Chapter Seven: Source of All Deity Myths: “Sun Gods”
The ancients considered the sun the father and the moon the mother. The sun impregnated the moon to produce stars. We see this in the biblical account of Joseph’s dream about his family. Jacob, Joseph’s father, was the sun; his mother, Rachel, was the moon; and Joseph and his eleven brothers were stars (Gen. 37:5-11). All heroes who vanquish villains are sun gods.
Clearly Samson was a “sun god,” with long hair as his rays of strength, which is why the cutting of his hair weakened him. Samson had seven locks of hair, obviously representing the “number of the planetary bodies.” (The “yellow hair of Apollo was also a symbol of the solar rays.”) When Samson lost his strength he was also blind; the sun in winter, when it loses its intensity or vigor by going down, is blind. Belle M. Wagner and Thomas H. Burgoyne wrote: “The Sun [as Samson], shorn of his glory, or solar force, at the autumnal equinox, stands upon the equator between the two pillars of the temple (or light and darkness), and pulls down the temple (or signs) into the southern hemisphere.” (See Judges 16:21-31. Yes, the Jews knew how to make up stories to teach lessons just as the Egyptians and Greeks did, and just as we do today.) This symbolism is why the New Testament says a woman is the glory of her husband; she reflects his light because, as the moon, she has no light of her own. Her hair (rays), like Samson’s, is her only glory (1 Cor. 11:7, 15). Thus the bride (moon) would one day shine like the husband (sun) as she would be “clothed [covered] with the sun” (Rev. 12:1). She would reflect his glory on the earth when the male and female were reunited.
In 2 Kings 2:23-24 we find Elisha’s encounter with a bunch of children who come out of the city to mock him by saying “Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.” Elisha cursed the children, at which point “there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.” Until recently I didn’t understand the children’s taunt. They weren’t making fun of Elisha because he had no hair. They were telling him he was weak and needed to go “up” (rise higher in the sky, get more rays on his head, gain some strength). Elisha was, they thought, at winter (weak) and needed to head toward summer (get higher in the sky and gain power). He proved them wrong! (The two bears that mauled the children were probably Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.) 
Strength and weakness in the Bible often relate to the sun and the solstices. The father grows old and dies and then is reborn as the son. The sun is a “golden child” who is “born in the midst of his enemies” or in the dark of winter (Christmas). The ruler (or power) who attempts to kill the child represents the winter or “darkness” wanting to “get rid of any new light that might threaten his rule.” The child is weak but grows stronger (increases in wisdom, stature, etc. [Lk. 2:52]). Because he is feeble the baby is “the almost extinguished flame.” But he “regains his strength at spring and deposes his enemies,” at which point he “sets out on his journey to the heights.” The hero in all the biblical accounts, and other stories as well, is always the dawn or morning sun. He is the superman who vanquishes the bad guy (Satan, big bad wolf, zombie, vampire, monster, wicked witch, General Zod, Darth Vader, Scar/Taka, night, winter). It’s the “greatest story ever told!……it is nature and it strikes a chord in our psyche.”
We see this battle begin early on in Genesis with the talking snake in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:15 states: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” This serpent who was to do battle with humans is Draco, or the dragon, who resides in the sky along with the constellation Hercules. “As Draco circles around the Pole, his head is either below or above Hercules’ heel. The top position represents who is doing the bruising.” So either Draco is bruising the heel of Hercules or Hercules is crushing Draco’s head with his foot. Of course, the sun god always wins the battle in the end. So we see the foot of Hercules “stepping on Draco’s head, the dragon/snake who[m] Hercules has vanquished and perpetually gloats over for eternities.”
During the time that Draco’s star Thuban was the pole star, it would have appeared to ancient sky watchers that the Earth revolved around Draco. Dragons and other similar creatures often played a role in creation myths. In these stories the gods would often battle such creatures for control of the Earth. When defeated, the dragons were flung up into the skies.
Thus, the serpent is thrown into the abyss. This is why a serpent is prevalent in all the ancient creation myths. Regarding Hercules, Gavin White argues that “the original name of Hercules – the ‘Kneeler’ . . . is a conflation of the two Babylonian constellations of the Sitting and Standing Gods.” Therefore, we have a father god who sits on a throne and a son god who stands at the right of the father.
The following passages exhibit that the Israelites worshiped the “host of heaven.”
2 Kings 23:5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. . . 11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
Jeremiah 8:2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
Ezekiel 8:16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
Acts 7:41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. 42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
The “host of heaven” obviously refers to the heavenly bodies; and Genesis 2:1 says: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” However, 1 Kings 22:19 (and 2 Chronicles 18:18) states: “I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.” Nehemiah 9:6 states that the host of heaven worshiped Yahweh. Isaiah 34:4 says the host of heaven would one day be dissolved, echoing the warning that the gods would die like men (Ps. 82:7). It was these gods (the heavenly bodies) that made man (in their image), and we know that we are made of the same elements as they are. The “LORD” was the sun.
While we see condemnation for sun worship in the Bible, that doesn’t negate the idea that this practice is the origin of all “god” worship. In reality, the god being worshiped is old Sol, and these god-man stories were the ancients’ attempt to make everything on earth as it was in heaven. Today, of course, we think of the “host of heaven” as angels.
Tina Rae Collins
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 Acharya S, Suns of God, 73. 2] Murdock, Did Moses Exist? 396.  Doane, VIII.  Inman, 679. See also: Doane, VIII.  Belle M. Wagner and Thomas H. Burgoyne, The Light of Egypt; or the science of the soul and the stars—Volume 2 (Denver, CO: Astro Philosophical Pub. Co., 1903), “Chapter IV: Astro-Theology,” Kindle ed.  “Its [sic] written in the stars,” bibliodac.wordpress.com, 16 July 2014, web, 22 Mar. 2015.  “Its [sic] written in the stars,” Ibid.  “Its [sic] written in the stars,” Ibid.  “Hercules (constellation),” wikipedia.org, 12 Mar. 2015, web, 22 Mar. 2015. See also: Mark R. Chartrand III, Skyguide: A Field Guide to the Heavens (Golden Books Publishing Co., 1982), 150.  Kathy Miles, “Draco the Dragon,” starryskies.com, 1995-2008, web, 22 Mar. 2015. 11] “Hercules (constellation),” Ibid. See also: Gavin White, Babylonian Star-lore (London: Solaria Publications, 2008), 199ff.