M. Isidora Forrest's Blog, page 21

The Great Mother & Her Mother & Her Mother’s Mother

Isis the Mother

A while ago, a friend of this blog asked a very interesting question. They asked how we can reconcile the idea that Isis is both Mother of All with the idea that Isis has a mother Herself.

It’s a very interesting question because it has to do with our conception of the nature of the Divine and Divine Beings in general.

So how do we start to look at this?

For me, history is always a good place to begin. It gives us a useful foothold to know what our ancestors thought about these things; after all, when it comes to Divinity and Divine Beings, we human beings have been thinking about this for a very long time indeed.

Atum arises from the Nun, the primordial waters of No-Thing-Ness

Erik Hornung’s Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, the One and the Many is one key text for understanding the nature of the Divine in terms of ancient Egypt. Hornung writes that the Egyptians had a multiplicity of approaches to the Divine and only when taken together can we see the whole picture. For them, he says, everything came from One because the non-existent is One, Undifferentiated Thing. Once something becomes existent, it also becomes multiple.

We see this in the Heliopolitan myth in which Atum comes forth from the Nun, the non-existent, the inert, and immediately begins generating other Deities through an act of masturbation: first Shu and Tefnut, Who beget Nuet and Geb, Who beget Isis, Osiris, Set, and Nephthys.

And so we meet Isis, Her mother Nuet, and Her mother’s mother Tefnut. And there may even be a great grandmother present, for when Atum came into existence, He was both masculine and feminine; His “shadow” or “hand” (the one He used to masturbate) is the Goddess Iusaaset or Iusâas. She is usually represented anthropomorphically, through, and not as a disembodied hand and She is said to be the Grandmother of all the Gods.

The Ennead of Heliopolis

Another important characteristic of the Divine in ancient Egypt is Its fluidity. Hornung says of the Egyptian Deities, “They are formulas rather than forms, and in their world, one is sometimes as if displaced into the world of elementary particles.” Deities may be combined with one another or split off from one another; one Deity can be the ba or soul of another; They can even be assimilated with foreign Deities without losing Their essence. “But wherever one turns to the divine in worship, addresses it and tends to it in cult” Hornung writes, “it appears as a single, well-defined figure that can for a moment unite all divinity within itself and does not share it with any other god.”

Mother Isis, nursing Horus and protected by the Vulture Mother

The primordiality and uniqueness of Isis is attested on the Great Pylon of Her graceful temple at Philæ. The Ptolemaic passage states that Isis “is the one who was in the beginning; the one who first came into existence on earth.” In the Coffin Texts, Isis is invoked with a group of Deities considered to be the most ancient: “O Re, Atum, Nu, Old One, Isis the Divine…” (Formula 1140). She is called Great Goddess Existing from the Beginning, Great One Who Initiated Existence, and Great One Who Is From the Beginning. Her very name, Iset or Throne, speaks to Her ancient nature.

By the time of the New Kingdom, Isis is routinely called Mother of All the Gods. Then, with Her worship spreading throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, Apuleius can write that Isis “brings the sweet love of a mother to the trials of the unfortunate,” while a Latin dedicatory inscription sums up Her all-encompassing nature: Tibi, Una Quae es Omnia, Dea Isis, “Thou, Being One, Art All, Goddess Isis.”

So now we have ancient attestations both of Isis’ ancient and original one-ness and of Her generation from Her parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. How do we resolve it?

Which came first? It’s a paradox.

If we are among those who are uncomfortable with paradox, I’m afraid there may be no satisfying reconciliation between these two ideas. If it has been deeply ingrained that there can only be one right answer—especially when it comes to spiritual questions—then it may seem impossible for both these things to be true. After all, they contradict each other. At the very least, we should be able to pick one as the “right” answer. At the very most, we may decide the contradiction means both things must be false.

And yet we have already seen that, at least to the ancient worshippers of Isis, both things were indeed true.

This is what paradox is; and religion is absolutely rife with it. Why? Because most religions, or spiritualities, involve Mystery. Mystery is at the very core of the Divine and paradox is one of Its favorite languages. Yet this is not to say we should simply throw up our hands up and say, “Goddess works in mysterious ways” and quit thinking about it.

Quite the opposite in fact. Paradox invites thought. It is intended to teach. So what can we learn from our paradox: Isis is Mother of All, yet She Herself has a mother…and a mother’s mother…and?

Originally an illustration for a book of pseudo-Indian love poetry called The Garden of Kama, this lovely illustration by Byam Shaw, 1914, captures something of Nuet caring for one of Her Holy Children

Let’s look at it through that ancient Egyptian lens that shows us a multiplicity of approaches to the Divine.

One way we can approach is as the Heliopolitan myth does: Isis is part of a Divine family. By being so, perhaps She is better able to understand human beings when we come to Her with our own familial problems. Her family relations make Her more suited to be a Soteira, a Savior Goddess, as She was known throughout the Mediterranean world.

We can also learn some important things about Isis through Her family relations. Isis is the daughter of Heaven (Nuet) and Earth (Geb). She is married to the Underworld God, Osiris, and is Herself a Goddess of the Underworld. Thus Isis is intimately connected to All That Is; She walks in all the Worlds.

Another approach to our paradox is through the fluidity of the Egyptian Deities that we talked about. If They can combine or split at will, or if one can become the ba of another, why can’t Isis be at once a Great Mother Herself and the daughter of a Great Mother?

Yet another approach is to open our hearts toward Isis in worship and experience Her for ourselves. Then, as Erik Hornung explained, Isis “appears as a single, well-defined figure that can for a moment unite all divinity” within Herself; She is the One Who is All, and She is the Mother of All.

By combining these approaches, and tolerating a little paradox, we learn more about Isis than we ever would have by restricting ourselves to a single position alone and Isis reveals Herself ever more as the Great Goddess She is.

Isis is all things and all things are Isis

A Hymn for Isis

Isis from Abydos

I am working on the contact ritual that Nephthys inspired last time, but it’s not quite ready to share yet. So in the meantime, I’d like to offer some short and some quite sweet hymns to Isis that I came across not too terribly long ago.

They are from a group of texts known as The Archive of Hor.

Hor was a priest of Isis and Thoth who hailed from the town of Sebennytos, the town that grew up around the Temple of Isis there and which the Greeks called Isiopolis. Sebennytos town was the capital of Lower Egypt’s 12th nome, the Sebennyte nome. At the time of writing these texts, which include recordings of some of his dreams and work in the temples, Hor actually lived in Memphis at the Serapeum, but it seemed he had traveled about for he notes on some of the hymns where they were written.

Not Hor, but hey

Hor was a pastophoros, one who would carry the sacred image in procession. I’ve seen that position described as both high and low ranking, but Hor must have had some status for he sometimes reports his dreams to the Ptolemaic rulers of the period via the Serapeum in Alexandria. Here is one such dream:

“Isis, the Great Goddess of this Egypt and the land of Syria is walking upon the face of the water of the Syrian sea. Thoth stands before Her and takes Her hand and She reached the harbor at Alexandria. She said, ‘Alexandria is secure against the enemy.'” Then follows some information about the secure succession of the dynasty and so on. But I liked the bit about Isis walking on the water.

Blocks from the Temple of Isis at Isiopolis

All Hor’s texts are in either Greek or Demotic and written on ostraca, pottery shards. What? No papyrus? Apparently not. But at least pottery is more durable…and so we have these records. They were found at Saqqara, the necropolis of Memphis.

Hor often describes himself as, “a man of the town of Isis (Temenesi)”. He calls Her “Lady of the Cavern, the Great Goddess in the nome of Sebennytos.” Since Sebennytos was his hometown, he would have had a long-standing relationship with Isis. Some scholars even think that this may be where Her worship originally arose…but I need more information on that to take it as more than a grain of Sebennyte sand. (Sebennytos was on a branch of the Nile, which has since silted up.)

With that little bit of background, here are some of Hor’s hymns or hymnlets about Isis:

Come to me Tana, Lady of the Vault, the Lady of the Uraeus, the Lady of the Two Lands, Isis the Great One, Divine Mother, the Great Goddess of the Wady of the Lake, Lady of the Hand of Horus which Osiris gave to Him in Siut.

Written by Hor in Year 12, Pharmuthi, day 17

Come to me my Tana, Isis, into my presence, together with Thy progenitor [Thoth in this mythology], Isis the Great One, Divine Mother, the Great Goddess of the entire land.

Come to me Isis the Great One, Divine Mother the Great Goddess, Lady of Love, the Uraeus Goddess, the Fate.

An alternative, written by Hor in Pi-Thoth

Come to me Isis, Tana, Lady of Heaven and Earth, Lady of the Tomb.

An alternative: this is an auspicious beginning. Written by Hor in Buto

Come to me Isis: Thy praise is among men, Thy glory among the Gods, for Thou forever givest sustenance to man for his days of life and when he dies, Thou it is Who performest burial. For Isis has said to me, “They are for you yourself, the two benefits: your sustenance is established concerning you for your days of life, and when you die, I shall cause you to be buried.”

Come to me my Tana, Isis, Queen of All Eternity, Who wears the diadem in the entire land.

Written by Hor in Pi-Thoth

Come to me my Tana, Isis the Lady of the Bundle Which is Bound, and She gives libations in Her turn.

Written in the above town

“Come to me, my Tana.” Wait! Could it be tana leaves?!? Sorry. I have a soft spot for this movie. Here, Ankhesenamun invokes Isis for aid.

Now, you may be wondering, “what is this Tana?” Unfortunately, no one knows. The scholars who studied Hor’s Archive or have commented on it elsewhere have no clue.

One has suggested that it refers to a cult place in Memphis.

To me, it seems an intimacy, an endearment. And so I have decided to treat it as a secret name of Isis for those who know Her well. Come to me, my Tana, my Isis…

The rest of the texts are pretty standard stuff, but that…that…Tana name. That I like very much.

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In the Temple of the Lady of the Temple

I approach the pylon of Her House.

Huge, wooden doors stand before me. Dark wood, ancient and worn. I lift my hand to knock, but before I can, the doors pivot inward, opening. A complex scent comes to me from within. Green things, wet stone, a sweet animal musk, a breeze off a river. I enter, awed by the scale of Her temple.

While this isn’t Her temple, it is a lovely, moody fantasy temple by Rene Fisher. See her ArtStation work here.

The Temple

Inside, it is twilight. It is always twilight; it is the akhet, the horizon, the boundary. The sky is a deep and luminous lapis lazuli with a splash of electrum stars. The temple is a lush garden, with flowers, trees, and wetlands. And beasts, moving. A narrow channel, curved like the bend in a river, has been carved in the stone floor. Nile water flows slowly through it. Fish swim in the green waters. A lioness, crouched at the riverbank, looks up at my arrival. Her golden eyes see nothing in me to be wary of. She goes back to watching the fish. Birds fly from tree to tree, kites and kestrels and more, screeching every now and then. There are serpents and crocodiles. Largely, the beasts ignore me.

There’s something in this image that speaks to me of the garden in Her temple. A beautiful piece by Pablo Olivera. You can see more of his work here.

I breathe in the soft, warm breath of Her House, but it does not calm me. I am in anticipation. In my heart, I ask Her to call to me, to show me where to find Her. And, as is often the Way of Vision, in a moment, I know where to go. I walk down a stone corridor to Her throne room. As before, She is hidden in indigo shadows. I do not see Her face clearly, but I sense color around Her, lightning blue, fire red, gold the color of lioness eyes.

The Questions

I kiss the ground before Her beautiful face. “How shall I name You, Goddess?” I ask. “Senet Noferet,” She says immediately. She wants to be addressed as “Beautiful/Good Sister”? I puzzle to myself…a relational identity? “Whose Sister do you think I am?” She asks. I sense Her smile.

Hidden in indigo shadows

For invocations, She says I may use the Coptic form of Her name, Nebetho, Nephtho, or Naphtho. (You see, She knows I am currently Working with Isis under Her Coptic name, so She creates balance.) “I am relationships,” She says. “I am the Weaver of Magics, the Weaver of Connection. I am glad you have come,” She says to me. “I am the infusion of new blood in your Work.” (I understand that She is right.)

“What is Your earliest story?” I ask.

This is what She tells me: “I flew down from the skies. I circled. I landed on the Mound. I built My nest. I was consumed in Fire. I created Magic in My eggs. I alighted upon them and all the animals came forth. I hear My children’s cries. At moments of life and death (birth and death, I think She means), their lives pass through My temple.”

“What is Your joy?” I ask Her.

Weaver of Magic, Weaver of Connections

“When the boundaries become permeable,” She answers. “But they cannot remain so; therefore I am the Festival Goddess.” (What She means, I believe, is that as the Ruler of Boundaries, She sponsors/endorses the boundary-breaking nature of a Festival, whether in the raucousness of a Festival of Drunkenness or in a solemn festival where the boundary crossing is more meditative.) “You set boundaries and You relax them?” I wonder in question to Her. “I teach about boundaries,” She says. “How to set them, how to break them, how to enjoy them, how to transgress them.” (I ask Her to explain what She means by “transgress them”…but my notes are not clear to me at this time—I was entranced, okay?—so I’ll skip that for now.)

A Nephthys-like art piece (or perhaps Hekate as I see another arm?) by Miranda Meeks. See more of her work here.

In the Pyramid Texts, you might remember, Isis and Nephthys are the Ones Who Nuet sends to give to the deceased their heart. So I ask for this blessing from the Goddess: “May I ask You to give me my heart that I may understand You better?” She reaches toward me, touches my chest over my heart. And in an instant my mind unrolls across the world (the earth, not the Universe). I commune with Her animals, all Her creatures that run or crawl or fly or swim upon the earth. It is both overwhelming and beautiful.

When I started my vision with Nephthys, I realized that I had all kinds of ways to connect with Isis, but it seemed a bit odd to just sub Nephthys’ name for Isis’ (which I did, and it worked, but it was not satisfying to me). So I ask Her for a contact ritual specific to Herself. She tells me to create the circle, then step across the boundary into it. “When you cross,” She says, “it makes the boundary whole.” So I shall be working on that rite.

Overall, She feels tranquil, calming, and patient. “But what of Your Fire, Goddess?” I ask. She laughs and answers, “We are ALL lionesses.” And that is how it went.

Nephthys by artist Desiree Isphording. Visit her IG to see more work.

Your Questions

This is, of course, my visionary experience with the Beautiful Sister. If you were to do the same thing and ask the same questions, no doubt the answers you would receive from Her would be different. They would be part of your Work, not mine.

But here’s what I would expect: that our experiences with Her would have some resonance, some harmony. Both you and I might get the same sort of feeling from Her. Perhaps She’d say something to you about relationships or animals or boundaries or festivals; or She might say something different altogether. Yet the feeling content of our experiences would—even should, I would say—be similar. That is how we will know that we are in communion with this particular Goddess, the Beautiful Sister, the Lady of the Temple.

Isis & Nephthys…Opposites?

Great of Magic

Not too terribly long ago, when you looked up “Isis” just about anywhere, She was defined as an Egyptian Fertility Goddess and perhaps as “the ideal mother.” But that is only part of Her story.

Today, I am happy to find Her most often named first as the Goddess of Magic, followed by (Her many) other aspects. For it is Isis’ command of the primordial power of heka—magic—that exemplifies Her Divine creative power.

Nephthys/Nebet Hwt

Today, when we look up “Nephthys,” we most often find Her defined as the Goddess of Death, Darkness, and, often, Protection. But that is only part of Her story.

Opposites

In Egyptian myth, as you know, Isis and Nephthys are Divine Sisters. The Egyptian world was big on duality: the Two Lands, the Two Riverbanks, the Two Crowns, Kemet/Deshret (Black Land/Red Land), Order/Chaos (Ma’et/Isfet), Night/Day, Osiris or Horus/Set…and Isis/Nephthys.

The Two Sisters protect the deceased

It’s easy to consider duality as opposition, for instance, as it is in Ma’et/Isfet or Day/Night. And indeed we can find such oppositions in ancient Egyptian texts when it comes to Isis and Nephthys. Usually, Isis is the Bright Sister and Nephthys is the Dark. The Pyramid and Coffin Texts provide us with examples. One of the most explicit is Pyramid Text 222 where the deceased is urged to descend into the darkness of the Otherworld with the Night-barque and Nephthys, while they ascend with Isis in the Day-barque. Isis guides and sheds light on the hidden paths of the Otherworld, but the Coffin Texts tell us that Nephthys speaks and they are obscured: “Hidden are the ways for those who pass by; light is perished and darkness comes into being, so says Nephthys.” While Isis summons the Barque of the Day, Nephthys is “a possessor of life in the Night-barque.”

Marvel comic’s version of Nephthys in Her Night-barque mode

Nephthys can be paired with a God of dark moods and dark reputation—Set, the temperamental opposite of Isis’ benevolent husband, Osiris. A God of chaos, confusion, violence, and storm, Set is the adversary of Osiris and Horus, Who are Lords of Ma’et and are both associated with the life-giving light and order of the sun. Furthermore, the two Goddesses continue Their light-and-dark theme with the children They bear to the same God. Osiris fathered the bright God Horus with Isis while with Nephthys (if Plutarch is recording a genuine tradition), He fathered the dark God Anubis.

So, does that settle it? Isis is sweetness and light while Nephthys is obfuscation and dark?

Nah, of course not. Those of you who have been reading along know that Isis has Her own darknesses and Nephthys, as we saw last time, is also the Lady of Joy.

Twins

Most often, Isis and Nephthys are two Goddesses operating in tandem.

The Two Sisters & Osiris

They are the Two Ladies, the Two Women, the Two Goddesses of the Hall of Truth, the Two Long-Haired Ones, the Two Uraeus Serpents, the Two Spirits, the Two Nurses, the Two Weavers, the Two Feathers, the Two Birds, the Two Cows, the Two Divine Mothers, the Two Eyes of God, the Two Companions, the Two Women, the Two Wise Ones, the Two Weepers, the Two Shining Ones, the Two Singers, the Two Great, Great Ones, the Two Uniters, and…deep breath after all that…the Twins.

When They are doubled in these ways, Isis is dominant in the pairing. She is the Greater Whatever, while Nephthys is the Lesser Whatever. They are literally designated by those terms—greater/lesser (which can also be read as big/little)—in some texts. This always seemed a bit odd to me since the Goddesses are doing the same thing when They are called by these twinned epithets. And gosh, isn’t it a tad disrespectful to be calling one of these Very Great Goddesses the lesser anything?

The Two Widows, the Two Kites, the Two Sisters

Yet I wonder if it might not be simply a reflection of Their familial relationship. In myth, Isis was born a day before Nephthys. She’s the Big Sis. Born of Nuet the following day, Nephthys is the Little Sis. And indeed, Nephthys was specifically understood as being the younger one. Her epithets include Young Girl, Young Lioness, and Young One. The Greeks called Her Neotera, the Younger One. What’s more, in Egyptian tradition, the term wer (masc) or weret (fem)—great—could indeed mean big or prominent, but it could also mean elder. Hor Wer is the Elder Horus, distinguished from Hor-pa-khred, Horus the Child.

Two Sides of One Goddess?

Isis and Nephthys funerary images

Another way we can sometimes think of the Two Sisters is as two sides of one Goddess. We’ve talked about the fluidity of the ancient Egyptian conception of the Divine, where Deities can flow together and apart to form composite Forms as needed…or one Deity could be the ba or soul of another. Depending on your conception of the Divine universe, you may find this helpful or not so much. My own conception is decidedly on the fluid side and I find myself drawn to these malleable expressions of the Divine world.

And so, at times, I do find the idea of Isis-Nephthys useful in helping me think about the nature and relationship of the Two Goddesses. Yet, perhaps because of Their consistent pairing throughout Egyptian history, we don’t often find this combined Goddess in purely Egyptian sources. I know of nothing we have that says Nephthys is the ba of Isis or vice versa. (Doesn’t mean it isn’t out there; if you know of anything like that, oh please do let me know!)

Isis and Nephthys with ankh and djed pillar

However, in the Greek Magical Papyri (aka the PGM), we have two instances of a name that Preisendanz, one of the early papyri researchers, takes to be this combined Goddess. In one text, the name is Esenepthys, and in the other it is Senephthys. To me, it seems clear that these names do combine Isis and Nephthys. The first one uses an initial E, as Isis’ name in Greek was often spelled, and the second one simply drops the initial letter, which can easily happen in a tradition where one is copying and re-copying these texts; scribal error is not uncommon in the papyri. The second name, by the way, is part of a so-called love spell and refers to Osiris “when he fell in love with his own sister Senephthys.” As far back as we have records, it is true that both sisters love Him, both sisters seek Him, both sisters mourn Him…and together They are called the Two Widows.

This art is of Ma’et, but it gets some of that Isenephthys Cosmic Bird Goddess energy for me. I can’t find the artist…would love to properly attribute it.

At times, I do find it useful to think of a Great Isenephthys Who encompasses the Two Sisters. She seems somehow more ancient to me: She is THE Bird Goddess, the Bird of Prey Goddess Who brings Life and Death and Life. I will admit, this Form of the Goddess is not one I have much worked with, though now my interest is piqued to more deeply discover Her.

But Great Isenephthys will have to wait a bit. I am on Nephthys Quest now…and it is time to talk with the Goddess Herself.

Oh, Nephthys…

A red-headed Nephthys

You, My Goddess, are a true and deep Mystery.

There is just so dang much information about You…NOT…out there.

So, here’s where I am right now: I just bought a copy of the most extensive treatment of the Goddess available, Jessica Levai’s 2003 dissertation about Her (more than 200 pages) and devoured it in about a day. And although Levai does a good job of surveying what is available, the problem is that there’s just not that much available. I was disappointed to find that there was not much new to me, and certainly not much that really grabbed me by the guts or made me say, “Ah, YES, Nephthys.”

A statue of Nephthys now in the Louvre

But I am stubborn. And I am now on Nephthys Quest.

As some of you may know, I have an at-this-point-small relationship with Nephthys. Initially, it was because when you have a relationship with Isis, you can’t help but also find Her sister. But a while ago, Little Sister started bringing Herself to my attention. That’s when I wrote those first posts about Her. Then She went very quiet; I believe waiting for me to be ready. Now She’s getting loud again and my stubbornness gene has kicked in (see above) and I guess I’m ready. Or ready enough.

So let’s get started and perhaps we will discover just a little of the Sacred Mystery of Nebet Hwt—Nephthys, as Her name came down to us in Greek.

The Name of Nephthys

Most often, those exploring the Goddess start with Her name; which indeed makes sense. We should be able to find something ancient and original in the name by which She was known for thousands of years. Yet many Egyptologists agree that they don’t know—exactly—what it means. Nebet Hwt is usually translated as Lady or Mistress of the House or Temple, making Her name more properly an epithet. (But then, many Deity names are like that. Epithets are what human beings use to try to describe some aspect of the Fullness of the Deity.)

Nephthys by the Egyptian artist Alaa Awad. See more work here.

Yet “temple” and “house” are not the only meanings of hwt and its full meaning is where the small-m-mystery lies. Just as the broader meaning of Iset’s name is not simply “throne,” but location—place; even the first place (see that discussion here)—so hwt is a temple, a royal palace, a mortuary temple, an embalming chamber, a tomb, possibly a type of throne, or even an administrative district (yeah, I know).

Hwt can also be understood as the sky, as in the name of Hathor, Hwt-Hor (“House of Horus”) where the house under discussion is the sky abode of the Falcon God Horus, which is Hathor, the Goddess Sky. Interpreting hwt this way, Nephthys, too, may be seen as a Sky Goddess, which doesn’t seem too far off the mark. For Nephthys, like Her sister, is a Bird Goddess and often appears as a black kite, kestral, or a bird-winged woman. Yet looking through the hieroglyphic dictionary for all instances of hwt, I see many more hwts that are specifically sacred places, like temples and shrines, than any of these other meanings. So for now at least, I’m going to be satisfied with Isis the Throne and Nephthys the Temple.

Indeed, we might find a Divine and Living Throne within a Divine and Living Temple. And so I have elsewhere called Isis the Point and Nephthys the Circle. By being the Circle, Nephthys is the power of delimitation. She creates boundaries and She IS the boundary, thus She is the Lady of the Limit. You can read my speculations about Her name and that whole thing here. And while setting limits might make Her seem rather Saturnine at first glance, all is not as it seems and we must also know that Nephthys is also the Lady of Festivals, Joy, and Divine Drunkenness.

A very large Nephthys protecting the Barque of the God as it travels through the Night/Otherworld

Speaking of Epithets…

If Nephthys’ name itself is an epithet, perhaps we can look to other Nephthian epithets that can give us information about Her nature as perceived by the ancient Egyptians. Just as Isis is many-named, so is Nephthys. We find the usual slew of epithets that relate to a place (Lady of this-or-that shrine, city, or other place) or to Her relationship with other Deities (Sister of Isis, Daughter of Nuet). She is Beautiful, Shining, Brilliant. In common with other Goddesses, She is also Lady of Heaven, Lady of Life, Great Goddess, and Mistress of the Gods. Like Isis, She is Sister of the God (Osiris) and Great of Magic.

Nephthys as a lioness-headed, uraeus serpent, spitting fire

But I’m looking for more unusual ones, things that make Her different. And, happily, they are to be found. For instance, there are a number of epithets that relate to Her wisdom and helping nature. She is called Acute of Counsel, the Wise, with Excellent Advice and with Reasonable Plans. She is Great of Plans Who Judges the Words and She is Potent of Deeds. She is the Judge, She is the one Who Determines the Decrees, and One Does What She Has Commanded. Her connection with Seshat gives Her additional epithets of precision and discernment.

On the other hand, She is fierce, fiery, and protective. She is the Valiant, the Strong-Armed. She protects the Deities, the king, and—perhaps we should have expected this given Her name—the temples. Often, Her aggressive protection comes in the form of flame for She, like Isis, is a flame-spitting Uraeus Serpent Goddess. She sends Her flame out at enemies and yet Her flame can protect, too, by encircling Osiris. (Just as we might cast a protective Circle, encircling or tying a knot around something was a common Egyptian magical practice.) A favorite epithet of some of Nephthys’ modern devotees is Lady Whose Glance Causes Terror which surely must go in tandem with She Who Weakens Set in Her Anger. (More on Nephthys and Set another time.)

Nephthys as Temperance in the Clive Barrett Tarot Deck

Now here’s an interesting one: Nephthys is She Who Predicts Events. So Nephthys is an Oracular Goddess. I will try to track down more about that and let you know if I find anything.

And, of course, there are epithets that relate to Nephthys’ darker and mysterious side. Like most all the Egyptian Deities, She is associated with death and resurrection. She is the one Whose Head is Hidden or Who Hides Herself. She is called Darkness and Shroud and She is the Lady of the Night Barque traveling through the Otherworld.

But there are some that strike me as sadder, sweeter, and that may make Her quite sympathetic to the trials and tribulations we human beings endure. She is called Sad at Heart, Powerful of Heart, Who Hears Everything, Whose Heart is Painful. She is also Kind, Kindly of Heart, and Lady of Kindness. She is the one with an Admirable Heart, and She is—perhaps as a result—the one With Great Popularity.

She also has many epithets that call Her extraordinarily beautiful.

I think this is enough for today. Next time, we’ll look at Isis and Nephthys as sisters and as opposites. I have some rather specific thoughts about that.

Looking for epithets of Nephthys? Chelsea Bolton has collected them here. And you can find my discussion of Nephthys as Lady of the Limit in Chelsea’s anthology on Nephthys here.

Iset then, Isis now; Isis as a Living Deity

Isis Technoglogia, aka “Egyptian Rocket Goddess” by Audrey Flack

A while ago, I was reading Raphael Patai’s important work, The Hebrew Goddess. In his introduction, he writes, “…the Hebrew goddess succeeded in surviving. She underwent, to be sure, an astounding metamorphosis, but then that too, is the mark of a living deity.”

Those sentences made me jump up and down and shout, “yes, Yes, YES!” For that is precisely the point I find myself called to make, again and again, in relation to Isis. Because She is a Living Deity, and because Her worship is not an Society for Creative Anachronism-like recreation but a living thing itself, the way people throughout history have experienced Isis naturally reflects their own society. They put Her in their society’s clothing. Surprise! This ancient Egyptian Goddess suddenly speaks their language; well, yes, of course She does.

“Isis” by Willow Arlenea

For example, ancient Egypt had no smart phones or tablet computers, yet I would not hesitate in the slightest to consider Isis and Thoth as the Goddess and God of smart phones, tablets, and computers in general.

Technology is completely consistent with Isis’ ancient character. As the late lamented Arthur C. Clark quipped, “Magic’s just science we don’t understand yet.” Isis has always been—from the earliest Egyptian texts to today—the Goddess of Magic and so She is also, most assuredly, the Goddess of Science and Technology. Isis knows code and I venture to say more than a few of Her modern programmer devotees have called upon Her when confounded by a coding conundrum. Bet they got answers, too.

A modern film “Isis”

Isis hasn’t stopped being Isis simply because a modern invention has now come under Her sway. Instead, I suggest that She has simply gained a new epithet: Isis Technologia.

The last 20 years have seen an upsurge in interest in Isis/Iset/Aset and there has been much good work done by scholarly researchers and amateurs alike. Some of this has made its way across the interwebs, copied and only tweakingly transformed in our frenzied modern search for content. One of the repeated ideas one runs across is that the ancient Egyptian Goddess “Aset” was not the same as the Greek and Roman “Isis.”

“Isis in Lotus Position” by Mark Maihack

Aset was fierce, the argument goes; Isis was a kindly big momma; Aset was a funerary Goddess, Isis was concerned only with life. This is quite simply not so. I’ve given clear examples of each of the characteristics supposed to be different for Aset and shown how they were expressed in the much later cult of Isis—yes, even in the very heart of the Greco-Roman period—here.

Perhaps what it boils down to is each individual’s understanding of what a Deity is. Here’s a simple example…and one we all seem to accept without question, even if we’re not Jewish or Christian: Yahweh, the ancient Hebrew God.

“Modern Isis” by Anahit Ar Aruchyan

Read the Old Testament and you see a Deity Who is quite the ancient despot. Arbitrary. Pissy, in many cases. Flat-out evil and engaging in Behavior-Unbecoming-a-Deity in some cases (I’m thinking Job, here). Yet this is not the way most Jews and Christians envision Him today. For most believers, the Lord—the Father Who Art in Heaven—is more kindly, more supportive, and perhaps more mysterious these days. So is Yahweh the same God Who is recorded in the bible or not? Most of His believers believe that He most certainly is.

“Isis” by gazer 777 on deviantart

The same situation applies in the question of whether Aset is the same Deity as Isis. Clearly, I think She is; in fact, I know that She is. The reason I am so certain has to do with my conception of how the Divine reality is structured.

The great font of Divinity that IS Isis is the same font from which Aset flowed. At Its origin, this current of Divine energy has a much less human-like personality than either the Divine Face the ancient Egyptians would have called Iset (or Aset, if you like) or the Divine Face the Romans would have called Isis. Yet it is the same Divine current of energy, from the same source. The Holy River of Isis flows from the unmanifest Divine into the manifest Divine—where we can interact with It, and where It, in relationship with us, can develop a “personality;” a personality that we human beings can relate to and which naturally reflects the culture in which It is perceived.

“A Blanket for the Goddess Isis” by Sherrie Larch

The Divine energy the ancient Egyptians called Iset/Aset is the very same Divine energy the Greeks and Romans called Isis and is the very same Divine energy we call Isis today. The surface differences are almost wholly defined by the cultures that loved and love Her. It’s like two different artists painting the same flower. The flower is the same for both artists; its essential nature is the same, yet the final works of art cannot help but vary simply because there are two different artists at work. The flower itself has not changed at all. It’s the artist’s experience of the flower and their portrayal of that experience in the painting that is different.

“Portrait of a Goddess” by Joyce Hayes

How do we know that the flower the artists—and that we ourselves—see is the same flower? How can we be sure that the Divine current of Aset and Isis flows from the same, eternal source? As a poker player might say, you have to look for the “tells,” the little cues that tip off the observer as to what a player will do. When it comes to Isis, there are things that are consistent across the millennia.

For me, the key Divine “tell” for Isis is Her magic. I’m sure I don’t have to tell any of you that we’re not talking about slight of hand here. For the ancient Egyptians, heka—magic—is the mysterious and Divine force that underlies the universe. It is the mysterious energy that upholds and powers all things. As Goddess of this Divine energy, we find Isis at the limits of life and death; She is present at the places and times of transformation. We feel Her when the hairs rise on the backs of our necks. We sense Her in that frisson of holy fear and awe. She shows us the Mystery and the Magic; She IS the Mystery and the Magic. Sometimes, Her magic is fierce. Sometimes, it is comforting. Who She is hasn’t changed; what She is expressing and what we perceive has.

A Celtic Isis, complete with ankh, crook, and horns & disk crown from a modern NeoPagan page

Which brings me back to Raphael Patai and his comment about change being the mark of a living Deity.

As we human beings change, the way we experience our Deities changes. While there is always a consistency with the original Divine source, the surface “stuff” may change—indeed, it should change—or we’re not growing. Like the Hebrew Goddesses Asherah and Anath Whose Divine energy eventually came to be experienced in the Shekinah and the Sabbath Queen, so the ancient Egyptian Iset came to be experienced in the Ptolemaic Isis, the Roman Isis, the Alchemical Isis, the Hermetic Isis, the Masonic Isis, and today’s NeoPagan Isis—for Isis is, most assuredly, a Living, Changing Goddess.

Isis & All-Hallows Eve

As I write this, it is Halloween, All-Hallows Eve. And we are passing through the second Halloween of the pandemic.

The sarcophagus of Lady Asetemhat; Isis is before her, protecting her as she rests before rebirth.

Things are opening up a bit. Perhaps we shall have some trick-or-treaters tonight. Yesterday, we were able to go to the Nefertari exhibit at the museum, all masked up and giving our fellow attendees plenty of space. But this year, the pandemic death toll is even higher. We have all been living with death more closely this year.

And now, as mornings chill and darkness encroaches, we are reminded of death yet again. We may think of the deaths of loved ones who have gone before us. Or the deaths of ancestors we may never have known. Or the beautiful flame-and-amber deaths of leaves as their bodies are scattered across the earth, a haven for seeds and burrowing creatures throughout the fall and winter.

Nephthys guards Asetemhat, standing behind her.

At this time of year, we remember. We cry and laugh and sing and toast to honor the dead.

Our Lady Isis understands these things. For She is—among All The Many Things That She Is—a Goddess of Death. One of Her many names is “Mooring Post,” for She is the one Who calls us to our deaths. “The Mooring Post summons you as Isis,” say the Pyramid Texts, “the Mourning Woman calls to you as Nephthys.” But only, or so I hope, when it is our time.

In ancient Egypt, with its boat-reliant culture, “to come to moor” was a euphemism for “to die;” and the Death Goddess is the Great Mooring Post Who calls each of us to our final mooring. To Her, the ships of our Selves ever return and are always safely docked.

Nephthys by Jeszkik Le Vye. Her Patreon is here. Nephthys, too, is sometimes called the Mooring Post.

Being called by or spoken to by Menit Weret, the Great Mooring Post, was understood as an important part of the process of death and eventual rebirth. The Coffin Texts tell the deceased that when the Great Mooring Post speaks to them, a stairway to Heaven is set up, enemies fall, and even the stars bow down. Magical words of power ensured that the beings in the realm of the dead would serve the deceased, that the Divine mothers would nurse and kiss them—once the Great Mooring Post had called, called, called them to Her.

The Rituals of the Mooring Post were part of royal funerary rites. Specifically, they were part of the purification and embalming rites. We find the Goddesses Isis and Nephthys, as well as priestesses representing Them, driving in two mooring posts to safely bring the king’s boat to harbor. Sometimes, these mooring post-driving priestesses are identified as Kites; and we already know that the Divine prototype of the Kites are Isis and Nepththys. Other times, they are identified as Mooring Posts, in which case, I would argue, the priestesses are intended to be in Goddessform as Isis and Nephthys, for we know that human priestesses or priests often portrayed Deities in ritual.

From Isis’ ancient origins as the death-bringing and resurrecting Bird of Prey Goddess to the “voluntary death and a life obtained by grace” experienced by the initiates of Her Mysteries, Isis—the Great Mooring Post—is always at home in the land of the dead. And even though the Great Mooring Post is the one Who calls us to our deaths, She is not a frightening figure. Instead, She initiates our transformation as we become fully spiritual beings. Isis is a comfort and a guide to those who journey into death. She “makes a spirit” of those who die and the dead rejoice when they see Her. She is called the Lady of All in the Secret Place [the Otherworld] and the dead beg Her to “spiritualize” them and guide their souls on the paths of the Otherworld.

Isis by Mia Araujo. See more of her work and her Patreon here.

In the land of the dead, Isis is the one “at whom Osiris rejoiced when he saw her.” She is the guide Who is asked to “clear my vision in the paths of the Netherworld.” She also acts on behalf of the deceased, ensuring that their initiation into death proceeds as it should. In a formula for being accepted into the land of the dead, the deceased greets the West, personified as the Goddess Amentet, for having arrived safely and states, “true is Isis Who acted on my behalf.”

In both the Coffin Texts and the Book of Coming Forth by Day, there is a formula in the form of a dramatic reading in which the new pharaoh, as Horus, is to go on a journey to His father Osiris, the deceased pharaoh. To do this, He first allies Himself “with the Divine Isis.” Then He sends a messenger to whom He has given His own shape. The messenger, of course, is none other than the deceased.

He must pass tests and provide the proper tokens along the way (as do so many Mystery initiates) until coming to “the House of Isis, to the secret mysteries.” The deceased also says that he has been conducted to the hidden secrets of Isis “for She caused me to see the birth of the Great God.” Once in possession of the hidden secrets and having witnessed the rebirth of the Great God shown to him by Isis, the deceased delivers his message to Osiris: all is well on Earth because Horus, the Son of Isis, rules His father’s kingdom.

Veil of Isis by Ludovic Pinelli. You can get a print here.

As the Great Mooring Post, Isis calls us to our deaths, but She also ensures that, in death, we understand Her hidden secrets and that we witness the birth/rebirth of the Great God. Isis initiates us into Death, into the Otherworld, and into our new phase of existence.

We are all Osiris, re-membered and renewed by Isis in the Otherworld. We are all Horus, reborn into the world as Her child. Death bringer, Resurrector, Life-giver, Isis is the Great Mooring Post, the Caller to the Dark Journey.

O Iset Menit Weret, Isis the Great Mooring Post, we ask You: take our hands and guide us safely and wisely on this journey that we all must—someday—take.

Isis, the Goddess “Throne”

Isis seated upon the symbol of Her name

Let’s go back to basics today. And when it comes to ancient Egypt, perhaps the most basic of all is the Name.

As many of you know, Isis’ name means “throne” and we often see Her identified by the hieroglyphic symbol of the throne upon Her head. Thus, the Great Goddess Isis is the Great Goddess Throne.

Many Egyptologists explain this by saying that Isis was originally the personification of the royal throne with all its power and magic.

Mourning Isis

It is certainly true that Isis was associated with the kingship—as were all the major Deities and most of the minor ones. The living king, seen as the embodiment of the God Horus, was considered the son of Isis (and of many other Goddesses). After death, the king became an Osiris so naturally Isis became his mourning widow.

As the personification of the royal throne, Isis is the institution of the kingship itself. If we seek a feminist interpretation (which I do), we could rightly say that no king could take his place on the throne unless he had a close relationship with the Goddess Throne. To rule, the king must sit in the lap of the Goddess as Her child and be united with Her as Her husband.

Yet for me, this explanation of the origin of the Goddess Who is the greatest Goddess of Egypt—and arguably the greatest Goddess of all time—is bloodless and boring.  And it is a vast understatement of the true meaning of the Throne.

Isis wearing the symbol of Her name on Her head

As many of you also know, Isis is the Greek version of the Goddess’ name. In Egyptian, She is Iset (Eset; Aset; Auset). One of the meanings of iset is indeed throne. More generally, it means seat. The ancient Egyptians seemed to have had a flexible, idiomatic use for the word similar to its use in English. For example, when we say “he is in the seat of power,” we are not often referring to an actual seat, but mean that he is in charge. Similarly, iset smeter means judgment seat and the term referred to a tribunal of judges. Just as we say we have our heart set (a word that comes from seat) on something, the Egyptians wished for their iset ib—literally the seat of the heart—but meaning their heart’s desire.

Even more generally, iset means place. Judging by the uses of it we have left to us, it often means an important or sacred place. Iset Weret is the Great Place, an idiom for Heaven. The iset wabet is the place of purity; that is, the sanctuary. Iset Ma’et (Maat) is the place of law or truth; the Otherworld. Iset neferet is the beautiful place; the cemetery. Iset hotep is the place of peace; the tomb. Temples can be designated as isets, as the special places of the Deities. The Iset en Neit is the Temple of Neith. The Iset Heqit is the Place of the Frog Goddess, Heqit.

This image, from the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, is of a reed and mud hut, perhaps the type that would have been built around an iset of a Deity in an early Egyptian period.

Egyptologists believe that the gathering of people around the shrines of Deities played an important part in the early organization of Egyptian society. This is confirmed by the fact that one of the earliest Egyptian words for a settlement was seat or abode—and that it especially referred to the seat or abode of a Deity. Iset as place is also distinctly feminine. In hieroglyphs, one of the determinatives used to indicate cities (the seat or place of the Deity) is an egg. The same determinative is used to indicate both Goddesses and women in general.

Beautiful Earth Goddess; I couldn’t find the artist…please let me know if you can identify

So an iset is feminine and it is a seat, an abode, a chamber, a tomb, a room, a place. Iset is location, a point in the circle, a crossing of the x, y, and z axes. Iset is somewhere. It is, in fact, the Primal Somewhere, the First Somewhere—and even the First Something. In the Coffin Texts, the androgynous Creator Deity Atum refers to the primordial state as the time “when my throne had not yet been put together that I might sit upon it.” Atum says, “I was alone with Nu in lassitude, and I could find no place on which to stand or sit.” So before the coming together of the Throne, there was nothing but the Nu, nothing but the Primal Chaos, the Unformed, the Non-Being. But with the coming of the Throne, the universe begins to unfold. There is no longer nothing. Something exists and that Something is the Throne. Where before there was Non-Being, now there is Being Given Form, Being provided with a seat upon which to rest its Becoming, a point for all things to gather around. The Throne—Iset—is the Form of Being and the Place of Becoming.

We can connect this primordial Iset with one of the most ancient forms of Goddess known to humankind; because for human beings, the Place of Being can be none other than the earth. Therefore She Who is the Sacred Place must also be our place of existence, the earth. She is the Great Mother Earth Who gives birth, bringing all things into being. An Egyptian text—supposedly enormously ancient—also has something to tell us about the relationship between the Iset and the earth.

The granaries at the Ramesseum; photo by Patrick Godeau from Tour Egypt site

Pharaoh Shabaku (25th dynasty) thought this text so important that he preserved it by having it carved in stone. It explains how the God Ptah created the universe, how the Great Throne of Ptah provides sustenance for Egypt, and how Osiris, the Grain God, was drowned at Memphis, the city of Ptah (and a city that later became strongly connected with Isis and Osiris and with Isis and Serapis).

The text explains that the Great Throne is also called the Seat of All Life and the Lady of All Life because She provides Egypt with food. In this case, “Great Throne” probably refers to the sacred city of Memphis. If so, it is another example of Place being both personified and feminine. In addition, we are told that Memphis is known as the Granary of Ptah because Osiris was drowned there. Like the grain fields during the annual flood, Osiris, the Grain God, is drowned at the feet of the Great Throne, the Sacred Granary.

This is the most common hieroglyphic writing of Isis’ name in Egyptian.

Here “Great Throne” does not specifically refer to Isis, the wife of Osiris. However, I believe that this myth could be a remnant from a time when the Great Goddess Throne was one and the same as the Great Earth Mother, the Goddess of the Place. She is the Goddess Who sustains the people by the grain that grows upon Her body and which She contains like a granary.

Perhaps it is all that remains of the more ancient ascendancy of Iset, the Universal Goddess Throne, of Whom Iset, the wife of Osiris, is just one aspect.

Isis & the Book of Breathings

The Document of Breathing Isis Made for Her Brother

The Book of Breathings is my absolute favorite title of some of the ancient Egyptian “books of the dead.” The Books of Breathing are from a later period and were most popular during the Greco-Roman period in Egypt, though the earliest known copy has been dated to about 350 BCE.

The Book of Breathings tells us that it was…

…composed by Isis for Her brother Osiris to make His soul to live, to make His body to live, to make young all His members anew, that He might reach the horizon together with His father the Sun, that His soul might rise in heaven like the disk of the Moon, that His body might shine in Orion in the body of Nuet; that moreover these things might happen to Osiris <name of the deceased>; would that thou wouldst hide this thing, so as not to have it read to anyone. It is helpful to the one in the place of the dead; he shall live anew in truth, millions of times.

The Book of Breathings

The Book of Breathings contains versions of formulae also found in the Book of the Dead as well as new compositions, commentary, and reworkings of older formulae. Included under this category of Books of Breathing are works more fully titled the Document or Permit of Breathing Isis Made for Her Brother Osiris, the First Book of Breathing, also attributed to Isis, and a Second Book of Breathing, said to have been copied by Thoth. So we have our two great Divine Magicians, Isis and Thoth, at work here, too.

Possibly a photo of the real Joseph Smith, Jr.

The Book of Breathing focuses (surprise!) on the importance of breath in reviving the deceased, as well as purification, rejoining with the ba (soul) after death, the vindication of the deceased through a version of the Negative Confession, and the divinization and acceptance of the deceased by the Deities.

Highly idealized portrait of Smith

The translation of a particular text of the Book of Breathing plays a rather strange part in the history of Egyptology and the foundation of a new religion.

There is a copy of the Document of Breathing Isis Made, which was originally created for a priest named Hor from Thebes. (Thebes is where all the Books of Breathings originate, so it was apparently a Theban thing.) Interestingly, it was also one of the first Egyptian papyri to find its way to America. It was purchased (along with some other papyrus fragments) by the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka the Mormons), Joseph Smith, Jr., from a traveling mummy show in Kirtland, Ohio in 1835.

Smith spent the next years “translating” the papyrus using his own system, developed in his book, Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language—as well as a great deal of divine inspiration. The resulting translation was serialized in a Mormon publication in 1842. The LDS Church today says that he translated it using the Urim and Thummim, in other words, by divination. (It is worth noting that Champollion’s deciphering of the hieroglyphs was not known in America at the time and European scholars were still arguing vehemently about whether or not he’d got it right, anyway. It is also worth noting that Smith was no stranger to the “translation” of purportedly Egyptian texts. The Book of Mormon itself was his inspired translation of writing inscribed on golden tablets in “reformed Egyptian.”)

A facsimile of the “sacrifice of Abraham” vignette from the Joseph Smith papyrus

Anyway, Smith boldly went on, interpreting the texts he had purchased as The Book of Abraham, which became canonized when it was included in Mormonism’s Pearl of Great Price in 1880. The Book of Abraham is supposed to be a record of Abraham’s life while in Egypt as well as his visions of the cosmos and creation. Thus, the “translation” of an ancient Egyptian text is one of the foundational texts of Mormonism.

The “restored” vignette…

The original papyri that Smith purchased were thought lost until the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York found (some of) them among their collection and made a gift of them to the Morman church in 1967. Since then, Egyptologists have had access and been able to truly interpret the texts for what they are: a Document of Breathing Isis Made. They also had plenty of time to unload a rather substantial round of criticism on Smith’s original work.

…and a more likely restoration

You may be wondering what sort of thing is actually in the Book of Abraham so I’ll offer a few examples, but I really don’t want to get into it too much…

Abraham’s tale begins as he seeks to leave the land of the Chaldeans because he wants to become a righteous High Priest of his God. His people had turned away from the one God and were worshiping “the god of Elkenah, and the god of Libnah, and the god of Mahmackrah, and the god of Korash, and the god of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.” There were human sacrifices left and right…including small children and three virtuous virgins. Then the wicked priests attempted to sacrifice Abraham himself, but he was saved by an Angel of the Lord. Here, he refers to a vignette from the papyrus that had clearly been changed to suit the story. You will recognize the traditional Egyptian image of Osiris upon His bier with Anubis, no longer quite looking like Anubis.

A “bible stories” type illustration of the same scene

We also learn that Egypt was discovered by the daughter of Ham (her name was Egyptus, which means “that which is forbidden”) when Egypt was under water. (So perhaps Smith knew about Egypt’s Inundation?) And it comes to pass that Jehovah tells Abraham it’s time to leave Chaldea. Eventually, he ends up in Egypt. Next Abraham talks with Jehovah Himself and learns about the structure of the cosmos, the star that is closest to God, and how Creation came about. If your curiosity extends beyond where mine did, the Wikipedia article is pretty good and the whole Book of Abraham is online at the official LDS site.

Another vignette from the Book of Abraham; that’s supposedly ole Abe on the throne with pharaoh behind him. Abraham is “reasoning upon the principles of Astronomy, in the king’s court.”

So. What has all this to do with Isis, you ask? She is, of course, the Divine author of the work that inspired Smith. But beyond that, Isis has always been a Goddess of writing and sacred words, so much so that She was assimilated with the Egyptian Divine Scribe Goddess Seshat.

Isis, Lady of the Book, teaching Hermes and Moses in a painting by the Renaissance painter Pinturicchio

Later, in Isis aretalogies from Kyme in Turkey and Maronea in Greece, Isis and Thoth are credited with being the creators of hieroglyphic and demotic letters (a later script form of Egyptian writing). The Cairo calendar calls Isis “provider of the book.” In an aretalogy found in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, Isis is said to be skilled in writing and calculations. In fact, this reputation followed the Goddess all the way into the Middle Ages when, as an ancestress and culture bearer, Isis was credited with teaching the Egyptians the letters of the alphabet and how to write.

So perhaps we are not all that surprised to find Her associated with books—not only ancient Egyptian ones, but also—although obliquely—books that inspired another of the world’s religions.

We are pure with the purity of Isis

Oh my! The Fall Equinox Festival of Offering to Isis was grand. The Weather Gods favored us. And then last weekend we had our annual Grape Stomp here at our home. The wine is fermenting in the kitchen right now and my head is still spinning a bit.

I wanted to share with you some photos from the Festival so you can see how beautiful everything was. I’ll be back to writing some more regular posts next time, but for now…here are some photos.

This one is the “Goddess’ Eye View.” The flat surface you see in the center is where my sacred image of the Goddess was placed…and this beautiful scene is what She looked out at. The shows the front view of the Great Altar with Goddess in Her spot and offerings in the foreground. No, there’s no photoshop on the glowing eyes, that’s natural sunlight. By the way, the obelisks and Great Altar were originally made for an Isis Fest about 10 years ago. So happy that they were able to be re-used in such a wonderful way for this Festival. The Waters of the Nun became a floating flower pond (yes, that’s papyrus in the center) when people made their offerings. The Goddess as She appeared for the Offering of the Night. Just as we were looking into the night sky, a shooting star blessed us by its passing. There was an audible “ohhhh” from the participants. We were honoring Isis-Sothis at this Offering Rite, so…of course there was a shooting star. And just a final shot of the Temple in the Woods at Ffynnon. You could have a festival there, too!

Photographic credits to Marlen Conrad and Ffynnon for the beautiful photos in this post. I was so busy that I failed to get images…but my lovely friends did not! Much love to all of you!

For the basis of our rites, we used adaptations from my Offering to Isis book. We even had natron for purification so that we were all “pure with the purity of Isis.”

I do have good news on the Offering to Isis book front…it is being republished next year! The publisher is Azoth Press. They do collectors’ editions first, then paperbacks at prices for the rest of us. I’ll keep you up to date on what the schedule looks like.

I must say, I have had an extraordinary Fall EQ this year. Community EQ was amazing. Our Grape Stomp with friends old and new was amazing. I am SO fortunate. Goddess, I do LOVE you all.