The Sun of Suns
By Pythia Peay

"This is the miracle--
Every tree becomes beautiful
When touched by sunlight;
Every soul becomes God 
When touched by the Sun of Tabriz" --  Rumi ¹

This month's new moon takes place in gold-hearted Leo.  The sunny brilliance of this sign is amplified by its close conjunction to the fixed star, royal Regulus.² Against the tense backdrop of the ongoing Saturn/Pluto opposition ³ this lunation appears like a star of hope.  Indeed, the sun is earth's star, lighting up our little corner of the Universe.  The ancients honored humankind's dependence on the sun by affixing their sacred festivals - the solstices and equinoxes - to it's annual passage through the sky.

Astrologers typically describe Leo as extroverted, playful, and creative. Yet perhaps because Leo is placed in the 12th house of my own natal chart, I find meaning in it's deeper side, experiencing it as a kind of inner "pilot light."  In this sense Leo can manifest as the spiritual light-force that powers our faith for, as Rumi writes, "He is the Sun in whose track every heart must follow." ¹

Mystics across the centuries, for instance, have spoken of the Sun as a doorway to the realms of spirit.  The Sufi teacher Pir Vilayat speaks of the Sun as a great Archangelic Being.  Ancient Sufis spoke of the "Midnight Sun" as a way to describe the soul's encounter with the Divine. "Sun of the mystery," "Sun of the heart, "Sun of the spirit" -- these are among the invocations used by the 13th-century Sufi Najm Kobra ⁴  in his teachings on light. 

How can we rekindle the light of our soul hidden within us? How can we experience the Divine Light that is our original nature? To begin with, it helps to concentrate on the light we see reflected in nature.  Find a place to meditate outside, or position yourself near a window.  Soak in the sunlight that shimmers through the air and lovingly caresses the trees and plants. Feel yourself warmed by the sun's rays; allow your body to be filled with its vital, life-giving magnetism.  Close your eyes and, as you inhale and exhale, breathe in sunlight until your whole body is vibrant with light. Feel your aura radiate. Let your consciousness expand into space; be awed by the fiery plumes of light exploding from the Sun's corona.  Spin with the planets as they encircle it's mother star. 

Next, imagine that your whole psyche is being bathed in a shower of light.  Allow every dark corner of yourself to be lit up; experience the Sun's kindness as it generously melts away your fear, shame and guilt. The Sun is the ultimate lover: all your hard, unforgiving edges melt away in its broad, beneficent, light-giving Being.  Slowly, as you feel more and more filled with light, you may feel as if you have returned to a place that feels familiar.  For as it is taught in many wisdom traditions, your true self is a ray of light descended from the Sun of Suns, the Divine source. During the course of your journey on earth, however, the core of light within you became veiled, eclipsed by the darkness of forgetfulness and ignorance. Now, experience the joy and love that comes from reconnecting with your genuine 
heritage as a being of light.

Finally, close your meditation by experiencing the light coalesce into a solar disc within the inner chamber of your heart.  Recall, for instance, images of saints and prophets whose hearts were aflame with love of God, light streaming from this divine center through their fingertips, illuminating their faces, shooting out the top of their head in aureoles of luminescence.  It is the power of their faith that burns so brightly; it is knowledge of their true origins that generates their soft glow.  So remember, when life is hard, and the embers of faith burn low, that your heart, too, is a Sun, a "light upon light"  ⁵ whose home is in the stars.

References

¹ Rumi: In the Arms of the Beloved, by Jonathan Star
² The fixed star Regulus is located at 29.08 Leo (Brady's Book of Fixed Stars).
³ Saturn and Pluto oppose each other from 13 degrees Gemini and 13 degrees Sagittarius
⁴ The Man of Light In Iranian Sufism, by Henri Corbin
⁵ Koran, 24:35