Nathan BinfordOur bright, shining Sun is the source of all life and vitality in our little part of the Universe; and this is true in both the physical and meta-physical sense. The Sun’s radiation brightens the world, separates day and night, creates the rotation of the Earth, and our orbit around it largely determines the seasons. Its physical power dominates every aspect of our material existence. And spiritually, illumination itself comes from the Sun and we are variously described as “star seeds” by many mystical traditions –from the fire of the stars.
In the body, the solar plexus is associated with the Sun and the engine of the body, the stomach, where fuel is “burned” and converted into energy. In the energetic body, this translates to the 3rd chakra, which is the seat of our identity, drive, confidence, charisma, and motivation. If you’re having issues in any of those areas, the third (or solar plexus) chakra is where you should focus your energy.
Many people have issues with low self-esteem, a lack of self-confidence, etc. I see this often in my energy healing practice and my recommendation is always the same: boost and balance the energy in your 3rd chakra to strengthen your sense of self, your personal boundaries, to increase your determination and drive, and to increase your energy level physically as well.
There are a variety of ways to use solar energy, both physically and metaphysically, as a boost in the third chakra. In this post I’m going to describe three solar rituals to increase motivation, self-confidence, charisma, and good fortune, which are easy to understand and simple to perform yourself.
Sun Day And Hour Prayers & Petitions
The easiest, and most obvious, is to venerate the Sun. The gods love our praise and adoration; especially solar deities. Each planetary spirit (including the “luminaries” -the Sun and Moon) have a day of the week, and 1 hour out of every seven, dedicated to their worship. Sun-days are dedicated to the Sun, and the first hour of the new day (by virtue of the rising Sun) is dedicated to the planetary spirit of the day.
So, sunrise on Sunday, is ruled by the Sun (just as sunrise on Monday is ruled by the Moon). Each successive hour is ruled by the next planet in the “Chaldean” (Babylonian) order (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon) so that the second hour of Sunday is ruled by Venus, and the third by Mercury, and so on.
This means that the sunrise hour on Sunday and seven hours after that, and seven hours after that, and so on, are all ruled by the Sun. Since these hours are dedicated to the Sun, they are the most appropriate times to petition solar spirits. Think of it like office hours…
Make a habit out of venerating the Sun during “office hours” with hymns and invocations, offerings of incense and flame, libations (particularly wine), and so on, once a day while you’re working on any issues related to the third chakra. Try to do this outside or with the windows open so that the natural light of the Sun fills your sacred space. Most days will have two hours where you can perform this rite during the day.
And if you can’t make any of the daytime solar-ruled hours work because of your schedule, etc. on a given day, just say your solar prayers whenever you can. It’s better to pray when you can than not pray at all.
Dedicate an altar to the Sun while you’re working with it regularly (we keep altars for all seven traditional planetary spirits all of the time). Altars come in all sizes, so don’t overthink this, just dedicate some space to the Sun with a yellow candle, maybe a few solar crystals, and space for offerings, etc.
Build this altar up over time, adding things to it that are either associated with the Sun, as offerings (like the crystals), or representative of what you’re working on. For example, you might keep a bit of gold jewelry on the altar as an offering and to attune the space to solar energy and you could have your business card, or a picture of yourself looking healthy, to represent your magical targets.
Send your energy into the magical targets on your altar as your pray to the Sun and consider keeping a consecrated box, or bowl, or something similar, to hold any paper petitions, sigils, or other spell work you’re doing with this solar energy.
Launching sigils for self-confidence, good luck, charisma, fame, promotion, good fortune, authority, and so on, and then charging them on your solar altar every day as you practice your solar devotions, is a nice way to double down on your magical efforts.
Spending five to ten minutes in a state of solar bliss after your prayers, by visualizing yourself do things that require you to be healthy, vibrant, confident, and so on, while sending energy to your related workings, is another good way to layer your magic.
Solar Hymns And Invocations
“Breathing” Light Into Your Third Chakra
A lot of good can come from simply meditating and sending positive intentions to your physical and energetic body. This is just true in general but it can also work to infuse your body with solar energy. The idea is to draw solar energy into your energy body with your intention and visualization while standing outside in the light of the Sun.
Add embodiment to this visualization (making it much more effective) by imagining yourself “breathing” the light of the Sun into your crown chakra -at the crown of your head. As you inhale, visualize light in a swirl of dust-like particles (the way dust in the air looks in a beam of light) being drawn into your crown chakra and pulled down into your solar plexus where it slowly fills you like a balloon. As you exhale, visualize these “charged” particles being sent down into the Earth through your root chakra.
In and out, in and out, in and out; like this for 5-10 minutes a day and 10-20 times whenever you’re feeling particularly worn down or insecure, as needed. This is very helpful for countering depression, insecurity, lack of confidence, and other third chakra related issues.
While this is especially effective when performed outside in the Sun, don’t feel like you have to skip this rite on rainy or cloudy days, or if you can’t get outside. The metaphor of the Sun’s energy (and allowing yourself to experience the sensory details of your own memory of the Sun’s light) is enough to tap into its life-giving powers.
Lucky Solar Mojo Bag
Prayer bags, aka gris-gris or mojo bags are a cunning (folk) tradition of magic that is basically the same idea as a witch bottle, just more portable and without the glass. When creating a mojo bag, you want to add (an odd number of) materials to the bag which are “sympathetic” to the Sun; meaning they are “of the Sun” or solar in nature.
The ritual, which should be performed during the hour of the Sun, preferably on Sunday, simply involves invoking an aspect of the Sun (Apollo, Helios, etc), and adding 3 pinches of each of the ingredients into a small drawstring bag (preferably made of a natural material like linen) while speaking your intention into the bag and sending it your intention.
Each of the ingredients is good for something in particular, as it relates to the human body or psyche, such as lemon -a yellow citrus fruit, which is very solar in nature, is used in cleaning products (both modern and ancient) and is therefore both solar and cleansing. The bay laurel is sacred to Apollo in mythology and so bay leaves and sprigs of laurel are considered both lucky and “sympathetic” to the Sun. You can substitute any solar ingredients that you feel are appropriate, metaphorically, using this logic (refer to Agrippa’s The Philosophy of Natural Magic on the subject of solar materia).
After the bag has been filled and prayed over, begin feeding it regularly with 3 drops of sunflower oil, first into the open mouth of the bag as one of the ingredients, and then on an on-going basis just rub the drops into the outside of the bag while speaking and sending your intentions to it. Do this, of course, at the day and hour of the Sun (sunrise on Sunday, preferably).
Keep the mojo bag on your person, or in your personal bag, at all times. For those of you thinking that this is inconvenient or impossible at your very important job, I will just share that I once carried a Jupiterian mojo bag full of herbs and crystals in either my suit pocket or laptop bag for over a year.
Ingredients For A “Lucky” Solar Mojo Bag:
- 3 pieces of lemon peel (cleansing)
- 3 blades of lemongrass (for neurological health)
- 3 bay leaves or a 3 pieces of a sprig of laurel (sacred to Apollo, e.g. lucky)
- 3 pieces of cinnamon bark (lucky)
- 3 sunflower petals / 3 saint johns wort flowers / 3 dashes of turmeric (yellow / medicinal)
- 3 crushed pieces of or 1 yellow stone (citrine, tiger’s eye, bumblebee or yellow jasper, yellow apatite, topaz, etc)
- *Sunflower oil (to feed the bag regularly)
Other Ways To Boost Solar Energy
There are other ways to boost solar energy that are not so much rituals or spells as practices or accessories but they are very effective in their own right. Like prayers or meditations, these should be practiced on a regular basis to receive their full effects.
As a reminder, all of these practices affect psychological issues like lack of motivation, drive, confidence, charisma, etc because they infuse you with solar energy which strengthens the third (solar plexus chakra), lifting the spirit, and increasing the enthusiasm -and therefore energy- with which you can meet the challenges of the day. Low levels of solar energy (vitality) result in fatigue, both physically and emotionally, and increasing solar energy restores that vitality.
Heliotherapy (Get Some Sun)
This should be obvious but the modern world is sun-starved and it is incredibly unhealthy. In Ep. 19 of The Postmugglism Podcast, “The Light of Life”, I review the many wellness and medical practices (ancient and modern) which have promoted the healing powers of sunlight over the ages. Heliotherapy (therapy with sunlight) has been medically proven to kill bacteria, promote respiratory health, reduce or eliminate depression, and have many other incredible healing properties.
There are few better ways to generally improve your physical, mental, and emotional health than simply getting more sun. At an absolute minimum, spend 30 minutes every day in indirect sunlight. Optimally, get 15 minute doses of direct sunlight over as much of the body as possible to maximize its beneficial effects.
What’s absolutely fascinating (and I talk about this in the podcast) is that although it is popular to attribute the healing powers of sunlight to Vitamin D and UV light exposure, neither has been shown in the absence of natural light to have anywhere near as profound a beneficial effect as direct exposure to the radiance of good ol’ Sol.
Solar Talismans
Much like the mojo bag can be carried around with you, a solar talisman is one of the best ways to boost solar energy in your field because talismans are created during astrologically auspicious times and have been imbued with the planetary spirit through magical ritual. It’s a more intense version of the same idea as the mojo bag but with the benefit of having the astrology on your side.
Wearing a solar talisman provides a direct boost to the qualities within you governed by the Sun, such as charisma, confidence, vitality, etc. Unlike the practices I mentioned, this magic just works on its own without requiring you to feed it, pray to it, or otherwise be involved in the magic at hand. Talismans are one of the rare cases where you can actually buy or be given a magical effect.
How to create a solar talisman is beyond the scope of this post but there are good quality talismans available for purchase online. Not all talismans are created equally though so you have to already trust the source or have an astrologer vet the chart of the talisman’s election for you to make sure it will work as advertised.
My wife and I engrave astrological talismans and then work with local artisans to have them turned into beautiful jewelry. You can see what’s available in our online store at The Sacred Serpent, if you’re interested.
Turning Practice Into Results
Always keep in mind that negative belief sabotages magical efforts; if you’re constantly living in a self-critical and self-limiting paradigm, no amount of solar energy is going to pull you out of your funk. You have to believe that it is possible for you to emerge better and stronger on the other side of your struggle or you make it impossible to achieve.
Trying these rituals once or twice and expecting major results is setting yourself up for disappointment. Anything you do requires practice to learn how to do it well and magic is no different. Repeat these rituals again and again until they’re familiar and effortless to perform and, by then, you’ll be feeling their positive effects.
When you’re learning to perform the rituals you are distracted and they are not as powerful, but, as you practice, you are able to focus more of your energy on your intention and yield more powerful effects.
Purge your mind of expectation and just perform the rituals, passively observing their growing effect on you over time and repetition. Accept the journey that every new habit represents; a shift that starts small and immeasurable but gradually becomes recognizable over time. This is just the way of personal evolution, so be patient, keep practicing the magic and you’ll get the results.
There are, of course, mundane practices which can help you learn confidence and practice charisma but these methods all require you to already have a measure of confidence and enthusiasm to begin. If you’re terrified of public speaking, then a public speaking class is just going to be a triggering experience unless you do some of this energetic work first. If you’re exhausted from constant fatigue then exercise isn’t very likely to happen, and so on.
Invoke the energy that you wish to embody by drawing on the power of the Sun spiritually to fuel your mundane efforts. After all, what’s the point of magic but to make our lives more meaningful by embodying (literally bringing into us) powers far beyond our own?
And what’s more powerful than the almighty golden Sun?
Nathan Binford
