No. 18

Tarot 18

The main thing in Il Sole, the Sun, is a sun surrounded by rays. Some decks show two young children seated with their arms around each other. Or there is a young male and female couple standing in a circle and holding hands. Other pictures show two children standing together before a seawall. Another variant has a dressed woman holding an arrow and a string (Agrell).

The sun is an origin of understanding (of seeing and light itself) and of simplehearded, childlike happiness, thinks P. Scott Hollander (103-06). And in many cultures the sun is a prominent and brilliant god who makes life on earth as we know it, possible, The sun shows splendour and make us shine somewhat, we too. [Bunning 150-51]

Aligned Sayings

Warmth and humour could make you want to throw off your clothes.

When there is time for basking, adjust accordingly.

The "half-frozen", much restrained people are hard to love full well in harsh conformity.

One sign of a good life lived lies in unrestrained ado one way or another.

Not everything is meant to be solid to look at, like the sun's rays. Life on this planet depends on them all the same.

Possible Alignment

In the spiralling coding system that is applied, the Sun is placed in the same sixth life field (area) as the Pope. For one thing, the pope holds both wordly and spiritual power, it is believed by many. Besides, the Sun is a god, a divine Being and not just matter, it is held in many religions - but the Sun god is more "far out (in space)" than the pope. Besides, sun-bathing resembles sun worship as described in the ancient Markandeya Purana [Pargiter, 1904].

This is to say it is possible to link the Pope and the Sun somehow, in some ways. According to Jaina philosophy anything can be linked in thought to any other thing in the universe, although with some reservations [Chatterjee and Datta 83 ff]. By putting two things or images close to one another, it is easy to form a mental link between them, based on perceived nearness (proximity). In your mind you can imagine or think of anything and link it to anyone and anything. It is one of the feats we typically do by mental associations. Linking things, people and happenings well is a feature of the mind.