The Sun Goddess (Boa in Werer, Ra in Atratra, Aditeyia in Chola Tamil, among others) is a rather important figure in the indigenous religions of Lemuria. While her worship prior to Austronesian arrival is unclear, sun symbols are engraved in building bases and she is a character in the epic The Drama of the Moon. Likewise, some speculate that some buildings were oriented along equinoxes and sunrises, though without the wooden components this is hard to say.
With the arrival of Austronesian peoples and their influences on Lemuria, the Sun Goddess quickly became a patron deity of both the Western Arrokath Empire and Eastern Betsana Empire. This is quite remarkable given that most Austronesian solar deities are masculine and some of her mythology mirrors that of Zanahary in Madagascar (and isolated highland communities do worship male sun deities), implying that she was indeed worshipped in pre-Austronesian times.
With the arrival of the Chola Dynasty and Buddhism, attempts were made at stamping her cult, but they failed, and instead she was syncretised with the divine mother Aditi, no longer just the mother of the sun but the sun herself. Likewise, Portuguese Catholicism found it much easier to syncretise her with the Virgin Mary and the woman cloaked in the sun in Revelation; Lemurian Christian beliefs even say that the world was dark before the birth of Virgin Mary, and that the Garden of Eden was once the sun.
Much as many ruling deities, there are comparitively few myths about the Sun Goddess, being a distant cosmic deity compared to more approacheable deities. However, she is said to look after the people, and people from all walks of life pray to her as a first recourse. Besides her involvement in the Drama of the Moon, one myth says that she fashioned humans from clay and fire; the fire, the soul, goes to her upon death like a mother embracing a child, while the clay, the body, is claimed by the earth. This in many ways resembles the myth of Zanahary in Madagascar, and is probably the product of multiple exchangs between both islands.
She is said to be both mother and father of the gods, yet the Drama of the Moon calls her a daughter of the Old Moon. Though benevolent, she has many demons that stalk during the day, an explanation for sun stroke. One of the most feared is the Laranga, an elephant headed ogre woman with bleach white skin that devours those she encounters.
As mentioned before, some isolated communities do have male sun gods; it is unclear if this is the result of Austronesian beliefs or Indian beliefs. Most notable is Sarrash, the sun god of the Menuma people of the highlands, who takes Prince Kisotosy as his lover.
Surviving countless religious turnovers and forcing colonizing powers to bend to her will, the Lemurian Sun Goddess is no doubt a symbol of Lemurian pride and nationalism.
5 responses to “Sun Goddess of Lemuria”
[…] pantheon of deities is worshipped alongside human ancestors, with the Lemurian Sun Goddess being the most omnipresent and important figure with the Moon Prince being almost as important. […]
LikeLike
[…] of natural phenomena, and sun symbols are commonly inscribed, perhaps indicating that the Lemurian Sun goddess was worshipped at this […]
LikeLike
[…] their nests). It is thus often personified as the god of evil and the night in opposition to the Sun Goddess in many lemurian cultures. By far the main threat to its existence is persecution, particularly as […]
LikeLike
[…] Moon(1) appointed the Sun Goddess as the ruler of the world. However, he had a soft spot for Prince Kisotosy(2), and as such granted […]
LikeLike
[…] western Lemuria, where it is less common, it is seen particularly ambivalently as an enemy of the Sun Goddess, yet also a bringer of rain. In many areas it is a totemic symbol of great importance, and some […]
LikeLike