Here is Isis & Osiris' story of love...
{ Isis was the most powerful goddess of
ancient Egypt, even greater than the gods; her worship spread through
the Mediterranean world and became one of the main religions of the
Roman Empire. Like so many goddesses, she had a long history. We’re not
even sure that Isis is her original name, as Egyptian hieroglyphs didn’t
include vowels. What we do know is that she came to embody so many of
the qualities we seek that she is called “The One Who Is All” and the
“Lady of Ten Thousand Names.”
Born of the Geb, the god of the Earth,
and Nut, the goddess of the Overarching Sky, Isis held both heaven and
earth in balance. She is a moon goddess who gave birth to Horus, the god
of the sun; together, mother and child created all life and sustained
it. She taught women to grind corn, bake bread, spin flax, weave cloth,
and, perhaps most importantly, she taught them to tame the men so the
women could live with them! Among her many attributes, she was also the
goddess of medicine, healing, fertility, and wisdom.
So why was this Mother of Life also
known as the Crone of Death? That title comes from what happened with
her brother/husband Osiris.
Incest between brother and sister was
allowable for the gods to keep the bloodlines pure. When Osiris became
her husband, he became the first King of Earth. Set, their brother, was
jealous and killed Osiris, sealed up his coffin and threw it in the
river Nile. Isis grieved mightily, shredded her robes and chopped off
her hair. Then she set out to find the body of her husband so she could
bury him with proper honor and respect.
As she searched for her love, she met
Queen Astarte in Phoenicia. Making a long story short, Astarte realized
that Osiris’s body was hidden in her palace. Isis carried him back to
Egypt and hid it in the swamps of the Nile delta while she prepared for
his funeral. Her wicked brother, Set, found the coffin, furiously hacked
Osiris’s body into 14 pieces, and scattered them in different
directions. Searching and searching, Isis recovered thirteen of the
pieces. Only his penis was missing, so she made one from gold and wax
(some myths say mud or clay). Promptly inventing the rites of embalming,
and with her magical powers in full force, Isis brought Osiris back to
life and conceived their child Horus. Now that she was no longer
grieving, Osiris was free to descend and became the King of the
Underworld, ruling over the dead.
Isis is often shown wearing the symbol
of an empty throne on her head, suggesting her husband’s absence and
that she, herself, was the seat of the Pharaoh’s power. She carries the
ankh, the Egyptian hieroglyph of eternal life. When in her funerary
role, and as the protector of the dead, she is shown with wings. The
ancient Egyptians believed that the Nile River flooded each year because
of the tears Isis wept for her dead husband, and every year there was a
ceremonial death-and-rebirth ritual.
When Christianity was trying to gain a
foothold over paganism, the mother-and-child images of Isis and her son
Horus in the many temples of Isis across the land were converted into
images of Mary with her infant son Jesus, while images of Isis holding
the body of her dead husband across her lap became Mary with the
crucified Jesus.
For us today, Isis stands for qualities
we all aspire to: feminine strength, deep caring about relationships,
acceptance of our emotional depths, the act of creating life, and the
wisdom surrounding renewal and reconnection. }
Thank you to Deborah King for providing this text.
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