Sun

Origin and myth

Solar deities are the oldest and most universal religious figures. The Egyptian Ra travelled the sky in his solar barque by day and battled the serpent Apep in the underworld by night, dying and being reborn each dawn. The Greek Helios drove a fiery chariot pulled by four horses across the heavens; later traditions merged him with Apollo, the god of light, music, and healing. The Babylonian Shamash was the seer who saw all things and the judge who imposed order. Mithras, born from a rock at the winter solstice, became the soldier god of the Roman empire. The early Christian church absorbed many of these solar themes into the figure of Christ, the sol invictus.

In ancient astrology, the Sun was one of the seven classical planets, the Greek term planetes meaning wanderer. The Hellenistic synthesis of Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE gave the Sun rulership of Leo and exaltation in Aries, where its solar fire is most concentrated at the spring equinox. The Sun governs the day chart in the system of sect: people born during the day are said to have a solar emphasis. The astronomical fact that all the planets orbit the Sun, established by Copernicus in 1543, has only deepened the symbolic power of the Sun as the centre around which the personality organises itself.

Meaning and function

In your natal chart, the Sun describes the conscious self you are growing into. It is not the totality of who you are but the orientation of your becoming, the central project of your life. The sign of your Sun shows the qualities you are learning to embody, and the house shows the area of life where this becoming takes place. A Sun in Scorpio is a soul learning depth, intimacy, and the alchemy of crisis; a Sun in Pisces is a soul learning surrender and compassion. The Sun is also the symbol of the father or the dominant authority figure in early life.

The shadow of the Sun, when over-emphasised or unbalanced, is egotism, the need for constant centrality, and the tyrannical quality of the unintegrated king. When under-developed, the solar function shows up as a person who lives in someone else's light, who has not yet claimed their own purpose. The Sun in hard aspect to Saturn often describes a difficult father or an early prohibition on shining. Sun in aspect to Neptune can dissolve identity into devotion or escapism. The integration of the solar function is the work of becoming sovereign in your own life.

In practice

The popular notion of the star sign refers to the Sun sign, the position of the Sun on the day of birth. While this is the most widely known piece of astrological information, it is only one element of the natal chart. The full chart includes the Moon, the Ascendant, and the eight other planets, each in its own sign and house. The Sun should be read in conversation with the Moon and the Ascendant: together these three form the so-called primary triad of self. To know your full chart, calculate it using your birth date, time, and place.

Solar returns are charts cast for the precise moment each year when the Sun returns to its natal position, around the time of your birthday. They describe the themes of the coming year. The transit of the Sun through your houses each year illuminates each life area in turn, spending about a month in each. The eclipse cycles, when the Sun and Moon align with the lunar nodes, are particularly powerful solar events. Use the daily horoscope to track the Sun's passage through the zodiac in real time, or your rising sign to anchor the chart geometry.

Symbolic depth

In alchemy, the Sun is gold, the perfected metal, the goal of the Great Work. The alchemical sun-king is the result of countless distillations, the integrated consciousness that has digested its shadows. In the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the Sun is assigned to the sephira Tiphareth, beauty, the harmonising centre of the tree. In the tarot, the Sun corresponds to The Sun, card nineteen of the major arcana, which shows a child riding a horse beneath a brilliant sun, an image of the integrated self radiating without shame.

Jung read the Sun as the symbol of the Self, the totality of the psyche of which the ego is only a small lit part. The journey of individuation is the gradual circumambulation of the Self, with the ego learning to serve the larger orientation. Solar imagery threads through every mystical tradition: the inner sun of the heart in Sufism, the radiant Buddha-nature in Mahayana Buddhism, the Christic light in contemplative Christianity. To work with your Sun is to clarify your purpose, take up your inheritance, and shine without burning others. Explore the wheel through the glossary for the other planets.

Also known as

• Sol (Latin)
• Helios (Greek)
• Sonne (German)
• Surya (Sanskrit)
• Shemesh (Hebrew)