Sun worship

We have been sun worshippers since we got here. The Egyptians worshipped the sun and thought that it sailed across the sky on a huge solar barge. Hinduism is choc-packed full of solar dieties. In Chinese mythology, there were originally ten suns in the sky, who were brothers. When they played together in the sky the earth became too hot and so, a hero came and shot down nine of them, leaving just the one sun that we know today. Buddhists recognise a boddhisattva of the sun, who is called Ri Gong Ri Guang. The Aztecs considered the sun god Tonatiuh to be the leader of heaven. They believed that this god represented the fifth cosmic era and that the previous four suns had represented four cosmic eras that had ended. In Indonesia, the sun is sometimes considered to be the 'father' or 'founder' of the tribe. The sun plays an important part in many Indonesian initiation rites.

It is no wonder that we have been so long infatuated by the most dominant star in our skies. The sun's energy is the principal driver of our weather systems and it effects both living and non-living things, in that it feeds the living things and its energies are often stored in non-living things such as peat and coal, to be released later.

Until recently, western society worshipped the sun as a fountain of beauty. Today, many people fear the sun's rays and think of it as a harmful and damaging force. Like almost all things, balance should be the governing force in our relationship with sunshine - too much will not only make us look old and haggard, it might actually make us very sick or even kill us. Likewise, too little sun can result in vitamin D deficiency, which is associated with rickets, auto-immune problems and depression.

From my own point of view I can report that feeling the sun play on my skin improves my mood no end and looking upon a clear skied day never fails to lift my mood. I've traveled across the globe chasing summer from country to country, at considerable cost - every penny of which was worth the expense.

I might scoff at the belief systems of ancient Egyptians and label these to be irrational and ill informed, but the reality is that when it comes to sun worship, I am up there with the best of them. We're creatures of sunlight and we thrive best when dosed liberally and regularly in its kindest rays. Our obsession with the sun is more than an irrational belief system, it's a matter of survival and for that reason, I believe that our relationship with the sun can only become more complex and important as time goes on, rather than less so.