Christ Conspiracy_ The Greatest Story Ever Sold - Acharya S [91]
The sun figured in the stories of virtually every culture worldwide. In many places and eras, the sun was considered the most visible proxy of the divine and the most potent bestower of Spirit. It was regarded as the first entity in "the Void" and the progenitor of all life and matter. The sun also represented the Archetypal Man, as human beings were perceived as "solar entities." In addition to being a symbol of the spirit because it rises and sinks, the sun was the "soul of the world," signifying immortality, as it is eternally resurrected after "dying" or setting. It was also considered the purifier of the soul, as noted. Hence, from at least the Egyptian age down to the Gnostic Christians, the sun, along with the moon and other celestial bodies, was viewed as a "guide" into the afterlife. By the Gnostic Zoroastrians, the sun was considered "the Archimagus, that noblest and most powerful agent of divine power, who `steps forth as a Conqueror from the top of the terrible Alborj to rule over the world which he enlightens from the throne of Ormuzd'."I Long before the Christian era, the sun was known as the "Son of Ormuzd," the "Mediator," while his adversary, Ahriman, represented the darkness, which caused the fall of man.2
The sun was considered the "Savior of the World," as it rose and brought light and life to the planet. It was revered for causing seeds to burst and thus giving its life for plants to grow; hence, it was seen to sacrifice itself in order to provide fertility and vegetation. The sun is the "tutelary genius of universal vegetation,"3 as well as the god of cultivation and the benefactor of humankind. When the sun "dies" in winter, so does the vegetation, to be "resurrected" in the spring. The first fruits, vine and grain were considered symbols of the sun's strength and were ritualistically offered to the divine luminary. The solar heroes and gods were said to be teachers as well, because agriculture, a science developed out of astronomy, freed mankind to pursue something other than food, such as other sciences and the arts.
The various personifications of the sun thus represent the "image of fecundity which perpetuates and rejuvenates the world's existence."4 In their fertility aspects, the sun was the phallus, or lingam, and the moon was the vulva, or yoni, the male and female generative principles, the generators of all life on Earth.
In the mythos, the two pillars or columns of the Celestial Temple, the mysterious Jachin and Boaz, are the sun and moon.5 Of the relationship between the sun and moon, Hazelrigg adds: "The Sun may be likened to a wire through which the planetary messages are electrically transmitted, and of which the lunar moisture is the insulation."6
In the ancient world, light was the subject of awe, and the sunlight's ability to make plants grow was considered magical and miraculous. So special is light that the writer of Ecclesiastes waxes, "Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun." We know that it is not pleasant for the eyes to behold the direct light of the sun; it is, however, pleasant for humanity to behold the sun as it rises in the morning, bringing light and life. Indeed, the sun itself is the "face of the divine" upon which it is impossible to look.
Thus, the sun was very important to the ancients, so much so that around the world for millennia a wide variety of peoples have built solar temples, monuments and entire religions with priestesses and priests of the Sun, along with complex rituals and accoutrements. Within these religions is contained the ubiquitous mythos, a template or archetypical story that personifies the heavens and Earth, and rolls them into a drama about their interrelationship. Rather than being an entertaining but useless "fairytale," as myths are