M. Isidora Forrest's Blog, page 19

Joined to Your Star

You often see me post on this blog about the late-summer return or rising of Isis’ star, Sirius.

Nuet, Full of Stars

But if She has a return, She must also have a disappearance. And, here at latitude 45.5º, that disappearance comes in just a few days, on May 6, to be precise.

If Isis can be considered among the Distant/Returning/Wandering Goddesses, as we have been discussing—and if the heliacal setting and rising of Sirius is at least part of the mythological mix, which it seems to be—then May 6 is the day of Her departure. She’ll be a Distant Goddess, not among the stars in the Portland skies, for about 70 days.

Photoshop; but beautiful

And yet, She is there. Even if we can’t see Her. But if we follow the Way of the Stars, we can be assured that we are connected to Her, even when She sometimes is a Distant Goddess.

In Isis Magic, the Path of the Stars is the path of the Prophet/ess of Isis. In Egyptian, this would be Hem/et Nutjeret; the Servant of the Goddess.

On this path, of course we must greet Sirius (Sothis in Greek, Sopdet in Egyptian) for the Goddess Herself may be seen in the star. And sometimes the star is said to be the ba, the manifestation or soul, of the Goddess.

We honor Isis in Her singular and beautiful star, but on the Path of Stars, we also work with the idea of a universe filled with millions and millions of stars—stars that are, like us, within the body of Nuet, the Sky Goddess and Mother of Isis.

An image from one of the shrines of Tutankhamon; these mummified Gods are joined to their stars and “receive the rays of Re”

In the Pyramid Texts, it is clear that the deceased king ascends to the heavens and becomes a star. This ascension also makes him Divine, a god among Gods. He takes his place in the otherworld as a star, sometimes called the Lone Star or the Morning Star. In this way, he—and we—are singular stars.

In Utterance 245 of the Pyramid Texts, the Sky Goddess says to the deceased, “Open up your place in the sky among the stars of the sky, for you are the Lone Star, the companion of Hu…” (Hu is one of the great creative powers of Re, “Creative Utterance.” It may be that the Goddess is likening the king to Sia, “Perception,” for indeed he specifically declares himself to be Sia in Utterance 250.) Utterance 248 reiterates the king’s star-nature. He is “a star brilliant and far traveling,” and he has “come to his throne which is upon the Two Ladies [Isis and Nephthys or Wadjet and Nekhbet] and the king appears as a star.” A text from the tomb of Basa, a priest of Min and mayor of ancient Thebes, says of the deceased, “your star be in heaven, your ba upon the earth.”

This is an image I took of the same scene from a reproduction of Tut’s shrine that came through town pre-pandemic

While the Pyramid Texts are concerned with the king, as time went on, we learn that not just the king or the nobles could be stars, but that everyone could participate and become stars.

But if you’ve read any of the Pyramid or Coffin Texts or the Book of the Dead, you’ll know that those sacred texts are not intended just for the dead. The texts tell us that the knowledge they impart is also beneficial for living human beings. “As for him who knows this spell on earth . . . he will proceed to a very happy old age” says one text. Another states that anyone who knows the spell will “complete 110 years of life,” while yet another explains, “it is beneficial for anyone who does it.”

We, the many stars in Her heaven

The same thing applies to being conscious of or joined to our stars. It is not solely a post mortum activity. If our “star” is our Divine Self, the one we will hopefully become after death, then to know our star in this life means that its light can serve as a guide as we move through our current earthly lives. What would my Star Self do in any given situation?

The Goddess Sopdet

One of the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri even has a specific ritual for learning about “your star,” and which is referred to as “an initiation.” There are quite a number of preparations, but in short, you purify yourself for seven days while the moon is waning. On the night of the dark moon, you begin sleeping on the ground each night for seven nights, waking every morning to greet the sun and to name the Deities of the hours of the day. On the eighth night, you rise in the middle of the night, perform a series of invocations and magical acts, recite the account of creation, and call upon the Great God. When the God arrives, you avoid looking in His face and ask Him about your fate. “He will tell you even about your star and what kind of daimon [spirit] you have…” (PGM XIII 646-734)

It is well for us to know “even about our star.” For it illuminates the individual life and spiritual path that is uniquely ours, yet it also places us in the company of the Divine Ones. We are a star among stars. And that means that we are not just the Lone Star, but also in the company of the Divine Ones always. We are not alone in the skies; we are in the retinue of the Deities, or even of a particular Deity.

O all you Gods who are in sky and earth, in the waters and in the horizon, prepare a path for my soul, my spirit, and my shade in the retinues of Re and of Hathor for all eternity.

Coffin Texts, 497

I did a meditation, not too long ago, about the Child Horus in the stillness of the womb of Isis. It came to me that it may be there and then that we are first joined to our stars. But to truly benefit from this starry relationship throughout our lives, we must continually renew, strengthen, and deepen the connection so that our star’s holy light may always inspire and guide us.

We might think of our star as our Star Self or Isis Self. Yet, like the Goddess Herself, it has many other names as well. It can be called the Higher Self, the Augoeides (“Shining One”), the Holy Guardian Angel, the Higher and Divine Genius, Christ Consciousness, the Atman, the True Self, the Inner Teacher, and many more.

And when we are joined to it, we will be our truer and more divine selves…in this life and the next. And so will everyone else.

Isis-Sopdet (second from left) and the Star Deities from Seti I’s tomb __ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-626ebe693a272', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', } } }); });

Graffiti and the Goddess

“May the good name remain here.”

This is one of the numerous graffiti scratched into the walls of Isis’ great temple at Philae by one of the many, many pilgrims (and tourists) who have journeyed to Her sacred island over the millennia.

The last-known hieroglyphic inscription in Egypt; Philae Temple of Isis

And so, while our last post ended with graffiti, this one begins with it.

Did you know that Philae is the Egyptian temple with the most graffiti of any existing temple? There are more than one thousand graffiti on the buildings on Philae (now on Agilika island; the temple was relocated in the 1960s to save it from submersion with the building of the Aswan Dam). Graffiti is, quite simply, everywhere; in Demotic, Greek, Meroitic, Latin, and later, French and English. Philae is also the site of the last-known hieroglyphic inscription, as well as the last-known Demotic inscription. The hieroglyphic inscription was made on the Gate of Hadrian near an image of Mandulis, a Nubian God also honored at Philae. It reads

Before Mandulis son of Horus, by the hand of Nesmeterakhem, son of Nesmeter, the Second Priest of Isis, for all time and eternity. Words spoken by Mandulis, Lord of the Abaton, Great God.

Gate of Hadrian, Philae island

And so our scribe was the son of a priest of Isis, writing in the ancient way. A bit further down, this time in Demotic, he notes that the inscription was made “on the birthday of Osiris” and gives a date, which converts to our 394 CE.

Last-known Demotic inscription from Philae (now under the equipment for the Sound and Light Show), image courtesy of Eugene David Cruz-Uribe, Indiana University East, Richmond, Indiana

The latest Demotic inscriptions are religious dedications, too, and may have happened only a day apart. One reads, “the feet of Panakhetet the lesser.” The other was dedicated by Nesmety the elder. So perhaps a father and son placing their names on the temple? Those inscriptions are dated to 452 CE.

But most recently, yet another Demotic inscription has been found. It says simply, “Petiese son of Petosiris.” It was found near the main sanctuary of Isis in an area that had been closed off when part of the temple was converted into a Christian church in the 6th century CE. An Egyptologist studying the inscriptions wonders whether Petiese (whose name means “Given by Isis,” by the way, so you can guess the meaning of his dad’s name) had accessed this area after the temple had been officially closed in 538 CE—making this the latest Demotic inscription yet found.

An argument in favor of this interpretation is that graffiti are usually only found on areas of the sacred buildings that were not in active use at the time of the graffito. Thus, it would make sense that the sanctuary of the Goddess was not in use when the inscription was made as much of it had already been converted into a church.

An example of the feet graffiti that say, “I stand before Isis forever”; from Philae; image courtesy of Eugene David Cruz-Uribe

For the most part, the people who made these inscriptions or drew images of their feet standing in this sacred place were not defacing the temple. They were pilgrims and were making their mark on the House of Isis because they wanted to be part of it. They expected the blessings of Isis upon their writing and upon themselves for their acts of pilgrimage. The practice of making devotional graffiti was common in Egypt and Nubia, but also throughout the Mediterranean region, and later in Medieval Christian churches in Europe. It is one of those things that humans have always done; we make our mark. The Egyptians referred to it as “leaving a name before a God,” like the graffito with which I began this post. (The tourists, like the members of a 1799 French expedition to Egypt who carved a huge inscription on Philae’s walls, cannot be so excused, and yet, even they have contributed to our knowledge of the history of the temple.)

A good deal of the devotional graffiti at Philae comes from Nubian pilgrims, either on a personal journey or to attend a festival of the Goddess. Located in far southern Egypt, Isis’ Philae temple has a long and important history with the people of Meroe (the capital city of the Nubian kingdom of Kush) and all of Nubia. Unlike most Egyptian temples, Philae is oriented towards the south, towards Nubia. Nubian kings contributed large sums of money to support the temple in a later period and it is likely that the last priests of Isis at Philae were Meroitic Nubians.

A golden Nubian pectoral of Isis

What’s more, the Nubians preferred to use Demotic script far into the 4th and 5th centuries CE, likely considering it a sacred script, just as hieroglyphs had been before. The longest graffito from Philae was made in Demotic by Sasan, an envoy of the King of Meroe who was on his way to Rome, and who stopped at Philae to give “homage to Isis in order to help faraway people.” He writes

My lady… Isis, you are the Mistress of the Road…. Our hearts are entrusted to you upon the way, to bring us to the way of life, while we call to you on every occasion, saying, “Listen to us.” I am your good servant, Isis… My heart is left to you [in] Egypt, in Meroe, and in the mountains. Isis, this is the only brother I have. I am going to leave him, and I say to you: “Keep him safe until you bring me back to Egypt.”

Sasan of Meroe appealing to Isis of Philae for safety

Those who have studied the Meroitic/Nubian inscriptions note that they are particularly heartfelt and often refer to the Osirian festivals around Khoiak. (Read more about Nubian Isis here.)

Nubian Isis by Stuart Littlejohn

People came to Philae and to Isis not only from Egypt and Nubia, but also from North Africa, Crete, Greece, and Asia Minor. This was especially true during the Ptolemaic period when Egypt and its rulers were so influential throughout the Mediterranean. Isis was then, and is now, a very multicultural Goddess.

Those of us who are fortunate enough to go on pilgrimage to Philae today, however, will need a different way to leave our names before the Goddess. Unlike Her ancient devotees, we won’t leave permanent marks on Her temple. But She has Her magic and we have our magic. And so, by the magic of the Lady or Words of Power, and with our own magic being in our mouths, we speak our names aloud before Her, leaving our names forever ringing through the stones of Her sacred temple and forever echoing in Her heart.

*The art in the preview picture is modern Egyptian street art.*

Wandering Isis

Part 3

Thoth, in the form of a baboon, lures Tefnut, in the form of a lioness, back home to Her father Re

Let’s finish up our exploration of Isis as a Wandering Goddess by looking at some additional ways Isis’ story fits in with the myth of the Wandering/Distant/Returning Goddess. Last time we saw how Isis’ lioness form, as well as the raped-Goddess motif, fits in with other Wandering and Distant Goddesses, as well as how prevalent that myth was in the Delta—the place where Isis’ worship may have originated.

So let’s see what else we can find out.

Eye of Re

The fiery Eye of Re

In addition to being fierce and protective Lioness Goddesses, our Wandering Goddesses are also fierce and protective Eye Goddesses. Usually, They are Solar Eyes—Daughters of Re—hence Their fiery nature—though we saw that the Lioness Goddess Mehyt may be associated with the Udjat Eye, the full Lunar Eye, which in turn connects Her with the ever-so-famous Eye of Horus, son of Isis.

Isis is Herself a Divine Eye and Daughter of the Sun God Re. She is said to “emerge” from Re or “come forth” from His body. At Philae, inscriptions say that She “appears” as the Eye of Re. (On the other hand, as a Primordial Goddess, Isis is also said to give birth to Re, so there’s that.) Isis is called Re’et, the Female Re…indeed, at Denderah She is called “the Re’et of Re’ets,” that is, “Sun Goddess of Sun Goddesses,” and She is Queen of the Re’et Goddesses. She is the Solar Eye, “the right eye of He Who shines like gold” and She is the solar disk, the Aten Itself. Hathor and Isis are the only Goddesses Who have the distinction of being identified as the solar disk itself. At Denderah, Isis is Re’et “in the dual course of the sun and the moon,” and so She encompasses both Solar and Lunar Eyes.

Eye of Re Who has No Equal in Heaven and on Earth

The Fiery Goddess strikes fear in the heart of Her, and Re’s, enemies. Her power can cause death “in this vigorous form” and She describes Herself as “She who triumphs, the companion of Re.” As the Sacred Eye, the Goddess coils as a third eye upon the Sun God’s brow, protecting Him and fighting an ongoing cosmic battle against His great opponent, the Great Serpent Apop (Gr. Apophis). Inscriptions from Philae call Isis “Neseret-serpent on the head of Horus-Re, Eye of Re, the Unique Goddess, Uraeus” and “Eye of Re Who has No Equal in Heaven and on Earth.”

The all-seeing black kite

In addition to being a Divine Eye, we can also understand Isis as having particularly keen sight due to Her sharp raptor’s eyes. The kite hawk’s sky-high view gives it an advantage in being able to see far distances, which could lead to the conclusion that it was All Seeing. In later periods of Her worship, Isis was invoked not only as “all-seeing,” but “many-eyed.”

Isidorus’ Faiyum hymns to the Goddess describe Her as gazing down on the activities of humanity and noting the individual virtues of human beings. Yet the glance of Isis’ sharp eye can have dire consequences for those who oppose Her. When the Ennead of the Gods is arguing over whether Horus or Set should receive Osiris’ throne, the Deities back down in the face of the anger and flashing eyes of Isis.

The Goddess Leaves the Premises

The next few pieces of our puzzle, I admit, are not as strong as the argument to date. We just don’t have an Isis myth that’s very close to Tefnut’s or Hathor/Sakhmet’s angry departure and joyful return. My guess is that Isis became so strongly associated with the Osirian myth cycle—and there were so many other Goddesses associated with the Wandering Goddess cycle—that there simply wasn’t a need for people to retain that particular myth, if there originally was one as I think there was, in relation to Isis.

Isis wanders, finds each piece, and creates a shine for Osiris

As Isis began to break away from the Goddess pack, so to speak, and Her worship spread not only throughout Egypt, but into the entire Mediterranean region and beyond, there was less and less reason to include that theme in Her worship. Instead, the very human, heart-touching emotionalism, tragedy, and eventual triumph of the Isis-Osiris-Horus myth took over…even as She was .

And yet, Isis does wander. She wanders throughout the length and depth of Egypt searching for the pieces of Her Beloved’s body. She creates shrines in the major cities and towns of Egypt, so that Her story is known by all. The ubiquity of the Isis-Osiris myth was so prevalent that the historian Herodotus, in the 5th century BCE, had the impression that Isis and Osiris were the only two Deities universally worshiped in Egypt. Not only that, but we can imagine that Isis’ wandering is filled with grief and mourning, yes, but also with anger. If you have ever lost someone suddenly, you will understand, on a gut level, that anger is a very familiar part of mourning.

Is Induced to Return

Horus takes His rightful place as king; Isis is in joy

Rather than being coaxed into returning home, however, Isis is more self-directed. She returns when Her task of gathering Osiris is complete and She has guided His resurrection and transformation into Lord of the Dead. Her concerns at home now turn to ensuring Horus takes His rightful place as king. And here again we see Her demonstrate the fiery power and righteous anger of the Divine Eye. Remember what we saw above reagarding the Ennead backing down in the face of Her anger.

Is Pacified (and Goes on a Boat Ride)

Backing down and admitting that Horus should indeed be king, the Ennead pacifies Isis. Ah, so Our Lady did need a bit of placation after all. What’s more, at Hathor’s Denderah temple, where the two Goddesses are so, so close, we even find that Isis needed an isheru to cool Her off.

See the wavy lines indicating Water on three sides of Her throne? That’s the isheru.

At Denderah, Hathor and Isis often mirror each other. In the main temple, we see Hathor on Her throne on one wall and Isis on another. Beneath Hathor’s throne we see 16 vases of Inundation water, one vase for each cubit of the ideal height of the Nile flood. The king offers Her a jar of Primordial Water, while Her son Ihy plays the sistrum and rattles the menat to sooth Her anger. On another wall in the same room, we find Isis enthroned. Beneath and around Her throne are wavy lines of water in a basin shaped roughly like an isheru. An inscription identifies it as precisely that by telling us that, “Her isheru lake is all around Her.”

This same scene, the two seated Goddesses with 16 vases beneath Hathor’s throne and an isheru surrounding that of Isis, is also found in Denderah’s so-called Chapel of Purification, the Per-Nu. And yet again, the same scene of Isis alone is found on another wall in a different room of the temple. As before, the enthroned Isis is seated over an isheru-shaped basin. The inscription reads, “Isis the Great . . . is seated/pacified in the isheru that is all around Her, Who crosses the lake within Her barque.” The inscriptions go on to describe Isis’ traveling on the isheru as a meeting with Her father Nun and tell us that He enfolds Her in His arms. Thus, both Isis and Hathor are connected with the Inundation and the Primordial Waters. The Waters are offered by the king to Hathor since She regulates the ideal Inundation, while Isis is embraced by Her father Who is said to be the Watery Abyss Himself.

Detail of a fresco from the Temple of Isis in Pomeii thought to refer to the Navigium Isidis, with Isis or Her priestess in the ship

The Goddesses’ ritual travel by boat upon the isheru is known to Egyptologists as a navigation. (At Denderah, there were 9 navigations, one for each place the Goddess stopped on Her way back from Nubia.

We might remember that Isis, too, has a rather famous navigation: the Navigium Isidis (the “ship of Isis” or “sailing of Isis”). I’m still trying to find the Egyptian word that was used for the “navigation” in the Hathor-Isis festival. (If you have come across it, please do let me know.) There is an Egyptian word, khenet, which is related to other words having to do with boats, sailors, and navigation—as well as a festival of Osiris that featured a procession of boats—but I don’t know whether the same word was used for the navigation of Isis and Hathor on the isheru. I’ll keep looking.

A fanciful Italian mosaic, from the Hellenistic period, showing Egypt during Inundation

Nevertheless, it is clear that at Denderah one of the things the Return of the Goddess was about was the return of the waters of the Inundation that would bring prosperity to Egypt. In addition, the rising river made the Nile more navigable for a wider variety of boats and ships. Just before the flood was the time of the river’s lowest, most-difficult-to-travel water levels. The Navigium Isidis (Gk: Ta Ploiaphesia; the Launching [of the Ship of Isis]), while not concerned with the water level or Inundation of the Nile, was concerned with the navigability of the Mediterranean Sea that would mark the start of the shipping season in spring.

Festival Ensues

The Fierce Feline Goddess, now pacified, celebrates

We now come to the final element in the Wandering Goddess myth: Her joyful return and the Festival of Drunkenness. We have already seen evidence of such festivals for Mut, Tefnut, Bastet, Nehemant, and of course, Hathor. And I’m sure that, at Denderah, with the closeness of the Goddesses, Isis devotees would have participated with Hathor devotees during the festivals held there. There certainly were joyous festivals for Isis, particularly around the conception and birth of Horus and the birthdays of Isis and Her siblings during the epagomenal days. What’s more, She is known as a joyful Goddess; temple inscriptions call Her the Queen of Joy, Lady of Rejoicing, and Lady of Jubilation. Deities and human beings rejoice when They/they see Her. Isis is called She Whose Heart is Open and Her joy is likened to the beauty of the full moon.

Still, we don’t have solid evidence of a full-fledged Festival of Drunkenness for Isis.

And yet.

There are these two little bits of graffiti from Her temple at Philae. They’re in bad shape. They’re from a late period. But one mentions a day of singing and drunkenness, the other notes a dedication to Hathor, a “house of greeting,” and “the place of drunkenness of the people.”

Let us celebrate the Festival of Tekh (drunkenness) that we may see the Goddess

In fact, all of this makes sense. Philae was home to a temple of Hathor—just as Denderah included a temple of Isis. Philae was also Tefnut’s first stop on Her way back from Nubia. It was there that She changed from burning lioness to peaceful Goddess. So it may well be that—in that fluid way of Egyptian Goddesses and Their festivals—Isis-Hathor-Tefnut may have been celebrated with a Festival of Drunkenness at Philae, too. Since there is no temple calendar carved on the walls at Philae, we can’t be sure, but perhaps we will learn more from other discoveries as time goes on.

So, there you have it. It may have been that Our Lady Isis participated in both of the great mythic themes of ancient Egypt: the Isis & Osiris story as well as the tale/s of the Wandering/Distant/Returning Goddess.

The Heart of Isis

Let’s take a break from our Wandering Goddess exploration. It’s been a bit intense.

So today, instead, we come back to the heart of the matter, the reason so many of us are here: Isis and our experience of Her.

Many of you have written to me with beautiful, powerful, life-changing experiences of Her presence in your lives and in the world. (As well as some very, very interesting questions.) I am so very grateful. I am overjoyed that She has found you, or you have found Her—or both, which is so often the case. May She continue to enfold you in Her wings, protect you, enlighten you with the brilliance of the sun, moon, and stars that are Hers. May She ever fill you will the wonder of Her Deep and Shining Heart.

As I was pondering all this, I came across some older videos that I had made, one an invocation, one a meditation. And once I finally recovered my YouTube account (that was fun), I thought I’d share them again. The first one is a shortened version of the Opening of the Ways, and the second is a meditation for awakening your own Isis Heart or Iset Ib like the blossoming of the blue lotus.

A shortened version of the Opening of the Ways to Isis

Open your lotus heart to the Great Goddess Isis

You can tell these videos are old because of the announcement about the book at the end. But if you do want to pick up a copy, they’re still available. Just click on the image of the book at the top right if you’re on desktop, below the homepage post listings if you’re on mobile.

Isis as a Wandering Goddess

Part 2

In a recent post, we wondered whether Our Lady Isis might be one of the Wandering/Distant/Returning Goddesses of ancient Egypt. And while we don’t have myths of an angry Isian departure or a festival of drunkenness for Her, I still think there are enough traces left to connect Isis to this important Egyptian mythic theme.

Isis’ Philae temple, now on Agilika island

Let’s start at Philae, the location of Isis’ great Upper Egyptian temple, located near Egypt’s border with ancient Nubia. As you might recall, Philae was Tefnut’s first stop upon that Goddess’ return to Egypt following Her angry flight to Nubia. An inscription on Isis’ temple there says that when Tefnut arrived, there was a great flame around Her, but then She went up into the sky 10,000 cubits and immediately became peaceful.

Tefnut & Shu on a menat

Egyptologist Joachim Quack suggests an astronomical solution to the burning lioness’ aerial ascent: the heliacal rising of the star Sirius, which twinkles red close to the horizon, but as it rises higher takes on a calmer, blue-white color, and which—thousands of years ago— heralded the vital Egyptian Inundation. The temple at Philae, in ancient Egypt’s far south, would have been one of the first places observers could have witnessed the heliacal return of the star.

Sopdet by Yliade

The star’s behavior, apparently leaving the sky for a period of about 70 days each year while it is in a too-close conjunction with the greater light of the sun, works well with the myth. The Goddess disappears for a while, then returns to the rejoicing of the people, for as She returns, She brings with Her the floods that ensure the fertility of the land. What’s more, many of these festivals for the Returning Goddess seem to have taken place around the summer solstice. Depending on when and where you were or are, the summer solstice could coincide roughly with the rise of Sirius.

Iset-Sopdet following Sah-Osiris in Their celestial boats

So…here in Isis’ temple on the border of Nubia, we have Isis’ own grandmother Tefnut, identified with the star Sirius, which is itself personified as the Goddess Sopdet, a Goddess Who has been identified with Isis since at least the time of the Pyramid Texts. If we appreciate the Sirius solution as a possible origin for the myth of the Wandering Goddess, it’s a pretty easy, pretty clean Distant/Returning Isis connection.

Of course, if you’ve looked into Egyptian myth, you know that most of it doesn’t come in clear, narrative form. The only reason we have a narrative-ish version of the Isis and Osiris story is that the Greek priest Plutarch wrote it down like that.

As a source for the story of the Returning Goddess, we have the Demotic and Greek versions I mentioned last time, but mostly what we have are bits and pieces from temple walls, monuments, funerary texts, and texts like the Delta and Tebtunis mythological manuals. And while the overarching theme is the same (Goddess goes, bad; Goddess returns, good), the details are different enough that no one has tried to put together any such thing as a definitive version of the myth.

So, to track down our Wandering Isis, I’ll try to pull together some of the pieces of Her story that seem to relate to the main features of the myth/s as we know them.

“A Fierce March” by Hiren Vekaria

The Angry Goddess

One of the first things you may have noticed is that our Distant Goddesses all have a lioness form. Most people are familiar with the lioness forms of Sakhmet-Hathor and Tefnut, but the other Distant Goddesses are lionesses, too. As the pride’s main hunters, lionesses are decidedly fierce. Even lions back off in the face of an angry lioness; you’ve seen the videos.

And yes, even glittery Sopdet has a lioness form. If you’ve been following along with this blog, you already know that Isis Herself can appear as a lioness and is frequently identified with Sakhmet or Bastet, just to name two of our most prominent Feline Goddesses. Isis’ Philae temple entrance is guarded by two lion statues and She is often show seated upon a lion-throne.

Horit (read about Her here and here) is lioness connected, too. Like Isis, She is repeatedly identified with some of our fierce feline Goddesses. One of Her children is killed by a lioness. The lioness is hunted down by Nephthys and Thoth and flayed. The remains of the child are wrapped in the lioness’ skin and the child is reborn.

Isis with the head of a lioness from the Kom Ombo temple

Another part to Horit’s myth makes Her a duplicate of Isis. One of the children She bears to Osiris is Horus of Medenu. When Osiris is killed by Seth, Horit hides Her Horus in the marshes, raising Him to be an avenger of His father Osiris—just as Isis did with Her Horus, Harsiese “Horus, son of Isis.”

Nope, not Sakhmet. Isis.

Further, Horit is imprisoned in Sebennytos where She is connected with Tefnut, Sakhmet, Bastet, and Hathor. Sebennytos also had a temple of the lioness Meyht and Her consort-hunter Onuris. Just a few miles from Sebennytos is the location of the Lower Egyptian temple of Isis known as Isiopolis with its focus on the resurrection of Osiris. So right here, in this part of the Egyptian Delta, we find temples and myths that incorporate both the Returning Goddess and Isis-Osiris themes. What’s more, we have a duplicate Isis—Horit—Who forms a kind of bridge between these two important motifs.

Another characteristic of our Distant Goddesses is that They are angry when They leave. In some cases, we know why; in others, we don’t. And while many people think of Isis as an exclusively kind and motherly Deity, She can also show an angry-burning-lioness side and be kick-yer-ass insistent from time to time.

Bastet as lioness rather than cat

Warning: discussion of rape in myth upcoming

You may recall that in several fragments of the myth, the reason Tefnut leaves in anger is that She has been raped by Her son Geb. Isis, too, suffers rape by Her son Horus. A stele from the Middle Kingdom refers to Horus violating Isis while He “inclined His heart toward Her”(!?!). From the Harris Magical Papyrus, we have this heart-rending account of Isis’ reaction:

Isis is weary on the water; Isis lifts Herself on the water; Her tears fall into the water. See, Horus violates his mother Isis and Her tears fall into the water.

Harris Magical Papyrus, VIII, 9-10

In Koptos, where Min has the epithet Bull of His Mother and is the consort of Isis, the God eventually came to be assimilated with Horus—again sexually pairing Isis and Horus. So much so, that They formed the very unusual cross-gender combination form of Isis-Horus. In a papyrus from the Ramesseum collection, another falcon God, Hemen, a form of Horus, has sex with Isis and impregnates Nephthys with a daughter, and we again have reason to think this was not consensual.

You do not want the hyt of Isis cast against you. Photo by OmarPhotos.com. See more work here.

Even in Plutarch’s rendition of the story of Isis and Osiris, Isis displays anger. As Isis is bringing Osiris’ body back to Egypt from Byblos by ship, the wind produced rough sailing and Isis dried up the river with an angry look. When She stopped to mourn Osiris, a prince of Byblos who had accompanied Her, became unwisely curious and observed Her in Her grief. She turned a terrible gaze upon him and he died instantly.

In Demotic (late Egyptian), we find a term hyt, that would be pronounced something like khyt, which could mean anything from divine inspiration and ecstasy to doom, fury, or curse. Interestingly, it was usually “cast” on or against someone or something—just as heka, magic, was (and is) cast. A graffito from Isis’ temple at Philae says that “the hyt of Isis is upon any man who will read these writings.” The person had written their name on the temple and was calling down the hyt of Isis on anyone who might remove the writing. A graffito at Aswan makes this clearer:

The hyt of Isis the Great, Chief of the Multitude/Army is upon every man on earth who will read these writings. Do not let [him] attack [the writings], to not let him disparage the writings. Every man on earth who will find these writings and erase or disparage the writings, Isis the Great, Chief of the Multitude/Army will decrease his lifetime because of it, while every man who will give praise and respond regarding them, [he will be praised(?)] before Isis the Great, the Great Goddess.”

Graffito Aswan 13, ll. 6-13; Appendix, no. 2, in Robert Ritner’s “An Eternal Curse upon the Reader of These Lines”

From Saqqara, a Demotic inscription forebodingly says that, “the hyt of Isis is upon you.” While Isis is not the only Deity having hyt (most did), we can at least see the fearsome power of Isis’ fury or curse. From the later Greek Magical Papyri, we still see a fierce Isis Who is called upon in an erotic spell of compulsion:

For Isis raised up a loud cry, and the world was thrown into confusion. She tosses and turns on her holy bed and its bonds and those of the daimon world are smashed to pieces because of the enmity and impiety of her, [name of the woman who does not desire the spell caster] whom [name of her mother] bore.

PGM XXXVI, 134-160

We’ve not come to the end of our exploration of Isis as a Wandering-Distant-Returning Goddess…but this post is long enough for now. So we’ll take it up again next time to see what else there might be to be seen.

For now, we know that Isis has a fierce lioness form, that She has reason to be angry in a manner similar to at least some of our Wandering Goddesses, and that, in Lower Egypt—around Her temple at Isiopolis—this myth was not only particularly important, prevalent, and widespread, but most of the Goddesses participated in some version of the myth in one way or another.

Is Isis a Wandering Goddess?

Part 1

Isis Wandering in Search of Osiris, by Louis Braquet

If your first reaction is, “Well, heck yeah; She wandered all over looking for the bits of Osiris,” you would not be wrong. But I’m thinking of a different wandering Goddess motif—and not one that is usually associated with Isis.

This mythic theme is also known as the tale of the Distant Goddess, the Wrathful Goddess, or the Returning Goddess. Most people are familiar with it from the Egyptian text known as the Heavenly Cow.

She quells the rebels

In that story, humanity has rebelled against Re and He sends Hathor—in the form of the much-more-violent Sakhmet—to punish them. She overdoes things just a tad, almost wiping out all of humanity. To quell Her berserker rage, beer is colored red. Lioness Sakhmet laps it up like like blood, becomes drunk…and is thus “pacified.” Egyptian festivals celebrated Her peaceful return to Her father Re with all-around drunkenness—and not a few hookups on one hand and mystical communions with the Goddess on the other.

But there are many other Goddesses Who share this mythic motif. While the details—to the extent that we have them—are different in the different tales, let’s take a brief look at Who-all-else may have been involved.

In the second most well known of these tales, it is Tefnut Who is our Wandering Goddess. We have a Demotic (late Egyptian) version of the tale and a Greek folktale-ish one. Both are a spotty as the papyri are quite damaged and neither has been translated into English, so I’m working from paraphrases.

The Goddess is NOT pleased

As our story begins, Tefnut—one of the Fiery Feline Goddesses of the Eye—is angry. She is the Eye of Re, Who, in this version, is Her father. We don’t know why She is angry, but She leaves, heading south, possibly to Nubia or to some other place That Is Not Here.

Without His powerful daughter, Re is vulnerable, so He sends Shu, Tefnut’s husband and brother, and Thoth, Who is particularly clever at pacifying angry Goddesses, to fetch Her back. Eventually, They track Her down. It takes some doing, but with entertaining stories, promises of offerings and festivals, jars of beer, and the wensheb, the symbol of ordered time (and general ma’et-ness), the Fiery Goddess is persuaded to return to Egypt and Her father.

Festival musicians

The first place She stops on Her way back into Egypt is the southern Egyptian temple of Isis at Philae. There, She is purified and transforms from Her Burning Lioness form into a lovely woman. On the nearby island of Biggeh, where a tomb of Osiris and an Isis-Osiris temple were located, we find also a temple to Tefnut-Hathor, our angry/joyful Goddess. Perhaps this temple was Her starting point as She traveled from southern Egypt to northern, stopping at temples and towns along the way.

At each stop, a joyous welcome-home-and-restoration-of-order festival of music, dancing, drinking, and feasting ensues. (I am reminded that in cultures throughout the world—often—festivals of license are required in order to usher in a renewed period of order.)

Warning: references to rape in myth upcoming.

“The lance was placed in Geb’s thigh” and we all know what thigh stands in for, right?

Another of Tefnut’s Wandering Goddess myths is darker. We have bits of it from papyri found in the Faiyum and the Delta and on a naos from the 30th dynasty. From these sources, we learn that Geb has raped His mother Tefnut and taken the kingship from His father Shu, recently deceased, though we’re not sure how Shu died. Another version of the myth says Geb “hurt His father Shu as He copulated with His mother Tefnut.” In the next sentence, Tefnut leaves—surely blazing with anger, though what we have says nothing of Her state of mind. During Her absence, the text says, “the lance was placed in His [Geb’s] thigh,” in punishment. Another version has Geb taking up the royal Uraeus of Shu and placing it on His own head, but it burns Him ferociously with a wound that won’t heal. (And we recall that the royal Uraeus is yet another form of the fiery Eye Goddess.)

Goddess imprisoned

There are many confusing details in these myths that I won’t go into here. But I do want to again call out the reason why the outraged Goddess leaves, going as far away as She can: She has been raped by Her son.

In a different post, we looked at another raped-Goddess myth, the story of Horit. We don’t hear of Horit leaving for somewhere That Is Not Here. While being identified with Tefnut, She is instead imprisoned—in Sebennytos, the Lower Egyptian capital of the nome where Isis’ temple complex at Isiopolis was located. Eventually, She is freed. So, the Return of the Goddess, in this case, is a return from imprisonment…with the same joyous welcome from the people.

Mehyt

From Upper Egypt, there is the story of Mehyt and Onuris. Onuris, the desert hunter, is the consort of the Lioness Goddess Mehyt. His name means something like “Bringer of the Distant One” and Her name means something like “the Full One.” It may relate to Her identification as the Udjat Eye of Horus, that is the full Eye or the full moon. Mehyt, like all Eye Goddesses, is a protective Goddess, and protects both Osiris and Re. She is also a Fierce Goddess wielding arrows or hoards of demons as needed. As Onuris is involved in a hunt for the Eye of Horus, His heart is said to ache for the Sacred Eye, which certainly seems to make The Eye less of a thing to be procured and more of…well…a Goddess to be desired. Mehyt and Onuris were also honored in Lower Egypt; there was a temple to Them at Sebennytos.

There were many local versions of the Distant Goddess theme. Frequently, the raging Goddess goes by one name and the pacified one by another—like Sakhmet/Hathor in the Heavenly Cow. At Hermopolis, the fiery Goddess is Ai or Tai, while the peaceful one is Nehemant. Demotic inscriptions from Herakleopolis, where these Goddesses were also honored, show evidence of a festival of drunkenness for Her, as it seems there may have been for all our Returning Goddesses.

Tefnut

Inscriptions tell us that “when they are drunk, they will see . . . by means of the vessel” and that people make love before the Goddess and celebrate Her with feasts. From Tebtunis (in the Faiyum), Wenut (Who we met here) is the Raging Goddess and Nehemtua is the Returning One. Nehemant/Nehemtua (and other, similar renderings of Her name) is, predictably, identified with Tefnut, Horit, and Hathor.

Instead of Nubia, Nehemtua has fled to Naunet, the Great Goddess of the Hermopolitan Abyss, and settled Herself within Naunet. Here, we do know why She fled: because Set wants to possess Her, both sexually and as a symbol of His father Geb’s kingdom. So again, the Goddess is fleeing either post-rape or to prevent it. In this tale, it is Thoth and Nephthys Who go to bring the Goddess back.

Upon Her return, Nehemtua is said to have been “initiated” (bsi) to Shu (reinforcing Her connection to Tefnut) in the great (sacred) lake at Hermopolis. Frequently, water is required to cool down the fiery Goddess.

Temple of Mut with isheru

The Great Goddess Mut, Whose name means simply “mother,” is also associated with this theme. She is the Lady of the Isheru,* the crescent-shaped sacred lake in which the Raging Goddess is cooled and, no doubt, purified upon Her return. Part of Her ecstatic festival of return was called the Navigation of Mut and was enacted upon the cooling isheru. Some semi-recently come-to-light texts have made Mut’s festival of drunkenness rather famous. A very fragmentary text about these festivals refers to “the Distant One” and to pacification of the Goddess. We learn of singing, dancing, drinking, feasting, and “sexual bliss” in honor of Mut. Pharaoh Hatshepsut is recorded as having built a “portico of drunkenness” for Her.

Mut the Mother, Mut the Daughter

Also of note is Mut’s ability to renew Herself; She is both mother and daughter. Her consort is Amun, Who is capable of self-renewal, too, for He bears the epithet Kamutef, Bull of His Mother. And yes, the bull part refers to sex. So we have Mut and Amun (and Re, as possessor of the Eye, is in there somewhere, too) as mother and daughter and son and father to each other. The God Min of Koptos is also called Kamutef—with Isis as His mother/sexual partner. With the Isis-Horus connection so strong, Min eventually takes on the name Horus as well.

And this is by no means the end of the Egyptian Goddesses associated with the myth of the Wandering Goddess, but it is enough to get a picture of its widespread nature. Egyptologists’ explanations for its origins include: the sun’s movement southward from summer to winter; the heliacal disappearance and return of the star Sirius to herald the Inundation; the waning and waxing of the moon during its cycle; the Inundation itself as its waters quench both Egyptian fields and cool the red-hot Goddess; the hunter bringing back a tamed animal to his tribe; the maintenance of royal power; the return of ma’et after a period of disorder; and a young woman’s first menstrual period—wherein she leaves as an immature girl, but returns as a sexually mature being, a possibility I find intriguing. Oh, and let’s not forget (in some cases) rape as the reason for the Goddess’ departure and the “sorry, come back home, baby” nature of the persuasions—to put another human face on it. All of these make some sense and there doesn’t have to be just one answer.

As I said in the beginning, we don’t usually connect Isis with this myth. We have no stories left to us in which Isis rages off and has to be persuaded to return, from Nubia or anywhere else. We know of no festivals of drunkenness for Her. And yet, I feel almost certain that there used to be just such a tale. We’ll talk about that next time and I’ll lay out my case.

*As you might guess, Sakhmet and Bast, both feline Deities, were known to have isheru…but Wadjet had one, too. Usually, we think of Her in the form of the Uraeus Goddess, but She also had a lioness form—and is thus among our Fierce and Fiery Felines, too.

The Mysteries of Isis in Antioch

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

Ancient Antioch, modern Antakya, is in Turkey. It was originally founded as a Greek city and located on the banks of the Orontes River.

Like Alexandria, it was established by one of Alexander’s generals, in this case, Seleucus I Nicator, the first of the Seleucid Dynasty, which ruled over the largest part of the lands conquered by Alexander.

An Antioch coin with Isis headdress

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. Her symbols occur on Antiochian coins from 168 BCE. Images of the Goddess and of Serapis have also 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.

This is the whole mosaic floor with decorative borders; a pipeline is the cause of the central broken part of the mosaic

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 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 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 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 (or possibly Hermanubis, according to some scholars), 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.

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 another 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. A third mosaic in the house features theatrical masks, which would seem to relate it to the mosaics in the House of the Bakchic Thiasos. Nothing that has been discovered so far, however, makes that certain.

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.

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.

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

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.

A closeup and restoration of the sistrum-bearing figure

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 __ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-6237a0c2da9ff', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', onClick: function() { window.__tcfapi && window.__tcfapi( 'showUi' ); }, } } }); });

Isis, the Milk Provider

She even has eyeliner

Have you ever looked into the warm, earth-brown eyes of a cow? Not in a video or a photo, but right there with the living cow, as her body heat radiates upon you and you share her grassy breath?

A cow-headed Isis pours a libation for the ba of Osiris

Huge, dark pools of calm, those eyes with their long lashes. Up close and personal, cows are large and impressive creatures. With their placid strength and ready supply of milk and meat, it’s no wonder human beings have almost always considered them holy in one way or another.

Among so many other of Her attributes, Our Lady Isis is a Cow Goddess. Like Hathor, Isis can be shown in full cow-form or as a cow-headed woman. We find the Cow Goddess Isis in many ancient places, including Her temple at Isiopolis.

The Cow Goddess from Isiopolis, returned now to Egypt

In 2011, a fragment of one of the blocks from Isis’ temple there had been chipped off a larger block and sold on the antiquities market. It has now been returned to Egypt.

The block at Isiopolis where She came from

The auction identified the Cow Goddess as Akht. I have not otherwise found this Cow Goddess. Akhet usually means horizon or the Light Land; it is the Egyptian liminal place, the transition between earth and the otherworld. Since this cow-headed Goddess was found in Isis’ temple, it may be that She and Isis were assimilated as Iset-Akht.

Of course, as a Goddess, the milk of Isis needn’t be divine cow’s milk. As you may recall, to the ancient Egyptians, bodily fluids could be a way of moving magic or heka. Written spells could be licked from the papyrus in order to be taken into the human body. Magic could be eaten or swallowed. From blood to semen to spittle, all these fluids are powerful and a million times more so when they come from a Deity

Isis Lactans, Isis the Milk-Giver

Yet of all these magical bodily fluids, it may be that milk is the queen of them all. To us at least, milk is the most pleasant—and palatable—of the magical body fluids. It is, after all, our first food. In fact, it is the perfect food and it gives us an intimate connection with our mothers. Children nursing at the breasts of their mothers are drinking Life Itself. No death has ever touched this pure milk. It comes from the mother alive. It is drunken alive. It becomes part of a living being.

Milk is magic.

Isis is one of the most important Egyptian Milk Goddesses from a very early period. The Pyramid Texts say to the deceased, “Take the breast of your sister Isis the milk-provider.” Throughout Egyptian history, Isis is the mother and nurse of kings. A scholar who as studied the images of Isis Lactans (“Milk-Giving Isis”) observed that the idea that milk from the breast of the Goddess not only gives life, but also longevity, salvation, and even divinity is one that exists “in the mentality of the populations of the Delta from the earliest antiquity, and manifests itself in the official imagery of the Pharaohs.”

The Mother gives Her breast to the Horus Child

Egyptian art shows the king drinking this holy milk of the Goddess three important times: at birth, at his coronation, and at his rebirth. The symbolism is clear. Goddess milk provides life to the babe, royal power—and perhaps wisdom and even divinity—to the new king, and renewal after death for the deceased king.

A daily ritual conducted in the temples at Thebes, Memphis, and Abydos was designed to confirm the power of the king. Pharaoh (or more likely, his representative) received the sa en ankh, life-energy, from his Divine Father, Amun-Re, by means of magical gestures. Then he received the power of the Goddess from his Divine Mother, Amunet, by means of drinking Her milk. Carved on temple walls, the Goddess invites the king to suckle the milk from both Her breasts. In Hatshepsut’s temple, Hathor’s milk gives the young Pharaoh “life, strength, health.” Hatshepsut is also nursed by the Werety Hekau, the Two Great of Magic, Who are connected with the royal crown—as well as with Isis and Nephthys. The Pyramid Texts have Isis bring Her milk to the deceased Pharaoh to assist in his rebirth: “Isis comes, she has her breasts prepared for her son Horus, the victorious.” Isis is said “to flow with” Her milk for the dead, which is a rather lovely phrase.

A charming vessel in which to store “the milk of a woman who has borne a son.” Photo by Rob Koopman; wikicommons

Milk was also used for healing. The “milk of a woman who has borne a son” was a fairly common ingredient in Egyptian medicines and, according to Prof. Robert Ritner, usually referred to the milk of Isis Who bore Horus.

Archeologists have recovered a number of small vessels in the shape of a woman pressing her breast to give milk or, as in the case of the vessel shown here, a woman nursing. They were designed to hold human milk, perhaps for making medicine, perhaps for later feeding of a child. The milk of the Divine Mother was also directly invoked for healing.

In a formula for the relief of a burn, Isis says that She will extinguish the fire of the burn with Her milk. By applying Goddess-milk to the body of the sufferer, they will be healed and the fire will leave the body. In a New Kingdom myth, the Goddess Hathor uses gazelle’s milk to heal the eyes of Horus, which had been torn out during one of His battles with Set. And we often find milk as one of the ingredients in medicine to cure eye ailments.

Nursing mothers (“a woman with magic spells of milk”) could create talismans using their own milk to place around the necks of their own children to protect them. The flesh and skin of children were thought to have been created from their mothers’ milk while they were in the womb…and milk could consequently heal the body in later life.

Milk being offered to a sacred image of a Goddess in India

With all its magical properties, milk was common among the supplies buried with the dead and it served as a valuable offering to the Deities. At Isis’ Philae temple, wall carvings attest that milk was offered to all the Deities worshipped there. To help renew Osiris, milk was poured upon His tomb at Biggeh, a small, holy island visible from Philae. Every ten days, Isis Herself was said to have made these libations.

The magic of milk was also understood in the wider Mediterranean world. The Greek Kourotrophoi, (“Child-Carrying” and Nurturing Goddesses), could confer hero status on a mortal by feeding him on Their milk. Mysteries, such as the Orphic-Dionysian Mysteries, envisioned a kind of baptism in milk. It may have been from the Greeks that the idea of milk as transformed blood came into Egypt in the later periods.

Magical, beautiful milk

It is widely understood that the Isis Lactans images of late Paganism became the models for the mother-and-child images of the Virgin Mary with Baby Jesus. (Although, since I am updating this post, I have since seen some arguments against it…)

Nevertheless, early Christianity, too, had the concept of the blessings bestowed by divine milk. Eventually, it is Christianity’s male God Who becomes the Divine Nurse of worshipers. The Gnostic 19th Ode of Solomon says,

“The Son is the cup; the Father is he who was milked; and the Holy Spirit is she who milked him; because his breasts were full and it was undesirable that his milk should be released without purpose.”

(This is rather odd since the feminine Holy Spiri—She!—is right there.) Nevertheless this adoption of a Goddess power by a God simply points out, once more, the potency of the symbol of milk—for all of us.

There is a spell from the Berlin Magical Papyrus that instructs one to take milk with honey at sunrise and it “will become something divine in your heart.” Isn’t that just beautiful? I can definitely see this as a sunrise rite for Isis. Charge the milk and honey with Her protection, magic, and healing power…and drink. It will become something divine in your heart.

Milk IS magic. It is life, health, healing, resurrection, renewal, and salvation. For me, this holy, holy milk is always the milk of Isis, the Milk Provider, the Great of Magic and the Great of Milk.

It’s not Isis, but wow!

__ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-622e7a937b00a', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', } } }); });

Lamentation & Magic

The Big Wailing Woman and the Little Wailing Woman lamenting

Once more, and still, we are feeling sorrow as we look out upon the world. Our hearts break. Again. And again. Often, we are told to just suck it up and get on with things. We do not allow time for the pain. But we should. For there is magic in it.

As you might imagine, understanding the magic of lamentation was well known in ancient Egypt.

In many societies, lamentation—the sorrowful bewailing of death or tragedy, often public—is the job of women. This is because, stereotypically, women are more comfortable expressing sorrow with tears than are men who, stereotypically, tend to express their strong emotions with anger.

This was true in ancient Egypt, too, but as was so often the case, Egypt was also a little bit different. The Greek historian Herodotus reports that both men and women offered dramatic demonstrations of grief. He writes that when someone in the household died, men, like women, would go out into the streets, beat their chests in grief, and throw mud or dust upon their heads. Men wouldn’t shave; women would tear at their clothing and wail.

A woman and a man making the same mourning gesture

Osiris, of course, is the archetypal Egyptian dead and Horus models male grief in bewailing the death of His father in several ancient texts that deal with the subject. In a text known as the Ramesseum Dramatic Papyrus—which has been identified as part of the ceremonies of the ascension to the throne and is the script (more or less) for a dramatic enactment of the death of Osiris and the triumph of Horus—Horus laments: “I have embraced this my father who had grown weary, until he regained health.”

Ah ha.

Isis lamenting; this mourning gesture refers to tossing dust or ashes on one’s head in sorrow

So, Horus’ lamentation does not merely express grief. It is part of Osiris regaining health.

The sorrow of Horus for His father is powerful, yet the sorrow of Isis and Nephthys—and particularly of His Beloved Isis—is even more so. From time immemorial, two women take the vital roles of lead mourners in royal funerals: the Big Wailing Woman and the Little Wailing Woman. They are the Two Kites, the Djereti, and from a very early time, they are identified with Isis and Nephthys.

The Wailing Women, the Kites, lament the deceased just as the Goddesses lament the God, expressing grief and love and loss. I’ve written a bit about the ritual lamentations of the Goddesses here. The purpose of Their lamentation is stated in one of the ritual texts that “must be recited in every place belonging to Osiris, at each of his festivals, to delight his soul, to preserve his body, to lend breath to the nostrils of him whose throat has been throttled, and to bestow life, eternity, and prosperity on the Osiris [so-and-so; the deceased’s personal name].”

The mourners in the back fold their “wings” about the deceased as the mourners in the front cover their heads with dust

Thus the lamentations themselves are beneficial. The lamentations, in a way, take care of Osiris. This is expressed in another of the names of Isis and Nephthys: the Two Female Attendants, a designation that more properly means the Two Nurses. Like a baby at birth, Osiris at His rebirth needs the services of two Divine Nurses. Yet another of the Goddesses’ titles explains even more about the magic They’re working. They are also called the Two Eulogists Who Praise Osiris, a title usually given to a priestess worshiping her Deity. Thus here, Isis and Nephthys are Divine Priestesses Who are calling to Osiris. Their songs of lamentation call the God back to life by “glorifying” Him, a word that in Egyptian contains the meaning of making Him an Akh, a Shining One, a Glorified Spirit.

Isis mourning, hands crossed at the heart

There are several gestures of lamentation seen in ancient Egyptian art that, I believe, refer to another aspect of the magic Isis and Nephthys work to revive Osiris. The Two Goddesses fold their wings (remember that They are Bird Goddesses—Two Kites) over Osiris. Their power magically protects Him, but it also enables Isis to fan the Breath of Life into Him. “I restored wind to his nostrils so that he would live,” says Isis. “Isis provides thee with life,” reads the text.

In imitation of the Goddesses, Egyptian women in mourning can be seen making gestures that look like the folding of wings. The hands might be crossed over the heart, below the waist, or with one hand gripping the wrist of the other. All three are gestures that surround and protect with the arms, arms that in the Two Djereti would be winged and imbued with the magic of Life.

Just as the laments of the Two Goddesses are magically powerful, so our own human lamentation is both powerful and needful. When death or tragedy strikes, we must express our pain and allow ourselves the time to simply be in pain. The pain is real; there is no need to deny it. Yet at the same time, our lamentation, like that of Isis and Nephthys, eventually calls us back to life—which does indeed go on no matter how utterly impossible that may seem.

Lamentation is not the end of our work. It is the beginning. We gather our magic. We invoke our lifeforce. And we help makes things better however we can.

Green Isis mourns using a modified “enfolded wing” gesture; the life-enhancing green-ness of the Goddess recalls the magic of Her mourning and helps call Osiris back to life

The Night Isis Accepted Me

Wings and lotuses, always

I am terrible with memories. I don’t mean my memory is bad. I mean I don’t honor ‘things past’ enough. I don’t take many pictures (and certainly not of myself). I tend not to care for traditional souvenirs. And I definitely have the “get rid of it” gene (which my beloved does not). In my defense, I don’t generally dwell on past wrongs either.

Earlier this week, this post was going to be on an entirely different topic. It was going to be about the lamentations of Isis and Nepththys—because this world is certainly giving us lamentable things aplenty right now. But then I came across an old magical journal. There were memories in it.

Not my magical journal, but I like…

I do keep magical journals. I don’t record everything all the time (good Goddess, the paper trail would never end!). Usually, I keep them during periods when I’m doing a lot of magical work. This particular journal, as I have said, is old. I mean really old. Like “before the fire” old. Yes, of course, you don’t know what I mean.

Before we moved to the Pacific Northwest, we lived in an apartment in Tennessee. One night the complex caught on fire. Neighbors knocked on neighbors’ doors, telling them to get up and get out. We grabbed the cat and the insurance papers and got out. The next day, with the fire quenched, we were able to go back to survey the damage. It had been a weird fire. Things like our stereo system were completely and utterly incinerated. Things like our irreplaceable magical papers (papers!) were saved. This journal was among them. I can tell from the singed edges.

So I thought I’d sit down and read it. There was lots of visionary work pertaining to a magical system I was training in. But every now and then, there were entries about Isis. This was before I knew very much about Her, before I became Her priestess, and way before Isis Magic. Yet I clearly had been working with Her (or She was working with me).

A magical, glowing blue lotus

One entry reads, “I have had a very strong Isis connection since my dream the other night.” That dream was not recorded, but a vision was. I was working on love and acceptance. For the vision, I called on Isis to touch me and help me let Her love of humanity come through me. I sensed Her great, but gentle hand descend from above. She placed it on top of my head. Waves of Her not-quite-orgasmic love passed though me and out into the world. I describe that flow of energy, then write, “I again saw the bright, bright, blue glowing lotus.” It had been so bright that I couldn’t tell one petal from another; eventually, the lotus-light enveloped me. I conclude, “I am feeling very worshipful of Great Isis.”

I see myself falling in love with Her through this journal.

Another entry says, “A most wondrous dream! A prayer answered!” Apparently, my beloved was snoring, so I took my bedding and went into our temple room to sleep. I was overcome with a desire to know, truly know, that Isis was with me. I write that it was “a demanding, revealing need” for Her presence. I prayed to Her “more emotionally than ever before” to send a dream to let me know She was with me. I chanted Her name for a while, then slept.

This art was inspired by a dream the artist had of the Temple of Isis in Pompeii. See what her dream was and more of her work here.

“A few hours later,” I write, “I came from a full, deep sleep to awake with loud sobbing from happiness and amazement.” (My sobbing.) Due to the abrupt awakening, I lost part of the dream. But the actual content of the dream wasn’t the point. The point was that, in the dream, the resolution to a dream-problem happened by a miracle. By Her miracle. And it made me so happy that I woke up crying with joy. And I again saw the blue lotus flower.

Woman picking blue lotus

I remember this event. The details are a bit fuzzy now, but I vividly remember the visionary blue lotus. I could see it anytime I closed my eyes with crystal clarity instead of the vague dreaminess that vision often has. “I must look up lotus symbolism and I must make a blue lotus talisman,” I wrote. See how much I didn’t know then? Another entry says simply, “I love Her.” And now you know why the Isis temple in my backyard is called the Lotus Temple.

Next, I found an entry that I had marked IMPORTANT with a drawing of a star, a lotus, and a sickle on top. I wrote, “In the dark month of February, on the 15th of the month, with the moon waning in Capricorn, I have taken and been taken by Isis in Her Black Aspect as my Lady, my personal Goddess.” But this wasn’t when I became Her priestess; that was long in the future then. This was my forming a true bond with Her, a bond that will last my entire life. She became “my” Goddess, I became Her devotee. This is when I really began learning about Her.

A priestess by Winged Isis; see more work here.

There is, of course, more in this journal. I see my own inner struggles, doubts, fears, angers, and depression. But this particular record is incomplete. These are loose-leaf pages without a binder…and it seems that some are missing. After we moved to Portland, I began buying blank-but-bound books for my journals. The next one—which I am still writing in—starts with the time when I actually did become Isis’ priestess. In this journal, I can see that I am working out the magic part for what will eventually become Isis Magic.

But I think I have regaled you with quite enough of my journal entries for now. And I have learned my lesson that I should better value memories and keepsakes. Perhaps you will do some magical work with Isis yourself today? After all, your story will be a much better tale—because it will be yours. Just don’t forget to write in your journal.