Could it have been a coincidence?
In our ongoing [L+R} series, we’ve honed in certain homonyms for further [rational+intuitive} inquiry.
Today, we embark on an exploration of Sun and Son, a mesmerizing dance between the celestial body that has powered life on Earth — the source of the light in our Solar System, and a boy’s relationship to his father /Father — moving beyond the result of an [X+Y} chromosome-pairing and several billion years of evolution into the symbolic nature of love.
Take a deep breath and imagine a spectrum
Build a mind bridge from left to right
Left: The Sun — Cosmic Luminary
At some point in the last year, after daily morning walks and meditations facing a rising sun, I realized that there was immense wisdom that seemed to be emanating from the multi-colored rays teasing tastes of light through the trees.
Stanford’s Dr. Andrew Huberman states that sunlight exposure in the early hours of the morning, as it’s rising, is an excellent way to prime the human body’s circadian rhythms.
There is growing evidence in neuroscience that actually directly contradicts what cancer-concerned dermatologists have been pushing for in the United States for some time now. A scientific dissonance to unpack at a later date, perhaps.
It makes sense, though.
Consider that the sun had a role to play in the emergence of life on the planet as we know it.
Remembering this every morning meant that the effect of aligning my life cycles to the celestial eye in the sky quickly became non-negotiable, and a staple in my gratitude practice.
In “Cosmos”, Carl Sagan introduces the Sun not merely as a star but as the cornerstone of life. There are many like it in the universe, but of course, we love and depend on ours, 93 million miles away.
It takes that light 8 and 23 seconds to get reach the rods and cones in your pretty eyes.
Not much changes about the Sun in so short a time, but it still means that when you look at the Sun, you see it as it was 8 minutes ago.
Different wavelengths convey different data about the multiple components of the Sun’s surface and atmosphere, so seeing the Sun in multiple types of light helps paint a fuller picture.
At some point in the past year, we noticed that our relationship to the Sun had changed.
It was almost as if we were rewarded for aligning to it, the light now reflected and refracted differently. Upon squinting and angling away (about 30 degrees), we started to consistently notice little rainbows in the sunlight.
It quickly became our favorite part of waking up in the mornings.
Through strengthening a relationship, the sun had somehow become more important to me.
It’s a constant reminder of our small yet significant place in the grand cosmic order, a beacon that guides us to contemplate our role in the vastness of space and time.
And as I sat on a hill in the early morning hours reading scripture (Bhagavad Gita and Quran together), it dawned on us — literally, and figuratively, that we are here to cultivate gratitude and an enduring sense of awe and celebration for that for our neighborhood nuclear fusion reactor.
That was when I decided to stop taking the Sun and its wisdom for granted.
Rite: The Son — A Continuum of Humanity
Theoretically, every father is a son, but not every son is a father. Which makes fathers and sons a bit like squares and rectangles.
There are 70 million (human) sons born every year — about 2 per second, every single day. Many more in the animal kingdom.
Of course, it was in the laboratory of our mothers and the portal to another dimension therein that we came to be. In a bizarre but fitting twist, something like an oedipal complex was allowed to exist (Freud’s theory of a a stage in child development where attraction for the mother pits the child against the father).
But for all the profound relationship dynamics afforded by human nature, Khalil Gibran, in “The Prophet”, speaks most profoundly on children.
“Your children are not your children
They are sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself
They come through you but not from you
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you”
This perspective elevates the concept of the son beyond mere biological lineage to embody human legacy and future potential.
In fact, the element of the family is what makes us all equal! The strength of love between a father and mother for their son or daughter is as powerful a force in the universe, only its not measurable by scientific instruments, and human’s often confuse love with self-preservation and attachment.
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True love knows the nature of life is impermanence, transience, and selflessness.
Gibran’s philosophy teaches us that sons and daughters are not in the “possession” category the way evolutionary conditioning has suggested (and in fact has been necessary for survival), but rather living manifestations of life’s forward movement, each carrying the torch of human experience into uncharted futures.
Our parents had radios and black and white television sets.
We have drones and TikTok.
Interestingly, its through our kids that the past can creep back up to us. The reckoning that comes from how one raises their sons (and daughters!) speaks volumes on the loyalty, love, and respect that gets reciprocated back as humans begin that downward descent (back) into dependence: old age.
And nothing that we know is older than the stars in the night sky.
Corpus: The Convergence of Cosmic and Human Journeys
On a literal level, we humans are 100% made from starstuff. But so is most everything, on a macro kind of level that is supposed to render it “not as special as it might sound”.
However, there are alleged to have been a few true men of God who seemed to know something about reality, who could bypass conditioning and perhaps lived in a perpetual gamma brain-wave state, tuning in and out of the game at will, making miracles happen.
These sons include Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, and others that didn’t get books written about them.
During the trial of Jesus in Mark 14:61, the high priest asked Jesus: “Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?”
Jesus responded:
“I am”
Jesus’ claim here was emphatic enough to make the high priest tear his robe and sentence him to death.
Now, it is known that the prophets loved to speak in riddles, such was there understanding of the game. Their lives were merely examples, where the “caring for self” that mere mortals were preoccupied with was essentially outsourced and placed in the hands of a higher power.
Jesus could have meant that his DNA was expressed in such a way that it facilitated an interaction with light (understanding of truth/ability to sit with paradox and make meaning on the fly a la relevance realization) that was akin to that light-providing celestial body, the Sun of God.
Why is this not outrageous? Because Krishna (think Indian Jesus but thousands of years earlier) in chapter 10 verse 21 of Bhagavad Gita states:
Among the shining gods I am… Of luminaries I am the sun… And in the night sky I am the moon.
Maybe, just maybe… The mystics were operating on a level outside of the average cognitive comprehension, perhaps the mind in their gut-brain axis, or solar plexus, was activated such that it afforded a different set of rules to play — and a different level of understanding reality:
The rare realization that [Sun+Son} are one and the same.
Joseph Campbell, in “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, delves into the archetypal hero’s journey, mirroring the life journey of every son and daughter.
The metaphor for humanity’s quest for identity and purpose is paralleled in the Sun’s consistent path across the sky — a template in the matrix propped up by the laws of physics.
Carl Jung’s “Man and His Symbols” intricately weaves external cosmic symbols with internal human experiences. He uncovers how the archetypes of the Sun and son emerge from our collective unconscious, representing universal truths about our existence, the cycles of nature, and the depths of the human psyche.
The Illuminated Path: Embracing Celestial and Human Aspects
Our exploration, enriched by these intellectual and spiritual giants, encourages us to view the sun and son not merely as physical entities but as profound symbols of life’s journey.
They reflect the quest for knowledge and wisdom, the search for purpose, and the cycles of birth, growth, and renewal that define our existence.
Conclusion: The Dance of Light and Life
Through the teachings of Campbell, Sagan, Jesus, Krishna, Gibran, and Jung, we gain a deeper appreciation for the interconnected dance of light and life. This simple contemplation illuminates our path, guiding us through existence’s cycles with a blend of cosmic brilliance and human wisdom.
Here, we find lessons of resilience, growth, and perpetual renewal, rooted in the eternal interplay between the cosmos and the human spirit.
It’s a [L+R} narrative that transcends time and space, inviting us to embrace our place in the cosmos and our role in the unfolding story of humanity.
Additional Readings:
- “The Power of Myth” by Joseph Campbell
- “Pale Blue Dot” by Carl Sagan
- “Sand and Foam” by Khalil Gibran
- “Psychology and Alchemy” by Carl Jung
And now, my friends, I’ll leave you with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
