Cosmic Wheel of Time

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In the Roman Catholic Church, the body of Christ is symbolized as a round white disk in a holder called a monstrance, which often look like sun like rays around the disk.  In fact many images depicting the sun can be found on clothing, jewelery, buildings and artwork of the Pope in the Vatican’s and in Saint Peter’s Basilica, in Rome. One of the sculptures depicting the four virtues (called the truth) is a Madonna standing on the earth and holding a Sun instead of a baby.  This equates truth with light and with the Sun itself.  The Catholic fathers often compared Jesus to the sun as they compared Mary to the moon. They said her light was not her own light but light reflected from her son, Jesus. Even the pagan day Sunday was named after Sunna, German goddess of the sun. It then became the Christianized Sunday, sacred to Jesus, because the sun was thought to be a fitting emblem.  Some believe that the Celtic cross was introduced to Ireland by Saint Patrick during his time converting the pagan Irish. It is believed that he combined the symbol of Christianity, a cross, with the symbol of the sun, to give pagan followers an idea of the importance of the cross by linking it with the idea of the life-giving properties of the sun. But If we look further back to the Roman times we find the similar symbol of the Labarum,  introduced by Emperor Constantine. represented as a monogram formed by overlaying the first two letters of the Greek word for christ Chi (χ) and Rho, (ρ)

Labarum Chi Rho

But If we go further back we find that Plato explained in the Timaeus that the Celestial Chi- formed in the monogram of Chronos (who was father Time) represented the crossing of Solar ecliptic path with the celestial equator of the Earth.  These two great circles formed a cross like the letter Chi and were said to form the word Soul, or law that governs everything.  The point in time when these to great planes intercect is is what we call the equinoX. This seems to be a case where a celestial symbol was overridden with Christian meanings.  Prior to the labarum, the earliest Christian symbol, was a fish-like symbol now known as Ichthys (the Greek word for fish (ιχθυς),  an acronym for the phrase transliterated as ” Iesou Christos Theou Yios Sotiras,” that is, “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the Savior.” Others think the symbol of the fish was because it was the age of Pisces.  Perhaps a most telling symbolic act of the Church conquering the past glory of the Sun God of Egypt was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, which was moving an ancient Egyptian obelisk to the Basilica in Rome and then topping it with a Christian cross.  It is still there today.

Cross on top of Oblisk

Another Obelisk (built by Pharaoh Tuthmosis III in Karnak) was also topped with the cross and sits in the square in front of the Lateran Palace in Rome. Twenty other of the obelisks were moved all around the world, including one to New York Central Park. It is interesting to note that the Washington monument is proportional to an Egyptian obelisk and that the original design included an Egyptian style winged sun over the door way.   Imagine if it was used as the center gnomon on a huge sun dial rather than a monument to the man George Washington!

A similar tall monolithic tree found in Norse Mythology, called the Irminsul  was a symbol for the tree of life, or Yggdrasil.  It was believed to have held up the whole world like an aXis mundi, meaning center of the world, like the center pole in which we now know the Earth rotates around. Yggdrasil was said to draw from the magic springwater of knowledge.  This tree could be related to the basis of tree of knowledge of Judaism, and Christianity.  While it may seem that this aligning with the Earth’s axis is not related to the Sun, in fact, this is really aligning with the four directions, which is then also aligning with the sun. This tree motif can also be found in Mesoamerican tradition as Wacah Chan,  in Hungary as Világfa and also in Siberian shaman culture.  In Buddism, the Gautama Buddha found enlightenment underneath the Bodhi tree.  In South America, the Aztec’s version of paradise was called Tamoanchan and it’s glyph was that of a flowering tree.

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© Copyright2009 Kelly Sabota-O’Donnell