For at least thousands of years
people practiced a religion of the sun right across the earth.
The evidence to this once-great global religion
can be found in the most ancient sites,
sacred texts, and legends in the world,
stretching long before recorded history, and even further back than the last ice age.
In fact, the practice of the Religion of the Sun traces back so far,
that its origins vanish into the mists of time
where legends become so old they become a thing of myth, magic, and other worlds.
Its practice can be found alongside the accounts of giants, lost civilizations like Atlantis,
times of divine kings, magical objects,
and huge cycles of time in which human societies evolve,
devolve, and experience periodic catastrophe.
The followers of this religion built hundreds, and perhaps even
hundreds of thousands of megalithic sites
all over the world such as pyramids, statues, stone circles, mounds, and even cities,
and aligned these sites precisely with the sun at its major annual stages
at the solstices and equinoxes.
Some of the more famous of these sites include Stonehenge,
which aligns to the summer solstice sunrise;
the Great Sphinx of Egypt, which gazes directly at sunrise on the equinox;
the statues on Easter Island, that align to summer solstice sunset,
and many, many others.
And while these sites may seem unrelated, they are actually all connected.
For example, many of these sites were built
so that they align with one another across entire continents and oceans.
The Great Pyramids of Egypt, Easter Island,
Machu Picchu in Peru, Angkor Wat in Cambodia
and others, not only align to the sun on the solstice and equinox,
but also align with one another,
indicating that those who originally established these sacred places
were a global culture capable of traversing the oceans,
and possessed a highly advanced knowledge.
Even today, remnants of this Religion of the Sun have survived,
as the solstices and equinoxes are still celebrated by billions of people.
For example, Christmas is traditionally celebrated at the winter solstice,
which is in December in the Northern Hemisphere,
while Inti Raymi in Peru is the Inca celebration of the winter solstice,
which occurs in June in the Southern Hemisphere.
Both are actually based on a celebration of the same event,
which is the birth of the spiritual sun from out of the darkest time of the year.
In fact, many of the world's religions are offshoots
of this once global Religion of the Sun.
The religion of ancient Egypt, the Vedic and Hindu religions,
those of the Inca and Maya, the Zuni and Hopi, the Yazidi,
Minoans, Thracians, Druids, Indo-Europeans, and many others,
actually trace to a far more ancient common influence and source.
This source originates from a time before recorded history,
when myths and oral histories speak of legendary wisdom bringers
who traveled the world on a divine mission
to re-initiate civilization
following a devastating global cataclysm at the end of the last ice age.
They're described in different cultures as wandering sages
who brought with them the knowledge of agriculture,
astronomy, building, and writing, as well as a great spiritual knowledge.
This knowledge was the Religion of the Sun, which arose wherever they instigated civilization,
and was said to be the religion from a former Golden Age.
Their civilizing and spiritual knowledge
was used to build many of the ancient sites we're familiar with today
that all align to the sun,
and led to the eventual creation of a now lost global civilization
that diffused throughout the world.
This is why the same or similar ancient symbols,
megalithic structures, languages, myths, measurements,
practices, and spiritual teachings
appear in so many different parts of the world.
Over thousands of years, this civilization eventually collapsed,
with the movements of people, persecution, destruction, war, and strife,
and its knowledge became fragmented and lost,
leaving us with scattered remnants.
Many might think that sun worship is little more than a primitive form of nature worship,
but those who practiced the Religion of the Sun
built some of the greatest sacred sites in the world,
and left us with some of the most incredible spiritual wisdom ever known.
These ancient people understood that we are literally children of the stars,
both in a material and spiritual sense.
We and everything around us is made of the stuff of stars.
But the ancients described the sun as having not only a physical, but also a spiritual aspect.
It was seen as the living embodiment of the divine creator,
as the greatest source of light and life in universe.
The sun and stars were seen not only as the origin of our material bodies,
but also as the origin of the spark of spiritual light we each carry within
– our true and eternal self.
The Religion of the Sun taught the path to reunite this spark of divine light
with the much greater light of our higher Being,
our own spiritual sun.
Those who taught this path were deified
as the many great teachers found throughout the world,
whose lives correspond to the sun's major stages
at the solstices and equinoxes,
such as Jesus, Odin, Viracocha, and Osiris.
They not only taught this same religion,
but the events of their lives represent the stages of this path,
which is why they share many similarities with each other
and with the sun's annual journey.
For instance, many of these deities were celebrated as being born at the winter solstice,
and as dying and resurrecting at the spring equinox.
Often taught encoded in symbolic ways,
this spiritual wisdom can still be read in ancient sites and sacred texts
from Egypt to Cambodia,
and from Stonehenge to Easter Island.
It is the missing key that unlocks the understanding of our ancient past.
But just as it is ancient
– at least as ancient as the oldest sacred sites, myths, and spiritual teachings –
so is it timeless, as it is the knowledge of the reality of existence.
It can still be practiced today, and here at Sakro Sawel we're reviving it.