Sun

The Gods and Goddesses of Odinism
Copyright © 1996 The Circle of Ostara
Published with the kind permission of the Circle of Ostara.
This article must not be republished or reprinted in whole or
in part without their express written permission.

Anyone who has delved into the numerous volumes written on the lore and wisdom of the ancients will realise that in epochs far more distant in past time than any touched by historical records there was an accurate knowledge of the stars and the solar system and the Earth’s place within it

Due to a cataclysmic upheaval, maybe the ending of a previous Great Year cycle, this lore was lost. A tiny fragment of what must have been a wonderful cosmic vision has been “un-Earthed” over the past century, and more has been preserved encapsulated in myth. However, the myths which speak of such things as the stars being embers cast into the sky, and the Sun being placed in the heavens, need careful study and meditation.

Through such meditation it seems to us that the gods referred to in these old myths, now dwindled to folk tale, are not Earth gods at all, despite their names, but great, primal, universal deities akin to Audumla and the Sky Father, who can be said to have utilised the Runic Streams and created or given birth to the stars. That these deities were given the names of our own racial gods by the old Nordic pagans is an understandable Dark Age degeneration of mythic themes.

As Odinists we regard the Sun as a deity in her own right and, usually, the Sun’s female aspect is emphasised. However, there is little doubt that there is a strong element of the androgynous in the Sun’s nature. She is the parent of the Earth and to the life forms living upon the Earth she is the giver of light and life. We see the Sun as alive and aware, a being of substance and spirit.

When you lift your open hands to the rising Sun you are not only drawing in solar power and Odic force but performing an act of worship, saluting the Sun, as pagans of all races have done since the birth of mankind. This gesture is an almost instinctive reaching out to the source of warmth and light, the same gesture that a little child makes when it wants to be taken up by its mother.

Within the collective unconscious there exist symbolic expressions venerating the Sun, the Light-Giver. They have been found carved on rocks by people living many thousands of years ago and are still as evocative for us today.