Sunlight: Renewing Our Relationship with Old Sol

The darkest hour is always just before the dawn and sometimes we wallow in the gloom of our slumbering state, only to be jolted back into life when struck by the Light. In my case it was after a long run of misfortune, a time when the light of day seemed barely perceptible, when I staggered out of my tunnel of despair and into the Sun. To some people who know me it seems odd that a pale skinned indoor type like myself could come to form such a strong bond with the Sun, but when that solar orb reaches out to you from the sky and grabs you, embraces and enchants you, then you know your life has just taken a quantum leap and there’s no going back.

It’s strange how so many people these days have come to be afraid of the Sun. Only two generations ago, our beaches in the summertime were jam-packed with Sun-worshippers, all competing for the best tan. Now the warnings from authorities have scared the heck out of the general population, to the point where we have a generation deficient in vitamin D. What ever happened to ‘all things in moderation?’ The Earth, like all the other planets in our solar system, was formed out of the Sun and we owe our very life to its warmth and light. The expression Mother Earth is often used and I like to also use the concept of our Father Sun. They really are our parents, astronomically speaking.

My initial attraction to our star came in the form of a new appreciation for brightness after a long period of emotional and mental darkness. Yet it was something more than just a metaphor. It felt like a long overdue return home. My interest was really piqued when meeting up with an old childhood friend who, I discovered, was practicing what is known as Sun gazing. The only time I had heard about this before was in reference to the ancient Egyptians, but he quickly armed me with videos and links to You Tube that demonstrated the modern-day resurgence of the practice. I now know that there are certain techniques for doing this, for limited periods at specific times of day and, whenever I refer to these methods, it is always with a caveat about the risks of doing it without correct training. The reader will appreciate the potential hazard of staring straight into the golden disc when it is high in the sky, known to result in damage to the retina.

The warnings about skin cancer are not to be ignored either. I personally had a stage one melanoma removed from my right arm in 1996, followed by the excision of several less serious skin cancers since then, one of which required cosmetic surgery on my head. It has been suggested to me that the melanoma could have been due to the fact I would go for long drives in outback Australia when I was younger, with the window down and my right arm resting on the car’s doorframe under the blazing Sun. While unsure if that was the cause, I am now familiar with the risks and understand the official campaign which has been pitched to the public over recent decades. Again, the advice should be: ‘nothing in excess’.

Earlier this year a website called Outside Online published an article titled Is Sunscreen the New Margarine?[1] In it, the writer started by pointing out the results of studies which show many of the supplements we take are not having the desired effect, and that Vitamin D supplements in particular are no substitute for natural sunlight. The title of the article refers to the fact that margarine – an artificial product – was once pitched to us as being preferable to butter.

Margarine became popular during the Depression and World War II, because of its cheaper price and the scarcity of butter at the time, then its popularity skyrocketed in the second half of the 20^th century when authorities told us we must shun traditional saturated fats (such as butter and lard) and cholesterol in order to avoid cardiovascular disease. Margarine is made by bubbling hydrogen gas through vegetable oils to turn them into solid trans fats. Eventually, better science revealed that the trans fats created by the hydrogenation process were actually worse for our arteries than the natural fats in butter.

Comparing sunscreen to margarine is one thing, but what about cigarettes? The article quotes Swedish medical researcher Pelle Lindqvist, from a 2016 study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, who said: “Avoidance of Sun exposure is a risk factor of a similar magnitude as smoking, in terms of life expectancy.” The idea that the obedient application of SPF50 might be as bad for you as Marlboro 100s was not well received by mainstream doctors, but the point is made that old accepted practices sometimes need re-evaluation.

I can personally vouch for the efficacy of the Sun’s rays in driving away the ‘black dog’ of depression, helping to knit bones and lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. We are affected by the frequencies and radiations it emits, which are generally beneficial in and of themselves, but may be greatly enhanced when we learn to work with them, rather than in fear of them. The solar sciences are not new – they have been known to humanity for millennia.

These days it is evident that there is a very clear connection between us humans and the star of our solar system. Beyond the physical, there are also mental and spiritual effects from the Sun. Our world is inextricably tied to it, along with the cycles and rhythms of our lives.

As my own fascination with the Sun took root from about 2012 onward, my thoughts were continually drawn to the ancient stories, common to cultures on all continents, about solar deities. No matter how many gods were revered in archaic times, it was always the ‘Sun god’ who was in charge and imparted great teachings to humanity. Then there was one particular pharaoh in Egypt – Akhenaten – who tried to introduce monotheism, with the Sun as the only god. What was behind all the myths and legends? Although historians and archaeologists prefer us to think that ancient monuments dating from the fourth millennium BC to the first millennium AD were built by hard-labouring, superstitious simpletons, one only has to look at the Pyramids, the Nazca Lines, Pumapunku or Baalbeck to conclude that the ancients possessed knowledge and technology that we moderns still cannot fathom.

Some of those megaliths were constructed specially to track and record the movement of the Sun. Some were temples, such as in South America, and others like the ones at Stonehenge and Glastonbury seemed more like observatories. Naturally there was the practical demand for calendars to record the seasons and know when to plant and when to harvest, but a number of them went to great length to include doorways or apertures that allowed events such as the midsummer sunrise or midwinter sunset to cast their light on a special spot. This continued even in Roman times, with the erection of the Pantheon and similar buildings that virtually served as gigantic Sun-dials. Great rulers with solar connections were behind the very beginnings of Western civilization.

More than five years ago I began to study the Sun and its influence on humankind, at first scouring the internet and then book stores. As is often the case, books can seemingly leap into your hands at the right place and time, and it also dawned on me that there were already publications sitting on my own bookshelf on the topic, the significance of which I had failed to appreciate before. The most glaringly obvious issue was that the Earth is synchronised to the Sun by way of electromagnetism and radiation. As I came across works by Maurice Cotterell and others, I discerned a matter that is perhaps more obscure to most of us, in that the human body is intimately connected with solar rotations, vibrations and rhythms. Other authors spoke of spiritual associations with the non-physical side of the Sun, and suddenly I began joining the dots between that and the religions of ancient Egypt and the philosophies of the Greeks.

Over the ensuing years I have become increasingly aware of the spread of this phenomenon around the world. It is not just me, but thousands seem to be simultaneously embracing the ‘solar techniques’. In 2015 I became an associate of the American organization called Cosolargy which is dedicated to the teachings about, and the reverence of, the Sun. In a few weeks time I will embark on a trip to the USA to attend their annual Convocation in September, and it is my intention to make their teachings accessible here in Australia. With the firm conviction that there is much to be gained by synchronizing ourselves with the Sun’s energy, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, I will continue to write more about this in future.

Most of my writings are categorized by others as belonging to ‘New Age’ – a movement which has been prophesying since the sixties that the time of a ‘brave new world’ will soon be upon us. I am suggesting that the change is happening right now. The coming decades will see a giant leap, possibly a transmutation of human beings, and I propose that the survival of humankind will be well-served by harmonizing with the star of our solar system. If we are looking forward to the prospect of ‘ascension’, we ought to be preparing ourselves for it now. Many of the great masters have used agricultural metaphors, and the obvious one is that even the warmth and light of the Sun will not cause seeds to sprout if they are strewn on concrete. Cultivation is key.

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[1] https://www.outsideonline.com/2380751/sunscreen-sun-exposure-skin-cancer-science