Ten-year-old Russian indigo boy predicted future and cured diseases

A ten-year-old schoolboy named as Slava Krasheninnikov was endowed with a miraculous gift of predicting the future and curing the sick. The boy has been dead for fourteen years yet the ailing ones keep praying to him as if he were a saint. Those who venerate his gift even ordered a special icon on which the boy was painted in the form of an angel. The icon was entitled “The Holy Youth Vyacheslav. Your reward shall be equal to your sufferings.”

Slava Krasheninnikov

People still cherish the memories of Slava Krasheninnikov, the little prophet and healer who died fourteen years ago. His grave in the city of Chebarkul became a place of religious devotion which attracts scores of pilgrims. Hundreds of sufferers come to visit Slava’s mausoleum every day. They lay flowers at his tomb and kneel down to pray.Many scoop out some earth from his grave and put it in their pockets. Rumor has it that the earth can cure lots of ailments…
Slava Krahseninnikov was five days short of his eleventh anniversary when he passed away. The boy had become a local celebrity by the time of his death: he is said to have had an amazing gift for telling the future, diagnosing diseases and curing them.
Slava never charged a single penny for the services rendered to his patients. His help was gratis. “I’ve got a god-given gift. And I must use it gratuitously for the sake of those in need – it was a message I received from above,” Slava told his mother one day.
Once he found a crumpled ten-dollar bill in the pocket of his coat. Apparently, one of his patients must have put it there stealthily in gratitude. Slava made an effort to ensure that the money was given back to its owner. Sufferers would stand in line every day near Slava’s house, waiting for his help. Slava never fell short of their expectations. He helped, healed and comforted those afflicted with mental or bodily pain.
Slava predicted his own demise six months before he closed his eyes forever.
“I still don’t know why my son came to an untimely end,” said Valentina, Slava’s mother. “The doctors were unable to diagnose a terrible disease that killed my boy. One of them told me: ‘Looks like someone or something has sucked out his blood dry. We’re at a complete loss to determine the nature of his disease’,” added Valentina.
Slava kept helping people while in his deathbed in a hospital’s hematology ward. He was providing help to patients who regularly came to his room from the entire hospital. Slava was barely conscious for three days prior to breathing his last. He kept saving other people’s lives anyway. But he could not beat his fatal disease.

“Lots of people come to visit Slava’s grave day in and day out,” Valentina said.
The earth on Slava’s grave appears to be freshly dug up. The boy’s parents have to add more earth to the grave on a regular basis. Pilgrims scoop a bit of earth and use it as a cure.

“People make a kind of pulp by adding some water into earth. They apply it as an ointment to the affected areas of their bodies. Many people come back to express their gratefulness. Even the minute particles of marble and small stones from the grave are known for their strong curative effects. They put the stuff in the water and drink the solution,” Valentina said.
Slava’s parents still keep a small chair their son used to sit in. Following Slava’s death, Valentina was going to dispose of the chair.
But she changed her mind after talking to a deeply religious woman. The woman talked Valentina out of discarding the chair. The boy’s mother is confident she did the right thing.
“The parents of terminally ill children come to my house almost every day. You know, they just can’t bring their offspring along, those children are too weak to travel. So they bring the photographs of their little poor creatures and place them onto Slava’s chair in a desperate attempt to ease their pain away. It’s a real miracle. I’ve been told that lots of those children got better afterwards. The number of those who recovered keeps growing, I’ve already lost track of their names and stories,” Valentina said.
A large number of icons were presented to the boy while he was still in the land of the living. The icons were brought from different countries and ancient monasteries. In fact, people keep bringing more icons to the house of his parents. The boy’s mother put some of the icons around Slava’s grave.
“A monk gave me an icon with the painting of Nicholas II two months ago. I took it to my son’s grave. Soon the people noticed that the icon had begun to ooze myrrh,” Valentina Krasheninnikova said.
Slava had repeatedly visited Holy Trinity and St. Sergius Laura in the city of Sergiyev Pasad. He met with a favorable reception at the monastery. Reverend fathers did not doubt the boy’s god-given gift. An icon bearing the face of Slava arrived at his former house two months ago. The icon was manufactured by professional icon painters.
“It’s a brand-new icon. I’ve already put it at the cemetery so that sufferers may touch or kiss it. I’m sure that Slava’s soul can hear the voice of every person who seeks helps. My boy will take care of every request,” Valentina said.

Cosmic Evolution

Can we survive the next major asteroid impact?

We have been around for a couple of million years or so and we tend to take it for granted that this happy situation will continue indefinitely, but will it?
We know from fossil records that on a fairly regular basis, to the order of 26 - 30 million years or so, mass extinctions occur. Various theories have been proposed to explain this. One current theory is that every 30 million years the Earth is subject to heavy bombardment by asteroids, or comets. There is geological evidence of a thin layer of material at a depth representing an age of 65 million years that appears to be the result of an enormous asteroid impact. The impact site is believed to be in the Gulf of Mexico, off Yucatan, and to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, along with 60% of all other species. This crater is more than 100 miles in diameter.

So what is causing these periodic episodes? One theory hypothesises that as our solar system moves around the galaxy within its galactic spiral arm, it bobs up and down the plane of the spiral arm in a 30 million year cycle. Thus every 30 million years it passes through the densest region of the arm where the stars are packed closely together. Either this region is heavily populated by comets and asteroids or those within our solar system are tugged out of their normal harmless orbit and sent hurtling towards us.
Another theory, the Nemesis theory, proposes that our sun has a companion star, Nemesis, that every 26 - 30 million years comes close to the Earth and causes comets or asteroids to crash into us.

So what happens when the Earth is hit by a large chunk of rock? A one kilometre asteroid striking the Earth at a typical speed of 25 to 30 kilometres per second would have a devastating effect. On impact the enormous kinetic energy of the body will instantaneously be dumped into target rock in an explosion equivalent to 300,000 megatons of TNT - the largest man-made nuclear weapon had a yield of 60 megatons. Flash and blast from the impact will destroy an area the size of Belgium. A 20 kilometre wide crater will be excavated in seconds, and debris will be ejected into sub orbital trajectories. This debris will later re-enter the atmosphere like a massive meteor shower all over the planet creating an intense global heat pulse, raising fires that will destroy a significant proportion of the biomass. The ozone layer will be obliterated. Major volcanism and seismic activity will occur as the shock wave from the impact ripples through the planet. Intense acid rain resulting from the ionisation of the air as the impactor entered the atmosphere, and large quantities of pyrotoxins produced by global fires will fall world-wide.
In addition to these effects, an impact at sea will produce a significant tsunami, capable of travelling considerable distances, and possessing enormous energy. Such surges will pose a substantial threat to low lying coastal areas. An impact in the Atlantic Ocean by a 1 kilometre asteroid will create a deep water wave 10 to 15 metres high. When it hits the continental shelf of Europe and North America, travelling at 600 kilometres per hour, it will run up a wave height of between 300 and 800 metres, depending on coastal topography.
All of this will cause a global environmental and humanitarian disaster of extreme severity, but the main threat to life will be the vast amount of dust and debris injected into the upper atmosphere, combined with smoke from the firestorms. The surface of the Earth will be shrouded in darkness and it is this that will pose the greatest threat to the global ecosystem as photosynthesis stops, food chains collapse and cold and starvation set in. After a year, or perhaps two, the atmosphere will clear, but the Earth's albedo will be higher due to snow and ice, and it will reflect more of the Sun's radiation, leading to a runaway feedback situation, possibly leading to a new ice age.
All that from just a 1 kilometre wide asteroid! Statistically, we are hit by an asteroid of this size, not every 30 million years, but every 100,000 years.

At midnight GMT on August 10th 1998, asteroid ML14 crossed the orbit of the Earth at the exact point the latter had occupied only 18 hours earlier. Had ML14 reached that point at 06.00 the previous morning, an area the size of France would have been totally devastated by 06.05. By 08.00 most of the world's vegetation would have been in flames. By late October 30-40% of the human race would be dead or dying. ML14 has a diameter of 2 kilometres.
In 1908 an impactor detonated some 5 kilometres above the ground in the Tunguska region of Siberia which yielded an estimated energy equivalent to 20 megatons of TNT. A Tunguska sized impact over London would destroy everything within the M25. The impactor would have been in the size range of 50-100 metres and the statistical time-scale for such impacts is between 50 and 100 years.
It is not a question of if we will be hit by a mass extinction sized asteroid or comet, but when. It is going to happen. Whether or not the human race will survive the impact remains to be seen.

The Future of Solar Power Lies in the Northeast
by Jonathan Klein, Founder of the Topline Strategy Group
Soon there will giant farms of photovoltaic panels baking in the sunlight of the southwest deserts, the resulting energy powering Phoenix, Las Vegas, and the rest of the region. If this vision of the future of solar power in the United States sounds right to you, it would probably come as a surprise to learn that some of the best potential customers for the solar power industry are homeowners and small businesses in the Northeast who will install small-scale systems on their property.

When a panel generates more electricity, the cost of that electricity falls because the fixed price of the equipment is spread across more kilowatt-hours. The Southwest does enjoy a tremendous sunlight advantage over the Northeast, making solar power less expensive in that region. However, the advantage does not come close to compensating for the difference in electricity rates.

Today, even in the best case scenario, solar power still requires substantial subsidies. It will be another decade before it reaches the break even point -- that is, the point where solar power becomes economical without subsidies. Until then, industry growth will largely be determined by how far available subsidies can be stretched in order to support the installation of the most equipment possible.

In a world where supply constraints are the industry's top problem, worrying about stretching subsidies to fuel more demand is probably the last item on everyone's agenda. However, even hypergrowth industries go through periods of faster and slower growth. Laying the groundwork now for fueling the next spurt of demand can mitigate or even eliminate any potential slowdown.

This requires a focus on stretching subsidy dollars, which in turn means focusing on the customers who require the least amount of subsidies to make solar power a profitable investment; namely, customers for whom the cost of solar electricity compares most favorably with the cost of conventional electricity. Remarkably, it is small solar installations in the Northeast that fit that bill, not large commercial installations in Arizona or Nevada.

This counter-intuitive finding comes from two studies our company recently released on solar electricity: What the Solar Power Industry Can Learn from Google and Salesforce.com and Massachusetts a Surprising Candidate for Solar Power Leadership. It is based upon the following three facts.

Big installations have only a small cost advantage over small ones
In striking contrast to all other power generation technologies, solar electricity equipment has very few economies of scale. Coal and gas-fired power plants, hydroelectric dams, nuclear reactors, solar thermal concentrators (with their acres of sun-tracking reflective troughs) and wind turbines (whose size dictate that they be situated in remote areas) are only practical for large commercial power generators to own and operate.

California Solar Cost Data Shows Modest Economies of Scale
This is not the case for photovoltaics. This is because the basic unit of solar power is a single photovoltaic module, which typically generates 180 to 230 watts of power and takes up approximately 13 to 15 square feet. Installations with 10,000 modules are no more efficient than those with 10 modules. The small economies of scale that do exist are driven by transaction costs, not the technology. Therefore, big customers enjoy only a very slight cost advantage over small ones when it comes to the cost of solar power equipment.



Small customers pay a lot more for electricity than big customers
While it costs about the same for big and small customers to purchase solar power equipment, the same is not true when it comes to purchasing electricity. On average, utilities pay power producers under $.03 per kilowatt-hour. Major industrial customers typically locate their plants near hydroelectric dams, which can provide ample low cost power, and large commercial customers are able to negotiate favorable rates. Smaller businesses and homeowners are the ones that end up paying the most for their electricity.



Since their higher electric rates more than offset their slightly higher equipment costs, smaller businesses and homeowners require far fewer subsidy dollars to make up the difference between the cost of conventional power and solar power.

Taken together, these three factors mean that small customers in the Northeast, along with those in California and Nevada, are those for whom solar power is the most economically viable and require the least subsidies.



Prescriptions for the Industry
Currently, there are two missing factors for making this strategy practical. One, subsidy programs in all of these states that are sufficient to support the development of a robust commercial industry (with the exception of California which already has such a program) and two, offerings and channels designed to serve a large number of smaller accounts. Our prescription: Make these two initiatives top priorities for the industry.

Jonathan Klein is the founder and general partner of The Topline Strategy Group, a consulting and market research firm specializing in emerging technologies. Prior to founding Topline, Jonathan was VP of Marketing at Promptu, a venture-backed CRM software company. He also served in senior marketing roles at Documentum and Docent and also worked as a Case Leader in the Chicago office of The Boston Consulting Group, advising Fortune 500 clients in a range of industries on corporate growth.






This artical is made in our efforts to promote nature and human conservation...

Ion Propulsion

April 6, 1999: The ion propulsion system on Deep Space 1 is the culmination of over 50 years of development on electric engine systems in space. Launched on Oct. 24, 1998, Deep Space 1 will be the first spacecraft to actually use ion propulsion to reach another planetary body.
The engineering that makes this possible represents a journey that started more than half a century ago, when modern rocketry was invented. Looking back, Ernst Stuhlinger, a world expert on electric propulsion, said that the technology "owed its life-giving spark to Wernher von Braun."


Dr. Wernher von Braun, a rocket scientist from Germany, was first introduced to the possibility of electric propulsion in the 1930s, through his mentor, Dr. Hermann Oberth. But von Braun started his career working on chemical propulsion systems.

Right: An artist's concept depicts the Deep Space 1 probe with its ion engine operating at full thrust. (Links to 571x377-pixel, 33K JPG).

In 1932, the German Army's Ordnance Department provided him with a research grant to test small liquid-fueled rocket engines at the Kummersdorf Proving Grounds near Berlin. During World War II, he and a team of German rocket experts developed the V-2 rocket, a14.4-meter (47-ft) high missile that burned liquid oxygen with alcohol (made from fermented potatoes).




In 1948, the orginal "German Rocket Team" posed for a group portrait at Fort Bliss, Texas. Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger is circled to the left of center. Dr. Wernher von Braun is circled at right. Two years later, they relocated to Huntsville, Ala.

At the end of WWII in 1945, von Braun and hundreds of other German rocket experts surrendered to the Americans. They were sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, to develop rocket technology for U.S. Army research. While von Braun and his team continued to work on the V-2 rocket at Fort Bliss, von Braun dreamed about developing a rocket that could travel to other planets.

With that thought in mind, he approached Ernst Stuhlinger, a member of the original "Rocket Team" that had emigrated to Fort Bliss. Von Braun asked Stuhlinger to review the research by von Braun's mentor, Oberth.

"Professor Oberth has been right with so many of his early proposals," von Braun told Stuhlinger in 1947, "I wouldn't be a bit surprised if we flew to Mars electrically."

Stuhlinger immersed himself in electric propulsion theory. He found a copy of Oberth's book, "Possibilities of Space Flight." Published in 1939, Oberth devoted a chapter to the various problems of electric propulsion systems, envisioning one design that might carry a 150-ton payload. In studying the origins of interest in electric propulsion, Stuhlinger learned that the American rocket pioneer, Dr. Robert Goddard, had examined the subject as early as 1906. Goddard had mentioned the possibility of accelerating electrically charged particles to very high velocities without the need for high temperatures.

Studies in electric propulsion became more frequent following WWII, and in 1955 Stuhlinger presented a paper at the International Astronautical Congress in Vienna entitled, "Possibilities of Electrical Space Ship Propulsion." During his presentation, Stuhlinger discussed a proposal made by von Braun two years earlier, to use chemical propulsion to send a spaceship to Mars. In von Braun's proposal, Stuhlinger noted that the ratio of take-off weight to final weight after propellant consumption was 25-to-1. Stuhlinger argued that lighter-weight electric propulsion systems would make such planetary trips more feasible than they were with chemical propulsion.
An attractive (or repellant) idea for propulsion
The principle behind the Deep Space 1 engine is much the same as what you experience when you pull hot socks out of the clothes dryer on a cold winter day. The socks push away from each other because they are electrostatically charged, and like charges repel. The challenge in electric space propulsion is to charge a fluid so its atoms can be expelled in one direction, and thus propel the spacecraft in the other direction.

An engineer at NASA's Lewis Research Center prepares to test the DS1 ion engine.

The fuel used by Deep Space 1's ion engine is xenon, a gas that is more than 4 times heavier than air. When the ion engine is running, electrons are emitted from a hollow tube called a cathode. These electrons enter a magnet-ringed chamber, where they strike the xenon atoms. The impact of an electron on a xenon atom knocks away one of xenon's 54 electrons. This results in a xenon atom with a positive charge, or what is known as an ion.

At the rear of the chamber, a pair of metal grids is charged positively and negatively, respectively, with up to 1,280 volts of electricity. The force of this electric charge exerts a strong electrostatic pull on the xenon ions. The xenon ions shoot out the back of the engine at a speed of 100,000 km/h (60,000 mph). At full throttle, the ion engine will consume 2,500 watts of electrical power, and put out 1/50th of a pound of thrust. That's far less than the thrust of even small chemical rockets. But an ion engine can run for months or even years, and it's up to 10 times more efficient.


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In 1950, the Army decided to expand its work on missiles and rockets. The Army moved its rocket team, including von Braun, Stuhlinger, and other members of the German team, to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. Together, these scientists built the Redstone missile, which was adapted to be the Jupiter-C rocket. The Jupiter-C launched Explorer 1, America's first satellite, in 1958. In 1960, von Braun and his team transferred to NASA, forming the nucleus of the new Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.






An attractive (or repellant) idea for propulsion


The principle behind the Deep Space 1 engine is much the same as what you experience when you pull hot socks out of the clothes dryer on a cold winter day. The socks push away from each other because they are electrostatically charged, and like charges repel. The challenge in electric space propulsion is to charge a fluid so its atoms can be expelled in one direction, and thus propel the spacecraft in the other direction.

Left: An engineer at NASA's Lewis Research Center prepares to test the DS1 ion engine.

The fuel used by Deep Space 1's ion engine is xenon, a gas that is more than 4 times heavier than air. When the ion engine is running, electrons are emitted from a hollow tube called a cathode. These electrons enter a magnet-ringed chamber, where they strike the xenon atoms. The impact of an electron on a xenon atom knocks away one of xenon's 54 electrons. This results in a xenon atom with a positive charge, or what is known as an ion.

At the rear of the chamber, a pair of metal grids is charged positively and negatively, respectively, with up to 1,280 volts of electricity. The force of this electric charge exerts a strong electrostatic pull on the xenon ions. The xenon ions shoot out the back of the engine at a speed of 100,000 km/h (60,000 mph). At full throttle, the ion engine will consume 2,500 watts of electrical power, and put out 1/50th of a pound of thrust. That's far less than the thrust of even small chemical rockets. But an ion engine can run for months or even years, and it's up to 10 times more efficient

Asteroids

Asteroids are rocky and metallic objects that orbit the Sun but are too small to be considered planets. They are known as minor planets. Asteroids range in size from Ceres, which has a diameter of about 1000 km, down to the size of pebbles. Sixteen asteroids have a diameter of 240 km or greater. They have been found inside Earth's orbit to beyond Saturn's orbit. Most, however, are contained within a main belt that exists between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Some have orbits that cross Earth's path and some have even hit the Earth in times past. One of the best preserved examples is Barringer Meteor Crater near Winslow, Arizona.


Asteroids are material left over from the formation of the solar system. One theory suggests that they are the remains of a planet that was destroyed in a massive collision long ago. More likely, asteroids are material that never coalesced into a planet. In fact, if the estimated total mass of all asteroids was gathered into a single object, the object would be less than 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) across -- less than half the diameter of our Moon.

Much of our understanding about asteroids comes from examining pieces of space debris that fall to the surface of Earth. Asteroids that are on a collision course with Earth are called meteoroids. When a meteoroid strikes our atmosphere at high velocity, friction causes this chunk of space matter to incinerate in a streak of light known as a meteor. If the meteoroid does not burn up completely, what's left strikes Earth's surface and is called a meteorite.

Of all the meteorites examined, 92.8 percent are composed of silicate (stone), and 5.7 percent are composed of iron and nickel; the rest are a mixture of the three materials. Stony meteorites are the hardest to identify since they look very much like terrestrial rocks.

Because asteroids are material from the very early solar system, scientists are interested in their composition. Spacecraft that have flown through the asteroid belt have found that the belt is really quite empty and that asteroids are separated by very large distances. Before 1991 the only information obtained on asteroids was though Earth based observations. Then on October 1991 asteroid 951 Gaspra was visited by the Galileo spacecraft and became the first asteroid to have hi-resolution images taken of it. Again on August 1993 Galileo made a close encounter with asteroid 243 Ida. This was the second asteroid to be visited by spacecraft. Both Gaspra and Ida are classified as S-type asteroids composed of metal-rich silicates.

On June 27, 1997 the spacecraft NEAR made a high-speed close encounter with asteroid 253 Mathilde. This encounter gave scientists the first close-up look of a carbon rich C-type asteroid. This visit was unique because NEAR was not designed for flyby encounters. NEAR is an orbiter destined for asteroid Eros in January of 1999.

Astronomers have studied a number of asteroids through Earth-based observations. Several notable asteroids are Toutatis, Castalia, Geographos and Vesta. Astronomers studied Toutatis, Geographos and Castalia using Earth-based radar observations during close approaches to the Earth. Vesta was observed by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Asteroids that travel around sun and solar system...




Ceres
Eros
Eunomia
Europa
Gaspra
Hygiea
Ida
Interamnia
Mathilde
Pallas
Psyche
Sylvia
Vesta

The Sun - Formation and Mythologycal history part 2

Sumerans: Shamash

Shamash was a Sun god according to the Sumerian mythology. Sumerians were living more than three thousand years ago in Mesopotamia. The region of Mesopotamia corresponds to the valleys of Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Since he could see everything on Earth, he represented also the god of justice. That is why Shamash was depicted as a ruler seated on a throne. Shamash and his wife, Aya, had two important children. Kittu represented justice, and Misharu was law.

Every morning, the gates in the East open up, and Shamash appears. He travels across the sky, and enters the gate in the West. He travels through the Underworld at night in order to begin in the East the next day.

In Babylon, located in the south of Mesopotamia, the symbol of Shamash was the solar disk, with a four-pointed star inside it.



Navajo: Tsohanoai

For the Navajo Indians of North America, Tsohanoai is the Sun god. Everyday, he crosses the sky, carrying the Sun on his back. At night, the Sun rests by hanging on a peg in his house.
Tsohanoai's two children Nayenezgani (Killer of Enemies) and Tobadzistsini (Child of Water) were separated from their father and lived with their mother in the far West. Once they were older, they tried to find their father, hoping he could help them fight the evil spirits tormenting mankind. They met Spider Woman, who gave them two feathers to keep them safe on their journey. Finally, they found Tsohanoai's house, and he gave them magic arrows to fight off the evil monsters, Anaye.




Navajo indian tribe near Malluck


Inkas: Inti

Inti was considered the Sun god and the ancestor of the Incas. Inca people were living in South America in the ancient Peru. In the remains of the city of Machu Picchu, it is possible to see a shadow clock which describes the course of the Sun personified by Inti.
Inti and his wife Pachamama, the Earth goddess, were regarded as benevolent deities. According to an ancient Inca myth, Inti taught his son Manco Capac and his daughter Mama Ocollo the arts of civilization and sent them to the Earth to instruct mankind about what they had learned.

Inti ordered his children to build the Inca capital where a divine golden wedge, they carried with them, would fall to the ground. Incas believed this happened in the city of Cuzco, which has been founded by the Ayar.

Inti is celebrated even today in Peru during the Festival of Inti Raimi in Cuzco.





Door to enclosure of Sun temple at Machu Picchu, Peru.



Inuit: Malina

Malina is the Sun goddess of the Inuit people who live in Greenland. The word "Inuit" means "people."
Malina and her brother, the Moon god Anningan, lived together. They got into a terrible fight and Malina spread dirty, black grease all over her brother's face. In fear, she ran as far as she could into the sky and became the Sun. Anningan chased after her and became the Moon.

Anningan often forgets to eat, so he gets thinner as the days go by. Every month, the Moon disappears for three days while Anningan eats. He then returns to chase his sister once again.

This eternal chase makes the Sun alternate in the sky with the Moon.




Hindu: Surya


Hinduism is the oldest Indian religion. Hinduism is based on some antique sacred writings and the assimilation of many different cultures and religious beliefs from other peoples. The oldest Hindu writing is the Rig Veda which is a collection of songs and hymns composed over 3,000 years ago. Many are the gods and goddesses described in the sacred Hindu writings.
In Hindu mythology, Surya represents the Sun god. Surya is depicted as a red man with three eyes and four arms, riding in a chariot drawn by seven mares. Surya holds water lilies with two of his hands. With his third hand he encourages his worshipers whom he blesses with his fourth hand. In India, Surya is believed to be a benevolent deity capable of healing sick people. Even today, people place the symbol of the Sun over shops because they think it would bring good fortune.

When Surya married Sanjna, his wife could not bear the intense light and heat. Therefore, she fled into a forest where she transformed herself into a mare to prevent Surya from recognizing her. But Surya soon discovered Sanjna's refuge. He went to the same forest disguised as a horse. Sanjna gave birth to several children, and eventually reunited with her husband.

However, the heat and the light of Surya were so intolerable that Sanjna was always exhausted doing her domestic duties. Finally, Sanjna's father decided to help her and trimmed Surya's body reducing his brightness by an eighth. Thus, Sanjna could more easily live close to her husband.




Surya Temple at Ranakpur, India.


Mamaiuran: Kuat


Kuat is the sun god for the Mamaiurans, an Amazon Indian tribe that lives in Brazil. According to legend, at the beginning of time there were so many birds in the sky that their wings prevented the daylight from being seen. It was always night and the people were forced to live in fear of attack from wild animals.
Tired of the darkness, two Mamaiuran heroes, Iae and his brother Kuat, decided to force the king of the birds, Urubutsin, to give back some of the daylight. The two brothers hid themselves inside a dead animal And waited until the birds approached. As soon as Urubutsin landed, Kuat grabbed Urubutsin's leg.

Unable to get away, Urubutsin was forced to make an agreement with the two brothers. The birds would share daylight with the Mamaiurans, and day would alternate with night. Kuat represented the Sun and Iae represented the Moon.




Norse: Freyr


According to Norse mythology, Freyr was closely linked with the Sun. He was the god of peace and fertility. His parents were the sea god Njord and the giantess Skadi. On a journey to the underworld, he saw and fell in love with the giantess Gerd.
He sent his servant, Skirnir, on a journey to convince Gerd to marry him. He also gave him a magic sword to use. Skirnir, however, could not convince Gerd to marry his master. It wasn't until he threatened her with the magic sword that Gerd agreed to meet Freyr in a grove of trees to become his bride.

Skirnir's journey into the underworld is symbolic of the winter months in the Norse lands, where there are long periods of darkness.