Sun God, Sun Gods Sometimes applied to the cosmic logoi, which collectively are not only symbolized, but actually are represented by and through the septenary sun. Deities of masculine character are often called sun gods. Like the sun, a sun god may be on various planes, from that of a Logos to that of the absolute in various subordinate hierarchies.

Sun gods in mythology usually slay dragons, as Apollo slays Python, and often have serpents for their emblems, the serpent being dual in aspect -- high and low, inner and outer, active and passive, positive and negative, spiritual and material.

As in Egyptian mythology, Osiris the sun god manifests as Horus, his own son, who is also a sun god, in similar fashion sun gods are manifested in man and on the lower planes of nature; similar to the Egyptian Osiris we have Adonis, Bacchus, Krishna, Christ, etc., as the sun god or spiritual monad in man; and cosmically we find sun gods on various planes.

(See also: Sun God, Sun Gods , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Balder, Baldr (Icelandic) The best, foremost; the sun god in Norse mythology, the son of Odin and Frigga and a favorite with gods and men. His mansion is Breidablick (broadview) whence he can keep watch over all the worlds.

One of the lays of the Elder or Poetic Edda deals entirely with the death of the sun god, also mentioned in the principal poem Voluspa. Briefly stated: the gods were concerned when Balder was troubled with dreams of impending doom. Frigga therefore set out to exact a promise from all living things that none would harm Balder, and all readily complied. One thing only had been overlooked: the harmless-seeming mistletoe. Loki, the mischievous god (human mind), became aware of this, plucked the little plant, and from it fashioned a dart. He approached Hoder, the blind god (of darkness and ignorance) who was standing disconsolately by while the other gods were playfully hurling their weapons against the invulnerable sun god.

Offering to guide his aim, Loki placed on Hoder's bow the small but deadly "sorrow-dart." Thus mind darkened by ignorance accomplished what nothing else could: the death of the bright deity of light. Balder must then travel to the house of Hel, queen of the realm of the dead. Odin, as Hermod, goes to plead with Hel for Balder's return, and Hel agrees to release him on condition that all living things weep for him.

Frigga resumes her weary round and implores all beings to mourn the sun god's passing. All agree save one: Loki in the guise of an aged crone refuses to shed a tear. This single taint of perverseness in the human mind condemns Balder to remain in the realm of Hel until the following cycle is due to begin. Thus death is linked with the active human mind, Loki. As the bright sun god is placed on his pyre-ship, his loving wife Nanna (the moon goddess) dies of a broken heart and is placed beside him, but before the ship is set ablaze and cast adrift, Odin leaned over to whisper something in the dead sun god's ear. This secret message must endure unknown to all until Balder's return, when he and his dark twin Hoder will "build together on Ropt's (Odin's) sacred soil."

The allegory is subject to many interpretations. The sun god dies with every nightfall, to rise again the following morning; with every winter solstice, to return and bring a new year of light and life; and with every planetary cycle, as well as each solar lifetime. The tale also symbolizes the passing of the golden age of innocence which had to be superseded by more conscious and purposive evolution of the human race: Loki, who represents the fire of mind -- human, imperfect, clever, but unevolved, which in time must become perfected spiritual intelligence.

(See also: Balder, Baldr , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Israel (Hebrew, Jewish). The Eastern Kabbalists derive the name from Isaral or Asar, the Sun-God. "Isra-el" signifies "striving with god": the "sun rising upon Jacob-Israel " means the Sun-god Isaral (or Isar-el) striving with, and to fecundate matter, which has power with "God and with man" and often prevails over both. Esau, Esaou, Asu, is also the Sun. Esau and Jacob, the allegorical twins, are the emblems of the ever struggling dual principle in nature - good and evil, darkness and sunlight, and the " Lord" (Jehovah) is their antetype. Jacob-Israel is the feminine principle of Esau, as Abel is that of Cain, both Cain and Esau being the male principle. Hence, like Malach-Iho, the "Lord" Esau fights with Jacob and prevails not. In Genesis xxxii. the God-Sun first strives with Jacob, breaks his thigh (a phallic symbol) and yet is defeated by his terrestrial type - matter; and the Sun-God rises on Jacob and his thigh in covenant. All these biblical personages, their "Lord God" included, are types represented in an allegorical sequence. They are types of Life and Death, Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, of Matter and Spirit in their synthesis, all these being under their contrasted aspects.

(See also: Israel , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Asuras:

Asuras: Demons, evil-minded (RRV-30), (BV-43), (BV-44), (RRV-11a). (lit.: not from Surya, the sungod) a demon, somebody who goes against the rules, somebody of darkness).

(See also: Asuras , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Bel (Greek, Latin) Ba`al (Chaldean) (from Semitic ba`al chief, lord)

Lord, chief; one of the supreme gods of the Chaldeo- or Assyro-Babylonian pantheon: the second of the triad composed of Anu, Bel, and Ea. Assyriologists have assumed that Bel was simply the title of a deity, which they have designated as En-lil (the mighty lord). In the division of the universe into heaven, earth, and water, Bel was considered as the lord of the land, and his temple at Nippur was called E-kur (the mountain house), just as Ea's was the watery house.

There have been many Bels, which may be one of the reasons that in The Secret Doctrine Bel is made equivalent to the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury. As Bel or Ba`al means Lord, the title becomes applicable to any of the important celestial bodies.

According to one account, the creation of the world and especially of mankind is ascribed to Bel. He is also called father of the gods; and his consort, Belit, is called mother of the gods. His eldest son in Sin, god of the Moon. Bel also brings about the deluge which destroys humanity, showing his dual aspect of evolver and destroyer.

Bel has been associated with the Phoenician Baal, the supreme god of the Canaanites, conceived also as the protective power of generation and fertility, connected with the moon. His female counterpart, Ashtoreth (Astarte, Ishtar) was considered as the receptive goddess, also a lunar divinity. In later times the rites connected with these deities became degraded into licentious orgies; sacrifices were made, apparently even human sacrifices, but at one time Ba`al was worshiped as a sun god.

His various names in the Old and New Testaments demonstrate the various aspects in which he was regarded. Thus in Exodus he was named Ba`al-Tsephon, the god of the crypt. He was likewise named Seth or Sheth, signifying a pillar (phallus); and it was owing to these associations that he was considered a hid god, similar to Ammon of Egypt. Among the Ammonites, a people of East Palestine, he was known as Moloch (the king); at Tyre he was called Melcarth. The worship of Ba`al was introduced into Israel under Ahab, his wife being a Phoenician princess.

"Typhon, called Set, who was a great god in Egypt during the early dynasties, is an aspect of Baal and Ammon as also of Siva, Jehovah and other gods. Baal is the all-devouring Sun, in one sense, the fiery Moloch" (TG 47). As to the leaping of the prophets of Ba`al, mentioned in the Bible (1 Kings 18:26), Blavatsky writes: "It was simply a characteristic of the Sabean worship, for it denoted the motion of the planets round the sun. That the dance was a Bacchic frenzy is apparent. Sistra were used on the occasion" (IU 2:45).

Bel is also the name for the sun with the Gauls.

(See also: Bel , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Aam (Egyptian) (probably from am to eat, devour)

A name for the god Tem, regarded as a form of the sun god, especially at the city of Annu (Heliopolis). A verse from the Book of the Dead associates Aam with the sun god Ra: "I am Ra, I am Aam, I ate my heir"; Blavatsky adds, "an image expressing the succession of divine functions, the substitution from one form into another, or the correlation of forces. Aam is the electro-positive force, devouring all others as Saturn devoured his progeny" (SD 1:674n).

(See also: Aam , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Surya-Narayana-Murthi:

Surya-Narayana-Murthi: Sungod (RRV2-13b)

(See also: Surya-Narayana-Murthi , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Imbolg - Feb. 2

This was a celebration to lure back the Sun God to bring heat to our lands and speed up the coming of Spring. It is also known as Brigids Day to honor the Great Mother Goddess Brigid. She waits on this day as the bride of the youthful Sun God, who is soon to return to her. This was a day to honor the Goddess who turns back the wheel of the year to Spring. This is the fire festival, the mid-point of the dark half of the year.

(See also: Imbolg , Pagan Holidays, Paganism, Pagan, Pagan Dictionary)

Beijve (Sameh) The bright sun god of the nomadic people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola peninsula of Russia who call themselves Sameh (people of the sun). Beijve is the son of the divine Jubmel, and the Milky Way is the shining trail left by his skis when he hastened to obey the god's summons.

With Beijve's advice and help, Jubmel caused a bridge to be created between the upper divine worlds "where the light begins" and the lower "dark and silent worlds"; on the upper end of the span he fashioned the earth from his little reindeer doe. Her bones became earth's armature, her flesh its ground, her blood vessels became its rivers, and her hairs the forests. The little reindeer's skull protects the earth from the intense light of the sun, and her two eyes are the morning and the evening star. But her heart he hid deep within the earth where the lonely mountaineer may sometimes, in the quiet summer night, hear it beating.

(See also: Beijve , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Queztalcoatl

(Aztec - "feathered-serpent")

 An Aztec god of the air or a sun-god and a benefactor of their race who instructed them in the use of agriculture, metals and the like.

According to one account, Quetzalcoatl was driven from the country by a superior god and on reaching the shores of the Mexican Gulf promised his followers that he would return. He then embarked on his magic skiff for the land of Tlapallan.

The Great Bird-Serpent is the most powerful figure in Mexican mythology, and it was known and accepted as a god in ancient Mexico and Central America. Accordingly, he dominated the great early American civilizations, from the land of the Incas in South America, to the Pueblo Indians of the our southwestern desert; from Teotihuacan (Mexico City) on the high plateau to Chichen Itza in Yucatan, he is a prevailing motif on ancient monuments.

Sometimes with his jaws open, bifid tongue, and articulated spinal column, he is easily recognizable. At others, he seems to have been coded in an almost infinite variety of formalized patterns derived from his famous scales, or feathers.

To the ancients, Quetzalcoatl became the force for understanding the universe, as it was known before the introduction of modern religion by the Conquistadors of Spain. The god Quetzalcoatl represented, to the ancient peoples of Central and South America, the very essence of life.

(See also: Queztalcoatl , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

A Welsh Myth Concordance

The following concordance is based on the four branches of the Welsh "Mabinogi", as retold in the four books by Evangeline Walton: "Prince of Annwn", "The Children of Llyr", "The Song of Rhiannon", and "The Island of the Mighty".

Akhenaton

(Egyptian, "he who acts effectively for the invisible solar disk")

Pharaoh of Egypt ca. 1350 to 1334 BC, often called (erroneously) the first monotheist of recorded history.

He first came to the throne as Amenhotep IV and worshiped traditional gods. However, after his fourth year, he elevated a minor deity, the Aton, i. e. , the "disk of the sun" (a form of the sun god, Re), to the position of state god of Egypt and changed his name to Akhenaton to reflect his devotion to that deity.

His pantheon consisted of a trinity that included the Aton, Akhenaton, and Nefertiti (also the name of his wife), which was the focus of popular worship. While Akhenaton was worshiped as the unique son of the Aton, Nefertiti was celebrated for her fertility. Common people were excluded from worshiping the Aton itself. Egyptians could worship only the royal couple; the couple in turn worshiped the sun disk. The new religion was maintained by Akhenaton's popular appeal as king, but it quickly passed away after his death.

Akhenaton's motives in promulgating his beliefs were political and religious, since he elevated himself to the status of a god higher than customary for an Egyptian king. Akhenaton's religion recognized both Egyptians and foreigners as equal beneficiaries of the same god, and it overturned established conventions in Egyptian language and art.

(See also: Akhenaton , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Surya (Sanskrit) The sun, its regent or informing divinity; in the Vedas, the sun god, the most concrete of the solar gods, generally distinguished, at least in name, from Savitri and Aditya. He was regarded as one of the original Vedic triad: Indra or Vayu presiding over the atmosphere; Agni, over the earth; and Surya, over the space of the solar system.

In Vedic literature, Surya is also called Loka-chakshuh (eye of the world). He is considered the son of Dyaus, the cosmic spirit -- pictured as the spatial extent of cosmic mind -- and of Aditi (space). He is represented as moving through the celestial sphere in a chariot drawn by seven ruddy horses or by one horse with seven heads, referring to the seven principles or elements of the solar system, or to his own seven principles as a unit with their seven different logoi or heads; or the former refers to the seven logoi as manifested in the regents of the seven sacred planets, the latter to their common origin from the one cosmic element, often figuratively called fire (SD 1:101).

In later mythology Surya is particularly identified with Savitri as one of the twelve adityas of the sun in the twelve months of the year, and his seven-horsed chariot is described as driven by Aruna (dawn). Surya was represented also as the husband of Sanjna (spiritual consciousness, cosmic or human), and the offspring of Aditi (space), mother of all the gods. One legend represents Surya as crucified on a lathe by Visvakarman -- his father-in-law, the creator of gods and men, and their carpenter -- and having an eighth part of his rays cut off, which deprives his head of its effulgency, creating round it a dark aureole -- "a mystery of the last initiation, and an allegorical representation of it" (TG 313).

Sanjna is the sakti of Surya, just as a human spiritual consciousness or buddhi is the sakti of atman, at once its vehicle, its manifestation, and itself in action. This is the reason the sun is considered the patron, parent, and governor of all the manasaputras, and therefore in a generalized sense the source of mind -- sanjna, spiritual intellect or consciousness.

The names of the seven principal rays of the sun are: Sushumna, Harikesa, Visvakarman, Visvatryarchas, Sannaddha, Sarvavsu, and Svaraj. "These seven rays are the entire gamut of the seven occult forces (or gods) of nature, as their respective names well prove. . . . As each stands for one of the creative gods or Forces, it is easy to see how important were the functions of the sun in the eyes of antiquity, and why it was deified by the profane" (TG 315). These principal rays of Surya are from another standpoint the seven solar logoi, each one of the seven having its respective home in the seven sacred planets; equally, there may be said to be twelve rays of the sun, and twelve sacred planets, each one a home or mansion of one of the solar logoi.

Surya is only the appearance on this cosmic plane of the solar heart or central spiritual sun; although in a more mystical sense, Surya, our sun, is one of the reflections of a galactic center, which astronomically is the prototype, albeit far more advanced in cosmic evolution than is the sun itself. The visible reflection of the sun is composed of highly ethereal matter belonging to the fifth, sixth, and seventh substrates of the lowest cosmic plane or prithivi. Within and above all these rise in ever more sublime steps six other cosmic planes, on and in which are the other globes of the solar chain. The sun's primary essence belongs to the highest division of the seventh state of mother-substance (adi-tattva). This primary sun, of which our visible sun is the reflection, is concealed from the gaze of all but the very highest dhyani-chohans.

(See also: Surya , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Sibika or Sivika (Sanskrit) The weapon of Kuvera, the Vedic god of wealth equivalent to the Greek Pluto; made out of the parts of the divine splendor of Vishnu, a sun god, and filed off by Visvakarman, the architect of the gods.

(See also: Sibika, Sivika , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Hyperion (Greek) (from hyper above, high + ion he that goes)

The sun god, commonly joined with Helios in Homer, as Hyperion Helios or Helios Hyperion. Also a titan descended from Ouranos and Gaia (heaven and earth) who pairs with Thea. Strictly speaking, the sun god and the titan are one, the distinction lying in this individual's being viewed from two different aspects.

(See also: Hyperborean , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Surya:

Surya: Sun-god (RRV2-4a)

(See also: Surya , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Hel (Icelandic) (from helju hell, death)

The mythical regent of the Norse realm of the dead, depicted as half black or blue and half flesh-colored. In myths the representative of death is usually said to be a child of mind: in the Edda she is the daughter of Loki (fire of mind) and of the giantess Angerboda (boder of regret). She rules the nine worlds of death which correspond to the nine worlds of life, and apportions to each arrival a domicile appropriate to that soul's merit or demerit. Some may frolic in sunlit meadows, others suffer agony beneath the lower gates leading to Niflhel (from nifl cloud + hel death)

where matter is ground to extinction. The realm of Hel with its varied accommodations resembles the Greek Hades more than the hell of popular belief where evil souls are sent for punishment. Rather, the kingdom of death is a restful interlude where souls spend a fitting time in their rightful environment. The Eddas relate that elves (human souls) sleep among the gods when they are feasting on the mead of a past period of life (experience); thus the resting souls are present in the divine spheres even through unconscious of their surroundings.

In the Edda's Vagtamskvadet, the tale is told of the sun god's death and departure for the house of Hel, where a sumptuous apartment is furnished for him and mead is being freshly brewed for his arrival.

(See also: Hekat, Heket , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mistletoe, Mistilteinn (Icelandic) [from mistil + teinn twig]

A parasitic plant held in high esteem among the Druids and Anglo-Saxon peoples as well as the Norse. The Druids are said to have used it as a medicinal herb. In Norse mythology it is instrumental in bringing about the death of Balder (the sun god) at the instigation of Loki, through the agency of Hoder, the blind god of darkness and ignorance.

The "death" of the sun god at the winter solstice marks the nadir of the cycle of the year before the rejuvenation of spring. One meaning of the story in the Edda is the inevitable withdrawal of the guiding gods from association with the early races of mankind, to enable humanity to become independent and to seek and find its own way back to its divine source.

(See also: Mistletoe, Mistilteinn , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

APOLLO - Greek Sun God, chief physician of life and father of the Muses. (NAD)

(See also: APOLLO , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Manus

The original progenitors and lawgivers of the human race. In each day of Brahma there are fourteen Manus. The current Manu is Vaivasvata, son of the sun-god Vivasvan.

(See also: Manus , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)