Salt of the Earth

Posted on October 17, 2019 by dragonspitapothecary

Every now and then we meet these incredibly moving people that are described as “salt of the Earth” type of souls. They are kind, soft spoken, worldly and wise. They cross our paths in our daily life and provide these powerful experiences from their words or our interactions with them that change our worldview, improve our day or life overall. These salt of the Earth people are rare and precious.

I have always wondered where the term salt of the Earth came from. We all know salt is a natural earthly element and there is plenty of salt everywhere on this planet. If salt of the Earth people are rare why are they compared to a commodity that is common, inexpensive and readily available? When I truly dig under the meaning, perhaps this term of endearment is to mean more of us should also be salt of the Earth types and building our connection to Earth overall? This leads us to a place where we are developing our own wisdom and worldly experiences that we can then pass down to others.

Salt also has a negative connotation sometimes. We think of salty dogs referring to pirate ship crews and also fun dogs who enjoyed the beach and now need a bath. Too much salt in our bodies can impact health and reducing salt is healthy. Too much salt added as an ingredient to food can ruin the dish. Salt water doesn’t make good drinking water and our world’s drinking water supply is diminishing with the ice caps. Salt is yet an ingredient we use daily, whether we get too much or not enough, it is still present and around us with every food, beverage and experience we have in life. It is in our ground when we garden, in our water we drink and in our food for flavor. You cannot avoid salt entirely. It is very much the element of the Earth.

So how does one become a salt of the Earth person while not having the negative connotations of salt following them like a pirate? How are these two even intermingled? Can you be a low-salty person and still wise?

Having a Positive Relationship with Salt

I think salt is actually the secret age old wisdom of life itself. When you look at the history of salt it was once a prized and valuable item often only accessible by the rich and royal. This was in large part due to the labor intensity required to harvest salt. The Romans paid their soldiers in salt and this is where our word salary comes from today from the Latin word for salt.

In religion salt is referred to quite often in the Old Testament most notably with Lot’s wife being turned to salt for disobedience. In many Eastern religions salt is used to purify and repel a