The Sun And The Father
Ward Cleaver: Beaver, you know what Larry was doing was wrong. You could have stopped him.
Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver: Gee, Dad, I have enough trouble keeping myself good without keeping all the other kids good.
I often talk about the Moon and the mother. That’s a pretty clear relationship in my mind: Moon=Mother. I am female, after all, and a mother myself and understand these things through experience. What about the Sun, though, and its link to the father? The Sun resonates to the ego self, but also the father. The Sun rules the 5th house, children, creativity. In the biology of procreation the father plays a role equal to that of the mother.
So the archetypal mother (Moon) creates and nurtures, and the archetypal father (Sun) creates and… and what? That general role as an archetype is the one who goes ahead and shows you how it’s done. The father role is often an example of pure adult personality. What the grown up suit looks like, how you put it on and how you wear it. Whether we follow or shun the example, or each in turn, it helps shape who we become. The type of father or father figure you have shows in your chart through Sun placement and aspects.
Can a man or woman fill either of these roles? Yes, of course they can. Most of us have at least seen a few examples of this. But here’s the thing, the role will be filled according to our charts, no matter who fills it. It doesn’t have to be the straightforward stuff from “Fun with Dick and Jane.” Think of this, take someone with a 12th house Sun: Perhaps they have a father who was very quiet with a benevolent presence, or an absent father, or perhaps their long-term experiences in a church, school or hospital affected the way they modeled their expectations of the adult world. Just this one energy can express in many different ways and still retain the common signature. Now add in the sign energy and the aspects to other planets… it’s complicated.
In learning to master our “grown up suits” we fulfill the Sun’s promise in our chart. If you’re ever having an identity crisis, a “who the heck am I” moment, look to the condition of the Sun and the ways in which you were parented in a Sun sense. It can be illuminating. Bahahaha, illuminating, Sun, get it? Sorry, I have an acute case of whimsy today with the Moon and Sun squaring my Neptune Sun!
What is the condition of YOUR Sun? Can you see it reflected in the ways you were parented?
16 Responses to “The Sun And The Father”
comment got eaten :&
Twelfth house (Neptune’s house) Sun, here. My father is an alcoholic (Neptune) who either wasn’t around, had someone run interference for him, or attempted suicide right in front of me; more times than I can count. His relationship to me screamed “I DON’T WANT TO BE HERE !!!”; so for me, being a 12th house Sun meant ‘absent father’, in spades. Interesting.
As usual, great post, satori !
Huh — that’s interesting. My little sister has a different father and she’s a 12H sun. She has major issues of abandonment, and it’s hard to uproot or heal.
I have a 5H Aries sun. My father was a child, poor thing. He improved with age (and distance from his children and parental responsibilities), but he is just really not parental. He is first and foremost a businessman. He’s a Gemini, very head in the clouds dreamer. He and I actually have a lot of the same psychology and depression issues. I have fought hard to overcome them because it’s hard to be a child of a man like him. He always encouraged me to fight for my dreams, though. He thought really big and wild and free (probably a ton of Sag in his chart), it just didn’t fit, in his mind, with a family — in a way, I guess that’s the Aries sun at play? It was him against the world. He didn’t seem to see himself as part of our posse :/
I’m sorry to hear that, le soleil. It’s so hard to be the child of someone who openly wants to kill themselves. I know about that. {{{hugs}}} It’s good to be a grown up 
My Sun has both easy and difficult transits and I can see this reflected in how my father parented, yes.
He ignored my mother’s mental illness and deferred to her (Sun quincunx Neptune)
He provided a stellar model for self discipline (Sun square Saturn)
He taught that to be kind and walk away from unreasonable people was a useful strategy (Sun trine Moon)
He encouraged the application of one’s principles not matter how unpopular (Sun opposed Uranus)
He feels exercising your mind is important for overall health (Sun loosely conjunct Mercury)
Above all, you are yourself and your feelings belong to you.
(5th House Sun in Taurus).
Also–my Dad’s Moon/Mars conjunction is conjunct my Sun. His Mars/Saturn in Scorpio opposes. His SN in Capricorn is conjunct my Moon and my NN is conjunct his Sun. We are close.
Me = Sun in 8th house in t-square to Jupiter/Chiron conjunction in 5th and Pluto in 11th. Dad worked hard until he was too sick (I was about 
and then finally died after a long illness. He literally wasted away from emphysema. Very painful to watch. He was a skeleton by the time he died. I was 12. My Sun is also trine an exact South Node/Saturn conjunction (Aquarius) in the 4th house. He had Moon in Aquarius, although I don’t know the degree. I remember that when I was very young he seemed so full of life to me. Always a smile on his face, always steady – steady as a rock! Crinkle lines around his eyes from his continuous smile and friendly, kind demeanor. He never said much to me, just cuddled me, shared an apple, let me help him drive the truck, let me follow him all around the track yards (he worked for the railroad), stuff like that. I was too young to “talk” to him. So I guess I never really knew him. He’s an enigma to me, but I still feel his loss. I found out from Mom that he didn’t want any more kids. I wasn’t in his plan (only hers!). She surprised me with this, because he showed me so much love. I think that by the time he realized that he really loved me, it was too late. His days were numbered and he probably knew it. Such is the tale of the 8th house Sun. There are many ways to tell this story. This is just mine.
Oops! Eight turned out as 8 (a smiley?). I’m going to blame this one on Mercury Rx! LOL
Thank you, Satori! You answered my question before I asked it.
As per the course, you have a way of bringing up topics I am pondering. Just this week, I was thinking–if I were to write a simplistic short story that was based on the framework of astrology, then my main characters would include: the Great Mother, the moon; the Great Father, the Sun, and all the astrological signs would be their twelve children. And some siblings compliment each other better than others. The outer planets would be the distant relatives with some having more influence than others depending on our close they were. Something like that . . .
@le soleil, from one 12th house Sun to another, and to all 12th house Suns, I hope you have drawn to yourself some light and healing (you are here on this site, so I imagine indeed you have). And I wish for you unexpected tenderness and still waters, that reflect to you–you, the way a looking glass or a magical mirror might, showing you all the beautiful, rare gifts you have inherited on your trying or sometimes lonely journey to now.
Sun Aries 2nd hidden-conjunct Jupiter Mercury Pisces 2nd, trine Mars Leo 6th, quincunx Uranus (exactly) Pluto Virgo 7th.
My father is an abusive drunk. He’d be nice one time, then a total bastard the next. I have zero contact with him, and when he dies, if I hear about it, I won’t attend the funeral.
My stepfather has helped me enormously financially, but he vacillates between being very nice to very verbally abusive. I can’t seem to get away from it. That’s the kind of guy my mother marries.
Another 12h sun here. My father was very much a part of my life, daily breakfast, dinner and worked together. He is a workaholic and a philosopher of sorts. Lots of pisces and virgo in his chart. As a child I was alway out helping him on some repair or project. The rest of the time was spent arguing meanings, of words, of books etc. I learned more than I can say from him and often wondered why other women my age had such horrible distant relationships with their fathers. I think it made me fairly grounded and practical in many ways.
Only now, as I’m older and he’s with a woman of alcoholic parents has he drifted from my life because of choices she and he have made together. It makes me sad but is easier to see, understand and transcend as an adult.
Because of my childhood and my awareness of his influence I’ve been of the opinion that a father is almost more important to a daughter than a mother. To learn how to relate to men in a healthy manner affects so much of our lives. I feel sad for those who lacked as children and hope that they, in turn, do not create such lack in other children around them and if they see it understand it is their role to step in and offer a role model.
What a great post Satori!
I’ve got a 5th house Aries Sun. My Dad is an Aries too (no birth time, so don’t know the house). I have always had a great relationship with him and there’s always a lot of laughter involved.
I’ve been told my whole life that I’m just like him (except for our age and sex of course) and I consider it a great compliment.
I think the tenth house is also important here. I have a fifth house sun, but a south node in the 10th. The south node carried WAY more weight than the fifth house sun.
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5th house Sun – my dad was the “fun dad.” Except when he was angry (conj. Mars). There are more than a few pictures of him “helping” me play with my toys on Christmas morning. When I got a new video game, there would be squabbles over who’s turn it was.
Also Cap Sun – I learned the value of perseverance and commitment to achievement from my dad. He’s a Cap asc.