The Quena and the world-wide impact of sun worship

Update

GEORGE NEWS - The impact of sun worship runs deep. The most important day for most of the religious communities in South Africa is the day of the sun or Sunday.

Some people call it "Holy Sunday" without realising that it was the Babylonians who named the days after the five planetary bodies known to them (Tuesday through to Saturday) and after the Sun and the Moon (Sunday and Monday).

The Roman emperor Constantine, who played a very important role to institutionalise the Church, established the seven-day week and designated Sunday and Monday to be the first two days of the week.

So people meet on every "day of the sun" in buildings with towering, obelisk-like structures with the ever-present cock on top. A structure with pointers to the north, south, east and west also reaffirms the impact of ancient cosmology-based religions.

Ra was the Egyptian sun god with the py(Ra)mids in Egypt the dominating monuments.

I went to Egypt in March 2005 to confess to the Creator of the times we worshipped the creation, and to pledge our allegiance to the Son in the presence of monuments in honour of the sun.

Ama-terusa is the Japanese version of a sun god. They were so fond of the sun that they even incorporated it into their national flag.

Surya, meaning "sun', is the sun god of Hinduism in India.

In front of the general assembly hall of the United Nations in New York is a statue of Surya, a gift from India presented by Indira Gandhi in July 1962.

An obelisk - also a symbol of sun worship - is on the other side of the entrance, completing the "illuminating" picture.

Arunachala Red mountain refers to the "holy hill" in Tamil Nadu, India. Aruna is the name of the charioteer (we have previously learned about "the dying sun chariot") of Surya and is the personification of the reddish glow of the rising sun (Quena were Red people).

Around this "holy hill" are eight standing stones called "dik (direction) lingams", symbolising: to the north - eternity; south - justice; east - power; west - knowledge; north-east - purity; south-east - sacrifice; north-west - life; south-west - birth-pain misery.

They use these "stations" to pray and worship.

The Quena of Southern Africa also believed that life was a journey from the south to the north via north-east (purity). To "purify" themselves they used the "Aum Kuntams", the "sacred stones" I have in my hands in the photograph.

Those stones, "the spearheads of God", are not tools (as most of the academia suggest) but religious symbols. There is a political party in our country that has adapted the name from "Aum Kuntam" to "Umkhonto". "Aum" is a holy syllable! Clearly there is nothing new under the sun!

Sydney Opperman, 14 Lynx Street, Pacaltsdorp. 083 378 4237

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