We cannot look at the sun. No surprise that many of us never get a handle on the Sun’s place in our lives. Unlike the Moon, the Ascendant, or any of the inner planets, we have a hard time pinpointing just how the Sun ‘works’ in our lives. We live our lives in the more familiar realm of the Moon, which is often murky, but softer on the eye. It’s lesser understood that the Moon’s realm is ill-lit, and we can be blinded there, too–and all too often are.
Often we’re advised to do what’s in our heart, and reject defining ourselves by our outer circumstances. We’re told to choose the heart over the head, 
and reject over-thinking and over-analyzing. But how many of us have difficulty knowing just what the heart is whispering to us? How are we to move forward? Over-thinking and over-analyzing cause the mind to give power to the limitations of the current physical environment, assigning power to what is outside the self, rather than give due to what is within. When we allow our perceived limitations to take over, we remain in the dark realm, and we lose the power of the Sun to guide us forward.
Doing what is within the heart and doing what is required of us are one and the same. We tend to confuse “following the heart” with Venus issues, or Mars issues. Desire, and the follow through of that desire. But the heart is 
not desirous, it is complete within itself. It needs nothing. It asks for nothing to complete itself. And each beat pushes us on into our future. The confusion comes because it is believed that following the heart will automatically make us happy. It won’t, necessarily. The heart’s path can burn us, too. But we will have the satisfaction of knowing that we did what’s right for us, and that brings an inner strength and certainty that is part of the solar energy. We will be content with what our lives have been. We will be authentic.
In astrology, the Sun acts above all as the engine that moves us forward, the life pulse. In a chart, it is the all-pervasive consolidating energy behind every other aspect, point, axis and position. Every experience, every single thing that happens in the life, every single issue from the largest to the smallest, will have the Sun at its heart. We may react to that experience through the Moon, but the energy that moved us forward, that brought forward and created the experience, emanates from the Sun. The Sun is literally the creative power behind our lives.
The twelve signs as a whole signify the completion of a circle. In astrology, so does the earth’s orbit around the Sun. The Sun is at the center, and we are contained within that circle. We carry all of the sign archetypes within the circle of ourselves, but the sign that holds our Sun (as perceived from the earth) has a special meaning, as does the house it falls in. It’s the link to our most basic creative power, the place where we can reach beyond the limitations of our everyday existence and link into our own heart energy.
The sign of the Sun at our birth is the path by which our inner and outer worlds can meet, and by which creative light can emanate into the inherent darkness of the lunar world.
The Mystery of Solar Fire (part 4)
Please read the first two parts of this series: The Mystery of Solar Fire (part one) and The Mystery of Solar Fire (part 2). Some fundamental concepts are developed which must be understood before moving on to this piece.