Amaterasu Omikami, the sun goddess, once hid herself in a heavenly rock dwelling because a troublemaking god named Susano-o no Mikoto was commiting violent deeds. This caused the world to be engulfed in darkness. The eight million gods, finding themselves in great trouble, conferred amongst themselves and made a mirror for a festival. Amaterasu Omikami, hearing such a commotion outside, opened the Stone Door and came out to watch herself in the mirror .But she herself was born when a primordal god washed his eye. Eyes are connected to the sun in many cultures, in Ireland we find Sul, a goddess who can heal eyes, there is a fire burning in her hounor. In germany it is said that if you anger the sun, she will hide in a cave or a well, disguised as an eye.It is here that we also find a myth of creation, man made out of 8 elements, with the eyes made from the sun ( they are also the last piece added).Generally in north-east europe the sun is often an all seeing eye, people used to give oaths to the daystar.Today most myths are lost, but in the baltic states a lot of sungoddess lore wes preserved. Another element connected to the sun is water. Healing wells and springs are the suns.Why? In ancient times water had one power nothing else had, it could reflect things, it acts as a mirror. In german this is still called the "watermirror-wasserspiegel", in a riddle the mirror is called:"water, without glas", another riddle asks:"something shining is lying in the water and not ten horses can take it out, what is it?" Its the sun, her reflected image. The mirror, water or not shows you your eyes, which are made from the sun ,so the mirror can act as a focal point, reflecting yourself and the source behind.In fairytales, mirrors turn into glassmountains and it is said the sun lives on an island,at the beginning of the world, on a glassmountain. In one of Grimms Fairytales, a mirror turns into a glassmountain, when the hero uses it as one of three magic utensils. A very similar story can be fond in the kojiki. In Ireland we find the story of Aine,who makes golden thread when her father speacks harch to her , she dissapears into the mountain. Aine means heat,light in old irish. An old prayer: Rest in thee shadowry cave, o sun and let thee return be in joy. In Ireland is also one of the oldest structures with solar orientation: the cave of New Grange.At the longest nights morning the rising suns first rays will enter the cave thru an opening made for that purpose, travel thru the cave and hit a spiral (triskell) and leave again.Built some 5,300 years ago, this holy place is one of the oldest built structures in the world, and certainly the oldest with astronomical alignments. Known in Gaelic as Uaimh na Griine, 'the cave of the sun'. The caves outside is full of spirals and other symbols often assigned to the so called great mother goddess, who is today seen as an earth deity, but may she rather be the sun? Below you can see an exaple from an other place, here the sun circles an 8petalled flower.