"Though western iconography usually called the sun male and the moon female, archaic Oriental tradition spoke of a female sun. Japanese ruling clans traced their descent from a supreme Sun Goddess, Omikami Amaterasu.
The Hindu Great Mother took the form of the sun as the Goddess Aditi, mother of the twelve zodiacal Adityas, spirits who would "reveal their light at Doomsday." The Mahanirvanatantra said the sun was the "garment" of the Great Goddess: "The sun, the most glorious symbol in the physical world, is the mayik vesture of Her who is 'clothed with the sun.' " The same goddess, identified with Mary, appeared in the Gospels as the "woman clothed with the sun" (Revelation 12:1).
Tantric Buddhism recognized a precursor of the Middle-Eastern Mari, or Mary, as the sun. Her monks greeted her at dawn as "the glorious one, the sun of happiness..."
Among the ancient Arabs, the sun was a goddess, Atthar, sometimes called Torch of the Gods. The Celts had a sun goddess names Sulis, from suil, meaning both "eye" and "sun." Germans called her Sunna. Norwegians called her Sol. In Scandinavia she was also known as Glory-of-Elves, the Goddess who would give birth to a daughter after doomsday, thus producing the new sun of the next creation. The Eddas said: "One beaming daughter the bright Sun bears before she is swallowed by Fenrir; so shall the maid pace her mother's way when the gods have gone to their doom."
The Sun Goddess Sul, Sol, or Sulis was worshipped in Britain at the famous artificial mountain in the Avebury complex of megalithic monuments, now known as Silbury Hill. Here she gave birth ti each new Aeon from her great belly-tumulus, over 130 feet high and more than 500 feet in diameter. "The influence of the British goddess, Sul, aextended over the greater part of south west England, and her worship appears to have been conducted on the tops of hills, overlooking springs. Thus near her springs at Bath we have the isolated hill called Solsbury, or Sulisbury, probably the seat of her worship." At Bath, Romans identified Sul with Minerva and set up altars to her under the name of Sul Minerva. "
(This text was lifted from Barbara G. Walker. So sue me.)
6 comments:
Get a load of the chick with the 4 arms!
I always try to wear sun block.
(This text was lifted from Barbara G. Walker. So sue me.)
What's a little plagiarism between friends? Heh.
Honestly, if you hadn't posted it, I wouldn't have given the day much thought past the astronomical significance of the solstice. For example, the sun that feels like it's only nine feet above the top of my head while I'm out kayaking, or the now-decreasing daylight.
Rev. - the better to hold you with, my dear.
sun block is vile. i honestly think it's bad for you, though i'm forced to wear it if i'm outside longer than 20 minutes. i'm the whitest person in north america.
citizen -
well, i put it in quotation marks, so technically, i wasn't offering it as my own construction. but seriously, if you can't let your friends wax bogus eloquent, what sort of a friend are you?
Sal Mineo?
where's the commentary on sol invictus?
Barbara G. Walker is my mom.
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