Ancient people believed that entering the Underworld without reverence would be dangerous.
by Katie Singer and Aaron French
In order to produce and preserve food, deliver electricity, manufacture and operate computers, access networks, data centers, "renewable" solar and wind systems, motorized vehicles (including tractors and electric vehicles) and so much more, our society depends on extracted ores and fossil fuels. Manufacturing one smartphone requires hundreds of substances, including copper, gold, silver, cerium, cobalt, coltan, lithium, quartz, petroleum coke and tin.1 We consumers rarely see industrial-scale, corporate extraction or smelting. We rarely know about the energy and water they consume, the greenhouse gases and toxins they emit, the worker hazards or wildlife habitat losses that occur during routine extractions and processing.
And yet, the impacts of mining are steep. For every single ton of metal extracted, 426 tons of waste arise.2 More people have been murdered over mining for coltan than any other single event since World War II.3 (Refined to a powder, coltan holds charge in mobile devices.) Producing one ton of lithium (used in batteries for mobile devices and e-vehicles) requires 500,000 gallons of water, often taken from farmers.4
For every single ton of metal extracted, 426 tons of waste arise.
In ancient times, many people believed that spirits ruled the underground, a sacred realm. They saw the Earth as feminine and called her "Mother Earth" or Terra Mater.5 They believed that metals, stones, elements and even tools were "conceived" by polarized male and female energetic flows. Ores grew deep in the Earth over time, like fetuses. Miners entered mineshafts--birth canals and sacred wombs--with reverence. They believed that without reverence, engaging the underworld would be dangerous and blasphemous.
Discovering and extracting ores meant "meddling with the natural order of things ruled by some higher law, and intervening in a secret and sacred process."6 Indeed, while earlier people recognized the benefits of mining, smelting, tool-making and commerce, they also perceived that extracting and transforming ores into usable metals and gems aroused evil.7 They believed that technology brought about as much destruction as cultural progress.
Sacred union with the Earth
In earlier eras, in places like Malaysia and Africa, local priests
oversaw the digging of new mines. These tribal leaders recognized the
Earth as a living being whose minerals and metals revealed themselves
only with proper blessings. Before digging, miners prayed and evoked the
mine's ancestors.8 Before entering a mine, to protect
themselves from the underground's dangers, miners needed inner purity.
They fasted, meditated and prayed.
Before smelting--burning a furnace to reduce a metal from ore--workers observed strict sexual abstinence. They considered smelting a sacred sexual marriage of 'male' and 'female' ores. To ensure the magical union's success, workmen needed to reserve their sexual energy.9
Today, in Peru, traditional, small-scale miners give offerings to patron statues to appease Supay, Lord of the Underworld, and a race of demons.10 Bolivian tin miners make offerings to a devil-like creature they call tà o, whom they believe owns the minerals and metals.11
In Obuasi, a Ghanaian gold-mining town, many believe that gold possesses spiritual energy, and that it serves as a conduit for higher spiritual beings. To revere the mine's deities and riches, tribe members carry out complex ceremonies. They believe that deities manifest gold only in response to proper, unselfish rituals.
Forcing the Earth to surrender
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