Worshipping the Sun
In ancient Egypt people worshipped the Sun God Ra, and he was believed to rule in all parts of the created world including the sky, Earth and the underworld. In ancient Greece people worshipped Helios as a god and personification of the Sun. The ancient Maya worshipped a Sun god called Kinich Ahau. The Inca people of the Andes region of South America worshipped the god Viracocha, who is said to have created the universe, sun, moon and stars. He was said to command the Sun to move over the sky and he was seen as the god of the Sun and storms. Continuing this through mythologies and traditions of ancient people around the world, we could keep listing gods related to the Sun and find a common adoration and gratitude for its presence.
Inca God Viracocha
Why were the ancients so fascinated with the Sun and its positioning in the heavens? They were also interested in other elements of the heavens including the Moon, planets and the stars themselves. In particular, tracking the path of the Earth and its true North axis through the phases of the zodiac seems to have been of great interest.
There are twelve original constellations of the zodiac, which were used by the Egyptians but probably originated in ancient Summeria and are known as the Astrological ages. These occupy 30 degrees of celestial longitude and approximately correspond to the constellations of Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. Currently we are in the age of Pisces and are transitioning to the age of Aquarius. Each of the age is characterised by a duration of around 2160 years, and 12 times this gives us a total of 25,920 years, which also is the total duration for the precession of the equinox. Together this celestial coordinate system takes the ecliptic as the origin of latitude and the Sun’s position at vernal equinox as the origin of longitude.
Equinox means equal night. The vernal equinox is the point on the horizon at which the Sun’s path crosses the celestial equator moving from South to North. There are two of these that occur each year and they are known as the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The Autumn equinox is the date in the year when the Earth experiences a 12 hour day and a 12 hour night and occurs in late September. In addition to the equinox, there is also the solstices. The summer solstice is the date on which the Sun is the highest in the sky at noon in the Northern hemisphere and usually occurs in late June. Tracking these events is very useful for ancient agriculture so that one can plan for crops and is a necessary component of any society that has moved out of a hunter-gatherer status and is seeking to build a civilisation. They are also useful as calendar markers.
Many of the ancient megalithic structures exhibit cardinal alignments which are clearly linked to astronomical phenomena. But the Sun appears to get special interest. At the ancient Stonehenge site in England for example, the stones are carefully aligned so that if one sits at the centre, you have a clear view of the summer solstice sun rising over the heel stone. Similarly, you can see the Sun setting at the winter solstice.
Near the Great Pyramid in Cairo, Egypt, one can stand on the body of the Great Sphinx which has the body of a Lion and the statue lies exactly along the East-West axis of the Giza necropolis, with its gaze looking directly East, so that it stares at the rising Sun during the vernal equinox. At dawn on the vernal equinox one can also gaze directly at the rise of its own celestial counterpart in the constellation of Leo, to create a celestial rising, just as the Sun begins to rise. Although curiously, this only happens around 10,500 years ago, a date which is inconsistent with the claimed archaeological dating of the Sphinx from Egyptologists. Similarly, Serpent Mound in the state of Ohio in America, appears to also gaze directly at the summer solstice at Sunset. Indeed, if we travel around the world and examine many of the ancient megalithic structures, we find profound cardinal alignments which clearly demonstrate that people from all cultures sought out astronomical significance in the construction of their temples and religious sites of interest.
Perhaps its not a surprise, as mentioned there are practical reasons for tracking the movement of the Sun such as for agricultural planning and the correct measurement of the seasons. But also, in addition to air and water, the Sun appears to be the main energy giver for all life on Earth, and so it is not unreasonable for ancient people to associate this object with their divine worship.
Maybe, it was about creating a spiritual moment, where the Earth (the land of people) and the Stars (the land of the Gods) would become joined for just an instant, during one of these equinox or solstice events. That this is where you could experience the divine and actually feel the presence of a creator. Such observations were also usually accompanied by rituals, and it is possible that a society seeing that the elders were able to conjure the exact positioning of the Sun as a part of these rituals, also reinforced a religious belief and so a hierarchical system of control over a population.
Whatever is true, our link to our ancient ancestors is provided by our shared need for the Sun, since without it neither of us would have been here. That object connects us to our past but also our future, as it continues to rise and fall with the setting of the day. If any object ever deserved the honorary title of a God, the Sun is surely it.
This article was originally posted on a previous web site for the asterism project on 15th Jul 2020 and it has been copied here since that site was closed down.
