MAAT Study Group-The Sun

juliecucciawatts

The Sun
The Summer Solstice/Litha
Cross Quarter Day- June 21 Litha
This card symbolizes Light, Joy and Wholeness. The Summer Solstice is longest day of the year; the peak of solar energy. It is Mid Summer. It is a fruit bearing branch; success; Goals met; wishes fulfilled. It represents the self aligned with The Self. Traditionally this card represents a child, specifically and typically that child is depicted as a male child. In the MAAT Tarot ‘the child’ is implied by a ‘sun' that on closer inspection is really an egg which is about to be fertilized. The fertilized egg begins life as female until it is told by the male’s contribution to be male. This chemical change happens when the cells that can become male or female genitalia are told what they are to become.
In March of 2006 I had the privilege of accompanying my husband to hear the keynote speaker at the WSST convention. (Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers) The featured speaker of the evening was Sean B. Carroll an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The topic for the evening was Evolutionary Developmental biology called Evo-Devo for short. That evening Carroll let us all in on the latest findings on how embryos develop. According to Carroll;
“Researchers now know that life’s building blocks are few, and were ‘invented’ near the dawn of the animals. More specifically, A surprisingly small number of genes-“tool kit genes”- are the primary components for all animals, and these genes emerged at a time before the Cambrian Explosion, some 600 million years ago. Thus the amazing diversity of the animal kingdom is the result of the flexibility of a small number of building blocks that have existed for eons.
This means for example, that the gene that controls the formation of the arm on a human is the same gene that controls the formation of a wing on a bird, a fin on a fish, and a leg on a centipede, and that this gene has been around since the first appendage of any kind.
According to Carroll “Genetic Switches” are the reason we can all begin with the same basic cells and end up as diverse as an elephant and a fruit fly. The “Genetic Switches” are the remarkable devices in our DNA that instruct our ‘toolkit genes’ where and when to act and what to do. This new understanding of toolkit genes and genetic switches explains how from so simple a beginning, the endless forms of nature have evolved.”

(From: The New Science of Evo Devo ENDLESS FORMS MOST BEAUTIFUL by Sean B. Carroll published by W. W. Norton & Company Inc. 500 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10110. 2005 ISBN 0-393-06016-0)
Personally this lecture and book helped to crystallize my vision for the Sun card. Bringing the whole idea of the ‘child’ of the ‘God and Goddess’ into a much more inclusive scope. We truly are in fact all children of the Earth.

Other names: Sol, RA, Apollo, Helios, Sekhmet, Horus, Jesus, and Amaterasu

Symbols: the Child, the horse, the lion,

Attributes: conception, Joy, wholeness, self-realization,


In a Reading: The sun traditionally means a child or successful outcomes. It is said to be the most positive card of the deck. However it is a card that signifies the conscious mind as well as the use of logic.





Have a great week and welcome to Summer!
Julie
 

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annik

This is a sunny egg! I like the concept of this card. Both the egg and the sun have a power of attraction. Both have their roles in the cycle of life. The sun had been deified by many culture. The egg is surrounded by courting sperm.