Transformational Astrology Series

THE SUN by Carol Willis, MA
(C) Copyright by Carol Willis, 1997. All rights reserved.


The Sun is the center of our solar system. Everything else revolves
around, and makes sense in terms of, the Sun in our solar system.
So too in your astrological chart, the Sun is your primary
orientation point. All other planets and astrological factors
"revolve around" and make sense in terms of the Sun. The Sun is a
point of intelligibility, from which all else can be understood and
even derived.

To bring order out of what would otherwise be chaos, we need to find
an orientation point, indeed the most significant or important
orientation point, then all else can be ordered and understood in
relation to that point.

Most religious persons would say that God or Spirit is the primary
orientation point for understanding life and one's own role in it.
Since we're "made in the image of God" as creative spirit, and the
Sun in the astrological chart represents us as creative spirit
incarnate [soul], then it's easy to see why the Sun is the primary
orientation point in the astrological chart.

The astrological chart itself is a graphical snapshot of cosmic,
archetypal "initiating conditions" at birth that will spin and play
themselves out over time in conjunction with character development,
spiritual disciplines, and application of self.


INTERPRETING THE SUN

The Sun symbolizes YOU as an individual spiritual being, your will,
purposes, and vitality. The Sun represents the experience you
want to have as a soul, your purpose(s), what you can contribute,
based on your own being, attributes, virtues, understanding, skills,
and mastery.

Physically the Sun represents your vitality, your aliveness, your
vital life force. To a great degree, a person's vitality or state
of their vital life force is a function of the state of their soul
and level of confidence.


The first thing I look for in natal chart is, WHERE IS THE SUN BY
SIGN, BY HOUSE, AND BY ASPECT? Since the SUN is the primary
orientation point spiritually, this is where the attention needs to
go first. There are many other factors and secondary orientation
points in an astrological chart such as the Ascendant or Rising Sign
that we will consider on another occasion.

Where the Sun is by SIGN indicates keynotes of the soul. Like all
astrological factors, a spectrum of manifestation is possible - from
the most exalted and masterful where the person is an exemplar - to
the most perverse and degraded where the finest potential of the
archetype becomes reversed through ignorance of some kind or other.

Here are a few keynotes of the SUN SIGNS. This should NOT be
considered an exhaustive list.

ARIES: initiative, starting, thrust, innovation, the fires of
creation, creative ideas, raw power, purpose, will and
energy.

TAURUS: desire, havingness, steadfastness, stability, continuing,
manifestation, values, practical arts, abundance from
the Earth.

GEMINI: perception, communication, relation of apparent opposites,
messages, interpreter, human life as deep conversation,
creation of spaces that facilitate appropriate communication
with no withholds, naming the truth, languaging our experience.

CANCER: caring, feeling, gut level intuition, ability to read
the mass consciousness, finger on the pulse of humanity,
comfort, creation of safe spaces, health benefits of
emotional continuity over time.

LEO: creation, self-expression, arts, radiance, blessing,
attracting attention, facilitation, colorful, dramatic,
large-scale spaces, directing, orchestrating.

VIRGO: discernment, service, healing, work processes, purity,
craftsmanship, contribution, science, logic,
distillation of information to essence;
God's in the details; no task is to great or too small;
equality of all persons in the eyes of God;
giving birth to the Christ Consciousness in the human heart.

LIBRA: beauty, color, harmony, balance, justice, fairness,
right relationship, reciprocity, giving and receiving,
sowing and reaping, balancing the scales of karma.

SCORPIO: seeking the golden mean between extremes, going to the
depths to find answers, full-out engagement with life,
healthy detachment, renunciation, overcoming addictions
based in intensity of feeling.

SAGITTARIUS: naming the truth, telling the truth with love, goals,
aspiration, higher emotions, prophecy, estimation of the
future, worldviews and perspectives, freedom,
wide-open natural spaces, visionary, planetary consciousness,
philosophy, generosity, being in the right place at the right time.

CAPRICORN: essences, manifestation, structures, divine order,
definition, time-sense, builder, initiation, excellence,
simplicity, quality, leadership, achievement, accomplishment,
perseverance, mastery, political.

AQUARIUS: world service, multicultural, arts and sciences, future,
wholistic and multidisciplinary, honors diversity,
groups and teams, freedom, intuition, technology, friendship,
metaphysical principles, love of humanity, broad vision.

PISCES: unconditional love, spiritual devotion, surrender to God,
acceptance of others, fine arts, empathic intuition,
learning to create healthy boundaries, transformation,
transmutation, completions.


Here are some notes on SUN IN THE HOUSES. This should not be
considered an exhaustive list.

SUN IN 1st HOUSE: Life focus on self and personal identity, image,
creating images, body and body image, helping others with
their image and identity, personal visibility, getting
"out there" and being seen for who you really are,
confidence, self-expression, promotion.

SUN IN 2nd HOUSE: Life focus on values, money, possessions,
resources, generating spiritual substance, spiritual and
physical sustainability.

SUN IN 3rd HOUSE: Life focus on basic learning, ideas,
communication, writing, speaking, teaching, transportation
vehicles, communication vehicles such as phones and internet,
siblings and neighbors.

SUN IN 4th HOUSE: Life focus on the foundations of life, roots,
family, ancestry, home, early life emotional patterns,
emotional security, emotional continuity and sustainability,
parents (especially mother), domestic environments,
domestic real estate, gardens, spiritual connections and
abilities in families.

SUN IN 5th HOUSE: Life focus on the creative process, children
and young people, love affairs, vacations, recreation, sports,
resorts, fun, games, risk.

SUN IN 6th HOUSE: Life focus on health, work and service to others,
teamwork, transitional states, job, staff.

SUN IN 7th HOUSE: Life focus on the "other" person, partnering,
close relationships, how people mirror and complement each
other, counseling or consulting.

SUN IN 8th HOUSE: Life focus on big business, other people's money,
research, regeneration, inheritances, spiritual
and material legacies, initiation, dreams, life and death
matters, sexuality, the mysteries of life, insurance,
mortgages.

SUN IN 9th HOUSE: Life focus on belief systems and worldviews,
religion, philosophy, social sciences, foreign travel and
languages, publishing, marketing.

SUN IN 10th HOUSE: Life focus on leadership, management, high
visibility, getting attention for causes or methods.

SUN IN 11th HOUSE: Life focus on community, friends, social circle,
common goals and ideals, community leadership, gathering
community resources, networking and social connections.

SUN IN 12th HOUSE: Life focus on solitude, inner resources,
psychology, spirituality, consciousness, meditative,
contemplative and altered states, intuition, initiation,
karmic patterns and completions, chronic health conditions,
energy medicine, service, liberation.


ASPECTS to the Sun (mathematical relationships of the other planets
to the Sun) and RULER OF THE SUN yield additional information about
identity, purpose and vitality. A Sun that's well-aspected tends
toward an ease of self-awareness, sense of personal identity,
flowing creativity, high vitality. A Sun that is stressed by aspect
tends toward challenges of identity, self-confidence, creativity,
and vitality. Sometimes challenges are just what's needed to gain a
thorough understanding of how life works in an area, and to learn
how to tackle and overcome obstacles, whereas if things are too
easy, we may take them for granted and not learn much.

DWADS are a secondary Sign influence underlying the exact degree and
minute of your Sun. Dwads can give outstanding supplemental
information, especially for those working on deeper and more
psychological levels, and can help explain why someone is not the
typical Aries, for example.

RELOCATION astrology shows where to go in the continental United
States and in the rest of the world to place the Sun on the angles
of your chart using astro-cartography. Another system called local
space mapping, which I have researched extensively for 10 years now,
shows where to go in the world to gain support for your Sun - your
sense of yourself as an individual, your creative expression, your
sense of purpose and vitality.

RELATIONSHIP COMPATIBILITY. "Synastry" analysis places the Sun of
one person P1 into the chart of another person P2, showing what gets
fundamentally and at a soul level "lit up" by P1 coming into P2's
life. Then conversely, P2's Sun is placed in P1's chart.

Using another compatibility technique, the Composite Chart, the
composite Sun represents the merger of two individuals, the third
energy that's formed in their coming together, and its sign and
house placement are a focal point for the composite or relationship
chart. The composite Sun is derived by mathematical calculations,
the near midpoint of both people's Suns.

PROGRESSIONS are one way to bring the natal chart up to date in
present time, and show long-term developmental trends. You never
lose the qualities of your Sun Sign, but the Progressed Sun adds new
dimensions of experience to your natal Sun Sign. Progressions are
determined conceptually and mathematically, and do not correspond to
physical location of the planets in present time. The Sun
progresses through a sign every 30 years. When the Progressed Sun
changes sign, this event heralds a new chapter in the person's life,
a new developmental phase, and many new qualities and experiences
arrive suddenly at this time. The year or two before the Progressed
Sun changes sign is a time of completions from the previous 28 or so
years.

TRANSITS are another way to update the natal chart into present
time. Transits are where the planets are now, and how they relate
to your natal chart. The Sun transits around your entire chart in 1
year, and transits through each house in your chart - about 30 days
per house. As the Sun transits around your natal chart, it "lights
up" the houses of your chart in succession, highlighting windows of
opportunity to cultivate soul experience in that area of life. Much
depends on what you do with these windows of soul opportunity,
rather than depending on externals to determine your experience.

I call Sun transits "your annual success cycles" since when used
with consciousness, they help you to be more successful in the
various areas of life. Furthermore, they show the soul's desire for
experience in present time, and allow you to "deepen" or "spiral up"
in life experience each time the Sun makes its annual sojourn
through your chart. Your Sun transits create a stability and
order in your life rhythm similar to that of the seasons in nature.

A SOLAR RETURN is a chart for when the Sun returns to exactly to its
position in your natal chart, down to the degree and minute. This
occurs on your birthday, +/- a day, and may change slightly each
year. Your solar return could be considered your "astrological
birthday" each year. A solar return is a chart in itself and gives
clues to where you'll be focused in the upcoming year, and how to
make the most of your year ahead. I've found the luminaries (Sun
and Moon) in a solar return to be the most indicative, by sign and
house.

HORARY ASTROLOGY is the chart of a particular question, and the Sun
in horary is often said to burn out the house it falls in, like too
much of a good thing, too much intensity. Horary questions are less
about the soul's path and pattern and more about mundane questions
such as finding lost objects or predicting the course of a deal.
The Moon is used more in horary, but the Sun in the wrong place can
squelch the matter in question.


THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUN

The Sun in a natal astrological chart symbolizes YOU - the spiritual
being, plus attributes and abilities of the spiritual being, the
creator plus the creative process, your vitality, you the knower and
experiencer of life!

The Sun symbolizes YOU THE SOUL - spirit incarnate in a physical
body. The soul is the marriage of Heaven and Earth in the human
being. The soul carries the memories of Heaven [our home universe]
and our creative desires for manifestation in the Earth. In soul
awareness, we can fulfill the dream of creating a Heaven on Earth,
and having heavenly relationships where all beings are our
soul-mates.

By mastering the house where your Sun resides, you're then ready to
assume a leadership and mentoring role with regard to the activities
of that house. In so doing, you share your consciousness, pass the
torch, "clone yourself," and actually multiply your power,
consciousness and love by giving them away.

Your unique leadership or mentoring style will reflect your Sun's
qualities and virtues, as well as other key factors in your
astrological chart.

The Sun's colors are gold, golden yellow, orange and metallic gold.

The soul can be said to "reside" in the heart chakra, home of wisdom
and compassion. Soul awareness "lives" in the heart. The soul
distributes its vibration to the etheric and physical bodies. The
heart chakra is the etheric intermediary between the soul and the
physical world.

(The spleen chakra further assists in the etheric body as a major
distributor of life energies. Spleen energy is tangerine, a clear
luminous orange - note the color connection with the Sun. Dalichow
notes in AURA-SOMA that orange is used or preferred for overcoming
life-shocks. Such shocks can jam life force energy and negatively
affect the immune system, of which the spleen is a part.)

[A "chakra" is literally a "wheel" of life, an energy-and-
information center in the etheric body, often symbolized by a lotus
or rose.]

The memories of our home universe, the creative information we
received there, and all life experience for all lifetimes, live in
the soul and are perceived by the soul. All quality is discerned by
the soul. All life is a continuity and a unity for the soul -
beyond birth, death, and differentiation - a seamless creation!

We as spirit(s) are made in the image of God as creative spirit unlimited.

We are the creators (and co-creators) of our own universes of
experience, within the larger life of God-Spirit, All-that-Is.

The study of astrology is fundamentally a study of the process of
creation, a study of what I call your "life-process" in the largest
sense of the term, and the details of its manifestation.

The Sun symbolizes our deeper spiritual realities. Attributes of
the physical Sun correlate to attributes of our spiritual nature,
like different octaves of the same note. A description of the
physical Sun reminds us of how these same qualities obtain and
operate in spiritual dimensions.


PHYSICAL SUN OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE
light light
golden golden
shining shining
visible visible
radiant radiant
glory glory
brilliant brilliant
splendid splendid
resplendent resplendent
fullness fullness
vital vital
self-luminous self-luminous
self-balancing self-balancing
self-harmonious self-harmonious
coherent coherent
continuous continuous
central orientation point central orientation point
integrator integrator
points to wholeness points to wholeness
necessary to our system absolutely necessary, sine qua non
spiritual identity
self-generating (sui generis)
self-conscious, self-awareness
self-correcting
intelligence
knower and known
healthy self-esteem
rational
virtue
integrity [ethics and wholeness]
honor
pride in achievement
fame
healthy self-esteem
based in spiritual identity
the soul's life, light, and love
everlasting
unchanging, static
eternal


The Sun symbolizes both the knower and the known. Indeed, the
spirit or soul is self-conscious - enjoys reflexive awareness.
Furthermore, the creative spirit or soul puts its mark or signature
on all that it creates, and spreads its influence throughout its
personal universe of experience. Everything in your personal
universe reflects your consciousness in some way, to some degree, by
bearing your spiritual signature of light, and by mirroring your
consciousness back to you. Thus you are both the knower and the
known. Some writers have suggested that we can't know a thing
unless we create it, or re-create it.

The Mormons say that "the glory of God is intelligence."
Intelligence is fundamentally a spiritual quality, beyond the
limitations of ordinary worldly mind. Intelligence is the ability
to know, to permeate a thing with consciousness and to know it
directly. Such intelligence is revealed in the radiance of the
Transfiguration, where the light of spirit becomes so strong that it
shines forth visibly from the countenance and body of a person.

In Plato's Analogy of the Cave (REPUBLIC, Book VII) the cave
dwellers walk up a ramp to the top and see the light of the Sun -
behold the light of truth. Despite the metaphor of the physical
sun, the dwellers can see this truth only with their "spiritual
eyes," through insight or intuitive knowing. The dwellers are
dazzled by the light and bring the memories of the light back with
them into the cave (material world). They now have the soul
memories of light, truth, and wisdom, which they will attempt to
apply and bring to bear in the relatively dimmer world of the cave.
Again the sun represents the knower and the known.

Direct, spiritually-based, intuitive knowing (_noesis_) is the
classical Greek epistemic ideal. Intuitive knowing by virtue of the
soul is the premier, "top of the line" knowing, higher and more
desirable than sense perception, opinions (_doxa_), and even most
understanding, according to Plato in his Myth of the Line [REPUBLIC
511]. The soul has an eye [527D], and the soul can see directly.
In seeking to know reality, the soul goes beyond appearances to
distinguish between the visible and the intelligible [524C]. Plato
notes that by the time a person is 50 years old he must raise the
eye of the soul to universal light that lightens all things, and to
absolute good, as these provide the pattern to order our individual
lives and the state [550]. Why wait? - the sooner the better!

In addressing the subject of personal transformation, Plato inquires
how a person is to be brought from darkness to light, how will he
ascend from the world below to that of the gods? This process does
not happen by chance, but by the turning around of a soul, passing
from a "day" which is little better than night (ordinary life) to
the true day of being (spiritual life). The ascent from below is
what we term true philosophy [love of wisdom]. What sort of
knowledge has the power to effect such change, to effect ascension?
What would draw the soul from becoming to being (i.e., get him off the
wheel of karma and trapped in the cave of worldliness, and into a
stable spiritual condition)? [521C] The remainder of the REPUBLIC
is an answer to these questions, but suffice it say here that
certain subjects such as mathematics, music, and gymnastics help to
order the person's mind, cultivate his soul, strengthen his body for
life-balance. Special dialogues elicit the person's own spiritual
recollections of truth. A dialogue does not go on forever, only
until the truth is realized, which is the purpose of dialogue.

On a physical level, the healing art of Homeopathy addresses a
person's vital life force, the condition of which reflects the
person's state of being as a spirit or soul. Degradations and
perversions of a person's spiritual state are brought about by
emotional or physical traumas, upsets, or shocks, false ideas or
delusions. In homeopathy, the practitioner looks both at 1) the
ideal vital force and 2) the present condition of the person's vital
force, compares the two, and tracks down what is the core delusion,
how is the person [mis-]using his will to create the present condition
that results in an aberration of the vital force? The homeopathic
remedy addresses the vital force, brings it up, and symptoms blow
off as phenomena-to-consciousness, appearances having no fundamental
reality. The vital force - which carries its own spiritual
intelligence and reflects the state of the individual's
consciousness - reigns as the fundamental reality that conditions
the state of the body.

AFFIRMATION

I affirm the day that every child and every adult knows that he is spirit,
made in the image of God as creative spirit unlimited,
pure consciousness and creator of radiant golden substance,
wielder of spiritual substance, and
knows that his spiritual lineage and being
are the source of his intelligence and virtue.
What a different world we will have!


INSPIRATIONAL

"The Sun is honey for all beings, and all beings are honey for this
Sun. The intelligent, immortal being, the soul of this sun, and the
intelligent, immortal being, the soul in the individual being - each
is honey to the other. Brahman is the soul in each; he indeed is
the Self in all. He is all." - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

"Him the sun does not illumine, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor the
lightning - nor, verily, fires kindled upon earth. He is the one
light that gives light to all. He shining, everything shines."
- Katha Upanishad

"That in which th sun rises and in which it sets, that which is the
source of all the powers of nature and of the senses, that which
nothing can transcend - that is the immortal Self."
- Katha Upanishad

"The immortal Self is the light shining in the sky, he is the breeze
blowing in space. - Katha Upanishad

"In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun." - Psalms 19:4

"Thou hast prepared the light and the sun." - Psalms 74:16

"The Lord God is a sun." - Psalms 84:11

"The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth."
- Doctrine & covenants 93:36

"Clear as the sun" - Song of Solomon 6:10

"Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun." - Matthew 13.43

"His face did shine as the sun." - Matthew 17:2

"There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon,
and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another
star in glory." - I Corinthians 15:41

"The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and
more unto the perfect day." - Psalms 139:11

"God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts, to give the light of knowledge of the glory of
God..." II Corinthians 4:6

"Let us put on the armor of light." - Romans 13:12


REFERENCES

UPANISHADS.
OLD TESTAMENT.
NEW TESTAMENT.
SUTRA OF GOLDEN LIGHT, Mahayana Buddhist sutra.
Plato, REPUBLIC and collected works.
Samuel Hahnemann, ORGANON OF MEDICINE, 6th ed., on vital life force.
DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS.
Alfred Korzybski, SCIENCE AND SANITY, 1933, on orientation.
Alice A. Bailey, THE SOUL, and collected works.
Ann Ree Colton, THE SOUL AND THE ETHIC, and collected works.
Irene Dalichow and Mike Booth for Vicky Wall, AURA-SOMA.

Special acknowledgements to:
Ida E. Chandler, Dr. H. Arvis Talley, Pati Carlson, Dr. Eileen Nauman.


Carol Willis, MA
Sunnyvale CA
February 9, 1997
cbwillis@netcom.com
###

----------------
Carol Willis, MA
Professional Astrologer since 1970
Sunnyvale CA (408) 734-9110 cbwillis@netcom.com
For free subscription to my monthly astrology column and
related articles, send message SUBSCRIBE ASTROLIST-L
in the body only (subject line blank) to majordomo@lightlink.com