Planetary Personalities: The Sun

Astrology is archetypical, it attributes everything under the sun as embodying unique combinations of energy and elements. In my last post, I asked you to consider when is your time, where is your place, and what is your power, now it's time start getting to know the planets in the same way, as divine archetypes on a divine stage. Over the next 7 weeks, we will explore together what each planet empowers within us and how to see evidence of their guiding principles, their personalities, and the challenges they present all living things.

In October of 2024, I began working with an incredible illustrator and visual artist, Alex Raguso (@crumb_eater on insta), to transmute my written descriptions of the 7 primary planets into a series of Tarot Card style illustrations. We spent months talking through mythology, etymology, and astrology to find the cultural common threads. We did draft after draft of both the text and the illustrations until these cards were born. I am grateful and proud and hope this collaboration helps contextualize why celestial bodies and their rich cultural histories have always, and will always be celebrated as important to human's understanding of themselves and their power. Below, you will find the fruits of that labor in all their HQ glory. We posted version on social media meant to poison AI, so please refrain from reposting the unpoisoned version in this post anywhere else. I've also included the collage I made after writing each planetary profile at the very end. First up, The Sun!

The Sun: Rules the sign Leo

I associate it with the lion, its animal archetype, with warm fiery colors, and the material gold. There is an innocence, joy, and love that occurs at the very beginning of a life that I also associate with the sun. This is backed up by tarot imagery (the gold haired baby riding a horse). The sun sustains all life on earth, and although I do see it as sort of our solar system’s paternal figure, it's important to me that it isn't represented as a man specifically. In astrology gender only ever serves the purpose of representing introverted vs extroverted individuals which works better when describing the signs, than their planetary parents. The Sun is more about fatherhood as a position than it is about a literal father figure. Fatherhood is associated with succession. Although the Sun is extroverted in the way it shines, its energy can be held and sustained over time the way roles, responsibilities, and titles are. It's less about the ability to father, and more about the sustained role of a father in relation to a kingdom.

Etymology tells us a lot about the planets as well. The root word "sol" in context, usually means the center of something ("the sole purpose of this meeting is..."), this is why it's also associated with the heart which sits at the center of our body and sustains the life of everything it touches as it expels blood like rays of sunlight. This vitality, or lust (as Crowley called it) for life, is the energy of the sun. It represents the ruler that doesn’t hoard, but gathers in order to distribute. At its heart, every celestial body is an example that the power of grandeur serves a purpose beyond itself and has a role to play in the sustenance of a celestial ecosystem.

When I think of fatherhood as a role, there is one character in pop culture that nails the Sun archetype. Mufasa, and not just because he's a lion, although that helps, but more for his speech to Simba about their kingdom. "Dom" is also another root word found in many astrological studies of the sun. "Dominion" is often the word used to describe the power that the sun has to rule, but only within its domain. The sun can only sustain the life its light can touch. This is exactly how a King's power operates, it only goes as far as its title can claim, as far as its domain will allow. Once something is beyond the sun's reach, it is beyond its power. Domain and kingdom as words imply a level of limitation. Despite the Sun’s power, it is still limited to its own solar system. This is also illustrated in the tarot renditions of the Sun that always show the castle wall. The King only protects, uplifts, highlights, and respects that which falls within his domain. This is why the role of fatherhood is central to a king’s power. A king's pride (lion pun) and joy, is often his children, but only if they are an extension of or represent the expansion of his domain. Both the power and the fault of fatherhood as a political position is its expectation for what it fathers: to continue the line of succession, to prioritize the will of the kingdom, to take on the role simply because it gave you life. Pride can also burn. With too much attention, it can destroy that which it brought to life.

There’s an excerpt from one of my favorite Astrology writers, Alice Sparkly Kat, that reads:

"Leos love themselves. They have the courage to show that they love themselves to the world. When the “wrong” people wear such blatant displays of self love, they always take on the emotions of those who can’t bear to see someone just love their own face in the mirror for a second longer than is socially acceptable. We live in such a world where some people are not allowed to see themselves and to love what they see."

I love the Sun in this context. I think about this idea of representing those who are afforded less pride and what a noble cause that is. The responsibility of collective attention and intention is the weight of a crown and a throne. For your people, you must remain, take the heat, and empower beyond yourself. A good king never forgets where this power comes from and where it must go after. Children are important to the sun because they are a socially acceptable form of pride. How else do we love ourselves, but through creation? And when our creations take on lives of their own, create for themselves new and better worlds, expand and deepen our reach, is that not true dominion?