From: "Andy Robertson" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Black Sun
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 07:29:09 +0100

I don't know if it is relevant here, but the "Black Sun" is an
Asatru/Odinistic mythical image connected to the source of wisdom.
Essentially it is the "other side" of the sun - the sun not as a physical
thing, but purely as a symbol of mystical knowledge.

There are some Odinistic references in the Sun books (for example Silk is
plainly a figure of Odin, with a raven and one eye)


----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Bates" 
To: 
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 8:13 AM
Subject: (urth) Black Sun


> In all this talk of the different suns, what about the Black Sun?
> In _The Sword of the Lictor_, when Severian is in Thrax with the sick
> children, he says that the Conciliator is the Black Sun.
>
> "That night in the jacal it [the Claw] was not brilliant, but it
> glowed with so deep a blue that the light itself seemed almost a
> clearer darkness.  Of all the names of the Conciliator, the one that
> is, I believe, least used, and which has always seemed the most
> puzzling to me, is that of the Black Sun.  Since that night, I have
> felt myself almost to comprehend it."  (Volume III, Chapter VIII,
> TBotNS)
>
> "Black Sun" makes me think of a black hole, but I don't see what that
> has to do with the Conciliator.  Maybe someone else does?
>
> The only thing I can think of is the darkness at the crucifixion of
> Christ, which is thought to have resulted from an eclipse:
>
> Luke 23:44-45



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