We owe our lives to the sun. This is one point on which ancient and modern observers, astronomers and astrologers, scientists and occultists all agree. Without the sun the earth would be a lifeless ball of rock. The sun provides all the heat and light in the solar system, and is the source of energy for all the living things of the Earth.
Many of us recognize spirit as the source of life, our own, and the life of the universe. In the Western world we tend to think of spirit as invisible, ghostly, an indefectible presence completely separate from the world. We speak of spirit and matter as being polar opposites. However people in other times and in other parts of the world have recognized the sun as a tangible manifestation of spirit. The sun’s light is visible to all of us every day, the sun’s heat is sensible to all of us every day, always there unconditionally, equally available to everyone and everything.
Many of the world’s creatures instinctively turn to the sun. Baboons sing at sunrise, flowers track the daily progress of the sun in the sky. Humans too love to play in the sun, gravitating to the sunniest places on earth and coming outside in warm weather.
Magic teaches us to tap into the source of spirit through the light of the sun. When we align ourselves with the sun we acknowledge the source of our physical lives. We can turn to the sun with profound gratitude for the forces which allow us to exist.
It may seem strange to us at first to think about expressing thanks to the sun for our lives. After all, the sun would continue to shine whether we thought about it or not. It may be that our gratitude does not matter to the sun, but it matters to us. When we acknowledge the force that sustains our physical existence, we acknowledge the universal power, whether we think of that power as a being, or a process, or a system. Greeting the sun aligns us with every other living thing and reminds us that we are part of the universe and owe our lives to the forces around us.
Affirmation I greet the sun.
Practice: Align with the sun
Look up the time of sunrise in the newspaper. Get up early enough to catch the sun’s first rays. If you can, go to a place where you can see the horizon. If it is raining, do the practice at the time of sunrise. As the sun rises, say a few words of greeting. You can say, “I recognize you, sun. Thank you for my life,” or whatever words seem appropriate to you.
At sunset, take a few moments to stop and enjoy the play of color in the sky. As the sun dips below the horizon, say a few words of farewell. “Farewell until morning, sun.”
As you continue this practice over the days, weeks, and months, you will notice the sun moving in the sky in an arc from south to north and back again. In the winter you can sleep in before the morning greeting, while in summer the alarm goes off too early! You will also notice the sun is higher in the sky in the warm months than in the wintertime. Greeting the sun brings us outside again, putting us in touch with the fundamental forces that allow us to live.
