Aeon418 said:
After all, the sun doesn't really die, does it? So why base a spiritual path around a misconception of both the sun and Self?
Yes, an integral part of the Third degree ceremony (the very end). The candidate goes through this whole dying god formula only to be told at the end of the Oasis series of initiation (prior to Lodge) ... well, pretty much what Aeon says above.
Why? because one needs to know the framework of the 'old' (and still qlippothically extant) age. One 'needs to know what one is in for'.
All credit to A.C. for finally updating traditions with commonly understood natural science! Might seem that that SHOULD be common - but not in my experience. The 'mystical tradition' seems to lag a few centuries behind most often - but why should it?
The Sun does not die and travell through the underworld to be reborn each day (like the soul
).
From our perception point it appears to, but what happens is our perception point turns away from the sun , so the sun is concealed 'behind' the mass of our own perception point and it's (the mass of the perception point)creates a shadow through part of the atmosphere which reaveals the wonder of the heavens.
Have fun mediating on how that relates to your 'gnosis mortis'.