Isis: Egyptian Goddess

of Magic and Giver of Life

Isis, the Egyptian goddess of rebirth remains one of the most familiar images of
empowered and utter femininity. The goddess Isis was the first daughter of Geb,
god of the Earth, and Nut, the goddess of the Overarching Sky. Isis was born on
the first day between the first years of creation, and was adored by her human
followers.

Unlike the other Egyptian goddesses, the goddess Isis spent time among her
people, teaching women how to grind corn and make bread, spin flax and weave
cloth, and how to tame men enough to live with them (an art form on which
many of us would welcome a refresher course!)

Isis taught her people the skills of reading and agriculture and was worshipped as
the goddess of medicine and wisdom.

More than any other of the ancient Egyptian goddesses, Isis embodied the
characteristics of all the lesser goddesses that preceded her. Isis became the
model on which future generations of female deities in other cultures were to be
based.

As the personification of the "complete female", Isis was called "The One Who Is
All", Isis Panthea ("Isis the All Goddess"), and the "Lady of Ten Thousand
Names".

The goddess Isis, a moon goddess, gave birth to Horus, the god of the sun.
Together, Isis and Horus created and sustained all life and were the saviors of
their people.

Isis became the most powerful of the gods and goddesses in the ancient world.
Ra, the God of the Sun, originally had the greatest power. But Ra was uncaring,
and the people of the world suffered greatly during his reign.

The goddess Isis tricked him by mixing some of his saliva with mud to create a
poisonous snake that bit him, causing him great suffering which she then offered
to cure. He eventually agreed.

Isis informed Ra that, for the cure to work, she would have to speak his secret
name (which was the source of his power over life and death). Reluctantly, he
whispered it to her.

When Isis uttered his secret name while performing her magic, Ra was healed.
But the goddess Isis then possessed his powers of life and death, and quickly
became the most powerful of the Egyptian gods and goddesses, using her great
powers to the benefit of the people.

Isis was called the Mother of Life, but she was also known as the Crone of Death.
Her immense powers earned her the titles of "The Giver of Life" and "Goddess of
Magic". Her best known story illustrates why she is simultaneously known as a
creation goddess and a goddess of destruction.

Isis was the Goddess of the Earth in ancient Egypt and loved her brother Osiris.
When they married, Osiris became the first King of Earth. Their brother Set,
immensely jealous of their powers, murdered Osiris so he could usurp the throne.

Set did this by tricking Osiris into stepping into a beautiful box made of cedar,
ebony and ivory that he had ordered built to fit only Osiris. Set then sealed it up
to become a coffin and threw it into the river. The river carried the box out to sea;
it washed up in another country, resting in the upper boughs of a tamarisk tree
when the waters receded.

As time passed, the branches covered the box, encapsulating the god in his coffin
in the trunk of the tree.

In a state of inconsolable grief, Isis tore her robes to shreds and cut off her
beautiful black hair. When she finally regained her emotional balance, Isis set out
to search for the body of her beloved Osiris so that she might bury him properly.

The search took Isis to Phoenicia where she met Queen Astarte. Astarte didn't
recognize the goddess and hired her as a nursemaid to the infant prince.

Fond of the young boy, Isis decided to bestow immortality on him. As she was
holding the royal infant over the fire as part of the ritual, the Queen entered the
room. Seeing her son smoldering in the middle of the fire, Astarte instinctively
(but naively) grabbed the child out of the flames, undoing the magic of Isis that
would have made her son a god.

When the Queen demanded an explanation, Isis revealed her identity and told
Astarte of her quest to recover her husband's body. As she listened to the story,
Astarte realized that the body was hidden in the fragrant tree in the center of the
palace and told Isis where to find it.

Sheltering his broken body in her arms, the goddess Isis carried the body of
Osiris back to Egypt for proper burial. There she hid it in the swamps on the delta
of the Nile river.

Unfortunately, Set came across the box one night when he was out hunting.
Infuriated by this turn of events and determined not to be outdone, he murdered
Osiris once again . . . this time hacking his body into 14 pieces and throwing them
in different directions knowing that they would be eaten by the crocodiles.

The goddess Isis searched and searched, accompanied by seven scorpions who
assisted and protected her. Each time she found new pieces she rejoined them to
re-form his body.

But Isis could only recover thirteen of the pieces. The fourteenth, his penis, had
been swallowed by a crab, so she fashioned one from gold and wax. Then
inventing the rites of embalming, and speaking some words of magic, Isis
brought her husband back to life.

Magically, Isis then conceived a child with Osiris, and gave birth to Horus, who
later became the Sun God. Assured that having the infant would now relieve Isis'
grief, Osiris was free to descend to become the King of the Underworld, ruling
over the dead and the sleeping.

His spirit, however, frequently returned to be with Isis and the young Horus who
both remained under his watchful and loving eye.

There are many other variations of this myth . . . in some Isis found the body of
Osiris in Byblos, fashioned his penis out of clay. In others the goddess consumed
the dismembered parts she found and brought Osiris back to life, reincarnating
him as her son Horus.

In one of the most beautiful renditions, Isis turns into a sparrowhawk and hovers
over the body of Osiris, fanning life back into him with her long wings.

Regardless of the differences, each version speaks of the power over life and
death that the goddess Isis symbolizes. . . the deep mysteries of the feminine
ability to create and to bring life from that which is lifeless.

To this day the celebration of the flooding of the Nile each year is called "The
Night of the Drop" by Muslims. . . for it used to be named "The Night of the Tear-
Drop" a remembrance of the extent of the Isis' lamentation of the death of Osiris,
her tears so plentiful they caused the Nile to overflow.
 The ancient Egyptian goddess Isis has many gifts to share with modern women.
Isis embodies the strengths of the feminine, the capacity to feel deeply about
relationships, the act of creation, and the source of sustenance and protection.

At times Isis could be a clever trickster empowered by her feminine wiles rather
than her logic or brute strength, but it is also the goddess Isis who shows us how
we can use our personal gifts to create the life we desire rather than simply
opposing that which we do not like.

The myths of Isis and Osiris caution us about the need for occasional renewal and
reconnection in our relationships. Isis also reminds us to acknowledge and accept
the depths of our emotions.

Goddess Symbols of Isis

Full moon, images of madonna and child, rivers

(especially the Nile) and the ocean, hair braids,
cattails, papyrus, knots and buckles, stars,
General:
the ankh symbol, throne, the rattle, diadem
headdress (circular disk with horns), cow, wings,
milk, perfume bottles, and March 5 (feast day)

Sparrowhawk or kite, crocodile, scorpion, crab,

Animals:
snake (especially cobra), and geese

Cedar, corn, tamarisk, flax, wheat, barley,

Plants: grapes, lotus, balsam, all flowers, trees and
all green plants

Perfumes/Scents:
 Tamarisk, lotus, balsam, amber oil, cedarwood,
sandalwood, cinnamon, and sweet orange

Silver, gold, ebony, ivory, obsidian, lapis lazuli,

Gems and Metals:
and scarabs

Colors:
Silver, gold, black, red, cobalt blue, and green

In the beginning, all was darkness in Nin, the primordial ocean of chaos. And then
came a great fire in the heavens and his name was Ra. He created Shu (the air), and
Tefnut (the moisture); they in turn created heaven and earth. Nut, Goddess of the
sky, and Geb, God of the earth, were filled with desire for each other, knowing that
with the union of the ethereal womb of the heavens and the material seed of the
earth, all things might be possible. Ra, master of the cosmos, was envious of the
potential they possessed, and forbade the union. But with courageous disobedience
they soon came together and knew a brief but passionate embrace. When Ra
learned of their defiance, a consuming rage came upon him, and he ordered Shu to
eternally divide them. To this day, the lonely earth reaches up in arousal, seeking to
hold his beloved sky once more.
Ra was to slow, however, and their brief union was fruitful: Nut gave birth to four
children - brothers Osirus and Seth, and sisters Isis and Nephthys - who became the
four cardinal deities of the earth and lords over all therein. Of these four, Isis,
Goddess of life, was supreme.

Isis is the Mistress of the four elements (terrestrial earth and water, and celestial
wind and fire - symbols of the both the divided functions of body and spirit and the
rational and creative aspects of the mind). As the will of all the forces of nature, She
is the Mother of all life. It is Her power that forges the transcendant, static, ethereal,
(the sky) with the immanent, dynamic, material, (the earth) into the unitary miracle
of living things.

Isis, the great Mother Goddess, exists at the centre of all life. She draws the earth
upward, that Her blood might flow down to nourish the four corners of the world.
And the seeds of the earth are born upon Her breath, that they might find a home in
the desert, and thereby bring the fiery spark of new life to that once desolate place.
The oasis in the desert, like life in the cosmos, is a miraculous little jewel,
improbable almost to the point of impossible. Only the fourfold energies of Isis that
penetrate and intersect at this place, make it so.

Isis holds next to Her breast the egyptian symbol known as ankh. It literally
translates as life or vitality, but it is also a pictograph of man (head, arms and body).
This is the image of mother and child.
Like all mothers, she struggles to protect Her children - and cannot. As children
grow and wander far from their mother's gentle protection, they must eventually
suffer. And like all mothers, Isis suffers the pain of Her children, and suffers in Her
helplessness to prevent it.

But the passive nurturing power of the Goddess is a component of the life force the
She provides to the world. To be sensitive to the energies of nature, is to be attuned
to the Goddess and Her transcendant nourishment that informs the needs of both
body and spirit. Between the passive and active extremes of the living experience, is
the centre wherein one makes contact with the Goddess, and is replenished and
sustained by Her life-giving benevolence.

It is a central role of the feminine archetype - the Great Mother Goddess - to bring
one into this centre, where the transformation occurs. The ancient egyptians tell a
story of a spiritual coupling, between Isis and the dead body of Osirus (once leader
of the terrestrial Gods, but killed by his brother Seth). From this union came Horus
- the living God and supreme Lord of the cosmos. This story appears many, many
times across the earth, and across history. Our stories about Gods, are stories about
ourselves. And our desire for the miracle benediction of the Goddess, is pervasive
indeed: from Cybele (the most ancient deity we know of - who later becomes Ishtar
in Persia, Isis in Egypt, Artemis in Greece, and Diana in Rome), to Devaki (the
human mother of Krishna - God incarnate on earth),to Queen Maya (virgin mother
of Buddha - enlightenment incarnate), to the Virgin Mary (another human mother
of a famous God incarnate on earth). Even the Sage-prophet Merlin (from the grand
Arthurian tradition - Christianized from more ancient pre-Christian Celtic
mythology), is conceived of a virgin mother and a "golden being of light".

The promise for us within these stories is that we too can join with the Truth - and
become the Sage-Prophet. And the Mother of the Prophet is a virgin because no
physical union has occurred; when God penetrates into the soul, it is a purely
spiritual act. As the physical feminine brings forth physical life, so, too, does the
spiritual feminine bring forth spiritual life. It is through this aspect of the Goddess
we hold in our hearts that we are reborn: not merely physical, but now spiritual
beings.

When one has learned to resonate with and unify those divine elemental vibrations
of earth and sky (that is, unify the two halves of consciousness - the terrestrially
informed rational and celestially informed creative, the masculine and feminine, and
the conscious and the unconscious), then they are invited to fly upon the wings of
enlightenment up to a great pyramid of light upon which awaits the Lord Creator of
the cosmos.

Isis hid her son, Horus, from Seth, the murderer of Osiris, until Horus was fully grown
and could avenge his father. She defended the child against many attacks from snakes and
scorpions. But because Isis was also Seth's sister, she wavered during the eventual battle
between Horus and Seth, and in one episode Isis pitied Seth and was beheaded by Horus
during their struggle. Despite her variable temperament, she and Horus were regarded by
the Egyptians as the perfect mother and son. The shelter she afforded her child gave her
the character of a goddess of protection. But her chief aspect was that of a great magician,
whose power transcended that of all other deities. Several narratives tell of her magical
prowess, with which she could even outwit the creator god Atum. She was invoked on
behalf of the sick, and, with the goddesses Nephthys, Neith, and Selket, she protected the
dead. She became associated with various other goddesses who had similar functions, and
thus her nature became increasingly diverse. In particular, the goddess Hathor and Isis
became similar in many respects. In the astral interpretation of the gods, Isis was equated
with the dog star Sothis (Sirius).

Isis was represented as a woman with the hieroglyphic sign of the throne on her head,
either sitting on a throne, alone or holding the child Horus, or kneeling before a coffin.
Occasionally she was shown with a cow's head. As mourner, she was a principal deity in
all rites connected with the dead; as magician, she cured the sick and brought the dead to
life; and, as mother, she was herself a life-giver.

The cult of Isis spread throughout Egypt. In Akhmim she received special attention as the
"mother" of the fertility god Min. She had important temples throughout Egypt and
Nubia. By Greco-Roman times she was dominant among Egyptian goddesses, and she
received acclaim from Egyptians and Greeks for her many names and aspects. Several
temples were dedicated to her in Alexandria, where she became the "patroness of
seafarers." From Alexandria her cult was brought to all the shores of the Mediterranean,
including Greece and Rome. In Hellenistic times the mysteries of Isis and Osiris
developed; these were comparable to other Greek mystery cults.
The Egyptian goddess Isis was worshipped throughout Egypt, even from very early dates.
Isis was considered to the patron saint of women, mothers and children. Additionally,
ancient Egyptians referred to her as Isis the goddess of magic.

In her winged form, she is usually depicted as a slender, graceful young woman, and is
appealed to in prayer by those who are performing romance, fertility, fidelity, and love
spells and rites.