The Great Battle of the Sun

One of the fundamental laws governing the functioning of the manifested world, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, states that any system without external energy input moves toward decay and chaos. In other words, maintaining the existence of any ordered structure in the manifested universe requires periodic inflows of energy and the renewal of their sources. It makes no difference which aspect of the cosmos we consider: “physical,” macrocosmic, or “psychic” — this regularity remains valid.

Myth, as a fundamental way of describing the universal patterns by which both cosmoses are structured, portrays the need for energy renewal as a periodic “Rebirth of the Sun”, and by “Sun” is meant any external and hierarchically superior source of energy relative to the given system. Whether we are talking about restoring the status quo of the Universe as a whole, changing planetary annual cycles, or receiving a paycheck — the same mythological pattern of solar renewal applies.

The study of mythological descriptions that examine this process through images and analogies reveals important regularities that help to use ‘physical’ energy more effectively and improve renewals of a depleted psyche.

These myths share two motifs: 1) an account of the “battle” or “resistance” of the Sun as a god of order against the forces of chaos and destruction, and 2) an account of the “birth of a new Sun” born from the Great Goddess or Otherworld. Often one encounters a “combined myth” that joins battle and rebirth, as, for example, the tale of the Solar Barque of the ancient Egyptians. Both events, which occurred in the First Time, the mythological model of “timeless” time, are periodically repeated in created worlds in various forms and at different levels. Even when Birth and Battle are described as separate episodes, they still implicitly include each other, as, for instance, in the story of the “Massacre of the Innocents” of the Christian myth or the Buddha’s confrontation with Mara before attaining Enlightenment (that is, in the process of Rebirth into Enlightenment).

Thus, to the notion that any system must periodically renew itself, be reborn by receiving an inflow of “external” (that is, “primordial,” “deep”) energy — access to which is usually difficult — there is an important detail: any renewal requires overcoming; any restoration of the integrity and order of the cosmos (physical or psychic) requires repelling attacks by chaos.

Just as, for example, the existence of the physical Universe is due to an ‘asymmetry’ between matter and antimatter — namely, effectively to the predominance of one pole of the binary over the other — the existence of any system is maintained by an “asymmetry” between order (cosmos, maat) and chaos (destruction, isfet). Therefore the second important conclusion that can be drawn from the myths of Solar battles is that the forces of creation and destruction are fundamentally linked and binary. Thus, among the Egyptians Ra and Apophis are sometimes described as brothers born of the great goddess Neith, just as Horus (the elder) and Set are brothers born of the goddess Nut. That is, the annihilation of one of the poles would inevitably preclude the possibility of the system’s very existence, and its stability is achieved only by the predominance, the dominance of one of the principles.

At the level of the mind this means that its destructive manifestations cannot be eliminated entirely; however, they must be restrained, subordinated, and their complete destruction occurs only with the transcendence of duality, and therefore of manifestation itself. In other words, it is impossible simply to ‘overcome evil’ or “cast off obscurations” and at the same time “preserve the good”: a total transformation of the whole system must occur, depriving it of duality and thus of the difference of potentials that makes manifestation possible. Demons cannot be killed — then the Angels would perish too; it is only possible to go beyond the battlefield itself. To attain Enlightenment is not to become “very good,” it is not to lose one’s ‘dark half’, it is to step beyond manifestation as such.

The Birth of the Sun, which takes place in the world every day (each morning) or every year (at the Winter Solstice), must also occur in every mind as long as it remains manifest.

Every being must understand that it necessarily requires such rebirths, and that they are impossible without battle, without overcoming resistance from chaos, which must be kept in check, remembering that this battle has no end while the manifested world exists.