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.
