Sun Cult in Ancient Egypt

Hey everyone, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you have great holidays which you spend alone or with your loved ones! In this article I would like to talk about ancient Egypt and hope you are interested in this topic.

Egyptian mythology is full of different gods around which numerous cults have arisen and an important part of the culture was the worship of the sun. The sun was considered the source of creation and numerous old traditions show what important role sun gods had and hardly any other cult has attracted more attention than this one. People knew that the sun gave them daily light or the necessary warmth and already the well-known Hermes Trismegistus, who is also considered a co-founder of alchemy and hermetics, knew how important the power of the sun was and ran around in darkness for a long time of his life until he learned how important the duality between brightness and darkness is. In alchemy, the sun was also generally linked to the metal gold and as an essential part of creation, the sun was an important component of chaos and was often regarded as a sign of fertility or power, which has also developed into an important symbol of domination in various cultures. An important part of the Egyptian cult of the sun was the consideration as a celestial body that changes its shape during the day and according to this rhythm, people have also learned to adapt and rituals were invented in which the entire cycle from sunrise to sunset was of great importance.

The Egyptians thought that the sun rises in the east during the golden hour and embodies the god Ra who changes the shape during the day and sinks in the west as Atum and every time this cult of regeneration or rebirth was celebrated with various rituals. The ancient Egyptians considered the return of the sun as not a matter of course and only through regular worship will it rise again and if this cult should be stopped to be celebrated, it could even happen that humanity could fall into total darkness and the light of life goes out which keeps everything up. The sun was also considered a sign of wisdom, healing or secret knowledge and the eye of Ra was also linked to the sun and also the right eye of the god Horus was associated with the sun while the left one was considered as a sign of the moon which was once healed by the god of wisdom Thot. In the course of the dynasties, the meaning changed and more and more gods were linked to the power of the sun and it has developed into a important symbol that was increasingly integrated into the culture over the millennia and other living beings such as the scarab beetle were linked as a sign of the sun. Ancient Egypt is a prime example of the worship of the sun, but it behaves similarly in other cultures where the sun was considered as an important symbol of creation around which a huge cult arose and was usually considered a male symbol while the moon was linked to the female aspects.

Many thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about this exciting topic! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.