Card 19-The Sun

The Sun represents Gnosis. It represents the knowledge from the divine learned through experience. It is the god Ra, Helios, Shammash, and Apollo. It is the fire of earth. It is the transformative power of the magician on his path to enlightenment.

The Sun falls on the pathway between Hod (Splendour) and Yesod (Foundation) on the Tree of Life. The seeds sown in the foundation are starting to come to light, and begin to bloom. The magician at this stage is coming into an intellectual understanding of the divine mysteries. It is important to understand that the Sun is not the true Sun, it is but a candle in the Sun. The true Sun is shining directly from Tipareth into Hod and is refracted along the pathway from Hod into Yesod.

When the Sun is drawn by itself or in a tarot spread it represents the unrealized magician who is still young in his or her training in a manner of speaking, they're just now starting to turn towards to the Sun as it were. This is the significance of the sunflowers typically found on the Sun card as they are flowers that always face the sun. That which has been germinating in darkness is starting to come to light. In the positive it represents a new idea/invention. It may represent good health. It may also tell of an abundance of energy to come. In the negative it could represent failure. It could represent a misguided attempt or misjudgment about the question at hand. It is the danger of thinking that you understand what is going on but yet you don't quite know everything yet, and so you could be led astray from the Great Work.