Clarification on gold as protection for the soul

THERE have been recent videos from The Filipino Story Studios where I am shown saying that gold was used by our ancient ancestors to give protection to the "kaluluwa" (soul) of a person, to keep its soul "good," which prompted our writer and director Bani Logroño to say that this was also an indication that we want to aspire to have a golden heart. Apparently, I was told when some of the videos went viral that a colleague of mine commented that this might not be so. I was quite worried that I might have made an error. But I remembered that I got this information from my professors or readings in college but since I am only human, I have forgotten where exactly.

So, I went back to some literature on the gold of our ancestors, journal articles, and the books of historian and collector Ramon Villegas and curator Florina H. Capistrano Baker, and to my horror, this was not explicitly said! They talk about wearing gold as a symbol of status or for aesthetic ornamentation and also for trade. That gold was used in rituals, ceremonies and burial but not specific about being a protection for the soul so it can be "good."

WALKING HISTORY