Card Meaning: XIX The Sun




The Sun
Element: Fire
Planet: Sun
Hebrew letter: Resh, ר


General

 This card is somewhat of the return home. The Sun on this card was there in the beggining of the road, on The Fool card, where it has begun illuminating this path, like a seed of consciousness, it was supporting a traveller on The Lovers card, shining behind the head of The Hanged One giving the new perspective, it was above the mountain of The Temperance and passed through rebirth in The Star card. Now, it is here in all its glory, shining, without sorrow and liberated from the chains of the ego described in the Death card, but without easy going foolishnes on The Fool card. The Sun in Raider-Waite tarot deck seems very distanced and serious, adding to its obvious neutrality and maturity.

History

   In the Jean Noblet Tarot there are male and female figures in front of a wall. Above, The Sun with rather dreamy look on its face is gazing on scene bellow. There are 9 red and 9 yellow rays gushing out of the Sun with 19 droplets of light around it. In Visconti Sforza tarot there is a male child hovering on a what seems to be a cloud, holding The Sun in his hands. The Sun seems more like a human head, presumably of a god Apollo. In the background, the mountains and the sea can be seen.

Reading

   Probably the best card in the Tarot in terms of succes and general enterprises, The Sun almost exclusively foretells the good times, holliday, resolution of problems, succes and happy endings. Negative associations can be delay, misjudgement, strong ego that gets in the way of success. But overall, very good card, The Sun is the giver of life afterall.


Symbolism
a child, the Sun, wall, sunflower

   Apart from the Sun that is the central motif of the card, first we can see a naked child. The nuditiy immediatelly reminds on the return to more open-hearted state of being, closer to nature and our real selves. There is no more lies or misapprehensions to hide in. The light of The Sun clears them all. As in The Chariot card there is a wall in the background, strong indication that there are boundries that are well defined. But wall isn't very high, the boundary between conscious and subconscious can now be overcome. Thus, the conscious mind can prevail over fear and illusion. Alternatively, we can interpret the wall as a partial revelation of the truth, the part we can experience through material senses, the level that is now surpassed. On this card, it is showed that we can take restrictions out from our mind and liberate ourselves from categorising people and situations. The child is riding the white horse, another symbol of consciousness leading the subconsciousness. There is a red flag of renewal on the child, indicating that if we are to renew ourself we must become pure as children. The Sun in the first card, The Fool, is white, signifying The Great Central Sun, the source of all life. In this card, The Sun is yellow signifying our Sun and solar system. Occultist have always considered a man as a separate micro solar system and the Sun as a living reflection of our true Self. The Sun is deemed a living, breathing organism, possesed of its own consciousness and the great spiritual power. There are strong indications for that theory in this card, The Sun is anthropomorphized, with human face. Also, we can see the rays coming out of the Sun, some rays are seemingly vibrating, describing the nature of energy that are sent to the Earth, life equals vibration, movement. Our Sun collects and directs energy that we use on this planet. That is clearly depicted through four sunflowers that represents manifestations on the Earth, mankind, animals, plants and mineral kingdom. The sunflowers are not turned towards Sun but towards the child, it seems that they are trying to tell us that when we get on this level, we are masters of the material world.


The naked child mounted on a white horse and displaying a red standard has been mentioned already as the better symbolism connected with this card. It is the destiny of the Supernatural East and the great and holy light which goes before the endless procession of humanity, coming out from the walled garden of the sensitive life and passing on the journey home. The card signifies, therefore, the transit from the manifest light of this world, represented by the glorious sun of earth, to the light of the world to come, which goes before aspiration and is typified by the heart of a child.

But the last allusion is again the key to a different form or aspect of the symbolism. The sun is that of consciousness in the spirit - the direct as the antithesis of the reflected light. The characteristic type of humanity has become a little child therein--a child in the sense of simplicity and innocence in the sense of wisdom. In that simplicity, he bears the seal of Nature and of Art; in that innocence, he signifies the restored world. When the self-knowing spirit has dawned in the consciousness above the natural mind, that mind in its renewal leads forth the animal nature in a state of perfect conformity.

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A.E. Waite


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