Card Meaning: XIX 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