When we move from the Golden Age of a culture to the Silver Age, it may seem at first glance like a loss of value, since gold is usually valued more highly than silver when it comes to money. However, there is a deeper symbolism behind these names: the vibrant brilliance of gold is replaced by a new, previously unknown quality. Silver stands for purity, healing and knowledge. Not only because it can actually have a healing effect when used properly, but also because smooth silver – like a mirror or the light of the Moon – shows new colors in reality. Above all, it refers to the most important thing, knowing ourselves. Self-knowledge then firstly feeds self-confidence, on which the silvery elegance of movement and lifestyle is based, and secondly wisdom, which we often associate with silvery, graying hair.

The Silver Age is the period when a given high culture expresses its own unique worldview as clearly as possible. When it truly walks its own inimitable path. However, this originality requires suffering and struggle.

Deciphering the symbols

To define and describe the Silver Age, we must recall the historical cycle Giambattista Vico observed. What does this cycle tell us about the Silver Age? First of all, it tells us that the further expansion of the mythological world created in the Golden Age slows down, and figurative thinking is gradually replaced by abstraction. Stories are classified, interpreted, and symbols are tried to be rationally explained.

Poetry associated with figuration – as well as inspired poetic analysis – recognized the uniqueness of all symbols. It found a possible meaning of them, experienced and savored it, but then let them go. Next time, someone else might see something else in them. The abstracting mind, however, sees symbols as a code that must be completely deciphered: it grasps them, breaks them into parts, and in the deciphering process ultimately destroys them. The latter attitude is made possible by the fact that these images are no longer seen as individual phenomena, but as elements of a mental category. This intermediate stage makes the relationship with symbols indirect and deprives them of their power.

The deciphering of the great symbols simultaneously entails irreparable loss and enormous gain. The supernatural glow radiating from the things of the world, that is, their own specific meaning, becomes less and less apparent. However, it becomes possible to compare things and understand the connections between them. The unconsciously suspected mystery of Golden Age people, the secret to search forever is transformed into principles, knowledge, and tangible certainty understood through the processing of symbols. I have just written about destruction, but we can also call the same thing the realization of symbols. Death is actually the moment when development is completed and finality arrives. It is up to the observer alone whether he reacts to this with positive or negative emotions. In addition, it must be said that the incipient abstraction of the Silver Age typically starts from the edges, and the loss of secrets is then still a manageable loss. You can imagine this as a huge forest, on the edge of which people start logging here and there. This work does not endanger the health of the forest for a long time, but it produces very useful raw material for people, with which they can also start building in the conquered area.

The age of reason

The contradictory nature of abstraction leads to the internal division of Silver Age society and a series of previously unimaginable, fierce conflicts. The dreamlike unity of the Golden Age is over. Some seek to wander in the ancient forest (searching for the unicorn), while others chop down trees with axes. At this point, the allegory almost coincides with reality, because the departure from ancient symbols is accompanied by a change in the natural environment of the material world. By the end of the rural, village-like Golden Age, small towns appear, in increasing numbers. This is how the material conditions of the Silver Age arise. The urban population is a new social stratum for the culture in question, a stratum whose strength no longer comes directly from the land. Their needs are met indirectly, through trade with other people, which requires a very different outlook on life than before.

There is no bargaining between the ancient village and the emerging cities, and there can be none. But what happens to the community as a whole when some of its members turn against each other? We can illuminate the process with the metaphor of yet another mythological creature, the phoenix.¹

The phoenix is ​​a bird of magical beauty, of which there is only one in the world. It spends most of its life in Arabia, which to the ancients was a place as mysterious as the darkest forests. However, from time to time – according to legend, every few hundred years – the phoenix appears in Egypt to build itself a wonderful nest of incense, myrrh and spices. At such times, people can observe its flamboyant plumage and its beautiful ringing song. They can get to know it much more accurately than they could ever know the unicorn. However, when the nest is ready, it catches fire in the light of the Sun, and together with the phoenix, it becomes a prey to the flames. From the ashes that remain, a new phoenix is ​​​​born and rises again to the sky.

The myth of the reborn phoenix embodies the connection between realization and death. Whatever has been created must also be destroyed. But even more powerfully, it points to the inescapable fact that whoever wants to change the world must first change himself. And this involves suffering and sacrifice. The part of us that we want to change must be allowed to die so that something new can be born in its place. Such changes take place in the Silver Age of cultures. At the cost of suffering, the culture in question creates new and unique achievements that, in some way, realize its prime symbol.

The unconscious, direct perception of the Golden Age world is gradually being supplanted by indirect, transmitted knowledge. This is the realm of the spoken word in which human reason reigns without limits. The true words of the Golden Age are still proper names. These are essentially magical spells to tame unknown and powerful forces. Proper names are sacred and necessary due to their purpose. In contrast, the categories invented by the reason of the Silver Age take the form of common names, which are arbitrary by nature. They must be defined. From here on, the distinction appears whether a statement is right or wrong, true or false. Now lies as such become possible, and from this point on, methods must be created for selecting accepted statements and theories. This challenge initiates a whole series of intellectual discoveries.

The eventual fate of the village that preserves mythic traditions is failure. Resistance is futile against the advance of the cities. Nonetheless, the deepest and most important symbols are left untouched by the initial abstraction, because tradition always suffers a momentary defeat where its foundation is the weakest. Golden Ages of different cultures are similar even in a superficial examination of their history, and the same can be said about their Iron Ages. In contrast, the transitional period of the Silver Age is when the originality of each case becomes most apparent. We encounter unrepeatable events, unique interpretations of the world, inimitable arts and confusingly different forms of political organization. Posterity assigns true value precisely to the things that appear during the most rapid changes, during the proliferation of life. But these things can be present for a very short time before they perish like the nest of a phoenix.

1. The symbol of the phoenix – like that of the unicorn – comes from a blog post by John Michael Greer: https://www.ecosophia.net/blogs-and-essays/the-well-of-galabes/the-unicorn-the-phoenix-and-the-dragon/ (access on 25 November 2025) ↩︎