The Solar Tradition

Modern Observations
With the passing of the old cultures and religions, sun worship has lost its significance. Science has become a separate development often replacing religion as the foundation of our beliefs. However, science is now revealing some new and vital information on the sun's activities, which gives us a new understanding of man's relationship with the centre of his planetary system.

The sun's surface periodically erupts into huge flares which extend thousands of miles into space and, to us on earth, appear as 'spots' on its surface. These sunspots have been observed to undergo various cycles of increasing and decreasing activity, the main cycle of which is approximately eleven years. Correlations have shown that periods of increased sunspot activity correspond with terrestrial phenomena. There is evidence that wars, revolutions, and migrations often correspond to periods of intense sunspot activity.

The American Foundation for the Study of Cycles has found over 1300 phenomena related to sunspot cycles. These include the increased frequency of auroras, comets, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, meteor showers, changes in germ cell maturation, fashion, voting trends, fluctuations in stock market prices increase in the incidence of high blood pressure and diabetes, and many other seemingly unrelated events. This is not surprising when we visualize the immense power of the sun and its radiations, or realize that the earth is constantly being baked in a solar wind. The sun is an integral part of life on earth.

Surya Namaskara takes on a new dimension when we become aware of the effects of the sun on our lives, we can then understand how important it was to our ancestors. At the same time, by awakening our own inherent solar forces through this integrated practice, we can attune ourselves to the cosmic nature and revitalize our lives.