Sun
Created | Updated Mar 27, 2008
Sun
Not all stars are conscious and they are so widely spread out across space, that our sun (who doesn't think of itself as belonging to us) had no sentient company at first. The sun awoke to consciousness so long ago that it cannot remember its first awakening. It had condensed from an enormous cloud of dust and, sometime after it reached critical mass and ignited, it started to become aware. It was a long, long time after, that it first made contact with other stars.
There was so much happening in its immediate neighbourhood, that it was content to observe the formation and transformation of its satellites and their satellites and all the other great events taking place in our arm of the galaxy. Out on the edge it rose and fell and circled the bright centre in the long sedate star dance, watching the drama with interest and curiosity. Then there came a time when The Sun wondered if it could touch the minds of other stars. It reached out experimentally with its mind and gently prodded its nearest neighbours. Most didn't respond, but eventually one of the stars, not very far away (on the galactic scale of distances) reacted to the prod with surprise - and prodded back.
The two stars communicated very simply to begin with - until they were sure that they liked each other. They found that having company increased the fascination they felt for their existence. They formulated a language, made up not of words, but of the strange and unfathomable concepts, emotions and sensations of stars. Then they took millions of years to get to know each other and they quested out with their minds, searching for other sentient stars. In time a great, populous stellar community formed and our Sun was respected as one of the founder members of the galactic mind.
It is only quite recently that The Sun has noticed the organic life on the surface of first one then another of its satellites. First, the fourth planet - the one some of us call Mars - came to life organically. The myriad life forms swarming on its surface pulled at the attention of The Sun until it concentrated all its thought upon them. It was pleased when it perceived that the thoughts and hopes of the minuscule little lives on the fourth satellite, formed something quite big and powerful when combined - and they were focusing their desperate hopes on The Sun. They were praying to The Sun for light and warmth and continued life. They loved The Sun. So The Sun reached out to them to give them the warmth they besought. It was just a terrible accident that, in putting forth a great gust of heat energy, The Sun blew their thin atmosphere away and destroyed life on Mars.
Stars had no experience of organic life and didn't understand. Our poor Sun felt guilt, regret and confusion for the first time and watched its satellites carefully after that for any signs of organic life starting again. When life started on the third satellite - the one some call Earth - The Sun was aware of it almost straight away. This time it watched thoughtfully and tried to understand the needs of life on Earth. As life evolved to more and more complex forms, The Sun perceived the strong desire for heat and light emanating from the creatures and plants. There came a time when some of the creatures evolved to the stage that Martian life had reached before The Sun had inadvertently destroyed it. Now Earth creatures were worshipping The Sun and praying for life-giving heat and light. The Sun was more cautious on this occasion and did not hurl heat and light at the third satellite but, instead, tried to find other, less destructive ways, to satisfy them.
It found that, of all the life forms on Earth, one kind in particular, cried out for attention, begging, wheedling, asking, demanding, bribing - trying by any means possible, to get The Sun's attention and keep it focused on them. It was mankind. The Sun observed with interest as the species spread out from the continent we call Africa, to occupy almost every land on the planet. It was interested to note that the strongest hopes and desires pulled at it from the lands tilted away from it - the winter lands - and from the side facing away from it, the dark side of the planet. It puzzled over the blood shed of sacrifices, made to it - and wondered what to make of the practice.
It became apparent that this species worshipped all sorts of things. There were groups that worshipped Earth's satellite, that some call The Moon, for example. Volcanoes, trees, rivers were all worshipped by different peoples. The Sun probed some of these deities for signs of consciousness. It found that The Moon was coming to life and becoming aware - and it was actually the worship that was waking The Moon to consciousness. The Sun wasn't surprised very often, but this surprised and delighted it. The other stars were intrigued when The Sun communicated the news. There was some sense of envy as those stars that were not orbited by planets with organic life (ie, almost all of them) considered how they might stimulate an apparently dead, satellite rock into conscious life.
After millennia of careful observation of mass human emotion, The Sun started to have some insight into the religious beliefs of different peoples and allowed that some of them might be accommodated without harm. Most of the beliefs could be satisfied by The Sun simply continuing to be there, so that to those on the revolving planet, it appeared to rise every morning. Others involved a certain amount of personification of solar behaviour. Dancing for example. There were peoples living in the northern hemisphere who believed The Sun danced to bring, announce or celebrate the arrival of Spring.
The tilt of the planet would bring Spring in any case but The Sun finds this sort of belief quite endearing (unlike those beliefs that involve blood sacrifices). To indulge this fanciful but pleasing belief, it learned, by trial and error over many years, to put forth a colourful, non-combustible expression of itself - a shimmering aurora in human shape - a bright and airy female form to Dance In The Spring, for the child-like delight of these peoples. They celebrate The Dance, welcome The Radiant Dawn and have a great feast.
It's that time of year again in the northern hemisphere: Eostre or Easter. And The Sun is preparing to send a dance to the believers, congregating expectantly in their ancient and secret glades and stone circles, on the third satellite - the saddest, happiest and most interesting planet in the solar system.
