Sun

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The Sun with some sunspots visible. The two small spots in the middle have about the same diameter as our planet Earth.

The Sun (Hebrewחמה chamah, also wrath, derived from: חַם "hot"; Sanskritसूर्य sūrya; astronomical sign: ☉) is today a fixed star. Rudolf Steiner's occult research shows that it was not always so and that in the future it will evolve to an even higher existence. Only after a series of embodiments or stages of world evolution, which at the same time represent different conditions of consciousness, has the Sun ascended from a planet, the so-called Old Sun, to a fixed-star existence, and it will later be developed to such an extent that a new zodiac system will emerge from it. The Old Sun differed from the present Sun mainly in that the former lit up and darkened again in rhythmic alternation and thus had a kind of light-breathing, whereas the present Sun is always luminous.

„It is in the nature of the Sun that it heats up and dries up to a certain degree. This is more easily perceptible in the Sun than in any other celestial body, by its size and obvious seasonal changes: the more it approaches the zenith, the more it acts in this way.“

Claudius Ptolemy: Tetrabiblos, Book I, The Power of the Planets

In the daytime sky, the Sun appears to the human eye as a solar disk and, unlike the Moon which appears to be approximately the same size, does not leave a plastic-spatial impression.

The Sun sphere or solar sphere, that is, the space that extends from the Earth to the Sun's orbit from a geocentric point of view, is the dominion of the Spirits of Form (see below).

The Sun as the Seat of Exalted Spiritual Beings

From a spiritual point of view, the Sun is the seat of the sublime spiritual beings of the second hierarchy, i.e. the Kyriotetes, Dynameis and Exusiai (Elohim). In order for these to find a suitable dwelling place here, the densest elements first had to be separated out. Therefore, the dense Earth and the other planets separated from the originally common celestial body. Since then, the Sun has consisted of the air element, the heat, the light ether, the sound ether and the life ether. From here the vitalising forces flow through our solar system and indeed the Sun shows itself to the occult eye as the etheric body, the life body of our whole planetary system.

„The second hierarchy stands behind everything that is sunlit. And what is not sunlit and sun-preserved in the circle of that which we present through our senses? Everything is sunlit and sun-preserved.

These beings of the second hierarchy have their preferred abode in the Sun. From the Sun they rule the visible world, which is their revelation. So that we can say: If we have the Earth here, if we have the Sun somewhere looking down upon the Earth, then we have behind the Sun-work, in which Suns work, through the Sun-work, the work of the second Hierarchy, the Exusiai, Kyriotetes, Dynamis.

Drawing from GA 236, p. 276
Drawing from GA 236, p. 276

On the radiations, which are the deeds of the second hierarchy, are borne all the sensuous impressions that can be exerted on man, all the impressions that come to our senses during the day while we are awake. So that in a certain sense we speak correctly when we say: In and through and behind the working of the solar in the circle of our physical-sensuous existence stands the supersensuous world of the second hierarchy.“ (Lit.:GA 236, p. 275f)

The solar sphere is the domain of the Elohim, the Spirits of Form. From the Sun, six of the Elohim, the Creator Gods spoken of in Genesis, radiate light and love to the Earth. Yahweh, the seventh of the Elohim, sends his wisdom to the Earth with the sunlight reflected from the Moon, after the Moon had also later detached itself from the Earth.

Literature

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.