Our Sun ~ The Giver of Life & Light

It’s Sun Day, and the Sun is our star. While some stars in our galaxy are nearly as old as the universe (about 13.75 billion years) our Sun is a 2nd-generation star. He is only 4.6 billion years old (Earth is only 4.54 billion years old), therefore some of his material came from former stars.

He is the most noticeable of all the celestial bodies due to his necessary light and warmth. All of the planets orbit him at various distances and speeds.

Since ancient times, he has been worshiped as the Sun god, such as Ra for the Egyptians and Apollo for the Greeks, with whom pharaohs, emperors, and kings were identified.

They didn’t have the type of calendars and clocks that we have so they relied on the four seasons created by the Sun to know when to plant, harvest, hunt and fish.

Astrology was created in order for them to accomplish this—they came up with the constellations to track the seasons, beginning with the first day of Aries for the spring equinox.

They created three signs per season, whereby each season begins with a cardinal sign, followed by a fixed sign in the middle of the season, and ending the season with a mutable sign.

Each sign has an element: fire, earth, air or water.

You can remember the fire signs in terms of taking action like planting in early spring for Aries, the midsummer heat during Leo, and hunting in the late fall for Sagittarius.

The earth signs can be remembered by thinking of when the crops begin to grow in mid-spring during Taurus, begin to fully mature in late summer during Virgo, and becomes covered by snow during the beginning of winter during Capricorn.

You can remember the air signs by thinking of a sky in late spring filled with clouds caused by the spring heat for Gemini, the summer heat leads to the early fall clouds during Libra, and the warmer southern hemisphere brings the midwinter clouds during Aquarius.

Lastly, the water signs can be remembered by thinking of the early summer rains that follow the spring clouds during Cancer, the mid-fall rains during Scorpio, and the late winter rains during Pisces.

To help you further anchor in the signs, think of Aries as a ram, a charging, very energetic, and balanced animal, and therefore an equal balance of daytime and nighttime on the spring equinox.

The Taurus is a bull, a stubborn and fixed animal standing his ground in the middle of a field during mid-spring.

Imagine that Gemini are two intellectual twins playing in a field of flowers at the end of spring—one twin representing spring and the other leading us towards summer.

Think of Cancer as a crab that has lived on land (northern hemisphere) for 6 months, and is now climbing down into the southern hemisphere (water), during the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year.

Leo is the lion, a proud and stalwart animal standing in the middle of a hot plane during the middle of summer.

Think of Virgo as a young female, with qualities of both a girl and a mature woman, who is leading us from late summer towards the fall.

Libra is the scales, the literal symbol for balance, and therefore an equal balance of daytime and nighttime on the fall equinox.

Scorpio is a scorpion, an armored arachnid bringing the sting of cold during the middle of fall following the six warmer spring and summer months.

Sagittarius is the archer, so you can think of the hunter coming out at the end of fall after everything has been harvested.

You can remember Capricorn as a sea goat that has lived in the water (southern hemisphere) for six months, and is now climbing up into the northern hemisphere (land), during the winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year.

Aquarius is the fixed water bearer in the middle of winter carrying the rain clouds from the southern hemisphere up into the northern hemisphere.

And of course, the last and final sign is Pisces, which you can think of as both the fish following the warm currents from the southern hemisphere up into the northern hemisphere, along with the late winter showers.

It therefore comes as no surprise that most people identify with their Sun sign, rather than their Moon sign, rising sign or the signs where all of the other planets were located when they were born, even though they all add up to help give us our personalities!

But the Sun is definitely the king of the Solar System, which is 333,000 times the mass of Earth and makes up 99.86% of the Solar System’s mass, and of course we wouldn’t be here without our hydrogen and helium fusion generator to keep us warm and grow our food!