The Sun, a yellow dwarf star, is the heart of our solar system. Its gravity keeps everything from the biggest planets to the smallest particles of debris in its orbit. It is 26,000 light years from the Galactic Center, which is the Source, or Creator energy, of our galaxy.
The Sun (and the rest of the solar system) formed from a giant rotating cloud of gas and dust, called a solar nebula, about 4.5 billion years ago. As the nebula collapsed because of its own overwhelming gravity, it spun faster and faster, flattening into a disk. Most of the material was pulled toward the center to form our Sun, which accounts for 99.8% of the mass of the entire solar system.
Though it is special to us, there are billions of stars like our Sun scattered across the Milky Way galaxy. Our Sun is not an especially large star—many are several times bigger—but it is still far more massive than our home planet.
Like other stars, the Sun is a ball of gas, made of hydrogen and helium. The Sun’s enormous mass is held together by gravitational attraction, producing immense pressure and temperature at its core.
The Sun has six regions, and the visible surface of the Sun, the photosphere, is 300-miles -thick, and from it most of the Sun’s radiation escapes outward. We see this radiation from the photosphere as sunlight when it reaches Earth about eight minutes after it leaves the Sun. Above the photosphere lie the tenuous chromosphere and the corona (crown), which make up the thin solar atmosphere. This is where we see features such as sunspots and solar flares.
The electric currents in the Sun generate a complex field that extends out into space to form the interplanetary magnetic field. We call this field the heliosphere. It is carried through the solar system by the solar wind—a stream of electrically charged gas blowing outward from the Sun in all directions.
The Sun doesn’t behave the same way all the time. It has its own solar cycle that goes through phases. Approximately every 11 years, the Sun’s geographic poles change their magnetic polarity. When this happens, the Sun goes through changes that range from quiet and calm to violently active. The height of the Sun’s activity is a time of solar storms: sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These are caused by irregularities in the Sun’s magnetic field and can release huge amounts of energy and particles, some of which reach us here on Earth. This space weather can damage satellites, corrode pipelines and affect power grids.
Our Sun, along with all the planets in our solar system, exists in a spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy called the Orion Spur, which extends outward from the Sagittarius arm. The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, bringing the planets, asteroids, comets and other objects along with it. Our solar system is moving with an average velocity of 450,000 miles per hour. But even at this speed, it takes us about 230 million years to make one complete orbit around the Milky Way.
The Sun rotates as it orbits the center of the Milky Way. Since the Sun is not a solid body, different parts of the Sun rotate at different rates. A number of ancient cultures built stone structures, such as Stonehenge, or modified natural rock formations, to mark the motions of the Sun. In this way they charted the seasons, created calendars and monitored solar and lunar eclipses.
The Sun only appears to travel through the signs. The Sun doesn’t really move from our perspective, but it APPEARS to move about a degree a day, because the Earth moves at that rate. It travels along a path we call the ecliptic. It runs from approximately 23 degrees South to 23 degrees north. The ecliptic is the band of the cosmos that marks the Sun’s entire journey during the course of a year. It could be considered the realm of our waking consciousness.
Every single culture has its own version of the Sun’s mythology and they are all very diverse. For example, the Greek Sun god was originally known as Helios, and later Apollo. His Celtic counterpart was called Lugh. There are Sun goddesses too: Sunna from Norse mythology and Amaterasu, a major deity of the Shinto religion in Japan. In Cosmic Consciousness, our Sun is a stepped down version of the Great Central Sun (Source). It is a representation of the SON of God, but the force and life giving energies it provides are but a fraction of the Truth of its essence. Everything in our solar system is a stepped down version of the Truth.
The Solstice is an interesting phenomenon, in that it is the closest thing to a station of the Sun that we have. The Sun never goes retrograde, but when it approaches a solstice, either in June or in December, it appears to slow down a great deal, so much so that it barely moves for three days. After a Solstice, the Sun will rise a little bit higher, or lower, each morning depending on which hemisphere we are in. When the Sun ‘stations’, our consciousness takes a turn. In the Winter Solstice in the northern hemisphere, we are turning inward, connecting more deeply with our inner planes; in the Summer Solstice we are expressing our energies outward.
What we are is immediately reflected in the cosmos, and the cosmos is effectively interacting with our collective consciousness at the same time. That is, as we raise our awareness level, the Sun participates in our transmutation.
The Sun represents the energy we use to express our unique individuality. It provides us with our consciousness at the most personal level. In the higher sense the Sun reflects our higher consciousness, which is now being reactivated and rediscovered. The SUN is the great metaphor for the SON, the one Creation of Source.
Together the Sun and Moon are known as the Lights and they are the generators of our consciousness, especially at the most personal, most individual level. As one of the Lights, the Sun co-disposes our lower spiritual body (with the Moon), providing expression for our masculine energy, or our creative and expressive side. Through the Sun you experience our personal power and access our life force energy. The Sun is the quintessential archetype for the masculine (spirit). It imparts life, Light and consciousness.
When the Sun changes signs, the general atmosphere of our conscious awareness shifts to a new part of our energy field. Our individual energy field is made up of 13 different qualities of consciousness. With the advent of Ophiuchus, the 13th sign, the Sun now spends varying amounts of time traveling through each of the signs. We have grown accustomed to the 30 days the Sun spends in each sign, but that is actually not our reality. The new consciousness has so much to reveal about the nature of the different signs we work with.
The Sun disposes Leo, sign of inner gratitude and emotional Love. Leo is the Sun’s home sign, and the Sun has dignity here. Leo represents the heart, the Life Force, and the Sun represents our consciousness of Self. Everything brightens and lightens when the Sun is in Leo. Our spirits lift considerably and If nothing else, we can expect plenty of clarity and a new sense of realization.
A solar year, the time it takes for our Sun to make one journey around the Great Central Sun, and all the signs of the Zodiac, takes 24,000 years. The Great Central Sun is not the same thing as the Galactic Center, but our Galactic Center, and the nearby Suns of other Galaxies in our neighborhood, all revolve around the Great Central Sun, which is also known as the ‘Sun behind the Sun’. Our solar system is currently within the major band of Light cast by the Great Central Sun. Additionally, our Sun is currently in alignment with the Galactic Center of our Galaxy, a phenomenon that occurs once every 12,000 years.
When the solar year begins, the Sun of our Solar system is aligned with the Galactic Center (also the Winter Solstice point, which at this time is seen to be at 0 Capricorn). It is important to note that 0 Capricorn is less than 3 degrees away from the Galactic Center, and for the purposes of Cosmic Consciousness, they are one and the same point. The Winter Solstice point is the place where all cycles begin.
The sign and hour that the Sun is placed in our charts are our lifelong landmarks, the most comfortable and familiar ways for us to focus our energies. The Sun in our natal chart indicates how to access our vital life force, personal power and limitless creativity. The Sun’s energies illuminate our natural confidence and talent, and through our own personal experiences, we may discover the leadership capacity within. Depending on the way we utilize the vital power the Sun offers, the personal vibration of our individuality will emerge over the years and shine forth throughout the course of our lifetime.
The transiting Sun lights up the area of our life (the hour) it is moving through, bringing new energy and conscious awareness to everything it touches. When the transiting Sun moves over a planet in the birth chart, it vitalizes that planet’s energies, and stimulates new awareness and creativity with regard to that planet’s expression in our life. The Sun’s transit always deals with Identity issues at the most personal level.