Gold: Aura and Endurance

Sometimes a new life is upon us before we even realize it. Breathless joy crashes on us like a wave and, like a wave, moves on.

 All too rare are the moments when we feel pure radiance, bliss, and abundance in our life. In fact, it's almost like we're cursed with the inability to feel it. It can be astonishing and scary in the wake of success to face the feeling that anything is possible, or that things will be forever different. After a stunning comeback in the Men's 1500m, American gold medalist Cole Hawkins was asked what it felt like, "I just had the vivid thought of how my life just changed." The Olympics should not be reduced to their sum of their medals, but, suffice to say, it is no mistake that gold symbolizes the highest achievement—the life-changing moment.

Summer lulls us under its spell. What is it we love so much about the season? Our bodies crave the long daylight, leaving work to be outside, doing nothing or anything in nature, the temperate nights, but I believe it’s an ancient, instinctual craving for the sun. The sun and gold share the same symbols in astrology and alchemy. The latin origin of Aurum (the chemical name for gold) means "shining dawn" and is also the etymology for trending term, "aura." In spiritualism and some traditional medicine, aura is considered "an emanation surrounding the body of a living creature and regarded as an essential part of the individual." We know that gold is lumped with all the facile, fleeting, and false things: wealthy, power, prestige—but to the alchemists, astrologers, and first metalsmiths who used it, it meant something else. To those superficial few who plate things in gold or abuse the color, there is almost no quicker identifier of vacuous soul and tastelessness. True gold are the glad rays of the sun: the shining life-giver, an embodiment of spiritual attainment and transformation. Because gold does not tarnish, it symbolizes immortality and endurance. But gold also signifies blood, love, and a connection with the earth (the roots of the Tree of Life are gold), and it is a pure expression of the heart.

There are many reasons a tea can be called "gold," and most of them have to do with appearances. Most commonly, when young and tender buds are plucked and oxidized, they turn gold instead of black. The lower growths of a tea shoot contain more chlorophyll, which blackens as it oxidizes. But new buds are low in chlorophyll, meaning they transform to a yellowy undertone, which, when carried by the bud’s abundant trichomes, looks like a coat of golden fuzz. A great example in this release is Ms. Li's Jin Jun Mei (lit. "Golden Beautiful Eyebrow") tea.

We don't have so much gold here at Spirit (we should have started investing years ago)—but what we do have is tea and all the people we’ve met because of it. In this seasonal release, four of the ten teas contain the word “gold,” while Asahina, the vaunted origin of our gyokuro, literally means “sunny place.” Put simply, this release was begging for something summery or golden. Though admittedly, I had second thoughts on going with gold. It's so difficult to get past the tacky, overly decorative, kitschy and false associations. And unlike "substance" or "devotion", it doesn't carry implicit meaning. But I began with a question: before humanity created all these vapid associations: wealth, power, prestige—what did gold mean? It is of the earth, after all. We decided one day that gold was valuable. Why were early metalsmiths drawn to it and alchemists obsessed with turning other things (notably, lead) into it? After all, it's just any old mineral—why didn't we collectively fall in love with copper or mercury? What did gold mean before it meant what it does?

Gold is rare. It should be. On the one hand, it's that elusive place we strive for and, on our worst days, feels impossible to reach. On the other, it is the feeling of that day: the highest stage, the ultimate achievement, and really basking in the benediction (closure, peace, satisfaction) and the wonder of realizing we had it in us all along. At the Paris Olympics, the greatest gymnast of all time, Simone Biles, begged the media to stop asking athletes what they’ll do when they’ve won a medal: "Let us soak up the moment we’ve worked our whole lives for." May we all possess the power to soak up each of our golden moments.