The first appearance of the Angry Sun was in Super Mario Bros. 3, the Quicksand level. It shoots out flaming rays until about halfway through the level, when the Angry Sun swoops down into a U-formation to attack our poor plumber friends. It returns in level 8-2, the Dark Land, where it jumps out from behind a pillar and immediately begins trying to swoop again. I fucking hated that level, the first one, as I was never able to make to the latter. This just goes to show how bad the sun can burn you, but it can also wake you up.
The Sun, the tarot card for Leo Season, represents this journey through the desert, the completion of a long cycle. It feels like we are coming out of hibernation. The days are long, and the nights are short. The Sun, a symbol of light and growth, invites us into a space of illumination and clarity. Through the challenges along your path, you discovered who you are and why you’re here. It then becomes a question of developing maturity, while at the same time anchoring down into a space of absolute joy.
If it sounds deceptively simple, that’s because it is. And like most things that doesn’t make it any easier. As humans we have two very basic needs: to be seen and to be loved. The Sun card is a calling to express yourself authentically and be fully present in the world around you. It invites you to know yourself and the world newly and to embrace the clarity felt deep within your gut. All that this card asks is that you stop conforming to society’s standards and conventional thinking just because you think you have to, and to begin living a life that is truly your own.
When the sun has set, no candle can replace it.
George RR Martin
Chasing after joy has been a game changer for me. It literally changed my life. It has also been terrifying, as I’ve presented myself in new ways to the world. It took a reparenting of the self, of sorts, a new beginning. I had to make sure the inner child inside myself felt safe first. As I did that those places where I was previously uncomfortable being seen began to feel imperative to my growth, vital even. That one moment of looking back change my fate. It made me change along with the course of my own evolution.
There is a crucial element of this card that often gets left out. If you fight the knowing of who you really are, if you keep shoving things back down into those dark crevices of your soul, the Sun can help you to shine a light on what you are attempting to cling to. Everything will work out, and through your challenges you will discover who you really are. It may not always feel like it, but things will get better. A lot better! As long as we are willing to root ourselves to the light, we can then begin to radiate who we are and what we stand for. We can shine our love onto those we care about. We can see others as they truly are and be seen by others as we are underneath all the layering.
Birth is not a momentary event, but a permanent process. Our aim in life is to become completely born…living means being born every minute.
Erich Fromm
This is not a one time deal, as you will have to go through this again and again. We humans have many layers, much like an onion. And to get to that center, we must continue the long arduous task of removing them one at a time. The Sun is traditionally rooted in joy, that one thing we humans were never supposed to steer away from in the first place. Joy begets joy. As the theologian and philosopher St. Augustine once said, “Love God and then do whatever you wish.”
Mad love, Jenna
deck credit: Rider-Waite Tarot Deck, drawn in 1909 by Pamela Colman Smith under direction of Arthur Edward Waite
