Sun charms can be added to various jewelry pieces, from bracelets to necklaces. Sun charms for bracelets are trendy for people with a sunny disposition (pardon the pun) and people who integrate the celestial bodies into their spiritual practice through their pendants or amulets.
Which Gods Inspired Sun Charms?
What is the name of the sun god? This varies depending on the religion and tradition. A sun god or goddess, or numerous deities within the same religious institution, can be found in ancient cultures where deities with specialized functions can be found. Many sun gods and goddesses are human-like and travel through the sky in some form of vehicle. A boat, a chariot, or a cup are all possibilities. The Greek and Roman sun gods, for example, rode in a four-horse chariot.
Surya, the Hindu sun god, is said to travel through the sky in a chariot drawn by seven horses or a single seven-headed horse. Aruna, the personification of the morning, is the chariot driver. They confront the demons of darkness in Hindu mythology. There could be more than one sun god. The Egyptians assigned numerous gods to different sun parts, such as Khepri for the rising sun, Atum for the sunset sun, and Re for the noontime sun, who rode through the sky on a solar bark. There were multiple sun gods among the Greeks and Romans.
You may observe that most sun gods are male and serve as male counterparts to female moon gods, but this isn’t always the case. You will sometimes see this in other sun charms. The roles are occasionally reversed. There are female deities of the sun and male deities of the moon. Sol (also known as Sunna) is the sun goddess in Norse mythology. Sol is seated in a chariot driven by two golden horses.
Amaterasu, a powerful divinity in Japan’s Shinto religion, is another sun deity. Finally, Tsukuyomi, her brother, is the moon deity.
What Can They Represent?
Sun charms can represent any deity associated with the powers of the sun. There are several notable gods (as defined above). Tonatiuh is the fifth and last era’s Nahua sun deity in Mesoamerican religion (the Fifth Sun). Four eras preceding the reign of Tonatiuh in most Mesoamerican Nahua mythology, including those of the Aztecs, each ending in a terrible catastrophe. Tonatiuh, also known as Ollin Tonatiuh, was a god who was associated with the eagle.
The Aztecs saw Tonatiuh as a god who was continuously threatened by the enormous tasks of his daily birth at sunrise, his death at sunset, and the considerable effort of making his daily voyage across the sky. According to Aztec legend, the gods practiced voluntary sacrifice, first creating Tonatiuh and then feeding and encouraging him on his journey across the sky. Tonatiuh’s worship, which required human blood and hearts to survive, included militaristic cults and the practice of frequent human sacrifice to assure the world’s survival. Tonatiuh is usually shown as a multicolored disk. He is well recognized for being represented in the center of the Aztec calendar, grasping human hearts in his eagle’s claw hands) and some legendary ones like Tonatiuh and Helios.
There were both positive and negative positions on the Aztec sun god. Tonatiuh gave warmth and fertility to the Aztec people (Mexico) and other living beings as beneficent gods. However, he required sacrificial victims to do so.
According to some authors, Tonatiuh and Ometeotl shared the function of a high creator deity; however, while Ometeotl represented the creator’s benign, fertility-related characteristics, Tonatiuh represented the creator’s militaristic and sacrificial parts. He was the patron deity of warriors, who carried out their duty to the god by capturing prisoners and sacrificing them at one of their empire’s many shrines.
The Aztec origin myth included Tonatiuh and the sacrifices he requested. According to legend, the sun appeared in heaven for the first time after many years of darkness, but it refused to move. So, to propel the sun on its daily voyage, the inhabitants sacrificed themselves and provided the sun with their hearts.
The Aztecs lived in the age of the Fifth Sun, which Tonatiuh ruled. According to Aztec mythology, the planet had gone through four generations, known as the Suns. The god Tezcatlipoca ruled the first period, the Sun, the second by Quetzalcoatl, the third by the rain god Tlaloc, and the fourth by the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue. Tonatiuh was the ruler of the current period or fifth sun. According to folklore, the planet was characterized by maize eaters during this age, and no matter what else happened, the world would forcefully come to an end by an earthquake.
Heart sacrifice, also known as ritual immolation by excision of the heart or Huey Teocalli in Aztec, was a celestial fire sacrifice in which souls were plucked from a war captive’s chest. The Aztecs waged war to capture sacrificial victims, particularly against Tlaxcallan, to keep the world going. Heart sacrifice also inaugurated the alternation of night and day and the rainy and dry seasons.
The “water-burned fields” (atl tlachinolli) conflict, also known as the “holy war” or “flowery war,” was fought to gain sacrifices. This fight featured fake conflicts between the Aztecs and the Tlaxcallans, in which the contestants were not killed in battle but rather rounded up as prisoners to be sacrificed. The warriors belonged to the Quauhcalli or “Eagle House,” and Tonatiuh was their patron saint; the Tonatiuh Itlatocan or “men of the sun” fought in these wars.
When visiting Greece or studying Greek mythology, you’ll come across stories about the Greek god Helios, also known as the God of the Sun. Helios was the son of the titans Hyperion and Theia. He is frequently shown as a gorgeous young man wearing a rayed headpiece (similar to that worn by the Statue of Liberty) to signify his solar characteristics.
The enormous iconic statue “The Colossus of Rhodes” possibly represents Helios on the island of Rhodes. Also, Homer said that the island of Thrinacia was Helios’ exclusive dominion, but its exact location is uncertain. Any bright, sun-drenched Greek island can be considered his, but it doesn’t narrow the field much, as the description applies to any Greek island. Helios rises from a golden palace beneath the sea every day and rides his fiery chariot across the sky, bringing light to the planet. He once let his son Phaeton drive his chariot, but Phaeton either lost control of the vehicle and died, or he set the earth on fire and was murdered by Zeus to prevent him from consuming all of humanity.
Helios is a Titan, a god or goddess who predates the Olympians and belongs to an earlier order of gods and goddesses. When we see the “os” ending in a name, it usually means the name had a pre-Greek origin. For additional information on this prior generation of Greek gods, see “The Titans” below. They are increasingly appearing in current films based on Greek mythology.
Many hilltop chapels in modern Greece are dedicated to “Saint” Ilios and are thought to mark old Helios temple sites. They are frequently found on the area’s highest and most visible peaks. Some of these were also repurposed and consecrated to Zeus as local “Olympian” mountains.
