About Isis
Goddess of 10,000 names
Isis began as a Goddess of magic and protector of the throne, or king. Her Egyptian name, Auset, translates to "throne," and she was originally depicted with the hieroglyph of a throne over her head. Over thousands of years her popularity grew and she merged with many other goddesses, namely Hathor- Goddess of Joy- whose horns-and-sun headdress Isis often shares.
The story of Isis and Osiris became perhaps the most widely known myth cycle in Egypt. In short, Osiris, king and culture-hero of Egypt, is killed and dismembered by his jealous brother Set, god of chaos. The tears of the grieving goddess were said to flood the Nile each year during “The Night of the Tear Drop,” an event recognized in Egypt to this day. Isis wanders extensively to find the pieces of his body, reassembles them (the first mummy), and magically brings him to life long enough to conceive a child, Horus. Isis raises Horus while hiding from Set in the Nile marshes, and after many trials and tribulations, Horus overthrows Set and restores order. Interpreted through the neo-Platonic lens of Plutarch, the Greek historian and philosopher who first recorded these myths, Osiris represents the archetypal forms and Isis the receptive matter which come together to create the material world. These concepts exist within the words themselves: father/pater/pattern and mother/mater/matter.
After Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 300 BCE Isis worship quickly spread throughout the Hellenistic world. The Romans then carried her throughout the empire- at its height, Isis worship extended from England to Afghanistan. She enjoyed wide appeal because, among other things, she had become essentially the goddess of the vulnerable or suffering- mothers and children most famously, but also sailors, prostitutes, slaves, and prisoners were welcomed. The Golden Ass by Apuleius- the only ancient Roman novel to survive in its entirety- features Isis as the savior of its long-suffering protagonist, who had been magically transformed into a donkey.
Isis withstood Christian persecution until her last remaining temple at Philae was forced to close in 600 CE. Her influence, however, continued. At the Council of Ephesus in 431 CE, Isis’ epithets, “Mother of God,” “Queen of Heaven,” and “Stella Maris” were transferred to Mary, as was the iconography of the veil and the moon. Indeed the famous Mary-nursing-Jesus image derived from the ancient statuary of Isis nursing Horus. Isis worship persisted long into the Christian era- an image of Isis at the abbey of St. Germain in Paris was publicly destroyed as late as the 1640’s.
Isiac influence lived within the Hermetic tradition, a philosophical and spiritual system which emerged from the polyglot of cultures in Alexandria circa 300 CE. She is a central figure in Alchemy, where she is the “World Soul,” and the process of Osiris’ dismemberment and reassembly represent the alchemical processes of Solutio and Coagulo. The “Veil of Isis” came to symbolize the secrets of nature, and lifting the veil is the discovery thereof, e.g., H.P. Blavatsky’s esoteric treatise, “Isis Unveiled.” Isis is the High Priestess in the Rider-Waite tarot. Her veneration re-emerged in 1976 with the visions of Olivia Robertson in Conegal castle, Irelend. She and her brother Lawrence established the Fellowship of Isis, of which I am a member.
Isis entered my life 5 years ago, and I have been inspired by her imagery and myth ever since. My work explores both her Egyptian and Greco-Roman aspects, her many names and the domains they represent, and the suffering, strength, and resilience demonstrated in her myth cycle. Through her I enter the realms of the goddesses, and the aspects of Mother, Protector, and Giver of the Transcendent Deity.