Three Suns

[Ishtar]

Forum Monk, as our resident astronomer, can you shed any light on this?

Apparently, there are some historical documents that record that three suns rose in the sky at once some time in 51 AD, and also in 66 AD. In 69 AD, two suns were seen together. According to William Lilly, between the years 1156 and 1648 there were twenty similar occurrences which were recorded.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/sta11.htm

The following description of this phenomenon appears in a letter written by Jeremiah Shakerley in Lancashire, March 4th, 1648:--"On Monday the 28th of February last, there arose with the Sun two Parelii, on either side one; their distance from him was by estimation, about ten degrees; they continued still of the same distance from the Zenith, or height above the Horizon, that the Sun did; and from the parts averse to the Sun, there seemed to issue out certain bright rays, not unlike those which the Sun sendeth from behind a cloud, but brighter. The parts of these Parelii which were toward the Sun, were of a mixt colour, wherein green and red were most predominant. A little above them was a thin rainbow, scarcely discernible, of a bright colour, with the concave towards the Sun, and the ends thereof seeming to touch the Parelii: Above that, in a clear diaphanous ayr, [air], appeared another conspicuous Rainbow, beautified with divers colours; it was as neer as I could discern to the Zenith; it seemed of something a lesser radius than the other, they being back to back, yet a pretty way between. At or neer the apparent time of the full Moon, they vanished, leaving abundance of terror and amazement in those that saw them. (See William Lilly.)

The Rosacrucians tie this in to their theory of three inner (spiritual) suns.

[rich]

Ahhh - the three eyes of Shiva!!!!!!!!! He must've been checkin' up on us!
Atmospheric anomaly!!!

[Ishtar]

I thought Shiva had only two eyes - he did last time I looked anyway!

[rich]

What - you forgot his eye of fire????????

[Ishtar]

Dare I ask ... what is Shiva's eye of fire?

[rich]

Three eyes: Lord Shiva, also called Tryambaka Deva (literally, "three-eyed Lord"), is depicted as having three eyes: the sun is His right eye, the moon the left eye and fire the third eye. The two eyes on the right and left indicate His activity in the physical world. The third eye in the center of the forehead symbolizes spiritual knowledge and power, and is thus called the eye of wisdom or knowledge. Like fire, the powerful gaze of Shiva's third eye annihilates evil, and thus the evil-doers fear His third eye.

http://www.koausa.org/Gods/God9.html

[Ishtar]

I think that must be a latter day interpretation of the Third Eye, which gazes inwards at the inner sun.

[rich]

Not the vedic tho - the hindu. I think the vedic refers to three mothers instead - can't remember - gettin' too old -

[Ishtar]

There are three mothers, or three goddesses, in the Vedas - Ila, Saraswati and ... I can't remember the other one!

But I think the inner, third eye must be one of the oldest spiritual teachings, long before Hinduism.

[Ishtar]

This is from the Yajur Veda, contemporary with the Rig Veda.

http://oaks.nvg.org/se6ra16.html

1.2.4
I have mounted the eye of the sun.

The ancient yoga talks of a pranic eye between the eyebrows and calls it the third eye etc. To this day methods are handed over for seeing it (jyoti mudra).

[rich]

Not sure if it referred to Shiva with the third eye back then or not. Too much schtuff in me noggin' - not enough cells to hold it all anymore -

[Ishtar]

No, there's no Shiva back then. He doesn't appear until the later Vedanta, which is why I thought it may be a later interpretation of the third eye.

Shiva's Rig-vedic prototype is supposed to be Rudra - well, he is according to the Vedanta but as you may have guessed by now, I'm suspicious about a lot of the Vedanta as I think it may have been influenced by Christianity.

[rich]

Thought the vedanta was around prior to Chritianity - although it continued to be formed well afterwards. But it may have been influenced by Zoroastrianism. But the vedas themselves were much older, weren't they? Think the Vedanta Sutra was supposed to be around 200 BC.

[Ishtar]

Most of the Vedanta comes from the Srimad Bhagavatham. The SB was composed over a long period between the 9th or 10th century CE, although no doubt many of the stories come from an earlier oral tradition.

However, the main hero of the SB is Krishna (Christ?) who, when he was born, had to be hidden because an evil king was killing all the babies in the hope of seeing off this one Krishna who, he believed, had come to depose him.

The SB contains the first intimations of good actions helping us to redeem sins (karma). This idea was contemporary with Christianity. Before that, the Rig-vedic shamans dealt with it in the time honoured way.

Zoroaster was a descendant of a long line of Vedic priests.

[rich]

True - he was descended from them but took it in a little different direction I think. Plus I think he also affected Judahism and Christianity - which means the veda influenced itself -
Now how's that for a merry go-round?

But I also think Thales and Solon and the other Greek sages affected Zoroaster's thinking as well as the bible. Reason I say that - the seven sages of greece - the seven sons of god - and what I like to call the seven sparkies of Ahura Mazda. The seven sages being the seven "enlightened" ones. Could be wrong but - seems like it to me. Especially that Thales guy - think he was part Phoenecian too. Somethin' there in my mind.