Gold, Incorruptible Light

Gold names both the precious metal and the luminous yellow of its colour, and across cultures the two are inseparable in symbolism. Gold does not tarnish, and that chemical incorruptibility made it the natural emblem of the divine, the eternal and the perfect, of what does not decay. Its use is overwhelmingly sacred and royal: the gold ground of icons standing for uncreated divine light, the gilding of temples and reliquaries, the gold of crowns and regalia signifying sovereignty and the sun. In the alchemical and astrological scheme gold is the metal of the Sun, the perfected metal toward which base metals aspire, and alchemy's literal and spiritual goal alike.

In the Christian liturgy gold may substitute for any festal colour, marking the highest solemnity. Gold also carries the shadow of its value, greed, idolatry, the golden calf, but its dominant sense is of glory, worth and permanence. Where a tradition wishes to signify the highest and most enduring, it reaches for gold.