Category Archives: Fiery Isis

Isis, Lady of Fire

Lady of Light & Flame
Lady of Light & Flame

Happy May Day and Blessings of Beltane to all who celebrate. In honor of that Festival of Fire, I bring you this post about Our own Lady of Holy Fire…for Isis is a fiery Goddess indeed.

Just as it does at Beltane, in ancient Egypt, fire could represent life and renewal—both very Isiac concepts, as you know.

For examples, during his rejuvenating Sed festival, the king kindled a “new” fire that symbolized his magically renewed life.

The Sun was known to be a living fire Whose birthplace and home is the Isle of Fire. The protective uraeus serpent Who coils on the brow of Re, as well as other Deities and royals, spits poisonous fire and fiery light comes forth from Her throat. Many Goddesses took the form of this fire-spitting serpent, among Them, from an early period, Isis.

A lake of fire in the Egyptian underworld guarded by the baboons of Thoth
A lake of fire in the Egyptian underworld guarded by the baboons of Thoth

The Egyptians also considered fire to be purifying and protective. In Late Period funeral rites, torches were sometimes burnt to cleanse the deceased from any earthly defilement. Flame could be used to drive off evil and exorcise demons. The justified dead could harness the power of fire to protect themselves, or they might even become a living flame themselves. They could drink from the Otherworld lakes of fire without harm, and could even be refreshed by the fiery drink. The unjustified dead, however, had reason to fear fire. They could be plunged into the lakes of fire and eternally tormented by fiery demons. Goddesses and Gods of fire threatened them and fiery gates kept them away from the path to the heavenly realms.

Uraeus serpents spitting fire

Isis is at Her most fiery when She is in Her aspects as Divine Protectress or as Avenging Goddess. At the entrance to the chapel of Osiris in the tomb of Seti I at Abydos, Isis is called Wosret, the Fiery One, and She protects Osiris from His enemies. At Philae, the king is shown adoring Isis in this fiery aspect; he calls Her his mother and the Lady Wosret.

In one of the hymns to Isis on the temple walls at Philae, She is Nebet Neseret, Lady (or Mistress) of Flame, and She is the fire-spitting uraeus cobra Who instantly destroys the enemies of Re with Her fire and Her potent magic. She is said to assault the rebels and to instantly slay Apophis, the enemy of Re. As the fiery uraeus of Re, She gives orders in the king’s ship.

Isis also partakes of the fiery fierceness of Sakhmet. On one of the gateways, or pylons, at Philae, She is “the mighty, the foremost of the goddesses, daughter of Geb, the sun goddess, the primeval one” and She is identified as “Sakhmet, the fiery goddess.” Yet another Philae hymn calls Her “Sakhmet, the fiery one, who destroys the enemies of her brother.” A papyrus from Oxyrhynchus praises Isis as the Lady of Light and Flames.

This fiery Isis is also connected with initiation, magic, and healing. In Plutarch’s rendition of the Isis myth, Isis nurses the child of Queen Astarte during the day, but at night magically sets the child aflame, making him immortal.

A fiery Eye of Horus the Initiate
A fiery Eye of Horus the Initiate

The Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri suggest an explanation for this fire magic Isis works on the queen’s son. The Charm of the Syrian Woman of Gadara  says, “the most majestic Goddess’ child [Horus] was set aflame as an initiate.”

Initiation is here seen as purification by fire so that the mortal parts of the initiate are burned away, allowing her or him to more fully understand the ways of the Deities. Some scholars believe that this initiatory fire magic may have had its origins in Egyptian healing magic and what they call the “burning Horus” formula.  This refers to an Egyptian convention that connects poisoning with fire. In the same way that the uraeus spits fire, when Horus is poisoned, he is also, in a sense, burned.

“Set aflame as an initiate”

Burn-healing formulae identify the sufferer with Horus and say that “a fire has fallen into” Horus, that is, the sufferer. They invoke Isis to put out the fire and heal the burn. The initiatory connection may come from the fact that the poison-burned Horus experiences near-death before being healed by Isis. Mystery initiates, too, regularly undergo symbolic near-death experiences before being saved by the Goddess or God of the Mystery Rite.

Isis is Iset Wosret and the fire-spitting Cobra Goddess. She is the Mistress of Light and Flame Who slays evil and protects us all. And She is the one Who not only initiates us by fire, but also warms us by Her illuminating light.

The Awe-full-ness of the Goddess

I recently came across a collection of epithets of Isis in which the author translated the core concept as “awful.” In the original sense of the word— “full of awe” —awful makes complete sense as a Divine epithet. In our common understanding of the word today, it’s…oh, let’s say…uncomfortable.

From the Goddess Power Oracle.

So you can get a full taste of the strangeness of it, here are some of Isis’ awful epithets: She is “The Lady of Awfulness,” “The Lady of Awfulness More than the Divine Powers,” “She Whose Awfulness is Great,” and “She Whose Awfulness is Greater than the Gods.” She is awful on earth, in the heavens, among the Deities, in Egypt. She is “Great of Trembling” and “Hundreds of Thousands Tremble at Her Sight.”

Oooh, scary.

And, She is. Scary. Sometimes.

So today, let’s talk about the awfulness of Isis.

The ancient Egyptian word translated as “awful” is transliterated nrw. To be able to pronounce it, we go with neru. It is associated with the vulture and with Isis and Nephthys as two Vulture Goddesses, the Nerti. (And you recall that the word for vulture in Egyptian is mut, that is, mother.) The ner root means to be strong, to be mighty, to terrify, to strike awe, to be victorious. Neru can be The Terrible One…or the concept of strength, might, or victory. It can also be fear or dread. Neri can be to over-awe. There is a Goddess of Strength called Nerit. And ner also can have connotations of protection because of the Awful One’s strength and might and power to protect. So, I guess, “awful” may be a pretty good translation of the idea.

Iset Nerit is Isis Who Strikes Awe.*

An awe-some Isis by Ugo Sirius. Find more of his work here.

If you are just beginning your relationship with Isis, it is likely that you haven’t met Iset Nerit yet. Most often, we first meet kindly Isis, the Great Mother, the protectress. Ah, but Nerit is always there. For instance, She may come to you disguised as Isis the Ass Kicker. Or She may give you a glimpse of Her fierceness or Her fire.

But it is when Isis is at Her Most Primordial, Most Ancient, Most—ENORMOUS—that is when we are truly greeting Iset Nerit. In Her presence, my belly thrills, my spine shivers, my hair stands on end. The numinous, the holy, the strange, and the powerful is with me, before me, around me. I kneel and kiss the ground before Her beautiful face.

For some, this experience may be somewhat unsettling. I am reminded of some folks of my acquaintance who apparently thought we were playing at magic, pretending about the Goddesses and Gods. Then magic actually happened and the Goddess was really there and they were done.

If you are in the early days of your relationship with Isis, I suggest that you not seek out Iset Nerit. Not yet. Unless, of course, you like the feeling of sacred fright before the Divine. Some of us do (she admits sheepishly).

What about you? Do you know the awe-full-ness of Isis?

*For Coptic fans, Nerit is Noure (noor-ray), which is rather beautiful in the same soft way that Coptic Ise (Ee-say) is: Ise Noure.