The very first song I remember being taught was at church.Heavenly sunshine, heavenly sunshine
Flooding my soul with glory dee-vi-ine.
Heavenly sunshine, heavenly sunshine
Hallelujah! Je-sus is mine.
If you've followed this blog for very long you know I'm fascinated with Solar imagery, especially how it is reflected (no pun intended) in religious, Masonic and corporate symbols.
For several months I've been especially cognizant of Solar symbols on churches — Protestant and Catholic. I've pretty much convinced myself that the Christianity we know and love is derived from ancient Solar Cults. The cross itself is an ancient solar symbol, far older than 33 A.D., and a steeple, with or without a cross on top, points toward the sky, home of the Sun. I've noticed that many, many church buildings include in their design circular windows with embedded solar crosses as well as windows that curve at the top, symbolizing the sunrise.
Adding to the mix is the fact that more and more, many churches these days actually utilize in their signs and logos both traditional and moderized sun drawings, the circle with rays emanating from the disk. And a quick google-search shows pages of "Rising Sun" churches of various denominations. And those Easter "sunrise services" on the first Sunday (Sun Day) after the first Paschal Full Moon date? Certainly there's more to that historically and symbolically than a mere local church tradition.
And after writing several months ago about the Disney/Hollywood re-enactments of ancient rituals done in the name of entertainment, I've become even more aware that "the owls are not what they seem." Something's going on. Whether its archetypal, conspiratorial, or synchronistic, or all three and more, I don't know.
I was pleasantly surprised this morning to find a blog called The Secret Sun, published by a man who is even more fascinated by all this than I am. Blogger Christopher Loring Knowles is also the author of the book Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes.
I've just begun to explore his articles, but what I've seen is intriguing. He seems to have found myriads of "relationships of meaning" without going off the deep end into wild-eyed conspiracy theories as so many do who travel this path. His explorations are that of a Jungian, not a John Bircher or a believer in reptilian overlords.
In various articles he talks about the Masonic and Solar connections to the Academy Awards (Isis = Oscar), the Mithraian roots and ritual drama of The Beatles, Cirque de Soleil, and solar worship symbols in films including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The 40-Year Old Virgin.
There are lots of mind treats at The Secret Sun for those who like to indulge their neurons occasionally with something out of the box.
Masons | Masonic Symbols | Solar Worship | Freemasonry | Sunshine | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com
Thank you very much for the link to Secret Sun!
ReplyDeleteHow strange...I stumbled there myself the other day, and can't even remember how.
ReplyDeleteSynchronicity. The Devil made you do it. Jesus led you there.
ReplyDeleteChoose one, two, or all three.
— W.S.
What you have observed are two facts: (1) There are symbols involving light and the sun in Christianity; and, (2) there are many ancient solar cults. The question then arises, what is the nature of the connection between these two facts?
ReplyDeleteIn any such situation, there are always four possibilities: (A) Fact #1 caused Fact #2; (B) Fact #2 caused Fact #1; (C) some unseen Fact #3 caused both Facts #1 and #2; and, (D) there simply is no real connection.
You seem to be opting for Possibility B, the idea that the ancient solar cults were the foundation of Christianity. I would suggest that you give some consideration to at least two of the other possibilities:
Possibility A (one possible Christian interpretation): The Christ, existing before the world, which he created (if one accepts John 1:1-5), has the universe set up with all sorts of allegorical symbols that allude to moral principles, including the Christ as the source of spiritual light. Some of these spiritual truths, taught anciently to the earliest humans, are reflected in a distorted form in the ancient solar cults.
Possibility C (Jungian interpretation): The human mind is hard-wired with certain archetypal symbols. These symbols will show up in all sorts of religions. Thus, the existence of symbols in more than one religion does not show that one caused the other, but rather that the human mind imposes some archetypal symbolism into any religion's symbol-set. (Note: this says nothing about the validity of any given religious position.)
Here's one you forgot. The Morning star hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....
ReplyDelete"He’s the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star,
He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul."
Possibility D is unacceptable. There is always a connection. If you're gonna go and get all spiritual with your Possibility A, presupposing a Christ-spirit that "set up symbols" in the pre-Christian age, then I'm gonna go all mystical and invoke the "We are all One, I am He as You are He as You are Me and We are All Together" mantra. Quantum physically, it's as likely as your Possibility A, yet more universal in that it sheds the Judeo-Christian bias.
ReplyDeletePossibility C has its merits. Jungian interpretations are being discussed on the blog mentioned in the article, "The Secret Sun," and don't need to be reviewed here.
Possibility A (#1 caused #2) obviously isn't true (unless you universalize the Christ-spirit, thus negating the "Christian interpretation," though #1 may have been historically a part of a string of events, meaning that some of members of Set #2 came before #1, and some came after. On a time line, generally speaking, 2(a) > 1 > 2(b).
This can be extrapolated to yet a new Possibility: (1) is a subset and a descendant (on axis T for Time) of (2). Christianity IS an ancient solar cult.
Facts are, or my opinion of the facts are, that The Sun existed before Man, and that solar cults arose as Man tried to explain Life, the Universe and Everything. In explaining, primitive man created and/or found in his hardwired brain symbols useful for explaining or describing his universe, which is "ruled" by the Sun. These symbols became ideas, and as Man's intellect developed, "moral" concepts were hung upon older physio-spiritual ideas.
— W.S.
The Sun attacks the Moon. The Moon defames the Earth. Mercury challenges Hermes to a boxing match. Wait a minute, there's none of that in this post!
ReplyDeleteCan it truly be? I can't believe my eyes. Good job Burning Taper! Now we're discussing a worthwhile topic and something that might unite us instead of divide us.
I like Possibility A (Christian Interpretation based upon John 1:1-5 with a sprinkle of Neoplatonism). I also like Possibility D (Jungian Interpretation) to explain likenesses across cultures and other religions.
I love the Sun of God.
ReplyDeleteIt is our savior.
There would be no existence without the Sun of God.
The Sun's helpers for spreading truth are His Twelve Disciples, the Zodiac signs that the Sun travels through. The Sun and his 12 Disciples, with the four Gospels, solstices/equinox's form the cross(in the haeavens) that our Sun dies on in Dec. and then rises again three days later..
Christianity, and all other modern religions, did not just appear on the scene. The evolution of religious thought and philosophy are an interesting topic.
ReplyDeleteMany aspects of the mythology, virgin birth etc etc, were common themes in earlier religions. Having those elements gave validity to the story. The message was also recycled. In the case of Christianity the message was recycled into the cultural context of the time and place. The divisions that grew (most famously between the Eastern Church and the Western Church) came about slowly but did become quite distinct.
We are all familiar with what Jesus represents in common Christianity. What of Jesus as the "Repairer?"
Brandt