Friday, January 06, 2006

Black Sun




















This black sun was no invention of Harry’s, but the alchemist’s Sol niger, prime matter, the unconscious in its unworked, base state. The black sun is at its nadir, hidden, and all is night. In the Rig-Veda the sun during its night crossing is at its most magical and portentous. It must and shall be resurrected, as Harry knew he should persist again, in and like the sun, beyond his own sun-fall. Here again, paradox and ambiguity: the sun that gave sea, soil and life also stared down without pity at its creations and withered them, dried them out, burnt them. Or failed to shine, winking while life failed. Where the sun is, there also find the death principle, the chaos that reigned before light dispelled it, the chaos that Harry’s life and work replicated in miniature.


When I saw this post from the TRANSPLANT, the first thing that came to my mind was Ed Abbey's "Black Sun", but then that story takes place on a mountian top surrounded by the Sonoran Desert. Then I went looking for Black Sun and this is what I found.