Let all of heaven be hushed. Earth and sea and breezes. Let the mountains and valleys keep silence. The cries and songs of birds. For soon he will come to us, unsure and lovely haired Phoebus Helios, the ever journeying Light of life Mesomedes of Crete. 2nd century CE.“Hymn To The Sun” solar worship was one of mankind's earliest forms of religion, and the first deviation from our original veneration of only Mother Earth and the Moon. As we learned to forage and cultivate and observed our world's generative cycle, we discovered the sexual relationship between the Divine Feminine and her consort, the divine masculine that caused the world to sprout, grow, bloom, seed, wither and return to dust to be reborn again. Domesticating cattle brought us into stewardship of this relationship, breeding generations of cows to feed generations of human beings. The sun, moon and seasons governed this world, and it was worship of the cycle that eventually produced the Mithraic cult, among many others around the world. The sun has always been considered life and lightbringer the source of physical vitality and also of spiritual fortitude. It represents the essence of the divine masculine manifest at our level of reality. It is the center of the solar system and the greatest of the lights of the heavens from our perspective, anyway, no other force in the universe contributes directly to life on earth. The energy of the sun powers every living being on this planet, directly or indirectly. And just as our young and vibrant sun gave mythical Superman his strength and power, the glory of soul fills us with strength, vitality and resilience. In recent history, modern science has begun to piece together the truth of what mystics and solar devotees have been telling us for millennia that the sun isn't just a source of energy, but also a source of healing power. And in our modern world, we are so starved for the life giving light of the sun that we become vulnerable in its absence, weaker in muscle, more susceptible to respiratory diseases and lacking in mental and emotional resilience. All kinds of drugs are produced in mostly unsuccessful attempts to supplant the natural healing qualities of the sun with substitutions which can be monetized and monopolized. The problem is, nothing works like the real thing. The sun has been a healer for thousands of years, both in myth and in effect. Sunbathing was so popular among the Greeks and Romans that their houses sometimes had dedicated areas called solariums by the Romans for the pastime of tanning. How things have changed. Today, more people fear the sun than worship it. Climate scientists, skin care professionals and oncologists all give the sun and exposure to sunlight a very bad reputation in popular media. There are even certain extremists that want to blot out the sun by spraying aerosolized chemicals into the air to filter out its essential light. But rather than less light, we need more of it for energy to grow the crops that feed the world and directly for the health of our bodies, minds and spirits. In this episode, I'm going to demonstrate how the role of the sun in our collective consciousness has changed throughout time, and how it's in our best interest to return to the old practices of worshiping and basking in the light of the sun. Stay tuned for episode 19 in just a moment. Welcome to the Postmugglism podcast, the show that discusses magic in the post-modern age, how to flourish in the fringes and how to reenchant your experience of the world. I'm your host, Nate, and this is my 19th episode, The Light of Life. Thanks for tuning in. In this episode, I'm going to examine the role of the Sun in health in healing, starting first by looking at how the sun is expressed in various mythologies and later by healing practices. And now in current times, how we straight away from the common sense and commonly practiced wisdom that has been with us through the ages, that the sun increases vitality, reinforces the body against illness and kills and cures many of the things that make us unwell. We'll discuss how pharmaceutical companies have failed to capitalize on the powers of sunlight and can't monopolize them, so they demonize them instead and will reconstruct practices for working with the sun magically and for wellness and health. If you're new to this show, please consider subscribing wherever you listen to podcasts so that you don't miss new episodes which are published every two weeks. just search for the Postmugglism podcast And you can always watch on YouTube if you prefer that option. And check out my website for all my other content articles, videos, my monthly guide on lunar mansion elections, other episodes of this podcast and more at www.postmugglism.com. and as you listen to this episode and find that you want to know more about the healing properties of the sun and about alternative healing in general, then I encourage you to consider working with me as a shamanic energy healer. You can learn more about energy healing and book a session with me at www.sacredserpent.com and you can save 50% on your first session with me if you book with the code FIRSTSESSION all spelled out. That's www.sacredserpent.co and the code is FIRSTSESSION all spelled out. To begin this episode, The Light of Lights. Let's look at the sun's role in mythology around the world to understand how ancient people saw the sun and to see what we might have lost along the way to modernity. The Sun's preeminent role s provider of the energy of life Earned it an early place in our religions and cosmologies. Some of the earliest and most enduring forms of worship were dedicated to the veneration of the life giving sun. In early Mesopotamia, More than 5000 years ago, the Sumerians worshiped the sun as Utu and their neighbors as Shamash. Joining Sin, the Moon, God and Ishtar(Inanna), the goddess of sex and war, as the primary three duties of the ancient Mesopotamian world./ Shamash under variations of the name appears in religious cuneiform tablets and other writings from the earliest periods of recorded history prior to 3500 BCE to around 100 BCE when the mentions of the sun, God began to appear less frequently in the religious texts. A period of over 3000 years in Egypt, the sun was worshiped from the old Kingdom(around 2800 BCE) as the god Ra through the new Kingdom(1500 BCE) as the God of Amon and then through the solar monotheism the Aten around 1350 BCE, as well as the later synthesizing of multiple solar gods under the name Amon-Ra and others until Egypt's eventual conquest by the Romans. Since time immemorial, the king of Egypt was ceremonially granted divinity and then considered to be the son of the sun God and divine in his own right through solar worship. The authority of divine kings derived directly from the authority of the Sun as the ultimate life giver. For over 2500 years, the city of Heliopolis in Egypt was devoted to the worship of RA, clearly influencing the later Greeks who worshiped the physical aspects of the sun as Helios, the Titan Helios Hyperion was son and grandson of Ourania in the sky and Gaia, the Earth and brother to Selene the Moon, which obviously derives inspiration from the Cosmologies of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Worship of Helios traces to around 400 BCE and continued even into the Roman Empire under the name Sol Helios is described as “gladdening men”, i.e. raising their spirits, connecting him to mental health and the immortalized Greek geographer Pausanias in his description of Greece, related his story of the inhabitants of Kleonai, who, when afflicted by a plague, were directed by the Oracle at Delphi to sacrifice a goat to Helios at sunrise. Upon success, they sent a bronze goat to Delphi, home of the Cult of Apollo and Helios and his Oracle in gratitude. This obviously connects solar worship with physical health. The nonphysical or spiritual aspects of the Sun God were personified as Apollo, the beautiful youth and inspiration of the muses and source of the divinely inspired ramblings of Pythia, the Oracle at Delphi. Apollo ruled song and poetry knowledge, healing, plagues and disease, and was referred to often as the Phoebus or Phoebian, which means bright one. Helios warms our physical being and brings vital life energy to earth, and Apollo illuminates our minds and lifts our spirits, each being an aspect of wholeness, coherence and health. As if to demonstrate that healing energy is more of a spectrum than a destination, Apollo was mythically depicted as ruler of both plagues and their cures. Apollo's beauty was renowned and provided him many willing conquests and offspring included in this number is the Greek god of medicine, the renowned healer and demigod Asclepius. Asclepius was sired by Apollo and born in a fire surgically cut from his mother's womb to save him and raised and trained by the center and magical healer Chiron studied under and matched his natural divine talent with deep knowledge and mastery of medicine, surgery and other treatments. He married Epione a goddess of soothing, and they fathered nine children. Laso and Telesphorus, goddess and god of recuperation. Hygieia a goddess of cleanliness, Aglaea goddess of good health, Panacea, goddess of remedy, Aceso goddess of healing; Machaon and Podilarus, gifted healers of the Trojan War and Atreus, a healer. After Asclepius’ untimely death at the hands of Zeus, his followers are said to have erected a temple dedicated to the demigod called the Asclepion at Epidaurus, which became the most important healing center of its time throughout the Greek world. Treatment at the Asclepion included regimens of exercise in the sunlight and purification, or ‘Katharsis’ which featured simple, clean living (detoxification) and cleansing baths. Greece's most famous healers were said to have studied at the Asclepius, including the famed Hippocrates from whom the modern Hippocratic Oath is derived to the Inca, a world away, the solar deity, which ruled above all others besides the God of Creation himself, Viracocha, was named Inti and represented, as with most solar deities, royalty, power, vitality and life giving energy. despite Viracohca’s higher status in their cosmology, Inti ruled over all of creation in practice and like an Egypt and Sumer, the connection to the Sun God, and therefore the divine masculine and the right to rule, was extended as a blessing from the sun himself. inti sister, is mama Kiia, the moon, mirroring that familiar shamanic pattern of the sun and moon descending from the deified heavens. substantial quantities of the Incas annual bounty was reserved for making offerings to Inti in particular, to express gratitude, and to barter for good harvests and good fortunes in the seasons ahead, a special class of priests brewed chicha a fermented beverage made from maize or corn, and provided regular offerings and made prayers to Inti and performed special duties during religious holidays, such as the Solstice chicha. The fermented maize drink served at religious ceremonies was inextricably tied to Inti and the actual big yellow life giving sun in the sky as well as it was derived from fermented corn, which is naturally such a sun hungry plant that it really can't avoid association with the sun. God. if you were sick in the Inca Empire, you might hire a healer to diagnose you via divination using chicha and chicha was probably what you'd offer your ancestors, or one of the gods to change your fate, heal your community and put an end to your misfortunes. Chicha also acted as a preventative medicine and the blessed substance with which to bring the sun God into yourself. Around the world and across history. Worshiping the sun is an essential aspect of religious and cultural development, which is universally seen as the source of life on earth and our connection to the divine masculine. In many examples from civilization separated by time and distance, the sun is also seen as a healer and the progenitor of all great healers. The connections between health, vitality and the wellness of spirit to the sun are clear and enduring. Sun worship predates nearly all other forms of religious expression, and in his devotion, the greatest civilizations of the ancient worlds. The Greeks and Romans both prioritized exposure to the sun for physical and mental health and woven tightly into these beliefs and practices was an understanding of the Sun as a cosmological figure of great power and illuminating wisdom, which was derived from an understanding of the cosmos in astrological terms. The sun plays a central role in astrology, as in astronomy. But astrology represents our view of the heavens from a geocentric perspective. From our position here on Earth, the centrality of the sun in astrology is metaphorical and spiritual instead of physical or spatial. Astrology describes the cycles that humanity experiences from our position on earth relative to the planets which move across our sky and the backdrop of the starry cosmos behind them. the planets, sun and moon appear to circle the earth each day from our viewpoint here on the ground. But the sun's brilliance dominates the day to the point of obscuring the other heavenly bodies., save the faint outline of the waning moon as it separates from conjoining the sun. The positions of the sun throughout the day identify the ascendant, mid heaven, descendant and nadir positions, and define the angles of the astrological chart. the ascendant is the eastern horizon, where the sun rises. The Midheaven Sol’s zenith at the midpoint in the sky directly above us,. The descendant is naturally the opposite of the ascendant; the point in the west where the sun disappears below the horizon. And the nadir, also known as the IC, is the midpoint of the sun's journey below us through the underworld, All the heavenly bodies orbit the sun, of course. So from both perspectives, geo and heliocentric, the sun is central to our understanding of the local cosmos, physically and metaphorically. the Sun's primary role in astrology is as the greater luminary, the biggest light in the sky, the power of all the planets in the solar system, astrologically as it were, comes from their reflection of the sun's light, not their own. Even the blessed Moon is called the lesser luminary because even her brilliance is the reflection of the light of Sol, Helios, Ra, etc. As a ruling powers in the sky, the sun and moon divide up the orbital bodies between them.

diurnal or nocturnal. Day or night. Jupiter and Saturn are both diurnal planets, for example, and Venus and Mars are nocturnal. Mercury is material and common between both sects. the balancing of benefic and malefic planets (Jupiter and Saturn, Venus and Mars) demonstrates how dualism is expressed in astrology. Two lights, day and night to rule and empower the lesser lights (the planets) holds the system in working order. The light of the sun is representative of masculine, generative energy. The moon's ability to reflect the sun's light is representative of her receptive, feminine nature. The sun represents spiritual energy, a.k.a. the energy body, and the moon represents the actual physical body. Both are involved in health, but the healing energy itself comes from the sun, literally from the rays of the sun being beamed at Earth and reflected by the moon and so on. In Hellenistic and medieval European astrology, The Sun's role in health and healing is veiled, slightly encamped in primarily spiritual terms because the moon represents the physical body. However, as I just explained via the concept of luminaries, the Sun's life giving force is ultimately what enables life growth and healing in general, quoting Dematra George's Ancient Astrology In theory and practice, “The sun is nature's fire and it represents the light of the intellect, the organ of mental perception and the life breath and its movement. It represents the soul as the divine part of the human mind. It is recognized for its healing and somewhat drying qualities. The sun rules gold, wheat and barley, the color, yellow, gold and sun. The nature of the sun is to build its essence. According to Valens, is the ruler of light.” Still, within this description is the key to the Sun's role in healing. Sol represents the life, breath and its movement, meaning the spark of life. The sun's nature is to build, or perhaps we could say, to grow. And the sun is the ruler of light, which in an astrological sense is how we refer to the powers and qualities of each thing under the sun, including the planets. Giving their light refers to sending their energies our way. In Vedic astrology, however, the relationship to physical health and well-being is more explicit. The sun is considered the most important celestial in the life of an individual, and he is called the giver of good health. the rays of the rising sun were considered especially curative, which we have since proven scientifically true. And thus daily prayers were encouraged during sunrise to boost health and eliminate disease causing factors. from an article about the role of the Sun in Healing in the India Times. According to the Rig Veda, the rays of the rising sun can heal heart problems, jaundice, anemia, etc.. The Atharva Veda also says that rays have unique healing properties for heart related problems and for patients suffering from anemia. So the sun is clearly associated with health and healing processes, Each of the Zodiac's 12 signs are ruled by one of the seven traditional celestials Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter or Saturn, such as Saturn. Rule in Capricorn and Aquarius are Mercury ruling, Gemini and Virgo. However, the sun only rules the sign of Leo. According to Chris Brennan's“Hellenistic Astrology”, “Sign relationships seem to be derived from a symmetrical scheme in which the two luminaries are allocated to two signs during the warmest and brightest part of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. And the rest of the planets are allotted to the signs flanking the luminaries based on their relative speed and distance. Thus, the moon and sun are assigned to cancer and Leo respectively. Finally, Saturn is the most distant and slowest visible planet and is assigned to the two signs that are furthest from the two luminaries. Capricorn and Aquarius.” what's interesting is that Saturn is associated with cold, whereas the sun is associated with heat and August is bright and hot in the northern hemisphere and January and February are the opposite overcast and cold. Similarly, the sun is in its fall, the sign where it is at its weakest, in Libra, which marks the beginning of the fall season in the Northern Hemisphere and signals the decline of the sun's power and its dimming for the year. This change sends annual plant life into its end of life phase, and sends hardier plants and animals alike into a race against the clock to store enough energy to survive the sunless winter months. the zodiac may present a geocentric perspective, but the structure of its wheel and its various allotments all rest on a foundation provided by the gravitational and spiritual constants of our own Divine Star, the Sun. Much like the calendrical Zodiac, the seasons of the year take their cues from the changes in the Sun's qualities at different points in our orbit, primarily related to the availability of its light. When we get a lot of the sun's light, we tend to be in better health than when we're starved for it, such as in the winter months. This is apparent from the prevalence of seasonal respiratory diseases that plague physical health and seasonal affective disorder, which affects mental health in much the same way. And it's not just in the winter months that we have to be concerned about getting enough sun for our health. 42% of Americans, and we can assume this is roughly consistent in Western nations in general, are generally vitamin D deficient. And vitamin D is the proxy most closely associated with measuring the benefits of sunlight on the body because the body produces vitamin D when exposed to direct sunlight. Vitamin D deficiency directly translates to a lack of sunlight. In fact, 90% of the vitamin D in our bodies is generated by exposure to the sun. This issue only becomes more critical to our health in sun starved winter months. The importance of naturally produced vitamin D for our health is hard to overstate. A growing number of researchers have begun to label vitamin D deficiency a crisis as the health implications are numerous and significant. a paper from 2020 entitled“Insufficient sun exposure has become a real public health problem,” lays this out in stark terms. studies in the past decade indicate that insufficient sun exposure may be responsible for 340,000 deaths in the U.S. and 480,000 deaths in Europe per year, and an increased incidence of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, autism, asthma, type one diabetes and myopia. Importantly, though, the paper follows the statement with a qualifier that's worth not overlooking when it says Vitamin D has long been considered the principal mediator of beneficial effects of sun exposure. However, oral vitamin D supplementation has not been convincingly shown to prevent the above conditions. Thus, vitamin D status may be a proxy for and not a mediator of beneficial effects of sun exposure. cutting through the paper's science speak, what this indicates is that while low levels of vitamin D are linked to increased disease and death, vitamin D supplements (i.e. pills) have not been shown to have a substantial enough impact to convince researchers that simply ingesting more vitamin D will have any measurable effect on health. This is what the paper means by vitamin D being a proxy for the benefits of sun exposure. Vitamin D levels may appear greater when the body is getting more sunlight, but simply adding more vitamin D supplements doesn't yield the same positive effects as increased exposure to natural light. There really is nothing like the real thing, though It's fortunate that we can maximize our benefit from sunlight in short doses of roughly 15 to 30 minutes of direct exposure, according to the same paper, “There is no advantage with excessive exposure as a complex of photochemical reactions. Limits the production of free vitamin D that reaches a maximal level in a relatively short time.” This is, of course, based on modern fears about overexposure to the sun, creating melanoma or skin cancer. Historically, mankind has spent hours in and out of the sun every day without the kind of cancer epidemic that we have today. So this suggests that there are other contributing factors at work. Still, it's easy enough to get burned. I should know. It's August. And here in the tropics, let me tell you, the sun is very intense right now. A little here and there throughout the day is plenty. Beyond vitamin D, it's also worth mentioning the growing body of research that suggests vitamin C plays important roles in health, and particularly boosting the body's immune system so that it heals itself effectively. while vitamin C is not produced directly from sunlight like vitamin D. The best sources for vitamin C are the various members of the Citrus family, which are considered solar in nature. Vitamin C is an antioxidant that eliminates cancer, causing free radicals, protects the immune system, reduces the effects of allergies, helps wounds, heal fights, gum disease, and directly combats cancer, particularly in high doses. Links to various studies supporting all of these claims are included in the full show notes for this episode on my website at www.postmugglism.com, which is linked to in the show notes wherever it is that you're listening to this episode. But as the paper I mentioned indicates, it's not all about vitamins. The benefits of the sun are more complex and holistic than that. One particularly interesting study from 2009 linked sunlight availability and serotonin regulation, which is to say depression and its downstream effects on cognitive function. The study concluded that the lack of sunlight is depressing, chemically speaking, and this ultimately results in diminished cognitive function. So we're smarter and happier when we're getting direct sunlight regularly. There's also evidence supporting vitamin D levels, regulating serotonin and improving overall moods, while partially mitigating conditions like bipolar ism and schizophrenia. A less well understood but much more common condition that up to 3% of the population are diagnosed to have and 10 to 20% of people with depression are likely to have is seasonal affective disorder, which is defined as a mental health condition that is triggered by the changing of the seasons, which includes a loss of interest or enjoyment in activities, a decrease in energy, a depressed mood and low self-esteem and most people with Seasonal affective disorder, depression and other features appear in the fall and winter months and subside in the spring and summer months. Quoting NIH resource Medline.gov. Just from personal experience, I'm guessing the real effects of seasonal affective disorder are essentially universal. Everyone needs sunlight and suffers for it physically, mentally and spiritually when it's less available. Another seasonal effect of the lack of sunlight is apparently weight gain, according to a breakthrough study by the University of Alberta, Canada, in 2017. Direct sunlight actually burns fat, and the diminished light of the winter months reduces this natural effect, allowing the body to pack on more fat for the winter. It's just a part of living in the northern hemisphere and even desirable under natural conditions. But our modern way of living is out of sync with these natural processes and diabetics, and anyone struggling to achieve weight loss can have their health goals affected dramatically by a drop in exposure to sunlight. it's clear then that the body makes use of sunlight and various chemical processes which are integral to its health, boosting the immune system, enabling the absorption of calcium through the intestines, which is critical to bone density, regulating hormones and supporting many of the body's other critical functions. But sunlight also directly combats infection. Sun is fatally damaging to both bacteria and fungi. Insufficient quantity. A couple of hours of exposure to direct light will kill most fungal species and even sublethal doses can reduce global populations and slow their spread. and bacteria is even more susceptible with 30 to 60 minutes of exposure to direct sunlight being enough to kill most bacteria who require moisture and darkness to flourish. This is another contributing factor to the prevalence of respiratory diseases in the fall and winter months. The conditions in the lungs are prime environments for bacterial and fungal infection and the sun is not regularly warming the face, throat and chest and bathing it with the UV light that keeps these infections at bay in the summertime. All in all, there are many aspects of physical and mental health which rely on the light of the sun and its warmth and drying effects to remain in a healthy, functioning state. Modern life makes this remarkably difficult to take advantage of, though, as it centers around devices that emit disruptive blue light and take place in buildings without sufficient natural lighting. the effect is so broadly distributed and so varied in the ways that it manifests that it bears analysis at a 10,000 foot level as well. By looking at how sunlight impacts all cause mortality rates. While this isn't conclusive causative proof, it is certainly compelling correlative data. 2014 paper conveniently titled “Avoidance of sun exposure is a risk factor for all cause mortality,” documented a follow up report on women recruited between 1990 and 1992 after 20 years and found that all cause mortality was nearly 200% higher in the women who had generally avoided sun exposure versus those who frequently spent time in the sun. a competing analysis of the same data in 2016 ratified the findings by determining that avoiding exposure to sunlight increase the chances of death noticeably. in fact, the life expectancy of people who avoided sunlight was between 0.6 and two years shorter. On average. Most revealing of all was the finding that nonsmokers who avoided sun exposure had a life expectancy similar to smokers in the highest sun exposure group, indicating that avoidance of sun exposure is a risk factor for death of a similar magnitude as smoking. Avoiding the sun is as great a risk to your health as a smoking habit. That's just incredible when you think about it. Putting all of this together, we can conclusively say that exposure to the sun is essentially a mandatory part of a healthy life as much as eating right, avoiding cigarets and alcohol, and pretty much any other healthy habit that you can imagine. Sunlight keeps us from getting ill. It kills the bacteria and fungi that infect us and make us unwell and boosts our immune system so that we can fight off anything that manages to get past our other defenses. and we can say confidently that getting lots of sun in small doses can extend your life by several years on average. Of course, none of these recent peer reviewed findings would surprise healers in the ancient world who relied heavily upon the healing properties of the sun and its radiant light, both in mundane medicine and in magical healing rituals. Sunlight therapy to kill pathogenic microbes was practiced by ancient since 1400 B.C. at the latest. This practice was called Heliosis in Greece and was so commonplace for the treatment of illnesses that the Greek geographer and historian Herodotus, credited as the father of documented history, attributed many health sustaining powers to the sun. In his words, one should take care that in winter, spring and autumn, the sun should have direct access to the sick person. Later, the Romans absorbed and adopted the practice, going so far as to build solariums or sunbathing rooms in the houses of the wealthy. Ironically, it was Christianity with its arguably solar duty to put an end to the practice of healing or therapy, most likely due to its pagan overtones. And unfortunately it was well over a thousand years until it returned to regular practice in medicine. the book Sunlight and Health The Positive and Negative Effects of the Sun on You by Michael J. Lately, Quest attempts to piece together the history of Heliotherapy’s revival in the late second millennia. In 1774, the book explains, physicians in France began treating open ulcers of the leg with sunlight Not long after the 1797 book The Art of Prolonging Life, by Christophe Hufeland observed the deteriorating conditions of prisoners held for long periods in sunless dungeons and attributed it to their lack of exposure to the sun. Then, in the early 19th century, French physician J.F. Corvin produced his PhD thesis on the healing benefits of sunlight, claiming on the basis of his observations that sunlight could cure muscle weakness, rickets, scurvy, rheumatism, dropsy, a form of tuberculosis and paralysis, and later, Florence Nightingale insisted that sunlight be allowed to stream into the hospitals that she established during the Crimean War. Some of their observations were eventually validated by the discovery in 1877 that sunlight does indeed kill bacteria. with the tuberculosis epidemic of the early industrial age in the late 1800s and the early 1900s, it's estimated that tuberculosis bacillus infected 70% of the population of industrialized urban environments, and about 80% of the people who developed an active case died from the infection. prevalence of disease in moist, dark and polluted environments, led the medical community to the correct conclusion that a change of climate was required to treat the disease to dry out the patient's lungs. This led to large scale tuberculosis hospitals being set up in dry, hot areas like deserts and prompted a migration from the industrialized northeast corner of the United States to the arid landscapes of the southwest. But after the 1877 revelation that sunlight killed bacteria, the medical community became distracted from climate therapy by the rise of the science of bacteriology and a combative, drug based approach to treating infections, particularly after the 1928 discovery of penicillin. Still, Helioherapy was not completely out of favor yet, and in 1903, Neils Vinson won the Nobel Prize for his work using UV light to cure Lupus Vulgaris, which is tuberculosis in the skin. In 1919, UV was rediscovered as a cure for rickets. Rediscovered because there is evidence that the ardent sun worshiper, the pharaoh Akhenaten, treated his richitic children using Heliotherapy over 1350 years before the Common Era. in 1921, Dr. E Roux reported to the French Academy of Sciences an impressive list of ailments which he had had success in treating with exposure to sunlight, such as wounds, including various varicose ulcers, burns, surgical wounds, etc., as well as bacillus fiscluas, tuberculosis of the ganglia, lupus, chronic arthritis of tuberculosis or rheumatic nature, and various forms of nerve pain. However, in the 1920s, medical researchers were already very aware of the damaging effects of over exposure to sunlight and links to cancer had been established by experiments on animals. Additionally, it was widely popularized that bright direct sunlight can damage the retina of our eyes right as sunglasses hit the American markets. Similarly, antibiotics and other pharmaceutical interventions were created during this time that no doubt fueled the anti sun exposure medical rhetoric of the day. And in the time since, our pharmaceutical obsession has only become more pronounced and many legitimate time tested medical interventions fell out of vogue in favor of more profitable and more easily patented treatments. and this is where the subject has remained for the last hundred years. Much like our entry into the dark Ages, where Christianity could not brook the competition with pagans and abounded reason for religious fervor. Our modern situation echoes many of these same dangerous ideological patterns. This time the religion isn't Christianity, but the burgeoning practice of scientism, the transhumanist false religion of heavily manipulated science by profit margin. Simple techniques like sunbathing have demonstrated their value as near health panaceas for literal millennia, and yet they continue to be squashed for political, economic and religious reasons. The sun may cure many diseases, but it cannot, apparently, cure small mindedness In very modern times, we can all remember how just a few years ago during the raging pandemic of 2020, that Heliotherapy was nearly demonized and treated as a dangerous conspiracy theory. I hope that the depth of the history of the Sun's role in healing that I've just presented is convincing enough to make you question the motivations of those who would try to withhold this wisdom from the general public in a time of crisis. It seems these days that we have returned to the dark ages or superstitions rooted in ideology rather than empirical understanding, have occluded a truth from us once again only in alternative culture circles is there any appreciation for the old ways for natural healing methods and the magical restorative powers of our cosmic caretakers. Freethinkers in the West were reintroduced to holistic healing techniques, spirituality and astrology again in the hippie revolution of the sixties, and that developed in quiet corners of the collective Western consciousness for another 30 years before emerging into popular culture in the nineties. There it percolated for another 30 years until blossoming into the current renaissance of the weird, which our favorite modern day wizard Gordon White refers to as the “Dominant of Witchcraft”. It is this dominant, or zeitgeist, if you prefer, that used chaos magic rules to appropriate Oriental beliefs in karma, chakras, meridians and the rest -a cosmological smash and grab to lay the foundations of what has become an animistic ontology for the Western framework of mind. And it is to this chaotic-positive, jury-rigged cosmology that we turn for the practical part of this discussion. various modalities exists to interpret and interact with the subtle energies of the human organism. Acupuncture, ayurveda, reiki, shamanic healing. And so on. the systems and methods are all approximate because the subject matter is elusive. But each have existed for long enough and have enough practicing enthusiasts that it can be safely assume that there is something to them and our physical bodies, our thoughts express as visible cues to communicate to each other what we're thinking while our energetic bodies express what we're feeling emotionally, emotions tune our energy fields like antenna broadcasting and receiving any data at a similar frequency to our own emotional state. the Oriental chakra system is an effective model for comprehending and engaging with subtle energies of the human body, generally based on a model of seven chakras, starting at the root chakra at the perineum, the bottom tip of the tailbone, the chakras appear in a straight line up through the body, connecting the body's various nerve centers root, belly, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown. These are the essential energy centers or chakras in the body. They're located near dense collections of nerve endings, such as the pubic area, the guts, the high stomach and base of the esophagus, the heart and lungs, the throat, thyroid, etc. between the eyes, and the crown of the skull. Each represents a horizontal section of the body with various organs, muscles and limbs, and each is also associated with specific emotional energies as well. The third eye relates to visions of the future critical thinking and intuition. The throat relates to things spoken or left unsaid, and our ability to convey our internal thoughts externally. The belly, which is the second brain seated atop the sexual organs and at the base of the spine, represents bass drives and fears, lineage, anything really connected to ancestry or DNA. And of course, our sexuality and procreative instincts. these energy centers, we experience, integrate, and release the emotional energy generated by the events of our lives. In this way, the human condition is neatly divided and categorized according to the various energies that it encounters records and processes. The solar plexus, or the third chakra, as the name suggests, is related to solar energy metaphorically and relates to the body's engine, the stomach and upper intestines, where energy is produced like the sun, its fiery combustion creates the energy that fuels the rest of the system. And like the sun in astrology, the solar plexus chakra relates to our core being our sense of individuality and independence and the drives that motivate us, how we see ourselves, our confidence in our abilities, the intensities of our passions and the fortitude of our will are all expressed through the third chakra. of course when we speak words or think deliberate thoughts and so on, we're involving other energy centers, but the energies of these actions resides in the belly. We can demonstrate this for ourselves by analyzing that felt sense of certain experiences, such as confusion, which feels like a heavy fog around the head, or anxiety an expression of a mild fear twisting our guts. The felt sense of an experience will generally manifest physically in the area around the affected chakra. As an energy healer, I encounter many different expressions of energetic imbalance, of course, but one of the most common is a blocked or atrophied solar plexus chakra. When energy gets blocked, which can be a partial thing, the restriction often inhibits the function of other chakras above it. meaning your mommy and daddy issues in the second chakra can make it difficult to figure out your purpose and direction in the third chakra, or make it hard to give or receive affection in the fourth chakra and so on. Fear typically affects the belly chakra, sometimes the chest or the throat. But the second chuckles usually where we process fear, anxiety and so on. What we don't process and release, we store in our energetic bodies like we saw toxins in the fat cells of our physical bodies. and fear which accumulates in the energetic body around the guts. Sexual organ and liver will eventually create a blockage. There in the second chakra, a second chakra problem most directly affects the third chakra above it, and the third chakra is the seat of our sense of self or personal drive. Our motivation, confidence and will fear undermines that strength of self and causes a drop in manpower, motivation and so on. And that's just one example. There are others, of course, like shame, which is another second chakra emotion that drains your personal power in much the same way. Resentment is another example when it's seated in the second chakra and can steal your energy as well. Any second chakra issue is likely to cause third chakra problems, plus the third chakra can be assaulted directly by emotions like self-loathing, fear of being seen, or by self-critical and self-limiting behaviors like speaking negatively about yourself and your potential. all of these scenarios will affect the ability of the third chakra to function effectively, causing low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, lack of motivation and direction, etc. And my prescription for all of these issues as an energy healer is -obviously to work on your second chakra issues or whatever directly, but even so- to strengthen your personal power by sending positive energy to the third chakra. And I'll discuss some ways of doing that a little later in this episode. when energy is flowing naturally through the third chakra and all as well in our worlds, our confidence turns into charisma and we have a magnetic appeal. When we're out of alignment, it turns people off and drives them away. The energy of self-confidence is radiant, for better or worse. When we're on, we're on... Phoebian bright ones like Helios and Apollo to shine our brightest, though we have to look our best, whatever that means to each of us. Think of this as personal coherence, and it's only possible if we present our authentic selves to the world. Health and self image are connected. Sunlight is essential to our well-being, and the sun represents our core self. In a natal chart, we're healthiest when we radiate our truest, most authentic selves. Anything else is incoherence, and that creates dissonance in the mind and disease in the body. taking your appearance seriously isn’t vain, within reason, and not taking it seriously is potentially bad for your health in the long run because of the very bad magic and projecting a less than awesome version of yourself. A strong third chakra, an empowered solar plexus is full of confidence and vitality. It feels solid, not empty, and provides you with the fuel to accomplish your goals. When you're at your best, you look your best and you become your best self. willpower, determination, and your ability to make things happen is derived from your identity and purpose, which is seated energetically in the solar plexus. The fire within warms you when you encounter cold reality and your ego is the light in the darkness that drives you and makes you unique. An energetic blockage in the solar plexus shades that light and it's easy to lose direction in the resulting inner darkness. Lack of sunlight drains this critical reserve of personal resilience, and regular doses of it helps to reinforce our personal power. A good tan makes you feel good, physically feel good about yourself mentally, and feel better about the world in general. Natural sunlight more than vitamin D and I suspect still more than red UV light is an essential ingredient of life on this planet and an essential tool for healing and magic. And when it comes to magic in ritual, the sun has always played an important role. And the many, many spells to Helios in the Greek Magical Papyri are testament to this fact. But solar magic doesn't have to be ancient and obtuse. In fact, the earliest forms of magic have the lowest barriers to entry. The new shamanic tradition I was taught by the Four Winds Institute was inspired by direct transmission from Q’ero pacos, or chamans from the Andean jungles and mountains. In their cosmology, the universe is ordered by six primary archetypes associated with the directions. From our perspective, Serpent for the South, Jaguar for the West, Hummingbird for the North and Eagle, or Condor for the East. Plus Pachamama under our feet and Inti the sun, Mama Kiia the moon, and the Chaska Kuna, the stars above our heads. I say a simple prayer to open my healing practice, which invokes the four directions the earth and the heavens. Sun, moon and stars and the Great Spirit. this is derived from the Andean cosmology but it follows a pattern that is fairly consistent between the prayers of indigenous people throughout the Americas. more familiar in the Western world is the Greek cosmology, with its gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus and its primordial titans of nature. In this case, the God, Apollo and the Titan, Helios. The sun, moon and visible planets were each dedicated a day of the week. The Sun obviously ruling Sunday on Sunday at sunrise, which coincidentally happens to provide the best quality red Ultraviolet light, is the very best time to recite hymns and prayers to the sun, and you can do much worse than the Orphic hymns to Apollo or Helios, which are readily available online. For bonus points, say these sunrise on Sunday prayers in a busy garden that's full of life. You'll find it makes quite the difference. It also never hurts to throw on a solar talisman to anoint yourself with some solar oil and so on. Another great practice that I recommend to clients all the time is chakra breathing into your solar plexus, which I was turned on to by Lance Baker of Branches of Healing. Simply described, it's basically breathing while visualizing light coming down from the sun into your, in this case, solar plexus chakra and then exhaling and visualizing that light descending out through your root chakra and into the ground. then just reverse that flow of breathing and visualizing grounding, nourishing earth energy, rising up through the root chakra into the solar plexus and exhaling and visualizing that energy extending out through your crown into the heavens. Do this. 5 to 10 times and you'll notice a boost in energy, self-confidence and fortitude to this regularly. If you're feeling underpowered, directionless or unsure of yourself. Another way to connect to the sun is through offerings. Some of my favorite offerings to make have been in the name of solar gods because a backyard barbecue definitely counts as veneration. I'd buy a couple of good steaks and a few skewers with the veggies, cut fresh herbs from the garden and dress and grill two steaks, one for Sarah and I, and one for the gods. Then I'd recite a few hymns and invocations, say my prayers and petitions, and grab one of the steaks for us while leaving the other one on the grill into the fire consumed it. And all of this on a hot summer day with the sun shining down on us. ten out of ten. I definitely recommend. And just like you can make moon water by leaving a jar of water out in the moonlight overnight during a waxing moon. You can charge water with the power of the sun by leaving a jar of water in the direct sunlight for a few days to gather its energy and magical blessings and praying to the sun. Obviously over this water at the outset and starting the process at sunrise on the sun only seems appropriate. Another practice that works best when timed at sunrise on a Sunday, or at least during the day sometime, is the preparation of your own Florida water for cleaning and clearing out old energy. Florida water is typically sprinkled in the corners of rooms during energetic cleansings or to cleanse yourself or others. I make and use my own in my healing practice regularly A handful of flowers and orange or lemon peel and a sprig of rosemary covered in vodka for a week. Sunday to Sunday, under the blessings of Inti or Sol or whomever you prefer, makes a lovely, fresh and cleansing Florida water. And of course, make your own solar talismans and solar talismanic material like oils, candles, instances and so on. The time that we dedicate to crafting our tools of art is an offering in itself and helps us to focus and harness our intention Beyond doing solar spells, and making solar materia, arguably the best solar magic is lived rather than performed. Be the Phoebian with a sunny disposition and your experience of life will shine more brightly for it. Your radiance will charm the people around you, warming them to your energy and pulling them into your orbit, gladden the hearts of your fellow humans, Lift their spirits and bring light to the darkness in the world with kindness, good heartedness, and faith, in God Of course, the great Spirit or whatever you like, but also in yourself. It's harder than it sounds. It takes practice -praxis, as in regular self empowering rituals and a solid tan. Worship the sun for enabling life on earth. Worship the sun because it boosts your personal power. But worship the sun and spend time in the sun, most importantly, because it makes you feel good, live longer, and be happier. Thanks for tuning in to the 19th episode of the Postmodernism Podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it. I was already convinced of the Sun's healing powers before I started working on this episode, but my research led me to some fascinating facts and some new practices, and that's the best part of producing the show. If you enjoyed this episode. I would greatly appreciate you showing it a little love by sharing it with a friend or on your social media, etc. And of course, if you haven't already, please consider subscribing to the show wherever you listen to podcasts or on YouTube. If that's more your style, follow the rest of my content articles. Videos like my monthly Outlander mention guides, other episodes of this podcast and more, please visit my website at www.postmugglism.com. Subscribe to my free email newsletter in the sidebar for additional weekly posts. Or upgrade to a paid subscription to show your support for the show and my other work. paid membership, unlocks a variety of private content that dives deeper into my personal magical process, gives a peek behind the scenes of my work and our project in the Jungle and any other cool projects that I have. Baking in the oven. and the next episode of the Postmugglism podcast, I'm going to focus on a bit of practical magic, extremely practical magic, taking the best parts of the chaos, magic ethos and a dose of empiricism to develop a praxis of results driven magic. I'll talk about how I learned to pick effective and testable magical targets, how to assess your results, when to double down, how to layer your magical efforts, and much more. So I hope you'll tune in for that episode as well. Thanks again for spending your time with me today. Take care and may the gods be with you.