Today’s repost is inspired by a Facebook friend’s question about Isis and sex. So let’s dive into that a little bit. We can use having just passed Valentine’s Day and approaching spring—when all things, including love, bloom once more—as an excuse. As if we need one.
If you’ve ever looked into the topic of ancient Egyptian sexuality, you’ll know that they were pretty comfortable with sexuality. Sex was part of the great cycle of creation, life, death, and rebirth. You’ve no doubt read some of the famous ancient Egyptian love poetry with passionate lines like these:
“Your love has penetrated all within me, like honey plunged into water.” “To hear your voice is pomegranate wine to me—I draw life from hearing it.”
As well as some that are an appreciation of the sheer physical beauty of the beloved:
Yes, of course the lotus was a symbol of sexuality!
“Sister without rival, most beautiful of all, she looks like the star-goddess, rising at the start of the good New Year. Perfect and bright, shining skin, seductive in her eyes when she glances, sweet in her lips when she speaks, and never a word too many. Slender neck, shining body, her hair is true lapis, her arm gathers gold, her fingers are like lotus flowers, ample behind, tight waist, her thighs extend her beauty, shapely in stride when she steps on the earth.”
We have such poetic passion from the perspective of both the woman and the man. Before marriage, young men and women seem to have had freedom in their love affairs. After marriage, fidelity was expected, though it went much worse for the woman—including death—if she was caught in infidelity. The ancient Egyptians present a puzzling picture when it comes to homosexuality. On one hand, we have copies of the negative confession in which the (male) deceased declares that he has not had sex with a boy. Because he had to declare it, can we assume that some men were having sex with boys? That I do not know. The only reference to lesbianism comes from a dream-interpretation book in which it is bad omen for a woman to dream of being with another woman. And most references to man-on-man sex refer to the rape to which a victor may subject the vanquished enemy.
Royal servants and confidents of the king…and most likely, a gay couple.
And yet we have two instances of what seems to indicate a consensual homosexual relationship that seem to be okay: King Neferkare goes off with his general and it is implied that they do so for sex. We also have the tomb of what used to be called The Two Brothers. More modern researchers have suggested that the men, who were royal servants and confidents, were a gay couple. This is based on their tomb paintings, which show them embracing each other or in placements usually reserved for a husband and wife. The men are shown with their children, but their wives, the mothers of the children, are very de-emphasized, almost to the point of being erased. Some scholars say, yes, they probably were a gay couple, other say no.
Yet I want to talk not about ancient Egyptian sexuality in general, but about sexuality and religion, and especially sexuality in relation to Isis.
Temple Prostitution? Nope.
First, let us put the whole “temple prostitutes” thing right out of our heads when it comes to Egypt. There is no evidence of the practice in Egypt. Yes, I know. It was very exciting for the old gentlemen to contemplate the ever-so-Pagan goings on in those richly colored temples in days of old. But it may not have been quite how the old gentlemen envisioned it. (Please see my kindly rant on the old gentlemen of Egyptology here.) In fact, the one specific reference comes from the Greek geographer and historian Strabo (64 or 63 BCE-24 CE). Here’s the passage in its Loeb 1930s translation:
Min was associated with Isis at Koptos
“…but to Zeus, whom they hold highest in honor, they dedicate a maiden of greatest beauty and most illustrious family (such maidens are called ‘pallades’ by the Greeks); and she prostitutes [or “concubines,” pallakeue] herself, and cohabits [or “has sex” synestin] with whatever men she wishes until the natural cleansing of her body takes place; and after her cleansing she is given in marriage to a man; but before she is married, after the time of her prostitution, a rite of mourning is celebrated for her.” (Strabo, Geographies, 17.1.46)
Well, it’s right there, ain’t it? But let’s take another look. The keys are the Greek word pallades that Strabo says the Greeks called such maidens, its relation to another Greek word, pallakê, and how it was translated, and the old gentlemen who did the original translating.
Pallades means simply “young women” or “maidens.” As in Pallas Athena. Virginity is often implied, but it doesn’t have to be. Pallakê originally meant the same thing; a maiden. However, pallakê had long been translated as “concubine” due to contextual evidence in some non-Egyptian texts. A highly influential scholar of near eastern and biblical texts, William Mitchell Ramsay—one of our old gentlemen, indeed—took the term to mean “sacred prostitute” and so-translated it when he first published these non-Egyptian texts in 1883. He based the translation on his own belief in ancient sacred prostitution and two Strabo passages: one about Black Sea sacred prostitutes and the one about the pallades we’re discussing. Ramsay was so influential that his definition became the reigning one. THE Greek-English dictionary, by Liddell and Scott, had “concubine for ritual purposes” as the first definition of pallakê. Now it is the second one.
“Offering to Isis” by Sir Edward John Poynter, 1866; more like our young palladê perhaps?
A non-sexualized translation of the Strabo passage has been made by Stephanie Budin in Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World, edited by Christopher Farone and Laura McClure. Here it is:
“But for Zeus [Amun], whom they honor most, a most beautiful maiden of most illustrious family serves as priestess, [girls] whom the Greeks call ‘pallades’; and she serves as a handmaiden and accompanies whomever (or attends whatever) she wishes until the natural cleansing of her body; and after her cleansing she is given to a man (or husband); but before she is given, a rite of mourning is celebrated for her after the time of her handmaiden service.”
Sounds quite different, doesn’t it? Would it not be more likely that a highborn girl who has not yet had her period would serve as a handmaiden in the temple, attending whatever rites she wishes—perhaps even getting an education—until she proves herself marriageable by having her first period, rather than expecting an inexperienced girl to immediately start having sex with “whomever she wishes”? (And who would that be in the temple; the priests who were supposed to abstain from sex during their temple service?) Even the “rite of mourning” is explicable as a kind of farewell to childhood that the young woman would celebrate with her fellow handmaidens and priestesses as she left the temple to take up her married life.
And besides, sex in an Egyptian temple was taboo. Even Herodotus knew of the prohibition against sex in Egyptian temples when he says that the Egyptians were the first to make it a matter of religion not to have sex in temples and to wash after having sex and before entering a temple. (Histories, 2.64)
Alternatively, Budin wonders whether Strabo might have been hearing stories about the Divine Adoratrice or God’s Wife of Amun, powerful and high-ranking priestesses of the centuries before Strabo’s visit. But at least in the later dynasties, these priestesses were celibate and tended to rule long past their first menstrual period.
Sacred Sexuality? Yep.
Well, I didn’t know I was going on so much of a tear today. It seems I have used up all of today’s time and space—and haven’t even gotten to Isis yet. So we’ll do that next time with more on sexuality in Egyptian religion…and we will indeed get to Isis.
Isis on the coffin of Ankh-Wennefer, WA St. History Museum; photo by Joe Mabel, wikicommons
Let’s talk about theophoric names.
You may have spotted that “theophoric” is a Greek word; it means “Deity-bearing.” In other words, the name of a Deity is incorporated into the name of a human being. Isidora is an example. It means “Gift of Isis.” In the ancient world, a name like that would probably have meant that the parents credited the Goddess with helping them conceive, so the child was Her gift. Since for me Isidora is a “taken” name rather than a given one, I take it to mean that the Goddess has given me many gifts.
This is the most common hieroglypic writing of Isis’ name in Egyptian.
Of course, the simplest form of naming for the Goddess would be to just adopt Her name. There was at least one ancient Egyptian queen named Isis (Iset, in Egyptian), a queen mother named Isis, and a God’s Wife of Amun named Isis (who was also a royal princess). There may have been a whole slew of ordinary Egyptians so named, but alas, we have no records of them.
I recently came across a cache of other Isis-bearing names, some of which I’d like to share with you. They’re in Kockelmann’s Praising the Goddess. Rather than stringing you along for a paragraph or two, I want to cut right to the chase and tell you about the best Isiac theophoric name EVER.
The awesome scene from “The Mummy” when the statue of Isis raises the ankh to save Her reincarnated priestess from a lovestruck but murderous mummy
Why is it the best Isiac theophoric name ever? Well, I must digress for a moment to explain. Those of you who have been reading along may know that I have a thing for the original Boris Karloff Mummy movie. See here and here. (Oh, I know. Bad Egyptology, blah, blah, blah. Sorry, it’s awesome; it scared the ever-lovin’ b-jezus outta me as a kid, and Isis saves the day in the end. What more do you want?)
So in The Mummy, the name of the princess reincarnated in Helen Grosvenor (played by Zita Johann, who actually was something of an occultist) is Ankhesenamon (Ankh-es-en-Amon). That theophoric name means “She Lives for Amun.”
Well, we also have records of an Ankh-es-en-Iset: “She Lives for Isis.” Oh my Goddess! I think I’m going to have to adopt that as my super-secret Isiac name or something. Ankheseniset! Two of my favorite things have come together in one very magical name!
Whew. Calm down, girl. In fact, that’s not the only very cool Isophoric personal name of which we a record. Here are a few others that you may also enjoy:
Isetneferet (Iset-neferet)—”Isis is Beautiful”
Isetaneferet (Iset-ta-neferet)—”Isis the Beautiful”
Panehemiset (Pa-nehem-Iset)—”He Who is Saved by Isis”
Nehemsejiset (Nehem-sej-Iset)—”Isis Saved Her”
Isetweretayesnekht (Iset-Weret-tay-es-nekht)—”Great Isis is Her Strength” (Kockelmann gives it as “Isis the Great is Her Power”)
Isetemrenpy (Iset-em-renpy)—”Isis is Rejuvenation”
Isetiyet (Iset-iy-et)—”Isis Has Come”
Djediset (Djed-Iset)—”Isis Said” (perhaps a shortened form of “Isis Said: He Will Live” and referring to an ill child who recovered; I kinda like it as is, though)
And the Egyptian version of Isidora: Shepeniset (Shep-en-Iset)—”Gift of Isis”
Looking at these names, it won’t come as a surprise that Egyptians were big on shortening their names and calling each other by nicknames.
And on a sad update to the original post: the original post included a paragraph about how wonderful it was that parents were naming children “Isis” once more. This is no longer true. Instead, we hear stories about girls who are named Isis being bullied because of their names. You know why. I will not give it power by writing it. Such ignorance. Yet She will outlast them. And children will bear Her name once more, in its Greek form or in its original Egyptian one. Amma, Iset.
I don’t have to tell you that we are living in divided times. I don’t have to tell you that we are living in intolerant times. I don’t even have to tell you that many people today think tolerance—political or religious—is a bad thing. Yet in my stubborn heart, I still believe it’s a virtue. Especially in a religious context, and even knowing all its attendant problems.
Yes. Religious tolerance is hard.
And it always has been. Even in a polytheistic world where people were used to dealing with a variety of religious expressions.
For instance, Greek comic playwrights often made fun of the religious practices of Egyptians, usually focusing on their reverence for animals as manifestations of the Divine. This 4th-century-BCE bit by Anaxandrides of Rhodes, who won many awards for his work, is an example. He writes as Demos (“the people”) to Egypt:
I couldn’t have myself allied with you. Our ways and customs differing as they do. I sacrifice to Gods; to bulls you kneel. Your greatest God’s our greatest treat: the eel. You don’t eat pork; it’s quite my favorite meat. You worship your dog, mine I always beat when he’s caught stealing. Priests stay whole with us; with you they’re gelded eunuchs. If poor puss appears in pain, you weep; I kill and skin her. To me, the mouse is nought, you see ‘power’ in her.
Some Egyptians, on the other hand, considered Greeks whipper-snapper-know-nothings when it came to religion and declared that anything that came out of a Greek mouth was just a lot of hot air.
Mummy portraits from Egypt’s Fayoum, an area where Greeks and Egyptians mixed freely and intermarried.
Religious tolerance is hard precisely because our religion, our Deity or Deities, our practices, our beliefs and experiences are so close to our hearts. In many cases, they are cherished building blocks of our lives. If religion is central to our lives, it is also likely to be central to our self-definition. If someone attacks (or, in some cases, even questions) our religion, it seems they are attacking our core self. That not only hurts on a feeling level, it actually seems life-threatening. The chest tightens as the heart speeds up. Nerves jangle. The belly feels sick. Fight-or-flight kicks in—and we often find ourselves coming down on the side of fight. I know I’ve been there, too.
A painting on a funeral cloth from Saqqara Egypt, 180 CE
Yet, as far as I know, no wars were fought over Greek and Egyptian religious differences. The grandfather of Lycurgus (an Athenian politician from 338-326 BCE) may have been influential in bringing the Egyptian religion of Isis to Athens. Apparently his grandson suffered no discrimination on account of his family’s connection with Egyptian cult—apart from the jabs of the comics. Ancient priestesses and priests often simultaneously served very different Deities without betraying any of Them. The historian Herodotus was able to casually say that Isis “is called Demeter by the Greeks.”
That kind of syncretism, which happened to an astonishing degree with Isis, is one of the ways the ancient religion of Isis modeled religious tolerance. It wasn’t a matter of my-Goddess-is-better-than-your-Goddess; it was a translation of the Goddess from one culture to another. In the bustling world of the Mediterranean, people were used to translating languages. Why not translate Deities? And so they did. And so Isis became known as Isis Myrionymos, Isis of the Myriad Names. In Isis, with Her uncountable number of names, people could see THE Goddess—in all Her many expressions. Isiacism also modeled social tolerance in its acceptance of both women and men, rich and poor, slave and free. In late Isiacism, there was even a tradition of the freeing of slaves through a “sale” to Isis and Sarapis. Freedom and tolerance go hand-in-hand.
I like this a lot
The modern Fellowship of Isis maintains this type of wide-open religious tolerance. All one must do is to be able to accept the organization’s Manifesto to become a member. To some, this tolerance may seem too chaotic, too accepting; yet it has enabled this modern group to survive for many years, even as it has suffered through the types of internal struggles to which all groups seem inevitably subject.
But how can we maintain the virtue of tolerance when faced with intolerance from others? What do we do when accused of “devil worship,” like the Isis devotees who were accused by some early Christians in Alexandria of worshipping “a dark, Egyptian devil?” How do we handle the current intolerance-based horrors throughout the world? Or, on a much less deadly, but often quite hurtful level, how do we navigate the Neopagan community’s current growing pains as groups of people seek to differentiate themselves from (though I would hope within) the greater community? I’ve been quite surprised at the lack of tolerance I’ve seen in some of these discussions. But I guess it gets back to that close-to-the-heart thing.
Oh, how I wish I had an answer.
Friends and I sometimes play a game in which we choose one thing to change about the world and discuss the implications of that change. True religious tolerance is the magical change of heart that I often wish upon the world. By no means would it solve the world’s problems (poverty, war), but it might just give us enough space to get our heads out of our asses above water long enough that we could at least start to solve them.
Religious tolerance isn’t easy. In some cases, it doesn’t even seem possible. But that doesn’t mean we give up. We take some deep breaths. We remember that Isis lives. We explain it; again. Sometimes we walk away from an un-winnable argument. And in the political part of our lives, we work for civil justice.
This is one of my favorite posts. It has been criticized for being a too-modern interpretation of an ancient tale. The tale itself is merely a retelling and paraphrase from a translation of Ovid; so that is as it is. And yes, my interpretation is indeed modern. But reinterpretation is itself part of our Pagan heritage. Look at how philosophers reinterpreted ancient myths so they were relevant to their own thought. In Egypt, scribes made notes in the margins of older written texts, explaining the ancient symbols and stories for their own age. Because that is the power of the tale, the power of myth, the power of story. The core of it remains the same, but when we look at it with our modern eyes and take it into our modern hearts, we discover our own interpretations, enabling ancient myth to live for us today.
Hear now the tale of Iphis and Ianthe, told by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BCE -17/18 CE):
In the Phaestos region of Crete, lived a couple named Ligdus and Telethusa. Telethusa was pregnant and near to her time. As the birth of their child approached, Ligdus told Telethusa that he wished for her two things: first, that the birth cause her no pain, and second, that the child be a boy. For if the child wasn’t a boy, he commanded Telethusa to put her to death. (Girls were too much trouble and weak, you see.) Then they both wept.
Crying herself to sleep, Telethusa dreamed. She dreamed of Isis. Accompanied by the entire Egyptian retinue, the Goddess came and spoke to Telethusa:
“O, you who belong to Me, forget your heavy cares and do not obey your husband. When Lucina [Roman Goddess of Childbirth] has eased the birth, whatever sex the child has, do not hesitate to raise it. I am the Goddess, Who, when prevailed upon, brings help and strength: you will have no cause to complain that the Divinity you worshipped lacks gratitude.”
Isis comes to Telethusa in a dream
The child, of course, was a girl. Obeying the Goddess, Telethusa kept the baby and raised her as a boy. Her father even named her after his grandfather, Iphis. As Iphis was a name appropriate for either boy or girl, the mother secretly rejoiced. As Iphis grew, her features were such that she would have been considered beautiful whether a boy or a girl.
Time passed and Iphis’ father betrothed Iphis to the lovely Ianthe. The two met when quite young and were taught by the same teachers. From very early on, Iphis and Ianthe loved each other. For her part, Ianthe anticipated marriage to her beautiful Iphis. Iphis, on the other hand, as Ovid puts it, “loved one whom she despaired of being able to have, and this itself increased her passion, a girl on fire for a girl.”
“Ianthe” by J.W. Godward
Iphis wept, railed, and lamented her love for another girl. Iphis does not understand. She calls her passion monstrous and extreme and wants to wish it away—sort of. But eventually, Iphis pulls herself together and gives herself a good talking to. After all, she has almost everything she wants. Both her parents and Ianthe’s are happy with the match, Ianthe herself is happy with the match, and certainly Iphis is happy with the match (though she is afraid of the revelation of the wedding night). So she stops complaining and prays for the wedding to come.
Her mother Telethusa, on the other hand, feared what would happen when the two girls were wed. So she kept putting off the ceremony with a whole series of excuses. Yet finally, the wedding could be delayed no more. In desperation, Telethusa takes Iphis to the Temple of Isis. She throws herself upon the Goddess altar, crying and praying to Isis for help—for, after all, it was by the word of the Goddess Herself that Iphis lives!
Suddenly, the altar of the Goddess begins to shake. The temple doors tremble. The horns on the headdress of the statue of Isis shine like the moon and the rattling of sistra is heard throughout the temple. Heartened, mother and daughter take their leave of the Goddess. But as Telethusa turns to look at her daughter, she sees that Iphis now has a tanned, less ladylike, complexion, shorter hair, sharper features, and a longer, more masculine stride. Behold! Iphis is transformed into a boy.
In gratitude to Isis, mother and now, son, place a votive tablet in Her temple. And the next day, Iphis and Ianthe wed…and, we presume, lived happily ever after.
Ianthe and Iphis at the Temple of Isis
This story comes from a book called Metamorphoses in which Ovid tells the history of the world from Creation to Julius Caesar in a collection of myths about transformations of one kind or another. It was an immediate bestseller when first published and continues to exert influence and inspire art to this day. One of our best sources for over 250 classical myths, it was a major inspiration for Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton.
The story illustrates a number of things about Our Goddess. First, it demonstrates Her soteriological function; Isis is well known as a Savior Goddess in the Roman period, and She saves Iphis and her mother in their time of need. The traditional Isian theme of dream visitation is part of the tale, too. In dream, Isis makes a promise to Telethusa, who “belongs to Her,” and She keeps the promise. Her saving nature, Her communication through dream, and Her ability to be there—in an immediate, even physical way—for Her devotees were all well-known aspects of the religion of classical Isis. But perhaps most importantly, the story shows the power of Isis’ magic.
In this tale, as from the beginning, Isis is the Goddess of Magic. And transformation is specifically one of the things She does. In one of the tales in the Egyptian myth cycle known as the Contendings of Horus and Set, for example, Isis transforms Herself into a beautiful young maiden, an old woman, and Her sacred raptor, the kite (a form She takes quite often, as a matter of fact). In this case, She transforms a girl into a boy; and so Iphis becomes a transgendered Isiac.
We cannot know for certain what Ovid meant to impart by this tale and I don’t want to read too much into it. Yet I feel quite comfortable putting a modern interpretation on it and understanding in it the love of Isis for Her transgendered devotees. Modern priestesses, priests, and devotees of Isis come in all sexual orientations. We all hear the voice of the Goddess. We all feel Her strong wings. We all taste Her magic. She lives in all our hearts.
This is one of the most popular posts on this blog. It seems many of us have questions about Isis’ powerful and magical wings. Indeed, the wings of Isis are among Her most dynamic attributes. The widespread wings of the Goddess are the means by which She fans renewed life into Osiris. They are the protection spread out over the deceased in the tomb. Egyptian representations of Isis frequently show Her with wings attached to Her graceful human arms or embroidered into the fabric of the slim-fitting dress that wraps elegantly around Her body.
Keep me, Isis, in the shadow of Your wings.
So why does Isis have wings? The first and easiest answer is that Isis is a Bird Goddess. Her most important sacred animal is a bird of prey. The Goddess often takes the form of Her sacred raptor; the kestrel (the most common falcon in Egypt) or the black kite.
Isis protecting Osiris with Her wings
In Egyptian art, when Isis and Nephthys are not shown as women, They are shown in full bird-form or sometimes as woman-headed kites or kestrels sitting or hovering by the bier of Osiris. As birds, Isis and Nephthys mourn Osiris, screeching Their shrill bird cries to express Their sorrow. Even quite late, Isis and Nephthys were shown with wings attached to Their arms—which is the way we are most used to seeing Isis’ wings portrayed—or wearing a garment of stylized wings that wrap gracefully around Their bodies.
Kites were connected with funeral customs from at least the beginning of the Old Kingdom, if not earlier. Texts speak of a woman called The Kite who was the Pharaoh’s chief female funerary attendant. She was supposed to remove poisons from the deceased, magically purifying him. Soon there are two Kites—specifically identified as Isis and Nephthys in the Pyramid Texts. The Kites not only lamented and purified Osiris, but also were responsible for ferrying Him to the Otherworld. (It is not until the New Kingdom that we find illustrations of Isis and Nephthys as kestrels.)
The black kite, sacred raptor of Isis
Black kites are fairly large, dark-plumed birds (although they are more brown than deep black) that feed on both live prey and scavenge for carrion. They are sociable, intelligent, and aggressive birds—and would even attack wounded human beings. It may have been the bird’s fierceness that inspired one of the earliest Pharaohs to take the name Kite.
Isis is fierce in protecting both Osiris and Horus. Both Sisters are fierce in Their lamentations for the God. The black kite’s cry—a shrill, plaintive, screeching—may have sounded to the ancient Egyptians like wailing, lamenting women. It may have been that the ancients saw a correspondence between the kite’s scavenging for carrion and Isis’s scavenging for the scattered pieces of Her husband Osiris’ body in order to assemble them for renewal. Or perhaps in the cleverness of the black kite the Egyptians saw a reflection of the cleverness of the Goddess Isis as She tricked the enemy Set time and again.
Isis fans life into Osiris with Her wings
On a magical level, Isis’ wings are the means by which She fans renewed life into Osiris. Spread out over the deceased in the tomb, the Wings of Isis protect the dead. Many of those who have connected with Isis in ritual or meditation have known the feeling of Her wings being wrapped protectively about them. Beneath Isis’ wings, we are sheltered in this life and the next.
For human beings, wings have always exerted a strong fascination and engendered intense longing. We are in awe of the ability of winged creatures to fly under their own power. Even today when flight is available through mechanical means, many people still have “the flying dream.” In the dream, we fly on our own, our arms held out to our sides like huge wings, soaring like great, wild birds. Yet beyond physical flight, wings also commonly symbolize spiritual flight—ascent to the Heavens. And since feelings of rising, floating, or flying upwards can accompany spiritual experience, it is quite natural for cultures throughout the world to conceive of spirit beings—from angels to faeries—as winged.
In Egypt, a very ancient conception of the cosmos envisioned the Heavens as the enormous wings of the great falcon God Horus. These heavenly wings, attached to the disk of the Sun, were a common Egyptian protective motif. In fact, the image of the winged disk of Egypt was so powerful that other peoples, such as the Babylonians and the Hittites, adopted it. Some scholars believe that the beautiful Hebrew biblical phrase “the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings” may have been inspired by the Egyptian symbol of the winged solar disk.
I love the flying dream!
This protective aspect of the symbol of wings was key in Egyptian thought; so almost invariably, when you see the open wings of a Deity, the wings are intended to protect—and Isis is the protective Goddess par excellence.
Isis mourning with “to fold the wings” gesture
Furthermore, the Egyptian word for “to fold the wings,” sekhen, also means to embrace. An Egyptian mourning posture mimicked the protective embrace of Osiris by Isis. And surely, it was Isis’ protecting, enfolding, winged arms that the Egyptian mother had in mind when she recited this protective charm for her child: “My arms are over this child—the arms of Isis are over him, as she put her arms over her son Horus.”
Nevertheless, the wings of Isis could also be aggressive, one text tells us that Isis “struck with Her wing” and closed the mouth of a river.
The open wings of Isis can also be related to a posture seen in images of the ancient Egyptian Bird Goddess. This is the posture of the famous Neolithic statuette of a so-called dancing woman with her arms raised in an open curve above her head, and which has become a popular amulet among modern Goddess worshippers. The same posture can be seen in the Goddess figures that ride in the curved boats that were a favorite theme of pre-dynastic Egyptian pottery and petroglyphs.
The Bird Goddess or Her priestess with arms raised to indicate wings
According to Egyptologist Louis Breasted, the posture is typical of Egypt. And although these ancient figures do not have obvious wings, their unwinged but upraised arms foreshadow the winged, upraised arms of Goddesses seen in later Egyptian art. These beak-faced figures are often identified as Bird Goddesses, so perhaps the wings are implied—or they may indicate that the figures represent human priestesses who are imitating their Bird Goddess. Whatever the case, the “wing” stance is a posture of great antiquity and numenosity and many researchers consider it to be characteristic of the Divine Feminine.
If you wish to experiment with the power of Isis’ wings for yourself, try The Wings & Breath of Isis on page 268 of the new edition ofIsis Magic.
Will you be able to see the lunar eclipse and “blood moon” tomorrow? Sadly, it looks like it’s going to be a cloudy sky for me, but I hope you will have better viewing conditions. (For a good explanation of the science, visit here.) With the moon in high focus right now, let’s look at Isis’ association with the moon.
So…is Isis a Moon Goddess?
Well, it depends on when you ask.
Early in Egyptian history, Isis was firmly associated with the heavens—with the star Sirius in particular, and even with the sun—but She was not considered a Moon Goddess.
The horns of the Moon Goddess rising
Moon Gods were the norm for Egypt—Iah, Thoth, Khonsu, and Osiris are among the most prominent and the moon’s phases were quite important to the ancient Egyptians. Scholars generally agree that the first Egyptian calendars, like those of so many ancient people, were lunar based. The temples marked the moon’s changes and especially celebrated its waxing and full phases. But the face the Egyptians saw in the moon was masculine rather than feminine.
The lunar Eye of Horus
For example, the waning and waxing of the moon could be associated with the wounding and healing of the Eye of Horus. And so, we can perhaps think of Isis as the Mother of the Moon. In some myths, Isis is the one Who heals Horus’ Eye, in others, it is Thoth or Hathor. By the time of the New Kingdom, the beloved of Isis, Osiris, becomes prominent as a lunar God. We have a number of examples of statuettes of Osiris-Iah—Osiris assimilated with Iah, a Moon God—or simply as Osiris the Moon. So in this case, Isis is married to the Moon. But She’s not really a Moon Goddess Herself.
On the other hand, the Greeks and the Romans were all about the Moon Goddess. In fact, the moon itself was simply called “the Goddess.” People spoke of doing something “when the Goddess rises.” They would kiss their hands, extending them toward the rising moon, “to greet the Goddess.” Magical texts give instructions for performing a certain working “on the first of the Goddess,” meaning at the new moon. When they saw Isis with Her horns-and-disk crown, they saw a Moon Goddess.
A Roman Isis with lunar crescent
And because we have so much information about Isis from these Moon Goddess-loving people, today when many people think of Isis, the moon is one of the first things they associate with Her. Yet, interestingly, it seems to have been a third century BCE Egyptian priest named Manetho who first connected Isis with the moon. By the following century, when Plutarch recorded the most complete version of the Isis-Osiris myth we have, the tradition of Isis as a Goddess of the Moon was firmly established—even in Egypt.
Of course, it was easy to associate the fertility-bringing moon with the fertile Mother Isis. The ancient world also associated love affairs with the moon (the romance of moonlight, you know) and, in Her passion for Osiris, Isis was a famous lover. Of course, the moon and the obscuring darkness of night were connected with magic, too—and Isis was one of Egypt’s Mightiest Magicians from the beginning. One Egyptian story told how a particular magical scroll—which the tale calls a “mystery of the Goddess Isis”—was discovered when a moonbeam fell upon its hiding place, enabling a lector priest in Isis’ temple to find it.
Today, we also connect the moon with emotions, the deep, the waters, the feminine (taking our cue from the ancient Greeks and Romans, no doubt), the home, Mystery, and change (to name but a few). And Isis can definitely be associated with all of these things—from the emotional passion of Her myths to Her ancient Mysteries and Her enduring role as the Goddess of Regeneration and Transformation.
So is Isis a Moon Goddess? She certainly has been for millennia. Whether we choose to honor Her in this form has more to do with us than with Her. A modern NeoPagan will probably be quite comfortable working with Isis as a Moon Goddess; a Kemetic Reconstructionist, not so much. But Isis is a Great Goddess; She is All, and so She is unquestionably to be found in the deep and holy Mysteries of the Moon.
For myself, while I do find Her in the moon, I resonate more strongly with Isis of the Stars and Isis of the Eternities of Space and Isis the Radiant Sun Goddess. Nevertheless, I feel called to explore this aspect of Her. What about you?
This is my essay published in the recent Awaken the Feminineanthology. Many of the authors are sharing their essays freely on their blogs. And so am I. Feel free to share it as you wish, too. Click the book title above to go to the Amazon.com site to see the list of authors and even to buy a copy for yourself. All authors donated their work to this book. Oh, and since this essay was written for a general, if Goddessy, audience, so some of you will probably already be familiar with some of these ideas.
What if I told you that magic was real?
Would it call to mind a popular card game? Or perhaps Harry Potter and the Hogwarts gang? Would you imagine an illusionist making elephants disappear from the Las Vegas stage? Or would you have visions of witches with poppets and pins and poisons dancing in your head?
I can only do this on the astral.
The real magic I’m talking about is none of those things. The Path of Sacred Magic is, in fact, an ancient spiritual tradition, one that may still be followed today and which I believe has much to offer us. It is a way of opening ourselves to greater possibilities, a method of connecting intimately and personally with the Divine. It is but one of many ancient yet enduring pathways to Goddess, to God, that is being rediscovered by women and men who are no longer satisfied with the rigid spiritualities most readily offered to them. The Path of Sacred Magic is about transformation; and transformation—of ourselves, our societies, and our world—is exactly what so many of us seek today.
But before we go further, what do I mean by “magic”?
Opening to enchantment
The Replenish card from the game Magic. It lets you get all your “enchantments” back. Of course, it’s Egyptian-ish.
When we speak casually of magic today, for instance, when we say that the Yuletide season or the springtime is a magical time of year, we mean that it is out of the ordinary, special. Our senses are heightened. Lights seem brighter. Scents are more pungent and evoke memories and images. Music is clearer, more beautiful, more meaningful. The numinous seems to be with us in the faces of the people we meet, in the very earth itself.
This enhanced perception of the world, this enchantment if you will, is something we human beings crave. Indeed, we have long complained about the world’s disenchantment. German sociologist Max Weber famously decried it in the early 1900s and before him Friedrich Schiller in the early 1800s. No doubt the complaint goes back much farther than that. More recently, psychotherapist and former monk Thomas Moore’s books Care of the Soul and The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life were best sellers, indicating just how many of us are longing for a world in which magic and mystery are alive once more.
This is precisely what the Path of Sacred Magic can do. It can open us to the enchantment of the world that already exists. It can show us ways to participate in the Mysteries—of life, of spirit, of the Divine. It can also empower us to do something about healing the so-very-many things that desperately need healing these days. By helping us focus our attention and awaken our souls, sacred magic heightens our senses so that we perceive in a more-than-ordinary way. This state of heightened perception may be invoked by a magical ceremony, by meditation, by prayer—or it may come upon us spontaneously, often when overawed by nature. No matter how magical perception comes upon us, it expands our senses and we perceive what we ordinarily might not perceive in our day-to-day consciousness.
Such magical perception is neither fantasy nor an illusion that we are creating in our heads. It is a genuine expansion of our perceptive ability, not a diminishment. We’re not closing off the world of reality. We are instead expanding our ability to perceive more than just physical reality.
If we are of a spiritual inclination, the Path of Sacred Magic can help us reach out toward the Divine; for many of us reading this book, toward the Goddess specifically. Magical perception can help us grow in Her presence, undergo Her initiations of life and of death with greater understanding, and to more deeply explore Her holy Mystery.
Isis, Goddess of Sacred Magic
For me, magic is sacred because its source is the Divine.
As little as ten years ago, whenever you read anything about the Great Egyptian Goddess Isis, She was almost invariably described as a Fertility Goddess. That’s not untrue; She—along with most Egyptian Deities—are important to the fertility of the land and to the fertility of the human beings and other creatures who live upon it. Fertility is a vital and eternal human concern. But “fertility Goddess” does not get to the essence of Isis.
You’d also see Her described as a Great Mother. This, too, is true. In Egyptian tradition, She is the mother of Horus, and thus of the pharaoh; a vital concept in ancient Egypt. As Isis became more widely worshipped, She also came to be experienced as the Great Mother of the World. Yet again, to me, this does not get to the essence of Isis.
Today, I am very pleased to see Isis increasingly described as what is indeed one of Her core identities: Goddess of Magic. While Isis is a Primordial Goddess, a Great Mother, a Lady of Nature, a Queen of the Mysteries, a Goddess of Women, a Goddess of Death and Renewal, and more, each of these aspects is supported by Her central identity as Goddess of Magic.
What the ancient Egyptians meant by “magic”
To the ancient Egyptians, the essential and primordial power of the Egyptian Goddesses and Gods was the power of magic. Through magic, the Universe comes into being. Through magic, all things live. Through magic, the Deities accomplish all that is Their will.
Werethekau (“Great of Magic”) as a winged Cobra Goddess
The Egyptian word that Egyptologists translate as “magic” is heka (HAY-kah). It is a very flexible word. It can mean the power of magic, an act of magic, magic words, magical formulae, a magician, or the God Magic. As a God, Heka is said to be the first-created thing and it is because of Him that all the Deities live. Thus the ancient Egyptians conceived of magic as a living force, a primordial power, the very energy of the universe.
They believed heka to be the essential, living energy that infuses and underlies all things, both spiritual and physical. Heka—magic—connects everything and allows the levels of Being to interpenetrate and affect each other. Magic is required to ascend to the realm of the Deities, which was every ancient Egyptian’s post mortem goal. By learning to come into harmony with the magic that is woven into all things, human beings can commune with the Deities, transform and be transformed, have increased effect in the world, and be spiritually renewed.
As Lady of Magic, the Great Goddess Isis is the patroness, embodiment, and most-potent wielder of this sacred, powerful, and living energy. The ancients called Her Iset Hekaiet, Isis the Magician; Iset Ichet, Isis the Sorceress; Nebet Heka, Lady of Magic; and my personal favorite, Great of Magic: Weret Hekau.
Out of Egypt: Mageia Hiera
As Isis’s worship spread from Her native Egypt to Greece, Rome, and beyond, Her identity as Lady of Magic followed. In the Greek Magical Papyri, a fascinating and sometimes-beautiful collection of ancient magical texts, Isis appears in healing rites, love spells, divinations, and She is associated with the mystery of the moon, of darkness, and the underworld.
Yet one of Isis’ strongest and most enduring connections is with what is often called “high magic” or spiritual magic. The association of Isis with spiritual magic was so consistent that when Plotinus, the Greek founder of Neoplatonism, agreed to a magical evocation of his guardian spirit, the Egyptian priest who conducted the ceremony declared that it could only take place in the Temple of Isis because it was the only “pure place” appropriate for the working of such high magic in all of Rome.
Just as we often do today, the ancients distinguished spellcasting from spiritual magic. In Greek, one term they used for spiritual magic is mageia hiera, “sacred magic.” In the Papyri, mageia hiera is especially associated with initiation and the magician is called an initiate. It may be that sacred magic as a personal spiritual practice grew out of the spiritual experiences of the Ancient Mysteries. In Her Mysteries, Isis is considered to be a Savior Goddess and, as She always has, offers renewal and rebirth after death.
The main shrine of the Temple of Isis in Pompeii. Photo copyright Forrest 2009.
In his Apologia, Apuleius of Madaura, a 2nd-century-CE initiate of the Mysteries of Isis and author of our only surviving first-person account of an initiation into any of the Ancient Mysteries, defined magic as a religious tradition dealing with the Divine. He called it an art that the Deities Themselves accepted and which gave human beings knowledge of how to worship and honor the Deities.
Sacred magic then is a spiritual path for approaching the Divine.
Another ancient term for spiritual magic is theourgia, anglicized as theurgy, and meaning “divine working.” The method of theurgy is ritual work. In other words, theurgy is ritual magic for spiritual purposes—for communion with the Divine and the spiritual growth it fosters. One of theurgy’s greatest proponents, the 4th-century-CE Neoplatonist Iamblichus, insisted that theurgy works not simply because of the mechanism of the ritual, but because of the foundation of Divine love that supports the process. The Deities respond to our invocations because They love us. I heartily agree, and most especially in the case of Isis.
There is a band named Kore Kosmou…and they have a gorgeous album cover
Isis also appears in the Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of influential spiritual teaching texts, purporting to be Egyptian (and now proving to be much more Egyptian than scholars previously thought, but that’s another story), but written in Greek in what appears to be the style of Greek philosophical dialogs. Isis is one of the key Hermetic teachers. In a text called Kore Kosmou, or Virgin of the World (2nd or 3rd century CE), Isis instructs Her son Horus that philosophy and magic sustain the soul just as medicines sustain the body. Thus magic is on a par with the high art of philosophy.
An enduring magical tradition
At the height of Her ancient religion, Isis was known throughout the Mediterranean world as the Goddess of Ten Thousand Names; She became a universal Goddess. Her universality, along with the great popularity of Her religion with highborn and lowborn people of both sexes, put Her in a unique position. For many people in the polytheistic Græco-Roman world, Isis became THE Goddess.
This is important for understanding why—even with the coming of the Christian Empire and the outlawing of all Pagan worship—Isis and Her sacred magic retained an important place in human consciousness. As The Goddess, Isis could represent the totality of the Divine Feminine, even while retaining the exotic Egyptian-ness that made Her so attractive to so many in the first place.
Christine de Pisan
While Mary became the outward, Christian face of the Goddess in the West, Isis entered into the hidden world, the occult world. There, the secret truth of the Divine Feminine was kept alive in a variety of powerful forms: in magical traditions, in alchemy, in the work of first-feminists like the 13th-century-CE Christine de Pisan, in euhemeristic stories that were often considered to be historical, in wisdom teachings, among the Rosicrucians, in the early Masonic lodges, and in the temples and lodges of late-19th, early-20th-century occultists like the magicians of the Golden Dawn and Dion Fortune. Today, Isis is still one of the most-invoked Goddesses among Goddess devotees, Neo-Pagans, Wiccans, Kemetic polytheists, Magicians of many different traditions, and others. The over-26,000-member, international Fellowship of Isis continues the tradition of honoring Isis as a universal Goddess Who can represent in some way the totality of the Divine Feminine to its members.
Isis & sacred magic today
While we cannot claim that the worship of Isis is an uninterrupted religious tradition, we can rightfully say that Isis never fully left human awareness. And neither did magic. Both merely went underground. But today, with our souls crying out for the re-enchantment of the world, our lives, and our spirits; with the eternal and deeply felt need for connection with our Divine Mother, Who IS a Sacred Magician, the Path of Mageia Hiera beckons to us. We can walk that sacred path. We can reawaken Magic and Mystery and let it flower within us once more.
But how?
For those of us attracted to Isis Great of Magic, we can begin by learning about Her religious traditions, including the sacred magical traditions. Tradition enables us to learn about Her and to discover ways to think about Her. If we know Who She was for those who went before us, perhaps we can learn Who She is for us. If we know more about the symbols traditionally associated with Her, the stories traditionally told about Her (at least the ones of which we have records), then we will find we can come into a sweet communion with that deep current of the Feminine Divine river that is Isis.
A modern offering table
Tradition can provide the roots of our devotion. It can give us an anchor for our modern love of Isis as we walk the Path of Sacred Magic. It can give us a way to feel close to Her. We can learn and interpret anew Her ancient myths. We can give Her the offerings that were traditionally given to Her. If we are of a scholarly bent, we might learn a bit about hieroglyphs so that we can write Her name in the ancient ways. We may use excerpts from the Egyptian sacred texts in our rites or sing Her traditional epithets in chant. All these, and more, are the methods of sacred magic. They are “a religious tradition dealing with things divine.” They give us ways to approach the Great Goddess Isis.
Yet tradition should not constrain us. Ancient magic is not Her only magic. Tradition may provide the anchor and roots, but not necessarily the wind in the sails of our boat or the sunlight necessary for blossoming. (Isis is perhaps the quintessential Goddess for our dizzying, technological times; for if any Goddess can lay claim to the title of Technologia, it is Isis. But that, too, is a story for another day.)
Artist Audrey Flack titles it “Egyptian Rocket Goddess.” I like to think of Her as Isis Technologia.
Thousands of years have passed since Isis’ name was first spoken in praise by human beings. History shows us how Isis manifested Herself differently to the different people who knew Her throughout the long ages. During that time, human beings changed. We are changing right now. And we shall continue to do so. This means that our experience of Isis will never be exactly the same as our ancient sisters and brothers. So while our understanding of Isis may begin with the roots of tradition, it must continue with the flowering of our own experiences of Her. Now. And here.
Those of us who are attracted to Isis today are heirs to a powerful spiritual tradition of sacred magic that we are called upon to bring forward into the present and the future. By opening ourselves to Isis through the Mysteries and rites of mageia hiera, we experience the sacred. We grow, transforming ourselves beneath Her wings. We discover who we really are, becoming wiser and more compassionate. We learn how to live more authentically, in greater harmony with our true selves and with the Divine reality of the Goddess.
The ancient worshippers of Isis found the creative and renewing power of magic to be both natural and, in the hands of their loving Goddess, a great boon to humanity. They understood magic to be inseparable from a relationship with Isis, the Goddess of Magic and a Sacred Magician Herself. Like them, we can have the same understanding. From the compassionate magic of healing to the ecstasy of the theurgic union that renews the spirit and deepens the soul, we can know all these things as part of the Path of Sacred Magic that is now, and always has been, guided by the hand of Isis.
I’m going to be publishing Isiopolis posts here again. These will be some of my favorite posts and some of your favorite posts over the years—but updated and revised. I keep learning things and so there’s always something new to add.
For instance, have you seen this beautiful sarcophagus? This is from a cave tomb in the rock of Borj, Carthage, 3rd-4th century BCE. They think the tomb owner was probably a priestess of our Goddess Isis.
I am pleased to tell you that one of my essays has been included in a new anthology curated by Karen Tate. My essay is called “The Path of Sacred Magic & the Goddess,” and those of you who know me will not not at all surprised at that.
The book as a whole is a collection of essays looking toward the future of the Goddess movement and how it can help us change our world for the better. Can we achieve the ambitious goals discussed by the authors in this book?
Hello, all…Isis Magic classes are now full and the magic begins…thank you so much for your interest and love.
You are invited to join me for Isis Magic classes starting this March, 2018.
Please read the information below, and if this seems like something for you, I’d be thrilled to have you with me on this journey with the Great Goddess Isis.
(And if you know someone who might be interested in these classes, would you please do me the favor of sharing this with them? Thank you so much!)
Nefertari makes offering to Isis
1 class per month
Spring to Fall, 2018
1st class isMarch 25, 1 pm (As a group, we’ll figure out the rest of the class dates/times at this first class.)
Open to women and men 18+
Classes held in private temple in Portland, OR
ISIS—Mistress of Magic, Divine Mother, Goddess of the Green Earth, Queen of the Mysteries, Goddess of Women and Sacred Sexuality, Lady of Hermetic Wisdom. Isis is one of the most well-known, well-loved,mysterious, and powerful Goddesses of all time. Come learn more about this Great Goddess and explore Her Living Magic with others during this series of 6 intensive classes.
Develop and deepen a relationship with the Great Goddess Isis
Participate in meditations, exercises, and rituals
Learn powerful techniques for connecting with Goddess
Discover new methods of personal growth and transformation
Increase your magical and priest/esscraft skills
Pre-Requisites
Before signing up for these classes, please have:
An interest in Isis
Done a bit of reading on Goddess in general and/or Isis in specific
Participated in at least a little bit of ritual, solitary or group
Classes are with M. Isidora Forrest, author of Isis Magic, Cultivating a Relationship with the Goddess of 10,000 Names, and Offering to Isis, Knowing the Goddess through Her Sacred Symbols. Classes are sponsored by the Hermetic Fellowship.
This is just one of 24 prehistoric Goddess gifs created by Nina Paley that are free for all to use. You can find them here.
This figure has been called a Dancing Woman, a Nile Goddess, a Bird Goddess, and probably some other things that I’m not thinking of right now. Well, she’s certainly dancing now, thanks to artist Nina Paley.
If you know Isis Magic, you might also recognize her posture as the “Wings of Isis.” It is a posture that can be used to invoke, thank, and commune with Isis. So, I like to think of this ancient figurine as a priestess invoking her Goddess, imitating the protective and powerful wings of Isis.
Here’s a brief excerpt from Offering to Isis about this posture:
The open wings of Isis can also be related to a posture seen in images of the ancient Egyptian Bird Goddess. This is the posture of the famous Neolithic statuette of a so-called dancing woman with her arms raised in an open curve above her head, and which has become a popular amulet among modern Goddess worshippers. The same posture can be seen in the Goddess figures that ride in the curved boats that were a favorite motif of pre-dynastic Egyptian pottery and petroglyphs. According to Egyptologist Louis Breasted, the posture is typical of Egypt. And although these ancient figures do not have obvious wings, their unwinged but upraised arms foreshadow the winged, upraised arms of Goddesses seen in later Egyptian art. Nevertheless, the beak-faced figures are identified as Bird Goddesses, so perhaps the wings are implied—or they may indicate that the figures represent human priestesses who are imitating their Bird Goddess. Whatever the case, the “wing” stance is a posture of great antiquity and numinosity and many researchers consider it to be characteristic of the Divine Feminine.
May Isis spread Her wings for you today and enclose you in Her feathered embrace.
A Portrait of Isis, by Feather Collector. See it here. This reminds me of a vision I had of Her long ago.
My fellow lovers of Isis,
I have been writing this blog since May of 2009 and it seems that the time has now come to put it on hiatus. I don’t know for how long. A while.
As some of you may know, I work full time at a rather demanding job. This leaves me only weekends to write. Since 2009, I have been spending pretty much all of that writing time on this blog, leaving me none for other projects.
The good news is that I find I have a significant new writing project to which I wish to devote that time. Yes, a book, but I won’t say what it is right now. It, too, will be a while. There’s much research and much meditation still to be done. But you can be sure it will grow from our work together with the Great Lady of Sacred Magic.
Of course, you can still reach me here at Isiopolis for comments and questions as usual. I’ll stay in touch.
And remember, there are 325 posts that still live here at Isiopolis, so I hope that you just might find something of interest to read while I’m out.
Thank you all so much for reading Isiopolis…and I’ll see you again on the other side of my project.
