After wading through lots of terrible "source? I made it up" books, I found one that seems cool. It's called "Drawing Down the Sun: Rekindle the Magic of the Solar Goddesses." In our culture we tend to see the sun as masculine and the moon as feminine, but this isn't universal. In the West, it's a relatively modern concept from Victorian times.
"A few attempts were made to change the gender of the sun; the Shinto goddess Amaterasu is the best example. In 750 CE a monk attempting to merge aspects of Buddhism with Shinto beliefs claimed to have received a divine revelation in which it was revealed to him that although the sun goddess Amaterasu appeared female, she was in fact male, and an aspect of the Buddha. In the thirteenth century another attempt was also made to masculinize Amaterasu. Her name was changed to Ameno-minaka-nushi, the Heavenly Central Lord, a male deity of creation rather than a female one. Both these attempts failed, but the simple fact that they were made in the first place shows the resignation felt toward the sun as a female source of creativity and power."
I had never heard of this before. Granted, most of my Amaterasu knowledge comes from the game Okami...
I still don't entirely understand solarpunk but I'm going to put this in the tag because it feels fitting!
#Amaterasu #Buddhism #Shinto #Religion #Goddess #Sun #Solarpunk #Paganism #Polytheism #Books
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