Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

SUN

The great and universal symbol of the Higher Self,-God manifest,- the central source of Light and Life within the soul.

"There is no visible thing in all the world more worthy to serve as a type of God than the Sun, which illuminates with visible light itself first, and then all the celestial and elemental bodies." - DANTE ALIGHIERI, The Banquet, III. 12.

"I feel how difficult it is for the human mind even to form a conception of that Sun who is not visible to the sense, if our notion of Him is to be derived from the sun that is visible; but to express the same in language, however inadequately, is perhaps beyond the capability of man! To fitly explain His glory, I am very well aware, is a thing impossible. The Sun, that is, Apollo, is 'Leader of the Muses,' and inasmuch as He completes our life with good order, He produces in the world Esculapius; for even before the world was He had the latter by his side." - EMP. JULIAN, Upon the Sovereign Sun.

The Higher Self (sun) is the central harmoniser of the higher qualities (Apollo, Leader of the Muses in the Circle Dance), and completes the life of the soul with the perfect order of its final evolution. He produces in the lower nature (world) the indwelling Divine Saviour (Esculapius) to heal and raise the soul. For before the lower nature existed, the soul's Redeemer was potential in the Self.

"I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.' - PROV. viii. 23.

The Self was, is, and ever shall be, and necessarily existed before the lower nature.

"And so the Sun, just as the Cosmos, lasts for aye. So is he, too, for ever ruler of all vital powers, or of our whole vitality; he is their ruler, or the one who gives them out. God then is the eternal ruler of all living things, or vital functions, that are in the world. He is the everlasting giver forth of Life itself (The Perfect Sermon). - G. R. S. MEAD, T. G. Hermes, Vol. II. p. 366.

"In the well-known hymn, Rig-veda I. 115, 1, the Sun (Sūryah)-interpreted by advanced pandits to mean the Supreme Beingis called the Soul (Atman) of the Universe, (that is, of all that moves, and is immovable)." - MON. WILLIAMS, Religious Thought in India, p. 95.

“The eye of Mitra, Varuna and Agni, for that Sun is the eye of both gods and men; he hath filled heaven and earth, and the air, for when he rises he indeed fills these worlds;-Surya, the soul of the movable and immovable; for that sun is indeed the soul of everything here that moves and stands." - Sata. Brâh., VII. 5, 2, 27.

The Self in all its aspects is the centre of perception or consciousness within both buddhic and mental states. The Self outpours in the higher, lower, and mental natures; for when the cycle commences he indeed energises the planes of nature. The Self (Surya) is the emanator of spirit and matter, for the Self is indeed the source of all life and form.

Later Manicheans taught expressly that Mani, Buddas, Zoroaster, Christ, and the Sun, are the same." - NEANDER, Church History, Vol. II. p. 198.

“The Higher Self is known under many names and symbols in the scriptures of the world.

"The Sun is a figure in the outward world of the Heart of God." - J. BEHMEN.

The sun, when mentioned in reference to the Lord, signifies his divine love, and at the same time his divine wisdom. By the sun is understood the Lord as to love and wisdom." - SWEDENBORG, Apoc. Rev., n. 53.

“By the 'sun' the Lord is typified, as is said in the Book of Wisdom (5, 6), that all the ungodly in the day of the last judgment, on knowing their own condemnation, are about to say, 'We have erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness hath not shined unto us, and the sun rose not upon us.' As if they plainly said,-The ray of inward light has not shone on us. Whence also John says, A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet.' For by the 'sun' is understood the illumination of truth, but by the moon,' which wanes and is filled up every month, the changeableness of temporal things. But Holy Church, because she is protected with the splendour of the heavenly light, is clothed, as it were, with the sun; but, because she despises all temporal things, she tramples the moon under her feet." - ST. GREGORY, Morals on the Book of Job, Vol. III. p. 636.

See Also

ADITYAS
APOLLO
ATMAN
CROWN OF TWELVE STARS
DANCE (circle)
EYES OF HORUS
GOLD PLATE
HELIOS
HEROIC RUNNER
LIGHT (Primordial)
MAHAVIRA
PROCESSION
SAVITRI
SELF
SERAPIS
SERPENT ESCULAPIUS
SERPENT (solar)
SURYA
TENT
URNS
UTCHATS
VAISVANARA
YAO