According to the Mahanirvana Tantra, the sun is a golden garment of light that graces the great goddess. “The sun, the most glorious symbol in the physical world, is the vesture of Her who is clothed with the sun.”
Tantric Buddhist monks chant to the sun goddess Marici at dawn, later said to be related to the Biblical Mary. In the Celtic culture, they called her Sul or Sulis and later spoke of a radiant sun woman ‘grian’ (sun) . In modern Germanic and Celtic languages the sun is referred to in the feminine. In Japan, the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikame
is said to be linked to Japanese royalty. Yhi is known as the sun woman to the Arunta of Australia. Germans and Norwegians called her Sunna. In Scandinavia, she was Glory-of-Elves or Sol.
Much like Queen Hatshepsut the famous Pharaoh in Egypt had her statues smashed and her name almost chiseled out of history to suppress the divinity of feminine power, various changes took place to masculinize the gender of the sun.
In Mesopotamian mythology, the Hittite sun goddess, Estan was changed to Istanu, a male sun god. In pre-Islamic Arabia, the sun goddess was known as the “Torch of the Gods” Atthar or Al-Ilat, and was later masculinized to Allah. Her other name Shams became Shamson, later influencing the biblical name Samson.
Whether masculine or feminine (Surya the Hindu god is masculine, as well as the Egyptian Ra), the sun is undeniably a divine force. ‘Atapa Snana’ is the yogic phrase for the science of sun bathing. Unlike popular wisdom which tells us to run and hide from the sun, the sun has long been known to heal a variety of maladies. It is known to kill bad bacteria, cleanse the blood, increase oxygen in the blood, raise testosterone for men, increase height in children, and cure depression, among many other healing qualities.