In 2007 the BBC reported the finding of what is considered to be the world’s oldest solar observatory, the Thirteen Towers near Chankillo, Peru, built 2,300 years ago. It is part of a ceremonial complex which offers concrete proof that ancient Peruvian society was based around sun worship.
Many of our earliest civilizations were sun worshiping. Egypt, Babylonia, India, and Mexico, amongst many others, had strong sun deities. It is no wonder that before the solar system could be scientifically understood, humans would have considered it an awesome influence in their lives.
In the Northern hemisphere, as the winter solstice approached, how could they know that the days would not just get shorter and shorter, that the life- giving sun would not forsake them forever? And in the South, perhaps the blazing would continue to intensify until all was lifeless desert? Whole priesthoods were dedicated to honoring and placating the Sun God.
Contrast this with today’s western lifestyles. In Winter, in the Northern hemisphere, many of us rarely see the Sun, leaving for work in the murky dawn, returning just as it has lowered to the point where it inhibits our driving, and we curse it.
Despite this, whether we are aware or not, and however much we control our immediate environments, our relationship with the Sun is still a fundamental one.
Sunlight dictates the changing of the seasons, the yearly harvests of food, the very constitution of the air that we breathe, not to mention the weather.
You might stand at your kitchen sink, doing the washing up, watching the play of sunlight through the trees outside and wish you had time to go out there – as if going into the sunshine just for the sake of it is a waste of time.
But it isn’t. We may not feel the need to make sacrifices to the Sun God, but we are still part of the organic life of this planet and all life depends upon a certain amount of direct sunlight.
Our dependence on the sun is not simply material. Sunlight makes colors brighter, makes plants grow lusher, makes water sparkle. People smile more when it is sunny. We can’t be happy without it.
Some of this dependency is chemical. For example, sunlight enables us to manufacture vitamin D, in particular D3, which is vital in the production of bone. Vitamin D’s can be obtained by eating oily fish and soya products, but not in high enough quantities. According to the BBC, a recent American study showed that men with higher vitamin D production, due to skin exposure to sunlight, had a much lower incidence of prostate cancer. In addition:
‘Vitamin D prevents osteoporosis, depression, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and even effects diabetes and obesity’
(Dr. Michael Holick, author, The UV Advantage.)
Seasonal Affective Disorder is a term used to describe the way in which many people suffer from depression during the winter months, due to lack of sunlight. Most people are affected, to varying degrees. Scientists don’t fully understand the chemical mechanisms yet but they know that light has an effect on our pineal gland, which governs our sleeping patterns; and on our serotonin levels, which affect mood. The best and only real remedy is to go somewhere sunny or to invest in a broad spectrum light to sit in front of for periods of time.
For these reasons, there is a debate going on about whether the prevalent use of sunblock is a good idea, which brings us to the other, less benign side to our dependency upon the Sun.
The surface of the sun is 6,000 degrees C. It is a seething mass of mainly helium and hydrogen. This Sun God is a fierce and dangerous one, from which we need protection. All that stands between us and immolation is our Earth’s atmosphere. As things are, too much sunlight is definitely a bad thing. We can wear sunblock to protect us from skin cancer, but then we lose out on D3. On a bigger scale, desertification has huge implications for the survival of our species. And there isn’t anyone who is not aware of the implications of global warming.
There is a connection between the Thirteen Towers of Chankillo, and modern society. The ancient Peruvians were acting on instinct, instinct which is proving to be very accurate in some ways. Now that science is catching up, the hope is that we can find appropriate, scientifically sound, ways of ‘honoring and placating the Sun’.
