I am always delighted when I find out something new about Isis. Yes, even after all this time, I still occasionally find new things. This new thing is small, but interesting enough to share with you. It’s about one of Isis’ syncretisms that I hadn’t previously known about.
Living on or near the Nile, ancient Egyptians naturally ate a lot of fish. The varieties are beautifully and naturalistically depicted in tombs and on stelae. Tilapia, catfish, eel, mullet, and Nile perch were often on the menu and we find their bones in archeological digs. Fish were grilled, salted, and dried. Fishy extracts might also be used in medicines. A modern Egyptian spring celebratory dish consists of mullet, packed whole in salt for 45 days, then consumed raw with lime and bread. Many modern Egyptians believe this tradition is inherited from ancient times.
The oxyrhynchus fish with solar disk and horns crown
When it comes to Isis’ story, we have a bit of a fish problem. The oxyrhynchus fish, a Nile freshwater fish and a species of elephantfish, is usually identified as the fish that ate Osiris’ phallus after it got tossed in the Nile after His dismemberment. (Though sometimes, the Nile carp or the lepidotes fish is named as the culprit.) Due to this loss, Isis had to fashion a new phallus for Osiris’ mummification and resurrection. He had to be whole.
It may have been this myth that led to Egyptian priests not being allowed to eat fish during their service, a taboo recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus. Plutarch, in his rendition of the Isis-Osiris tale, calls the fishes who ate the phallus of Osiris “impious” and says they were cursed ever after, and that Egyptians wouldn’t eat fish because of it. (Which, of course, we know is not true; they ate plenty of fish.) What’s more, the oxyrhynchus fish wasn’t cursed everywhere. It fact, it was sacred in the town of Oxyrhynchus. Learn more about Oxyrhynchus here. Though Fish Deities were rare in Egypt, there were a few other fish that were considered sacred in different areas, and so were not eaten. And there may have been other occasional taboos on eating certain fish at certain times.
Hatmehyt
In addition to having this particular complication with the phallus-eating fish, our Goddess Isis has another interesting connection with the fishes.
From the New Kingdom on, Isis was assimilated with a Fish Goddess named Hatmehyt, meaning “Foremost of the Fishes.”(Or perhaps we should say that the Fish Goddess was assimilated with Her.) Hatmehyt was the chief Goddess of the delta city of Djedet (Mendes to the Greeks) where the Ram God Banebdjedet was Her consort. Banebdjedet means “Ram Lord of Djedet” or “Ba of the Lord of Djedet.” Banebdjedet came to be associated with Osiris. In the Book of the Heavenly Cow (the one that has the story of Sakhmet’s near destruction of humankind), it says specifically that the Ram of Mendes is the Ba (soul or manifestation) of Osiris.
Hatmehyt
If Banebdjedet is associated with Osiris, then Hatmehyt must be associated with Isis. Although we find a few traces of Her much earlier, Hatmehyt was most prominent during the New Kingdom and the later periods. It was because of Her growing prominence that we begin to see Her connected to more dominant Deities like Isis. Hatmehyt is usually shown as a woman with a fish emblem on Her head. Sometimes, She is fully a fish. Her fish-form is commonly identified as the schilbe, which is a kind of catfish native to Egypt. But some researchers have identified Her fish as the Nile carp, the tilapia, or even the dolphin, which were known to travel up the Nile. As Foremost of the Fishes, it may be that She can change Her fish-form at will.
Edward Butler of Henadology notes that “mehyt,” meaning “fish” can also mean “drowned,” which is how Osiris is killed in some texts. On a Ptolemaic stele from the city of Djedet/Mendes, we find the king and queen making offering to the Deities of Djedet. Banebdjedet, in full ram-form, is there. Next to Him is a ram-headed God identified as “Ba, life of, Ba life of Wsir (?).” The question mark is a scholarly note because the name is too damaged to fully read. However, the reconstruction of the name as Usir/Osiris is based on the very clear identification of the Goddess Who stands behind Him.
She is Iset Weret Hatmehyt or “Isis the Great-Hatmehyt.” So, here is our syncretic Goddess Iset-Hatmehyt. She is Isis, Foremost of the Fishes. From an inscription on the Temple of Denderah, we learn that Hatmehyt is She Who “searches [for the members of] Her brother upon the flow.”
A Turkana, Kenyan woman carrying a fish on her head and looking similar to some depictions of Hatmehyt
Perhaps as a Fish Goddess, She is particularly adept at finding His body parts in the waters or “upon the flow.” In fact, Denderah records a handful of such references to Hatmehyt searching for Osiris’ members, protecting Him in His sarcophagus, and even being His sister—just like Isis. What’s more, the son of Hatmehyt and Banebdjedet is Horus the Child. Each mythological strand weaves the connection between the two Goddesses closer.
While I never really thought about Isis as a Fish Goddess, I do recall a shapeshifting exercise with Nephthys wherein I am a fish. So perhaps, I have some meditation to do with Iset-Hatmehyt. I’m thinking there may be some wet and watery connections between the Fish Goddess and the lost-in-the-waters phallus of Osiris. The Egyptians, surrounded by desert, always thought of the waters as kinda sexy. Heqet, the fertile Frog Goddess, was no doubt rather moist and slippery, just like our perhaps-equally-moist-and-slippery Fish Goddess, Iset-Hatmehyt.
As we approach the time when night and day, moon and sun come into a brief and beautiful balance, let’s talk about Isis’ lunar and solar natures.
Many modern people first think of Isis as a Moon Goddess. And, it’s true, in later periods of Her worship, She was indeed associated with the moon—and, in fact, that’s how She entered the Western Esoteric Tradition. Yet, this Isis-moon connection isn’t all that new. It first started when Egypt came under Greek rule in the 3rd century BCE, following the conquest by Alexander the Great. To the Greeks, Goddesses were the lunar Deities, so as Isis made Her way into Greek culture and hearts, Her new devotees naturally associated Her with the moon.
But in Egypt, Osiris, Khons, Thoth, and I’ah were the Deities most associated with the moon. Isis, for Her part, was connected with the star Sirius as far back as the Pyramid Texts; the star was said to be Her ba, or soul. Yet Isis is also linked with the sun.
As the Sun was the image of one of the most important Gods to the ancient Egyptians, it should not be surprising to find that Isis, one of the most important Goddesses, also has strong solar connections. In some places—notably, Her famous temple at Philae—Isis was worshipped specifically as a Sun Goddess. Among Her solar epithets are Female Re (Re-et) and Female Horus (Horet).
Isis raises up the sun
Isis’ most common solar manifestation is as the Eye of Re, the Uraeus, the Cobra Goddess Who coils upon the Sun God’s brow to protect Him; and Who fights a constant cosmic battle against His great opponent, Apop (Gr. Apophis). An inscription at Philae calls Isis “Neseret [fiery]-serpent on the head of Horus-Re, Eye of Re, the Unique Goddess, Uraeus.” A hymn from Philae calls Her “Eye of Re who has no equal in heaven and on earth.” The Eye of Re is His active power. While He maintains His place in the sky, the solar power—the Eye Goddess—goes forth to manifest His Divine will. In this way, Isis and the other Uraeus Goddesses (such as Nephthys, Wadjet, and Tefnut) are similar to Shakti, the active, feminine Power related to the God Shiva in some Hindu sects. Isis is also one of the Deities Who travels with Re in His solar barque as it moves through the Otherworld. Again, Her function is to protect Him and help battle His foes.
A vintage illustration of Isis learning the name of Re by H. m. Brock.
Isis is also associated with the Sun God and the Sun in several of Her important myths. In the tale of Isis and Re, Isis gains power equal to Re’s by learning His secret name, first by poisoning, then by healing the ailing God. In another, with Her magical Words of Power, Isis stops the Boat of the Sun in the sky in order to receive aid for Her poisoned child, Horus.
But it was at Isis’ influential temple at Philae that She was most clearly worshiped as a Sun Goddess and even as the Sun itself. A Philae hymn to Isis praises Her saying, “You are the one who rises and dispels darkness, shining when traversing the primeval ocean, the Brilliant One in the celestial waters, traveling in the barque of Re.” An inscription on the first pylon (gate) at Philae says Isis is the “One Who illumines the Two Lands with Her radiance, and fills the earth with gold-dust.” (Blissful sigh. I absolutely adore this praise of Her…She fills the earth with gold dust.)
Like many other Egyptian Deities, Isis was often envisioned with immortal, golden, solar skin. Some of Her sacred images would have been covered with gold, earning Her, like Hathor, the epithets The Gold and the Golden One. A Philae hymn addresses Her, “O Golden One; Re, the possessor of the Two Lands, will never be far from you.” Some scholars believe that the holy of holies at Philae may have once been gold-leafed so that it always appeared filled with golden, solar light. Wow; to bathe in Her gold dust there!
At Her Philae temple, Isis is first of those in heaven: “Hail to you, Isis, Great of Magic, eldest in the womb of her mother, Nuet, Mighty in Heaven Before Re.” She is the “Sun Goddess in the circuit of the sun disk” and Her radiance outshines even that of Re. At Denderah, She is the power of the sun: “She Who shines as the Right Eye during the day,” and “She Who rises everyday.” She is also the Aten, the Solar Disk itself.
A glowing AI Sun Goddess
From Her great temple at Philae, Isis’ identity as a Sun Goddess flowed back up the Nile to Her temples at Memphis and Isiopolis in the delta. From there, it entered into the Graeco-Roman culture in the famous aretalogies (self-statements) of Isis. From a papyrus found in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, we learn that one of Isis’ many names is Name of the Sun and that She is responsible for the rising of the Sun: “Thou [Isis] bringest the sun from rising unto setting, and all the Gods are glad.” In an aretalogy from Kyme, in modern Turkey, Isis says of Herself, “I ordered the course of the sun and the moon.” And later in the same text She says, “I am in the rays of the sun” and “I inspect the courses of the sun.”
Yet even in Egypt itself, Isis is known to rule both sun and moon. An inscription from Denderah calls Her “the great female Ra in the dual course of the sun and the moon.” She gives birth to the Sun God and His Solar Disk, according to inscriptions now in the British Museum and the temple of Esna.
As a Great Goddess, Isis ever reveals more of Herself to Her devotees. We can see Her in the golden sun and in the silver moon…and of course, in diamond starlight, too.
Did this mysterious Isiac artifact serve as the altar when Plato received his initiation into the Egyptian Greater Mysteries in a secret, subterranean hall beneath the Great Pyramid? Was it an altar top from a Roman Temple of Isis? Was it a repository of ancient occult lore? A key to the hieroglyphs? Or the tarot? Perhaps it was just a rather expensive piece of home decor for a rich Roman with a penchant for Isis?
All of these things have been suggested as the ultimate identity of this significant Isiac artifact. It has quite the history…and some legit mysteries, all of which we take a look at as we try to find out more about this literally unique artifact—and discover what it has meant in the long story of the worship of our Goddess Isis.
As you may have guessed, “Mensa Isiaca” is Latin. It means “Table (or Tablet) of Isis.” It’s also known as the Bembine Table of Isis. I’ll explain why in a bit.
One of the prizes in our library, a copy of one of the few works about the Mensa Isiaca. The author is W. Wynn Westcott, one of the three founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
First, what is it?
The Mensa Isiaca is a large bronze tabletop inlaid with polychrome metals—that is, a variety of colored metals—featuring Egyptian figures in a selection of typical Egyptian-style poses, all surrounding the central, enshrined figure of Isis. Or at least She has always been taken to be Isis due to the popularity of the Goddess during the period of the Mensa’s creation, sometime between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE. And it was almost certainly made in Rome.
The reason we cannot be absolutely sure the central figure is Isis is that, while the Mensa includes hieroglyphs, they are only pseudo-hieroglyphs and cannot be read. They are decoratively placed near the figures, as well as around the lip of the Mensa and the borders that separate its three surface registers. So, unfortunately, they cannot help us clearly identify the figures on the Mensa. The Mensa’s later interpreters, however, did not know this and spent a good deal of brainpower on trying, unsuccessfully, to decipher the glyphs.
The art style is all very Egyptian, in the Hellenistic mode. In other words, the images look very much like the ones found in many of the Hellenistic-era temples we see in Egypt today. It’s that slightly softer style you see at Denderah rather than the older, crisper style at Abydos.
But before we go further, you may be wondering what the Mensa Isiaca looks like; click for a larger image:
The Mensa Isiaca; I know, it’s hard to see, so there’s an illustration later in the post. As you may have guessed, that’s Isis in the middle.
I hadn’t remembered how large the Mensa Isiaca was until I read a recent article with results from an intensive study of the Mensa while it was on loan from Italy’s Turin Egyptian Museum to the Getty Museum in L.A. At almost 50 inches wide (126 cm) and 30 inches tall (75.5 cm), it is decidedly table-sized rather than tablet-sized. It also has a slightly-over-2-inch lip on all sides of the table. I had been picturing it as something a bit more portable. But no. It’s of an impressive size as well as being an impressive work of art.
While at the Getty Museum, researchers took advantage of new technologies that enabled them to study the Mensa Isiaca in new depth and non-invasively.
Examples of Egyptian polychrome metalwork; note the inlaid gold, silver, and copper
A striking feature of the Mensa is its polychrome inlays. Earlier in the Mensa’s history, some of the more colorful inlays had been described as enamel. Others suggested that the beautiful variety of colored metals were the result of Egyptian alchemical experiments. Researchers found that the metalsmiths used at least seven distinct alloys, including silver, gold, black bronze, and a variety of different copper and zinc alloys. They achieved colors from red, yellow, orange, and brown to blue-grey. Each figure is intricately outlined in silver or black bronze wire. The Mensa is in remarkably good shape and shows no signs of ever having been buried. In other words, it has remained in someone’s hands throughout its lifetime.
An illustration of the Mensa Isiaca so you can more easily see the imagery; click to enlarge
Polychrome metalwork was a specialty of Egyptian craftspeople; we have examples from at least the 18th dynasty and researchers now think the technique was much more widespread than they had previously believed. Thus, the Mensa Isiaca was created using techniques that were genuinely Egyptian—even if the craftspeople didn’t know hieroglyphs (many didn’t by that time). Due to the excellence of the work and Egyptian mastery of those techniques, my guess is that is was created by Egyptian metalsmiths working in Rome, perhaps with Roman smiths. But we have no proof. It could also have been made by Roman smiths in an Egyptianizing style.
A closeup of some of the complex metalwork on the Mensa
The green represents where silver was used; the purple represents gold
If you’d like to read all the details about the Getty investigation into the physical properties of the Mensa Isiaca, here’s the link. (Most of the images in this post are from this article.)
What is its history?
Cardinal Bembo
There is no historical mention of the Mensa Isiaca until after the sacking of Rome in 1527. Some of the unpaid-for-a-long-time forces of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, overran the city of Rome and went on a rampage of destruction, looting, and killing.
The Mensa was likely kept in one of Rome’s palaces prior to the sacking. Afterwards, it came into the hands of a blacksmith or ironworker who eventually sold it to Cardinal Bembo—after which it was known as the Bembine Table (or Tablet) of Isis. Bembo was an Italian scholar, trained in Neoplatonism and intensely interested in his country’s history. In later life, he was made a cardinal in secret. He is buried in the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva basilica, part of which lies over the older Temple of Isis in the Campus Martius.
The Mensa remained in Bembo’s hands until after his death. Then, it came into the possession of the Dukes of Mantua, who kept it in their museum until 1630, when Mantua was besieged and also sacked. We don’t know how, but it next came into the hands of Cardinal Pava, who gifted it to the Duke of Savoy, who eventually gave it to the King of Sardinia in 1730. In 1797, French troops brought it to Paris, where it was exhibited in the Bibliothèque Nationale. With peace between France and Italy, it was returned to Turin. Today, Turin is the site of Italy’s Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) and the permanent home of the Mensa Isiaca.
Proposed original appearance of the central register with Isis, digitally recreated except for missing or damaged areas
In Westcott’s book about the Mensa (see the image above), he notes that a guidebook for travelers to northern Italy by John Murray, published in 1863, mentions the Mensa and gives an unattributed history. Murray says that the Mensa was originally found on Mount Aventine in Rome where once stood a temple of Isis and suggests it was made during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. This period for its creation is entirely possible since Hadrian’s reign roughly matches the current scholarly dating for the Mensa Isiaca—and Hadrian himself was quite the Egyptophile. As far as I can tell, none of the known Isis temples in Rome was on the Aventine hill. But then, much of the Aventine is unexcavated since it is covered with many homes.
What is the Mensa Isiaca’s occult significance?
That’s enough of historical history (as far as we know it) for now. Its occult history is much more interesting. The Mensa Isiaca has been an inspiration to occultists for centuries and was believed to contain the deep secrets of ancient Egyptian mysteries and magic. We’ll get into that fascinating subject next time in Part 2.
Last time, we talked about the Egyptian ba—very loosely translated as the soul. When represented in tombs, the ba is shown as a human-headed bird, often a falcon or hawk, and bearing the face of the person to whom it belongs.
With their power of flight, birds have always been magical creatures to us flightless human beings. Not only in Egypt, but in many cultures throughout the world, birds of various types have been associated with death and the afterlife. In some cases, birds (especially the owl) are seen as harbingers of death. Sometimes, birds are psychopomps, guides of the dead, showing the newly-disembodied human soul or spirit the correct path to the Otherworld. Researchers have suggested that the concept of birds as spirits of the dead that have returned to earth is almost universal.
Tutankhamon’s innermost sarcophagus, aka “the egg”
But more often than being harbingers of death, birds are associated with the idea of transcendence and rebirth, as they decidedly were in ancient Egypt. The innermost coffin was sometimes referred to as “the egg,” so you can see the power of this idea almost immediately. In the funerary literature, we also find birds in connection with the so-called “transformation” spells, which are designated in the texts by the verb kheper, “to become.” So once again, we come to that important word.
Two forms of Isis from Denderah: anthropomorphic and in Her Ba form
As you already know, our Goddess Isis is often depicted in birdform. She is the hawk, falcon, kestral, or swallow protecting the body of Osiris, and thus all the dead, with Her powerful wings. But sometimes, She is also shown as a human-headed falcon. In this case, we are being shown Her powerful ba kheper. If you recall last week’s post, you’ll remember that in the earliest Egyptian records, the ba is a Divine Force. That Divine Force is what we are intended to see when we find Isis in this form. It is Her Great Ba that is with us.
From an inscription at Denderah, we are told that Isis is “She Whose Ba (-Power) is Great” and “She Whose Ba is Great Among the Gods,” and even “She Whose Ba is Greater Than All the Gods.” Human beings recognize the power of Her ba: “those on earth bow to Her Ba.” (And, it is often the ba of the Deity that was understood to inhabit the Deity’s sacred image; sometimes the ka, too, but mostly the ba.)
Isis is also among the Great Goddesses Who are called Ba-et Goddesses. As a Ba-et Goddess, Isis’ ba-power is understood to be exceptionally powerful among the bau (plural) of all the other Deities. Isis is “She Who is More Mighty (Ba-et) than the Gods.” She is especially powerful in the sky: She is “The Mighty One (Ba-et) in the Sky,” “The Mighty One in the West and the East,” and She is “The Mighty One of the Bau Souls.”
I don’t know how to attribute these AI illos, but this one gets something of Her power; here’s the link
This last title likely refers to Isis’ status among the Deities—a Great Ba among Great Bau. But I wonder if we might also take it as a reference to Her care of the human bau, souls, who are under Her wings.
It is Isis Who initiates the human ba into its new, transformed existence without the living body of the deceased. She is the Lady of All in the Secret Place—the Otherworld—and She is asked by the deceased in the Coffin Texts to, “spiritualize me, O You who split open my mouth for me and Who guide my soul on the paths of the Otherworld.” We are told that “Isis rejoices when She sees you (the deceased)” in the Otherworld and reciprocally, that the dead (as Osiris) rejoice when they see Her, for they know they can count on Her help in their renewal.
Isis in protective posture
Isis also bestows upon the deceased power and awe so that enemies of the deceased are easily fended off. The dead are told that they are possessors of “the fear (awe or power) that went forth from Isis to Horus.” While the texts do not explicitly say so, it seems to me that Isis may have endowed the deceased with some of Her powerful and “awe-full” ba-power. In another Coffin Text, the deceased is told that “the power of Isis is your strength” and that the dead one is “more spirit (akh)-like and more soul (ba)-like” than the Southern or Northern Gods.
From Pompeii, a Mystery fresco
Isis’ concern with souls continued as Her worship entered the Graeco-Roman world. She becomes known as a Mystery Goddess—and the Mysteries were always about the Mysteries of death, rebirth, and often, the saving of souls. In Isis’ famous Mysteries, initiates learned what lay before them in the afterlife so that they lost their fear of death and could live more fulfilling lives on earth. In fact, Isis was specifically known as a Savior Goddess, which not only pertains to Her ability to initiate our souls into the Mysteries of Death and Rebirth, but also to Her saving grace in our day-to-day lives.
In a Hermetic treatise, the Kore Kosmou (“Virgin of the Universe”), Isis continued to be associated with souls. (Read more about the Kore Kosmouhere, and here, and here.)
The always Mysterious sphinx
In this text, Isis describes for Horus how human souls were created and how She and Osiris devised the “magic of the prophet-priests” so that our souls could be nurtured by philosophy and our bodies could be healed by the magical arts. Other Hermetic texts depict Isis teaching about reincarnation and the true nature of our souls.
From the earliest to the latest periods, Isis has been the Lady of Souls. She has, and is, an extremely powerful ba Herself and always, always maintains Her concern with and knowledge of souls.
The partially restored Temple of Hathor on neo-Philae (Agilkia) island
On the island of Philae, east of the Temple of Isis, stands a smaller temple to Hathor. The Hathor temple was restored, at least in part, in 2012 and reopened to the public. (Both the Isis and Hathor temples, as well as the other temples of ancient Philae are now on the Egyptian island of Agilkia, aka Agilika, where they were moved prior to the building of the Aswan Dam, which created Lake Nasser and flooded Philae.)
A lovely Hathor head, from a processional boat, now in the British Museum
Compared to the Temple of Isis on Agilkia, the Temple of Hathor is quite small. Reciprocally and interestingly, at Denderah, Hathor’s great Ptolemaic temple complex, there is a similar small Temple of Isis. Clearly, there is a relationship between these two Great Goddesses; so much so that it was required that each Goddess would have a smaller temple near the great temple of the other.
In fact, sometimes that relationship between Isis and Hathor is so close that it’s hard to tell Them apart. Beginning in the New Kingdom, we regularly see Isis wearing the Horns & Disk crown of a Cow Goddess that is emblematic of Hathor. Sometimes Isis also has a small throne on top of the Horns & Disk to indicate that She is indeed Isis rather than Hathor, sometimes She doesn’t. But guess what? Hathor sometimes borrows Isis’ headdress, too.
Again at Denderah, we find a carving of Hathor—and the hieroglyphs confirm that She IS Hathor—wearing the Horns & Disk with the throne on top. It’s a bit hard to make out in this photo, but you can see the throne sitting atop the disk in Hathor’s crown.
Both Isis and Hathor are associated with Horus, Isis as His mother, Hathor sometimes as mother, sometimes as lover. Both are Cow Goddesses and Goddesses of the Sycamore, though Hathor probably has the prior claim on both these symbols. Both are Eyes of the Divine and holy Uraeus Serpents, powerful, fiery, protective and vengeful Goddesses. Thus both can become Sekhmet, that most fierce and bloodthirsty of Goddesses. Both Isis and Hathor are Goddesses of the Otherworld, Goddesses of rebirth and resurrection, Whom the dead ones adore.
Looking just as these correspondences, Isis and Hathor seem interchangeable. Is it so?
I don’t think so. Instead, They are sister branches of the Divine Tree. They are ultimately united in the Tree’s trunk, yet there is a quite palpable difference in the energy feeling of the two Goddesses—at least out in the twigs and leaves of the Tree where we most often experience Them. As you know, I have an enduring dedication to Isis, but in another part of my spiritual life, I also have a strong connection to Hathor.
A beautiful Hathor from Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple, by Steve F-E-Cameron (own work, public domain)
Hathor’s energy always has an underlying feeling of excitation, of arousal. It may be sexual, but it doesn’t have to be. Hathor imparts the excitement of living, and thus She is the Great Lady of Love, Joy, Drunkenness, and Dance. Her symbol par excellance is the sistrum, the sacred rattle that is shaken to stir things up. In Egyptian, to “play the sistrum” is iri sekhem, to “do power.” Hathor has something of the maenad in Her, if I may draw from a different cultural metaphor; She’s a bit more wild than Isis, more likely to roar or hiss or spit. O, but She will dance you to ecstasy; She will love you to ecstasy; She will sing you to ecstasy. Perhaps She will also put a bit of Divine terror into your belly while She’s doing it. But then She will turn Those Eyes upon you, those soft, bright, deep cow’s eyes, and She will soothe you, take you in, and make you understand that Love, only Love, is at the heart of the Divine reality.
Of course, Isis, too, inspires passion. She certainly inspires it in me. But that’s not the foundation of Her energy. At Isis’ heart is strength interwoven with the numinous power of magic. Hathor’s tingle is the excitement of life and love. Isis’ tingle is the excitement of magic, of heka. Hers is a deep, sometimes overwhelming, Intelligence; flowering in my mind like stars that blossom into the depths of Space and Time.
And yet, and yet. The Mystery of these two Great Goddesses is such that They can share many or even most of Their symbols, and have a share in each other’s power.
Yes indeed, there is much more to say about Nephthys…
O, She is a Hidden One. In the Book of Caverns (an afterlife text), She is even described as the one Whose “head is hidden.” Yet She reveals Herself when you pay attention, when you search, when you ask.
Remember that lovely image of Nephthys by the two sister artists in last week’s post? Well, I found a couple more shots of it. Turns out the artwork is stranger and more unexpected than you would have thought having seen just the first photo.
Nephthys Herself is like that. She is stranger, more intriguing, and indeed more beautiful and powerful than you might, at first, think.
When we first read our Egyptian mythology, we see loyal Nephthys always in Her more dramatic sister’s shadow. She assists Isis with Osiris and Horus; She gets stuck with the troublesome, rowdy, and too-dry-to-be-fertile Set for a husband. As I mentioned last time, we used to think She didn’t even have Her own temples. But She did. And Her own priesthood, too.
The whole Nephthys sculpture…not what you expected? Me neither.
When in a dyad with Isis, Nephthys is decidedly the “darker” one. The Pyramid Texts advise the king to “descend with Nephthys” in the Barque of the Night, but arise with Isis in the Barque of the Day. Nephthys speaks and the pathways of the Otherworld are obscured. The one being reborn is to “throw off the tresses of Nephthys” like he throws off his mummy wrappings at his rebirth. (I refer you back to a post on the magic of hair in Egyptian funerary ritual.) Nephthys is called Keku, Darkness itself. She is the Lady of the West, She is “in the Cemetery,” She is Lady of the Duat (the Underworld), Mourner and, like Her mother Nuet, She is called “Coffin.” She shares a number of these epithets with Isis (Who can be quite as dark as Her sister when She so desires).
Some researchers see Her darknesses and consider Sad-at-Heart Nephthys to be Death Itself and specifically the first half of the death process—the dying part, the entering into death part that does indeed make us sad at heart. Plutarch records that one side of the sistrum was decorated with Isis’ face while the other had Nephthys’ face, symbolizing creation and death respectively. (On Isis and Osiris, section 63)
It is an interesting and useful identification—and you can certainly make a good case for it. Yet it doesn’t quite satisfy me.
Not that Death isn’t a Big Thing. Death is possibly the Biggest Thing we face in our lives—outside of being born itself. But because it is so big, many of the Egyptian Deities are Death Deities. For instance, we could certainly consider Amentet to be Death Herself for Amentet means “The West,” that is, the Egyptian Land of the Dead and Amentet is often called the Beautiful West and welcomes the dead to Her realm.
A classic Nephthys
Death is among the concerns of many Deities and it is indeed an intimate concern of Nepththys. But we’re not there yet. Where else can we look for Nephthys?
One place some scholars have looked is Her connection with other Deities. One of the more interesting ones is Her surprisingly close connection with Seshat, the Lady of Books, the Mistress of Builders.
Yeah, I know. Not the first one that would come to mind, is it?
As early as the Pyramid Texts (the oldest ones date from 2400-2300 BCE), Nephthys is said to have “collected all your members for you in this Her name of Seshat, Lady of Builders.” (Pyramid Texts, Utterance 364) Her much-later hymn from Komir invokes Her as “Seshat the Great, Mistress of Humanity, the Mistress of Writing, the Lady of the Entire Library. To You, Who utters divine decrees, Great of Magic, Who rules in the Mansion of Archivists.” There may be Isis-Nephthys parallelism in this spell from the Book of the Dead in which the deceased is seated beside the Great of Magic (possibly Isis) while Seshat (possibly Nephthys) is seated before the dead person: “Thou coolest thyself on the cedar tree beside the Great of Magic, while Seshat is seated before thee and Sia [Divine Perception] is the magical protection of thy body.” (Book of the Dead, Spell 169)
In Her name of Seshat, Lady of Builders
A Ptolemaic text from the Denderah temple says that Nephthys is “She who reckoneth the life-period, Lady of Years, Lady of Fate,” which Seshat does for the Pharaoh by marking notches on a palm rib. (This, of course, brings us back once again to Nephthys’ association with death.)
The Coffin Texts say, “O <name>, Horus has protected you, He has caused Nephthys to put you together, and She will put you together; She will mold you in Her name of Seshat, Mistress of Potters, for such is this great lady, a possessor of life in the Night-barque, Who raises up Horus, and She will bring to you.” (Coffin Texts, Spell 778) Texts at Edfu and Kom Ombo also record Seshat as a form of Nephthys. (However, it is well worth noting that Isis and Seshat were assimilated as well; which should remind us that, when it comes to Egyptian Deities and when it comes to spirituality, nothing is ever completely without contradiction or complication.)
The priesthoods of Nephthys and Seshat seem to have overlapped in places, too. Nephthys is married to Set and is the mother of Anubis with Osiris; interestingly, we have records of a priest of Seshat who served both Set and Anubis—and who was also in charge of “controlling the foreigners.” More on that in a minute.
The most complete discussion of Nephthys-Seshat (that’s available in English and accessible via your library, if your library is subscribed to Jstor) is in a paper by G.A. Wainwright from the 40s called “Seshat & the Pharaoh.”
A Seshat with a five-pointed star and two serpents forming Her headdress
He proposes that both Seshat and Nephthys were so old by the Old Kingdom that They were already starting to be forgotten and that Nephthys may have originally been rather Hathor-like, having been a Sky Goddess and a Love Goddess and a Victory Bringer (think Goddesses like Inanna and Ishtar, Who are involved in both love and war and are connected with the planet Venus). Plutarch, in the 2nd-century CE, noted that some called Nephthys Teleutê (“End”; more on that shortly), others Aphrodite, and some Nikê (“Victory”). (Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris, section 12) Nephthys got renewed life by being brought into the Isis-Osiris cycle, while Seshat came into the counting house of pharaoh and became connected with Thoth.
A Nephthys-Seshat connection that doesn’t seem to have been made by anyone I’ve read so far jumped out at me. So…speculation alert; here we go.
As Lady of Builders, one of Seshat’s main functions is to lay out the boundaries for new buildings, especially temples, via the ceremony of “stretching the cord,” which was a method of using a cord or rope to measure out straight foundations for a building. She is Goddess of architecture, math, and accounting, as well as being the Divine Scribe. Broadly, these are concerns of delineation, creating limits, setting boundaries, deciding what is in and what is out. Keep that in mind as we go on to the next part.
A statuette of Nephthys with Her name glyph showing the neb basket and the temple “blueprint”
Next, let’s look at Nephthys’ name. In Egyptian, it’s Nebet-Hwt, the Lady (Nebet) of the Temple (Hwt). You will also see it as Lady of the House. “House” is one translation of hwt, but that translation has, for most of us at least, connotations of the home or household—but Nephthys has little in Her of Hestia or Vesta. More usually, hwt means a mansion, temple, or even tomb. (Remember those similar meanings for Isis’ name?)
The hieroglyph for Nephthys’ name combines two other symbols: a neb bowl placed on top of the hwt sign, which is a rectangular sign with a little square or rectangle in the lower right. The neb glyph represents a wickerwork basket and conveys concepts such as “lord” (neb) or “lady” (nebet with the feminine t ending) and “all” or “every.” My guess is that because neb meant “all” it was also used to refer to the ruler of all, the lord or lady. Gardiner (Egyptian Grammer) says the hwt glyph is an “enclosure seen in plan,” in other words, we’re sort of looking down at a blueprint for a building.
What better name glyph for the Lady of Builders than one that represents the blueprint of a building? The Lady of the House—the Goddess with a blueprint in Her name—is also the architecture Goddess Who delineates the foundations of all buildings—but especially the sacred houses of the Deities, the temples.
At Denderah, we even find an ibis-headed Nephthys, which only strengthens the connection between Nephthys and the Divine Scribe, this time with the Divine Male Scribe (Sesh), Thoth, rather than the Divine Female Scribe, Seshat.
The ibis-headed Nephthys from Denderah; I’m working on finding the hieroglyph translations…but you can see Her name above Her head
Now, let’s go back to Plutarch’s comments about what people in his time called Nephthys: Teleutê. In Greek, it means ending or completion. Plutarch says, “They give the name Nephthys to the ends of the earth and the regions fringing on mountains and bordering the sea. For this reason, they call Her Teleutê and say She cohabits with Typhon [Set].” (On Isis and Osiris, section 38) Later he says that Nephthys is what is “below the earth and invisible” in contrast with Isis Who “is above the earth and manifest.” (On Isis and Osiris, section 44) Both statements speak of Nephthy’s mystery and liminality. She is the border between here and there, then and now, in and out. And if She is that border, She also controls it. The priest of Seshat mentioned earlier was also “controller of the foreigners” and Nephthys’ husband Set is God of foreigners and foreign lands; thus the Goddess and God delineate or “draw the line” between us and The Other.
An Egyptian epithet of Nephthys calls Her Nebet-er-djer Em Em Netjeru, which Tamara Suida translates as “Lady to the Limit Under the Gods.” (Thank you, Tamara for your booklet on Nebt-hwt…and most especially those epithets.) There’s also a God called Neb-er-djer, which I’ve seen translated as Lord to/of the End or Lord to/of the Utmost, so we may also translate this Nephthys epithet as Lady of the End (Teluetê again!) or Lady to the Utmost Em Em (“among”) the Deities. Here again, Nephthys is the border, the line, the limit between “all of this” and whatever is beyond the End, the Limit, the Utmost.
The Nephthys again, just because
As you probably figured out, djer in Egyptian is “end” or “limit.” Faulkner (Middle Egyptian) thinks djeri may mean an enclosing wall, a djeru is indeed a boundary, and the djerty are the Two Kites, Isis and Nephthys. This last, the Djerty, may mean nothing other than being an interesting coincidence. On the other hand, perhaps we can think of the Two Djerty circling aloft, delineating a space in the heavens—one that may be reflected on earth, for example, as They protectively encircle the body of Osiris as He awaits rebirth.
Now let us come back once more to the Lady of the Temple. What are temple walls but the boundary and the limit between sacred and profane? Thus it is Nephthys, the Lady of the Temple, Who founds and builds the temple walls, enclosing the sacred within, setting it aside as special, protected, and preserved.
Whew! I’m stopping now. I think I’ve must have worn us both out for today. I’ll have more to say about Her sometime soon. For instance, there is some doubt about that whole “adultery with Osiris” thing. We shall see.
While some of us are under a crazy last-gasp-of-winter storm, lucky ones (like me) are enjoying a first-breath-of-spring day.
The coming of the light, the green uprisings from the dark earth, the deep, needed breath. These things open us, make our spirits expand, and give us hope—even as we and the world still struggle with a historic pandemic.
Do you feel it? Even now? Even today, as things are? I hope you do. I wish for you that you do, just as we human beings always have…
The ancient Egyptians certainly knew that feeling and celebrated it. In his essay “On Isis and Osiris,” the Greek priest Plutarch mentions an Egyptian festival that he says marked the beginning of spring and was called ‘The Entry of Osiris Into the Moon.’ Here’s what he says about it:
Further, on the first day of the month of Phamenoth they hold a festival, which they call ‘The Entry of Osiris into the Moon,’ for it is the beginning of spring. Thus they locate the power of Osiris in the moon and say that Isis, as the creative principle, has intercourse with him. For this reason they also call the moon the mother of the world and they believe her nature to be both male and female since she is filled and made pregnant by the sun while she herself in turn projects and disseminates procreative elements in the air.
Plutarch, “On Isis and Osiris,” 43
In his discussion of this passage, Egyptologist J. Gwyn Griffiths notes that there is no festival by that name in any known Egyptian calendar.
Isis and Nephthys in a boat with Osiris. I believe this is the image to which Griffiths refers.
The closest thing is a temple carving from Denderah that shows Osiris in a boat with Isis and Nephthys and explains that Osiris is “entering into the Left Eye.” The Left Eye, as you may know, is usually an Egyptian designation for the moon. In the Denderah text, spring is not mentioned, but Osiris is said to do His entering on the 15th of the month, that is, at the full moon.
Plutarch is seeing things in a Greek way, with Isis as a lunar Goddess and Osiris in a solar aspect. But for the Egyptians, the moon was associated with Gods—Thoth, Iah, Khonsu—not Goddesses. And though Osiris is united daily with the Sun God Re in the Underworld, He too is more associated with the moon than the sun.
Nevertheless, in this case, it seems we should be envisioning a solar Osiris as He enters into and unites with the moon—thus establishing His power there—in order to create the brilliant light of the full moon (if we can include the Denderah text in our understanding).
Osiris-Iah, Osiris the Moon
Yet there is a slight problem. Plutarch says that this festival happens on the “noumenia tou Phamenoth,” the new moon of the spring month of Phamenoth. And indeed, the Egyptian lunar calendar, the temple calendar, starts with the new moon. This would mean the minuscule bits of evidence we have for this festival of Osiris entering into the moon are in conflict. Does the God enter at the new moon or full?
If we just look at what Plutarch says, then Osiris enters into the new moon and Isis, the Creative Principle, unites with Him in sexual intercourse. She becomes the Mother of the World; Isis the moon is filled and made pregnant by the Osirian sun. During this time, the moon is both male and female since Isis and Osiris are united in it. But pregnancy is a process of growth. Could both of our tiny bits of information be right? What if the festival was not meant as a one-day event? What if the 14 days from new moon to full were envisioned as a sort of spring break retreat for the Goddess and God? They come together, make love, and 14 days later the full, round, and shining evidence of the Goddess’ pregnancy can be clearly seen. It’s just speculation, but it does provide some coherence between the few pieces of evidence we have for this festival.
Isis & Osiris as lovers from Kris Waldherr’s Lovers Path Tarot
Whatever the case, I very much like the idea of a spring sexual rite for Isis and Osiris. In fact, it was this intriguing Plutarchian reference that inspired the multi-day rite of sacred sexuality in Isis Magic called (yes, of course) ‘The Entry of Osiris Into the Moon.’
Plutarch’s essay is also responsible for the idea that Isis and Osiris were so in love with each other that They made love while still within Their mother Nuet’s womb. He writes, “Isis and Osiris were enamored of each other and consorted together inthe darkness of the womb before Their birth.” Perhaps Their coming together at the first of spring each year may be seen as a kind of return to the womb of the Great Mother for renewal of both Deities as well as humankind…the very same renewal we all feel every spring.
What’s more, as famous lovers, Isis and Osiris are also to be found in the Greco-Egyptian Magical Papyri (Papyri Graecae Magicae, abbreviated PGM) in a variety of old-fashioned love spells. While many of the so-called “love” spells in the papyri are coercive and more like magical roofies than what I would call “love” magic, there is one I particularly like because it seems the lover does want love and not just sex from the object of his desire.
Union of the Moon and Sun
In a spoken part of the spell, the lover says, “The Goddess in heaven looked down upon him, and it happened to him according to every wish of his soul. [Name of the lover] says: From the day [and] from the hour, I [name of the lover] do this act to you; you will love me, be fond of me, and value me . . . [until] I die. O Lady, Goddess Isis, carry out for me this perfect charm.” The rite takes place before sunrise, as the lover anoints himself with myrrh, “the myrrh with which Isis anointed when She went to the bosom of Osiris.” As the sun rises, the lover asks Isis to wake up his beloved and again to “carry out this perfect charm.”
If you’re feeling in need of a love spell yourself, here’s one to try.
And so, with loving thoughts, I wish you blessings of the coming season of wild uprisings, renewed love, and new life in whatever best form it takes for you. We all need it and we all deserve it.
