“And if you want to see god, consider the sun, consider the circuit of the moon, consider the order of the stars. Who keeps this order? (For every order is bounded in number and place.) The sun, the greatest god of those in heaven, to whom all heavenly gods must submit as to a king and ruler, this sun so very great, larger than earth and sea, allows stars smaller than him to circle above him.”
Corpus Hermeticum, Tract I
“What’s your big three?” is a common conversation starter in the year 2021 as astrology is more popular than ever before. The move away from the standard horoscopic Sun sign astrology of the 20th century has promoted a wider familiarity with astrology, and with three of the most important points in a natal chart. However many find that modern pop astrology still lacks that feeling of totality and wholeness, as people grasp for answers without returning the roots of the subject, without knowing where the meanings of Sun, Moon and Ascendant come from. In this short article I will examine the Sun, not on the personal level but as demiurge, and king of the planets. This is the first in a series of articles in which I will explore the precepts of the Sun and the pivotal role he has in the ordering and form of the celestial spheres and the starry art itself.
Astrology is the philosophical analysis of astronomical facts. Without understanding the philosophy that underlies the entire art, you will lack a complete understanding of the reasons for why things mean what they mean when a chart is delineated by an astrologer. The importance of the signs without understanding their classic and original meanings. Many will be quick to list off the pop astrology associations of their sun sign but not often will they talk about the most important part of that sign: the planet which rules it. The signs are banners, representations of their ruling planet. Their qualities are comprised of the qualities of that planet, as well as their sect, modality and quadruplicity. Understanding the reasoning for the ordering of the signs of the Zodiac is critical to understanding the relationships the planets have to each other. And to understand this you must know that it is the houses of the Luminaries, the Sun and Moon which define the qualities of the other planets. The houses of Saturn, the greater infortune are opposite to those of Luminaries, an aspect of enmity. The signs of Mars, the lesser infortune, are 90 degrees, a square aspect from them. Jupiter, the greater benefic, has signs 120 degrees, a trine aspect, from the signs of the Sun and Moon. And Venus, a sextile, or 60 degrees. This is was taught using a chart known as the Thema Mundi, a theoretical nativity for the world, where the planets are found in their preferred signs and it is from here that the aspect and planetary relationships were explained and taught.
The Sun remains the most important of the planets however, from ancient times, because he is the brightest, most commanding and intense star in our sky, and the Moon receives her light from him. The line he traces across the sky, known as the ecliptic the path followed by the other planets. The wheel of the Zodiac is the ecliptic turned an idyllic circle of 360 degrees. This circle is divided into 12 signs of 30 degrees each. We can feel his heat upon us when we look upon his countenance. It is his daily motion in the rising and setting of dawn and dusk that is most apparent and marks our days and nights. He is the giver of life, without whom we could not exist on this earth. We can watch the changing of the seasons with his ingresses to each of the signs. He is gives us our years, as the Moon gives us our months. The Sun is associated with the intellect and power of a person, as well as the vital life force. Astrology likely grew out of ancient astronomical stellar cults, as found in Mesopotamia and Egypt before being codified by the Greeks. It was the religious worship and observation of the Sun, Moon and other planets which gives us the root of astrology. The qualities of the planets are not randomly chosen, or freely associated, they are devised by their light, motion, solar phases. It is the Sun, and their relation to the Sun that defines the retrograde cycles of the Superior and Inferior planets, cycles which are endless, unchanging. It is the whole sign aspect between their houses and the houses of the Sun and Moon that defines a planet as fortune or infortune. The Sun is the demiurgic power, the king whose decrees define the behavior and character of the other planets. It is by his laws, order and precepts that the Zodiac and planets are ordered.
In the medieval astrological grimoire known in Latin as Picatrix, but in Arabic as Ghayat Al-Hakim, we find preserved a prayer to the Sun attributed to the Nabatean people, who are believed to have practiced a zodiacal religion. I will end this article with this prayer, from the Warnock-Greer translation of the Latin text, published in 2010. I believe this except will speak for itself in demonstrating how the planets were revered and conceived of by the ancient originators of the art of astrology. I leave this hoping that those with the eyes to see and ears to hear might benefit.
“We pray, we honor and we praise thee, high lord Sun. For you give life to eveything living in the world and the whole universe is illuminated with your life, and governed by your power. You are seated on high; a great kingdom full of light, perception, intellect, power, honor and goodness is yours. All things that generate are generated by your power; all things goverened are governed by you. By you all plants live, and all things endure in their strength through you. You are noble and honorable in your effects, and powerful in your enduring heaven.
We salute, we praise and we honor you, and we pray in obedience and humility, and reveal all our minds you, and all things necessary to us we ask and require of you. You are our lord, and we beseech you that we may perceive your life and governance by day as well as by night. We give to you our wills, that you may free and defend those who turn to you from our enemies, and from all evils, and that this also may be done by the Moon who is your handmaiden and obeys you, and whose light and radiance is from you and the virtue that proceeds from you.
You are the giver of power; you are lord in your chosen heaven. The Moon and the other planets serve you always and obey you, and never depart from your precepts. May all this likewise by us be praised unto the infinite age of ages. Amen.”
Rooted Stars Astrology 