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In ancient times there lived on the highest elevation of Central Asia a noble race of men called the "Aryan." ..the Indo-European people otherwise known as "Aryans." These "Aryans" are that part of the human race that include the peoples of India, the Hindus, and Persians as well as most European. Archeological evidence, as well as linguistical studies, will prove that the European race traces its roots back to the Aryan peoples. The Aryans will be the forerunners of the Teutonic peoples which comes from a term "Teutons," which is a Latinized form of the word meaning the people of Germanic origin in general. However, it also refers to the languages spoken by other peoples including the Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, English, Dutch, Icelandic, Norse, Danish, German, and Swedish. Don't look now but we are speaking of Eastern European people. What is important for our study is that a link can be found between these Teutonic peoples and their predecessors...the Indo-European people otherwise known as "Aryans." This is very important for our study as we trace the evolution and spread of Sun-worship and how it became the backbone of all Gentile pagan religions and finally culminating as the core of Christian doctrines. Just remember the importance of the Aryan people for now. These Aryan people spoke a language not yet Sanskrit (ancient language of the Hindus, Greek, or German, but containing dialects of all). We need to understand that the nations which we normally think are European, especially Eastern European, from which America would spring one day, was heavily influenced by these people and that applies to their religious ideas as well. This is very important to remember as our study progresses.
These Aryan people worshipped nature; the sun, moon, sky, and earth as a comparison of ancient religions and mythology in the land peopled by Aryans, demonstrates. Their chief object of adoration was the Sun. To this race, in the infancy of its civilization, the Sun was not a mere luminary, but a Creator, Ruler, Preserves, and Savior of their world as they knew it. Around the Sun these people would develop a religious doctrine which finds its origin in the Sun and its influence upon mankind. Such is called "Astro-Theology".
The major factor to consider when reading and studying these "Astro-theologican Sun-Myths" is how they are to be interpreted. There are two ways that they have been approached by scholars; one today is accepted the other rejected. The historical interpretation is today discounted and most understand them to be an allegorical relating of the attributes of the Sun and its influence upon man.
As there could be no life or vegetation without light, the Sun, as a light-bringer, became for these people their Creator. If Creator, it was logical that this same Sun was then Ruler of their world as they knew it. This Sun was in reality their "Father" of all things both seen and unseen. These people related in pictures as much as words. In driving away the darkness, likewise in fertilizing the earth, the Sun became for them the Preserver and kind Protector of all living things…..the Savior of mankind. As the Sun sometimes scorches and withers vegetation and dries up the rivers, this same Sun was conceived of as a Destroyer also. As Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer the Sun was three persons in one…the Trinity. This is the first time man imagined a Trinity within their Sun god. History proves such a concept would never pass away.
It is very hard for man at the present day to realize the feelings with which the first dwellers on earth looked upon the Sun. Put yourself in their shoes for just a minute. "Think of man," says Professor Muller, "at the dawn of time…Was not the sunrise to him the first wonder, all though, all philosophy? Was it not to him the first revelation, the first beginning of all trust, of all religion?"
The Aryans looked up to the sky and gave it the name Dyaus, from a root-word which means "to shine." This name was to stick. When, out of the forces and forms of nature, they would later fashion other gods, this name of Dyaus became "Dyaus Pitar", the "Heavenly Father," or "All-Father." The earth they worshipped as the Mother of all.
Their reasoning led them to believe that the Sun was the product of the Sky god; the Heavenly Father. This "offspring of the Sky-god" was none other than "the Son of the Sky", or that the Sun was the "Son of the Heavenly Father", and that the immaculate virgin, the Earth (sometimes it was the dawn or the night), was the Mother of the Sun. Hence we have the Virgin, or Virgo, as one of the signs of the Zodiac.
As the Sun begins the apparent annual northward journey on the 25th of December, this was said to be the birthday of the Sun (all movement commences with birth). This special day, the birthday of the Sun, was observed with great rejoicings. On this day the sign of the Virgin is rising on the eastern horizon, the Sun having reached the winter solstice.
The division of the first decan of the Virgin represents a beautiful immaculate virgin with flowing hair, sitting in a chair, with two ears of corn in here hand, and suckling an infant called "Iesus" (Jesus in Latin), by some nations, and "Christos" (Christ in Greek) which means "an Anointed One, a Messiah. The infant denotes the Sun, which at the moment of the winter solstice, precisely when the Persian magi drew the horoscope of the new year, was placed on the bosom of the Virgin.
The zodiacal sign of Aires was anciently known as the Lamb; consequently, when the Sun made the transit of the equinox under this sign, the Sun was called the "Lamb of God." Later when the Sun was personified as "the Son" then the "Son was the Lamb of God."
The birth of the Sun was said to be heralded by a star…the Morning-star, which rises immediately before the Virgin and her Child. As the Sun appears to start from a dark abode, it was said that he was "born in a cave or manger,"or dungeon, and the splendor of the morning sky was said to be the halo around his cradle. As the Sun scatters the darkness, it was said that he would be the destroyer of the reigning monarch, Night. Warned of this peril by oracles, Night tries to prevent the birth of the Sun, and, failing in that, seeks to "take his life." For this reason it is said that the Sun is left on the bare hillside to perish, as he seemingly rests on the earth at his rising. The Sun meets with temptations on his course, is beset by foes, clouds of storm an darkness; but, in the struggle which ensues, he is conqueror, the gloomy army, broken and rent, is scattered. The daughters of his foes, the last light vapors which float in the heavens, try in vain to clasp and retain him, but he disengages himself from their embraces; and, as he repulses them, they writhe, lose their form and vanish. Temptations to sloth and luxury are offered him in vain; he has work to do, and nothing can stay him from doing it. He travels over many lands, and toils for the benefit of others; he does hard service for a mean and cruel generation. He is continually in company with his Twelve Apostles; the twelve signs of the zodiac.
As he approaches midsummer, he appears in all his splendor, he has reached the summit of his career; henceforth his power diminishes, and he meets with an early and a volent death, from which there is no escape. When the extreme southern limit his course is reached, his enemies (darkness and cold which have sought in vain to wound him) win the victory. The bright Sun of summer is slain, crucified in the heavens, and pierced by the spear (thorn, or arrow) of winter. He who has performed such marvellous miracles, healing the sick and raising the dead, cannot save himself; a stern fate decrees that he must die an ignominious death.
As the Sun wakens the earth to life after the long sleep of winter is passed, it was said that he raised the dead. The Sun is said to be "crucified", with outstretched arms in the heavens; outstretched to bless the world he is trying to save from the terror of darkness. His arms remain outstretched to the tree, or cross. It is an ancient custom to use trees as gibbets for crucifixion, or, if artificial, to call the cross a "tree," the tree being one of the symbols of nature-worship, which denoted the fructifying power of the Sun. The Sun crucified was the Sun in winter as it dies when it falls below the equator and the length of darkness of the days increase, when it is subjected to the evil power of darkness, the "D-evil" or the "Devil," when his fructifying power is gone. The Sun, in its death descends to hades for 3 days, then resurrects in its northward journey of re-birth on it way to spring as it is "resurrected."
Before the Sun dies he see all his disciples; his retinue of light, the twelve hours of the day or the twelve months of the year. These disappear into the clouds of evening; but the tender mother and the fair maidens he has loved; the beautiful lights which flush the eastern sky as the Sun sinks in the west. The tender lights of Sun-set remain with him till the very last. Their tears are the tears of dew. At the "death of the Sun" there is darkness over all the land. He descends into Hell, or Hades. In ancient times Hell, or Hades, was a place neither of reward nor punishment, but was simply the home of the dead, good and bad alike, the word primarily signifying nothing more than the hollow grave, hole, pit, cavern, or other receptacle which receives the dead. By the Aryans, Hades was supposed to be in the far west, which to them was always the region of darkness and death, as the east was of light and life. On the 22nd of December the Sun enters the sign of Capricornus, or the Goat, and appears to remain in the same place for 3 days and three nights, and then begins to ascend. This was said to be the resurrection of the Sun from Hades or the grave. At the vernal equinox, at Easter, the Sun has been below the equator and suddenly rises above it. It rises triumphant over the powers of darkness and cold. The resurrection of the Sun was generally celebrated on the 25th of March, when the return to spring may be said to be the result of the return of the Sun, from the lower or far-off regions to which it had departed.
There were numerous symbols which were held as sacred to the Sun, the most common being the fish, the lamb, the cross, and the serpent. The serpent was an emblem of the Sun, when represented with his tail in his mouth, thus forming a circle. The serpent was an emblem of eternity, when represented as casting off his skin; but when represented with his deadly sting, he was an emblem of evil. When represented as crucified on the tree (cross), the serpent denoted the Sun in winter, when it has lost its fructifying power.
The Aryans observed various rites and ceremonies, among them being Baptism and the sacrament of the Eucharist. If you read the individual accounts of these Sun-myths and their personification listed above, then you should have seen how each one of the personified sun-gods had a sacred meal and Eucharist. Each one in some manner obtained salvation either through "eating the essence of the god" or being "unified with the god" though sexual union with one who represented the god; either male or female. There is nothing new under the Sun as we find the same concept of the Eucharist involved in Christianity; both Catholic and Protestant. Indeed, the doctrine of Transubstantiation is one of the most ancient of doctrines. The whole Christian world practices this same rite Sunday after Sunday and never stops to think how the Passover was changed by the earlyGentile Church into the Eucharist; something they Gentiles always had done!
Baptism was held to be a regenerating rite; and rivers, as sources of fertility and purification, were at an early date invested with a sacred character. Every great river was supposed to be permeated with the divine essence, and its waters held to cleanse from moral guilt and contamination.
The doctrines of Original Sin and the Fallen Condition of Man were not unknown to the primitive Aryan, who, in order to propitiate his gods, atone for sins, or avert calamities, offered sacrifices to them. When men lived mostly on vegetables, they offered grain, salt, fruits, water, and flowers; but when they began to eat meat and spices, and drink wine, they offered these also. The Aryans naturally supposed that the gods would be pleased with whatever was useful or agreeable to them.
In the course of time it began to be imagined that the gods demanded something more sacred as offerings, or atonements, for sin. This led to the sacrifice of human beings, at first of slaves and those taken in war, and finally of their own children, even their most beloved and first-born. It came to be an idea that every sin must have its prescribed amount of punishment, and that the gods would accept the life of one person in atonement for the sins of others. From this arose a belief in the redemption from sin by the sufferings of a Divine Incarnation, by death on a tree or cross, or otherwise.
Branches of the Aryan race migrated to the east and to the west. One of the offshoots, at the west, founded the Persian kingdom; another built Athens and Lacedaemon, and became the Greek nation; a third went to Italy, and reared the city on the seven hills, which grew into imperial Rome. A distant colony of the same race excavated the silver mines of prehistoric Spain; and the first glimpse at ancient England reveals Aryan descendents fishing in willow canoes. Germany was also peopled by the Aryans. Meanwhile other bands of Aryans had gone forth, from the primitive home in Central Asia to the seacoast. Powerful hands found their way through the passes of the Himalayas into the Punjab, and spread themselves, chiefly as Brahmans and Rajputs, over India.
Wherever the Aryans went, the Sun-myths went with them, and appeared in the course of time, after their origin was forgotten, as the groundwork of religions, epic-poems, folk-lore, and nursery tales. Out of these myths were shaped by degrees innumerable gods and demons of the Hindus; and devs and jins of the Persians; the great gods, the minor deities, and nymphs and fauns and satyrs, of Greek mythology and poetry; the stormy divinities, the giants and trolls, of the cold and rugged north; the dwarfs of German forests; the elves who dance merrily in the moonlight of an English summer; the "good people" who play mischievous tricks upon stray peasants among the Irish hills; fairies and gods and heroes.
Almost all we have of legend come to us from our Aryan forefathers. Often the stories are scarcely changed; sometimes so altered that the links between the old and the new have to be puzzled out; but all these myths and traditions, when we come know the meaning of them, take us back to the time when the Aryans dwelt together in the high lands of Central Asia. They all mean the same things; namely, the relation between the Sun and the earth, the succession of day and night, of summer and winter, of storm and calm, of cloud and tempest, of golden sunshine and bright blue sky.
A few of the Aryan nations have preserved in their ancient poetry some remnants of the natural awe with which the earlier dwellers on the earth saw the brilliant sun "slowly rise from out the darkness of the night, raising itself by its own might higher and higher, till it stood triumphant on the arch of heaven, and then descended and sank down in its fiery glory, into the dark abyss of the heaving and hissing sea." It is to the stores and religions of these nations we now look to see if our premise is justified and provable: namely, that many or most of Christianity's doctrines and dogmas have their origin in Sun worship. What we are especially interested in as followers of Jesus/Yeshua, is if much of what we have been taught and read about him in the New Testament credible; and if not, then we need to look elsewhere to find such truths.
We need look no further than Astro-Theology and understand its implications for many of the doctrines of the Christian faith.