Even though the Moon is the most important planet for our day to day lives, the Sun is the most important planet for our very existence. All warmth, light, and energy spring forth from the Sun. While the Sun temporarily yields power to the Moon at night, she is the dominant Luminary for those born during the day.
The Janya of the Sun: Sai Raya
In the Filianic Tradition, the Janya, or Great Angel, that is associated with the Sun is Sai Raya. As I discussed in the article about the Moon, in this Tradition, Sai Raya, the Janya of the Sun, Sai Candre, and Sai Rhavë, the Janya of Saturn are associated with the Feminine Trinity, respectively, the Mother, the Daughter, and the Dark Mother. The other four Janyati are associated with the material elements.
In the Filianic Creation Mythos, the Mistress of All Things created the world because She had “no solid place that Her feet might rest upon.” The Mythos of God the Mother, 1:2, Authorised Version, The Gospel of Our Mother God. She created a golden world of laughter and delight, and of the creation of Maid, it is written,
And at the edges, where the waters had been parted, they lay still and shallow; and there She cast Her gaze. And She saw an image of Herself, all suffused in the light of live and energy. And she laughed. And as She laughed, the image rose up from the water and stood before Her. And this was the first of Her daughters. And she was filled with love for Her, and therefore was the first creature of Spirit.
The Mythos of God the Mother 1:9-10.
Our Mother’s Love
In the Filianic Tradition, the Mother is All-Loving and All-Forgiving. After we were tricked into turning from Her, she rescued us from the trickery and destruction brought about by the Snake. When Her Daughter descended to the Nether Regions to bring light to the places in the world and in our souls where the Mother’s Light could not reach, She broke through the Gates of Hell to rescue Her Daughter, and in doing so all of the demons and those trapped in the Nether Regions were freed to return to the Light.
One of my favorite sutras in the Gospel of Our Mother God describes this love:
Take heart, My children, take joy and courage in our Mother.
For She that created you also loves you, even to the end of the age.
Take heart, though you have turned from Her.
For She has not forsaken you, neither are Her eyes filled with anger.
And Her hands that shattered the gates of Hell shall not harm you; that have broken Hell’s foundation shall be lain on you in gentleness.
Therefore hide not yourself from Her, and put aside the tangled weeds of thought that strive each with the other.
For of all things, love is the simplest.
On Our Mother’s Love.
The Sun and Spirit
In the Filianic Creation mythos as quoted above, humans were created as a reflection of Our Mother and as the first creature of Spirit. The Spirit is the part of us that is One with the Mother and with all of creation. It is common in the Filianic tradition for people to greet and depart saying “rayati” in honor of the Sun within each person. The glyphs for each of the Traditional planets is a combination of one or more of three symbols, the Circle of Spirit, the Crescent of Soul, and the Cross of the Material World. The glyph for the Sun is a circle proceeding from a single point, and thus represents our connection with the Source. I find it interesting that the Chinese character for the Sun, 日, is the same symbol in a rectangular form.
The Sun in the sky is a microcosm of the Supernal Sun, as is every hearth fire and the Heart in every person. Our true Heart is of course not the same as our physical heart, but the Sun is associated with the physical heart as well.
In astrology, it is often thought that the Sun represents our ego and our individuality, but this is not entirely accurate. The twelve signs of the zodiac represent the twelve major Archetypes of humans. The Sun in our charts represents the nature of our Spirit or the part of us that sprang from our Mother in pure archetypal form. So, the Sun represents who we are at the deepest level. This is why Sun Sign descriptions work to a certain extent even though our souls are far more complicated than Sun Sign Astrology allows for. At some level, the Sun Sign will always shine through, even for those born at night, even for those whose Sun is hidden in the deepest recesses of their charts.
Pride and ego are representatives of the False Sun. Instead of allowing the pure archetype to flow from our Spirit, we start to believe that this archetype is our smaller individual self and we glorify our individual self. By doing so, we become separated from our Source, and ironically, we become unable to truly shine, because “the little sphere is severed from the great.” The Sermon of the Apple Seed. A good mediation to help with pride and ego is from the Canticle of the Mother,
Of mine own self I can accomplish nothing;
Only so far as Thou art acting through me;
How dull my soul is, like the ashes of a fire;
Yet pierced through with Thine eternal rays,
Is she not radiant as the noonday sun?
Astrological Associations of the Sun
Sect: Day
Rules Leo
Exalted in Aries
In Detriment in Aquarius
In Fall in Libra
Daytime Triplicity Ruler of Fire
In Joy in the 9th House
Temperament:
Spring – Hot and Wet
Summer – Hot and Dry
Autumn – Cold and Dry
Winter – Cold and Wet
Day of the Week: Sunday
Orb: 17° (Moiety 8.5°)
Colors: Orange, gold, white, red
Plants: Roses; all plants with a pleasant smell and good savor, particularly those with yellow or reddish flowers; saffron; ginger; cinnamon; barley; marigold; rosemary; orange and apple trees
Animals: Lions; horses; bulls; goats; starfish; eagles; peacocks; swans
Metal: Gold
Stones: Hyacinth; chrysolite; adamant; rubies
Solar Intellect
In the article about the Moon, I discussed how Lunar Reason and Lunar “Intuition” are different than our Solar Intellect. So what is our Solar Intellect? As I discussed in the previous article, all of the planetary powers spring from the Sun, including our Intelligence or Consciousness. The Solar Intellect is the part of us, each one of us, that knows and can recognize Truth. We can recognize it as the part of us that sings inside when we hear Truth and that cringes when we hear falsehood.
In the modern world, we are taught to distrust our Inner Light by both the worldview proposed by those who promote modern science and by those who teach a literalistic and rigid approach to religion, particularly in the Abrahamic faiths. This has caused much turmoil in the world. While these two approaches appear to be at odds with one another, and indeed, there is often bitter conflict between them, they really are two sides of the same coin.
The Solar Intellect can also be clouded by those who practice various forms of “New Age” spirituality. While the rationalists of science and the literalists of religion focus solely on the material, sublunary world of flux and change, “New Age” spirituality tends to focus heavily on the Lunar and the Lunary Sphere. A wise friend of mine often says, “those who say that they are ‘spiritual, but not religious’ are usually psychic, not spiritual.”
I believe that there is One Truth; however, that Truth is beyond our ability to express in human language. As in the famous quote from the Tao Te Ching, “The Tao that can be spoken is not the True Tao.” Religion, science, and spiritual practice are our attempts to explain and touch the Truth within our human limitations, so they can speak to Truth, but they can not be Truth. In a similar vein, the word philosophy means “the love of Wisdom,” because a person can not be taught Wisdom itself. Even so, there is a part of all of us that can recognize Truth, and that is our Solar Intellect.
The Wisdom of Our Grandmothers 