Recognizing the Sun: My Experience with Liber Resh

Liber Resh vel Helios or 'Liber Resh' is a ritual performed to honor and align oneself with the sun. The ritual is structured as a series of four parts corresponding to the time of day: sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight. Liber Resh is a form of meditation that encourages a deeper understanding of one’s place in the universe.

The ritual is a part of Thelemic tradition, founded by Aleister Crowley in the 20th century. Thelema is a spiritual philosophy that values individualism and discovery. Aleister Crowley described the ritual in Liber Resh vel Helios sub figura CC.

The first thing I recognized when practicing Liber Resh is there is a strong feeling of unity when one lives through the perspective of the sun. There is much movement when the sun peaks between noon and sunset. Humans and animals are wide awake, fulfilling the tasks their systems demand. It was in some ways chaotic and stressful. There is so much energy during these times coming from different directions, but they rarely seem to collide in disaster. I found myself wondering why I had such a distrust in daily life, and the idea that it works as it should threatened my own feelings of self-victimization. There are many people in my presence, even if not immediate, under the same sun as I am. Was I seeing them more as variables instead of individuals? Not moving because they want to, but because they should. When one rejects their calling to movement, are they giving in to the ego desire to isolate themselves from others? I realize I cannot find my true will inside myself alone; it couldn't be actualized if I did not embrace my primal desire to exchange energy with the world around me. Not as a cross I am burdened to carry, but as an honor to instinct.

At midnight, the absence of the sun came with the absence of man. I knew that people were alive, and they were moving around. Of course, living near the city, I thought about how some people were rising now. How some people can embrace different facets of themselves in the shadows. However, this revelation wasn’t as interesting to me as the golden windows of my neighbors' houses. We have created various miniature suns in day-to-day life. It has always been part of the human experience to turn towards light when surrounded by darkness. Darkness comes with a danger that is sometimes enticing. To be without light is to be submerged in the unknown and all the dangers that come with it. Darkness is always an option, but still, we turn to light. To choose light is to choose awareness and vigilance. Light is survival.

In the midst of this experience, I ended up dealing with a crisis. When I get hurt, I find myself trying to retreat within instead of feeling through my pain. By avoiding my pain, I felt like I wasn't collaborating with the world around me. Initially, it scared me to let the world around me transform me in ways that are unpredictable. When I was adoring the sun, it struck me that one could use the same idea to withhold joy from oneself. I feel called to challenge my identity so I can experience something infinite. Heaven is finite. Hell is infinite.

I'm very glad I experimented with this ritual. I found it very approachable and transformative. I don't intend to continue reciting the ritual in complete accuracy, but I still continue to meditate on the sun through out the day. I find it gives me a sense of clarity I've been lacking for a long time.