subject: The Sun as both the Father Archetype and the Archetype of the Self [print this page] The Sun as both the Father Archetype and the Archetype of the Self
We refer to the star at the center of our solar system as the Sun. Today's astrophysicists believe that the Sun weighs 2.2 octillion tons and has adiameter of 864,392 miles. The Sun takes 24.65 days to complete one rotation on its axis.
The Sun is the source of almost all the power, light, and heat found on the Earth. Every minute the Earth's surface receives just under two calories of heat spread out over each square mile. The halo of burning gases surrounding the Sun, called the corona, reaches temperatures of 1.8 million dgrees Fhrenheit. The Sun's core reaches temperatures that exceed 25 million degrees Fahrenheit. The Sun is referred to as a variable star because out of all the known stars, it is the only one that rotates counterclockwise on its axis. Undoubtedly, there are many more, but we have yet to discover them.
The Sun appears to stationary due to the vastness of space. Howver, astrophysicists have determined that the Sun is traveling at approximately 200 miles per second along the outer rim of our galaxy the Milky Way. As the Sun moves within the Milky Way, the Milky Way itself is moving rapidly through space as the universe expands. The Earth and all the other parts of our solar system are moving right along with the Sun and the Milky Way, even though we are not conscious of this movement.
At some point in prehistoric times, ancient human cultures recognized that most plant life needed the Sun's light for growth and that both animals and humans ultimately depended upon the energy stored in the plants. Humans recognized that the Sun was the source of physical light, heat, and life on Earth.
The Sun and its associations on Earth were seen as the symbols of life, light, and divinity. It seems that some primitive cultures equated the Sun with God because of its role as the provider of light, heat, energy, and life. Other cultures viewed the Sun as a representative fo God or as one of the most significant gods in a pantheon of godes. Some believed that God lived inside the Sun itself.
The ancient Eqyptians referred to the Sun as Ra, Amen, Aten, and Osiris. Each of these Sun gods possessed different religious meanings. The Persians called the Sun god Mithras. The Hindus referred to the Sun god as Brahma. The Chaldeans called the Sun god Bel, and the ancient Greeks' name for the Sun god was Appollo.
Holidays, or holy days, were celebrated each year when the orbits of the Sun and Earth formed certain relationships, as the first day of spring. Gods that were associated with the Sun were worshiped on these days and were referred to as solar gods. Passover, Easter, Hanukkah, and Christmas are examples of the solar holy days in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
During the height of ancient Greece, the Greek astrologer Aristarchus (310 - 340) concluded that the Sun was at the center of the solar system. However, even before the fall of the Roman Empire, the leaders of Christianity developed the doctrine that humanity was God's central concern and that, therefore, the Earth must be the center of the universe. Fidelity to teachings of Aristarchus was heresy. Astrologers of the Dark Ages like Copernicus, Brahe, and Galileo. were forced to conform to church doctrine publicly and state that the Earth was the center of the universe. Otherwise, they could be punished, tortured, and/or killed. Most, like Glileo, accepted the churches's teachings in public but not in private.
