Let the Sun Shine In ...

I think sometimes as a witch the moon tends to get pride of place and the sun perhaps takes a back seat? But it is an incredibly powerful source of natural energy and magic. If you assign to the general school of thought about gender (more on that later) the sun is a very strong masculine energy that balances with the feminine energy of the moon.

How does the sun make you feel when it shines on a beautiful spring day after we have been subjected to rain, wind and snow? Turning your face and feeling the warm rays of sun. Having a picnic in the park or sitting on the beach on a warm summer's day. Makes you feel mighty fine, that's how it makes you feel! Now, I must admit I am not one to lie on a beach topping up my tan for hours, I am most definitely an English rose (and by that, I mean white and pasty). Besides, too much sunshine fades tattoos ... However, I do appreciate the sunshine and I love being out in my garden when it is shining. And of course, I love working with sun magic.

The sun provides us with much nourishment not just in the form of Vitamin D which is necessary to keep us healthy but also in providing sunlight for plants and food to grow.

Magically, sunshine rays can be used to charge tools and crystals, to cleanse and purify pretty much any object or even yourself and focused through a magnifying glass onto paper or dry leaves it can even create fire. Just as we work with the phases of the moon for spell work, the sun has special times and phases that can be used to correspond with magical workings too. It also has a whole load of herbs, plants, foods and crystals associated with it.

And just as there is a tradition of drawing down the moon and her power into your body, you can do the same with the sun.

The Solar Cycle

Without getting too sciency (because I wouldn't understand it) let's have a look at the solar cycle. The sun is basically a big ball of hot gas that is electrically charged. The gas moves which creates a very powerful magnetic field. That magnetic field goes through a cycle. Approximately every eleven years that magnetic field flips completely causing the sun's north and south poles to swap over, then eleven or so years later it swaps back again. The solar cycle causes activity on the surface of the sun such as sunspots. The changing magnetic field activity affects the amount of movement on the surface of the sun.

At the beginning of a solar cycle there will be the least amount of sunspots and what is called a solar minimum meaning less activity. As time passes the activity increases. In the middle of the solar cycle when the sun has the highest number of sunspots the cycle is referred to as solar maximum (sounds like a Roman soldier ). As the cycle progresses towards its end the activity decreases again, until a new cycle begins.

The sun also has indigestion, these solar flares are huge eruptions on the surface of the sun and these also increase with the solar cycle. A solar flare sends large bursts of hot gas, material and electrically charged energy out into space. These solar flares can cause lights to be seen in the sky from earth, shorten the lifespan of satellites, disrupt ship navigation systems and can even effect radio signals. Particularly large flares can also impact upon electricity grids. I did say the sun was powerful!

Solar cycles vary, some have more activity than others. Our clever science bods try and track, record and therefore predict how strong and how long each solar cycle will be. Being able to predict in detail can help them to do a 'sun weather forecast' which is technically referred to as 'space weather'. Being able to predict space weather can obviously help us to protect our radio communication and keep travelling astronauts safe (solar flares bring radiation with them, which is incredibly bad for people out for a spacewalk).

The sun also has wind (pardon you), and it is spectacularly impressive blowing in at around 600,000 to two million miles per hour. The solar wind flows along the magnetic lines of force; some charged particles fly down into Earth's atmosphere and create beautiful colours of red and green. These colours are the Northern and Southern lights (Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis). You will usually have to be standing near to the North or South Pole to see them though.

Every 1.5 millionths of a second the sun releases more energy than every single human being put together consumes in an entire year. That is quite impressive.

The heat from the sun influences the environments of all the planets, moons, asteroids and comets in our solar system. This is one serious dude. It can create that amount of energy because it is basically an enormous ball of hydrogen held together by gravity causing a huge amount of pressure inside it. Hydrogen atoms collide with each other with enough force to create helium. Which means if the sun were to talk it would probably have a high squeaky voice ... This process is called nuclear fusion, the atoms continually collide with each other creating a chain reaction that happens over and over and over ... and you get the idea. The energy builds and can get as hot as 27 million degrees Fahrenheit in the core (ain't no sun factor for that). The energy travels outwards and on to the photosphere where it sends out heat, charged particles and light. This energy is what allows us to live on the Earth.

Thankfully the magnetic field around Mother Earth and her atmosphere protects us from most of the sun blasts. Otherwise it would get pretty hot and melty on our planet.

Everything in the solar system is continually on the move; the solar system includes the sun, nine planets and their moons, comets and asteroids. Collectively these are called celestial bodies. Sitting comfortably in the centre is the sun. It takes the sun twenty-five days to spin completely around. The earth, which is the third planet from the sun, takes twenty-four hours to rotate, i.e. a day and a night. As the earth rotates...