The sun holds within it the life force of our known existence. It is the central intelligence and stabilising force of our solar system. Using the hermetic principle “as above, so below, as within, so without” we can understand the solar force within ourselves.
It is not the substance of the sun itself that affects life but the energy it emits. The suns magnetic solar forces reach far and wide into space and affect everything it touches. The tilt of the earth enables us to balance this solar force when our earth rotates evenly between facing and turning away from the solar light in an equal balance between night and day.
The sun therefore teaches us about stillness, balance and movement. As beings of the light we must too have a balance between giving and receiving, movement and stillness. This balance is essential for our health and well-being.
The solar principle teaches us about the fuel that we burn in order to shine. There are two systems of understanding the solar principles in our own natal charts. The first involves the relationship between the earth, the moon and the sun and their alignment points. The western tropical zodiac is based on this system and the ancients celebrated these alignments through the construction of structures that enabled them to ‘capture’ and witness these important moments in time. The second is the eastern sidereal system, which uses the actual star constellations as the basis of understanding the sun sign. Due to the ‘wobble’ of the earth these two systems are now one whole sign apart. People often confuse the zodiacal system with the constellations, the backdrop of stars that our solar system rotates within. Just as a time piece has many circular motions that work together to achieve the precise moment of time, our understanding of the movement of the planets is like a giant time piece, moving in circular motions and rotations that form a giant cosmic timepiece for life on earth. As humans become more psychologically sophisticated, so too, our relationship with the heavens is more complex. For those who live south of the equator we are now in the summer solstice period when the sun reaches its southernmost point around 22 December.
The sun was revered by the Ancients and they built structures as portals of time to capture the Solstice energy. The Egyptians were Masters of the Sun and understood it to be the bringer of the ‘brave heart’, the heart of the lion, the Sphynx. The sun was thought to shine courage from the heavens to the earth, to bring courage to live and to live fully. People with ‘afflicted suns’ as seen through the horoscope, were required to hold ceremony at the solstice points to build courage and fortitude for life. The sun represents how we embrace life and the fuel we burn in order to express life fully.
Just as the ancients captured the alignment of the sun moon and earth, we too can align ourselves with the solar light through the third eye chakra. The sun greatly affects our third eye point and is received intelligently at this chakra. The sun ignites and aligns our pineal gland, the central organising point in our physical body. By spending a few minutes each day standing with bare feet on the earth and raising our third eye to receive the suns light we can breathe into our third eye the solar intelligence. This enables us to re-energise and add fuel to our own life force and re-align ourselves to our own central intelligence and that of the earth. The solstice points give us an opportunity to re-align ourselves to our own truth and correct any mis-alignment that occurs in our energetic fields, from fear based action to love based action.
The tropical zodiac divides the sacred circle into 12 mystery schools, in which we use our solar light and its zodiacal sign and house placement to fuel our journey through the mystery school of our ascendant sign. For example, for those born at the December solstice this is the crossover point between Sagittarius, the Archer, and Capricorn, the Sea Goat. A movement from fire to earth, from questing to achievement. The summer solstice therefore is a time to stop questing and to acknowledge our achievements, a time for reflection, taking stock and resting in our arrival point at the end of the calendar year. Of course, the northern hemisphere is in balance with the south and experiencing the same energies but at their winter solstice period. Just as we experience the opposite time of night and day, the earth also keeps itself in balance, through the polarity of opposites.
Saturn, as the ruler of Capricorn is the master time keeper and will keep us to task therefore it is important to set new intentions and goals for the coming year that are in alignment with your solar light through the balancing of your mind and heart. Tune in through your third eye point, receive the blessing of the sun, and ask for realignment so that you too may express life fully through receiving the lion heart courage of the solstice period.