Pharaoh Akhenaten and his family adoring the Aten, second from the left is Meritaten who was the daughter of Akhenaten.

segunda-feira, 9 de dezembro de 2013

The Philadelphia Experiment

























Info On The Philadelphia Experiment:

The Philadelphia Experiment is a 1984 science fiction film. It is directed by Stewart Raffill and stars Michael Paré, Bobby Di Cicco, and Nancy Allen.

Overview

The plot is based on the urban legend of the Philadelphia Experiment. In 1943, two sailors, David Herdeg (Paré) and Jim Parker (Di Cicco), are stationed on a ship in an experiment to make it invisible to radar. However, the experiment goes horribly wrong and Herdeg and Parker are the only two survivors. They both undergo time travel (because of the experiment) and find themselves in the Nevada desert in the year 1984.

Plot

In 1943 United States Navy sailors David Herdeg and Jim Parker are assigned to the destroyer escort USS Eldridge during a project to make it invisible to radar. The ship is in Philadelphia harbor, filled with equipment from a team led by Dr. James Longstreet. During the experiment the equipment begins malfunctioning and crewmen are suffering throughout the ship. Jim tries to turn off the equipment at the main switch but receives an electric shock. Unable to do anything, the two men jump overboard. They fly through a time vortex instead of landing in the harbor. Observers simply see the ship disappear.
David and Jim land in the middle of a small town, which immediately disappears, and are caught in a helicopter spotlight. They run till they get to an electrified fence, on which the helicopter crashes. After making their way through the desert, they find a highway. David picks up an empty bottle of German beer and Jim finds an aluminum Coca Cola can, marveling at its lightness. David identifies the rusted remains of a 1930s Chevrolet, and they follow the highway to a diner.
Learning that they are in Nevada, David makes a phone call while Jim is intrigued by the television. He is feeling the side effects from his electric shock. There is also a mysterious electric storm affecting the area as well as Jim. David is waiting to use the phone while a young woman, Allison Hayes, is talking to someone about a job interview.
Jim inadvertently electrocutes an arcade game in the diner, and the upset diner owner grabs a revolver, demanding Jim pay for the damages. David grabs the gun and the men run, taking Allison's 1976 Ford Torino. Since he is unfamiliar with the car's automatic transmission, he takes Allison as a hostage and driver. They escape the diner and start quizzing Allison, finding out it is 1984. They reach a city, where Jim and David are shocked by modern society.
The police catch them and Jim is hospitalized. David and Allison speak with the doctor. David explains their time travel, assuming it is a common modern occurrence, but realizes the doctor doesn't believe him. Jim eventually dissolves in a sizzle of plasma-like energy. David and Allison then evade Naval Security, who have arrived to take David into custody.
At a motel they call Jim's family, who live in California on a ranch. David hears a familiar voice and hangs up, becoming despondent and angry. Allison is ready to leave him when he convinces her he needs her help. He sees President Ronald Reagan in a news conference and wonders if it is a movie. The next day they drive to California.
They reach the Parker ranch and knock. Jim's 1943 girlfriend Pamela recognizes David. She says Jim came back and was hospitalized for telling the truth about what happened. David asks about himself and finds out he never came back. A lot of the men on the Eldridge were burned and many died. David sees Jim in the distance riding a horse, but Jim refuses to speak with David. David and Allison see military police approaching, but manage to escape.
Longstreet has been investigating a mystery at the Nevada military base. A town has disappeared, but a piece of the Eldridge is found in the desert. They fire a camera probe into the vortex in the sky. Before the signal is cut off, the camera shows the "town" and the Eldridge.
David is able to get back onto the base the two men landed in the day before. Longstreet is there and tells the guards to let David in and shows him the situation.
Longstreet is still experimenting with the same concept, this time to protect a small town from ICBM attack. This second experiment also went awry, but as opposed to the Eldridge in 1943 the town didn't reappear. Instead, the vortex created by the experiment stays open, and starts sucking matter into it. After firing a probe at it, the camera reveals images of the missing town and the Eldridge. Longstreet understands there is still a generator running somewhere in hyperspace on the Eldridge, providing the vortex with the energy to stay open.
According to history, the Eldridge reappeared when David shut down the generator. Longstreet says that unless the vortex is closed it will destroy the Earth. David must go through the vortex and return to the Eldridge and shut off the generator.
Allison urges David not to do it, but he volunteers and is outfitted in an astronaut-type suit to protect him. He is driven out and catapulted into the vortex. David lands on the deck of the Eldridge where he finds the crew in agony, some fused into the ship's hull. He hurries to the generator room and begins smashing equipment. The generator shuts down and David looks for Jim. Assured that Jim is fine, David jumps over the side of the ship and disappears. The Eldridge reappears in Philadelphia harbor.
Likewise, in 1984 the missing town reappears. Allison steals a jeep to drive to it. She calls out and David reappears, proclaiming, "I got it all figured out. The Navy owes me 40 years back pay."

Extracts Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Philadelphia_Experiment_(film)

More Info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087910/


Full Movie & Trailers From YouTube:










Alien Autopsy



















Info On Alien Autopsy:

Alien Autopsy is a 2006 British comedy film with elements of science fiction, directed by Jonny Campbell. Written by William Davies, it relates the events surrounding the famous "alien autopsy" film promoted by Ray Santilli and stars Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, also known as Ant & Dec. The film was a moderate commercial success domestically, making no. 3 on the British box office chart.

Plot

Ray Santilli, along with his friend Gary Shoefield, go to America to find Elvis memorabilia to sell on the market stall he runs in London. Harvey, a former US Army cameraman, sells them a silent black and white film of Elvis performing live, but later returns with a very intriguing offer. Harvey takes Ray to Miami, Florida to see a film from 1947 showing the autopsy of an alien supposedly killed in a UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico. Harvey wants $30,000 for the film. Gary and Ray return to England to look for an investor to give them the money. A Hungarian art dealer, Laszlo Voros, who is obsessed with crop circles, gives Ray the $30,000 after Ray convinces Voros that he is telling the truth. Harvey gets the money and gives the film to Ray and Gary. However, in the interim, the film has "eaten itself" (i.e. degraded from humidity and heat) and is now completely unwatchable, so the duo decide to film their own "remake" of the movie in order to remain on the good side of Voros. Based on Ray's memories of the content of the original, and with the help of some friends, plus a very convincing replica of the dead alien made from a mannequin and meat products from a friend's butcher shop, Ray and Gary remake the autopsy film, using a supposed Bell and Howell spring-wound camera that does not record sound, and turning the living room of Gary's sister's home into a movie set in the process. Once finished, Ray gives a copy of the new film to Voros, who believes it – with the retro camera pictures being the main cause. But when Voros hears that the film is going on air worldwide, he claims that he never gave his permission for Santilli to distribute the film and demands – very threateningly – that they stop the international airings. Good fortune intervenes, however, when Voros is knocked down and killed by a green Land Rover (supposedly driven by a CIA agent) whilst standing naked in the middle of a crop circle.
Amber Fuentes, a newswoman, eventually tracks down Harvey, who demands from Ray and Gary that they help him keep his anonymity. They produce an interview with a homeless person (who coincidentally had been an actor 40 years previously) posing as Harvey, making the newswoman believe she is onto the wrong man. The film ends with the now restored original 1947 film, which Ray had left in the hands of film restoration experts in the hope that the footage could somehow be recovered, being returned to them; some sections had been repaired and were now watchable. After viewing the film, Ray and Gary bury it, telling each other that they can't go through with it all over again.

Extracts Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Autopsy_(film)

More Info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0466664/


Various Trailers & Clips From YouTube:










quarta-feira, 13 de novembro de 2013

Roswell

























Info On Roswell:

Wikipedia:

Roswell (also known as Roswell: The U.F.O. Cover-Up) is a 1994 television film produced by Paul Davids based on what was to be a true story about the Roswell UFO incident, the supposed U.S. military capture of a flying saucer and its alien crew following a crash near the town of Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947.
The script was based on the book UFO Crash at Roswell, by Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_(film) )

YouTube:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_Crash_at_Roswell )


Fator X


























































































































































































Info On Fator X:

YouTube:



Link:



Related Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranormal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidentified_flying_object
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occult
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufology






Mistérios do SOL
























http://www.superinteressante.pt/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2715 )

https://www.facebook.com/RevistaSuperInteressante )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun )




sábado, 28 de setembro de 2013

The Cipher Manuscripts of the Golden Dawn




Info On The Golden Dawn Cipher Manuscripts (from Wikipedia):


The Cipher Manuscripts are a collection of 60 folios containing the structural outline of a series of magical initiation rituals corresponding to the spiritual elements of Earth, Air, Water and Fire. The "occult" materials in the Manuscripts are a compendium of the classical magical theory and symbolism known in the Western world up until the middle of the 19th century, combined to create an encompassing model of the Western Mystery Tradition, and arranged into a syllabus of a graded course of instruction in magical symbolism. It was used as the structure for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

The Manuscripts

The folios are drawn in black ink on cotton paper watermarked 1809.[1] The text is plain English written from right to left in a simple substitution cryptogram. Numerals are substituted by Hebrew letters – Alef=1, Bet=2, etc. Crude drawings of diagrams, magical implements and tarot cards are interspersed in the text. One final page translates into French and Latin.[2]
The Ciphers contain the outlines of a series of graded rituals and the syllabus for a course of instruction in Qabalah and Hermetic magic, including Astrology, Tarot, Geomancy and Alchemy. It also contains several diagrams and crude drawings of various ritual implements. The Cipher Manuscripts are the original source upon which the rituals and the knowledge lectures of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn were based.[3]
The actual material itself described in the Manuscript is of known origins. Hermeticism, Alchemy, Qabalah, Astrology and Tarot were certainly not unknown to 19th century scholars of the Magical arts; the Cipher is a compendium of previously known Magical traditions. The basic structure of the rituals and the names of the Grades are similar to those of the Rosicrucian orders Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and the German 'Orden der Gold- und Rosenkreuzer'.

Discovery

William Wynn Westcott, a London Deputy Coroner, member of the S.R.I.A. and one of the founders of the Golden Dawn, claimed to have received the manuscripts through Rev. A. F. A. Woodford, who was a colleague of noted Masonic scholar Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie.[4] The papers were to have been secured by Westcott after Mackenzie’s death in 1886, among the belongings of Mackenzie’s mentor, the late Frederick Hockley,[4][5] and by September 1887, they were decoded by Westcott.[4]
The Manuscripts also contained an address of an aged adept named Fräulein (Miss) Anna Sprengel in Germany, to whom Westcott wrote inquiring about the contents of the papers.[6] Miss Sprengel responded, and after accepting the requests of Westcott and his partner and fellow Mason Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, who had helped translate the texts, issued them a Charter to operate a Lodge of the Order in England.[6] Westcott's first Golden Dawn temple was the Isis-Urania Temple, styled "No. 3."[6] Temple No. 1 would have been Fräulein Sprengel's lodge, and No. 2 was supposedly an abortive attempt at a lodge by some unnamed persons in London (possibly a reference to Mackenzie and other S.R.I.A. members some years earlier).[7]

Controversy

Considerable controversy surrounds the origins of the Cipher Manuscripts. Westcott claimed Sprengel was a German Adept of the 'Gold- und Rosenkreuzer' Order who wrote letters to Westcott and Mathers granting them permission to establish the Order in England. Mathers later claimed that only the letters were forgeries, but it seems unlikely that Westcott or Mathers wrote the Manuscripts themselves, as some believe.[8]
There is considerable doubt among scholars that Westcott's story is accurate. In particular, the age and contents of the documents have been the subject of much controversy.[8]
  • The manuscripts are written on paper watermarked 1809, yet contain reference to Egyptian imagery that was unknown to scholars before the deciphering of the Rosetta stone in 1822.[9]
  • References are made to the connection between the Qabalistic Tree of Life and the Tarot trumps. This idea was first put forth by French author Eliphas Levi in 1855.[10]

Possible sources

A variety of theories exist as to the real source of the Cipher Manuscript. Some of the more common ones include:
  • Westcott and Mathers created all the Manuscripts and letters themselves,[11] and created the origin myth of "Rosicrucian Adepts" to give credibility to their new Order.[12]
  • Mason and clergyman A.F.A. Woodford found the Cipher Manuscript in a secondhand bookstall on Wellington Road in London, and gave it to his friend Westcott to be decoded.[13]
  • The Sprengel letters were a forgery by Westcott, but the Manuscripts were written by Kenneth Mackenzie and/or other scholars of the S.R.I.A. (to which Westcott, Mathers and Woodman belonged as early as 1881). Fräulein Sprengel was a legend invented by Westcott to give lineage to the newly formed order. Westcott created the mythology of the Cipher Manuscripts' origins, knowing that a more esoteric source would carry weight with occultists of the era.[13][14]
  • There was no German order; the first Golden Dawn temple was a project of a secret group within the S.R.I.A. called the "Society of Eight". (By the time Westcott "discovered" the Manuscripts, all the members of the Society were deceased.) Fräulein Sprengel didn't really exist, but the Manuscript itself has true antiquarian origins, traceable to Johann Falk and passed through the hands of Francis Barrett, Eliphas Levi, and eventually to Mackenzie, Woodford and the S.R.I.A. (and the Society of Eight).[3]
  • There really was a German Rosicrucian order, sometimes referred to as the "Gold und Rosenkreutz," and it already had a branch in London, founded around 1810. Mackenzie was a member of this German order, into which he had been initiated by Count Apponyi of Hungary, and obtained the rituals described in the Cipher from them.[15]
  • The rituals in the Manuscripts were written by Baron Edward Bulwer-Lytton, honorary patron of the S.R.I.A. and author of an occult novel called Zanoni - A Strange Story, or by Frederick Hockley, the famous Rosicrucian seer and transcriber of occult manuscripts, and thence passed to Mackenzie.[14]
  • The Cipher Manuscript was legitimate, and the Golden Dawn is a valid offspring of an older Jewish order in Bavaria called Loge zur aufgehenden Morgenröthe, which translates to "Lodge of the Approaching Morning Light"[14] or "Lodge of the Rising Dawn". This Order was founded to allow German Jews to conduct Masonic-style lodges since, at the time, Jews were banned from participation in Freemasonry.[16]
In any case, no evidence has ever proven the existence of Fräulein Sprengel or her Lodge.[7] (By Westcott's account, the other members of the German order supposedly objected to Sprengel's chartering of the Isis-Urania Lodge, and all further communications were cut off after she died.)[17] The Isis-Urania Charter was written and signed only by Westcott, Mathers and William Robert Woodman.[17] There are letters by Mackenzie that indicate the 'Society of Eight' existed, but nothing that describes what they actually taught or practiced.[3] The symbolism and philosophy contained in the Cipher Manuscripts are not very different from that of high-degree Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism, and Mackenzie and the members of the S.R.I.A. were capable-enough esoteric scholars, with access to works on the Qabalah, Hermeticism, and Egyptology in Masonic libraries, to have combined it all into the form followed by the Golden Dawn.[3]
However, there is no conclusive evidence to prove any of the proposed origins of the Cipher Manuscripts. Questions about the authenticity of the Manuscripts and the authority of the Isis-Urania Charter contributed to the first great schism of the Golden Dawn Order in 1900.[17] In 1901, with the dissensions in the Golden Dawn, the poet W. B. Yeats, a member of the Order, privately published a pamphlet titled Is the Order of R.R. et A. C. to Remain a Magical Order?[18] The true origins of the Cipher Manuscripts remain a mystery to this day.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipher_Manuscripts )


More Info (from other sources): http://hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/ ~ http://www.esotericgoldendawn.com/tradition_ciphers.htm ~ http://www.golden-dawn.org/truth_ciph1.html ~ http://www.hermeticgoldendawn.org/kuntz-ciphermanuscript.html ~ http://www.hermeticgoldendawn.org/runyon-gdcypher.html ~ http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Golden-Cipher-Manuscript-Studies/dp/1558183256



Folio 13 of the Cipher MMS



The cipher used in the manuscripts, shown in a 1561 edition of Trithemius' Polygraphia.

quinta-feira, 19 de setembro de 2013

Solar Deity














A solar deity (also sun god/dess) is a sky deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it, usually by its perceived power and strength. Solar deities and sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. Hence, many beliefs have formed around this worship, such as the "missing sun" found in many cultures.


Contents



Overview

The Neolithic concept of a solar barge, the sun as traversing the sky in a boat, is found in the later myths of ancient Egypt, with Ra and Horus. Earlier Egyptian myths imply that the sun is within the lioness, Sekhmet, at night and can be seen reflected in her eyes or that it is within the cow, Hathor during the night, being reborn each morning as her son (bull).
Mesopotamian Shamash plays an important role during the Bronze Age, and "my Sun" is eventually used as an address to royalty. Similarly, South American cultures have a tradition of Sun worship, as with the Incan Inti. Svarog is the Slavic god sun and spirit of fire.
Proto-Indo-European religion has a solar chariot, the sun as traversing the sky in a chariot.[citation needed] In Germanic mythology this is Sol, in Vedic Surya, and in Greek Helios (occasionally referred to as Titan) and (sometimes) as Apollo.
During the Roman Empire, a festival of the birth of the Unconquered Sun (or Dies Natalis Solis Invicti) was celebrated on the winter solstice—the "rebirth" of the sun—which occurred on December 25 of the Julian calendar. In late antiquity, the theological centrality of the sun in some Imperial religious systems suggest a form of a “solar monotheism.” The religious commemorations on December 25 were replaced under Christian domination of the Empire with the birthday of Christ.[1]

Africa

The Tiv people consider the Sun to be the son of the supreme being Awondo and the Moon Awondo's daughter. The Barotse tribe believes that the Sun is inhabited by the sky god Nyambi and the Moon is his wife. Even where the sun god is equated with the supreme being, in some African mythologies he or she does not have any special functions or privileges as compared to other deities. The Ancient Egyptian god of creation, Amun is also believed to reside inside the sun. So is the Akan creator deity, Nyame and the Dogon deity of creation, Nommo.

Aztec mythology

In Aztec mythology, Tonatiuh (Nahuatl: Ollin Tonatiuh, "Movement of the Sun") was the sun god. The Aztec people considered him the leader of Tollan (heaven). He was also known as the fifth sun, because the Aztecs believed that he was the sun that took over when the fourth sun was expelled from the sky. According to their cosmology, each sun was a god with its own cosmic era. According to the Aztecs, they were still in Tonatiuh's era. According to the Aztec creation myth, the god demanded human sacrifice as tribute and without it would refuse to move through the sky. It is said that 20,000 people were sacrificed each year to Tonatiuh and other gods, though this number is thought to be inflated either by the Aztecs, who wanted to inspire fear in their enemies, or the Spaniards, who wanted to vilify the Aztecs. The Aztecs were fascinated by the sun and carefully observed it, and had a solar calendar similar to that of the Maya. Many of today's remaining Aztec monuments have structures aligned with the sun.[2]
In the Aztec calendar, Tonatiuh is the lord of the thirteen days from 1 Death to 13 Flint. The preceding thirteen days are ruled over by Chalchiuhtlicue, and the following thirteen by Tlaloc.

Buddhism

In Buddhist cosmology, the bodhisattva of the Sun is known as Ri Gong Ri Guang Pu Sa (The Bright Solar Bodhisattva of the Solar Palace) / Ri Gong Ri Guang Tian Zi (The Bright Solar Prince of the Solar Palace) / Ri Gong Ri Guang Zun Tian Pu Sa (The Greatly Revered Bright Solar Prince of the Solar Palace / one of the 20 or 24 guardian devas). In Sanskrit, He is known as Suryaprabha. He is usually depicted with Yue Gong Yue Guang Pu Sa (The Bright Lunar Bodhisattva of the Lunar Palace) / Yue Gong Yue Guang Tian Zi ( The Bright Lunar Prince of the Lunar Palace) / Yue Gong Yue Guang Zun Tian Pu Sa (The Greatly Revered Bright Lunar Prince of the Lunar Palace / one of the 20 or 24 guardian devas known as Candraprabha in Sanskrit. With Yao Shi Fo / Bhaisajyaguru Buddha (Medicine Buddha), these two bodhisattvas create the Dong Fang San Sheng or the Three Holy Sages of the East.

Chinese mythology

In Chinese mythology (cosmology), there were originally ten suns in the sky, who were all brothers. They were supposed to emerge one at a time as commanded by the Jade Emperor. They were all very young and loved to fool around. Once they decided to all go into the sky to play, all at once. This made the world too hot for anything to grow. A hero named Hou Yi shot down nine of them with a bow and arrow to save the people of the earth. He is still honored this very day. In another myth, the solar eclipse was caused by the magical dog of heaven biting off a piece of the sun. The referenced event is said to have occurred around 2,160BCE. There was a tradition in China to make lots of loud celebratory sounds during a solar eclipse to scare the sacred "dog" away. The Deity of the Sun in Chinese mythology is Ri Gong Tai Yang Xing Jun (Tai Yang Gong / Grandfather Sun) or Star Lord of the Solar Palace, Lord of the Sun. In some mythologies, Tai Yang Xing Jun is believed to be Hou Yi. Tai Yang Xing Jun is usually depicted with the Star Lord of the Lunar Palace, Lord of the Moon, Yue Gong Tai Yin Xing Jun (Tai Yin Niang Niang / Lady Tai Yin).

Christianity

Christ is associated with the Sun through Christmas, which occurs at the time of the Winter solstice. Many astro-theologians point out a connection between many of the supposed events in the New Testament to the phenomena of the sun which makes the biblical Jesus more of a solar riddle.

Ancient Egypt

Sun worship was prevalent in ancient Egyptian religion. The earliest deities associated with the sun are all goddesses: Wadjet, Sekhmet, Hathor, Nut, Bast, Bat, and Menhit. First Hathor, and then Isis, give birth to and nurse Horus and Ra. Hathor the horned-cow is one of the 12 daughters of Ra, gifted with joy and is a wet-nurse to Horus.
The Sun's movement across the sky represents a struggle between the Pharaoh's soul and an avatar of Osiris. Ra travels across the sky in his solar-boat; at dawn he drives away the demon Apep of darkness. The "solarisation" of several local gods (Hnum-Re, Min-Re, Amon-Re) reaches its peak in the period of the fifth dynasty.
Rituals to the god Amun who became identified with the sun god Ra were often carried out on the top of temple pylons. A Pylon mirrored the hieroglyph for 'horizon' or akhet, which was a depiction of two hills "between which the sun rose and set",[3] associated with recreation and rebirth. On the first Pylon of the temple of Isis at Philae, the pharaoh is shown slaying his enemies in the presence of Isis, Horus and Hathor. In the eighteenth dynasty, Akhenaten changed the polytheistic religion of Egypt to a monotheistic one, Atenism of the solar-disk and is the first recorded state monotheism. All other deities were replaced by the Aten, including Amun-Ra, the reigning sun god of Akhenaten's own region. Unlike other deities, the Aten did not have multiple forms. His only image was a disk—a symbol of the sun.
Soon after Akhenaten's death, worship of the traditional deities was reestablished by the religious leaders (Ay the High-Priest of Amen-Ra, mentor of Tutankhaten/Tutankhamen) who had adopted the Aten during the reign of Akhenaten.

Hinduism

The Ādityas are one of the principal deities of the Vedic classical Hinduism belonging to Solar class. In the Vedas, numerous hymns are dedicated to Mitra, Varuna, Savitr etc.
Even the Gayatri mantra, which is regarded as one of the most sacred of the Vedic hymns is dedicated to Savitr, one of the principal Ādityas. The Adityas are a group of solar deities, from the Brahmana period numbering twelve. The ritual of sandhyavandanam, performed by Hindus, is an elaborate set of hand gestures and body movements, designed to greet and revere the Sun.
The sun god in Hinduism is an ancient and revered deity. In later Hindu usage, all the Vedic Ādityas lost identity and metamorphosed into one composite deity, Surya, the Sun. The attributes of all other Ādityas merged into that of Surya and the names of all other Ādityas became synonymous with, or epithets of, Surya.
The Ramayana has Rama as a descendant of the Surya, thus belonging to the Suryavansha or the clan of the Sun. The Mahabharata describes one of its warrior heroes, Karna, as being the son of the Pandava mother Kunti and Surya.
The sun god is said to be married to the goddess Ranaadeh, also known as Sanjnya. She is depicted in dual form, being both sunlight and shadow, personified. The goddess is revered in Gujarat and Rajasthan.
The charioteer of Surya is Aruna, who is also personified as the redness that accompanies the sunlight in dawn and dusk. The sun god is driven by a seven-horsed Chariot depicting the seven days of the week.
In India, at Konark, in the state of Odisha, a temple is dedicated to Surya. The Konark Sun Temple has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Surya is the most prominent of the navagrahas or nine celestial objects of the Hindus. Navagrahas can be found in almost all Hindu temples. There are further temples dedicated to Surya, one in Arasavilli, Srikakulam District in AndhraPradesh, one in Gujarat at Modhera and another in Rajasthan. The temple at Arasavilli was constructed in such a way that on the day of Radhasaptami, the sun's rays directly fall on the feet of the Sri Suryanarayana Swami, the deity at the temple.
Chhath (Hindi: छठ, also called Dala Chhath) is an ancient Hindu festival dedicated to Surya, the chief solar deity, unique to Bihar, Jharkhand and the Terai. This major festival is also celebrated in the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and parts of Chhattisgarh. Hymns to the sun can be found in the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism. Practiced in different parts of India, the worship of the sun has been described in the Rigveda. There is another festival called Sambha-Dasami, which is celebrated in the state of Odisha for the surya.
The Gurjars (or Gujjars), were Sun-worshipers and are described as devoted to the feet of the sun god Surya. Their copper-plate grants bear an emblem of the Sun and on their seals too, this symbol is depicted.[4]

Indonesian mythology

Solar gods have a stronger presence in Indonesian mythology. In some cases the Sun is revered as a "father" or "founder" of the tribe. This may apply for the whole tribe or only for the royal and ruling families. This practise is more common in Australia and on the island of Timor, where the tribal leaders are seen as direct heirs to the sun god.
Some of the initiation rites include the second reincarnation of the rite's subject as a "son of the Sun", through a symbolic death and a rebirth in the form of a Sun. These rituals hint that the Sun may have an important role in the sphere of funerary beliefs. Watching the Sun's path has given birth to the idea in some societies that the deity of the Sun descends in to the underworld without dying and is capable of returning afterward. This is the reason for the Sun being associated with functions such as guide of the deceased tribe members to the underworld, as well as with revival of perished. The Sun is a mediator between the planes of the living and the dead.

Theosophy

The primary local deity in Theosophy is the Solar Logos, "the consciousness of the sun".[5]

Solar myth

Three theories exercised great influence on nineteenth and early twentieth century mythography, beside the Tree worship of Mannhardt and the Totemism of J. F. McLennan, the "Sun myth" of Alvin Boyd Kuhn and Max Müller.
R. F. Littledale criticized the Sun myth theory when he illustrated that Max Müller on his own principles was himself only a Solar myth, whilst Alfred Lyall delivered a still stronger attack on the same theory and its assumption that tribal gods and heroes, such as those of Homer, were mere reflections of the Sun myth by proving that the gods of certain Rajput clans were really warriors who founded the clans not many centuries ago, and were the ancestors of the present chieftains.[6]

Solar barge and sun chariot

A "solar barge" (also "solar bark", "solar barque", "solar boat" and "sun boat") is a mythological representation of the sun riding in a boat. The "Khufu ship", a 43.6-meter-long vessel that was sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza around 2500 BC, is a full-size surviving example which may have fulfilled the symbolic function of a solar barque. This boat was rediscovered in May 1954 when archeologist Kamal el-Mallakh and inspector Zaki Nur found two ditches sealed off by about 40 blocks weighing 17 to 20 tonnes each. This boat was disassembled into 1,224 pieces and took over 10 years to reassemble. A nearby museum was built to house this boat.[7]
Other sun boats were found in Egypt dating to different pharonic dynasties.[8]
Examples include:
  • Neolithic petroglyphs which (it has been speculated) show solar barges
  • The many early Egyptian goddesses who are related as sun deities and the later gods Ra and Horus depicted as riding in a solar barge. In Egyptian myths of the afterlife, Ra rides in an underground channel from west to east every night so that he can rise in the east the next morning.
  • The Nebra sky disk, which is thought to show a depiction of a solar barge.
  • Nordic Bronze Age petroglyphs, including those found in Tanumshede often contains barges and sun crosses in different constellations.
A "sun chariot" is a mythological representation of the sun riding in a chariot. The concept is younger than that of the solar barge, and typically Indo-European, corresponding with the Indo-European expansion after the invention of the chariot in the 2nd millennium BC.
Examples include:
The sun itself also was compared to a wheel, possibly in Proto-Indo-European, Greek hēliou kuklos, Sanskrit suryasya cakram, Anglo-Saxon sunnan hweogul (PIE *swelyosyo kukwelos).

Male and female

Among modern English speakers, solar deities are popularly thought of as male counterparts of the lunar deity (usually female); however, sun goddesses are found on every continent (e.g. Amaterasu in Japanese belief) paired with male lunar deities. Among the earliest records of human beliefs, the early goddesses of the Egyptian pantheon carried a sun above their head as a symbol of dignity (as daughters of Ra). The sun was a major aspect of Egyptian symbols and hieroglyphs, all the lunar deities of that pantheon were male deities. The cobra (of Pharaoh Son of Ra), the lioness (daughter of Ra), the cow (daughter of Ra), the dominant symbols of the most ancient Egyptian deities, carried their relationship to the sun atop their heads; they were female and their cults remained active throughout the history of the culture. Later a sun god (Aten) was established in the eighteenth dynasty on top of the other solar deities, before the "aberration" was stamped out and the old pantheon re-established. When male deities became associated with the sun in that culture, they began as the offspring of a mother (except Ra, King of the Gods who gave birth to himself).
Some mythologists, such as Brian Branston, Patricia Monaghan and Janet McCrickard, contend that sun goddesses are as common as, or even more common, worldwide than their male counterparts. They also claim that the belief that solar deities are primarily male is linked to the fact that a few better known mythologies (such as those of late classical Greece and late Roman mythology) rarely break from this rule, although closer examination of the earlier myths of those cultures reveal a very different distribution than the contemporary popular belief. The dualism of sun/male/light and moon/female/darkness is found in many (but not all) late southern traditions in Europe that derive from Orphic and Gnostic philosophies.
In Germanic mythology the Sun is female and the Moon is male. The corresponding Old English name is Siȝel [ˈsɪjel], continuing Proto-Germanic *Sôwilô or *Saewelô. The Old High German Sun goddess is Sunna. In the Norse traditions, every day, Sól rode through the sky on her chariot, pulled by two horses named Arvak and Alsvid. Sól also was called Sunna and Frau Sunne, from which are derived the words: Sun and Sunday.
Other cultures that have sun goddesses include: The Lithuanians and Latvians (Saule), the Finns (Päivätär, Beiwe) and the related Hungarians (Xatel-Ekwa) and the Slavic peoples (Solntse). Sun goddesses are found around the world; in Arabia (Al-Lat), Australia (Bila, Walo), India (Bisal-Mariamna, Bomong, Kn Sgni) and Sri Lanka (Pattini); among the Hittites (Wurusemu), Egyptians (Sekhmet) and Babylonians (Shapash); in Native America, among the Cherokee (Unelanuhi), Natchez (Wal Sil), Inuit (Malina) and Miwok (Hekoolas).

Missing sun

The missing sun is a theme in the myths of many cultures,[citation needed] sometimes including the themes of imprisonment, exile, or death. The missing sun is often used to explain various natural phenomena, including the disappearance of the sun at night, shorter days during the winter, and solar eclipses.
Some other tales are similar, such as the Sumerian story of the goddess Inanna's descent into the underworld. These may have parallel themes, but do not fit in this motif unless they concern a solar deity.
In late Egyptian mythology, Ra passes through Duat (the underworld) every night. Apep has to be defeated in the darkness hours for Ra and his solar barge to emerge in the east each morning.
In Japanese mythology, the sun goddess Amaterasu is startled by the behavior of her brother Susanoo and hides in a cave, plunging the world into darkness until she is willing to emerge. It has been suggested that the story is allegorical, symbolising that the sun goddess hiding in a cave is a metaphor for the sun exhibiting quiet periods such as the Maunder Minimum. This allegory has been used in literature such as Masks of the Lost Kings.[12]
In Norse mythology, the gods Odin and Tyr both have attributes of a sky father, and they are doomed to be devoured by wolves (Fenrir and Garm, respectively) at Ragnarok. Sól, the Norse sun goddess, will be devoured by the wolf Skoll.
In Hindu astronomy, Rahu and Ketu ate the sun or moon to cause lunars and solar eclipses. In later, more scientific years, their names were given to the Lunar nodes.

See also


References

  1. ^ "Sun worship." Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009
  2. ^ Biblioteca Porrúa. Imprenta del Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Historia y Etnología, ed. (1905). Diccionario de Mitología Nahua (in Spanish). México. pp. 648, 649, 650. ISBN 978-9684327955. 
  3. ^ Wilkinson, op. cit., p.195
  4. ^ Lālatā Prasāda Pāṇḍeya (1971). Sun-worship in ancient India. Motilal Banarasidass. p. 245. 
  5. ^ Powell, A.E. The Solar System London:1930 The Theosophical Publishing House (A Complete Outline of the Theosophical Scheme of Evolution). Lucifer, represented by the sun, the light.
  6. ^ William Ridgeway (Cambridge: 1915). "Solar Myths, Tree Spirits, and Totems, The Dramas and Dramatic Dances of Non-European Races". Cambridge University Press. TheatreHistory.com. pp. 11–19. Retrieved 18 September 2010. 
  7. ^ Siliotti, Alberto, Zahi Hawass, 1997 "Guide to the Pyramids of Egypt" p. 54-55
  8. ^ "Egypt solar boats". 
  9. ^ "Helios". Theoi.com. Retrieved 22 September 2010. 
  10. ^ "Helios & Phaethon". Thanasis.com. Retrieved 18 September 2010. 
  11. ^ Probus Coin
  12. ^ http://www.tombane.com

Bibliography

  • Azize, Joseph (2005) The Phoenician Solar Theology. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. ISBN 1-59333-210-6.
  • Olcott, William Tyler (1914/2003) Sun Lore of All Ages: A Collection of Myths and Legends Concerning the Sun and Its Worship Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 0-543-96027-7.
  • Hawkins, Jacqueta Man and the Sun Gaithersburg, MD, USA:1962 SolPub Co.
  • McCrickard, Janet. "Eclipse of the Sun: An Investigation into Sun and Moon Myths." Gothic Image Publications. ISBN 0-906362-13-X.
  • Monaghan, Patricia. "O Mother Sun: A New View of the Cosmic Feminine." Crossing Press, 1994. ISBN 0-89594-722-6
  • Ranjan Kumar Singh. Surya: The God and His Abode. Parijat. ISBN 81-903561-7-8

External links



The warrior goddess Sekhmet, shown with her sun disk and cobra crown