Och

What this is

Och is the Olympic Spirit of the Sun in the Arbatel, the brightest and most coveted of the seven governors. He stands at the heart of the planetary order as the Sun stands at the heart of the visible sky. The tradition names him the Perfecter of Medicine and the Stone, for he is the great healer and the great alchemist among the spirits.

What it governs

He presides over the Sun and over Sunday, and over the 28 provinces of heaven given to him. His dominion is gold and the perfecting of metals, healing and the making of perfect medicines, wisdom, and the prolonging of life; the Arbatel famously credits him with the power to grant six hundred years of perfect health. He governs the centre of any matter, the vital force, and the radiant authority that gives life rather than takes it.

Its properties

His colour is gold, his metal gold, his stone the diamond, and his number is 28 kings, four times the planetary seven and itself a perfect number, reckoned at 196 years. The Arbatel says he gives gold and precious stones, the most perfect remedies, long life, wisdom, and the friendship of the spirits of the Sun. The upright solar virtue is radiance that warms without burning, the generous centre, health and clarity; the shadow is vanity, the centre that demands worship, the ego that confuses being the source with being served. He teaches that the true sun gives light away.

Where else it appears

Och is the Sun-note in Renaissance form. It sounds again as the archangel Michael who rules Sunday, as the sephirah Tiphareth, Beauty, the heart of the Tree, as Greek Helios and Apollo, as Egyptian Ra, as Hindu Surya in his chariot. Gold the metal, gold the colour, the six of Tiphareth, the diamond, the healed and radiant heart: Sun, gold, Tiphareth, Michael, the heart are facets of the one thing, and to find any is to find them all.

Where you meet it on the Oracle

On The Day, Och is the tradition-face of Sunday, the day of the Sun, beside the archangel Michael, the salmon, Golden Yunnan tea, and the solar pentacles. When his is the day's face, the day is yours to centre and to shine in: do the thing that is most truly yours, heal something, be generous with your light. Read him as the day of vitality and of standing in your own warmth without needing the room to revolve around you.

Why it matters

The Sun is the single source from which the other planets borrow their meaning, the heart the whole Tree is balanced around. He matters because every life needs a centre and a source of warmth, and he is the friendly face of that centre. He asks you to find what is genuinely yours and to let it give light.

Correspondences

planet

Sun

element

Fire

zodiac

Leo

number

28

sephirah

Tiphareth

day

Sunday

colour

Gold

metal

Gold

stone

Diamond

tarot

The Sun