The Sun as Life, Humanity, and Death
A Contemplation of the Severest of Fires
"“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it’s yours.” ― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged"
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How can that which gives us life also be capable of taking that life away?
It is a paradox, a self-contradiction that we see so readily in all aspects of our lives. After all, it is people who are so often the most significant danger to other people – we kill as we give life. Yet it is the most prominent life-giver that represents the greatest paradox of all:
The sun.
Explaining an Enigma
Is such an explanation even possible? After all, the nature of an enigma is to be difficult to understand or explain. Perhaps that’s why we have seen sun worship persist in so many forms through millennia – people naturally seek to explain that which they do not understand. The sun is the greatest mystery of all. The circle of life made symbolic, yet represented by fire so strong and persistent that it can immolate in microseconds.
The sun is our life-giver.
Yet, it destroys as readily as it gives.
Excerpt From “Sole Assassin”
And as Dante tells us that Love and Truth are the center of a circle – and we, at its circumference, find the sun. This analogy became a literal center of all the cosmos to them, as the sun deities emerged throughout history. They then turned the Pharaohs and others into themselves – the manifestations of the Sun. And because these men were seen to be manifestations of the true center light of the entire creation, they functioned – in a certain sense – as the central Truth for some.
And from here, if you read a passage that may make sense in a couple of different ways, read it as such – twice. For a double entendre is a statement with two meanings. They are incredibly tough to write, and even tougher to grasp. But if you think of them like rhetorical devices to stir your participation, you may stir up a storm.
Likewise, we will use various metaphorical and literal devices to help us relate to concepts. This is why the ancients made the sun a god when they really wanted to worship the life-giver of all which was light and not evil.
For millennia, the sun has been our enigma. It is the most severe fire imaginable, but also that which gifts us light and life.
" The fire within the sun both destroys and gives life. Self-contradictory. "
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It is also at the physical center of our universe, as it is the center of our universe’s organic origin.
It also acts as The Point. For where Love and Truth meet, there you will also find Power. For it is the center of a more real universe, just as the sun is the physical center of ours. The sun represents The Point, just as the Sun represents The Point. For the thing which gives life to all, also pulls us into its gravity.
Egyptian, Aztec, and Mayan religions each contain the idea of a solar deity. In Mayan thought, the Ah Kin was the god of the sun which was not only the protector of mankind against darkness and evil but also brought doubt and some confusion.
In Canaanite systems, the god of fertility and thus life, Ba’al, is commonly associated with both the sun and stormy weather.
For the Chinese, Xihe was the sun goddess who mothered 10 other suns.
When I began to look into these dozens and perhaps hundreds of solar deities, certain themes emerged. (like the Hindu names, don’t get stuck on the names.)
The Hindu sun god Surya rides across the sky in a horse-drawn chariot steered by Aruna (not to be confused with Arjuna, who did not drive the famed chariot). Helios, the Greek mythological god and very personification of the sun, also drives across the sky in a chariot. That reminded me of Krishna.
The Celtics had Sulis, a goddess from Britain, whose name is related to the word for “sun” and, therefore, cognate with Helios, Sol, and Surya, linguistically.
Solar deities called such because of the act of sun worship directed at them, seemed to have begun to gain prominence approximately 15,000 years ago and so predate all the major world religions. But not all solar religions worship the sun, most actually only espouse solar motifs or themes. They may be thought of as a way to relate to the divine by personification, or by metaphor. A sun ruler may be more accurate.
I was ready to call this a dead end, but I found in every case, each society contained similar attributes: a divinely appointed king, a relatively well-constituted civilization, and bright imagery. These were not mere kingdoms of savages – they were well-formed and well-developed for their time. That got my attention.
Each society also contained the idea of the sun ruler majestically overseeing both the lower and upper worlds. And here, we begin to get the idea of the sun ruler as a mediator between heaven and earth, within the theme of Philo of Alexandria – the convergence of Greek, Egyptian, and Judaic systems to triangulate truth. I’ll return to Philo in later essays.
It dawned on me that location, like this truth, always requires the three points of depth, width, and height.
" The sun ruler gifts both light and life, just as the natural sun. All-knowing. Bestower of wisdom. Promisor of universal justice to we finite. "
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Takeaways From the Concept of Sun Worship
First Takeaway – The “Sun God” Embodies Humanity
The concept of a sun god is a metaphor; a human attempt to explain something enigmatic. That is why I believe it’s more appropriate to call these gods “rulers.” They were personifications of a phenomenon that none of the ancient civilizations could explain. They understood that the sun delivered heat, light, and all needed for life. Yet, they understood that it was a paradox, even without fully knowing why.
The sun could destroy just as it can replenish.
Second Takeaway – The Sun Is Paradox
At its most basic, each sun god legend is simply a story designed to make the unexplainable tangible. That teaches us a lesson – we all learn and love through narrative. It strikes me that this occurs in every aspect of life, including business. A powerful tale serves as a metaphor for a product. A way for a business to explain what the customer may feel is unexplainable.
Third Takeaway – The Sun Represents Life’s Journey
Respect and love for the divine are not merely reserved for when the divine acts in your favor. The sun delivers all that makes life an experience worth living. To respect the paradox of the sun is to accept that life won’t – and shouldn’t – be all roses all of the time. As Satchel Paige – a Hall of Fame baseball relief pitcher from the 1920s – so aptly put it:
" Don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines. "
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Fourth Takeaway – Language May Stunt Our Communication of Truth
The very words we’ve created to express ourselves can serve as the barriers that prevent us from reaching the truth. After all, even with all of the science we have at our disposal in the modern era, to truly explain the sun is to see your tongue get tied around a riddle of an enigma. To attain real truth – and the wisdom born from it – we must not allow language to limit our communication.
