Sun

General description

SÛRYA (the Sun), in its visible reflection, exhibits the first, or lowest state of the seventh, the highest state of the Universal PRESENCE, the pure of the pure, the first manifested Breath of the ever Unmanifested SAT (Be-ness). All the Central physical or objective Suns are in their substance the lowest state of the first Principle of the BREATH. Nor are any of these any more than the REFLECTIONS of their PRIMARIES which are concealed from the gaze of all but the Dhyan Chohans, whose Corporeal substance belongs to the fifth division of the seventh Principle of the Mother substance, and is, therefore, four degrees higher than the solar reflected substance.

Seven suns

The Theosophical teachings not only mention the physical sun known by Scientists, but postulates there are "seven Suns", which are the central bodies of the seven systems of planes of being. In one of her writings she relates these "suns" to some of the Orders of Celestial Beings as follows:

Thus, though the seventh principle reaches man through all the phases of being, pure as an indiscrete element and an impersonal unity, it passes through (the Kabala teaches from) the Central Spiritual Sun and Group the second (the polar Sun), which two radiate on man his Atma. Group Three (the equatorial Sun) cement the Buddhi to Atman and the higher attributes of Manas, while group Four (the spirit of our visible sun) endows him with his Manas and its vehicle—the Kama rupa, or body of passions and desires, the two elements of Ahamkara which evolve individualized consciousness—the personal ego.

Central sun

This “central sun” of the Occultists, which even Science is obliged to accept astronomically, for it cannot deny the presence in Sidereal Space of a central body in the milky way, a point unseen and mysterious, the ever-hidden centre of attraction of our Sun and system—this “Sun” is viewed differently by the Occultists of the East. While the Western and Jewish Kabalists (and even some pious modern astronomers) claim that in this sun the God-head is specially present—referring to it the volitional acts of God—the Eastern Initiates maintain that, as the supra-divine Essence of the Unknown Absolute is equally in every domain and place, the “Central Sun” is simply the centre of Universal life-Electricity the reservoir within which that divine radiance, already differentiated at the beginning of every creation, is focussed. Though still in a laya, or neutral condition, it is, nevertheless, the one attracting, as also the ever-emitting, life Centre.

Spiritual sun

In ancient Symbolism it was always the SUN (though the Spiritual, not the visible, Sun was meant), that was supposed to send forth the chief Saviours and Avatars.

The closer the approach to one’s Prototype, “in Heaven,” the better for the mortal whose personality was chosen, by his own personal deity (the seventh principle), as its terrestrial abode. For, with every effort of will toward purification and unity with that “Self-god,” one of the lower rays breaks and the spiritual entity of man is drawn higher and ever higher to the ray that supersedes the first, until, from ray to ray, the inner man is drawn into the one and highest beam of the Parent-SUN. Thus, “the events of humanity do run co-ordinately with the number forms,” since the single units of that humanity proceed one and all from the same source—the central and its shadow, the visible SUN.

Online resources

Articles

• Is the Sun Merely A Cooling Mass? by H. P. Blavatsky
• The Mystery "Sun of Initiation" by H. P. Blavatsky
• Symbolism of Sun and Stars by H. P. Blavatsky
• The Trial of the Sun Initiate by H. P. Blavatsky
• Our Sun And The True Sun by W. Q. Judge
• Spiritual Symbolism of the Sun and Moon by Alvin Boyd Kuhn
• The Sun at Theosophy Trust
• Zodiacal Sun at Theosophy Trust
• The Sun in Theosophy at WisdomWorld.org