The Sun is the King of the sky and has been universally revered for its omnipresent power across cultures for millennia. The Sun’s light and consistency of its path has inspired ancient cosmology; It serves as a timekeeper and organizing principle in the fabric of our reality. This essay explores the Sun’s meaning and motion as a powerful luminary beginning with the Sun’s origins in myth and divination. We will then explore the Sun’s central role in the Hellenistic astrological framework through synodic cycles, sect doctrine, and timing activations, building upon the foundations of our basic understanding of the solar principle, thus contemplating how the system of Hellenistic astrology centers in the around the Sun in the most basic and advanced techniques.

Mythological Foundations and Divine Roots of the Sun

Cultures throughout antiquity revere the Sun as an omniscient god. In ancient Greece, the solar deity was named Apollo, who was considered the God of solar light. However, the Sun itself was personified by Helios who brought light to the heavens and earth. Helios personified the Sun’s movements and being: he was depicted with a brilliant golden helmet and sparkling rays emanating from his heart as he embarked on his daily journey across the sky in a golden chariot with fire-breathing horses leading the way.

The Horses of Helios Statue from below in Piccadilly London on January 27, 2017. Photo by: Jessica Yurinko

Helio’s sacred path began at dawn as he emerged from the eastern-most point on the horizon and climbed through the sky. He reaches his apex in the middle of the day as the sun reaches its highest and brightest point in the sky. Then he descended toward the western-most point of the horizon, plunging into the ocean and under the horizon to begin the cycle anew. The sky darkens in the Sun’s absence and the Moon reigns as the primary light in the night sky. The Sun was never far as its light and heat reflected off the face of the Moon.

Helios saw everything and knew everything, which is why he was aligned with themes of justice and truth. Qualities of justice and truth were also honored in solar gods of earlier cultures, like the Assyro-Babylonian god Shamash who was described as having “rays were a vast net which caught all who committed iniquities”. Shamesh held grand titles such as “Lord of Judgement”, “Judge of the Heavens and the Earth” and his temple in Babylon was called the “House of the Judge of the World’ reflecting the power the solar deity had in delivering divine justice in ancient civilizations.

Temple ruins of Delphi in Greece. Photo by Tomas Merek

Solar deities also played a central role in divination and prophecy. Apollo’s lineage of solar divination occurred at his temple in Delphi, which was the most famous destination to seek his prophecy and judgment. In this sacred space, Apollo’s priestesses called Pythia ingested vapors to induce trances and messages directly from Apollo emerged that were interpreted by Apollo’s priests. The Assyro-Babylonian God Shamesh also had a lineage of oracle priests called Baru, who revealed secrets of the future to kings through ritual sacrifice and sky observations. These priests conducted early astrological evaluations of the “positions of the stars, the movement of the planets, the appearance of meteorites” when making their judgments about the future. These priests belonged to a small, literate group of Babylonians who used their knowledge to provide counsel to the King. The legacy of these oracle priests honoring the solar deity established the earliest foundations of Babylonian omen astrology from which Hellenistic astrology would flourish.

The Sun’s Astrological Significations

In Hellenistic astrology, the Sun is the Lord of the day delivering light and intellect to the world. The Sun is the leader of the cosmic orchestration bringing order to chaos. Its being is the very essence of life itself. Porphyry describes the Sun’s role “to keep things in order and to create life” and it does this by bringing “to light the disorderly lifeless substance of life arising from incessant birth, since it has the seed of the fully completed living things.” The Sun is the all; The seeds of our being and potential are witnessed through the power of solar light.

The Sun’s divinity is described as the great illuminator and cosmic mind that offers its all-encompassing spiritual power. The Sun reigns over vital elements of our body and consciousness such as the head, senses, the right eye, ribs, and the heart. Ancient Greeks believed that the heart was the center of the soul and the primary heat source within the body, reflecting the qualities of the Sun in its rulership over this vital organ.

The Sun’s power and prestige is seen through its significations of Honor, oaths, popularity and heights of fortune. Gold is the Sun’s metal, which is known for its value, brightness, density, strength, malleability, and purity in likeness of the Sun itself. The Sun’s general astrological significators included men, fathers, and individuals of great prestige like kings and rulers. Historically, astrological predictions were first made available to Kings, rulers and other elite people in high positions of power, who would have access to this all-knowing and all-seeing power.

Solar Hieroglyphs on the wall in King Tut's Tomb in the Valley of Kings in Luxor, Egypt Photo by Bleung

In Hellenistic astrology, the Sun finds its joy in the 9th house of God, divination, religion, and foreign travel engaging in topics with divine intention that illuminate the mind. Ancient astrologer Vettius Valens said the Sun: “arouses men’s souls to action through its own energy and love inspiring nature, and it becomes the cause of employment and progress” describing the Sun’s universal purpose as the great awakener.

The Sun as A Marker of Time & Seasons

The Sun’s rotation structures our time and reality. Its movement defines the most foundational markers of time such as days, months, and years. Ancient sky watchers and astrologers meticulously kept track of the path of the Sun which set the foundation for the zodiac; Ancient astrologers understood that the Sun established the Zodiac’s foundations since it moves at a steady pace of 1 degree a day and this movement establishes the 365-day year in the course of its motion.

The essential nature of the Sun delivers “heating” and “drying” conditions, which contributes to the Sun establishing seasonal patterns. Rhetorious described how the Sun’s annual journey corresponds with the onset of the four seasons from his location:

“When it is in Cancer the Sun makes the summer tropic around the first degree, and it begins to take away from the day and add on to the night. And in Libra it makes an equinoctial autumn in the first degree; in the same manner, it takes away from the day and adds on to the night. And in the first degree of Capricorn it makes the winter tropic and it begins to take away from the night and add to the day, until it arrives at the first degree of Aries, being present there it equalizes the day and night again as it did in Libra making the spring tropic.”

The Sun’s placement in the cardinal signs, called tropics, of the zodiac: Cancer, Libra, Capricorn and Aries directly corresponds to the onset of new seasons. There was special interest in understanding the amount of daylight on a given day during the onset of a specific season. As the Sun passes through the tropic of Aries, it corresponds to the time of the year when the day and night are equalized, and daylight hours are overtaking the night. The Sun is exalted in the sign of Aries and capable of maintaining its power as the daylight increases. Conversely, when the Sun passes through the tropic of Libra, it corresponds with the Sun’s fall, which is the time of the year that the nighttime prevails over the day, putting the Sun in a less powerful position to maintain its light.

The conditions of each season were so widely understood to originate from the Sun’s movement that it inspired action in the lives of farmers, shippers, planters, and generally all living beings. In fact, an intricate knowledge of the cosmic order was not required to understand the patterns that emerge from the Sun’s annual revolution. Ptolemy recalled that “even those who are totally ignorant of astrology can foretell the future” based on the observations and experience of the Sun’s predictable movements impacting the quality of the times.

The Centrality of the Sun in Hellenistic Astrology

Geocentric Universe with Earth at the center described by Claudius Ptolemy. Photo by Peter Hermes Furian

In ancient times, the earth was at the center of the ancient cosmological hierarchy, not the Sun. However, the order of the planetary spheres from the geocentric perspective retained the Sun’s centrality. Thereby, the geocentric order of the planetary spheres was: The Moon, Mercury, Venus, The Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Although the geocentric model did not accurately reflect the Sun at the center of the universe as we know it today, the integrity of ancient astrologers’ calculations were not compromised; Demetra George asserts that: “while the ancient astrologers may not have understood that the planets circled the Sun, their computations concerning the planet’s orbital relationship to the Sun in terms of speed, direction, visibility and phase were quite accurate.”

Ancient astrologers understood that everything that unfolds in our reality emerges in partnership with the Sun’s influence and effluence. The Sun was recognized as the general ordering principle in Hellenistic Astrology and according to Porphyry:

“The Sun was assigned to be just like the most powerful King among the celestial stars, clearly governing and arranging and setting in order the things that exist in the air and those things that exist on the earth. And the rest of the stars presiding over the smallest change in their joint combinations with him, work with him or against him.”

The Sun influenced the quality of the times through its being, movement and relationship to other planets. The Sun is the leader of the grand cosmic orchestration and other planets work in partnership with the Sun to deliver the details of our reality.

Ancient astrologers rigorously evaluated a planet’s synodic cycle to understand a planet’s specific relationship to the Sun. They calculated whether a planet was rising above the Sun as a morning star or setting behind the Sun as an evening star. Their meticulous calculations tracked if the planet was hidden by the beams of the Sun, moving fast and direct or slow and retrograde in its motion. All of these factors had a direct impact on that planet’s visibility, speed, and therefore its power according to a planet’s solar phase. The Sun is one of the core defining factors of the Hellenistic astrological model.

The Sun Defines the Sect

The Sun is a key player in defining the sect of a chart. Sect is arguably the most foundational consideration ancient astrologers used to evaluate the power, prestige and overall condition of all other planets in a given nativity. The Sun’s position establishes which sect the chart belongs to - day or night - by tracking whether it is positioned above or below the horizon. In sect theory, the Sun and Moon emerge as the leaders from which two distinct teams form: The Sun’s team with Jupiter and Saturn and the Moon’s team with Venus and Mars.

Paulus reinforces the primacy and power of sect from an ancient perspective: “One’s all is administered throughout from the Sun and the Moon, and no being in the cosmos is born apart from the mastership of these stars.” Based on the assigned sect, team allegiances and power dynamics develop and the luminary in charge of the sect sets the agenda for the course of one's life in partnership with its sect mates to bring about the most beneficial influence and outcomes for the native over the course of their life over time.

Solar Activation Through Timing Techniques

The Sun’s purpose in astrology is to fulfill the soul’s intention through action. This luminary plays a key role in activating planets to manifest their agendas over the course of life, which is seen most directly in two Hellenistic timing techniques: the minor years and solar returns.

A planet’s relationship to the Sun dictates when the power of that planet will mature. This direct timing technique, called the minor years, draws on the synodic recurrence cycle, which is the average time it takes for a planet to be aligned with the Sun in the same degrees that it reflected at a previous time. Each planet has a specified amount of time it takes to activate according to its solar phase cycle; It takes Venus 8 years, Jupiter 12 years, Mars 15 years, Mercury 20 years, and Saturn 30 years to complete its minor period and mirror the alignment it had to the Sun at birth. As the Sun bears witness to the maturation of planets through their minor years, the solar and zodical meanings of the Sun and a planet are infused and become activated in the life of the native. In other words, planets rely on their relationship to the Sun to activate and fulfill their natal potential over time.

Another timing technique centered around the Sun and its position is the Hellenistic Solar Return. The solar return, also called the “Year of the Sun '' and the “Solar Year” occurs each year when a chart is cast for the Sun’s returns back to the exact degree it was on the birth date. This timing technique elevates the Sun’s position as the focal point, and the solar revolution chart becomes the way astrologers delineate in real time the condition of a planet compared to the natal chart year after year.

From this perspective, the Sun becomes the best backdrop to represent the passing of time. The Sun’s consistency of motion makes it the best contender for a yearly time marker because its revolution delivers real-time condition in any given year because it “returns to a likeness of what it was the first time.” The Sun operates as a true marker of time; It is through the lens of the Sun’s return that astrologers can reliably delineate the conditions of reality on behalf of a native in a given moment.

Final Reflections

The Sun is a central organizing principle and its power has been revered for millennia for bringing order to chaos and light to darkness. The Sun’s impact is multifaceted; it serves as a spiritual illuminator, seasonal time keeper, sect leader and timing activator. Astrologers in Hellenistic times meticulously outlined the Sun’s foundational role in their understanding of the cosmic order due to the consistency of its path. The perspective of these ancient sources invite modern readers to ponder how the Sun’s being inspires the actions of our lives and our conscious placement within both a mundane and cosmic reality.

Note from the author: This essay was written in 2022 as part of certification exam work for Demetra George’s Hellenistic astrology certification curriculum.

Resources

Brennan, Chris. “Abu Ma'shar on Solar Returns, with Benjamin Dykes” The Astrology Podcast, August 2019.

Dykes, Benjamin. (May 27 - 31, 2021) Prediction with Traditional Solar Revolutions [speech audio recording]. NORWAC, 2021 Virtual Conference. https://norwac.net/downloads/dykes-benjamin-prediction-with-traditional-solar -revolutions/

George, Demetra. Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice. Vol. 1. Auckland, NZ: Rubedo, 2019.

George, Demetra. Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice. Vol. 2. Auckland, NZ: Rubedo, 2022.

Ma'har, Abu. On The Revolutions of The Years of Nativities. Translated by Benjamin Dykes, PHD. Minneapolis: MN: The Cazimi Press, 2019.

New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (1970). Edition 3. Translated by Richard Aldington and Delano Ames. Paris: The Hamlyn Publishing House.

Porphyry, Introduction to the Tetrabiblos and Seapio of Alexandria Astrological Definitions. Translated by James Holden, M.A. Tempe, AZ: American Federation of Astrologers, 2009

Ptolemy. Tetrabiblos. Translated by F.E. Robbins. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1940

Public Broadcasting Service. (n.d.). Heart in History. PBS. Retrieved February 24, 2023 https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/partners-heart-history

Rhetorious. Rhetorius The Egyptian. Translated by James H. Holden. Tempe, AZ: American Federation of Astrologers, 2009.

Valens, Vettius. The Anthology. Translated by Mark T. Riley. Denver, CO: Amor Fati Publications.

The Sun in Hellenistic Astrology

Death in the Houses