I know, not a cobra…just a cool snake

We are repelled by them. We are fascinated by them.

Beautiful. Elegantly simple. One long muscle sheathed in glossy scales, some like brilliantly colored living jewels, some darkly and dangerously camouflaged.

There was a time when I really, really, really wanted a snake. I did my research. I discovered which kinds were likely to make the best “pets,” if I can even call them that, and how to care for them. Heck, both my Deities have serpentine connections; I should have a snake.

The holy cobra

But in the end, I didn’t get a snake. We already had a fierce black cat and I figured the cat and the snake would pretty much drive each other crazy. Plus, I didn’t want to keep frozen baby mice in the freezer as snake food. Eeesh.

While I may occasionally see a little garter snake in my backyard (and if I come upon it unaware, it can still give me a tiny shiver), the ancient Egyptians came across serpents much more frequently.

The impressive Egyptian cobra

No doubt that’s why serpents of all kinds played important roles in Egyptian mythology—as well as in Egyptian daily life. In myth, serpents were known to be both protective and harmful. In daily life, they were most often frightening due to the many extremely poisonous snakes that make Egypt their home. Two of the most important of these are the Egyptian Cobra, a big, aggressive serpent that can grow to more than two yards in length, and the now-rare Black-Necked Spitting Cobra that can spit blinding venom into its victim’s eyes at a range of more than three yards.

The Black-Necked Spitting Cobra spitting

In ancient Egyptian art, the cobra is most often represented as the uraeus, the fiercely protective serpent seen guarding the foreheads of Deities, kings, and queens. As the uraeus, the cobra is a positive presence, a symbol of the power and protection of the Deities. Uraeus is a Latinized version of the Greek word ouriaos, which is itself a version of the Egyptian word uraiet, which indicates the rearing, coiled cobra. The root word has to do with rising up or ascending, so that uriet, a feminine word, can be interpreted as She Who Rears/Rises Up. The root word is also used to refer to the upward licking of flames. And indeed, the uraeus is often depicted spitting fire. This serpent fire represents both magical fire and the burning pain of the serpent’s venom.

Isis from Abydos wearing a uraeus crown (upholding the horns and disk) and a holy cobra upon Her brow

In the Book of Amduat, an Otherworld guide, twelve cobras blast their fiery breaths to illuminate the paths of the Otherworld for the deceased. In other texts, huge cobras are seen spitting poison in the faces of enemies of the deceased. The uraeus cobras are usually Goddesses, which like the Hindu Shakti, are the active powers of the male Deity on Whose forehead They often sit. Uraei are also sent out as the Eye of the God; so to the cobra’s association with fire, we can add the symbolism of the powerful Divine Eye. With the Egyptian emphasis on transformation and renewal, the cobra’s ability to shed its skin and emerge renewed was symbolically important as well.

Although both Egyptian Goddesses and Gods wear cobras as part of their headdresses, mainly (but not exclusively) Goddesses have a cobra form. In fact, the cobra hieroglyph was often used as a determinative when writing the names of Goddesses or priestesses; and showing a cobra within a small enclosure could indicate the shrine of a Goddess. Cobra Goddesses are numerous in Egypt. The most prominent is Wadjet, the Green One. She is the tutelary Deity of Lower Egypt and one of the Two Ladies Who represent the Two Lands of Egypt. The Harvest Goddess, Renenutet, is a Cobra Goddess, as is Meretseger, She Who Loves Silence, the Goddess Who presided over the Theban necropolis.

This Egyptian image from about the 2nd century CE shows Isis with a serpent body as Isis-Thermouthis

As a fiery and protective Goddess, Isis also takes the form of a cobra. Sometimes She is the Eye of Re, the cobra-formed, solar power of the God. Sometimes She and Nephthys are shown as two cobras and replace Wadjet and Nekhebet as the Two Ladies of Egypt. Sometimes She is Isis-Thermuthis, a Hellenized form of Isis-Renenutet, the cobra harvest protector.

In Egyptian iconography, cobras are commonly found on Isis’ headdress, while in Greece and Italy, Isis could be shown holding a cobra, or with a cobra wrapped about Her arm. In the Graeco-Roman period, a cobra-formed Isis is paired with Her Graeco-Egyptian consort Serapis (and sometimes Osiris), also in a serpent form. As serpent Deities, Isis and Serapis are Agathe Tyche (Good Fortune) and Agathos Daimon (Good Spirit), and were considered the special protectors of Alexandria. Household serpents, called thermoutheis (pl.) from the name Isis-Thermuthis, were known to be the messengers of Isis.

Isis as Agathe Tyche and Osiris as Agathos Daimon in serpent form

Isis is also associated with the cobra in one of Her most famous myths. In the tale, Isis decides to gain power equal to Re’s. The Sun God is old and drools as He continues along His path in the sky. So the Goddess takes up some of His saliva, mixes it with Earth and forms from it a holy cobra which She places along Re’s path. The next day when Re passes by, the holy cobra bites Him. Re experiences pain like never before. He calls upon the Goddesses and Gods to help Him, including Isis. She reveals that She can cure Re if He tells Her His True Name, the most potent magical name in the universe. After much stalling, He eventually relents and tells Isis His Name. The Goddess heals Re and renews Him so that He can continue on His path through the heavens; meanwhile She gains power for Herself—through the magic of a holy cobra. (Please see my discussion of this important myth in Isis Magic and here.)

Have you ever handled a serpent, felt it coil about your wrists or up your arms, exploring with its flicking tongue? If you have, you have touched the beauty of Isis in one of Her most compelling and awe-striking forms.

Sunrise at the “castle” at the summit of Rocky Butte, our Sirius Rising viewpoint

Wonderful, wonderful.

That’s not what I was thinking when the alarm went off at 3:20 this morning, but it is exactly what I’m thinking now.

I have just come back from witnessing the rising of Sirius, the Star of Isis, in the morning skies over the city of Portland, Oregon. And it was glorious. A fellow priestess of Isis and I traveled to one of the high places in the city to watch Her be born from between the thighs of Her mother Nuet.

Our vantage point is known as Rocky Butte. It is an extinct volcanic cinder cone that rises to an elevation of 612 ft. within the city limits and is a less-than-ten-minute drive from my house. At its summit, there’s a city park surrounded by castle-like walls, which is a popular viewpoint for visitors and natives alike. From Rocky Butte, you can see the slow serpent of the Columbia river that forms the border between Oregon and Washington and the layered silhouettes of the ranges of the eastern mountains, including the archetypal, snow-capped presence of Mt. Hood (though I prefer its Native American name, Wy’east).

When we arrived shortly after 4 am, we could see Orion-Osiris clearly, so we seated ourselves before Him to await Her Rising. We brought stargazer lilies, bread, and milk to offer to Her at Her Appearance, and we each also had that wonder-working wand of modern priestesses, a phone equipped with Google Sky so we could check Her progress toward the horizon. Even though the morning was clear enough, with the haze of the city lights on the horizon, we weren’t certain we’d be able to see Her, but we settled in to wait.

This is what we saw in the pre-dawn sky

Then, to the far left of where the Goddess’ star would rise, we noticed something strange and beautiful. It turns out that this was the one and only morning to see another pre-dawn cosmic wonder: a perfect triangle in the indigo sky of Jupiter, Venus, and the slimmest crescent of the waning Moon. As the triad rose higher in the sky, the crescent turned from ruddy orange to milk white and, from our viewpoint, framed a small stand of fir trees before us on the Butte. It was spectacular. I’ll take that as a portent for the New Year anytime.

At just about 5 am, Google Sky told us Iset-Sopdet should be above the horizon, but we still couldn’t see Her for the city lights, haze, and mountains.

Then—wait, what’s that? Yes, we could see something flashing through the haze, shooting off sparks of red and white and blue-green: Iset-Sopdet appeared. She scintillated. She glittered. She sparkled.

Iset-Sopdet

We watched Her Rising in silence, but for the sounds of the night and the coming dawn.

We meditated, each in our own way. Then, after a time, we poured the milk, offered the bread, and placed the vase of stargazers on the surrounding wall so that they were in alignment with Her star. I really hope someone finds them later today and takes them home to enjoy the incredible fragrance of those lilies. She, I am sure, has already enjoyed them.

The heliacal rising of Sirius, August 23, 2014, was for me, quite simply, a perfect experience.

She is risen.

A photo of the site of the House of the Mysteries of Isis in Antioch

Ancient Antioch, modern Antakya, is in Turkey. It was an ancient Greek city, located on the banks of the Orontes River.

Like Alexandria, it was founded by one of Alexander’s generals, Seleucus I Nicator, who also founded the Seleucid Dynasty and ruled over the largest part of the lands conquered by Alexander.

This included Mesopotamia, Armenia, Cappadocia, Persis, Parthia, Bactria, Arabia, and more. Much of the ancient city is still underground, but some has been excavated, revealing a wealth of beautiful mosaics. So why are we talking about this?

Because several of those mosaics have to do with Isis. It is well known that Isis was worshipped in Antioch. Her worship was supposed to have been introduced by Seleucus IV (187-175 BCE), who built an Iseum there for Her, but it may have been even earlier based on the evidence of ancient coins. Images of the Goddess and of Serapis have been discovered, as well as numerous lamps with Isis on them, personal household votive images of the Goddess, and coins with Her head, headdress, or bust.

A coin from Antioch showing an Isis headdress

In ancient Antioch, Isis seems to have been assimilated most strongly with Demeter, Persephone, Aphrodite, and Tyche or Fortuna, as She was in many places, and was preeminently a Goddess of Mysteries.

The locations with the Isis mosaics have been dubbed “The House of the Mysteries of Isis” (in Antioch) and “The House of the Isiac Ceremony” (in Daphne, modern Defne-Yakto, a suburb of Antioch). Perhaps you can see why they caught my interest.

The House of the Mysteries of Isis is just down the hillside from another house with important mosaics, the House of the Bakchic Thiasos. So here again, we find Isis and Dionysos in close proximity; these two houses are, in fact, the only two buildings in the area.

The initiation scene from the House of the Mysteries of Isis; pretty hard to tell what’s going on, isn’t it? You can see Hermes touches the man with a wand as the female figure, likely Isis, gestures.

The largest preserved fragment from the House of the Mysteries of Isis is thought to show the voluntary ritual death of the initiate of Isis (as in Apuleius’ tale of initiation into Her Mysteries).

It appears to show the initiate, being led by Hermes, with wand in hand and caduceus on His shoulder, to his “death” (represented by the doorway), while Isis, possibly enthroned, watches him go. Because of the lack of common Isiac attributes (e.g. sistrum) and the fragmentary nature of the mosaic, we’re not completely sure this female figure is supposed to be Isis; perhaps she is a priestess, a spirit, or a different Goddess. Naturally, there is scholarly controversy over her/Her identification.

In a second room in the same house, a mosaic has been identified as a representation of the Navigium Isidis, the Festival of the Ship of Isis, also described by Apuleius. This would strengthen the case that the female figure in the previous mosaic is intended to be Isis, but there has been controversy over the identification of this scene as well.

Interestingly, the room with the ritual death of the initiate faces west; this is appropriate for the Egyptian tradition that the dead entered The Beautiful West, personified as the Goddess Amentet Noferet. The Navigium scene faces east, perhaps indicating new beginnings. Of course, there may be no significance to the orientation, but if its just chance, it is magically excellent chance.

The thing that looks like it’s on top of Her head is supposed to be an unlit torch that is sort of resting against Her shoulder and appears to be on Her head.

In the ritual death scene, the female figure wears a white peplos, a veil, and a wreath with spiky foliage on it. She holds a torch and reaches out to the initiate. The initiate may be naked but for a headdress and shoulder drape; we can’t tell because the middle of his body is missing.

The ritual mosaic is in a small room, suggesting that it was not intended for any type of group ritual, but was likely intended for the family and may have been commissioned to commemorate the homeowner’s own initiation. One researcher has suggested that the ambiguity of the Goddess figure was purposeful, so that only initiates would know who She was, while non-initiates could simply appreciate the mosaic as a work of art.

This seems like an interesting and reasonably possible scenario to me. This idea may be supported by the fact that none of the figures are labeled with a name, which is uncommon in ancient mosaics.

The mosaic from the House of the Isiac Ceremony is much more straightforward. It clearly shows two female figures, one in Isiac white and one carrying a sistrum. This could easily be a representation of an Isis ceremony in which the homeowner took part and wished to commemorate. Who knows? Perhaps it was even the home of a priestess of Isis.

The mosaic from The House of the Isiac Ceremony; the figure on the right holds a sistrum in her upraised hand

Another mosaic from Antioch is part of a calendar and shows a wreath-crowned woman with libation cup, spear, and with her tunic knotted at the breast similar to the famous Isis knot. It’s hard to read, but may be labeled as “March.” Thus, one of the scholars studying this piece suggested that the figure represented the Navigium, which was held on March 5 and opened shipping for the year.

A calendar mosaic from Carthage shows a figure with a sistrum for November, which was the month in which the festival of Isis’ Search for Osiris was held.

So there you are. We don’t know much about Isis in Antioch, but so far at least, this is the most interesting of the information I’ve been able to find. I hope archeological work continues to go on in Antioch so that we may learn more about Isis in this important city that was so vital in ancient times.

Sistrum-bearing November from Carthage

I’m so used to thinking of Isis with Osiris that I can forget She is also paired with other Gods. Today, we’ll look at one of Them: the God of the Upright Phallus, Min.

Koptos and her neighbors

Isis and Min shared a temple complex at Koptos (Gebtu in ancient Egyptian, Qift in modern). It is in Upper Egypt, near Denderah and Thebes. The site is connected to the Red Sea by the Wadi Hammamat (meaning “Valley of Many Baths), a dry riverbed. The wadi contains important 3,000-year-old petroglyphs; in ancient times, it led to major Egyptian mining areas and was a key trade route.

Koptos is also just across the Nile from Naqada, the site of the pre-dynastic culture that takes its name from the site. What is known as Naqada II (3500-3400 BCE) is the period to which the beautiful statuettes of the “Nile Goddess” or “Dancing Woman” is dated.

The Nile Goddess or dancing woman of Naqada

Koptos is an ancient, ancient sacred site and probably originally belonged to Min alone. Herodotus reports that the Egyptians considered Him their oldest Deity. Yet by at least the time of the New Kingdom, Isis is prominent there as well and Min becomes assimilated with Osiris. The temple to Isis and Min, the ruins of which we see today, was built under Ptolemy II, with additions made under succeeding pharaohs. There are remains of two more temples on the site. One is the Ptolemaic “middle temple” or “Osiris temple.” The other is a temple dedicated to Geb and Isis, probably begun under Nectanebo II and continued under the Ptolemies. There is literary evidence for a temple of Isis and Harpokrates, but its remains have not yet been found.

One of the interesting things about Koptos is that it was a popular oracular site. You can still see the small chamber to the rear of the Isis and Geb temple in which the entranced priest would sit to deliver the words of the Deity. This oracular chapel was built by Kleopatra VII (the famous one). The tradition of oracles at Koptos did not cease with the coming of Christianity. In a work called Theosophia, we have record of an oracle from Koptos that is ostensibly an Egyptian Pagan oracle, but since it discusses the unity of the Logos and the Father, a number of scholars think it was likely a Christian retrofit. Be that as it may, the point is that the tradition of oracles at Koptos was well established.

The so-called Colossus of Koptos…a predynastic form of Min; they found three of these at Koptos

A particular Isiac relic at Koptos seems to have been a lock of Her hair. A Greek dedication to Her says it is “to the Great Goddess, Isis of the Hair.” We also have a record of a healing prayer made “near the hair at Koptos.” Plutarch explains the tradition for us, relating that when Isis first heard of the death of Osiris, She cut off a lock of Her hair and donned mourning dress. He notes that this is why the city there is called Koptos for some derive the name from Greek koptein, meaning “to deprive.” The cutting of hair is a Greek mourning tradition; Egyptian women simply wore theirs long and unkempt. (Read more about that tradition here.) Nevertheless, among both Greeks and Egyptians, Isis of Koptos was particularly known a Mourning Goddess.

The ancient Greek travel writer, Pausanias, in his Description of Greece, mentions Koptos as the site of a tragedy that befell a man who rashly entered Isis’ sanctuary there without a specific invitation from the Goddess:

I have heard a similar story from a man of Phoenicia that the Egyptians hold the feast for Isis at a time when they say she is mourning for Osiris. At this time the Nile begins to rise, and it is a saying among many of the natives that what makes the river rise and water their fields is the tears of Isis. At that time then, so said my Phoenician, the Roman governor of Egypt bribed a man to go down into the shrine of Isis in Koptos. The man dispatched into the shrine returned indeed out of it, but after relating what he had seen, he too, so I was told, died immediately. So it appears that Homer’s verse speaks the truth when it says that it bodes no good to man to see godhead face to face. (Pausanias, Book X, 32, 10-17.)

Koptos must have had strong magical connections as well. If you recall the story of Setna and the magic book, you may remember that the magic book so coveted by Naneferkaptah was to be found at the bottom of the Nile by Koptos.

A statuette of Min

At Koptos, Isis is sometimes the mother of Min or Min-Hor, sometimes His consort. When Isis and Min are consorts, Min is the father of Hor-pa-khred, Horus the Child. Min is very much a God of male sexual prowess and thus, of course, fertility. Images of Him almost invariably show Him with an erect penis jutting out at an impressive right angle to His body. In the Coffin Texts, the deceased identified himself with “Woman-Hunting” Min to partake of His potent sexuality.

By the 18th dynasty, Min became associated with Amun and was incorporated into the festivals that were intended to revitalize the king. There is an ancient rite of Min called The Going Forth of Min and sometimes The Going Forth of Min to the Khedju, which may mean a type of ritual garden. During these festivals, the sacred image of the God was carried to a symbolic garden so that the God could bless the fields. This blessing was extended to the pharaoh; he took part in the procession as Horus, while the queen participated as Isis.

Although Min is usually shown in anthropomorphic form as a beautiful black man, at Koptos, He was also worshipped in the form of a white bull. Min is called the Beautiful Bull, the Strong Bull, and the Powerful Bull for the bull has always been a symbol of male strength and fertility.

He, Amun, and Horus are also known by the epithet, Kamutef, Bull of His Mother. The epithet has clear sexual connotations. Originally, it seems to have been an epithet of Horus, which was extended to Min when the two Gods were assimilated. It was further extended to Amun when He and Min were assimilated. It points to a primordial conception of the Divine in which the God is both son and lover of the Goddess. In a hymn to Min, a passage says:

Hail to Thee, Min, fecundating Thy mother; secret are Thy dealings with Her when the heavens are dark.

On a 13th dynasty stela, there is a similar inscription about Horus Kamutef:

Thy heart joins with the king as the heart of Horus joined with His mother Isis when He coupled with Her, flank to flank.

This ancient conception perfectly encapsulates the relationship between Isis and Min at Koptos. They are mother and son (sometimes Min is simply called “Min, Son of Isis” just as Horus is “Horus Harsiesis”) and They are lovers.

Min is usually shown with His legs tightly mummy-wrapped together but His penis exposed and ready. A flail is shown over His upraised right arm. The flail forms a “V” over His shoulder into the center of which the God places His upraised hand. Some have seen this as a sexual emblem: the vulva-triangle of the flail penetrated by the God’s penis-forearm. Sure, why not? I like it.

Cesarion offering to Isis at Koptos

In addition to His bull epithets, Min is also known as Lord of Awe and Great of Love, just as Isis can be called Sweet of Love. (Perhaps She calls Him Lord of Awe at times when He has been particularly Great of Love.) In a hymn to Min from Koptos, He is said to love humankind and therefore He made youths (for fertile sex, of course). He is called Fair of Face and Sweet of Love. He is said to abominate the cutting short of the breath of life. He heals the sick and is “beautiful beyond the Gods.” He is also a Lunar God and Protector of the Moon.

I will admit that I have not, to date, done much to honor Min, perhaps because for me, that type of energy comes from Dionysos, to Whom I am also dedicated. Nevertheless, Isis and Min at Koptos make an intriguing pair. Isis is the Beautiful Mourner, the Goddess of the Disheveled Hair. Min is the Lord of Life Who invigorates human beings and agricultural fields alike. As Death and Life, They make a complete cycle. The Bull of His Mother brings renewal to Her in the form of Their Child. She, in turn, nurtures Him as Min, Son of Isis.

A classic image of Min

An Egyptian couple

Today—I don’t know why, really—I’m prompted to share with you a little love ritual that I created at the request of an acquaintance. She wanted to find her true love and asked me to help. I’m going to reproduce the note I sent her in answer to her request (keeping her name private, of course) because I think it provides a little context:

Dear <name>,

I will pass on to you what Isis made known to me when I meditated with Her about the ritual you and I discussed…

First, I had the image of you strongly shaking your hands out in front of you three times, toward the ground, straight in front of you, and skyward—as if ridding yourself of something. Then I saw you burning things as part of this purification; things very close to you, like a strand of hair or a fingernail clipping.

So, here is what you might do as the first part of your ritual: 

Think of three things that you believe may be keeping you from finding your true Beloved. They may be hurts from old loves that have put up walls around you. They may be personality traits that are not working best for you now. They may even be your own desire to find a partner (we all know the old saw about love coming when you least expect it).

Ruth Saint Denis, a pioneer of modern dance, began to investigate Asian dance after seeing an image of the Egyptian goddess Isis in a cigarette advertisement. Apparently, the Goddess inspires love everywhere.

Calling upon Isis the Lover (Iset Meret), meditate to discover what these three things are. Go deep. You may discover they are not what you think…or have thought…in the past.

Then meditate upon each one of these things separately. You might want to do this on three different days so you don’t wear yourself out. Isis may give you a hint as to how you may dissolve or transmute these things in your life. But don’t worry if She doesn’t. That’s what the ritual’s for.

Once you have meditated on each thing, select something very close to you, even of your own body, to represent each thing: a strand of hair, a nail clipping, a tear…an old photograph.

Before Isis, name each thing out loud and burn the item that represents it. (A censer with the charcoal you use to burn incense works well.) As each item burns, try your best to consciously let go of that thing. Ask Isis to help you.

If you like, you might follow this with a ritual bath of purification.

Now, the next part of the rite…

Go to the Spring ritual in Isis Magic (Handmaiden chapter), to the sections called Opening the Ways to Spring and The Isis Goes Forth. In your own words, adapt this to be an “Opening of the Ways to Love.”

For instance, in the book, it says: “Let the shrine of the East be opened unto Spring. (Vibrating) ISET NEF. Let the winds of Spring arise!”

You might change that to:

Let the shrine of the East be opened unto Love. (Vibrating) ISET MERET. Let the winds of Love arise!

(In the south) Let the warmth of Love return!

(In the west) Let the flow of Love nourish!

(In the north) Let the reality of Love come!

(Above you) Let the Soul of Love find me!

(Below you) Let Love for me arise!

(At you heart) Let my heart be open to Love!

For the next part, “launch” your desire through each of the doorways, as described in the ritual.

When complete, do not “Close the Ways” as you normally would in this ritual. Instead, when finished, try to forget about all this and just go about your life.

________________________________

Gathering lotuses for…a love potion, perhaps?

Oh, one more thing…a love potion:

If you like potion-type work, you might consider a perfume. Choose something you like, perhaps a rose or lotus scent combined with musk.

Once you have procured your scent, place it in a shrine or on your altar for one full cycle of the moon. Once a week, chant your intention into the perfume. Something like “Open my heart to love, draw love to me” would be appropriate.

When the moon cycle is complete, simply wear your perfume anytime you like, especially in social situations where you might meet someone.

So, dear <name>, I hope this helps you. I know you will find the right one for you. I personally believe in love at first sight…and have been blessed in this life to have experienced it. My husband and I met in a college theatre club. He liked my eyes, I liked his voice. We have now been married for 21 years. So, it can and does happen. All the time.

Many blessings,

Isidora

The famous Inventory Stele

There is a most interesting inscription on an artifact known as the Inventory Stela from the Giza Plateau.

It has caused a lot of excitement, especially among those who believe that the Sphinx and Pyramids are older than the fourth dynasty period to which Egyptologists usually attribute their construction.

You’ll immediately see why I was interested. Here’s what it says according to the great Egyptologist Gaston Maspero’s translation of the stele:

Live Horus the Mezer, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Khufu, given life. He made for his mother Isis, the Divine Mother, Mistress of the Western Mountain [that is, the  necropolis], a decree made on a stela, he gave to Her a divine offering, and he built Her a temple of stone, renewing what he had found, namely the Gods in Her place.

Live Horus, the Mezer, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Khufu, given life. He found the House of Isis, Mistress of the Pyramid, by the side of the cavity of the Sphinx, on the northwest side of the House of Osiris, Lord of Rostaw, and he built his pyramid beside the temple of this Goddess, and he built a pyramid for the King’s Daughter, Henut-sen, beside this temple. The place of Hwran-Hor-em-akhet [that is, the Sphinx] is on the south of the House of Isis, Mistress of the Pyramid, and on the north of Osiris, Lord of Rostaw. The plans of the Image of Hor-em-akhet were brought in order to bring to revision the sayings of the disposition of the Image of the Very Redoubtable. He restored the statue all covered in painting, of the Guardian of the Atmosphere, who guides the winds with his gaze.

Isis protecting Osiris

He made to quarry the hind part of the nemes headdress, which was lacking, from gilded stone, and which had a length of about 7 ells [3.7 metres]. He came to make a tour, in order to see the thunderbolt, which stands in the Place of the Sycamore, so named because of a great sycamore, whose branches were struck when the Lord of Heaven descended upon the place of Hor-em-akhet, and also this image, retracing the erasure according to the above-mentioned disposition, which is written {…} of all the animals killed at Rostaw. It is a table for the vases full of these animals which, except for the thighs, were eaten nears these seven gods, demanding {…} (The God gave) the thought in his heart, of putting a written decree on the side of this Sphinx, in an hour of the night. [That is, the pharaoh had a dream from the Sphinx that he should do this.] The figure of this God, being cut in stone, is solid, and will exist to eternity, having always its face regarding the Orient.

The rest of the stele is taken up with a list of the sacred images of the Deities that Khufu restored within the Temple of Isis. The largest part of the stele is an inventory of these images, which is why it is known as “the Inventory Stele.”

Pretty cool, huh?

The Temple of Isis at Giza

What excites me, of course, is the Temple of Isis reference and the title “Mistress of the Pyramid.” What excites most of those who get excited is that the stele—supposed to have been carved by Khufu’s fourth-dynasty sculptors on the king’s orders—says that the Sphinx was already there! What’s more, apparently the little Temple of Isis was there even before Khufu built his Great Pyramid.

Alas, most Egyptologists agree that the stele is an archaized work, probably created sometime between the 25th and 26th dynasties, during a period when Nubian kings were trying to revitalize Egypt by harking back to its Old Kingdom glory days. The style of art and writing point most clearly to the 26th dynasty. Key to the evidence is that we have no reference to “Hwran” and “Hor-em-akhet” as names for the Sphinx until the 18th dynasty.

As for the Temple of Isis, it was originally a funerary chapel associated with the pyramid of Henutsen, Khufu’s half sister or, as the Inventory Stele says, “king’s daughter.” It was “found” by the pharaoh Pasebekhanu in the 21st dynasty and either converted into a small Temple of Isis at that time or, because the pharaoh either had or believed he had found the remains of an earlier Isis temple, had it refurbished as one. There Isis was worshipped as Lady of the Pyramid (or perhaps, Pyramids) until the Roman period. We even have evidence that Her cult had its own priesthood.

The Giza big three

Prior to the Inventory Stele, we find Isis on a Giza stele of Prince Amenomopet, a prince of the 18th dynasty. She is found on the so-called Stele C found in the Sphinx Temple and which shows the Sphinx and Isis, wearing the Horns and Disk Crown and within a shrine, receiving offerings from the prince. The image is captioned, “Isis, the Great, the Divine Mother, Queen of the Gods, One in Heaven, Who Has No Equal, the Elder [daughter of] Atum.” Dating on the stele is controversial (so what else is new in Egyptology?), but if the 18th dynasty is accurate, then Isis and the Sphinx are being worshipped together at Giza by at least that time.

After this period, we have a number of other Giza inscriptions that include Isis. Some that list Her with other Deities, notably Osiris and Horus, some that indicate that She was being worshipped alone. So it would seem that there was an active cult of Isis at Giza from at least the 18th dynasty. There is also evidence of private devotion at the Temple of Isis; a number of votive plaques have been found there as well. (By the way, all of this has been gathered together by Christiane M. Zivie-Coche in her book Giza Au Premier Millenaire Autour du Temple D’Isis, Dames des Pyramides; I’m struggling through the French, so bear with me.)

We also have several fragments of columns, probably from the Ramessid era, but which were reused in the Third Intermediate Period by Pharaoh Amenemope, on which the king offers wine to Osiris and Isis, Who is identified specifically as Lady of the Pyramids. Because the column was reused, we can’t be sure whether that epithet goes back to the Ramessid period or only began being used in the 21st dynasty. But from then on, one of the Goddess’ epithets is Mistress or Lady of the Pyramids, which likely refers to Her function of protecting the pyramids and the Osiris-kings in them, and surely to Her power to safeguard their rebirths as well.

Another view of the Giza Temple of Isis

Interestingly, a graffito on Henutsen’s pyramid from (probably) Egypt’s late period says that the pyramid is the burial place of Isis. Oriented to the south, it faced the symbolic burial place of Osiris, Lord of Rostaw.

Much later, in the mid 1500s, writer André Thévet (Cosmographie de Levant, 1556) continued the tradition of Isis with the Sphinx writing that the Sphinx has “the head of a colossus, caused to be made by Isis, daughter of Inachus, then so beloved of Jupiter”. (This refers to the Isis-Io connection; Io is the daughter of Inachus, the River God. Zeus fell in love with Io. You can read the whole story here.)

I’ve never been much interested in pyramids or mummies or pharoahs. It was always the Deities for me. Guess that’s why I missed this epithet of Isis previously. Just goes to show, there’s always something new to learn about Her.

Of course the Egyptians made wine!

This weekend, we are picking and stomping and dancing and beginning the fermenting. Which means I shall be preparing and invoking and feasting and trancing and…then cleaning up all the stompage. Therefore I offer you this repeat post about my two Deities: Isis and Dionysos. O I do love Them so!

Now, please see how my two Divine ones are not so very far apart as you might, at first, think. And may you be divinely intoxicated this weekend as I shall undoubtedly be…

Dionysos in musical ecstasy

Now, at first glance, the Greek God of Ecstatic Intoxication & Wine doesn’t seem to have much to do with our Egyptian Lady of Magic & Power, Isis. After all, He’s the Sex, Drugs & Rock-n-Roll God and She’s…well, She’s a bit more serious.

Ah, but wait. All is not as it seems. (All is almost never as it seems.) There are, in fact, quite solid connections between my two Divine Ones. In ancient times, you see, Dionysos was identified with Osiris, the Beloved of Isis. More on that in a moment.

First, I’d like to tell you how Dionysos came into my personal spiritual picture.

I had been vowed to Isis for many years, but long had felt the need to see the Divine with a masculine face as well as a feminine one. Naturally, the first place I looked was to Osiris. So I meditated with Him, I did ritual with Him, I thought and pondered on Him. I found Him wonderful and powerful and beautiful. But He didn’t grab my soul and shout, “Mine!” Or even whisper it. Or anything. The relationship just wasn’t…quite…right.

Fast forward a few years. A friend had been called to resurrect the Oracle of Delphi (or Oracle of Portland, if you want to be a stickler about it) and had enlisted a group of friends to help take the ritual roles. We worked the Oracle once a summer for six or seven years, I think. During that time, I played a variety of ritual roles, from Pythia to serving priestess. Sometime during the process, I decided I wanted to play Dionysos. No reason a woman couldn’t play this androgynous God!

A thyad, entranced

And there wasn’t. And that is how Dionysos first got His panther claws into me. And I wasn’t the only one. My own beloved husband had also played Dionysos, with the same result. Others in that ritual cast soon found themselves called to Bacchic frenzy and we created a thiasos, a Greek name for a spiritual group or circle. The Meliophis thiasos still survives today, along with another group spawned from it.

So that’s how Dionysos claimed one Isis priestess. But again, I’m not the only one. You may recall that Plutarch wrote his essay “On Isis and Osiris” to a priestess friend of his, Clea or Klea. He writes to her about Isis and Osiris for Klea is a priestess of Isis. She is also the leader of the thyades at Delphi. Thyad is another name for maenad, the Divinely mad priestesses of Dionysos. So Plutarch’s friend, Klea, is both a devotee of Isis and of Dionysos. Plutarch writes to her:

“That Osiris is identical with Dionysus who could more fittingly know than yourself, Clea? For you are at the head of the inspired maidens of Delphi, and have been consecrated by your father and mother in the holy rites of Osiris.”

So at least by Plutarch’s time, the identification of Dionysos with Osiris is so complete that the priest can say They are “identical” and know that his confidant will find it readily apparent. Plutarch goes on to note that the procession for the Apis bull looks very much like a Dionysian procession, thus both Osiris and Dionysos are Gods connected with the bull. Both Gods are torn to pieces—Dionysos by the Titans and Osiris by Set. Both Gods are resurrected afterwards; Dionysos by being born again of Semele and Osiris by being magically born again after Isis reassembles Him. Both Gods are Lords of Moisture, both are associated with trees. One of the sacred plants of Dionysos, ivy, is called by the Egyptians, “the plant of Osiris.”

See? Osiris, Lord of Wine—even today!

Read Plutarch for yourself and you’ll see that he goes on at some length about the Dionysos-Osiris connection. Including the wine connection, of course.

Osiris is known as Lord of Wine as early as the Pyramid Texts and His identity as such only grew as time passed. In a magical papyrus from the second century CE, the “blood of Osiris,” clearly wine, is poured into a wine cup, and is to be given to a woman as part of an erotic spell:

“Give it, the blood of Osiris, that he gave to Isis to make her feel love in her heart for him night and day at any time, there not being time of deficiency.”

No doubt, the association of Osiris with wine is the reason that one story tells us that Isis became pregnant with Horus by eating grapes. Isis Herself is also given the epithet Mistress of Wine and Beer.

The sacred image of Dionysos from the Temple of Isis in Pompeii.

In addition to Her marriage to the Lord of Wine, Isis has Her own associations with the vine and with Dionysos. The Greeks considered the sacred star of Isis, Sirius, to be the bringer of wine since its late-summer rising coincided with the beginning of the grape harvest season. Ancient writers also speculated on a variety of Isis-Dionysos connections. One said that Dionysos is the son of Zeus and Isis. Another called Isis the daughter of Prometheus and said that She lived with Dionysos. Herodotus recorded the tradition that Apollo and Artemis are the children of Dionysos and Isis. The Ptolemaic rulers Auletes and his daughter, Cleopatra VII, identified themselves with Dionysos and Isis respectively, calling themselves “the new Dionysos” and “the new Isis.” In the Temple of Isis in Pompeii, sacred images of both Isis and Dionysos stood before the worshippers. And, of course, both Isis and Dionysos are Mystery Deities for both have suffered and so can have sympathy for human beings in our individual sufferings.

So you see, the connection between Isis and Dionysos is not so far-fetched after all.

22nd dynasty; Isis and Horus protect Osiris, seated on a lapis lazuli pillar

Weird.

That’s what I thought, too, the first time I saw that description. Why does Isis have a lapis lazuli head? And what does that mean anyway? We will definitely look into that in today’s post, inspired by shockwave500001 who asked about stones associated with Isis…kudos for the great question.

You may already know about Isis’ connection with carnelian, the red-orange stone from which Her famous Knot amulet was often made. But She can also be associated with the beautiful gold-spangled blue stone called lapis lazuli. The name comes from the Latin for “stone” (lapis) and the Medieval English possessive case version (lazuli) of the Medieval Latin version (lazulum) of the Arabic version of the original Persian name of the stone, “lāžward.” It is also the ultimate origin of our word azure, meaning blue. More than you wanted to know, right? But words are interesting.

And the fact that the stone originally has a Persian name does indeed tell us something about it. Most of the lapis lazuli in the world has always come from what is today Afghanistan, once part of the Persian Empire. There are also deposits in Russia, Chile, Mongolia, Italy, and even the US, but most of it is from Afghanistan. So even back in the day, the ancient Egyptians had to import the pyrite-flecked dark-blue stone they so loved.

Lapis from Afghanistan in its natural state

In fact, of all the semi-precious stones, lapis lazuli was the most highly prized by the ancient Egyptians. Egyptian artists used lapis lazuli in jewelry and amulets, as inlay in sacred statuary, and even ground it fine and mixed it into paint and cosmetics as a coloring agent. Long afterwards—until the 19th century, in fact—lapis lazuli provided the deep-blue pigment in ultramarine paint throughout much of the world.

Apart from its sheer beauty, lapis lazuli was valuable to the ancient Egyptians as an image of the heavens. Its dark-blue coloration was the indigo of the night sky while the white-gold flecks of pyrite represented the imperishable stars. A stone of heaven, lapis lazuli was sacred to the all-encompassing Egyptian Sky Goddess—whether She is Nuet or Her starry daughter, Isis-Sothis. (Hathor is also a Sky Goddess and certainly may be honored with lapis lazuli—in fact, images of Her were also made of lapis lazuli—but She is more closely associated with green turquoise and malachite.)

One of the beautiful ways the Egyptians used lapis lazuli

To the Egyptians, lapis lazuli represented all good things. In later periods, the Egyptian word for lapis lazuli, khesbedj, became a synonym for “joy” and “delight.” In the Book of Coming Forth by Day, lapis lazuli is connected with abundance as in this passage: “O you who sweeten the state of the Two Lands, you with whom are provisions, you with whom is lapis lazuli.” Another text repeats the association then connects the deceased, “the bull of lapis lazuli,” with the Star Goddess, Sothis. “I am the bull of lapis lazuli, unique and exalted, Lord of the Field, Bull of the Gods. Sothis speaks to me in her good time.” Because of its positive associations, lapis lazuli was used in many different types of amulets, but was especially employed for the heart amulet. Egyptian judges were known to wear lapis lazuli stones about their necks inscribed with the word “truth.”

This heavenly blue stone may be associated with Isis as Goddess of Heaven. Several Egyptian terms for “heaven” actually incorporate Her name, Throne (Iset ). Heaven was called Iset Weret, the Great Throne, and Iset Hert, the High Throne or High Place. With their love of punning and double meanings, surely the Egyptians would not have missed the opportunity to interpret these terms not only as “Heaven,” but also as “Great Isis” and “High or Heavenly Isis.”

An Isis-Nursing-Horus amulet carved in lapis lazuli

Isis is not only the Throne and Place of Being on Earth (see my post on that here), but the Throne of Heaven, too—as indeed She was considered. The Egyptians frequently reinforced the association of the Throne with the heavens by painting Isis’ throne hieroglyph in lapis-lazuli blue.

The heavens aren’t the only important association with lapis blue; the life-giving waters were also represented as being blue. Like Isis’ throne symbol, the hieroglyphs for water and the ankh of life were frequently colored blue—as was the skin of many of the life-giving Deities associated with the Nile. The association of lapis-lazuli blue with the waters, and thus with fertility, life, rebirth, and regeneration, once again brings it into the sphere of Isis, Lady of the Inundation and Goddess of Rebirth. These same qualities were, in turn, connected with the color black so that the colors blue and black became interchangeable. This is why, in art, the hair of the Deities—which if represented naturalistically would be Egyptian black—can also be colored blue. The Gods and Goddesses were said to have gold skin, silver bones, and lapis-lazuli hair. (You, no doubt, see where we’re going with this now.)

And you are correct. In the early Ptolemaic period, there was a temple and cult of Iset Khesbedjet Tep, Isis with the Lapis-Lazuli Head. The epithet surely refers to the specific sacred image in which the hair of the Goddess was inlaid with precious lapis lazuli.

Oh look! A lapis lazuli head; 19th dynasty. This is supposed to be a wig, but I’m not sure you could actually wear it; looks more like a wig for a statue, stranger things….

Today, we still associate lapis lazuli with some of the same qualities that the ancient Egyptians did. We, too, associate the heaven-blue stone with the heavenly qualities of spirituality and psychism. Just as the Egyptians associated it with joy, today’s metaphysicians say that lapis lazuli helps relieve melancholy. And just as the ancient Egyptians connected lapis lazuli with fertility, regeneration, and abundance, so we understand it to give an abundant boost to creativity.

Isis is the Great Throne of Heaven, the Lady of the Life-Giving Waters, and the Goddess of the Lapis-Lazuli Head. Sacred unto Her is the beautiful stone of the heavens and the waters, lapis lazuli.

The Mother

Here are some lines from a particularly interesting New Kingdom hymn to the Goddess. I have simplified some of the lacunae and made the appropriate capitalizations. See if you can guess which Goddess the hymn praises:

“…great of sunlight, Who illumines [the entire land with] Her rays. She is His Eye, Who causes the land to prosper, the glorious eye of Harakhti, the Ruler of What Exists, the Great and Powerful Mistress, life being in Her possession in this Her name [...]

[...] in the circuit. The Gods are in … Great of Might. Her Eye has illumined the horizon. The Ennead, Their hearts are glad because of Her, the Mistress of Their Joy, in this Her name of Heaven.

She is in their hearts, they being glad when She ascends to Her abode, Her temple. She has appeared and has shone as the Woman of Gold [...] of best pure silver. All lands give Her their divine property in Her name, and their standards of their places. They rejoice for Her and Her beauty which belongs to Her. Everyone comes into existence through Her when he is created, say the Living in this temple.

There exists no one like Her on earth. She who lives by the might of Her word.

[...] the Great One of the Throne [...] She is [...] of forms, Great of Property, Mistress of That Which Exists. The papyrus flourishes.”

Isis protected by the Vulture Mother

This Goddess is also called Mistress of the Gods, Queen of Heaven, Great Goddess, Mighty Goddess, Lady of the Two Lands.

The hymn could well be used to praise Isis. Yet it seems that all the Great Goddesses, at one time or another, were called by each other’s epithets and even by each other’s names. (See how that applies to Nephthys here.) Louis Zabkar, who has studied the Isis hymns at Philae extensively, traced how a number of the texts at Philae were adapted from preexisting sources to suit both the space they had available at Philae and the Goddess they were praising.

But this hymn is in praise of Mut; and it is particularly interesting because it is in the form of a crossword. Known as the Crossword Hymn to Mut (obviously enough), the instructions say to read it “three ways.” Indeed, it can be read horizontally and vertically. Scholars guess that the third way might be around the edges, but the artifact is too damaged to be sure that works.

Mut with a phallus from the Book of Doors oracle deck

Mut’s name means simply “Mother.” It is spelled with the vulture hieroglyph, which also connects Her with one of the Two Ladies of Egypt, Nekhebet the Vulture Goddess Who was the protectress of Upper Egypt. According to Horapollo, supposed to be an Egyptian magician of the fourth century CE, Egyptian tradition had it that there were no male vultures. Female vultures were thought to remain virgin, but to become pregnant by exposing their vulvas to the north wind. Thus Mut is a Virgin Mother. In Her Crossword Hymn, we see Her both as the maiden Daughter of Re and the Mother, “in this Her name of Creator.”

But Mut also has a powerful lioness aspect. In this form, She is one of the Raging and Returning Goddesses, like Sakhmet, Hathor, and Tefnut. In the Book of the Dead, Spell 164, a magical image of Mut is described as having three faces: a vulture, a woman, and a lioness. Not only that, She has a phallus and wings and lion’s claws. This talisman of a rather fierce and awesome Mother is, as you might expect, for protection of the dead. Yet the Crossword Hymn also calls Her Mistress of Joy, Mistress of Peace, and the Beloved One.

Isis with the head of a lioness from the Ombos temple

It almost goes without saying that Isis is a Mother Goddess. Specifically and significantly, She is the mother of Horus, Mut Nutdjer, “Mother of the God.” But She also reveals Herself as Mother of the Gods and as the Great Mother of All. As Great Mother, Isis has inspired the devoted worship of women and men throughout history. During the Græco-Roman period, Her motherliness toward humanity was expressed in the novel The Golden Ass by Her initiate, Lucius, who declared that Isis brings “the sweet love of a mother to the trials of the unfortunate.” This conception of Isis endures today when, for many, Isis is the very model of the Mother Goddess.

Isis from Abydos wearing the Vulture Headdress

It should be no surprise then that Mother Isis and the Goddess Mother would become identified. In Isis’ Roman-era temple at Shenhur (newly reopened to the public, yay!), Isis is represented in four forms: “Isis the Great, Mother of the Gods,” “The Great Goddess Isis,” Mut, and Nephthys Nebet-Ihy (a festive form of Nephthys). In Mut’s Crossword Hymn, She is said to be “under the king as the throne,” just as Isis’ very name is “Throne.”

As Isis the Kite protects Osiris by enfolding Him in Her wings, so in one of the Books of the Dead, a vulture-headed Mut is shown enfolding Osiris in the same way. On a pectoral found in Tutankhamon’s funerary equipment, a vulture, labeled “Isis”, guards the king. In the Book of the Dead, the “vulture of gold” to be placed at the neck of the deceased is associated with Isis. Both Isis and Mut wear the Vulture Headdress, though Mut wears over it the combined Red and White Crowns. Both are Eye Goddesses and Uraeus Goddesses and as such are assimilated with Bast and Sakhmet. Both, as Great of Magic, take the prominent place of the divine barque to defend and protect the Sun God. And of course, both are Divine Mothers; Isis of Horus and Mut of Khonsu. Isis and Mut are considered to be the mother of the pharaoh and They ultimately mother those of us devoted to Them.

I started this post because I wanted to share with you the amazing Crossword Hymn of Mut. But now I am being struck by this idea of the correspondences of the Great Goddesses (and the Great Gods, for that matter). The more I study, the more I find that They share mythology, share epithets, and share the ability to appear as each other “in Her name of” fill-in-the-blank. This capacity, along with the ancient Egyptian idea that the Deities could combine Their identities or be the Ba of another Deity points at an underlying unity of the Divine, even in the midst of a thriving polytheism. Works for me.

A female image in hippopotamus ivory from the early predynastic period from Badari

As with so many things in Egyptology, there’s controversy surrounding the many female figurines that have been found throughout Egypt spanning its long history.

These figurines take several forms. Some are standing females, usually nude with sexual characteristics emphasized (eyes, breasts, vulva). Some are abstracted into what have been called “paddle dolls”; more on them shortly. Some show a woman lying on a bed, often with a baby or child beside her. Others show a woman nursing a child.

The old gentlemen of early Egyptology initially guessed that the nude females and paddle dolls, some of them found in tombs, were “spirit concubines” for deceased Egyptian men. (However, the fact that they have been found in the tombs of women and children, too, throws a significant monkey wrench into that interpretation.)

There’s also the more modern controversy about whether ancient female figurines should be interpreted as images of Goddesses or even as representations of an all-encompassing Mother Goddess. In opposition are those who regard the figures as devoid of divinity altogether and more likely to have been toys, ancestor figures, tools for sex instruction, or the ever-popular post mortum concubines.

A Second Intermediate Period image

While the idea of a singular worldwide Goddess cult goes farther than strict interpretation of the evidence can take us (and, in fact, that is not what most proponents of the Goddess interpretation claim), the virulence of the opposition makes me question its objectivity as well. The truth is, we just don’t know. We have no ancient texts explaining these figures for us. Yet, at the very least, the ubiquity of the female figurines as well as their greater numbers in comparison to extant male figurines indicates a keen interest in the feminine by our ancient brothers and sisters.

Female figurines in Egypt

These images are also commonly interpreted as general “fertility symbols.” This makes sense due to the emphasized sexual characteristics of many figurines and the connection with the child in others, as well as the fact that a number of them seem to have been given as votive offerings to the Great Goddess Hathor, one of Whose concerns is fertility.(It should be noted that Hathor also received what one Egyptologist described as “basketsful” of clay phalluses.) Another cache of these images that has received study come from the temple precinct of the Great Mother Mut. Of the small handful of votive images that include inscriptions, all are requests for children. In addition to temples and tombs, these figures have also been found in ancient homes and in domestic shrine settings.

19th dynasty image of a woman and child on a bed

Many modern Egyptologists have come to the consensus that the female figurines are symbols of fertility in its the broadest sense, which includes the ideas of general health and well-being, rebirth and regeneration—in addition to concerns with human reproduction.

There are some other interesting ideas as well. One that I hadn’t come across before is the idea that the paddle dolls are related to a specific type of royal and sacred musicians and dancers.

Paddle dolls

Paddle dolls are flat images with truncated arms, no legs, an emphasized vulva, decorative painting on the body, big hair—and sometimes no head, just a large mop of beaded hair. (See more on the magical importance of Isis’ hair here.) They were first called paddle dolls because of the flat, paddle-like body shape and dolls because they were thought to be toys; some even looked to the archeologists like they had been played with by a child. The largest number of paddle dolls have been excavated from the cemeteries around Thebes in Egypt.

One of the big-haired paddle dolls with emphasized vulva

In a paper on the subject, Ellen F. Morris follows a variety of very interesting lines of evidence to conclude that the paddle dolls were meant to be representations of the khener-women. Members of the khener were once thought to be part of the pharaoh’s harim, but now understood to have been skilled and respected musicians and dancers. Married women and men could also be part of a khener. The khener could be connected to the royal household, to temples of the Deities, and to mortuary temples. When associated with the temples, it seems reasonable to think of them as priest/esses of music and dance.

The story of the birth of the three kings told in the Westcar Papyrus indicates that the women of the khener might also serve as midwives. In this tale, Isis, Nephthys, Heqet, Meshkhenet, and Khumn are specifically said to be disguised as a khener when They deliver the three children of Reddjedet. By the time of the New Kingdom, we know that a khener was part of the worship of Isis.

On several of the paddle dolls and on a number of examples of the female figurines, cross-shaped marks were found on the upper body. Some researchers have correlated these cross marks to similar cross marks seen on the bodies of partially nude female mourners in some New Kingdom tomb paintings. In some of these, two of the women are specifically identified as Isis and Nephthys. Some scholars have theorized that the partial nudity may refer to Isis’ use of Her arousing sexuality to help bring Osiris back to life. This strengthens the argument that at least some of the female figurines were tools of resurrection, imbued with the arousing power of Isis. This ability of the nude or partially nude figures to induce (male, heterosexual) arousal may hold a key to the reason why they may be considered fertility figures. For potency—in life or after life—the male must be aroused and the female must arouse him.

A particularly beautiful 12th dynasty image from Thebes

Magical images

There are other possible uses for these figurines as well. Some researchers have suggested that they were purposely generic so that they could be assigned magical roles as need be. Healing seems to have been a common use. We have a ritual text that instructs the sufferer to recite a particular spell “over a woman’s statue of clay.” The spell, in the Leiden Papyrus (3rd century CE), is to cure a bellyache. Once the spell is spoken, the papyrus says that “the affliction will be sent down from him into the Isis-statue until he is healed.” (Would you like that in Egyptian? It is repyt Iset, “a female image of Isis.”)

We also find images of Isis used in relation to healing from snakebite. A spell in the Turin Papyrus (First Intermediate Period) instructs the ritualist to use “this clay of Isis that has come forth from under the armpit of Selket” to ward off a snake. In this case the spellworker is to enclose a knife and a particular herb within the clay. We can’t be completely sure whether the “clay of Isis” was in the form of Isis or used to form an image of the Goddess. Some scholars think so and that the spell in full should read “this clay figure of Isis.”

A Ptolemaic beeswax image of one of the sons or Horus

In addition to clay, magic workers also used beeswax to form their magical images. Figurines made of beeswax are known from the magical papyri and, in specific relation to Isis, from Diodorus Siculus (1.21, 5-6). He says that the Goddess used wax to create multiple figures of Osiris, which She then gave into the keeping of priests throughout Egypt so that Osiris could be buried in locations throughout the land and thus to be widely honored.

A number of the female figurines we’ve found are broken. Originally this was thought to have been accidental. Now scholars are more inclined to think the state is purposeful. Why? Well, if they were being used in healing spells like the one in which the bellyache “went down into” the Isis statue, then to keep the bellyache from returning, it would be reasonable to break the image, permanently obliterating the bellyache with it. Modern magic workers often do the same sort of thing. Once the magic is accomplished, the talisman is dismantled, de-charged, or destroyed.

One of the books I’ve been reading on this conjectures that, given Her role in healing and protection, many of the generic female images may have been used specifically as Isis figures. The image “became” Isis with the recitation of the spell. The crude fashioning of many of the images is to be explained by the fact that, in many cases, they were intended to be disposable. Once broken and disposed, the images were no longer Isis, but simply a container for the affliction.

A copper image from the Middle Kingdom now in Berlin; an inscription identifies it as Isis nursing Horus

Images of the nursing woman

The female figure of a woman nursing an infant is easily seen as Isis nursing Horus. Stephanie Budin argues, however, that we should not understand this specifically as Isis and Horus until the late New Kingdom. Before that time, the image reflected a variety of Divine Wet Nurses nourishing the king.

She also discusses the fascinating idea that images such as the nursing woman—as well as the other female figurines we have been discussing—might have been used to intensify magic and prayers. She refers to them as “potency figures.” (This idea is also discussed by Elizabeth Waraksa, who has studied these images from the Mut temple.) In other words, the images were a kind of magical battery that empowered the ritual. I like this idea very much. It’s also excellent magical practice. Modern priest/ess magicians would call it adding “correspondences” to the rite. Colors, stones, herbs, and symbols that relate to the ritual purpose can be used to help the magic worker “tune in” to the divine powers that can assist in accomplishing the magic of the rite. In the case of the nursing woman images, our ancient Egyptian might be tuning in to the nurturing or protective powers of Isis.

Budin also suggests that, alternatively, the nursing-woman images (for example, the one now in Berlin pictured above) may have been used as prayer intensifiers when honoring Isis and Horus. In this case, the image would serve as an offering as well as a magical battery.

All of these are interesting ideas and each makes sense in certain contexts. To me, it seems likely that the answer is “all of the above.” Egypt was an image-intensive society. The images were probably used in a wide variety of ways, some of which we may have deduced, some of which, as yet, we have not.

Isis in the Boat of the Morning. This is someone’s lovely art; can you identify it? Would love to give the artist credit and provide a  link to their site.

I had a dream last night about ritual. And so for today’s offering, I give you a small and very do-able morning rite. This was originally created for our Isis Fest ‘lo those many years ago (well okay, it was four). It was designed for two priest/esses, but I’ve adapted it here for a solo.

I cannot claim that I do this every morning (I wish I could), but it is a beautiful thing to do on weekends or some other period of time that you can devote to daily morning rites. It is a wonderful way to attune yourself to the day and to remind yourself of the spark of Her magic that lies within your awakened image of Her. (You have “opened the mouth” of your sacred image, right?)

For this ritual you’ll need a censer, charcoal, incense, a lighter, a cup and larger libation bowl, pure water or Nile water (see Isis Magic) and your image of Isis, veiled.

The Rite of Awakening

Enter the temple and cross your hands over your heart. Bow to the veiled image of Isis. Light the charcoal and prepare the incense. Pour pure water into the libation cup and ready a larger libation bowl.

Priest/ess: (Singing) Isis is the wisdom that is given in the Boat of the Morning. Isis is the wisdom that is given in the Boat of the Night. Isis is the wisdom that is given in the Boat of the Morning. Isis is the wisdom that is given in the Boat of the Night. Isis, Isis, Isis. (Repeat this until you feel attuned to the Goddess through Her image.)

Priest/ess: (Speaking) A spark from the Heart of Isis resides within this sacred image of the Goddess. I honor that spark from the Heart of the Goddess as I honor Isis Herself.

Stand before your image of Isis and slowly make the gesture of Opening the Shrine (the curtain-opening gesture).

Priest/ess:  (Vibrating softly) ISIS. (Speaking) Awaken, O Isis Within, to this beautiful day. Be welcomed into morning! Awaken, O Isis Within, to the joy of the day. Be welcomed into today!

Pharaoh offers a small boat to Osiris and Isis at Her Philae Temple

Unveil the image. Then place the incense on the charcoal and elevate it toward the image.

Priest/ess: May Your eyes be opened to the beauty of the day. May Your nostrils be opened to the sweet scent of this spice. May Your ears be opened to the voices of Thy children.

Replace the censer, take up the cup, elevate it toward the image, then pour it into a larger libation bowl.

Priest/ess: May Your lips be opened to the sweetness of this cool water. May Your heart be opened to Your people this day. May Your body, O image of Isis, be opened to the beautiful magic of Isis the Goddess, Ever-Living.

(Speaking for Isis) I am that Golden Morning that arises and shines each day. Splendid are the ornaments upon My brilliant brow. I am the One Who glows in the Sun. I am the Eye of Awakening. I am the Greening of the Earth. I am the Joy of the Day.

(Addressing the Goddess) Awaken in joy, Isis, awaken in joy. Amma, Iset.

If you’d like to hear the tune I use for the chant, click this video. Or better yet, create your own. The more chants we create for Her, the better.

In these past few days, we have been remembering our friends and family who have passed before us into the Otherworld with both tears and laughter. It has put me in a sweet, melancholy mood. As amber and scarlet leaves still cling to their branches and the decayed-honey scent of fallen foliage fills the air, my side of the world has rolled over; darkness now overcomes the light.

So I have an ancestor story for you. For me, it is a sad tale, for it takes place at a time when Christianity had come into power and outlawed all other worship. The story comes from a work known as the Life of Severus by Zacharias probably written in the 490s CE. As early Christian literature, it is extremely hostile to Paganism. In other words, we shouldn’t expect unbiased truth. In fact, according to some recent scholars, we shouldn’t expect much truth in this polemical work at all. Nevertheless, since Isis appears in it, it is of interest to modern Isiacs.

Severus and Zacharias were friends; Severus eventually became Bishop of Antioch, while Zacharias became Bishop of Mytilene. Zacharias wrote the Life of Severus to defend his pal from the charge of having been a Pagan in his early life, which in fact, he had. But much of the work really isn’t about Severus at all. Rather, it’s about the conversion of a particular student, named Paralius, to Christianity. According to Zacharias, one of the key incidents that encouraged his Christian conversion concerned Isis of Menouthis.

Menouthis, Canopus & Herakleion

Menouthis was a suburb of Alexandria and neighbor of the city of Canopus. Both were sacred cities and homes to Isis centers known for healing and for incubation, or oracular dreaming. At Canopus, Isis was joined by Her consort Serapis, Himself a powerful healing Deity. Canopus became quite an active center and attracted many visitors from Alexandria as well as other Mediterranean cities. Canopus probably came to prominence first, followed by Menouthis. We have a record of an image of Isis of Menouthis being sent to Isis of Pharos. The Oxyrhynchus papyrus notes that Isis is called “Truth” at Menouthis, no doubt referring to Her true healing oracles.

Today, the cities are underwater, having submerged rather quickly, geologists think, due to a series of catastrophic earthquakes, likely followed by tsunamis. Underwater archeologists now believe they have located Menouthis, Canopus, and the port of Herakleion. One of the first things to be brought out of the waters when the cities were discovered was a beautifully carved, if headless, statue of Isis.

The statue of Isis being raised from the sea at Menouthis

Our story takes place after the Roman Empire is officially Christian and Pagan worship is outlawed, and has been for nearly a hundred years. The Isis temple at Menouthis was operating, but in secret with the local monks looking the other way. So all this is very clandestine.

Zacharias tells of an philosopher named Asclepiodotos and his wife Damiane, who was unable to conceive. Then Asclepiodotos has a dream. Here’s how Zacharias, puts it. He says that Asclepiodotos received

“an oracle (or, rather, he was deceived by the demon appearing as Isis) according to which the Goddess [my capitalization] promised him children if he went with his wife into the temple that the Goddess had at Menouthis, a village 40 miles away from Alexandria. He stayed some time in Menouthis and offered considerable sacrifices to the demons. But it was to no avail. The sterility of his wife persisted nonetheless. Having believed that he saw in a dream Isis lying beside him he heard it declared by those who interpreted dreams there and who served the demon expressed in Isis, that he ought to join himself to the idol of the Goddess, then have sex with his wife—and thus a child would be born to him.”

This painting is from the Temple of Isis in Pompeii and shows the Goddess receiving Io at Canopus

Apparently no pregnancy was immediately forthcoming, for the priest of Isis next sent Asclepiodotos to a nearby town of “Astu” (which looks suspiciously like a word derived from Isis’ name) and there a local Isis priestess gave him a baby. Thus Asclepiodotos and Damiane did indeed return home with a child.

Apparently the story was put out that this was a miracle of supernatural proportions and when the truth came out, it was turned into an anti-Pagan scandal. It was one of the things that Paralius debated with his brother, a Christian monk who was pressuring Paralius to convert. Interestingly, we have one other mention of this story, from Damascius, a philosopher known as “the last of the Neoplatonists.” He says that both Asclepiodotos and Damiane were people of very good character, and one very fragmentary sentence notes that Asclepiodotos took his wife home “when he saw that she was pregnant.” Interesting, huh? Could it indeed be magic? Or the magic of easy Egyptian adoption?

Now, back to Paralius. For him, the final blow came when he went to incubate at Isis’ temple and dreamed that She warned him against a fellow student in his class “who is a magician.” According to Zacharias, Isis gave the same warning to the other student about Paralius. Try as he might, Paralius could receive no further information from the Goddess, so he became angry and turned away from Her to the religion of his brother. From that time on, Paralius ridiculed “the orgies of the Priestess of Isis.” Eventually, this so angered the Pagan students in Paralius’ class that they turned on him. Christian students came to his rescue and this clash erupted into a full-fledged riot.

Cyrus & John

As part of the rioting, a mob descended on Menouthis. The raiders opened the treasury, which still contained sacred images. Some of the statues were destroyed during the first day of the riot. Others were encircled throughout the night by canticle-singing Christians and destroyed the next day when the temple itself was razed to the foundations. Still others—those made of valuable materials or of particular artistic merit—were turned over to the Church.

But the people still needed healing Deities. So eventually a healing cult of the saints Cyrus and John was established and the saints gave healing prescriptions in dreams—and perhaps even helped infertile couples—just as Isis always had.

Section of a map of Roman Paris (after Crypte Archéologique 2005, Paris; MacKendrick 1972). This map shows the supposed location of a Temple of Isis.

If you’ve read Isiac lore broadly, you’ve probably come across the idea that the city of Paris is named for Isis, presumably from Per- (the Egyptian word for “house” or “temple”) or Par- (French for “with”) Isis. Most recently we find that notion in places like Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code and before him in David Wood’s 1986 book GenIsis: First Book of Revelations.

Unfortunately, it’s not so. The name of France’s capital city actually comes from the Gaulish Parisii clan who had a settlement on what would become the Isle de la Cité, and along the banks of the Seine. They may have called it something like Lucotocia, possibly from the Celtic word for “marsh.” When Rome conquered them, the Romans built a military base there called Lutetia Parisiorum (Lutetia of the Parisii), which eventually got shortened to Paris. So where does that idea that Paris was named for Isis come from?

Turns out the idea has a rather long history in France.

As early as the 1400s, we have records connecting the Goddess Isis with the city of Paris. (Of course, Isis Herself was there much earlier, brought in by the Romans, but I’m talking about written records.)

A French manuscript of the 1400s showing Isis arriving in Paris

A manuscript of that period, now in the French Bibliotheque Nationale shows Her, dressed as a Medieval woman, alighting in Paris from a ship with the caption, “The very ancient Isis, Goddess and queen of the Egyptians.” Apparently, as in this manuscript, Isis’ association with ships and sailing—think Isis Pelagia and Isis Pharia—was one of the reasons the French connected Her with Paris; one of the city’s symbols is a boat, due to the boatlike shape of the Isle de la Cité, in the middle of the Seine, in the heart of Paris.

In about the same time period, a monk called Jacques le Grant, or more probably, Jacques le Grand—in Latin, Jacobus Magnus—recorded this Isis-Paris connection:

In the days of Charlemagne [8th century CE] . . . there was a city named Iseos, so named because of the goddess Isis who was venerated there. Now it is called Melun. Paris owes its name to the same circumstances, Parisius is said to be similar to Iseos, because it is located on the River Seine in the same manner as Melun.

Whether or not this is true is not the point. The point is that the city’s closeness with Isis is part of its lore.

A number of French historians in the 1500s repeated the tradition that the remains of a Roman Temple of Isis are below the church of St. Germain des Pres. It wouldn’t be at all unusual for a church to have been constructed on top of a Pagan temple, but I haven’t yet been able to find out whether this idea is based on archeology or simply on historical references to the tradition. If you have a source, please let me know.

There is, however, an “Issy” associated with the site of the St. Germain complex. Sometime in the 500s, Childebert I, the Frankish king of Paris, gave his estate, Issy, to found a monastery on the site that would eventually become St. Germain des Pres. Scholars think the name Issy comes from Medieval Latin Isiacum or Isciacum, probably meaning “estate of Isicius,” a Gallo-Roman landowner. Isicius was most certainly named for the Goddess. Is this perhaps the Isis Who stands behind the tradition of a Temple of Isis beneath St. Germain? Writing in the early 1600s, Jacques de Breul, a monk actually from St. Germain des Pres, repeated the tradition that the name Issy came from Isis—which it ultimately did if the Isiacum conjecture is correct, but doesn’t necessarily confirm the existence of a temple on the spot.

An engraving showing the Isiac Fountain of Regeneration, built over the ruins of the Bastille; click on this image to see it larger. The details are interesting.

Isis had Her place in the French Revolution as well. As part of the celebrations commemorating the anniversary of the Revolution, in 1893, the French built a huge image of Isis, symbolizing Nature and Regeneration, in the form of a fountain with water pouring from Her breasts. Both politicians and populace came to drink of the water of the Goddess and be renewed. The fountain was—quel dommage!—only temporary. As it was made of paper mache, it no longer exists.

The demise of the Revolution did not mean the end of Isis’ French connection. It remained so prevalent that Napoleon—who had developed a severe case of Egyptomania following his Egyptian expedition in 1799—had it checked out by his own scholar. Apparently he was sufficiently convinced that he had a Parisian Coat of Arms designed that included an enthroned Isis on the prow of the “Ship of Paris,” which was shown following the Goddess’ sacred star.

The Parisian ship with enthroned Isis on the prow from Napoleon’s 1811 Paris Coat of Arms

Much of this has been collected by Robert Bauval and Graham Hancock in their book, Talisman. Here’s a link to Bauval’s article on the Isis-Paris traditions. The site was made prior to publication of the book. I haven’t read Talisman and suspect I may reach different conclusions than the authors did, but I do appreciate the work they did in collecting the pieces of the tradition.

Isis is also to be found deeply embedded in the occult traditions of the period, but that’s a topic too big to get into in one post, so let’s save that, and instead turn our attention toward the arts for She is very much found there as well.

There we meet Gérard de Nerval, French Romantic poet, Symbolist hero, and proto-Surrealist, and who is thinking much on the Divine Feminine. As was so often true —especially for the artists, writers, and occultists who were definitely sharing ideas during this period—for Nerval, one of the most important forms the Divine Feminine takes is Isis. Nerval is a mad poet; literally. He seemed to have suffered from depression and probably schizophrenia. He believed that dreams were the true reality, which is why he so inspired the Surrealists, but sometimes he had trouble sorting out dream from waking state. He also had some charming and well-known quirks. He kept a pet lobster, which he took for walks in the park leading it by a blue, satin ribbon, and declaring it a better pet than a dog for it never barked and knew the secrets of the deeps.

Dali with his work, called both “Aphrodisiac Telephone” and “Lobster Telephone”…no doubt Nerval’s lobster inspired the Surrealist artist

Nerval wrote poems and prose, including a piece called “Isis” (1845). It appears in a collection of short prose entitled Les Filles du Feu, the “Girls of Fire.” Isis is the only Goddess among the fiery girls, though Nerval wrote poems about other Pagan Goddesses and Gods as well. “Isis” is more journalistic than poetic. Nerval writes about a grade fete held by an ambassador in Naples. It was a costumed ball in which the life of ancient Pompeii was evoked, including the sundown rites of the Temple of Isis, which Nerval found to be the most inspiring events of the evening.

Nerval describes the temple and the “secret” rites held therein, all the while comparing them and Isis with Christian rites and Mary. This discussion then serves as a launching pad for Nerval to write about Apuleius’ tale of initiation into the Mysteries of Isis. You can feel his yearning as he describes the yearning of Lucius for Isis.

Indeed Nerval spent most of his life longing for feminine love, both human and Divine. Eventually, he could no longer function in the world, his mental illness incapacitating him. He committed suicide just ten years after he wrote “Isis”.

Sometimes we might wonder how it is that Isis, unlike so many of our ancient Goddesses, was never forgotten. From the time She was first recognized in ancient Egypt to now, Isis has never been completely out of societal consciousness. Anytime we start pulling on an Isis thread—lore about ancient Isis temples in Paris or Fiery Girls Who take up residence in a mad poet’s dreams—we keep on discovering Her. For me, these discoveries, while always delightful, are no longer surprising. She is always there because She has always been there. She could not be forgotten because She is.

The Philae lander; they should have put a tiny statue of Isis in Her temple, don’t you think?

Surely you did not expect me not to comment on the fact that the comet lander is named Philae, right? What with all the negative associations of a certain-terrorist-organization-that-shall-remain-nameless with the (most common, Anglicized) name of our Goddess, it does my heart good to hear something positive with Isiac connections in the news.

So, of course, I wanted to know exactly why they named the lander “Philae.”

Turns out that one of the obelisks found on Isis’ temple island of Philae was used to assist in the translation of the Rosetta Stone, which is what enabled us to crack the code of ancient Egyptian. The Rosetta Stone (which is now in the British Museum) has three scripts on it: Egyptian hieroglyphs, demotic Egyptian, and Greek. The Philae Obelisk (which is now on a nobleman’s estate in England) is inscribed in Egyptian hieroglyphs and Greek. The Philae Obelisk expanded the data and provided some cross-checking ability.

The Philae Obelisk in its current home in England

Since the space probe as a whole is named “Rosetta” and its mission is to “translate” information about comets to earth, the parts of the probe are named for the two inscribed items that assisted in translating ancient Egyptian. As an extremely appropriate bonus, the Rosetta probe also carries a “Rosetta disc” containing 13,000 pages of text in 1200 different languages. I. Love. That.

So…science!

And as Our Lady is Goddess of Magic, so is She Goddess of Science. For as the lately lamented Arthur C. Clark famously quipped, “Magic’s just science we don’t understand yet.”

Isis has always been associated with the science of the day. She is Great of Magic and She is The Wise.

The Egyptians certainly knew Her as wise in medical science. The Ebers Medical Papyrus, dated to approximately 1500 BCE but likely containing much older material, begins with an invocation of Her:

“Words to Be Spoken in the Preparation of Medicines for All Parts of a Person Who is Ill

As it is to be, a thousand times. This is the book for the healing of all diseases. May Isis heal me even as she healed Horus of all the pain which his brother Set had inflicted on him when he killed his brother Osiris! O Isis, thou Great Enchantress, heal me, deliver me from all evil, bad, typhonic things, from demoniacal and deadly diseases and pollutions of all sorts that rush upon me, as thou didst deliver and release Thy son Horus! As I have penetrated into the Fire and have emerged from the Water, may I not fall into the snare of the day when I shall say: little am I and piteous!”

Green Isis working Her healing and protective magic on Osiris; from a stele now in the Louvre; photo by Rama; wikicommons

Writing in the first century BCE, Diodorus Siculus tells his readers,

“As for Isis, the Egyptians say that she was the discoverer of many health-giving drugs and was greatly versed in the science of healing; consequently, now that she has attained immortality, she finds her greatest delight in the healing of mankind and gives aid in their sleep to those who call upon her, plainly manifesting both her very presence and her beneficence towards men who ask her help. In proof of this, as they say, they advance not legends as the Greeks do, but manifest facts; for practically the entire inhabited world is their witness, in that it eagerly contributes to the honors of Isis because she manifests herself in healings. For standing above the sick in their sleep she gives them aid for their diseases and works remarkable cures upon such as submit themselves to her; and many who have been despaired of by their physicians because of the difficult nature of their malady are restored to health by her, while numbers who have altogether lost the use of their eyes or of some other part of the body, whenever they turn for help to this goddess, are restored to their previous condition. Furthermore, she discovered also the drug which gives immortality, by means of which she not only raised from the dead her son Horus, who had been the object of plots on the part of the Titans and had been found dead under the water, giving him his soul again, but also making him immortal. And it appears that Horus was the last of the gods to be king after his father Osiris departed from among men. Moreover, they say that the name Horus, when translated, is Apollo, and that, having been instructed by his mother Isis in both medicine and divination, he is now a benefactor of the race of men through his oracular responses and his healings.” (Diodorus Siculus, Books 1-11. 34.)

Artist Audrey Flack titles this work “Egyptian Rocket Goddess.” I like to think of Her as Isis Technologia.

Here, Isis is a healer, a teacher of the healing and divinatory sciences, as well as the Lady of the magical science of resurrection and rebirth.

Isis is also associated with the science of alchemy, the basis of later chemical science. Indeed She is Herself an alchemist and knows the secrets of the Tincture of Isis. Here’s a link to a post on Isis’ alchemical connections.

It is also interesting how many modern scientific associations or companies dealing in science take the name of Isis. There are biotechnology and medical companies, a scientific journal, computer technology companies and more, all named for Isis the Wise. I hope that most of them will continue under Her name and not cave under the current “brand pressures,” though a few of them already have.

Isis Technologia expands Her sphere of influence with the times. So even though ancient Egypt had no smart phones or computers, I would not hesitate in the slightest to consider Isis the Goddess of Computer Science. It is completely consistent with Her ancient character. From the earliest Egyptian texts to today, Isis is the Goddess of Magic and so She is also, most assuredly, the Goddess of Science and Technology. Isis understands code. And I know for a fact that more than a few of Her modern programmer devotees have called upon Her when confounded by a coding conundrum. I’ll bet they received answers, too.

The Blood of Isis amulet, with the name of the deceased

The ancient Egyptian amulet of the Tiet (also Tyet or Tet) is also known as the Girdle of Isis, the Buckle of Isis, the Knot of Isis, or the Blood of Isis. Appropriately, the amulet was often made of blood-red jasper, carnelian, or even red glass. (Red glass, by the way, is a precious material and quite difficult to make; the red color comes from the addition of gold to the molten glass.)

When paired with the Djed of Osiris, the Tiet can be seen as the feminine symbol of the Goddess’ womb just as the Djed can be seen as the masculine symbol of the God’s phallus.

The redness of the Tiet may represent the red lifeblood a mother sheds while giving birth. On the other hand, it might represent menstrual blood. Some say the amulet is shaped like the cloth worn by women during menstruation. Others have interpreted it as a representation of a ritual tampon that could be inserted in the vagina to prevent miscarriage. In this case, it would have been the amulet Isis used to protect Horus while He was still within Her womb. For a whole post on the Knot of Isis, click here.

The Goddess’ blood that is our topic today is the red blood of menstruation, in Egyptian hesmen. A menstruating woman is a hesmenet. If the interpretation of the Knot of Isis as a menstrual cloth or tampon is correct, we may be well within our rights to consider Isis as the patroness of women during their monthly menstruation as well as a special patroness of women during the fertile period of their lives, this is, while they are still menstruating regularly.

Women and girls preparing for a banquet from the Tomb of Rekhmire

A young woman’s first menstruation is a sign that she is now mature enough to become pregnant, thus the ancient Egyptians considered menstrual blood to be very potent. One of the methods a woman might use to encourage her own pregnancy was to rub menstrual blood on her thighs. The Ebers papyrus notes that the blood of a young woman whose menses have just come could be rubbed on the breasts, belly, and thighs of a woman whose breasts were too full of milk, “then the flow cannot be to her disadvantage.” Menstrual blood might also be smeared on an infant to protect her or him from evil. Could it be that the Tiet amulet was developed as a more convenient way to protect children, and by extension adults, from harm through the menstrual Blood of Isis?

We have very little from ancient Egypt about women’s menstrual customs. There is one precious mention on an ostracon (piece of pottery used as a writing surface) that scholars believe originated in Deir el-Medina, the workers’ village outside the Valley of the Kings. It says,

Year 9, fourth month of inundation, day 13. Day that the eight women came outside [to the] place of women, when they were menstruating. They got as far as the back of the house which […long gap] the three walls …

The Tiet and the Djed, symbols of Isis and Osiris

From this reference, scholars infer that ancient Egyptian women, like many women throughout the ancient world (as well as some in the modern world) separated themselves from the rest of the village during their menstrual periods and went to “the place of women.” What’s more, at least eight women from this village were on the same cycle. But I wonder why this common, monthly event was significant enough for someone to write it down? As far as I can tell, no one has a guess.

None of the “places of women” have been found for certain, though there are several small structures on the outskirts of Deir el-Medina that could possibly fit the bill. Interestingly, at Deir el-Medina, the menstruation of wives or daughters is sometimes given as a reason for the man’s absence from work. The weird thing about this is that, if a man could be absent every time a wife or daughter had her period, he’d be absent at least two extra days per month…and we don’t find that many absences recorded. This has led some researchers to suggest that only in exceptional cases, for example if the woman was incapacitated by her period, could the man be absent to take care of the regular household chores.

Model of a home at Deir el-Medina; looks pretty pleasant

The other reference to a place of menstruation comes from much later—in the Ptolemaic period—when we find a reference to a “place beneath the stairs,” actually within the home, as the place of menstruation. This room must have been reasonably common for we find reference to it in a number of documents related to the sale or purchase of a home. I am imagining some ancient realtor noting the lovely little “place beneath the stairs” as a selling feature of the house. (It should be noted that a woman was the seller in at least one of these real estate transactions and in another, a woman was the buyer; more evidence of women’s relatively high status in Egypt.)

In a house in Amarna, in just such a place beneath the stairs, archeologists found two model beds made of clay, parts of two female figurines, and a stela depicting a woman wearing a cone on her head while leading a young girl before the Goddess Taweret. That all seems pretty clear to me; this is where women go to menstruate and where they celebrate the coming of age of young women, who are being introduced to Taweret, the hippopotamus-form Goddess of pregnancy and childbirth.

Egyptian woman and man taking food & drink from the Tree Goddess  in the Otherworld

These special places for menstruating women seem to indicate a taboo around menstruation; the women absented themselves from the village or stayed in a special room. We also have lists of bwt, prohibitions or “evil”, in the 42 Egyptians nomes and some of them include menstruation and menstruating women—along with things like a black bull, a heart, and a head. We’re not sure in what way any of these things were to be prohibited; perhaps by keeping them out of the nome? At any rate, menstruation in these cases was seen as something negative.

There does not seem to have been a notion of actual pollution around menstruation or menstruating women, however. Contact with a menstruating woman was not dangerous to a man, even though she was bwt in some nomes. In fact, some scholars think it was the menstruating woman who needed protection during her period. Thus, in the case of the absent workers of Deir el-Medina, the workers stayed away from the death-touched tombs in which they were working in order to protect their menstruating female relatives. Conversely, the Egyptians may have wanted to prevent the non-pregnancy/fertility of a menstruating woman from touching the cosmic womb of the royal tomb through her male relative, and thus rendering it magically ineffective.

May the Blood of Isis protect you

Interestingly, it may be that menstruation was also associated with cleansing. Hesmen is not only the word for “menstruation,” but is also found with the meaning “purification.” It was also a term for the ritual cleanser par excellence, natron.

From the evidence, menstruation in ancient Egypt had both positive and negative connotations. On the one hand, it was a sign that a woman could become pregnant—something most women desired—and it was used as a potent protection or cure. On the other hand, if one was menstruating, one was clearly not pregnant at the time, so menstruation might be incompatible with work on the magical womb of the tomb, which must be kept fertile at all times.

I think many women would agree with this ambivalent attitude toward their periods. Having a period is at once a beautiful confirmation of connection with the cycles of Nature and the Great Goddess, and it can be a painful and messy time, too. In whatever way we are currently experiencing those cycles, we can be sure that the protection, as well as the shared female experience, of the Holy Blood of Isis is with us. I don’t know about you, but I think I may put on my Tiet amulet today.

I very much like this Cosmic Isis by artist Dahlia Khodur. Here’s a link to her FB page.

Let’s talk a bit about the Isis aretalogies.

The aretalogies are those first-person statements in which the Goddess details Her many accomplishments and gifts to humankind. Here’s an except from one in case you need a little reminder:

I am She that riseth in the Dog Star.
I am She that is called Goddess by women.
For me was the city of Bubastis built.
I divided the earth from the heaven.
I showed the paths of the stars.
I ordered the course of the sun and the moon.
I devised business in the sea.
I made strong the right.
I brought together woman and man.
I appointed to women to bring their infants to birth in the tenth month.
I ordained that parents should be loved by children.
I laid punishment on those disposed without natural affection toward their parents.
I made with My brother Osiris an end to the eating of men.
I revealed mysteries unto men.

The word “aretalogy” is, as you may be able to tell, Greek. Arete means “virtues” and logy is from logos, “word,” so aretalogy is “speaking about virtues.” In aretalogy, the Deity is usually speaking in the first person about Her or His own virtues. But that’s not always so. For instance, the Aretalogy of Maronea is not spoken by the Goddess Herself, but by someone whom She healed. In Her honor, he speaks of Her virtues.

I am Isis. I revealed Mysteries unto humankind.

Isis is one of the few Deities for Whom we have quite a number of aretalogies. As with many Things Scholarly, there are disagreements about which of these documents should be considered aretalogies, so there’s no canonical count. But we can think in terms of six to ten. (That does not count the many, many hymns to the Goddess.)

The existing copies of these important documents are all written in Greek and date (we think) from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd or 3rd century CE. Some of the scholars who have studied them have looked for ancient Egyptian precedents for the ideas in them, others believe them to be purely Greek in origin. Dieter Muller, a German Egyptologist who studied the texts extensively, took 56 phrases that refer to Isis in the aretalogies and tried to trace them to their sources. He concluded that nine were, in both form and content, Egyptian in origin, seven were Egyptian but expressed in a Greek way, 24 were of Greek origin, and 16 uncertain, but possibly Greek. Another scholar, Jan Bergman, traced each of the statements to an original Egyptian concept claiming that the statements cannot be properly understood unless placed in context with Memphite religion and the relationship between the Egyptian Deities and Egyptian royalty. Louis Zabkar, an Italian-born Egyptologist who studied the hymns to Isis at Her Philae temple, believes that the Philae hymns contributed to the content of the aretalogies. In a epilog to his book about Isis’ Philae hymns, Zabkar takes another look at Muller’s work and expands the number of Egyptian-original aretalogical statements to 23, making them almost equal to the number of Greek-original statements. More recent scholars, too, have traced more and more of the self-statements to Egyptian originals.

One of two female figures flanking the entrance to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo; given that the museum opened in 1902, she is probably supposed to be either Cleopatra or Isis

Two of the aretalogies (from Kyme & Andros) state that they were copied from a stele “before the temple of Hephaestus [that is, Ptah] at Memphis.” Scholars thus sometimes refer to this as the M-text and believe that it could be the original from which all the other aretalogies were either copied or developed.

Some researchers have suggested that the thoughts of a famous Greek atheist contributed to the content of the Isis aretalogies. His name was Prodicus and he was a Greek philosopher (5th century BCE). His idea was that the gods were not divine at all, but were instead brilliant human beings from a primordial time who were so beneficial to humankind that people deified them. We usually hear of this idea tied to the name of a Greek mythographer named Euhemerus (4th century BCE). In fact, we even give it his name: euhemerism. But Euhemerus most likely got the idea from Prodicus.

Euhemerism was one of the ways the ancient Pagan Deities survived in the Christianized West. Since They (or they) were merely human beings, their myths could be retold—and even be used to teach “Christian” virtues. This definitely happened with Isis. (Isis Magic details some of the ways the story of Isis remained a part of the culture during this time.)

An elegant Isis from the 25th dynasty

But what does all that have to do with the aretalogies? Some scholars (Fritz Graf; Albert Henrichs) suggest that this type of Prodican euhemerism—especially in relation to the cultural gifts of the Deities—was going on in the Eleusinian cults at that time. And, since Isis and Demeter were being equated, the Eleusinian euhemerism was applied to Isis and shows up in the Isis aretalogies. You can see it strongly in the Maronea aretalogy, which may be the oldest of these Isiac documents that we have. (It does not, however, explain the “I-am” structure of the Kyme aretalogy, which is very unlike a Greek hymn and much more similar to the starker statements of Egyptian hymns.)

Now, it’s not that the Eleusinians who took up some of Prodicus’ ideas were atheists themselves. We could say that they were merely adopting one of the memes of their day. They liked the idea of their Deity being the source of important aspects of culture and incorporated it.

Some scholars believe the Isis aretalogies were created as propaganda to help spread the gospel of Isis throughout the Mediterranean. At least to some extent, that’s probably so. But there are other ideas, too. I’m reading an article right now that argues they were read aloud as part of initiation into the Mysteries of Isis. To me, the argument isn’t persuasive due to the strict secrecy of the Mysteries. If the aretalogy was recited as part of the key epiphany of the Goddess in Her Mysteries, it would likely have been kept secret rather than carved in stone and set up before the temple of Ptah in Memphis. But it’s a very intriguing idea nonetheless.

A priestess making offering; photo by Victor Keppler

Interestingly, we have a dedication from the island of Delos made to Isis and Anubis by an “aretalogos.” If there was a regular priestly function as a Speaker of Aretalogies, perhaps the recitation of an aretalogy was part of the standard worship of the Goddess rather than part of Her Mysteries. Another suggestion is that they were read during Her great feasts.

Whether PR or liturgy, it seems most likely that both Egyptian and Greek elements formed the conceptual basis of the Isis aretalogies. Memphis was one of the places where Egyptian and Greek ideas came together, and apparently without rancor. Here, key religious ideas of both Egyptians and Greeks blended, and could have resulted in the M-text.

But I wonder whether personal elements could have figured into the creation of the aretalogies as well. At least some of you have had Her speak to you in this way, telling you of Her arete in first person. It is a powerful experience; not likely to be forgotten. Perhaps you’ve even written it down to commemorate it.

For, as She has always done, Isis can speak directly to our hearts, telling us Who She Is, and especially Who She Is for us right now.

Ah, I am tied up all weekend with a special event of my paying work requiring my presence allll weeeeekend loooong.

Therefore, I offer you a rerun of a previous post for your invoking pleasure….

I invoke Thee, Isis!

I adore invocation.

I remember the first time I invoked and really—really—felt Her presence, knew She was with me. Or with us, I should say because this particular invocation was with a small group here in town. I was pretty new at public invocation and I was pretty nervous.

I had memorized the invocation (highly recommended!) and when it came time, I spoke the words. The nervous energy became strength. The memorized words truly expressed my desire for Her. With each breath I drew in to begin each sentence of the invocation, I also drew in more of Her. And I could tell I wasn’t the only one feeling it. The entire circle began to psychically “buzz” as everyone awakened to Her growing presence.

That particular invocation stuck with me as you might imagine. I even included it in Isis Magic. It’s this one:

O Isis, Beautiful in All Thy Names,

I call Thee with the breath of my body,

I call Thee with the beat of my heart,

I call Thee with the pulse of my life,

I call Thee with the words of my mouth,

I call Thee with the thoughts of my mind.

I call Thee Power and Life and Creation.

I call Thee, Isis, Isis, Isis!

This is sort of what it feels like when invocation works.

Seems pretty simple, doesn’t it? It is. A good invocation doesn’t have to be complicated or long. On the other hand, sometimes long and complicated invocations are completely wonderful, providing us with the luxury of enough time to reach the right state of mind/soul.

The word invocation means “to call upon”. It’s originally from the Latin word invocare, but comes to us by way of late 15th century French envoquer. You’ll sometimes see the word used exclusively to mean calling a Deity or spirit into yourself (because of the “in” part of the word). While invocation can be used for that purpose, it doesn’t have to be.

…and like this.

Invocation is a way to focus our intention and attention upon Isis. It offers a method for awakening and re-awakening in ourselves the knowledge of Her eternal presence. It opens a channel of communication and communion between us and Her. If we have done it well, invocation of Isis will evoke a corresponding emotion from us. When our defenses are down, our emotions are up, and we fully open our hearts and selves to Her, that’s when our invocations are effective and we find that She is fully present with us. And that is how the magic happens.

Invocation is a wonderful way to explore the many aspects of Isis. By invoking Her by Her various epithets (epithets are names or descriptive phrases that express various aspects or powers of the Goddess), we can experience and better understand the many facets of Isis’ nature.

To this end, I thought I’d share some of Isis’ many epithets, both well and lesser known, which you may wish to try out in your own invocations.

Great Goddess

Nutjeret Weret (Egy.); Thea Megiste (Gk.); Iset Weret (Egy.; “Isis the Great”). This is Isis in Her all-encompassing form as Goddess of All Things, and indeed, She is specifically called Lady of All. Other related epithets are Isis in All Her Names, Isis of Many Names and Many Forms, both of which refer to the ability of Her devotees to see Isis in all other Goddesses and all other Goddesses in Isis. At Denderah, She is called Lady of the Sky, the Earth, the Underworld, the Water, the Mountains, and the Nun (the Primordial Watery Abyss) for She is the Goddess of all manifest as well as all un-manifest things.

A noble and queenly Isis…who is actually an Egyptian nesutet named “Isis.”

Isis the Noble

Iset Shepshyt (Egy.). This is a very interesting one for me. Before I knew of this name, I had often described Her to myself as “noble.” Several other priestesses I know described Her that way as well. And then I learned that She was actually called “Noble” anciently as well. To me, She is somewhat aloof, yet entirely awe-inspiring, in this aspect. A related epithet is Isis, Lady of Dignity or Great of Dignity. At Isiopolis, there is an inscription that says that the Deities bow down before Isis’ dignity.

Isis the Queen

I just thought you’d like to have this word in Egyptian: Nesutet (“Queen”). This, of course, refers to Isis’ sovereignty over ancient Egypt. Yet as the Throne, Isis is Sovereignty Itself; She is the ruler and She confers rulership.

Beautiful Khabhuet

Khabhuet (Egy.; “Libationess”) is related to concepts like the Great Celestial Deep and the Watery Abyss. Thus this is Isis as the one Who makes effective—surely magical—libations and as a Goddess of the Primordial Depths.

Lady of the Journey on the Abaton

In an Egyption temple, the abaton is the sacred place where no one may walk, the Holy of Holies. As Isis is the Lady of the Journey on the Abaton, we may understand that She is so inherently holy that She may indeed walk there, or perhaps may even serve as our guide for such a journey; the shrine of Osiris on Biggeh, the island of Osiris’ tomb near Philae, was called the Abaton.

A Uraeus Serpent, one of the Divine forms in which Isis is sometimes depicted

Isis the Uraeus

Iset Uraiet (Egy.; “She Who Rears/Rises Up”). Uraeus is a Latinized version of the Greek word ouriaos, which is itself a version of the Egyptian word uraiet, which indicates the rearing, coiled cobra. The root word has to do with rising up or ascending, so that uraiet, a feminine word, can be interpreted as She Who Rears/Rises Up. The root word is also used to refer to the upward licking of flames. And indeed, the uraeus is often depicted spitting fire. This serpent fire represents both magical fire and the burning pain of the serpent’s venom.

In this form, Isis is the Cobra Goddess upon the brow of Re and His “Eye.” She is the Iret Eye (“the Doer”), the active power of Re. The idea is similar to Shakti, the active, feminine power related to the God Shiva in some Hindu sects.

Isis the Good North Wind

In different texts, Isis can be identified with various directions, but She has a strong identification with the north and the north wind. To understand, you have to know that to the ancient Egyptians, the north wind was the cooling, beneficial wind. It was thought that the north wind “dammed up” the Inundation, which flowed from the south, enabling the water to flood and nourish Egyptian fields. So Isis is not only the one Who heralds the Inundation and even causes it to flow (as Sopdet/Sirius), but also keeps it in place where it will fertilize the fields. She is called the Good North Wind and the Living North Wind.

A hip-hop singer has taken up the Sotera name…

Isis the Savior

Even in Egyptian texts, we find Isis as a saving Goddess. She is the one Who dispels evils, storms, and “rescues the weak from the fierce.” When Isis moves into the wider Mediterranean world, we find Her called The Savior (Sotera, Gk.), All Savior or Savior of All (Pansotera, Gk.), and the Great Hope. She is both literal savior, helping and protecting people in their every day lives and She is the spiritual Savior, Who offers those who are Hers “a life given by grace” (Apuleius, Metamorphoses). The funerary inscription of a priest of Isis declares that because of the secret rites he performed during his life, he has traveled not to dark Acheron, but to the “harbor of the blessed.” The Goddess and Her Mysteries are a spiritual harbor in storm-tossed seas—an image that is still used today by devotees of the Christian Savior God.

Enough to chew on for now, I think. May your invocations of Isis in All Her Names be blessed.

The most common Egyptian term for dream was rsw.t, from a root meaning “to awaken.” In dream, we awaken in sleep. (This image is from the National Geographic Cleopatra exhibition.)

Does Isis communicate with you in your dreams?

In Egypt, as in most of the ancient world, people definitely paid attention to their dreams. Kings and commoners alike regularly acted on messages received in dream. Sometimes the dreams were clear, the message needing no interpretation. Or a dream might be prophetic, providing information or warnings about the future. Some dreams instructed the dreamer to carry out certain actions; the temples were full of dedicatory plaques to the Deities stating that some action was taken “in accordance with a dream.” Yet these types of dreams were rare—as they are today. Most often, people dreamed in symbols and images that had to be interpreted in order to understand the meaning. For this, one needed a dream interpreter.

The interpreter might be a village wise woman like the one of whom we have evidence from Deir el-Medina. Dream interpreters would set up shop outside the temples—especially during festival days. But most often the dream interpreter would have been one of the priests or priestesses of the Houses of Life at the great temples. Dream Books cataloged dream symbols and their meanings and may have served as resources for the temple interpreters. We have several surviving examples of these dream books.

An artist’s fantasy version of an Egyptian healing temple

In addition to bringing one’s dream to the temples for interpretation, one might also seek a special dream by sleeping in the temple. This sacred sleep is known to scholars using the Latin term “incubatio” (Greek “enkoimesis”) and was particularly associated with healing temples and healing Deities, such as Isis, Hathor, and Asclepius. It was a frequent practice in temples of Isis. In fact, the temples of Isis at Memphis and Canopus were quite famous for incubation. The Goddess was known to provide accurate diagnoses and effective prescriptions to those who appealed to Her.

An example of an Isis incubation dream survives from a Greek orator named Aristides. Aristides spent a great deal of time visiting healing shrines due to his chronic illness; some have even said hypochondria. In one of his books, he describes a number of synchronicities surrounding a sacrifice of geese to Isis that was surely part of his pre-incubation rite. Then he gives a hint about his dream. He says that a light came from Isis relating to his salvation and that both Serapis and Asclepius then appeared to him and that They were both beautiful and seemed quite similar to each other.

Isis with Horus upon Her lion throne

Another interesting example of incubation in an Isis temple comes from a letter written from Aspasia (470-410 BCE), the hetaira who was so beloved by the Athenian statesman Pericles, to Pericles telling him of her journey to several temples of healing to seek relief for (perhaps) a skin irritation of some kind. On the advice of her physician, she first visited the temple of Isis in Memphis. She writes, “I beheld the statue of Isis and her son Orus, seated on a throne supported by two lions” and says that sebestus (a species of Egyptian date) grew about Her shrine and describes the burning of incense in the morning, myrrh during the day, and cyplis (kyphi?) in the evening.

Aspasia slept in the temple, but says she found no relief. The problem, according to the temple attendants, was Aspasia’s “incredulity.” Next she went to the temple of Hygieia at Patras where the Goddess “appeared to me in the form of a mysterious pentagon.” Finally it was Aphrodite Who, in in the form of a dove, cured Aspasia.

(I include this interesting anecdote for several reasons: first, to demonstrate that then, as now, the hoped for dream communication may not always come to us; second, that “mysterious pentagon” form in which Hygieia appeared to Aspasia. It is likely that the “mysterious pentagon” was the Pythagorean  pentagram associated with Hygieia and used as a symbol of recognition among the Pythagoreans. As an educated woman, Aspasia conversed with philosophers, was something of a philosopher herself, even being described as “a female Socrates” by one ancient writer. And finally, Who better than Aphrodite to heal a hetaira? For me, Aspasia’s experiences ring true and reflect some of the many and varied ways the Deities can interact—or not—with us.)

Isis is also known to call to Her initiates and devotees in dream. In Apuleius’ tale that culminates with his protagonist’s initiation into the Mysteries of Isis, we learn that Lucius must remain in the temple of the Goddess—waiting patiently—until he receives a summons from Isis Herself. Only then, when he knew for certain that Isis had invited him, could he undergo the ceremony of his initiation and further cultivate his relationship with the Goddess.

This is a Roman image of Isis. Perhaps this is what Lucius’ Isis looked like to him.

Dream invitation is part of modern devotion to Isis as well. Many are the modern priestesses and priests of Isis who were called to Her service in dream or in vision, which we may think of as waking dream.

Yet, as always, there are cautions that go along with all this dreaming and visioning. We cannot forget that any information that comes from Her comes through us. The dream or vision-seed of information may come from Isis, but it passes through our human minds and souls, as well as our physical brains and bodies. It’s easy for that seed to be affected by what’s going on with us, in our daily lives and in our spiritual lives. There’s no way to avoid this. The best we can do is to try to develop wisdom and self-knowledge so that we don’t fool ourselves into thinking Isis told us something when we were really just hearing our internal echo chamber. Yet, as long as we can recognize it as our own stuff, this too can be a valuable learning experience.

If we can be honest with ourselves, then when we do have an important dream or vision, we will more easily be able to recognize it. The dream or vision will be more vivid—in our minds, hearts, and memories. We will have a sense of its importance and, at least for us, truth. (Never, ever rely on memory alone; write it down, please. I speak from experience.)

Once Isis has made Herself known to us in our dreams or visions, then it is up to us to take Her up on Her invitation or take up any tasks She may have given us.

An example of hieratic cursive hieroglyhs

Sometimes I just find little bits and pieces of Isis information that don’t really warrant a whole post by themselves, but which together may be of interest. So on this Solstice Day, I am gathering up some of those end-of-the-year tidbits to share with you.

These particular bits come from the collection of Chester Beatty Papyri translated by Alan Gardiner, who as being assisted by R.O. Faulkner at the time. The texts were written in hieratic, which is a cursive method of writing hieroglyphs that developed and was used alongside formal hieroglyphs—because, frankly, hieroglyphs are a hard and tedious way to write. “Hieratic” means “priestly,” a name that it received in the 2nd century CE when it was being used only by the priests. Egyptian official and business documents were by that time being written in demotic, apparently a northern version of hieratic that eventually came to be adopted generally.

Sunrise between the pyramids: Re-Horankty

Call on Isis to banish bad dreams

Remember last week when we were talking about dreams? Well, from the context in one of the dream books, it seems that Horus was considered to be the archetypal dreamer. And when the archetypal dreamer had bad dreams, He turned to His mother Isis for help, speaking this spell (my capitalization):

“Come to Me, come to Me, My mother Isis. Behold, I am seeing what is far from Me in my city.” [And Isis replies,] “Here am I, My son Horus, come out with what Thou hast seen, in order that Thy afflictions throughout Thy dreams may vanish, and fire go forth against Him that frighteneth Thee [Set]. Behold, I am come that I may see Thee and drive forth Thy ills and extirpate all that is filthy. Hail to Thee, thou Good Dream which art seen by night or by day. Driven forth are all evil filthy things which Seth, the son of Nut, has made. Re is vindicated against His enemies; I am vindicated against My enemies.”

Once that invocation is spoken, then you take a little bread and some fresh herbs moistened with beer and myrrh, then rub your face with it. Sounds like it would work, too, though I might prefer to eat the bread.

Winter Solstice sunrise at the Amun sanctuary at Hatshepsut’s temple

Just a phrase I like 

From a poison-curing spell related to the story of Isis & Re, there’s a phrase for asking Isis to send you magic:

“Lay a spell upon me, my mother Isis…”

A magical gesture?

The first part of the spell says “I have enclosed in my right hand. I have enclosed in my left hand. I have enclosed [missing text] Horus [missing text], enclosed it in seven knots.” It is another poison-releasing spell and in the end Horus calls upon Isis.

I wonder whether the magician here is taking the part of Isis and enclosing Horus in her/his arms, perhaps symbolized by the seven knots? There were indeed magical knots of protection for the dead. These passages inspired a protective ritual in Isis Magic called “The Rite of the Tiet.”

Isis and Nephthys support Khepri in the solar rebirth

The scorpion as “the orphan girl”?

The spell asks Isis, Nephthys, and Thoth to “speak against the bite of the orphan girl. Whether the bitten die or the bitten live, it is Thoth Who replies, ‘Flow out, scorpion.'” I wish I knew the myth that explains how the scorpion is an orphan girl.

The holy butt of Isis

In a formula that lists the powers of Thoth, identifying each one with a human body part, and then further identifying that body part with a Deity, the “backside” of the human is associated with the Thoth-power “free from stealing and carrying off” and is further identified as “the backside of Isis.” Perhaps we can interpret this as “Isis has your back(side)!”

Water from the breasts of Isis

Not only does nourishing milk come from Isis’ breasts, but also cooling water. In an offering formula, Amun is asked to “take to Yourself what flows from the breast of Your mother Isis,” while water in menza-vases is being offered. In another offering formula, figs are offered as the priest says, “take to Thyself the breast of Isis of which the Gods taste.” That one gives me a little magical tingle and I shall be running out for some figs to offer.

The course of the sun on the shortest day of the year

In a related offering formula, Re is being reborn of Isis that He may live and grow to become old—and no doubt be born again:

“…Horus became the Oldest of the Old ever since He was ill, and went forth after His eye alive, when Seth had seized it; and He received it from Isis in Djeba’t-‘aryt. Come Thou forth whole between the loins of Thy mother Isis, that She may bear Thee and Thou become a stripling having been born; that Thou mayest become Re and mayst suck the milk which is in the breast of Thy mother Isis. Let Her cry be raised in She-‘adi, and mayst Thou go forth from the arms of Thy father Osiris. Make Thy life from it, and be Thou whole from it—from the sweet libation which comes forth from Thy father Osiris on the eastern side of the Great Green. Mayet Thou circle about the Ila-nebu and live on the east wind which comes forth from the eastern side of the Great Green. Mayest Thou live being small, and become a stripling, grow warm and be vigorous. And mayst Thou grow old of this Thy old age and this Thy wholeness.”

On taking action

In a different telling of the Isis & Re story, the text says that “the children of the Gods came every man with His mourning, but Isis came with Her skill.”

Mythic bits like that can sometimes make all the difference; they can inspire us or make us stronger in a difficult situation. So I hope at least one of these little bits of information has intrigued, inspired, or interested you in some way. And I wish you a happy, peaceful, and Isis-blessed Winter Solstice as the Light begins Its return and the Holy Infant, the Sun of Isis, is reborn.

The Winter Solstice sun shining upon the symbol of the sun on the Isis Temple in my backyard…from a previous year; today we have total overcast

An Egyptian rudder with seeing eyes and lotus decoration

As the New Year fast approaches, I have a wish for you: May Isis guide you in 2015. May She steer you toward that which you most desire. May She help you grow in strength and beauty of soul.

As a symbol of Her guidance throughout the year, I give you the symbol of the Egyptian steering-oar or rudder. Just as Egyptian pilots steered their earthly boats with these rudders, so they became a symbol of guidance and direction in the afterlife. And so may we take them as a symbol of guidance in our spiritual lives as well as our everyday lives.

In the Book of Coming Forth by Day, for example, the deceased prays that Horus, the son of Isis, will be in charge of the rudder of his funerary boat and that Thoth and Ma’et will be beside Him. In other words, he prays to be guided by the strength of Horus and the wisdom of Thoth and Ma’et.

When depicted in the funerary books, these Divine steering-oars are often decorated with the Eyes of Horus, representing the power of the Sun and Moon, and the blue lotuses of rebirth. In a group of four, the oars represent the four cardinal directions.

The seven Cows of Heaven and Their Bull, with rudders

But the rudder is also connected with the concept of abundance. In the Book of Coming Forth by Day, the deceased prays to the rudders of the directions asking them to grant bread, beer, offerings, provisions, long life, prosperity, health, and joy. Furthermore, directly following this prayer to the rudders is the formula of the Divine Cows and Their Bull. It, too, has to do with provisions in the afterlife, as well as rebirth from the Divine Cow. The proximity of the formulae of the Divine rudders and the Divine bovines, as well as their similar subject matter, indicates a relationship between them. Not only do both have to do with abundance and life, but also, like the four rudders, the four legs of the Divine Cow we sometimes associated with the four directions.

Isis guides the boat of the deceased in the Otherworld

Both cow and rudder are, in turn, related to Isis. She is the Divine Cow Who gives abundance and rebirth and She is also a Goddess Who guides. In Egyptian texts, Isis is one of the Deities Who guides the Sun God’s boat. In later Graeco-Roman sources, Isis is specifically connected with the symbol of the guiding rudder. As Isis Pelagia, Isis of the Sea, the Goddess was known to steer the ship of life with Her sacred rudder. Mariners of all kinds invoked Her guidance and protection as they crossed the Mediterranean, braving its many dangers.

In the Mediterranean world, the symbolism of the rudder continued to embrace the ideas of abundance and prosperity. In Hellenic lands, the rudder was a symbol of Agathe Tyche (Good Fortune). In Rome, it was the emblem of the Goddess Fortuna—and both Goddesses were intimately connected with Isis. In fact, of all the Goddesses in the areas influenced by Greece and Rome, Isis was the one Deity with Whom Agathe Tyche and Fortuna were most consistently assimilated.

Isis-Fortuna with rudder and cornucopia

As Agathe Tyche, Isis was considered the “luck” of a number of port cities, particularly Alexandria. In fact, Her headdress emphasises her connection with cities. As guardian of cities, Tyche wears an elaborate crown shaped like city walls. Legend had it that Tyche gave birth to a Divine figure called Isityche Who was said to symbolize the combination of Divine Providence and Chance. As you can easily see, Isityche is none other than Isis-Tyche. In this combined Divine figure, “Isis” represents the wise guidance of the Divine, while “Tyche”—sometimes depicted as blind—represents unseeing Chance.

The Roman version of Agathe Tyche was the Goddess Fortuna. She was extremely popular throughout the Roman world. Every Roman emperor kept an image of Fortuna in his sleeping quarters in hopes of bringing good fortune to his reign. Anyone with particularly good or bad luck was said to have her or his own “Fortuna.” Fortuna even had Her own oracular shrines. Her symbols include the Wheel of Fate, a sphere representing the World that She rules, the cornucopia of plenty, and a rudder with which She steers Fate. When Fortuna is depicted specifically as Isis Fortuna, She also wears the horns and disk crown of the abundant Egyptian Cow Goddess; thus reuniting the Egyptian symbols of cow and rudder in the figure of the Goddess Isis.

Isis Fortuna from the Temple of Isis, Pompeii

Like Tyche, Fortuna was often said to be blind. And, in fact, it may have been precisely because of this that Isis became so strongly tied to both Tyche and Fortuna. The Goddess Isis was well known to be the very opposite of blind. She is specifically a Goddess Who sees and understands the needs of Her worshippers. By invoking not just blind Tyche or blind Fortuna, but Isis Tyche and Isis Fortuna, one was invoking a seeing Fate—a more auspicious Fate steered by a skillful Mistress of the Rudder, the wise and kindly Goddess Isis.

Whether as the Divine Cow Goddess Who gives provisions and rebirth or as the guiding Goddess of the rudder and the cornucopia, Isis goes before us, guiding and leading us to abundance in all things. May She bless you in 2015 and beyond.