ABSTRACT
C. G. Jung's understanding of the solar realm grew from his early definition of the Sun as a libido-symbol to an interpretation of the symbol of the noetic Sun as equivalent to the Self, the centre of the individual psyche and the orchestrator of the individuation process. G. R. S. Mead's interpretations of the older texts, focusing more on the interior spiritual life than on a pantheon of objective celestial divinities, helped Jung to build up his psychological model of a numinous centre of the personality. In Jung's early studies, the Sun dominated the stage. Because of his involvement with astrology and his receptivity to the solar emphasis accorded by Alan Leo, there is an obvious relationship between Neoplatonic and Mithraic ideas about the 'central spiritual Sun' and Jung's perception of the meaning of the Sun in the horoscope. In his painting of Izdubar, Jung reproduced one of the most important features of his birth horoscope.
