Spolia Tarot - artwork by Jen May
"Finally we have reached illumination and consciousness. What was hidden is now revealed. There are no shadows, no secrets, and some sort of understanding has been reached.The command of Apollo's temple is "Know Thyself,"and probably you couldn't have reached that point if you Haden't been dragged through all the darkness that preceeds this card, but now here we are. Knowing ourselves. Whether that's good or ugh at least we know.Our little acrobat is holding laurel, sacred to Apollo."-Spolia Tarot, by Jessa Crispin
One obvious difference between the moon and the sun is that the moon is visible during the daytime or the nighttime, but the sun is only directly visible during the day. In fact the presence of the sun IS daytime. The absence of the sun is night. The sun is our source of il "en"-lumen-nation and en-lighten-ment. The Sun trump XIX carries this meaning as well.
Many gods have been associated with the sun, such as Phoebus "bright, shining, radiant" Apollo (Απόλλων Apollōn).
Apollo, the radiant god of light, prophecy, and music, occupies a significant place in Greek Mythology. Son of Zeus and Leto, and twin brother to Artemis, Apollo is often depicted as youthful, handsome, and excuding an aura of divine grace. His association with the sun stems not only from his epithet "Phoebus Apollo," meaning "bright" or "shining," but also from his role as the god of enlightenment. In Greek art and literature, Apollo is frequently portrayed driving the chariot of the sun across the sky, symbolizing his mastery over light and illumination. Helios vs. Apollo/mythlok.com
The sun has surges in the form of coronal mass ejections and solar flares. We could say these fountains of plasma and light/photons resemble laurel wreaths/crowns worn by Apollo and the ancient Greco-Romans.
Daphne 🌿(meaning "laurel, bay tree") was a naiad reluctantly pursued by Apollo, due to a nasty trick played upon the two by the arrows of Eros. Naiads (from νάειν naiein "to flow, swim") were a variety of nymph associated with "fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of water." Therefore, we could say that Daphne, being a naiad (flow-er), is associated with surges(n.) that is "fountains, springs of water" (a meaning now obsolete) and things that flow. The surges from the sun are certainly not made of flowing water, however Daphne, though a water nymph, was definitely fire! (at least Apollo thought so). And, plasma and gasses do flow, or swim 〜 out from this source of the sun ☀️ radiating all the light and heat that fuels or nourishes [from the same PIE root, *(s)nāu-, as 'Naiad' and 'swim'] life on Earth. This makes the corona and flares of the sun, like the laurel wreath corona on the head of the flowing haired Apollo, a fitting symbol to crown victors (from Latin vincere "to conquer, overcome, defeat"), or those who are like the invincible(in "not" + vincibilis "conquerable") sun.
At the end of Apollo's pursuit, Daphne was turned into a tree, and Apollo claimed her in this form immortalizing her presence with him, adorning himself and others with her branches 🌿, thus adoring her.
"Since you cannot be my wife," said he, "you shall assuredly be my tree. I will wear you for my crown; I will decorate with you my harp and my quiver; and when the great Roman conquerors lead up the triumphal pomp to the Capital, you shall be woven into wreaths for their brows. And, as eternal youth is mine, you shall be always green, and your leaf know no decay." Bullfinches Mythology - III Apollo and Daphne
Since both the Greek dendron "tree" and English tree, are said to come from PIE *deru-/dreu- "be firm, solid, steadfast," we could say that a tree symbolizes durability and strength and therefore, Daphne, or at least the memory of her and the inspiration of the fiery passion he carried for her, is a symbol of support and strength for Apollo in the form of the laurel(Daphne) wreath which resembles the flowing, flickering, life giving("green") rays of the sun.
Apollo and the Satyrs, by Gustave Moreau (1826-1898)
The personification of victory is Nike, the goddess of νίκη níki "victory," and νικητής nikitís is "victor, winner, conqueror."
Nike bearing Laurel Wreath, at the ruins of Ephesus, Turkey
In ancient Egyptian nekht is "victory, might, strength."
n "water ripple" + khet "branch/stick" (+ kh "sieve/placenta" + t "bread loaf )
It is spelled with the branch / stick hieroglyph (khet/ḫt), which can be used as a determinative for "wood, tree," which ties in well with the branch(laurel) of Daphne in her tree form, being a symbol of victory. And since the n "water ripple" hieroglyph can have the meaning "belongs to" or ny "of, belonging to," perhaps we could say, victory is that which belongs to the branch (n-khet), or is belonging to the branch (ny-khet). And a branch belongs to a tree, that which is *deru- "firm, solid, steadfast," therefore symbolic of nkhet "might and strength," and ḫt / khet "stick" which is the ability to "get" or conquer 💪 . "Speak softly and carry a big stick."
The sun is the light of day and the rays of the sun give strength in the form of life and leaf 🌿.
In ancient Egypt the disk of the the sun (rˁ/ra/re) was equated with the god Ra/Re.
Ra is the Egyptian word for 'sun'. As a solar deity, Ra embodied the power of the sun but was also thought to be the sun itself, envisioned as the great god riding in his solar barge across the heavens throughout the day and descending into the underworld at sunset. World History Encyclopedia
Ra-Harahkty wearing the Disk of the Sun with Uraeus, 1298-1235 BC, Tomb of Nefertari
Here Ra/Re is wearing the disk of the sun /☉ "rˁ ", called the Eye of Ra / irt ra, encircled (wreath-ed) by the Uraeus/Iaret "rearing one" / "raised one," the cobra often found on the crowns of gods and pharaohs at the place of the inner ir "eye", like an alert(rearing) or open(raised) eye.
Both cobras and eyes are hooded (phanin). When a cobra is raised its hood is open (and has markings that look like eyes) and it becomes visible (phaneros); it comes to light, and when the eyes of a person are open, the hoods(lids) are raised and the eyes are revealed (phaneroó); the lights are on! Bright eyed and bushy tailed! Rise and shine! 👀
Uraeus/Iraret with Solar Disk 305-30 BC, Brooklin Museum
The goddess Wadjet
This cobra, the Uraeus/Iaret, was a symbol used for the goddess Wadjet "the green(papyrus/wadj) one." So perhaps we could call her Verdant.
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Wadj "papyrus,green"
Wadjet was a protective deity also associated with the symbol known as the Eye of Ra, aka, the right wadjet eye [below].
Eye of Ra - Wadjet - represents protection, royal power, good health ("greenness")
So even though the ancient Egyptian sun god is masculine, he like Apollo, is adorned by the feminine goddess; the "eye" of the sol "sun." Which we could say is the ayin "eye, sight; spring, fountain [Hebrew]" of the sun. We experience the sun by this green (generative, life-giving🌱) energy that flows(naiein〜) from it. The life-giving energy naiein from the ayin. It springs from the spring. In ancient Egypt this power was personified in the Wadjet eyes.
And green means go 🟢. These eyes are action, like the hieroglyph of the eye implies, which has the meaning "create, beget, make, construct, do, act."
Eye Hieroglyph ir, iri, image by Julie O.
So we could say that the Eye of Ra is the "creative power" or "action" of Ra, the sun, and that this creative power is green, i.e., generative, causing growth (causing one to rise), like Wadjet.
Generally the sun is a highly positive symbol due to this creative, life giving nature, providing energy to the world, however, the sun can also be harsh. It is intense. It is an extreme "eye" of heat.
On the one hand, the eye of Ra was seen as an almighty force of protection that could ward off impending danger, keep people safe, bring balance and order into the universe, and offer its incredible healing powers. Yet, as a fierce protector, the Eye of Ra also had the power to instill great fear into ancient Egyptians, who believed it could bear witness to acts of depravity and issue out violent and destructive forms of punishment. This duality can be read as a comparison with the way Egyptians both revered and feared the sun, with its life-giving and devastaitingly damaging properties. What is the Eye of Ra?Egyptian Protection Symbol - thecollector.com
Compare the Hebrew word used in the Bible pertaining to the "Tree of the Knowledge of good and "evil" ra' רע, from ra'a' רעע "to be evil, to harm, to afflict, be displeasing," spelled with a resh (developed from a pictograph of a head 👤, rosh "head; chief; top; beginning; first") + ayin "eye" 👁, which has similar word elements and symbolic elements as the Eye of Ra, although with negative connotation. The ayin "eye" of ra' "evil."
The Eye of Ra, Wadjet, had her fierce aspects as well, as nbt nsr "Lady of Flame," or we could say as a srf "inflamed, moody"(seraph) snake, she was a virulent spitter of fiery poison(virus) in her defense of Ra against his enemies.
Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face, with stars to fill my dream.I am a traveler of both time and space to be where I have been.To sit with elders of a gentle race this world has seldom seen.Who talk of days for which they sit and waitWhen all will be revealed. . . .Oh, all I see turns to brownAs the sun burns the ground.And my eyes fill with sand.As I scan this wasted land.Tryin' to find, tryin' to find where I've been . . .Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no tracelike thoughts inside a dream.Heed the path that led me to that place, with yellow dessert stream.My Shangri-La beneath the summer moon, I will return again.Sure as the dust that blows high in June, when moving' through Kashmir [Sanskrit ka "water" shimīra "desiccate" (compare above shmm/šmm "hot, fever" + ra "sun"] . . . -Kashmir, Led Zeppelin, 1975. . .
This duality of the Eye of Ra could be likened to the duality of the human ego which is a necessary sense of self for the human experience, but can also be a destructive force. What wells up from within radiates or shines out of a person,
like the rays of the sun for good or ill.
Tarot de Marsailles
Satisfaction, accomplishment, contentment, success, favorable relationships, love, joy, devotion, unselfish sentiment, engagement, favorable omen, a good friend, high spirit, warmth, sincerity, achievement in the arts
Ra is the solar eye that emerged from the cosmic egg. The I am (ego sum), number one (I), the Ich "I" from the Ei "egg". Or the eye from the egg.
floating on his sky, whose abomination is evil [isfet "injustice, chaos, violence, disorder," opposite of ma'at],raised on the supports of Shu, without equal among the gods,who gives breath of flame of his mouth,who illuminates the two lands with his power of light, . . .
The sol "sun" is the core, the heart (cor in Latin) and soul (animus) of the engine which is our sole source of solar energy, our solus sol, only sun, rising anew each day at the crack of dawn. Wakey, Wakey, eggs and bakey!
In Hebrew labab has the meaning "inner man," the "heart."
The term denotes the inner core of a person—the seat of thought, will, conscience, and emotion. Unlike modern Western usage that restricts "heart" largely to feelings, the Old Testament use לבב to describe the totality of inner life. Scripture consistently treats the heart as the decisive arena where covenant faithfulness or rebellion is settled. Lebab, Topical Lexicon: Central Role in Hebrew Thought
And the labab or leb "heart" 💟 is an organ associated with love 💗[from PIE root *leubh- "to care, desire, love"] which has lopsided(asymmetrical) lobes or swellings. The heart, like the sun (from PIE *sawel-🌞), is central to our entire existence. Swell!
Halloween Tarot, artwork Kipling West
"Exuberance, happiness, success.Simple pleasures. A purity of spirit and mind. A good partnership or marriage."
Things that are solaris "of the sun," are "sunny," and tend to give solace or solari "to console, soothe, lighten," like a full belly and good company. But just as the sun can not give life if there is nothing to shine upon, the heart can not love if there is not someone or something to love. It is in relationship/partnership that the sun truly shines! The heart of the sun is fulfilled in serving life.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life [ψυχή psuché "soul, life self, inner being, heart"] for one's friends. Jn.15:13 NIV
The sun gives/causes (dw) or "dews"
"ankh = life" upon the world.
Aten "disk"- Ra "sun" with radiating hands holding ankhs
If not for radiating or "flowing out" its life giving rays upon the Earth, the sun is just a unrelenting ball of flame (full of hot air), and apart from the story that the sun plays in the Earth's drama, as the Light of the World, and giver of days and seasons, the sun is just a roiling hellish furnace hurtling through space.
The Sun trump XXI represents joy and happiness, but the joy and happiness of the sun does not lie in simply BEGING sunny(hot🥵). In order to truly shine, it must be sunny in service 🌞. Our happiness too, lies in service. Service, from Latin servus "slave," may be a kind of slavery or bondage, but we are always in bondage to something by our very nature. To be created as a human is to be in a condition where we are bound that is we bua "dwell"[from PIE *bheue- "to be, exist, grow"] in change and growth, which is a product of our physicality [also from *bheue-], that is, our bau "building, construction, structure, i.e., architecture," or beingness.
Our being(esse), essence, sum "I am" as a created being separate from God(who is uncreated and unmoved) means we are less than God who is Being itself, I Am Who Am, which seems to imply that we are less than perfect. Our beingness is the cause of what is, i.e., what be, i.e., the truth, veritas, alétheia, our reality. Awareness or knowledge of this "reality" of our separation from God is the very(true) cause of sin ("sin" which is said to be from a form of *es- "to be") which is fault "deficiency" or fallen nature. In this way, original sin (the "state" of being we find ourselves in CCC 404) is a product of the original "ill" lumination" which we are all born into. Our enlightenment 🐍, the eating of the ets "tree" of the daath "knowledge" of towb "good" and ra' "evil", "opened our eyes" 👀💡 and made us TO BE "like" God [Gen.3:5], but also seemingly less than God (only similar to or a simulation of), and thus, is the source of the "reality" of our present servitude to sin (our 'sin'ular situation, the 'sin'ulation), but also, finally, the reason why we will attain to something greater; namely Christhood.
artwork by Julie O./chthonickore
"O happy fault'
O necessary sin of Adam
which gained for us
so great a Redeemer!"
Thus what was "belonging to the tree", was a sneaky or snakey nike "victory," a sníki snike!
For we, in communion with Christ, are made to be, fully human and fully one with God just as Christ is fully human and fully one with God. Therefore we are made to be perfect (teleios "perfect, mature, complete), or are completed as a mature creation in Christ 🐣 (and therefore experience a new reality 🐛🦋/a new sum [sharing in the divine nature]) as Christ is perfect and the heavenly father is perfect. Victory!
Just as the sun (in relationship to the earth) goes to darkness and is reborn in the morning yet is not deficient. Similarly, we, made in the image of God, suffer darkness, and hope to rise at the dawn of the new day as the remedy to our sin-suation which is really just a simulation "a false show." When we are a completed (new)creation, the context for the darkness shifts. It was only nighttime, not evil. However, it is a process; 🌞🌚🌞 = 1 Day. The son of God is our example in this and thus our savior. "He made him to be sin who knew no sin." 2Cor.5:21
And no servant is greater than his master. If the creator shines upon us as our sun giving us life, we too must shine upon others to be "like" God. Otherwise we are not like God, but like something else. 👿
. . . whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life [psuché] as a ransom for many. Mt. 20:26-28 NSV
We must bud 🌱🌱🌱 if we want to be Buddha "awakened, enlightened" to higher consciousness. If you are not a servant to others, you are still a servant, but to yourself (the end of which is death). True enlightenment is this knowledge, "It is in giving that we receive." Giving is the Wenceslas *vetye-*slavu- "greater glory," or the better slavery.
1 Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen,When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even.Brightly shown the moon that night, though the frost was cruel,When a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel.2 "Hither, page, and stand by me, if you know it, telling,Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?""Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain,Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes' fountain."3 "Bring me food and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither,You and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither."Page and monarch, both they went, forth they went together,Through the cold wind's wild lament and the bitter weather.4 "Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger,Fails my heart, I know not how; I can not go longer.""Mark my footsteps, my good page, tread now in them boldly,You shall find the winter's rage freeze your blood less coldly."5 In his master's steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.Therefore, Christian men, be sure, while God's gifts possessing,You who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing.
Solstice IXX - Winter Wonderland Tarot, by Joshua Franklin and Aaron Franklin 2022
Acting as "slave" to others is a salve, both to the other and to the self.
A slave or a servant can be help(n.), as in the sense of a server (from French servir "to help, stead, avail"). It is in this way that Daphne was of service, or help to Apollo. As a tree (*deru- "firm, solid, steadfast") the memory of her put Apollo in good stead (from *sta- "to stand, set down, make or be firm") or steadied him with the kind of courage or heart that drives one to victory. As the remembrance of Christs' coming (Christmas), death and resurrection, which is mirrored in the story of the death and rebirth of the sun at winter solstice (*sawel- 🌞+ *sta-), is our Yeshuah/Jesus, that is, "salvation, help, saving; aid, victory."
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell [are in bondage / exist (*bheue-)] in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined[nagah]. Is.9:2 KJV
also,
The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen[nagah] Is.9:2 Douay-Rheims
Shining has the sense with the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph "shine, glitter, rise"
of a power that is radiating out from the source of light, the sun, as it rises in the sky. "Rise and shine, and give God your glory, glory!"
wbn "rise"- w "chick" + b "foot" + n "water ripple" + "sun w/rays" determinative
It is an illuminating and enlightening glittering glow (both from *ghel-(2) "to shine") similar in meaning to the Hebrew word nagah used in the passage above "illumine, cause to shine, glitter, enlighten." And we could say this shining energy is "green"(causing growth, either physically or spiritually), or khlorōs/chloro- "yellow-green" (also from *ghel-(2)) like young green shoots as in[Chloe/'glo-e'🌱] [compare Latin virga "young shoot" 🌱; viridis "green"]
[chlorophyl/'gloro-phyl'] . . .
or glowing. The glow rays of the sun are a sign of glory like the shinning crown of light, or "sun crown" (ancient Egyptian, kha ra / ḫˁ rˁ 👑🌞 sounds like a very guttural 'glory' or 'crown')
on the head of Apollo or Christ,
Apollo with Chlor-ius Daphne and Christ with Glowing Lamp both Adorned with Shining Crowns of Light
For thou art my lamp, O Lord: and thou, Lord, wilt enlighten[nagah] my darkness. 2 Sam. 22:29 Douay-Rheims
or the khlorōs/chloros 🌿 "pale green; fresh" laurel wreath encircling the head of Apollo. Which would remind us of Wadjet the "green one," the snake goddess🐍, the Eye of Ra/Irt Ra, the Iaret "risen one (grown up ↑)," adorning the head of Ra.
Re/Ra with Ureus/Iaret
Reminding us also of the nagah "risen, shining"sun. So we could say the Eye of Ra/Wadjet is a nagah "risen" 🌞 nachash "snake"🐍 or nāgá 🐍, Sanskrit for "snake/cobra,"and is symbolic for the action/doing (ir "eye") of God, or God's glory.
And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a seraph ["fiery, burning"] and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees [raah] it, shall live." Num. 21:8
So Moses made a bronze[or brazen, brass, copper] serpent[nachash, from nachash "enchantment, spell"] and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. Num. 21:9
So this serpent was medicine,
or a salve or solvent for sin and a bringer of victory(yeshua) of life over death. In other words, the bronze serpent gave(begot iri) greeness or was a green eye, Wadjet,
And as Moses lifted[raised] up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him, may not perish; but may have life everlasting. Jn. 3:14-15 Douay-Rheims
who is symbolized by the Ureaus/Iaret which was a nagah[risen/shining✨] naga[serpent]; a seraph.
"She's got the power to heal you never fear!
Oh, she's got the power to heal you never fear. . ."
This shining snake shined(nagah-ed) the healing power of God. That is a serpent with sizzle ♨️!
So we could say the doing(👁 iri) or dw-ing(🤚giving) of God snaked 〜 from this nāga 🐍 or naiein-ed "flowed 〜" from it like the shimmering rays of the sun,
As Moses donned the serpent in the desert, so Christ dawned(owr), so that by his example; that by gazing upon him or considering him, raah, we could grow ↑ to maturity, causing victory or health, i.e., Yeshuah/Jesus. Help us! Yasha' na' / Hosanna 🌿🌿🌿!
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his footsteps. "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. "He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed." 1 Peter 24:21-24 NIV
Rays of light Shining from the Sacred Heart(cor) of Jesus
And all these things, i.e., saving, health, help, victory, enlightenment, illumination are definitely the cause of sunshine, that is, joy and happiness . . .
. . . in the end. First you might have to sweat it out a bit 🥵. But when you finally experience who you are as Christ (beingness without sin), it's brighter than sunshine!🌞
that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be in us, so that the world may believe you have sent me.The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one, Jn. 17:21-22
This is who you are.
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