thought to be a type of Silver, its Greek name: ‘Hydrargyrum’,
meaning ‘Watery Silver’ later evolving into the English ‘Quick Silver’ attest to this). |
From archaic to medieval, civilizations venerated Silver and
the other six metals. The common notion of these pre-scientific
periods was that the Earth, and everything in it, was a reflection
of the heavens. So, when the high priests, oracles and alchemists
looked to the skies and saw seven heavenly bodies, they found
their equivalent number in the powers and properties of their
most precious of materials: metal. |
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It was clear to see that gold with its radiance personified
the Sun, and Silver with its shimmering luster was the embodiment
of the Moon. All that they needed to do now was to assign each
metal a symbol. The circle, the sun sign of perfection, was
given to the oldest and most precious of metals: gold, and the
second most precious, Silver, given the Moon’s half crescent.
Accordingly the less noble a metal the more flawed the circle. |
In
both Mesopotamia and Egypt some of these symbols were already
in use, designated to the deities of planets. The circle in
Egypt was the sign of the sun god Amun, in Mesopotamia the sign
of Shamash. The crescent in ancient Egypt denoted the ‘Mother
of Heaven’ and goddess of the Moon: Isis, in Mesopotamia |
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she was known as Nana. Both Isis and Nana were depicted with the crescent Moon and it’s from
this association that the crescent shaped hieroglyph became
the alchemic symbol for Silver, and why we associate Silver with the moon today. These symbols, although evolving slightly
overtime, were to be used by alchemists such as Boyle and Newton
right up until the 18th Century A.D. |
In ancient Greece the moon goddess was called
Selene, later in Rome she was known as Luna. Despite the fact that Luna's powers were not as revered as her Egyptian counterpart, Isis, they were powerful enough that her
name was given as an element in another concept. An element that
had its roots in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, and one which
forms the foundation of organized civilization: Time.
The indispensible Silver light of the Moon goddesses Luna was
absorbed into the concept of time and celebrated by ‘Dies lunae’ meaning the ‘Day of the Moon’. We now
know that time period not as Moon day, but as Monday one of the seven
days of a week. |
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