Seven Cities of Gold Traditional Geocache

Also known as quicksilver. It’s all about speed and linked to the animal spirits.

Narrative

“The legend had passed down for generations. Far across the Western Sea, where the steamliners could not fly, lay a wilderness land hiding seven cities of gold. I dared the crossing on one of the stout ships that followed the trade route to Poseidon, a tough port city. I worked there for a while on the steamliners that served the alchemy mines, then eventually set out into the Redrock Desert. The stones were sculpted into unearthly monuments and the country grew cold as I traveled north in search of the most famous City of Gold: Cibola. Its name had sounded in my dreams since childhood.”

Commentary

Mercury is all about speed. It also relates to animal spirits, which are everywhere as he journeys to the outer edge of civilization and reaches what might be thought of as the Wild West, where Eldorado is believed to exist, the place where opportunists gather to strike it rich or die trying, and where you take the law into your own hands. As Alex has put it, “You can hear the danger of the big city as our traveler approaches. Then when Neil comes in and we break out the riff, you’re there––you’re in the city with all of its excitement and opportunity and trouble.” Neil has said he had Cormac McCarthy’s “No Country for Old Men” in mind when he wrote this part of the story. “Redrock Desert” is probably an inside-reference to Red Rocks Ampitheater in Colorado, which is built into a natural rock face (and appears on the cover of Neil’s book Roadshow).

Seven Cities Of Gold


THE LEGEND HAD PASSED DOWN FOR GENERATIONS. Far across the Western Sea, where the steamliners could not fly, lay a wilderness land hiding seven cities of gold. I dared the crossing on one of the stout ships that followed the trade route to Poseidon, a tough port city. I worked there for a while on the steamliners that served the alchemy mines, then eventually set out into the Redrock Desert. The stones were sculpted into unearthly monuments, and the country grew cold as I traveled north in search of the most famous City of Gold: Cíbola. Its name had sounded in my dreams since childhood.

A man can lose his past, in a country like this
Wandering aimless
Parched and nameless
A man could lose his way, in a country like this
Canyons and cactus
Endless and trackless

Searching through a grim eternity
Sculptured by a prehistoric sea

Seven Cities of Gold
Stories that fired my imagination
Seven Cities of Gold
A splendid mirage in this desolation
Seven Cities of Gold
Glowing in my dreams, like hallucinations
Glitter in the sun like a revelation
Distant as a comet or a constellation

A man can lose himself, in a country like this
Rewrite the story
Recapture the glory
A man could lose his life, in a country like this
Sunblind and friendless
Frozen and endless

The nights grow longer, the farther I go
Wake to aching cold, and a deep Sahara of snow

That gleam in the distance could be heaven's gate
A long-awaited treasure at the end of my cruel fate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juwbCxpfmaY