The sun is a rare and most welcome sight in Oregon. For many long months, sunshine is completely blocked by the area's cool temperate rain forest. When, in spring, the sun finally bursts through the winter clouds, everything seems to wake up and join in an amazing celestial sun dance. Everything comes out of a quasi barren state, cabin fever is lifted, and empty city streets are now flooded with sun-worshipers out on noontime strolls through beautiful downtown Portland. There is no doubt that the sun is at the center of our lives, whether we admit it, consciously or unconsciously.
"The Egyptians differentiated among the aspects of the sun, and had several gods associated with it: Khepri for the rising sun, Atum, the setting, and Ra, at noon. The Greeks and Romans also had more than one sun god. It seems that most sun deities are male and counterparts to the often female moon deities, although there are goddesses of the sun and gods of the moon." *
It's interesting to see in this picture of Ra several of the Egyptian symbols, the sun on Ra's head, above the falcon which has the "third eye" or "eye of Ra" which symbolizes the power that is deity. In his hand is the ankh, symbol of life; and in the other hand, is his scepter, a strong symbol of his power and authority.
Civilizations throughout the millenia have placed so much emphasis, even fear of the power of this solar, seemingly masculine deity, that the sense of shadow, rest, deep inner creative spirituality, as symbolized by the moon, has left its raw almost fear-based power, which Ra evokes, to go unchecked. Today, we are reclaiming the feminine aspect of spirituality, as symbolized in the less visibile, nurturing, almost incubating spirituality of the moon.
While we assume these ancient myths about the various dieties, reflecting natural elements in our solar system and even into the further outreaches of space, were purely mythical, when I look at these pictures of the sun taken by NASA, I can't help but see a face on the sun, looking at Earth almost sternly. At first, I sensed in myself a rising awareness of an instinctual fear. It is just no wonder that the ancient Egyptians depicted their most powerful deity, Ra, as fearsome with his "eye" of Ra. Some people fearfully associate that personification of deity with the harsh power to destroy, but might it be that the strongest power is to create. Perhaps we are terrified by raw power and associate it with destructive injustice rather than love and creativity. The answer may be in the deeper, universal, meaning of his "third eye." Ra's power is in his ability to look within with his mythical inner vision and see. He almost seems to be promoting having "eyes to see," a common term in the Gospels.
Perhaps any instinctual fear could be more about meeting and unleashing the creative power within. Maybe, as Marianne Williamson suggests in her book, A Return to Love our greatest fear is of our own magnificence and creative deity-power. Are we afraid of our own divinity? When we see it projected back at us in the most powerful celestial orb in the sky, we shake in terror at who we might be? I wonder if that awareness remains in our individual and collective unconscious, it just may be time to bring it out into the light of life. It seems our fear of our power is reflected in our projected fear of external power figures, especially those with a religious meaning. It was for me, anyway.
My initial instinctual response to that beautiful NASA photo was that the sun almost seemed to be watching us. It led me to wonder if, like Ra's third eye of his falcon, it was urging us to claim our power, which is within us, found through our inner eye. While the idea of the third eye was first developed in Egyptian spirituality, it has also been embraced by all major religions and indigenous cultural spirituality. It is also interesting, that associated with Ra was the graceful heron-like Bennu bird (also hailed as a Phoenix) which was the symbolic bird for eternal life. This symbol, like that of a sun god, seems transcultural.
You may remember in the legend of the Phoenix that this most beautiful bird dies in a funeral pyre and then resurrects.
This message feels timeless, hidden somewhere within our collective unconscious, yet something innate in our psychological being as a species that is being revealed to us as we evolve as a people, spiritually. It is no wonder that the early Catholic Church was willing to absorb some of the Roman sun cult and replace it with its own cult around its Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth because His message may not have been so different in terms of spiritual truth. While Jesus said that the kingdom of God was spread out before us on Earth, in and through everything, He strongly directs us to look within, where the pearl of great price is buried, where the treasure is. There within our inner temple we will and can connect to the most holy of Holies, which for Christians, Jews and Muslims, is the Holy Spirit. Maybe here, in this long reflection over a NASA picture of the sun, I find the most ancient of ancient metaphors for eternal life looking back at me. Perhaps, just as the sun brings life to the physical world, the Spirit of God, found in our inner vision, connects us to our greater power.
Later, Christianity balanced the raw force of the masculine power of Yahweh with a feminine counterpart by blending two feminine personalities from the early Jesus myth in the composite of the Blessed Mother in Mary of Nazareth and the beloved spouse in Mary Magdalene. Jesus' spirituality seems feminine in its equanimity of all people, peace teachings and call for active unconditional love. Yet, despite His lamb-like gentleness, the truth and urgency of His teaching is as powerful as a Lion. (Myth is used here in the sense that the story of the birth,
Today, when I look at these remarkable images of the sun, with its terrible power, I am awed and admit more respect for the ancients fear/awe of the sun to the extent that they would deify it and discover in some inexplicable way the way to the inner kingdom through the inner vision, where we meet the spiritual phoenix, the Holy Spirit.
After deeper reflection, I saw that my best reaction would be to embrace in my own faith the power of the holy, that which I understand as the Holy Spirit who is met in our most interior spaces. That power is the power of the universe, and that awesome power of creation, inherent in love, also contains the ability to protect creation with an unwavering patience, passion, joy and faithfulness, even "until the end of time."
Top photo: is "A full-disk multiwavelength extreme ultraviolet image of the sun taken by SDO on March 30, 2010. False colors trace different gas temperatures. Reds are relatively cool (about 60,000 Kelvin, or 107,540 F); blues and greens are hotter (greater than 1 million Kelvin, or 1,799,540 F). Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO AIA
* from: Sun Gods and Sun Goddesses, by N.S. Gill, for About.com Guide,
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