The sun is the source of power in astrology and in life. Without the sun there is no life whatsoever. If the sun exploded or stopped shining, everything would die very quickly. With all of our modern sophistication, it’s amazing how most people do not remember this simple fact.
As such, it is the qualities of the sun in our birth chart that shows how to access our personal strength and power. Through the prism of the ego, the infinite light of the sun gets filtered, leaving parts of our psyche in darkness. Once we begin living a more examined life, our inner sun begins to illuminate the dark corners of our soul. Once illuminated, these darker parts of ourselves become resurrected.
There’s a classical yoga story that illustrates this point. It is the story of the snake and the rope. In darkness a coiled rope may have the appearance of a snake. If we encounter this coiled rope we may react as if we have seen a snake: by fearfully jumping out of the way, with our heartbeat racing. For all intents and purposes, at that moment the rope IS a snake. Yet, if we produce a flashlight and shine it upon the coiled rope, all of our symptoms disappear and the truth is revealed. Nothing more needs to be done. The appearance of light removes darkness and magically our imagined symptoms disappear. Additionally, once we see the truth we don’t forget. After we realize that the coiled rope is not a snake, we don’t then forget this and react in fear again after we turn the flashlight off. We remember and if we are smart, that experience changes us and gives us insight into the nature of our illusory perceptions.
This is the nature of the sun, to separate us from the darker parts of our being. The sun refers to the greatest possibility we have, the possibility of enlightenment. Yet it requires enormous sacrifice, in fact, the ultimate sacrifice. What is that sacrifice? It requires us to sacrifice those familiar shadows of self that we hang onto, those shadows of the ego that gives us a sense of worldly identity.
Living in full power and full clarity is a scary prospect, because it demands we grow up and become responsible for who we are now and where we’re going, rather than hang onto the disempowering blame given to the perpetrators in our past. As long as we are still a victim, living in the past, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes, marching lockstep in accordance with our negative programming. Of all the planets, the sun refers to all we are becoming and our true desire to be self actualized. That self actualization begins with reclaiming the reins of personal strength, power, and integrity.