Throughout Salem's Festival of the Dead, we focus on the things that lurk in the dark; during Sorcery of the Sun, we celebrate the things that come out to play in the light!

The Origins of Sorcery of the Sun
In ancient times, the planets were believed to be physical representations of the gods. The first record we have comes from the Babylonians in the third millennium B.C. They likened the movements of the planets through the sky’s canopy of fixed stars to the meanderings of stray goats who answered the call of their shepherd god, Marduk. The Sun was known as the god Shamash, the charioteer who controlled the reins of the world, traveling across the sky each day bringing light.

Just as the Sun is the center of our solar system, it is the center of the practice of astrology. In many ways, the position of the Sun is said to have the greatest impact on our personalities: your zodiac sign is, in fact, your “Sun sign,” or the sign the Sun was in at the moment you were born. The Sun is said to govern energy, organization, power, rulership, self-integration, spirit, wholeness, and will. The Sun is often associated with a father figure, teachers, old friends, kings and other rulers, leaders, and creative individuals, In the Tarot, it can indicate all these things, and most often appears to herald new beginnings, rebirth, wealth, health, joy, and even proposals of marriage.

Throughout history, the Sun has been worshipped as a god or a goddess, and has been described as possessing masculine or feminine attributes, depending on the beliefs and attitudes of the culture. The rising and setting of the Sun has been explained in countless creative ways. In Australia, for instance, certain aboriginal tribes describe the Sun as a woman whose lover resides underground, among the dead. At dusk, she journeys into this underworld to spend the night with him, returning to the surface each dawn. Similar explanations of the Sun’s journey are found in the tales of various peoples and regions.

Modern Witches also have strong connections to the movements of the Sun, which govern the seasons and form the basis for the Witches’ Wheel of the Year. The Wheel is made up of eight festivals, four of them solar festivals that mark the Sun’s journey through certain signs of the Zodiac. These are known as solstices and equinoxes, and fall within the same three-day period each year.

Beginning with St. John’s Eve at the summer Solstice and continuing throughout the warmer months, New Orleans Voodoo practitioners embrace the powers of the Sun in his guise as Papa Legba, the gatekeeper to the world of spirit, absorbing his energy and celebrating his power.

As the Sun dips below the western sky during the summer months and the land falls into twilight, the faeries come out from the hidden places of magic to dance, revel, and share their magic with humankind.