Solar Series Part 3  ✦  Dawn Bodrogi  ✦  The Inner Wheel

We can blame astrologer R.H. Naylor for the simplified Sun-sign system we live in today. After writing a popular article about Princess Margaret’s birth in 1930, Naylor was pressed by tabloids to invent a system for the masses. Thus, proper astrology — which considers the whole chart — was driven underground by a Leo-oriented Sun that sucked up all the energy in the room.

But what is the Sun, exactly? Once we get beyond defining ourselves by a single archetype, what does it actually do? In traditional terms, the Sun and Moon are The Lights — the light of day and the light of night; the conscious and the subconscious world. Even the Moon’s light is a reflection of the Sun.

This brings us back to the Sun’s position as the heart of the chart. Leo rules the heart, and like the engine of the body, the Sun keeps the life energy circulating. The heart can function without the mind, but the mind cannot function without the heart. Similarly, the Moon represents the egoic sheath — the sum of our past and physical energy — but the Sun is the life energy that enters when we are born and leaves when we die.

The natal chart itself, embodying our physical incarnation, has a lunar connotation — the Cancer side of the twin lights. This raises a question between those who see life as a meat machine and those who see it as something numinous and sacred. If you belong to the latter camp, you recognize that the Sun represents the light that illuminates from within.

The Sun does not have one specific function — it consolidates all functions. Its place at the center of our universe is highly symbolic of the role it plays in our lives. It is the life energy itself, existing beyond the flesh and machinery. It is the definition of life, the saving power that rises whenever we face darkness.

Go deeper

The Foundations Book by Dawn Bodrogi

For a deeper understanding of the Sun’s role as the consolidator of the chart — how it works alongside the Moon, the angles, and the solar dispositor to reveal the full architecture of a life — Dawn’s Foundations Book is the essential companion.

→ The Foundations Book — all ebook retailers

The Sun is the life energy itself — the saving power that rises whenever we face darkness.