In early times climate and conditions of  the soil shaped the culture of its inhabitants
and necessarily the character of  their ´natural´ gods. In  areas with frequent thunder-
storms a  flash-hurling  thunder God may develop withint the experience of a natural
religion.

We don´t know whom  the Magedalénean  reindeer hunters worshiped  but in general 
it seems likely that in a more northern region with long, life threatening winters a Sun
God might be chief of a natural *pantheon*. 

                                                   Island   Sweden    Palestine 
                                Summer        24        19             16
                                Winter            0          5               8
                                     Hours between sunrise and sunset

The Post-Magdalénean reindeer hunter wrapped in his fur is afraid that his family and
animals may not survive the long and cold winter. Stored food and fodder are used up.
Only a growing sun can prevent a threatening famine.
May be in the dark and coldness one dreams to leave home  in spring  and go south
the  rivers by ship

                                       Sun boats in North-Europe

A faith developed, which allowed to ´speak´ directly to  the sun. Cult  boats may give
a  reference. The sun  in a  boat  becomes symbolically supported  in  winter  on  its
´dangerous´ travel. Notice the bird´s heads at the stem- and sternposts.
Swans (Carriazo Bronce) and  Seapeople 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To day´s midsummer celebrations at the 21. June in the North have
                                probably an age-old tradition

"Day by day through June, the evenings grow lighter and more intense until about the
20th when they reach their longest and brightest.  Midsummer Eve - the day that
never ends!
0ut in a field, a tall pole lies outstret-
ched  while  the  women  twine leafy
branches  round  it  and  hang  two
circlets of flowers  from its cross-bar.
Then,  in  the  afternoon,  the  entire
village arrives:Fiddler and accordionist
are ready and strike up lively Swedish
air.Circle upon circle of boys and girls,
men and women, join hands and dance
round the bedecked pole.There's magic
abroad at Midsummer.
The young  girl  who  goes out into the field and in the covenant of unbrokensilence,
picks seven different  kinds of flowers and  tucks them under her pillow, will dream
of her loved ones to be."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Problem A sun religion in Egypt.
At first sight no problems to explain the worship of the sun in  Egypt. One may argue
that the sun, symbol of light and enlightement, is probably the most enduring symbol
found in ancient and modern religions. Living in a land of ´eternal ´sunshine, it might
be little wonder that the ancient Egyptians chose the sun as the prime symbol of the
Creation

If this assumption is true that the spiral is a symbol of the sun course, then the spiral
on the Egyptian North Crown may symbolize  a close  relation between the king and
the sun. The king wore a crown with a spiral .
From an Egyptological view a problem. The mythological  meaning of the spiral is not
established. The Uraeus serpent or the  side  curl of the Oldlibyan (Tamahu?) are in
discussion.
 

 Narmer Palette 3000 BC
 Noteworthy that the spiral was a *sign of kings * already in
 in the beginning of the advanced Egyptian  culture. There-
 fore the symbol´s meaning of  the spiral  must have grown
 up already in *  predynastic * times
 Noteworthy it is the  religion of a ´Pharaonic´ upper- class,
 not the religion of the natives, who later on worshiped Osiris
 

At first sight no further problems, if one accepts that it is obvious to whorship the sun
in a sun country like Egypt.The sun shines in the morning, at noon and in the evening.
May be, but a naive question

                       Why should an Egyptian native worship the Sun ?

For what a  fellah  should  beg :" Sun!  Please help  me !" or "Sun !  Please shine less
brightly ! Your light is too hot and dazzling!" In summer the sun is a cause for parching
heat and aridity
.Among  the  neigboring ´Sahara- Tuaregs´ the sun is said to be a HANGMAN
Ibrahim al-Koni  

The fellah  waits for  the high  flood of  the Nile in July - September. Afterwards he
 can cultivate the fields. He knows that his life depends upon the water of the Nile.

 A  God  of  the  Nile should  experience  deep  adoration.Should, but did not.There is
actually a  God  of  the  Nile, but  in  the  hierarchy of  the  Gods  the  Nile  has  only
a serving position. In temples the God of the Nile presents to  the *upper*   Gods  the
products of its tide. The Nile God is in the hierarchic order of  the Egyptian Gods only
a helper, far behind the Sun God.(Erman)

Conceivable that  the early Pharaoh  demonstrate  power * by decree*  that  the Nile
- like himself - was created by the Sun God.  In  the coffin text 317/122  the  claim to
power  of  the Pharaoh - in  its self  understanding a son of  the  Sun God  - becomes
clearly emphasized:

"BECOMING the NILE. I am a young God, it  was  Re who  created  me  as  his son,
he modelled me  in stonework (122)  The  Gods of  the  horizon concerning me. They
see me when  I have appeared as  the Nile,  with sun-folk about  me, like Re when he
was  born .(288)  I am Tosser  (?)  son  of  the  fiercy one  of  Shu, long  extended  of
brilliance, when Shu is at the head of the sun-folk"
Naively regarded an amazing ranking order. Supporting the view that neither the early
Pharaoh nor the sun-folk might be of Egyptian origin

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Facit:

 Within the frame of a Natural Religion it is more likely that the sun becomes
                                more worshiped in the cold North 

      enlarge
                                               than in a hot Nil region.

Erman, A. Die Religion der Ägypter, 1934
Ibrahim al-Koni  * Die Magier  Das Epos der Tuareg*, 1990 Lenos Verlag

                          1-sonne-myth-urspr 15.07.04 update

Index

next:  Religion of milk drinking cattle/dairy  farmer
 Problem:  Northerners and Egypteans wore horns and worshiped the * holy cow*
etr