Each part of your human psyche is symbolized in astrology by a planetary energy originally thought to be a particular god. And just as the Sun is the most important “planet” in the solar system, it is also the most important planetary energy in your astrological makeup. So now ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I introduce to you your inner and outer solar system, starting with—the Sun.

The Sun’s symbol is the circle of the eternal self that did not start here, nor will it finish here on Earth. At its center is the divine spark at the center of all living things, “the light which lighteth every man [and woman] whosoever cometh into this world.” It is the point of light at the center of every living cell.

The Sun symbolizes the universal life force present in each of us as a divine spark. It represents consciousness, our spirit, the yang principle of action, our drive for significance, physical energy, will, our source of power and strength, the future, authority figures, the hero, rulers, older people, and gurus. Through the Sun we become whole and unified. By our conscious awareness and the exercise of our will (the Sun), all of our other personality functions (the planets) become integrated.

Being the active yang principle, the Sun is the polar counterpart to the passive yin principle the Moon. Together the Sun and the Moon are called “the lights,” and are the most significant symbols of your primal male-female, yin-yang polarity. Aspects between the Sun and the Moon often describe how your parents related and how you took that in, and therefore how you are internally married to and integrated with your self. This learned, imitated, or karmic self-marriage often manifests as your success or failure in marriages in the outer world.

Solar type individuals, those with strongly placed Suns, have great vitality as well as the need to manifest their vision of the world. This is not done selflessly, for as the Sun’s light is reflected back to it by the many bodies of the solar system, so too, the solar personality needs the reflections of recognition and acknowledgment from those on whom it shines. Such people command positions of authority and place themselves in the forefront of activities where they can be seen. And they seem to gain notice simply by their presence and force of personality.

The Sun, along with Saturn, also represents the father function in one’s psyche, or more precisely, authority figures, who might in fact have been our mother, were she our source of authority. And most precisely, the Sun represents our experience of authority or of having been fathered, not necessarily who our father really was, or what actually happened.

In female charts the Sun represents the men in their lives, particularly the husband, as well as the father-images or authority figures. The Sun rules the sign Leo (see Johfra Bosschart’s beautiful Leo painting on page 86), and in the human body it rules the spine, heart, thymus gland and circulatory system. Our erect spine represents the courage and will to be an individual, and our heart holds our love.

The Sun, its planets, asteroids, comets, and other gravitationally held bodies are collectively known as the solar system (literally, the system of "Sol," Roman god of the Sun and similar to the Greek god Helios). In Scandinavia, she was also know as Sol, or Glory-of-Elves. The ancient Viking poems prophesy that on doomsday the Sun will bear a daughter who will be the new Sun, the luminous world to come.

This page and much of this 550-page website are excerpted from You and the Universe, a handmade, personalized 342-page fine art book on astrology, mythology and astronomy through which the recipient's complete astrological reading is woven.