Sun Correspondences

The Sun, from Guido Bonatti Liber Astronomiae, Nicolaus Pruknerus, Guido Bonatti

Metal: Gold

Color: Yellow, Yellow-Brown, Orange

Zodiac sign: Leo

Deities: Apollo, Bastet, Mithra, Ra, Sekhmet,

Archangel: Michael

Day of the Week: Sunday

The Sabbath. The quintessence. The government.

Image from The Illustrated Key to the Tarot by Arthur Waite

The Sun is what we first learn about when we start astrology. In pop culture, many people only know about Sun-sign astrology. The Sun is referred to as the center of ourself.

The Sun represents our ego-identity and is the center point of ourself that focuses our willpower and ability to act in the world. It is the life force, and anyone who sun bathes is familiar with the feeling of absolute vitality after an afternoon at the beach. It fuels the growth of animals, vegetables, and trees. 

When we first think of the Sun, we may imagine its qualities of radiance, light, and resplendence. It corresponds to personal qualities of ardor, dignity, glory, greatness, heroism, honor, individuality, loyalty, perseverance, popularity, significance, vigor, and virility as well as shadow qualities of arrogance and excess pride. 

It is also connected with being seen and performances of all kinds. It aligns with Shakespeare’s quote that “All the word’s a stage, and all the men are merely players.”

The stages include the business world and the political arena—in which the Sun is aligned with qualities of achievement, advancement, ambition, authority, confidence, creativity, fame, politics, as well as its shadow qualities of overconfidence and boastfulness.

The stages also include the TV and movie screens, and increasing online platforms, in which we see all of the above Sun qualities as well as increased amounts of creativity and self-expression. The Sun rules many professions in the entertainment industry including theater managers, celebrities, entertainers, and executives. 

Those who work in highly-visible leadership positions, like chief executives, directors, managers, religious leaders, and school principals are associated with the Sun. 

Sun Dogs from The Nuremberg Chronicles

The Sun also presides over the aristocracy and royalty, including the empires that they rule and all of their emblems. All of the royal titles, including king, queen, prince, emperor, duke, etc. are associated with the Sun. The Sun is also connected to the concepts of monarchy, sovereignty, and imperialism. Heads of state and presidents also fall under the rule of the Sun.

The predominant images of the royal families that we see today, including castles, and palaces, fall under the rule of the Sun, as well as their crowns, sceptors, and thrones. 

The coronations of newly appointed kings and queens fall under the rule of the Sun, including the royal coaches that transport the royal family and the pedigreed horses that pull the coaches.

Symbols of wealth such as jewelry, fur, and gold coins are also associated with the Sun. (The concept of money is associated with the Sun, but it is also associated with Venus and Jupiter.) Money changers, money managers, and money lenders are also associated with the Sun, but they are also connected with other planets, as noted above. 

Specific precious gems associated with the Sun include amber, chrysolite, diamonds, gold stones, and rubies. 

The Sun rules the zodiac sign of Leo and is exalted in the sign of Aries. It also rules progeny, especially sons and first-born children. 

Sun Dogs from The Nuremberg Chronicles

The Sun rules the body in general, including one’s physical constitution and one’s general health.

In the body, the Sun rules the heart and the heart wall (pericardium), the back (especially the lower dorsal region), the sides of the body, the spinal cord, spleen, and the eyes.

It also rules the blood and breath—the vital fluids and forces.

Illustration from The Other Side of the Sun, a compilation of short stories by Evelyn Sharp. Drawn by Nellie Syrette.

The Sun rules places associated with amusement and recreation, including ballrooms, casinos, circuses, coliseums, parks, playgrounds, race tracks, resorts, showboats, solariums, stages, and theaters. It also rules large and showy buildings as well as places that feel like “the center of things.”

It rules places associated with the leaders of a government, such as public offices, as well as places associated with money, like stock exchanges. 

Natural landscapes associated with the Sun are those with strong heat like deserts and jungles. 

Illustration of sun god Apollo c. 1539

Flora include almond trees, aloe, angelica, ash trees, bay trees, blueweed, celandine, eye-bright, golden and bright yellow flowers, frankincense, grapefruit trees, helianthus, heliotrope, hornwort, hyacinth, juniper, lemon trees, marigolds, mistletoe, olive trees, orange trees, passion flowers, peonies, pimpernel, poppies, rosemary, rue, saffron, St. John’s wort, sundew, sunflowers, trefoil, vines, walnut trees, wild mustard, and yellow lilies.

Faunas include large felines—cougars, lions, tigers—as well as peacocks.

Food and drinks associated with the Sun include almonds, gin, lemons, limes, olives, oranges, rice, and walnuts.

Orphic Hymn to the Sun (Helios) 

Hear golden Titan, whose eternal eye with broad survey, illumines all the sky. Self-born, unwearied in diffusing light, and to all eyes the mirror of delight: Lord of the seasons, with thy fiery car and leaping coursers, beaming light from far: With thy right hand the source of morning light, and with thy left the father of the night. Agile and vigorous, venerable Sun, fiery and bright around the heavens you run. Foe to the wicked, but the good man's guide, over all his steps propitious you preside: With various founding, golden lyre, it is mine to fill the world with harmony divine. Father of ages, guide of prosperous deeds, the world's commander, borne by lucid steeds, Immortal Jove [Zeus], all-searching, bearing light, source of existence, pure and fiery bright. Bearer of fruit, almighty lord of years, agile and warm, whom every power reveres. Great eye of Nature and the starry skies, doomed with immortal flames to set and rise. Dispensing justice, lover of the stream, the world's great despot, and over all supreme. Faithful defender, and the eye of right, of steeds the ruler, and of life the light: With founding whip four fiery steeds you guide, when in the car of day you glorious ride. Propitious on these mystic labors shine, and bless thy suppliants with a life divine.

Orphic Hymn 33 to Apollo

Blest Pæan, come, propitious to my prayer, illustrious power, whom Memphian tribes revere. Slayer of Tityus, and the God of health, Lycorian Phœbus, fruitful source of wealth. Spermatic, golden-lyred, the field from thee receives it's constant, rich fertility. Titanic, Grunian, Smynthian, thee I sing, Python-destroying, hallow'd, Delphian king: Rural, light-bearer, and the Muse's head, noble and lovely, armed with arrows dread: Far-darting, Bacchian, two-fold, and divine, pow'r far diffused, and course oblique is thine. O, Delian king, whose light-producing eye views all within, and all beneath the sky: Whose locks are gold, whose oracles are sure, who, omens good reveal'st, and precepts pure: Hear me entreating for the human kind, hear, and be present with benignant mind; For thou surveyed this boundless æther all, and every part of this terrestrial ball. Abundant, blessed; and thy piercing sight, extends beneath the gloomy, silent night; Beyond the darkness, starry-eyed, profound, the stable roots, deep fixed by thee are found. The world's wide bounds, all-flourishing are thine, thyself all the source and end divine: 'Tis thine all Nature's music to inspire, with various-sounding, harmonising lyre; Now the last string thou tuned to sweet accord, divinely warbling now the highest chord; The immortal golden lyre, now touched by thee, responsive yields a Dorian melody. All Nature's tribes to thee their difference owe, and changing seasons from thy music flow. Hence, mix'd by thee in equal parts, advance Summer and Winter in alternate dance. This claims the highest, that the lowest string, the Dorian measure tunes the lovely spring. Hence by mankind, Pan-royal, two-horned named, emitting whistling winds through Syrinx famed; Since to thy care, the figured seal's consigned, which stamps the world with forms of every kind. Hear me, blessed power, and in these rites rejoice, and save thy mystics with a suppliant voice.