Solar deity

Africa

Ancient Egypt

Sun worship was prevalent in ancient Egyptian religion. From at least the 4th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, the Sun was worshiped as the deity Ra (meaning simply 'the sun'), and portrayed as a falcon-headed god surmounted by the solar disk, and surrounded by a serpent. Ra supposedly gave warmth to the living body, symbolized as an ankh: a "☥" shaped amulet with a looped upper half. The ankh, it was believed, was surrendered with death, but could be preserved in the corpse with appropriate mummification and funerary rites. The supremacy of Ra in the Egyptian pantheon was at its highest with the Fifth Dynasty, when open-air solar temples became common.

In the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, Ra lost some of his preeminence to Osiris, lord of the west, and judge of the dead. In the New Empire period, the Sun became identified with the dung beetle, whose spherical ball of dung was identified with the Sun. In the form of the sun disc Aten, the Sun had a brief resurgence during the Amarna Period when it again became the preeminent, if not only, divinity for the pharaoh, Akhenaten.

The Sun's movement across the sky represents a struggle between the pharaoh's soul and an avatar of Osiris. Ra travels across the sky in his solar-boat; at dawn he drives away the god of chaos, Apep. The "solarisation" of several local gods (Khnum-Ra, Min-Ra, Amun-Ra) reached its peak in the period of the Fifth Dynasty.

Rituals to the god Amun, who became identified with the sun god Ra, were often carried out on the top of temple pylons. A pylon mirrored the hieroglyph for 'horizon' or akhet, which was a depiction of two hills "between which the sun rose and set", associated with recreation and rebirth. On the first pylon of the temple of Isis at Philae, the pharaoh is shown slaying his enemies in the presence of Isis, Horus, and Hathor.

In the Eighteenth Dynasty, the earliest-known monotheistic head of state, Akhenaten, changed the polytheistic religion of Egypt to a monotheistic one, Atenism. All other deities were replaced by the Aten, including Amun-Ra, the reigning sun god of Akhenaten's own region. Unlike other deities, Aten did not have multiple forms. His only image was a disk—a symbol of the Sun.

Soon after Akhenaten's death, worship of the traditional deities was reestablished by the religious leaders (Ay the High-Priest of Amun-Ra, mentor of Tutankhaten/Tutankhamen) who had adopted the Aten during the reign of Akhenaten.

Kongo

In Kongo religion, Nzambi Mpungu is the Sky Father and god of the Sun, while that his female counterpart, Nzambici, is Sky Mother and the god of the Moon and Earth. The Sun is very significant to Bakongo people, who believe that the position of the sun marks the different seasons of a Kongo person's life as they transition between the four moments of life: conception (musoni), birth (kala), maturity (tukula), and death (luvemba). The Kongo cosmogram, a sacred symbol in Bakongo culture, depicts these moments of the sun.

Kalenjin

Kalenjin mythology was based upon the belief in a supreme god, Asis or Cheptalel, represented in the form of the sun (asista), although the sun itself was not considered to be God. He lives in the sky and is supreme, omnipotent, and the guarantor of right. Among the Northern sections of the Kalenjin he is also commonly referred to as Tororut. Beneath Asis is Elat, who controls thunder and lightning.

Akan

In Akan mythology, Nyame is the creator of all things, including the sun. One of Nyame's titles is Amowia, meaning giver/creator of the sun. Awia, also spelt Owia, was the personification of the sun, an ewim abosom, older twin brother of Osrane (moon), and brother of Esum (darkness). Due to the climate of Ghana, the Akan tribes viewed the sun as both capable of great heat and droughts and life - giving light that causes plant growth. Under his light, disputes were settled.

Americas

Aztec mythology

In Aztec mythology, Tonatiuh (Nahuatl languages: Ollin Tonatiuh, "Movement of the Sun") was the sun god. The Aztec people considered him the leader of Tollan (heaven). He was also known as the fifth sun, because the Aztecs believed that he was the sun that took over when the fourth sun was expelled from the sky. According to their cosmology, each sun was a god with its own cosmic era. According to the Aztecs, they were still in Tonatiuh's era. According to the Aztec creation myth, the god demanded human sacrifice as tribute and without it would refuse to move through the sky. The Aztecs were fascinated by the Sun and carefully observed it, and had a solar calendar similar to that of the Maya. Many of today's remaining Aztec monuments have structures aligned with the Sun.

In the Aztec calendar, Tonatiuh is the lord of the thirteen days from 1 Death to 13 Flint. The preceding thirteen days are ruled over by Chalchiuhtlicue, and the following thirteen by Tlaloc.

Maya mythology

K'inich Ahau is Maya god of the Sun. He attested to by Bishop Diego de Landa in the 16th century and also in sculptural and ceramic form from the Classic period. He often appears as a younger deity with striking square shaped eyes and the glyph for sun infixed onto his body.

Navajo mythology

Tsohanoai is the Navajo sun god, who carries the sun on his back during the day, and hangs it on a peg on the West wall of his house at night.

Incan mythology

Inti is the ancient Incan sun god. He is revered as the national patron of the Inca state. Although most consider Inti the sun god, he is more appropriately viewed as a cluster of solar aspects, since the Inca divided his identity according to the stages of the sun. Inti is represented as a golden disk with rays and a human face.

The Inca dedicated many ceremonies to the Sun in order to ensure the Sapa Inca's welfare. The Incas would set aside large quantities of natural and human resources throughout the empire for Inti. Each conquered province was supposed to dedicate a third of their lands and herds to Inti as mandated by the Inca. Each major province would also have a Sun Temple in which male and female priests would serve.

Asia

Armenian mythology

In Armenian mythology and in the vicinity of Carahunge, the ancient site of interest in the field of archaeoastronomy, people worshiped a powerful deity or intelligence called Ara, embodied as the sun (Ar or Arev). The ancient Armenians called themselves "children of the sun". (Russian and Armenian archaeoastronomers have suggested that at Carahunge seventeen of the stones still standing were associated with observations of sunrise or sunset at the solstices and equinoxes.)

Chinese mythology

Chinese mythology features multiple sun gods, including Shang Jia, a Predynastic Shang ruler-turned-deity, and Xihe, the sun goddess who governs time, and her ten sun sons born to her, and Di Jun, one of the highest deities. These ten suns can transform into a three-legged crow. There is also Dongjun, the sun and moon god who governs spring and the east, and the Tai Yang Xing Jun, who governs the celestial body itself, the Sun.

In Chinese mythology (cosmology), there were originally ten suns in the sky, who were all brothers. They were supposed to emerge one at a time as commanded by the Di Jun. They were all very young and loved to fool around. Once they decided to all go into the sky to play, all at once. This made the world too hot for anything to grow. A hero named Hou Yi, honored to this day, shot down nine of them with a bow and arrow to save the people of the Earth.

In another myth, a solar eclipse was said to be caused by a magical dog or dragon biting off a piece of the Sun. The referenced event is said to have occurred around 2136 BC; two royal astronomers, Ho and Hi, were executed for failing to predict the eclipse. There was a tradition in China to make lots of loud celebratory sounds during a solar eclipse to scare the sacred beast away.

The Deity of the Sun in Chinese mythology is Ri Gong Tai Yang Xing Jun (Tai Yang Gong/Grandfather Sun) or Star Lord of the Solar Palace, Lord of the Sun. Tai Yang Xing Jun is usually depicted with the Star Lord of the Lunar Palace, Lord of the Moon, Yue Gong Tai Yin Xing Jun (Tai Yin Niang Niang/Lady Tai Yin).

Pre-Islamic Arabia

The concept of the sun as a deity in Pre-Islamic Arabia, was abolished only under Muhammad. The Arabian solar deity appears to have been a goddess, Shams/Shamsun, most likely related to the Canaanite Shapash and broader middle-eastern Shamash. She was the patron goddess of Himyar, and possibly exalted by the Sabaeans.

Yazidism

In Yazidism, the angel Şêşims is venerated as the Xudan or Lord of sun and light. He is also linked with fire, which is his terrestrial counterpart, and oaths, which are sworn by the doorway of his shrine. Annually, during the Feast of the Assembly, a ceremonial bull sacrifice is performed in front of his shrine at Lalish. Yazidi religious texts refer to the light of the sun as a manifestation of God's light, therefore, Yazidis direct their faces in the sun's direction while praying. There are daily Yazidi prayers that are recited during the daytime, divided into three main phases of the day, the morning prayers include "Dua Şifaqê" (the dawn prayer), "Dua Sibê" (the morning prayer), "Duaya Rojhelatî" (the sunrise prayer). For the noon there is "Dua Nîvro" (the noon prayer) and at evening there is the "Duaya Hêvarî" (the evening prayer).

Europe

Albanian paganism

The Sun (Albanian: Diell-i) holds the primary role in Albanian pagan customs, beliefs, rituals, myths, and legends. Albanian major traditional festivities and calendar rites are based on the Sun, worshiped as the god of light, sky and weather, giver of life, health and energy, and all-seeing eye. In Albanian tradition the fire – zjarri, evidently also called with the theonym Enji – worship and rituals are particularly related to the cult of the Sun. Ritual calendar fires or bonfires are traditionally kindled before sunrise in order to give strength to the Sun and to ward off evil. Many rituals are practiced before and during sunrise, honoring this moment of the day as it is believed to give energy and health to the body. As the wide set of cultic traditions dedicated to him indicates, the Albanian Sun-god appears to be an expression of the Proto-Indo-European Sky-god (Zot or Zojz in Albanian).

Albanians were firstly described in written sources as worshippers of the Sun and the Moon by German humanist Sebastian Franck in 1534, but the Sun and the Moon have been preserved as sacred elements of Albanian tradition since antiquity. Illyrian material culture shows that the Sun was the chief cult object of the Illyrian religion. Finding correspondences with Albanian folk beliefs and practices, the Illyrian Sun-deity is figuratively represented on Iron Age plaques from Lake Shkodra as the god of the sky and lightning, also associated with the fire altar where he throws lightning bolts. The symbolization of the cult of the Sun, which is often combined with the crescent Moon, is commonly found in a variety of contexts of Albanian folk art, including traditional tattooing, grave art, jewellery, embroidery, and house carvings. Solemn oaths (Besa), good omens, and curse formulas, involve and are addressed to, or taken by, the Sun. Prayers to the Sun, ritual bonfires, and animal sacrifices have been common practices performed by Albanians during the ritual pilgrimages on mountain tops.

In Albanian pagan beliefs and mythology the Sun is a personified male deity, and the Moon (Hëna) is his female counterpart. In pagan beliefs the fire hearth (vatra e zjarrit) is the symbol of fire as the offspring of the Sun. In some folk tales, myths and legends the Sun and the Moon are regarded as husband and wife, also appearing as the parents of E Bija e Hënës dhe e Diellit ("the Daughter of the Moon and the Sun"); in others the Sun and the Moon are regarded as brother and sister, but in this case they are never considered consorts. Nëna e Diellit ("the Mother of the Sun" or "the Sun's Mother") also appears as a personified deity in Albanian folk beliefs and tales.

Albanian beliefs, myths and legends are organized around the dualistic struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, which cyclically produces the cosmic renewal. The most famous representation of it is the constant battle between drangue and kulshedra, which is seen as a mythological extension of the cult of the Sun and the Moon, widely observed in Albanian traditional art. In Albanian traditions, kulshedra is also fought by the Daughter of the Moon and the Sun, who uses her light power against pride and evil, or by other heroic characters marked in their bodies by the symbols of celestial objects, such as Zjermi (lit. 'the Fire'), who notably is born with the Sun on his forehead.

Baltic mythology

Those who practice Dievturība, beliefs of traditional Latvian culture, worship the Sun goddess Saule, known in traditional Lithuanian beliefs as Saulė. Saule is among the most important deities in Baltic mythology and traditions.

Celtic mythology

The sun in Insular Celtic culture is assumed to have been feminine, and several goddesses have been proposed as possibly solar in character. In Continental Celtic culture, the sun gods, like Belenus, Grannus, and Lugus, were masculine.

In Irish, the name of the Sun, Grian, is feminine. The figure known as Áine is generally assumed to have been either synonymous with her, or her sister, assuming the role of Summer Sun while Grian was the Winter Sun. Similarly, Étaín has at times been considered to be another theonym associated with the Sun; if this is the case, then the pan-Celtic Epona might also have been originally solar in nature.

The British Sulis has a name cognate with that of other Indo-European solar deities such as the Greek Helios and Indic Surya, and bears some solar traits like the association with the eye as well as epithets associated with light. The theonym Sulevia, which is more widespread and probably unrelated to Sulis, is sometimes taken to have suggested a pan-Celtic role as a solar goddess.

The Welsh Olwen has at times been considered a vestige of the local sun goddess, in part due to the possible etymological association with the wheel and the colors gold, white and red.

Brighid has at times been argued as having had a solar nature, fitting her role as a goddess of fire and light.

Germanic mythology

In Germanic mythology the Sun is personified as a woman, Old Norse Sól, Old High German Sunna. In the Norse tradition, the Sun is driven through the sky on a chariot pulled by two horses named Árvakr and Alsviðr ("Early-awake" and "All-swift").

First century historian Tacitus, in his book Germania, mentioned that "beyond the Suiones [tribe]" a sea was located where the sun maintained its brilliance from its rising to its sunset, and that "[the] popular belief" was that "the sound of its emergence was audible" and "the form of its horses visible".

In Norway, Sun worship was common until the last century, usually as a simple ritual of leaving butter in a saucer on a windowsill, so the Sun can melt it, when its light comes into the window. Alternatively, the glass on the window itself could be smeared by butter, or the butter could be put on the roof or wall. Similar rituals are attested among the Sami people. Usually, the ritual was connected to the day, when the sun shows up from horizon or mountain (or in the eastern window of the main house of the farm) after the period of polar night, when there is no sun at all, or the sun is so low, that it is hidden behind mountains. Because of these reasons, the date of the ritual varied from farm to farm, or wasn’t practiced at all (e.g. in Oslo area, which is flat and has no real polar night).

A ritual of greeting the first sun after the polar night while standing on top of a mountain is mentioned by Procopius in his description of the Northerners, but is also attested in modern time in area of Glomfjord, and a similar one in southern Vest-Agder. Another ritual is known from southern Vest-Agder, when small round stones are supposed to be taken up to a mountain top and put in a heap as an offering to the Spring Sun. The stone offering heaps itself are very common in Scandinavia, but only in Vest-Agder they are connected to the Sun worship.

Among famous people, who were practicing the butter-in-saucer ritual were poets Ivar Mortensson-Egnund and Astrid Krog Halse.

Greco-Roman world

Hellenistic mythology

In Greek mythology, Helios, a Titan, was the personification of the Sun; however, with the notable exception of the island of Rhodes and nearby parts of southwestern Anatolia, he was a relatively minor deity. The Ancient Greeks also associated the Sun with Apollo, the god of enlightenment, and Hyperion, father of Helios.

The Greek astronomer Thales of Miletus described the scientific properties of the Sun and Moon, making their godship unnecessary. Anaxagoras was arrested in 434 BC and banished from Athens for denying the existence of a solar or lunar deity. The titular character of Sophocles' Electra refers to the Sun as "All-seeing". Hermetic author Hermes Trismegistus calls the Sun "God Visible".

The Minotaur has been interpreted as a solar deity (as Moloch or Chronos), including by Arthur Bernard Cook, who considers both Minos and Minotaur as aspects of the sun god of the Cretans, who depicted the sun as a bull.

Roman mythology

During the Roman Empire, a festival of the birth of the Unconquered Sun (or Dies Natalis Solis Invicti) was celebrated on the winter solstice—the "rebirth" of the Sun—which occurred on 25 December of the Julian calendar. In late antiquity, the theological centrality of the Sun in some Imperial religious systems suggests a form of a "solar monotheism". The religious commemorations on 25 December were replaced under Christian domination of the Empire with the birthday of Christ.

Much more ancient was the cult of Sol Indiges, supposed to have been introduced among Roman deities by the Sabines at the times of Titus Tatius.

Modern influence

Copernicus describing the Sun mythologically, drawing from Greco-Roman examples:

In the middle of all sits the Sun on his throne. In this loveliest of temples, could we place the luminary in any more appropriate place so that he may light the whole simultaneously. Rightly is he called the Lamp, the Mind, the Ruler of the Universe: Hermes Trismegistus entitles him the God Visible. Sophocles' Electra names him the All-seeing. Thus does the Sun sit as upon a royal dais ruling his children the planets which circle about him.

World religions

Christianity

The comparison of Christ with the astronomical Sun is common in ancient Christian writings. By "the sun of righteousness" in Malachi 4 "the fathers, from Justin downward, and nearly all the earlier commentators understand Christ, who is supposed to be described as the rising sun". The New Testament itself contains a hymn fragment in Ephesians 5: "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Clement of Alexandria wrote of "the Sun of the Resurrection, he who was born before the dawn, whose beams give light".

The pseudodocumentary Zeitgeist: The Movie (2007) asserts that Judas Iscariot is an allegory of Scorpio (with Jesus being a personification of the sun passing through the twelve constellations). When the sun transits Scorpio, Judas schemes with the Sanhedrin to arrest Jesus by kissing him. In the metaphorical sense, as the sun exited Libra in late autumn it enters Scorpio to be "kissed" by its stinger, which signifies the sun getting weaker as winter approaches. The three days after 21 December are the darkest as the sun is low in the sky, under Sagittarius's arrow, and therefore it is allegorized that, at this time, Jesus (the sun) dies for three days. After 25 December, the Sun moves 1 degree north, which indicate longer days or Jesus's resurrection.

American theosophist Alvin Boyd Kuhn had postulated that Jesus or the Abrahamic God is a sun god, with other figures in the Old Testament such as Samson (whose name means "sun" in Hebrew), King David, Solomon, Saul (meaning soul, or sol, the sun), Abraham, Moses, Gideon and Jephtha also being solar allegories. To corroborate his argument about God being a solar deity, Kuhn cites the Psalm's verses such as, "Our God is a living fire," "Our God is a consuming fire", "The Lord God is a sun", in addition to Jesus's "Christ will shine upon thee!", "I am come to send fire on earth" and "I am the light of the world".

Christianization of Natalis Invicti

According to one hypothesis about Christmas, the date was set to 25 December because it was the date of the festival of Sol Invictus. The idea became popular especially in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Philocalian calendar of AD 354 marks a festival of Natalis Invicti on 25 December. There is limited evidence that the festival was celebrated at around the time before the mid-4th century.

The earliest-known example of the idea that Christians chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December because it was the date of an already existing festival of the Sol Invictus was expressed in an annotation to a manuscript of a work by 12th-century Syrian bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi. The scribe who added it wrote: "It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day."

Christian iconography

The charioteer in the mosaic of Mausoleum M has been interpreted by some as Christ by those who argue that Christians adopted the image of the Sun (Helios or Sol Invictus) to represent Christ. In this portrayal, he is a beardless figure with a flowing cloak in a chariot drawn by four white horses, as in the mosaic in Mausoleum M discovered under Saint Peter's Basilica and in an early-4th-century catacomb fresco. The nimbus of the figure under Saint Peter's Basilica is rayed, as in traditional pre-Christian representations. Clement of Alexandria had spoken of Christ driving his chariot across the sky. This interpretation is doubted by others: "Only the cross-shaped nimbus makes the Christian significance apparent". and the figure is seen by some simply as a representation of the sun with no explicit religious reference whatever, pagan or Christian.

Hinduism

Worship of Surya

The sun is prayed to by South Indians during the harvest festival.

In Tamil Nadu, the Tamil people worship the sun god during the Tamil month of Thai, after a year of crop farming. The month is known as the harvesting month and people pay respects to the sun on the first day of the Thai month known as Thai pongal, or Pongal, which is a four-day celebration. It is one of the few indigenous worships by the Tamil people.

In other parts of India, the festival is celebrated as Makar Sankranti and is mostly worshiped by Hindu diaspora.

New religious movements

Solar deities are revered in certain new religious movements.

Theosophy

The primary local deity in Theosophy is the Solar Logos, "the consciousness of the sun".

Anthroposophy

Also in anthroposophy, the Sun is not merely a physical celestial body, but a supreme spiritual entity. Rudolf Steiner identifies it as the spiritual home of Christ, the cosmic Logos who united with the Earth through the event of Golgotha.

In this sense, the Sun represents the macrocosmic image of the human I, source of life, will, and individual consciousness, playing a central role in the Earth's evolution. The Sun also evolves, having passed through previous stages according to anthroposophical cosmogony. During the Old Sun stage, human beings received the seed of their etheric body (life forces) precisely through the action of the solar hierarchies.

Currently the Sun in anthroposophy symbolizes the warmth of knowledge, associated with the heart, often contrasted with the cold, lunar forces corresponding to the brain, which paralyze the solar impulse to make it bearable for humans.

Thelema

Thelema adapts its gods and goddesses from Ancient Egyptian religion, particularly those named in the Stele of Revealing, among whom is the Sun god Ra-Hoor-Khuit, a form of Horus. Ra-Hoor-Khuit is one of the principal deities described in Aleister Crowley's Liber AL vel Legis.

In Thelema, Ra-Hoor-Khuit represents the active, warlike aspect of the solar deity Horus, embodying the principles of strength and power. The Stele of Revealing, a funerary tablet from the 26th dynasty of Egypt, plays a central role in Crowley's cosmology, symbolizing the New Aeon of Horus. This Aeon is characterized by the themes of individualism, self-realization, and the discovery of one's True Will.

One of the key practices in Thelema is the daily performance of Liber Resh vel Helios, a set of solar adorations composed by Crowley. These rituals are performed at dawn, noon, sunset, and midnight, each directed towards different aspects of the Sun—Ra, Ahathoor, Tum, and Khephra, respectively. The practice aims to align the practitioner with the natural cycles of the Sun and to integrate the physical and spiritual dimensions of existence in accordance with Thelemic principles.

The adoration of Ra-Hoor-Khuit and the performance of Liber Resh are intended to serve as daily reminders of the central Thelemic tenet, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." By engaging in these rituals, Thelemites seek to harmonize their personal will with the divine will, achieving greater spiritual enlightenment and alignment with the cosmic order.

Kurozumikyō

Kurozumikyō, founded by Kurozumi Munetada in 1814, is a Shinto-based Japanese new religion centered on solar worship. The solar deity Amaterasu is worshipped. Everyday at sunrise, the sun is worshipped at the Kurozumikyō headquarters on Shintō-zan (神道山, or "Mount Shinto") in Okayama, Japan.