Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Planetary Fishing: The Sun




© 2013 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved





Welcome to our first planetary fishing expedition! Today we’ll examine the Sun in the sky—and the Sun in your chart—more deeply. As you’ll see throughout the series of exercises, some of the questions will repeat with each planet; others will be unique.


Suggestions for Recording and Organizing Your Fishing Gear


A few initial logistics I won’t repeat in other posts: 

  1. Print out a copy of your chart. Have it handy or have it open on your computer for a quick change of window to consult it as needed. Need a chart? You can get one free on www.astro.com.
  2. Copy the text of each post into your word processing program, complete it and save it. If you create a file of the whole set, you’ll have a powerful personal exploration of your chart by the end of the month.
  3.   Answer the questions simply, directly and quickly—unless you want to go deeper. They are designed to give you those great insights we often get off the top of our heads.

Sun Fishing Instructions

  1.   Pop onto your favorite search engine. Find an article or two on sun early religion.

a.   What do you learn?
b.   What pops out as important to you?
c.    How do you “worship the sun” in your own life?

          2.  About your Sun:

a.   Think back. What are the first things you remember learning about your Sun sign? This is the starting point for many of us in learning astrology. First impressions are important.
b.   How does what you know now differ or expand your initial understanding of your Sun Sign?
c.    What do you consider the mission of your Sun in its particular sign?
d.   What element is your Sun? (Earth, Air, Fire or Water?) What does the element say about your personal vitality?
e.   How many planets make a major aspect to your Sun? [1]
f.    How many of the planets are in close aspect, within 3 degrees or less?
g.   How do the aspects complicate or support your Sun’s energy and basic mission?


Extra Experiential Element: Spend at least 5 minutes outside today. Is the Sun shining? If yes, feel it on your face. “Be” with it like an old friend. What does it do for you? Say to you? Write it down.

If the Sun isn’t shining, how does its absence feel? Do you miss it, are you glad for a break from it? Are you “solar powered?” Write your reactions.

That’s it for today’s catch. See you Friday when we’ll go fishing for The Moon.

~~~

Photo Credit: © Kovalenko Inna - Fotolia.com

Note
[1] This is often easiest to find and view in summary in a matrix on the chart wheel page or in one of the “reports” offered, if you have astrology software.

6 comments:

Krissy said...

Very interesting! The sun literally and personally provided direction to our ancestors! The sun also determined the seasons, which in turn determined the growing of crops. In addition, the sun (which traditionally has masculine properties) was born from a female!

I also got a lot of interesting information about goddess worship and the ancient elevation of the feminine because it was life-giving!

--Kristy

Joyce Mason said...

Kristy, thanks for sharing your research. The Sun determines our seasons still and many farmers (The Old Farmer's Almanac) and gardeners are in tune with astrological cycles for growing, even if they're not "believers" in astrology. The big difference between then and now is that there has been an overall shift away from looking to the sky for guidance. Yet the use of astrology is slowly increasing again. We are coming full circle! I was not aware of the feminine history of the Sun. Great find!

Anonymous said...

I know I have been feeling down because we have so many cloudy days recently. The Sun is both comforting and energizing for me.
I have Sun in Leo so the Sun has a bit of extra weight.
But My Sun is directly conjunct Pluto in 11 (the opposite house of solar rulership) trine Chiron in Sag in 3 and sextile Neptune in Libra 1.
Sometimes I feel like a sole shining voice (Sun/Pluto/Leo) in the wilderness when I defend my 'boomer' generation to the masses (11th House trine Chiron-writing). The ones before us think we are lazy self-entitled slackers and the ones after seem to think we, alone, have ruined the earth and the economy for future generations. I am also the person at my work who fires off missives to the governor when state employees are mistreated.

Joyce Mason said...

Thanks for sharing, Anonymous! My husband has Moon in Leo. He calls himself solar powered, and it sounds like you're the same. I've had a couple of people close to me with the Sun/Pluto conjunction in Leo (sister, friend). It can be both challenging and awesome in giving capacity for rebirth and self-reinvention. I like how Chiron and Neptune color your Sun with the trine and sextile ... and probably make it easy for you to defend others and be committed to causes.

As a boomer, too, I still think on balance that we're an amazing generation. We're also complex. Another whole conversation!

Hope the Fishing Trip continues to bring a good catch of self-reflection.

Snowabbit said...

Hi All!

Like Kristy, I also found references to The Sun and the feminine. A Wiki article on Solar Deity states that:

"Some mythologists, such as Brian Branston, Patricia Monaghan and Janet McCrickard, contend that sun goddesses are as common as, or even more common, worldwide than their male counterparts."

(link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_deity)

Any astrological studies I have had always equate and interpret the Sun as masculine, but I personally can identify with it being as much, if not more, feminine in nature. After all, the Sun is what gives everyone and everything life ... it gives us warmth, stimulates growth, and cycles ... and that, to me, is very feminine!

I was thinking possibly this works for me because I was born on a new moon (Sun and Moon conjunct, as well as Mercury with them), and in the feminine sign of Capricorn. I also have all but one planet in feminine earth and water signs, and 7 aspects (including Chiron) to this conjunction. And as there is a duality in all life - "as above, so below", light and dark, etc... - that all things will have both a masculine and feminine quality, its just a matter of which quality an individual is more tuned into according to their chart.

I definitely want to research this topic more! Thank you Joyce for sharing this very fun and enlightening project ... its great :-)

Joyce Mason said...

Sno, delighted you're enjoying the fishing trip and welcome your additional contributions to the feminine side of the Sun. The yin/yang symbol says it all: there's a touch of male in the female, a touch of female in the male. Since Sun worship was really the first "religion," it seems too limiting to put an either/or on the gender of All That Is. It is All! I think the male and female energies dance throughout the whole pantheon of planetary gods and goddesses to give us a bevy of archetypes from which to derive our personal need for balancing all those complementary energies. And since the Sun has been seen as only masculine for far too long, thanks for adding to the balance. This is great stuff!