After learning about my Proto-Indo-European and Norse ancestors (which I discuss here), combined with being influenced by the philosophy of Nietzsche and Dr. Paul Dobrnasky M.D. -- on the use of Greek Gods as archetypes of our biological instincts, which I disuss in my introductory post on my core thesis -- I realized that what all of this insight can be summed up as was an originating worldview template which I coined solar-pantheonism.
I realized that nearly all the world's religions and mythologies can be traced back to this same or similar template of some kind of early form of Sun worship or reverence for the Sun, with solar motifs; or the Sun and the sky representing the core imagery of many ancient religions, such as the illuminating Sky Father (for example see, Dyeus: The Indo-European Sky Father by ReligionforBreakfast). This early Sun motif is also in the Hebew Bible. Take the simple example of Moses encountering God and then his face shines as if he encountered the Sun, and the Sun's radiance transferred to his face.
This solar motif was then often combined with some kind of Pantheon of Gods. This was true not only of my Proto-Indo-European ancestors, but also with the Egyptians, etc. Even Christianity, whose theologians often deny it too was based on this solar motif, is no doubt itself clearly based on a solar theology (also see here and here to see the obvious sunlight metaphors in the New Testament).
So solar spirituality is actually an anciently rooted originating mythology that ties together not only the Proto-Indo-Europeans but also Persian Zoroastrianism and the Old Testament Israelite religion, up to Christianity itself being based largely on a solar motif: with Christ being represented as akin to the shining Sun who causes others to shine.
Even thoough most Christian theologians claim to be purely monotheistic and they do not have a Pantheon; the late Protestant theologian Michael Heiser clearly showed in his biblical scholarship that original New Testament Christianity did have some kind of a Pantheon or a Divine Council of Gods.
Even those Christians who reject a Pantheon/Council of Gods (with one unique Head God as Heiser explains), if one digs deeper they find that the early Christian theologians simply replaced a Pantheon of Gods (like Zeus and Thor or Odin), or the Divine Council of Gods, with instead praying to saints and turning the Gods in the biblical Divine Council into lesser angels (also see here).
The Eastern Orthodox Church for example, has taken what Dr. Paul calls the gender instincts (which he teaches about through the archetypes of the Greek gods) and instead developed a way to represent the biological instincts through various Saints; for example, through military saints, in order to represent masculine courage in battle or dying martyrs with courage. A young male YouTuber at Church of the Eternal Logos, who is a member of Eastern Orthodoxy, also has videos on the Orthodox Saints as representations of a more muscular Christianity (that is reminiscent of the Greek Gods). Also see the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces (Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ), which contains military imagery on the cathedral itself and is made from Green tanks (see short video here).
Mormonism also has solar motifs in for example D&C 88: 6-13, and a very clear Pantheon or Council of Gods in Abraham chapter 4. The Book of Mormon is full of solar imagery as well with a tree of white lighted fruit representing Christ as a solar power (see images here and here); and a post-resurrection Christ visiting the American continant in 3 Nephi, to smile and shine upon people so that they too basically glow with a solar radiance.
I believe a picture is worth a thousand words and so as a more visual thinker, I put together this image to illustrate solar-pantheonism in a nutshell:
The male figure in the center represents the archetypal male hero. The lines from his body to the personages in the outer circle are meant to point to how the masculine instincts were represented by the various ancient pantheons of Gods. The multiple personages in the circle above are the Greek Gods (as seen here) which are meant as an example of this universal pantheon.
Thymos (or thumos), cognate with Indo-European words meaning “smoke,” is one of a number of terms in Greek which associate psychological activity with air and breath. In the Homeric poems, thymos is one of a family of terms associated with internal psychological process of thought, emotion, volition, and motivation.
According to The Embodied Soul in Plato's Later Thought: Chapter 1 - Thymos (Published online by Cambridge University Press):
Thumos, often translated “spirit” or “spirited part”, acts as an intermediary between reason and appetite, imposing the dictates of reason on our irrational desires and pleasures. Yet the precise nature and function of the thumos is poorly understood ... Beginning from an analysis of the Homeric thumos...those who see the essence of thumos as lying in honour or self-esteem are mistaken, and that thumos represents a primitive drive for excellence or pre-eminence, with the desire for honour and recognition being merely derivative. …
The word and concept thumos matches Dr. Paul Dobransky's concept of passion as manifest through the archetypes of the gender instincts. So what the ancient pantheons do is provide mythical expression of thumos through the masculine and feminine instincts as explained by Dr. Paul Dobransky M.D.
The wikipedia article here on thumos, discusses Plato's three-part soul, which matches the popular metaphor of the Elephant and the Rider (or an Ant riding the Elaphant). Also see Got Thumos? by ArtofManliness.com.
A Greek philosopher of the late 6th century BCE, Heraclitus criticizes his predecessors and contemporaries for their failure to see the unity in experience. He claims to announce an everlasting Word (Logos) according to which all things are one, in some sense. Opposites are necessary for life, but they are unified in a system of balanced exchanges. The world itself consists of a law-like interchange of elements, symbolized by fire. Thus the world is not to be identified with any particular substance, but rather with an ongoing process governed by a law of change.
I also refer to the Stoic pneuma. You pronounce pneuma as "nooma." By Referencing the Heraclitean Logos and Stoic pneuma ("nooma"), I meant to convey early metaphysical ideas of a universal divine fluid energy (as a material substance), acting as a metaphor for the one energy in nature propelling a yin-yang dance (an interpolary dynamic process) or the evolutionary becoming of all things through material energy transforming form to form; which we understand today through all the sciences, from biology to physics. As Charles Darwin eloquenly puts it in, The Origin of Species:
Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
The Heraclitean-Stoic pneumatic Logos, also metaphorically captures the underlying Source Power of all things; that which "originally breathed into a few forms or into one" the evolutionary process; i.e. the Ground of Becoming. That which answers the question: why is there something (forms) rather than nothing (in the cosmos)?
This mysterious cosmic Ultimate Phenomena, which originated the Big Bang and is expanding our universe, is clearly a force of pro-transformation and Becoming. So I think this Ground of Becoming is that which is cosmically animating all humans towards heroic adventure and action; as well as moving us toward psychological integration and flourishing as a species through for example the Aristotelian golden mean (or middle way), or simply practicing "moderation in all things." Or the ideal of principles-centeredness in Covey's 7 Habits book.
The way I see it this "solar pill" (if you will) precedes the new idea of taking the "Christ pill," because the "solar pill" is for me about appreciating the solar radiance of the real Sun that we all experience regardless of race or creed. We all experience the Sun daily, universally, as a literally Life-giving source of energy through photosynthesis (which is real, and a good way to form a natural spirituality or reverence for nature).
We who descend from Proto-Indo-Europeans, had ancestors who formed an ancient solar mythology that intertwined a mother earth and the Sun, with the Sun representing an early concept of "God." For example, see wikepedia on deyus, where the English word "God" can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-Europeans' concept of the daylight-sky god / father. Also see wikipedia on the word God and Sky's the Limit by Dr. Luke Gorton; as well as Socrates and the Shining Father by Donovan). One finds this same solar motif among the Egyptians (see here and here).
This ancient solar theology was then combined with many of the various divine pantheons; as the pantheons affirmed the bodily instincts -- which bodily drives evolved via earthly matter and photosynthesis -- so that I see one intertwining universal solar-pantheon that is found to some degree in nearly all the world's religions and mythologies.
This universal set of solar and instinctual metaphors connect us to our body, to the earth and the cosmic cycles: from the light of day to our biological instincts, which are likely rooted in the cultural memories of one's heroic ancestors, personified as gods and heroes.
Even the perceived rising and falling of the Sun in the sky, acts as a metaphor of one's own falling (i.e. often failing before succeeding) and rising again to become more antifragile. So too, one's ancestral lineage is the genetic memory of those falling in death to give rise to genetic traits passed on to you in a great solar chain of belonging.
This cohesive all-as-one-solar-pantheon, affirms the instincts of the body and our connection to the Sun and all of life on earth: as the Sun is the source of energy that provides photosynthesis and the growth of life. In other words, without the Sun there is no life. So that the "solar view" is a return to one's ecological and ancestral roots and the affirmation of the Universe, the Earth, and the Body, all at once.
When one connects to something larger than themselves, in this case something scientifically real in feeling a connection with the radiant Sun, the earth, our body, and a respect for one's ancestors, they can't lose their "faith' or become a "disbeliever." For solar-pantheonism is a spirituality of the real: real sunlight, real bodily instincts, real ancestors embodied in your genetic DNA; real heroic ancestors whose memories became personified as gods and heroes. Thus it is based on real life.
Solar-Pantheonism is also the ultimate life affirmation and elevation of self-esteem by being enlarged through one's connection to their genealogical line of heroic successes and ancestral tribal power; like powerful aspen trees sharing the same genetic roots while being nourished by the bright yellow Sun. Thus, its an interconnecting orientation in this world.
Its also a good way of overcoming selfishness by seeing oneself rooted in one's family with the daylight sky father representing symbolically the way of showing respect and honor toward earthly fathers; and seeing the Sun as a metaphorical example of everlasting warmth and glowing generosity and abundance. As well as the Sun representing descending (or going down) as a metaphor for embracing a life of inevitable failures and mistakes but seeing that as an opportunity for rising again and embracing change and antifragile growth; that is, being willing to "fall down and get back up again," which is metaphorically represented by the setting and rising Sun.
The pantheons of gods are also empowering as metaphors or archetypes, as they point to one's own heroic masculine potential or heroic divine motherly potential. Furthermore, one's ancestry giving rise to the ethnic myths in the various tribal gods in each pantheon (from the Israelite god Yahweh to the Norse god Thor), points toward the gods being personification of each tribes' cultural memory based on those in the tribe who acted out superior masculine and feminine instincts toward the survival and growth of the tribe. So that these heroic men and motherly women became personified as gods.
Solar-Patheonism also fits with the Nietzschean option of envisioning future Superhumans (future generations who embody the cultural memories of those today who are the most life-affirming and heroic among us, giving rise to future Beyond-humans). In other words, the Nietzschean vision of growing into future generations that don't turn their backs on the radiant Sun and earth beneath their feet -- who don't seek to escape their bodies and reject this world for an anti-body afterworld -- but who instead fully affirm earth and sky, the cycles of Nature, and their own real life and natural biology with all of it here and now deemed good and holy.
So when I talk about solar-pantheonism, I'm not singling out only my Proto-Indo-European ancestors, but I am pointing to an ancient universal life-orienting mytho-psychology: based around the Sun, the cycles, seasons, and the bodily instincts, which is again nearly universal as the originating sources of nearly all the world's religions.
So what I am presenting here is not an ethnocentric perspective; yet I see nothing wrong with somebody connecting with their own ethnic religion, such as a Jewish person identifying more with Judaism as the ancestral religion of their ethnicity. For I find that solar-pantheonism can be found in nearly all religions. For example, an ethnic Egyptian will find the Egyptian gods representing the same solar energy within a similar pantheon of gods (representing the biological instincts). Same thing with the Greek and Norse religions with the same solar energy and similar pantheons.
This is true I think of nearly all ancient religions, from the Greeks to the Egyptians to Germans and Scandinavians; with each ethnic culture developing a unique set of gods in their pantheon, that are depicted with specific cultural traits based on the cultural memory of each tribe. So for example, in my ancestor's Norse religion, the God Thor had a hammer (based on their specific ancient Scandinavian culture), while the Hindu God Indra has the vajra. This does not make one's ethnic tribes' pantheon of gods superior to any other, as I see them all as mythological representations of the masculine and feminine biological instincts (as I explained in my introduction).
So to be clear, I'm not advocating any type of racist ideology or ethnocentrism, but each individual connecting either through their own ethnic religion (like a Jew for Judaism), or also through another's ethnic religion, like a Scandinavian becoming a Christian or Hindu, or Egyptian, or whatever, it doesn't really matter to me. For, as I see it, there is one original solar energy within each mythos and the same universal biological instincts personified in the various pantheons of gods.
So you basically have one universal life-affirming mythos (i.e. one biology affirming mythos), within solar-pantheonism: with a real Sun above our head being a constant reminder of an abundance of energy; energy, which according to science, can neither be created nor destroyed; and the Sun as a radiating ball of warmth and light acting as a spiritual metaphor we can emulate in our own lives by being an overflowing body of positive energy and brightness. This universal, natural theology, I think can unite us all around the shared values of life itself; combined with our evolved competitive instincts, which drive evolution and affirms our biological bodies toward a future of new forms "most beautiful and most wonderful," that are continuously being evolved overtime as a good and holy process of growth and becoming.
What this means for me as someone of Germanic and Scandinavian decent, is that I now more fully realize, after doing this research, that I am in a real way larger than my mere self (my conscious identity). I am the combined cultural memory of all my ancestors that is encoded in my DNA! As Whitman wrote, "I am large, I contain multitudes." Or to use a Carl Sagan term, I am combined "metamind." I am being lived out by my genetic aspen-like roots and my cultural heritage; for example, my very body and physiological traits, my more pale skin and blonde hair and blue eyes, to my strength and larger height and stature, is all a product of my Germanic Norse ancestry; and part of that biological makeup is a product of culture, which is rooted in an ancient Proto-Indo-European "spirituality," which branched out into various solar pantheons, from the Norse to the Celtic, all the way to the Vedic pantheon of the Hindus.
So as I see it, just as I am being lived by evolutionary adaptations within my biological system, I am also being lived by my ancestral cultural heritage. So I am indeed large, as part of a grand genetic and cultural heritage rooted in my DNA: a lived metabody of heroic horse riding and adventurous seafaring peoples and family-oriented tribally unified peoples; projecting their instincts onto the gods as archetypes of their collective tribal memories; and passing on their genes literally into me genetically.
I am thus a large body of genetic and cultural memories, being lived out on an unconscious level beneath the surface of my conscious awareness; from the very language I speak (English, which is a Proto-Indo-European language), to the meaning of many English words which are rooted in my Norse ancestry and their mythology. Thus I am part of a great connecting chain of genetic and cultural power and vitality as a solar powered body of heroic potentiality.
