The Sun as alchemical and psychological symbol, Sol represents the masculine principle within the magnum opus - active, illuminating, constant, and associated with Consciousness, Logos, and directed will. Counterpart to Luna, Sol participates in the coniunctio as king, bridegroom, or brother, his union with the lunar feminine producing the Philosopher’s Stone and completing the Great Work.
In alchemy, Sol corresponds to gold - not merely as precious metal but as the perfected state toward which all matter strives. Solar qualities include clarity, discrimination, rational understanding, and the capacity to act decisively. Where Luna reflects and receives, Sol radiates and penetrates; where Luna knows through participation, Sol knows through distinction. The alchemists understood that Sol without Luna produces sterile brilliance - all light and no moisture, all form and no life. The sun that never sets creates desert.
Carl Jung associated Sol with the animus in women and with ego-consciousness more broadly, though as with all alchemical symbols, correspondences remain fluid rather than fixed. Solar consciousness names that mode of awareness which identifies, categorizes, and masters - indispensable for navigating the world but insufficient for wholeness. Modern Western culture has been called excessively solar: hyperrational, productivity-obsessed, suspicious of shadow and depth. The alchemical perspective suggests not less Sol but Sol in proper relationship - the king who recognizes he requires his queen, the day that honours the necessity of night.
See also Luna, rubedo, Sun, gold symbolism, masculine principle, Logos.