This is my first video – the next one will be about Odin, and is in the works.
Vast numbers of megalithic sites across the ancient world align to the sun at the solstices and equinoxes, including Stonehenge, the Great Sphinx of Egypt, the statues of Easter Island, the temple at Angkor Wat, and Machu Picchu in Peru. And so many chief ancient deities were symbolized by the sun and revered as sun gods, including Viracocha and Osiris. Even today billions of people still celebrate the solstice. In this video, I give an overview of how a global lost ancient civilization of pyramid and megalith builders practiced a religion of the sun, which became the basis of many of today’s religions.
References
This video is based on 7 years of my and my husband Mark’s research into ancient sites, texts, and traditions, and also my husband Mark’s rediscovering how the religion of the sun was practiced.
Beautiful video and quite moving. I teared up when you said the last line of the video, “…and here at Sakro Sawel, we’re reviving it.” I hope that I can help revive this ancient way as well. There are so many incredible traditions and practices that are being revived and practiced today. I had had the good fortune of being a part of several revival ceremonies around the world and it is truly humbling to be able to practice in this way. I hope that the work you are doing can assist all the these communities in their revival efforts.
I wanted give my impressions on a work called ‘The Golden Bough: A study in Magic and Religion’ by anthropologist James G. Frazer (19th/early 20th century) in relation to its possible usefulness for research into the ancient religion of the sun.
A little summary: In the book the author gathers many traditions, rituals and stories of ‘magic’ practice and religions of the past. Relating descriptions of observations of these, comparing and finding the common themes in them and endeavouring to explain their meanings which have become obscured over time.
Pros:
A massive amount of descriptions is given for different ‘magic’ (pagan, religious, superstitions) practices around the world. Many of which have earlier links to the religion of the sun. Especially the many accounts of festivities across Europe, some still celebrated in the early 19th century, tracing back to old pagan ones are interesting to learn more about.
Frazer does a pretty good job at explaining many intriguing symbols and the meaning of activities employed in the rituals. (Like on tree worship, fire festivals, ancient myths, ‘sympathetic’ magic, a plethora of superstitious beliefs and more. See list here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/frazer/)
He attempted to discover the meaning of the elements in these practices as well as overarching themes. A main theme he encountered was of “… the incarnation of a dying and reviving god, a solar deity who underwent a mystic marriage to a goddess of the Earth. He died at the harvest and was reincarnated in the spring. Frazer claims that this legend of rebirth is central to almost all of the world’s mythologies.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Bough#Summary)
Cons:
Again there’s an impressively extensive range (700+ pages) of descriptions of different magic and religious practices across the world. But it’s based mainly on the written accounts of others’ observations that the author read. As one critic mentioned: Lienhardt himself dismissed Frazer’s interpretations of primitive religion as “little more than plausible constructs of [Frazer’s] own Victorian rationalism.” (from wikipedia article on The Golden Bough)
As the author himself writes he viewed, or had the theory, that human belief moves from the stage of magic, onto religion and then onto science. This view also shapes the way his study is approached in the book. But this paradigm or view, which like some have mentioned is a bit like placing the theory of evolution onto human belief, has been demonstrated to not hold up (even at the time of publication) and has since been superseded by many fields of research.
In my view, and as is evidenced and explained in Mark and Lara’s work, there were influences of high and advanced true spiritual knowledge in the past in different cultures/places/times. Unfortunately, if I look at the annual festivals for example, over time many declined in different ways. Also some tribes, groups etc. around the globe are completely separated from this and have constructed their own local beliefs or superstitions.
To mix remaining elements of genuine ancient spiritual knowledge, together with declined ritual practices and festivities, along with things altogether separate from a divine origin— and then bunch that together into “magic” undermines the genuine higher spiritual knowledge originally present and makes the hope for a correct spiritual picture of the original divine knowledge bound to be flawed.
To conclude:
The many, many, accounts from the book of religious/magic practice are educational to hear about, might well supply good references to further leads, show the widespread influence of the religion of the sun in so many places, plus the author’s own insights on the accounts often take the understanding of them further. Despite this, on the whole, for the purpose of adding to the knowledge of original solar practice it left me quite mixed. This is due to the materials used (light and dark, pristine/original and declined) being mixed, the author also presenting it so and consequently this is passed onto the reader.
It makes me see the value of someone (Mark) putting the pieces of original pure solar practice together based on spiritual experience.
So I wouldn’t recommend the book in its entirety. But it remains insightful and it could be useful for certain purposes (when wanting to read accounts of the last remnants of European annual festivities for example, or other specific subjects) and in the digital age access to it is free and searching through it easy.
It’s available here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/frazer/
Thanks Karim. Yes, it’s a pity that genuine spiritual practices and principles become mixed with degenerated ones in time. Then the combination of these is presented as an accurate depiction of those past eras.
So we are very fortunate to have this site, which gives a much truer picture of humanity’s spiritual past and current potential.
Thanks for your thoughts Karim.
This is why I appreciate Lara and Mark’s work so much. They cut through the cruft of opinion and half-truths to clearly lay out, in an easy to read way, the authentic Spiritual Path and the origins of the Wisdom Bringers.
Having had the good fortune to have found these teachings I can now see and understand (some of) the morass of information out there and how they all have a little bit of the truth contained within. The unfortunate aspect is that people, in general, are content with believing in opinions. Wouldn’t it be wonderful though if more people were able to read spiritual texts and gain the inspiration and guidance from them? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if more people could live authentic transcendent lives?
Thanks for raising this Karim,
Does Frazer write about Australian Aborigines?
Hi Martin,
Yes Frazer does mention the Australian Aborigines at least a few dozen times in that book.
But it seems he mainly relates accounts and descriptions of their superstitious-like beliefs and practices, ‘magical thinking’ as some in anthropology would call it. For example:
“The aborigines of South-eastern Australia believe that a man may be injured by burying sharp fragments of quartz, glass, and so forth in the mark made by his reclining body; the magical virtue of these sharp things enters his body and causes those acute pains…” ~ The Golden Bough, Chapter 3, §3.
Rather than evidence (as far as I can see from briefly having a look) which links the known ‘modern’ practices of the indigenous back to an ancient solar source. If such links can even be deduced still from remnant modern traditions that is? Which I don’t personally know since I haven’t researched it.
If you want you can have a more proper look at his many mentions quite easily. The book is available for free download at gutenberg.org for example. Then a ‘ctrl+f’ search in the document can do wonders :-)
Thanks Karim,
The example you give of ‘magical thinking’ is exactly the kind of thing I came accross a lot when reading up on Aboriginal anthropolgy and psychology.
There are references to sun worship in some modern Aboriginal art that suggests that in the past there was a deeper knowledge within the culture.
In 1965, Charles Mountford, a well known anthropologist wrote:
‘The Aboriginies are not interested, as we are, in the episodes of the past. The important things to them are the cycles of life; the development of the individual from infancy to old age; the progress of the initiates from ignorance to knowledge; the rounds of the seasons and the movements of the heavenley bodies’
There are also many references floating around to ‘Stone Culture’ introduced by ‘beings from the North’. In his book: Australian Totemism; G Roheim partly traces early Aboriginal stone culture and wrote:
‘Having traced the central Australian culture back to New Guinea, we may ask whether we are not dealing with an early branch of that great migration which evidently introduced certain forms of stone culture into the pacific; the starting points of this stone-culture is ascribed to sky beings’
As for the modern art I’ve been looking at it is obviously influenced with sun worship with obvious references to the sun, stars and their spiritual relevance. However, one would need to know what to look for.
Lara,
When looking into your comment on how many of the sites align with one another, I found some articles describing this information in more detail, such as this one from Graham Hancock, which highlights some very interesting inter-site geometrical relationships:
https://grahamhancock.com/geographic-geometric-relationships-alisonj/
This is amazing!!
What an interesting video covering such important topics as the origin of life and the history of humanity!
Thank you and I look forward to the next one :-)
Thank you Lara for making this video and starting this series. The information in it is just so amazing and really makes me look at Earth’s history with new eyes, and bring a wonder and hope about the potential now.
Really liked the music as well, well done! With a seriousness but also wonder, a traditional sound yet also modern synthesized touch.
I know very little about Odin, but would love to know more, so looking forward to the next video.
Thank you!
I think that it’s a monumental initiative you and Mark took, to revive the religion of the sun in this age. It’s beyond comprehension for me how big this is and I wish wholeheartedly to be successful. Unity is most needed in our times and fights against what opposes it.
That video was a great introduction. I’m looking forward to what is next.
Thank you Lara for the video and transcript, as well as for your efforts to revive the Religion of the Sun. I feel very fortunate to be able to practice this religion, and to have some understanding of its real purpose. I look forward to the next video.
Thank you, Lara, for the transcription. It was very helpful for me to understand the video and all these valuable information about the pure religion of ancient times that it was common in so many areas on earth far away from each other.
It is also awesome that there is this site of Sakro Sawel with the purpose to reveal the lost religious history of the humanity and many details about the path to the final liberation and how the ancient practitioners understand and celebrated the religion of the Sun.
Thanks to everyone involved in producing this informative video, in easy to comprehend English.
May this video spread far and wide so those searching can find it…!
Amazing past history of the wold! Looking forward to the next video.
Great to have a transcript to read over again. The video was a really wonderful introduction to this site and I’m so looking forward to the next video.
So appreciative of all this new information.
Great website and excellent video overview and introduction to the religion of the sun. There is so much to learn about our ancient spiritual past – incredible mysteries out there just waiting to be unraveled. The challenge has been to able to decipher the facts from fiction. Having a website like this helps us gain a better understanding of and access to the truth about ourselves and why we are here. I can’t wait to see what’s to come next!
Great video – really well done. Very inspiring to have that overview and to have it all laid out like that. Looking forward to the next one!
Thank you for uploading the transcript, it’s very helpful.
It’s amazing how ancient this knowledge and spiritual tradition is — I always felt that there was something more to the myths and legends that have been passed down through different cultures and yet share so many similarities wherever you look in the world. The question of “Why do different traditions share very similar stories?” never felt like it was sufficiently answered by chalking it up to coincidence or a penchant for making up the same kinds of tall tales. I’m really looking forward to understanding better how these ancient mysterious sites, stories, and people are linked to the religion of the sun and what our link is to it all today.
Just looking at the monuments — some of them were built so exquisitely so as to withstand the passing of thousands of years, and here we are thousands of years later — it would be amazing to be able to really perceive at a deep spiritual level the messages that ancient people went to so much trouble to preserve for us now.
Thank you so much, Lara and Mark!
Amazing video!
I was watching it for the second time, with my laptop close to my apartment window on the 25th floor and, for a while, I was staring at the city down there when I felt a strange sensation kind of showing me how far we are from those golden times, and I sort of missed those times of old so badly, even though I have no memories of living them.
Once more, thank you!
Interesting insight David. Sometimes when being outside in nature and aware, with the energy of life being able to reach me and ‘hit me’, it shows itself to be such a contrast to the normal, mechanical, in front of screen city living many people find themselves in externally and inwardly. I really hope this bringing forth of the Religion of the Sun will allow people to start connecting to live around and themselves again. It is such a waste, and so serious, to let our lives slip by without it.
I believe that great is the need and yearning for it in some people and the world today, so accordingly great is the potential as well. Really looking forward to seeing the light emerge, develop, grow, blossom and reach out!
I’m very excited for what’s to come from this gradual revival of the religion of the sun and also deepening my own understanding of it. I’m happy to imagine the kind of unity and perhaps brotherhood that once existed amongst the human race. Would be amazing and all kinds of beautiful to have that again. Thank you, Lara, for your dedicated work. Wonderful video!
Thank you very much Lara for the transcript of the video, it helped me understand right the information I couldn’t only with listening to it. A wonderful video, with incredible timeless information about the world and our life, the end was profoundly inspiring and touched me deeply.. Thank you so much for this!
What a wonderful website and such incredible information in that first video, can’t wait to see this site develop more.
Amazing video. Thanks Lara. Looking forward to the Odin one.
All the best with this new website. Beautiful name.
Thanks Lara, I’m still buzzing from your video. The information from Mark’s spiritual experiences and your amazing and dedicated research has brought new hope for many of us who are truly searching to find their way home.
A big thank you to Mark, Lara and the team.
I’m glad you said it that way John about finding the way home. I feel the same way and also agree that it has rekindled a hope to find that path.
Totally agree, John and Craig.
This information is truly fascinating, so interesting.
I really like how you link the great sites, well-known today to all, and how some of these actually link to each other across continents! I had seen this kind
of information before but it was without this context of the religion of the Sun, so I was not too sure on its legitimacy.
I am very grateful to have access to this information and the wisdom behind these monuments that tell us to look up and look within.
THANK YOU for all your efforts to revive this ancient practice. It makes you feel that we are all truly one and the practices carried out by ancients of long ago are still and can be refreshed and made applicable today.
Lara thankyou for sharing such a great explanation of the sun religion and it’s history on our planet.
As you have mentioned there is so much compelling evidence of the religion of the sun and it’s magnificent accomplishments. After all the destruction and persecution of this ancient wisdom, I am very grateful to have access to this timeless knowledge. Thankyou!
The Vedic and Hindu histories record that there was once just one religion practiced across the earth, which was in the times of the Golden Age. It is amazing that the religion of the Golden Age has made a return in these times of the Kali Yuga, and like you say, after so much destruction, which in so many ways, continues even as we write. It looks like enough has survived though, and that the darkness hasn’t been able to stop this light from shining forth now and from re-emerging.
To think, that that same thread has weaved its way into the present. Precious times we live in.
That is an amazing thought and really puts the religion of the sun into perspective!
Thank you Lara. It really is a profound and shaking thing to realise – that there is a fragment of this spiritual teaching from a Golden Age surviving now on Earth, now when it’s in such a desperate time of darkness.
The video is wonderful, a really powerful message clearly given. I really like the symbolism of the sun woven in to the background and what you’re wearing. Wishing you and everyone working on the Sakro Sawel project all the strength in reviving the ancient religion of the sun!
This is so profound to think about. Despite the great passage of time, so great that such events are only known in myths, we’re now, in this day and age, able to tap into the religion of the sun. Wow…
Thank you Lara and everyone else behind the scenes in making this new website possible. I’m eager to learn more and see this knowledge become more widespread (once again)!
Thank you Lara for this reminder. It makes sense to me that in the more advanced times/yugas, so many branches of religion and resulting conflicts between them would not be necessary. How amazing that this light of the Golden ages now shines on us in all this darkness. I hope many can take advantage of it…
Thanks so much Lara for all your work and dedication to making available to us all!
I appreciate the way you deliver it to make it accessible to all yet so interesting and compelling.
What a fantastic article, and look forward to more! I would like to know more ways of bringing the Light into my everyday life,as what you’ve described here really touches a deep ‘nerve’ within me.
Hi Lara,
First of all, many thanks for the transcript of the video, I found it very helpful to be able to read your words. I really appreciate how clear and straight forward this information is presented, and what a beautiful website! I really look forward to explore, learn and take part in this revival of the religion of the sun.
In your blog, what really touched me too is the realization, that from all of these ancient sites, the religion of the sun, at one point, united people across the world, no matter their locations or origins. They each were able to celebrate the sun in accordance of their culture and express it in their language, as well as through arts showing how universal this knowledge is. And it makes sense, as the children of the Sun, the light can be found within everyone.
Thank you for bringing forward all of this information.
I also got a sense of unity that we have lost. A union with the divine brings unity between us. I think that is such a strong message and the absence of this amazing religion of the sun highlights the fragmented nature of our human race as we have been divided without this knowledge and practice as a human race.
Thank you Lara for this incredible website, beautiful, inspiring and exciting video. I hope so many people will find this message and feel that yearning of wanting to go home.
What you’ve written rings so true to me, Juno. Thanks for expressing that sentiment. I wish so much for that unity as well and hope to see it growing as this site develops.
Thanks for sharing the video and transcript – so much interesting information. I’m really looking forward to future videos in this series!