Sunna is a Goddess.

She is a divine person, with her own being, will, character, and presence. She is not merely an abstract principle of light, warmth, or vitality, nor is she simply the personification of a physical phenomenon.

The Sun is not Sunna.

The great sphere of fire that crosses our sky is a physical star, governed by the laws of nature. We can study it, measure it, and understand the physical processes by which it shines.

But Sunna is more.

She is the Goddess whose power manifests through the Sun.

When sunlight touches the earth, we encounter one expression of her power.

When its warmth reaches frozen ground and the snow begins to withdraw, we encounter her gift.

When green leaves unfold, seeds awaken, flowers open, bees take wing, and the living world turns toward the light, we see what her power makes possible.

The physical Sun is therefore neither the Goddess herself nor something separate from her divine nature.

It is one of the great ways in which Sunna makes her power present in our universe.

And because she is a Goddess rather than an impersonal force, she may also make herself known in ways that are personal and unexpected.

She can hear us.

She can answer us.

She can choose how she reveals herself.

We are finite beings encountering a divine person whose nature is greater than anything we can fully comprehend. We should therefore not expect every person to experience Sunna in precisely the same way.

The Giver of Light

Sunna gives light without choosing who deserves it.

Her radiance falls upon the wealthy and the poor.

Upon the strong and the weak.

Upon the old tree and the new seedling.

Upon the mountain, the sea, the field, and the forest.

She does not ask whether something has earned her warmth.

She gives.

This generosity is part of how we understand her character.

Sunna is not merely the source of an impersonal energy. She is the Goddess who gives.

Her gift passes through the world and becomes many things.

It warms stone.

It feeds the green leaf.

It ripens the grain.

It contributes to the turning of the living world.

The light that reaches us may become part of a tree, a flower, a harvest, an animal, or a human being.

Sunna gives, and life receives her gift and transforms it into more life.

Her generosity does not diminish her.

She is not exhausted by giving.

The Warmth of Sunna

Light alone is not what we honor.

We honor warmth.

There is a profound difference between knowing that the Sun exists and feeling its warmth upon the face after a long winter.

That moment is something the heart understands before the mind can explain it.

The frozen earth softens.

Water begins to move.

Birds return.

Seeds stir beneath the soil.

The world becomes willing to grow again.

This is one way Sunna reveals herself.

Her warmth does not merely comfort us.

It participates in the great work of life.

For this reason, we understand Sunna as a Goddess of vitality, nourishment, warmth, and flourishing.

These are not simply qualities that we have imagined and attributed to a natural phenomenon.

They are qualities through which we encounter a divine person.

Sunna and the Turning

Sunna teaches us that manifestation changes without the Goddess herself being diminished.

There are days when the Sun stands high and generous.

There are days when clouds hide it.

There are long summer evenings when darkness seems reluctant to come.

There are winter days when the light is brief and precious.

Yet the great turning continues.

The physical Sun does not disappear and return because Sunna herself has ceased to exist. The Earth turns, the seasons change, and the manifestation of her power changes with them.

Sunna remains.

And in that returning we find one of her deepest teachings:

Darkness is not the end of light.

Night does not destroy Sunna.

Winter does not diminish her.

A cloud does not extinguish her.

Our inability to see her does not mean that she has ceased to be.

We are limited creatures.

She is not.

The Sun We See

We do not need to choose between reverence and understanding.

We can know that the Sun is a star.

We can understand its immense age, its composition, its heat, its light, and the physical processes by which it shines.

None of this diminishes Sunna.

It helps us understand the magnificent physical manifestation through which we encounter her power.

Knowing what the physical Sun is does not require us to believe that it is the Goddess.

Nor does understanding sunlight require us to deny the divine person whose power we experience through it.

The astronomer studies the star.

We honor the Goddess.

Both can look toward the same sky.

Knowledge can deepen reverence because the more we understand about the universe, the more extraordinary the manifestation of Sunna appears.

Sunna and Life

Every green thing knows the light.

A seed buried beneath the earth waits.

When the conditions are right, it begins its journey upward.

The first shoot seeks the light.

The leaf opens.

The plant gathers the energy it needs to live.

The forest grows.

The fields ripen.

The fruits swell.

The bees gather.

Animals feed.

People harvest.

Again and again, the living world receives the gift that reaches us through the Sun and turns it into more life.

We see Sunna’s generosity in this great exchange.

She does not create every living thing herself.

Nor do we believe that every physical process of life is literally Sunna personally performing it.

Rather, her power manifests through the natural order of the universe, and life flourishes through the gifts that order makes possible.

This is why we call her life-giving.

Sunna and the Human Heart

There is another way in which we encounter Sunna.

We speak of someone bringing light into a dark place.

We speak of warmth in a person’s presence.

We speak of hope returning after despair.

These expressions remind us that light and warmth have always meant more to human beings than their physical properties alone.

Sunna is not merely a metaphor for these things.

She is a Goddess.

And because she is a Goddess, we can have a relationship with her.

We can speak to her.

We can thank her.

We can ask her for strength.

We can listen for her answer.

We can recognize her presence.

She is not confined to the physical processes through which her power manifests.

The sunlight upon our skin is one way we experience her gift.

A direct encounter with her is another.

When Sunna Answers

We believe that Sunna can interact with us directly.

Her communication does not require the physical Sun to behave unnaturally. She may choose to work through the ordinary workings of the universe, using them as the means by which she makes her presence known.

One of the most spiritual moments we have experienced came on a rainy, cloudy day.

The sky was grey.

The Sun was hidden.

And we spoke to Sunna.

For a few moments, a small opening appeared in the clouds.

A beam of sunlight came through and shone down upon us.

We do not claim that the laws of nature were suspended.

Clouds can part.

Sunlight can break through.

The physical event has a natural explanation.

But we believe that Sunna chose that moment to answer.

The opening in the clouds was the physical event.

The meaning was personal.

We had spoken to her.

And we experienced her response.

We do not expect another person to interpret such an experience exactly as we did. Nor do we believe that Sunna must reveal herself in the same way to everyone.

The Gods are greater than we are.

One person may encounter a facet of a God that another has never seen. Two experiences may even appear contradictory to human understanding while both reflecting something true about a divine being whose nature is beyond our complete comprehension.

We cannot see the whole of Sunna.

We see what she chooses to reveal, and what our limited human nature allows us to perceive.

For us, that moment was enough.

**We spoke to Sunna.

And Sunna answered.**

The Sun Behind the Clouds

There are times when we cannot see Sunna.

Clouds cover the sky.

Storms come.

Winter darkens the land.

Night falls.

But Sunna has not ceased to exist.

Her physical manifestation is simply beyond our sight.

This matters because the Goddess is not dependent upon our ability to perceive her.

We can fail to see her and she remains.

We can fail to feel her warmth and she remains.

We can misunderstand her and she remains.

Our limitations are ours.

They are not hers.

There may be light beyond the cloud that we cannot see.

There may be aspects of Sunna’s nature that we cannot yet comprehend.

And sometimes, perhaps, the cloud itself may part because she chooses to make herself known.

The Daily Gift

Every morning, the Sun comes into our sky again.

We do not mean that Sunna physically drives the Earth around its orbit or causes the Earth’s rotation.

The universe follows its physical laws.

But through those laws, Sunna’s power manifests before us once again.

The eastern horizon brightens.

Darkness retreats.

The first light reaches the treetops.

Then the fields.

Then the houses.

Eventually the landscape is filled with morning.

There is no need for a trumpet.

No demand for recognition.

Sunna does not need to prove herself.

She shines through the world.

There is something profoundly beautiful about a Goddess whose presence can be encountered through something so ordinary that we risk forgetting how extraordinary it is.

Our Place Beneath Her Light

We honor Sunna not by believing that we own the light, but by remembering that we receive it.

The harvest is not ours alone.

The warmth is not ours alone.

The living world does not exist merely for human use.

Sunna’s gift reaches the whole turning world.

The tree receives it.

The moss receives it.

The bee receives it.

The bird receives it.

The deer receives it.

The sea receives it.

We receive it.

And all of us are woven together through the gifts that come to us through the same light.

Therefore, to honor Sunna is also to honor the life that flourishes beneath her.

We waste less.

We nurture what can grow.

We protect what depends upon the living world.

We give warmth where we can.

We become, in our small human way, generous with the gifts we have received.

When We Face Darkness

There will be darkness.

We do not pretend otherwise.

There will be grief.

There will be illness.

There will be loss.

There will be winters in our lives when warmth seems very far away.

Sunna does not promise that such things will never happen.

Her gift is not a promise that we will never suffer.

It is the reminder that darkness does not possess the light.

Night does not defeat the Goddess.

Winter does not diminish her.

The clouds do not consume her.

The physical manifestation may withdraw from our sight, but Sunna remains Sunna.

So when we are lost, we look toward the returning light.

When we are weary, we remember warmth.

When we despair, we remember that the world has known countless nights and has always greeted another dawn.

And perhaps, in doing so, we remember something still deeper:

The Goddess is present even when the manifestation of her power is hidden from us.

And sometimes, when we call to her, she may choose to let us see that she is listening.

Our Greeting to Sunna

Hail Sunna.

Lady of light and warmth.

Goddess whose power manifests through the Sun.

Giver of vitality.

Bringer of radiance.

Nourisher of the living world.

May we never take your gifts for granted.

May we notice the first light of morning.

May we feel the warmth upon our faces.

May we give thanks when the fields ripen and the forests grow green.

May we remember you in summer’s abundance and in winter’s pale light.

When clouds hide the Sun, may we remember that you remain.

When night falls, may we know that you remain.

When winter comes, may we trust in the turning of the world and the eventual return of your light.

And when we speak to you, may we remain open to the ways in which you may answer.

We do not mistake the star for the Goddess.

We look upon it and see a manifestation of her power.

We study it and marvel at the universe through which she expresses herself.

We feel its warmth and remember the divine person who stands beyond the physical manifestation.

And sometimes, when a shaft of sunlight breaks through a grey sky at precisely the moment we need it, we may wonder whether Sunna has chosen to remind us that she is there.

Sunna is not the Sun.

Sunna is Sunna.

She is a Goddess who can be known, addressed, loved, and encountered.

The Sun is one of the great ways in which we encounter her power.

And beneath its light, we give thanks not to the star itself, but to the Goddess who shines through it.

Hail Sunna,

Goddess whose light gives life,

whose warmth sustains it,

whose presence reaches us through the radiant Sun,

and who may, when she chooses,

reach through that light and answer us.