Sun worship is much more broad than people tend to be aware of. With the rise of the Holy Roman Empire they didn’t concede to allow all their traditions to be set aside in favour of purist views, and thus why they have the word Catholic to describe their faith, “universal”. But despite being linked to delusions of empire, it has been commonly revered in some form or another in literally ever culture on the planet.
Some of the biases expressed in Christianity date back to pre-Christian Semitic rivalries. To adopt the ways of the worshipers of Baal or Shamash was to deny the superiority of Israel, treason. Then after the heavy Egyptian influence as they had their reverence for Ra, and the impact it had on those of the tribe of Israel (which they did kill for such a defection), the Nation of Israel rejected the concept of the sun as being sacred. Some look at the later Aztec culture and their practice of human sacrifice with revulsion, but Christianity, and before it the early Nation of Israel, killed as many if not more for the “heresy” of worshipping the sun than the Aztecs did in worshipping it.
Is the sun a universal representation of god/deity? It later became it. The shamanic cultures had an intuitive grasp of the interplay of natural forces, and they saw that the sun seemed to either promote growth in plants or prevent it. So it came to be seen as a source of food and life, as well as death. So in many ways yes, a symbol of the supreme force.
I’m curious about your statement that Israel killed sun worshipers. What’s your source? The Bible. Multiple passages actually advocating stoning, and though they didn’t have the word “witch”, there were references to those who revere nature rather than the unnameable God.
Could you give a couple of example passages? I’m not as Bible literate as I could be. For you…
Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: …
Acts 19:26 Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands:
Deu 17:2 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant,
Deu 17:3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
Deu 17:4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:
Deu 17:5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
Jer 8:1 At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
These are referring to sun gods. They are passages from the Bible, and make specific reference to sun worship and also sea worship. The Nation of Israel was known for not having a strong grasp on seamanship at the time, so there is a passage, I paraphrase; Cursed are those who are skilful to rouse leviathan, a “demon” of the sea.
They disliked all forms of nature? Part of the Semitic schism. There were other Semitic cultures that revered nature, and practiced various things they deemed profane. Fertility rites mostly, as they have a record of killing for their God.
They were purists? Yes. Even to this day the Yezidi people who are accused of being Satanists by both Muslims and Christians, though they mostly have contact with eastern orthodox Catholics in the later case, adhere to the worship of a Semitic deity that was a contemporary of Yahweh. The word Baal, which was Semitic, meant lord, as did El, as well as being two names of Semitic deities.
Where would you find the Yezidi people? In the mountains, roughly west of Afghanistan.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~