The SUN - all his beams full-dazzling
A Tarot offering for Aries Season
Sit with me, let a smile form on your lips,
let your sun shine,
close your eyes, if need be,
to see your self more clearly.
—Thich Nhat Hanh
Happy New Moon in the final stretch of Aries season! Having passed through the threshold of the Equinox, the Sun now reclaims victory over the night. Mother Nature welcomes him with evident delight—in Texas, the highways are dotted with bluebonnets and paintbrush flower. Further north, greying mounds of snow melt into clear, cold rivers that trip merrily alongside city streets.
Like shoots of green poking through cold ground, we humans also perk up in March and April. Our white-knuckle grip on life may begin to loosen as tender leaves unfurl from stiff winter branches. Our distracted gazes can’t help but widen with awe at the world around us. No wonder so many who lived to walk this earth ascribed a certain benevolence to the solar power at its center. Like sunflowers, we turn our faces to the golden gleaming god above and we come, if ever so slightly, back to life.
This is the cosmic invitation that I associate with the SUN card—that we can be rebirthed at any moment through the Sun’s sacred fire.
We are the SUN.
If we hold in our minds all that science has taught us about relational cosmic burning—from the origin of the universe in the big bang, to the furnace of our Sun holding us in orbit, to the processes of human perception which depend on light and the fiery pulses of the brain to function—we hit on the realization that all of life is solar-powered. We are intrinsically linked to the Sun’s bright burning. The Sun is both in and outside of us.
Look upon this burning world with eyes that burn,
and you too are burning.
—Joshua Michael Schrei
Like the literal Sun, we are invited to blaze with confidence so complete that it teeters on absurdity! After all, what is more absurd than a naked child riding a white horse before a walled garden of sunflowers? In the Rider Waite Smith deck, the Sun-child embodies absolute assurance and joy; he receives the Sun’s rays without reservation.
I always hear Whitman’s words in my head when I draw this card: “Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling.” This child, embodying the Sun from the tips of his fingers and bottoms of his toes appears ready to dazzle. Delights in dazzling. Deems worthy the desire to dazzle.
And so, for me, the question becomes: what dazzles you?
Are you open to being dazzled? Are you ready to mount the snow white horse of childlike wonder and ride out into world in feather-topped celebration of what it is to be alive?
The SUN in each of us asserts that this confidence is our birthright. But why does it feel so often out of reach?
Embodied Consciousness.
If we look at the full line of Major Arcana cards, we see that the SUN arrives near its endpoint—it comes after a process of maturation and socialization that has at times obscured the SUN’s shining. This is not a problem—it’s the natural order of things. We have to move through the darkness of the MOON, with its waters of subconscious drift, to emerge into the pure light of consciousness offered in the SUN.
So this journey is very much about navigating the internal world between subconscious and conscious states—but not only. This card represents a moment when we are finally able to unite the internal and external world in a meaningful way, truly manifesting (for lack of a less-loaded word) our deeply-held values in the world.
With so much action happening in Aries astrologically right now—you may be experiencing this fiery rush as a surge of urgency toward
actualization of long-held goals
impatience with external blocks (or blindered people)
new-found confidence to look at what’s been holding you back, double-down and say: What the hell. I’m gonna do it anyway.
But what we make with the SUN’s blessing in this moment will be potent, because we do it to please ourselves first.
We may have spent a lot of time and energy in our early lives chasing shiny objects that we thought would grant us the Sun-child’s confidence. We wanted the degree, the house, the partner, the book deal, the perfect haircut (Ok, yes these are my obsessions…) In our reptilian brains these things represented safety—markers to assure us that we deserve a place within the fabric of our communities, our families, our lives.
The SUN arrives to remind us that there is nothing to deserve. Like the Sun itself, we just are. Our bright blazing is proof enough of our value.
What would we do if we truly believed this?
Some of us fear that if we dispel the clouds of socialization, we’ll somehow become selfish, raging, egomaniacs. But this isn’t about giving into all of your base desires. It’s about seeing them without judgement—trusting yourself to have cultivated the discernment to make decisions that are in line with your values. YOUR values, not the ones your parents, or your partner, or your favorite parenting blogger thinks you should have.
The SUN invites you to connect with the soul-level interests of your heart, to realize the dreams and desires that dazzle you. And the best part is, that you don’t have to wait for some future moment when you imagine you’ll be better prepared or better connected or better dressed or whatever. The SUN says you can embody the dreams of our heart now. You can love yourself for being where you are now. Banish the thought that you’re behind or that you need to rush. Release the suspicion that there’s no hope in this economy, this political situation, this point of environmental collapse and give yourself the celebration of life that that this moment, too, calls for: Be brave enough to imagine something brilliant.
Every Brilliant Thing.
Last month, my daughter, Junie, and I saw Daniel Ratcliffe act in the one-man show Every Brilliant Thing. The play followed Ratcliffe’s character on a quest to stave off depression and suicide by keeping a life-long list of things to appreciate about being alive. The show calls for audience participation, with randomly selected members of the crowd receiving small slips of paper. These papers contained items on the list, which show-goers would then call out during the telling of the story.
Imagine us, Junie and me, sitting in the darkened upper balcony watching the most magical actor of his generation convey a vulnerable story with humor and heart. Imagine further—my utter delight when he cued the number: 999, and beside me Junie focused all her will into speaking out her ‘brilliant thing’ with clarity, truth, and confidence.
Sunlight, she said.
I bring this up because inevitably there are moments when we will pull the SUN card and the fire in our hearts will feel distant. There is a depression. A loss. A disappointment. Clouds roll in. Storms gather. This is what it is to live embodied on the Earth.
But also there is Sunlight. And moonlight and other beacons that rekindle the heat within. So I’ll ask again: what dazzles you?
Draw it close. Fill yourself with your soul’s “primal sanities,” as Whitman called them: The stars, the orchard, the roving city streets. Write long lists, or verses, soliloquies to the people, places, and experiences that make you burn with longing and delight. Laugh from the belly. Dance from the hips. Let the arms splay out wide. Starfish-fall into the light of the SUN and remember what it is to be alive on this wild wondrous corner of our shimmering galaxy.
Try this:
Pull cards on the following questions to discover where the SUN shines for you this season:
Where can I find security in this moment?
What part of me is ready to dazzle?
What will I create with my singular, solar superpower?
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Works Cited:
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Sun My Heart (2010).
Joshua Michael Schrei, The Emerald Podcast, “This Episode is FIRE” (November 3, 2024).
Walt Whitman, “Give me the Splendid Silent Sun” (1891).
Also, a shout out to Feminist Coach Kara Loewentheil’s podcast UnF*ck Your Brain: Feminist Self-Help for Everyone, which deeply influenced the section on Embodied Consciousness.