In ancient times, the sun, moon and the stars were prominent gods. They were honoured in sacrificial ceremonies and their power was feared as well as revered. The collective unconscious (to borrow from Jung) was rife with theories about the relationship that these celestial inhabitants had with the great gods of creation and between themselves.
In almost every culture the sun is a male god (except in Japan but, more about that later). The myths revolve around the sun’s life sustaining powers, its close links with life on earth and even its relationship with earth. Being male, the sun is shown to be a strong and everlasting source of life – however many cultures have struggled to depict another aspect of the sun which is its creative power. The sun sustains but, it also creates – as the early morning light that breaks darkness – and this creative power in all myths is feminine.
Different cultures have dealt with this in different ways. In India, for instance, we have separated the early morning aspect of the sun to create a goddess called Usas. She is dawn and in some stories, Surya, the sun’s great love. Surya spends an entire lifetime chasing her but is never able to catch up with her except in that brief interlude between dawn and morning.
The Chinese myths also deal with the feminine side of the sun in an interesting way. The story goes that the sky was home to ten suns and their parents. This led to chaos and commotion because every sun wanted its day in the sky. And thus the family squabbled until it became impossible for the world to go on with its task of creation.
Mother Xi He decided to take charge and as mothers are known to to do, she shouted her sons down. She said that there must be only one sun in the sky at a time. There was to be no argument about this -- she set aside a day for each of the ten brothers and in order to avoid any misappropriation of time spent in the sky, she announced that she would escort each sun across the sky.
Thus it came to be that the world was rid of the fighting suns and replaced by a family of ten obedient suns who are led by their mother in her chariot in a fair and orderly fashion, day after day. (World Mythology, Illustrated Guide: Sun, Moon and Stars, p94).
