Our benign sun.

An odd way to describe the Sun? Think about it.

The Sun has been steadily burning for close to five billion years. Five billion years of steady, consistent light and heat. This allowed the past four billion years for life to evolve on the Earth.

Some stars are manic-depressive, going through changes and disruptions that would char any nearby world to a crisp cinder. But our dependable Sun takes good care of us.

No wonder then that there is an endless array of stories and customs surrounding the sun. In ancient Egypt, the sun-god and creator was known as Re. Taking on many forms depending on where he was, Re was usually portrayed with the head of a hawk and wearing a fiery disk like the sun on his head.

It was believed humans were made from Re's tears, and he created the four seasons for the Nile River.

In Greenland, the sun goddess of the Inuit people was called Malina. Malina got into a terrible fight with her brother, Anningan, the moon god. After spreading black grease on his face, she was so frightened she fled up into the sky and became the sun. Her brother chased after her and became the moon.

Anningan forgets to eat so he becomes thinner and thinner as the month goes by. After disappearing for three days to eat, the moon returns to chase his sister once again, and so the moon and sun continue to alternate in the sky.

There are several passages in the Bible that refer to the sun. One of the more notable is Joshua 10:12-13, in which the sun stood still: "The sun halted in the middle of the sky; not for a whole day did it resume its swift course."

With such a fascination for the sun, it's not surprising that solar symbols were as common thousands of years ago as they are today.

In many ancient cultures, the sun god was personified so it was only natural to place a face in the center of the sun's rays. Advertisements with a happy, smiling sun wearing sun glasses abound in newspapers and magazines. Potential customers are enticed for everything from tropical vacations to summer sales events.

In New Mexico, the Zia Indians regard the sun as sacred. Their symbol for the sun is a red circle with groups of rays pointing in four directions. It appears on New Mexico car license tags, the governor of New Mexico's stationery and is used in countless advertisements. It is so commonly used nowadays that Native Americans are working with the U.S. Patent Office to stop the commercial exploitation of this symbol.

An old astrological sun icon is a circle with a dot in it. At one time, it was also used as the alchemical symbol for gold and is still used today in astronomy.

Such widely separated cultures as the ancient Egyptians and the Aztecs both had intriguing representations of an eye symbol that appear to represent the sun's corona during a total eclipse.

Even the U.S. military Intelligence insignia has a sun. It represents Helios, who could see and hear everything. Four straight sun-rays represent the four compass points and the worldwide nature the military Intelligence mission. There is also a new cellphone model called Helios that is touted as being virtually omnipotent for communications purposes.

Many buildings and monuments have been built in honor of the sun. Perhaps the most famous is Stonehenge in England. In a less famous prehistoric building in Ireland erected more than 3,000 years ago, the rays of the sun reach the back only at sunrise on the winter solstice. In Wyoming, a medicine wheel serves a similar astronomical purpose.

Speaking of the winter solstice, it will occur this year at 1:08 a.m. EST on Saturday, Dec. 22 . Then the sun will be returning, and the amount of daylight will slowly increase.

I'm glad old Sol is so reliable. And, I'll leave a candle in the window for him.

You must be logged in to comment.