Category Archives: history

Isis & Nephthys: the Mysteries of the Kites

This is a longish post because I found out some things I didn’t know about the Kite, the Kites, and Isis and Nephthys as the Kites. I’ll bet you’ll find out something you didn’t know, too.

Now, what you may already know is that the most consistent avian form that Isis and Nephthys take is the black kite. Black kites are birds of prey. They eat carrion and they hunt live prey. And one of the things I just learned is why they are called “kites.” It’s from their characteristic hunting technique in which they hover over the prey (like a paper kite does at the end of its string) and then do a swift dive to capture it. This highly successful hunting move is called “kiting.”

Isis & Nephthys with Their kite wings in a pose of protection

So today, we’re looking into the Kites, especially the Divine Kites, the Goddess Kites. We often see Them as Isis and Nephthys at the head and foot of Osiris’ mummy bier. Sometimes They are in Their bird form, sometimes fully anthropomorphic, and sometimes combining the two forms as women with wings.

In other images, we see Isis as a kite hovering (kiting!) over the erect phallus of a mummyform Osiris in order to conceive Their child Horus. We also find the Kite/s in funerary processions and in the Opening of the Mouth ritual. The Opening of the Mouth is a funerary rite; its main purpose is enlivening. It was used to give life or renewed life to everyone and everything from the mummified king to the sacred statues and images in a temple.

The magnificent black kite; yes, it’s brown as you can see in the tomb paintings as well

Egyptologist Racheli Shalomi-Hen notes that the first appearance of a Kite or Kites is in depictions of non-royal funerary processions of the late 5th dynasty of Egypt’s Old Kingdom. We know who the Kites are in these depictions because they are labeled. In Egyptian, Kite is Djeret while the Two Kites are the Djereti.

Egyptologists usually group the Kite/s in with other professional mourners (as opposed to mourners from the family of the deceased). This is probably because, once the Kites were connected with Isis and Nephthys, They were mourning Osiris. But the Kites seem to have other functions as well.

If the Kites were professionals, it must mean that their roles required special knowledge and skills. Just speculating here, but I wonder whether they were specialized priestesses of some kind. (As an aside, the Kites were also associated with another special funerary ritualist, the Demdjet. You can read about the Demdjet here.)

Shalomi-Hen suggests that the appearance of the Kite/s in these non-royal tombs is an indication that the non-royal dead were already identified with Osiris by that time—earlier that usually thought. At that time, she says, the Kites were not associated with the Goddesses; they were human funerary ritualists.

The Kite in a non-royal funeral; her title, *Djeret*, is above her head, with kite determinative at the end

She proposes that it was only after the king wanted to be an Osiris, too, that the Kites gained Divine and mythological status—and that this was done for the first time in the Pyramid Texts.

Other Egyptologists think that the basic Egyptian myth cycles, including the Osirian, may have been formed as early as the 2nd or 3rd dynasties—though we have nothing of length written down until the Pyramid Texts.

I’m not convinced that the Osirian myth we find in the Pyramid Texts represents the first time that this myth cycle was formulated. In the Pyramid Texts, we already see the characteristic mythological allusions that assume that scribes and educated readers (such as the priesthood concerned with funerary rites) would understand the reference to the whole myth from just the allusion. If this were the first time the myth was formulated, they would not have been able to do so. Instead, this must mean that—even before such allusions were written down in the Pyramid Texts—there was an oral tradition, and that is where the Osirian cycle first emerged.

In the illustration from one of these non-royal funerals (above), you can see that there isn’t anything particularly bird-like in the Kite’s dress or implements; indeed she has no implements and wears only the usual Old Kingdom sheath dress. Yet she is called the Kite. What then is the connection between the black kite and funeral rites?

Some scholars have suggested that the cry of the black kite may have sounded to the Egyptians like mourning women. I’ve listened to a number of recordings of black kite calls and…maybe? The closest one I’ve found is the warbling call in the last part of this video. The wavering cry sounds vaguely mournful. On the other hand, the kite also has a sharp cry, which caused another Egyptologist to suggest that the kite’s cry might have been thought to wake the dead. Yet another offers that the kite’s participation in funerals may have developed from a prehistoric hunting ritual. I wanted to look into that a bit, so I dug up that article.

In it, Egyptologist Eberhard Otto notes that the Kite is also present in some versions of the Opening of the Mouth ritual—in the part where the foreleg of the bull/bull calf is being cut off and its heart cut out. Sometimes, this female ritualist is identified simply as the Kite or the Great Kite. Sometimes there are two ritualists, the Great Kite and the Small Kite, Who later were identified with Isis and Nephthys.

The Kite (right) in the butchery scene from the Opening of the Mouth

In versions of the ritual where the Kite is present, she/She whispers into the ear of the sacrificial animal, blaming it for its own death. She says, “Your two lips have done that against you.”

Egyptologist Maria Valdesogo Martín identifies the Kite in the New Kingdom scene from the Opening of the Mouth shown here specifically as a mourner. This would be consistent with the well-known functions of the Kite at that time—as well as with the identification of the Great Kite as Isis. And mourning the slain animal is certainly an improvement over victim-blaming.

Nonetheless, this incident did remind me of the myth of the Contendings of Horus and Set in which Isis, in disguise as a maiden-in-distress, tricks Set into admitting that Osiris’ kingdom should go to Horus. Significantly, She first transforms into a kite, then flies into a tree and screeches, “Ha! Your own words have condemned you!”

Otto thinks that the Opening of the Mouth scene with the Kite is the part that may have originated in a prehistoric hunting ritual. He says the Kite is a later representation of a wild kite circling the body of a slain animal. The shrieking cries of the bird may have been interpreted as speech—which in later periods developed into the Kite blaming the animal for its death and, eventually, to mourning.

We begin to see Two Kites rather than just one in depictions of private funerary processions during the 5th dynasty, with most in the 6th dynasty. In the Pyramid Texts of the 5th and 6th dynasties, decidedly royal texts, we learn that the “Djereti of Osiris,” Who can only be Isis and Nephthys, “remove the ill” from the king as part of the preparation for his ascent to the heavens. In other words, They purify the king. What the Kites are removing is said to be poison, which is envisioned as venom from the fangs of a serpent that pours into the ground as the Kites supervise the action.

The Kites also help ferry the deceased king, as Osiris, “across the Winding Waterway” to the Horizon (Akhet) and rebirth. In tomb chapels of the same period as the Pyramid Texts, Kites are shown at the bow and stern of a boat that carries the coffin. We know that they/They are mourning for they/They make known mourning gestures in some cases and protective gestures in others. In these tomb chapels, the Djereti may or may not be identified as Isis and Nephthys.

In this model, the Goddesses’ names are followed by personal human names

We also find the Djereti represented on model boats since the Kites ferry the dead to rebirth. And here’s something really interesting.

One model boat from the Middle Kingdom includes the names of the Goddesses preceding what seem to be personal names. We see “the Nephthys Hotep-Hathor, justified” and “the Isis Hetpet, justified.” When a human name is followed by maakheru or “justified,” it means that the person is dead and has passed the judgment of Osiris. Perhaps what we are seeing here is previously deceased female relatives of the newly dead person serving as Isis and Nephthys for the deceased to help their loved one cross the Winding Waterway to rebirth.

In addition, the Kites were sometimes connected with the mummy wrappings. The Goddess of Weaving, Tayet, is sometimes identified as a Kite. Isis and Nephthys, known as the Two Weavers, are also Weaving Goddesses. There are a few Old Kingdom reliefs and paintings that show pairs of women labeled as Kites carrying boxes of offerings on their heads. In one example, we learn that they are “bringing khenit-cloth.” Khenit means “yellow” and yellow is the same as gold in Egyptian color symbolism. Thus, this cloth is solar and refers to the daily solar resurrection. Here again, we have the Kites assisting in rebirth. These cloth-bringing Djereti also sometimes have personal names attached to them, indicating that they are human Kites.

By removing poisons, attending to the mummy wrappings, and bringing offerings of yellow cloth, the Kites surely were part of the magical and physical preparation of the body and the tomb, just as female relatives were and are in so many societies, ancient and modern. Perhaps the professional Kites even guided or assisted the relatives of the deceased in these tasks.

Yet so far—with the exception of the kite’s cry interpreted as speech to the sacrificial victim or the possibility that their raptor-cries sounded like mourning—there doesn’t seem to be anything very kite-like or bird-like in the funerary function of the Kites.

But then there are those wings. Those bird wings, those kite wings.

The wings of Isis and Nephthys are Their most obvious avian attributes. As birds, the Kites fly; as birds of prey, They hunt.

As far back as the Pyramid Texts, the Two Sisters are the ones Who seek—or hunt for—Their missing brother Osiris. Their wings give Them the power to search a vast territory in a shorter period of time. Their lofty vantage point and sharp birds-of-prey vision make Them successful in their hunt.

In the Pyramid Texts, Osiris has not been dismembered, only killed. Yet when His dismemberment does become part of the myth, it isn’t much of a stretch to imagine the carrion-bird Sisters scavenging for the parts of the God’s body to re-assemble Him and make Him whole.

In the Hymn to Osiris in the Book of the Dead, Isis uses Her wings to revive Osiris enough so that She can conceive Their child and heir. “She made light with Her feathers, She created air with Her wings, and She uttered the death wail for Her brother. She raised up the inactive members of Him whose heart was still, She drew from Him His essence, She made an heir…” the text tells us.

In Egyptian lore, wings are also protective. Many are the Goddesses, wings outspread, Who protect tombs, sarcophagi, doorways, and temples. There are also a number of surviving statues of a larger Isis with a smaller image of Osiris protected between Her wings.

I remain on the lookout for more about the Kite Goddesses (as well as the human Kites). But for now we can know that Their wings are protective, Their cry can be mournful or accusatory, Their wings and vision make Them successful hunters and searchers, They can purify and prepare the dead for resurrection, and They can help “ferry” the dead toward the Horizon of Rebirth.

The Kite stands 4th from the right, bottom row; perhaps another Kite is on the top row, 6th from the left; I am assuming the family of the deceased are the people in mourning disarray on the bottom left

Is Isis “She Who Must Be Obeyed”?

We learned several weeks ago that one of the things said of Isis at Denderah is, “Life is in Her hand, health is in Her fist, one does not oppose what comes from Her mouth.” But was H. Rider Haggard’s Ayesha—of “She Who Must Be Obeyed” fame—based on Isis and/or Isis-connected literary characters?

Let’s see what we can find out.

First, who is Ayesha? Well, unless you are a fan of Victorian gothic novels or the British TV show Rumpole of the Bailey, you may not have heard of her.* Ayesha is the title character in the novel She: A History of Adventure by the English writer H. Rider Haggard. Haggard wrote adventure-romances set in exotic locations, mainly Africa, inspired by his having lived there for six years.

Along with King Solomon’s Mines, which introduced the character Allan Quartermain, She is Haggard’s most renowned work. It was enormously popular. First published in 1887, it has never been out of print and has sold over 100 million copies. Haggard was one of the innovators of the “lost world” genre and She is a classic example of that genre.

One of the many book covers for the novel

Ayesha is the mysterious “white queen” (I know, cringe) of an equally mysterious tribe living in the African interior. Ayesha is worshiped by her people as Hiya, She Who Must Be Obeyed, or simply She.

The novel has been studied and both praised and criticized for its depictions of female authority and power.

The Victorian and early-Edwardian era was also host to a wide-ranging male preoccupation with the “True Nature of Woman,” and mostly, in their cogitations, Woman’s True Nature tended toward the evil, perverse, and degenerate. This is where all those vampiric fin de siecle femmes fatales that populated a good portion of the art world at that time come from.

*The Evil Mothers* by Giovanni Segantini, 1894

“The Woman Question” was much-discussed as the rise of the more-liberated, educated, and independent New Woman terrified the traditionalists. (And why are we still and again having to have this infuriating and exhausting discourse?)

But back to Ayesha.

*Sphinx* by William Sergeant Kendall, 1915

Ayesha is a powerful sorceress who has discovered the secret of immortality. She’s been waiting 2,000 years for the reincarnation of her lover, who she killed when he refused to murder his wife to be with her. Yes, it’s complicated.

Our heroes, Cambridge professor Horace Holly and his adopted son Leo Vincey, travel to Africa in search of a lost civilization—and find it with Ayesha and her people. When Holly is ushered into her presence, she is veiled and warns him that the sight of her arouses both desire and fear. And this is so, for when she unveils herself, Holly falls to his knees before her, bespelled. Ayesha and her people live in the lost city of Kôr, a city of the people who predated the ancient Egyptians. Ayesha was born among the Arabs and studied the wisdom of the ancients to become a great sorceress.** In deepest Africa, She learned the secret of immortalization in the fiery Pillar of Life.

Ayesha is convinced that Holly’s adopted son is her reincarnated lover. She wants him to step into the Pillar of Life as she did so that he, too, can be immortalized. (Anybody getting Mummy movie vibes?) To prove to him it’s safe, Ayesha makes a fatal mistake, again walking into the burning Pillar herself. With her second exposure, her immortality is reversed and she dies—but with her last breath vows to return! Holly and Leo are freed from her deadly spell and hightail it home to England.

We do have some Isis-themed bits here: a powerful, Goddess-like magician, secret knowledge, immortality, love, sex—all in a lost city more ancient than ancient Egypt. In a sequel to She (of course there was a sequel)—Ayesha: the Return of She—Haggard tells us that Ayesha’s name is to be pronounced “AH-sha” which is slightly reminiscent of Isis’ name in late Egyptian: Ise or Ese. The sequels also include “an ancient sistrum” and a rock formation in the form of an ankh for some clear Egyptian ambiance. Haggard’s novel fits right in with the significant case of Egyptomania Europe was giddily undergoing at the time. Haggard himself was deeply interested in Egypt and wrote another novel, Morning Star, that was set in ancient Egypt and featured a strong-willed Egyptian queen as protagonist.

In an article I’m reading by Steve Vinson, he suggests that some aspects of She, may have come from the tale of Ahwere and the Magic Book, a tale you already know has Isis connections. You’ll find those here and here. In addition to the focus on magic and some name similarities in the two tales, the dramatic power and alluring beauty of Ayesha is similar to the power and allure of Tabubu in Ahwere’s story.

Ayesha steps into the fiery Pillar of Life

You might also remember Aithiopika, the ancient Greek novel by Heliodorus, that also has Egyptian and Isis connections. Re-read those here. Vinson notes those and other similarities as well. In both novels, there’s an adventure in Africa where the young protagonists discover their true identity. In the case of She, it is Holly’s adopted son Leo who finds out that he actually IS a descendant of Ayesha’s lover, Kallikrates. Kallikrates is Greek and married to the Egyptian Amenartas, a priestess of Isis. The power of Isis protects Amenartas from the wrath of Ayesha when Kallikrates refuses to kill her. Vinson notes some similarities between the stories of Kallikrates and Aithiopika‘s Isis priest Kalisiris, as well as quite a few plot points that indicate the influence of Aithiopika on She. But those mostly don’t concern Isis, so I won’t detail them.

Vinson also finds parallels in the portrayals of Ayesha and other strong female leaders in Haggards’ stories with the character of Isis Herself, as well as with the Isis-connected protagonists in these ancient Egyptian and Greek tales.

Ayesha and Kallikrates, illustration for *She* by Maurice Greiffenhagen, 1888; it’s all pretty Egyptian looking

Isis was, quite simply, the most well-known Egyptian Goddess in Haggard’s time, and with Her multi-facted nature, it would be hard not to be able to find almost any type of Isis you’d like—from kindly to avenging. Isis embodies sexual power, too; see here and here, though She is not generally portrayed as a Great Seductress. Haggard had to turn to Isis-connected characters like Tabubu and Rhodopis (a courtesan in Aithiopika) for that.

Isis looms large in the Victorian era, with its Woman Question and Egyptomania. Ancient stories like the ones we’re talking about intrigued readers and inspired writers like Haggard and others. Translations of Plutarch’s works, including On Isis and Osiris, made Isis’ story, and Her famous veil, more widely known, while Madame Blavatsky’s opus Isis Unveiled established Her in the occult world.

As far as Europe is concerned, I don’t think it’s too much to say that Isis served as THE prime example of Feminine Divinity during this period. What’s more, as a feminine Being with both power and authority, She served as an inspiration for the New Woman of first-wave feminism. Remember Margaret Fuller?

From the world of the sciences to the arts to the occult, Isis was strongly present. Scientists worked to draw aside Her veil to reveal the secrets of Nature. Artists and writers were inspired by and wrote about Isis and Egypt. Occult groups such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, incorporated Her prominently into their magical systems.

If any Goddess was THE Goddess in late-19th-early-20th-century Europe, it was Isis. Indeed, it would be surprising if Haggard’s Ayesha was not inspired by some aspects of the Goddess Who was so well known in his day.

*Ayesha or Aisha is also a wife of the Islamic prophet Mohammad and a well respected figure in Sunni Islam. The name Ayesha was very popular during the Ottoman Empire and it came to symbolize all-things-Arabian to 19th-century English readers. Many English novels and stories featured characters named Ayesha.

**I know. The math don’t quite math with Ayesha being over 2,000 years old and being born an Arab, but okay.

Isis & the Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Did you know that the famous tale of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice is an Isis story?

Yep. And She is in Her guise as Great Magician—and a teacher of magicians.

The version you may be familiar with is Disney’s retelling of the tale with Mickey as the apprentice from the animated movie Fantasia. Before that, it was popularized by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in a 14-stanza poem called Der Zauberlehrling.

But that’s not where it originates. The oldest-known version of this tale is from a 2nd-century CE book by Lucian of Samosatos, a Hellenized Syrian known for his satires, rhetoric, pamphlets—and his snarky style. His snark is on full display in his book of dialogs called Philopseudes, or “Lover of Lies,” in which we find the tale of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

The book begins with the character Tychiades asking why people are so fond of “lies.” (Tychiades means “son of Tyche;” Tyche is the Goddess of Fate and Fortune and She was assimilated with Isis in this time period; there is even an Isityche.) The lies to which he refers are the “superstitious” remedies people are suggesting for a mutual friend, Eukrates, who has fallen ill. This situation serves as a framing story for ten tales of magic and the miraculous that the gathered friends, many philosophers, tell in order to convince Tychiades that the supernatural is not a lie.

Lucian seems to have favored the tale of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice as he gave it the most space of any of the included ten tales, and he placed it last to serve as the climax of the entire book. This story Tychiades hears from Eukrates himself.

Eukrates explains that the events he is about to relate are his very own experiences and that when Tychiades hears him out, he will be persuaded of the truth of the tale.

Eukrates story takes place in Egypt, as many ancient tales of magic did. As a young man, Eukrates has been sent on the Grand Tour throughout the Mediterranean world by his father to further his education. He is traveling up the Nile on his way to Koptos, and from there he intends to travel to the Colossoi of Memnon. Ahh, but he never makes it there.

For during his Nile travels, he meets a learned Egyptian scribe. I’ll quote the book now, because this is the part where we find Isis.

“We happened to be accompanied on the voyage up the Nile by a man of Memphis, one of the sacred scribes. His wisdom was marvelous and he had had the full Egyptian training. It was said that he had lived underground for twenty-three years in crypts while being trained in magic by Isis.”

“You’re speaking of Pankrates,” said Arignotus, “He was my teacher: a holy man, always shaven, thoughtful, speaking his Greek with a heavy accent, long and thin, snub-nosed, with protruding lips and rather skinny legs.”

“Yes, that’s Pankrates!” he said. “At first I didn’t know who he was, but when I saw him performing all sorts of miracles every time we put to, most notably riding on crocodiles and swimming with the animals, whilst they fawned upon him and wagged their tails, I realized that he was a holy man, and by being nice to him I became a friend and comrade by gradual and imperceptible stages. As a result, he shared all his secrets with me. Eventually he persuaded me to leave all my servants behind in Memphis, and to accompany him, the two of us on our own. For, he explained, we would not want for attendants. This is how we lived thenceforth.”

And so we learn that the great holy man, Pankrates, was a fully trained Egyptian scribe magician—and trained by our Lady of Magic Herself. Thus, he is capable of all the classic Egyptian magician feats, from riding crocodiles to taming wild beasts. He could probably understand the language of animals, too.

As it turned out, it was quite true that Pankrates and Eukrates did not need any servants. For anytime a task needed doing, Pankrates would take a broom or pestle, bring it to life, and it would do the task perfectly. Interestingly, Eukrates notes that the transformed broom “would look human to everyone else;” something Disney left out because living brooms were way more fun to animate, no doubt.

Of course, the power to create magical servants (ushabtis?) was the power Eukrates most craved and it was the one thing Pankrates withheld. But one night, Eukrates eavesdropped on his master and overheard the first part of the incantation—the part that could turn a broom into a person. But he never learned the second part: how to turn the servant back into a broom.

You know the rest of the story. Water, water, everywhere.

In the end, the holy man returns, restores order, then promptly disappears—giving the hapless Eukrates no further information or instruction.

At the conclusion of his tale, one of Eukrates’ friends asks whether he can still conjure magical servants. Oh yes, indeed, Eukrates answers. But he still doesn’t have the off-button and so he’d wreck his home if he actually did the magic.

In an article I’m reading about this, the author compares the story of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice with a number of other magical tales. Some are Greek, some Egyptian. All share an Egyptian setting, an ambitious young man, a search for magical knowledge, a venerable magician-priest, and often a magical book. You can read about just such an Egyptian tale here and here.

The point he makes is that the Sorcerer’s Apprentice isn’t an outlier tale as some scholars of Lucian have long suggested. Instead, it fits well within a genre of Egyptian-magic-focused tales that were very popular at the time. This is also the time period during which the worship of Isis had spread widely throughout the Mediterranean world.

For me, the enduring popularity of this tale is just another example of the extremely significant influence ancient Egypt—and our Lady Isis (for Who else could be the Great Teacher of Magicians?)—had upon their neighbors.

More Epithets of Isis

*Parsifal* by Jean Delville, but it definitely gives ‘mysteries’

Most of you reading this blog are well aware of the many epithets of Isis, Our Lady of 10,000 Names. In general, epithets are descriptions attached to the Goddess’ name that help us know more about Her. Very often, you’ll see people note that epithets are especially important in Deity invocations because they help us tune into the specific aspect of Their natures that we wish to connect with.

And that’s true.

Yet, I like to think of epithets as little Mysteries.

Each epithet of the Goddess has the possibility of revealing to us a Mystery—something about Isis we might not have known, or might not have known as deeply. In a post a couple weeks ago, one of the things we learned from the ancient Greek novel Aitheopika was that initiates of Her Mysteries called Isis the Earth and Osiris the Nile. I would not be at all surprised to learn that the revealing of additional epithets of the Goddess was a regular part of Her—and other Deities’—Mysteries. A Mystery initiation gave you insider knowledge about the Mystery Deity. Discovering new aspects of the Goddess through additional names and epithets would be some pretty solid insider information.

You’ll find epithets of Isis scattered throughout this blog. For instance, here are names and epithets honoring Isis from all over the Mediterranean world. Here are some of Her secret names from the magical papyri. There are about two hundred of Isis’ epithets listed in the appendix in Isis Magic. And Offering to Isis includes several epithets appropriate to each of the offerings—sacred symbols of the Goddess—as part of the invocation offerings.

Today, I’d like to share a few more epithets of Isis, some of which may be new to you. If you’d like to delve into the little Mysteries of these epithets for yourself, try this: Pick out a few that call to you. Open your shrine or temple in whatever manner you usually do. Invoke Isis using the epithet you chose. You can sing or chant the epithet as you call out to Her. When you sense Her presence, ask Her to reveal to you some of the Mysteries of that epithet. Then open your heart, open yourself, as you experience/intuit what She communicates to you. (Even better, jot down the things that come to your mind about that epithet for later reference. Visionary work sometimes fades rather quickly.)

In no particular order, here are some epithets of our Goddess from various parts of Egypt:

Isis, She Who Loves the Red Cloth; Iset Meret Ines—this epithet of Isis is found at Dendara. Interestingly enough, in representations of Isis, red is the most common color of Her clothing. The famous Knot of Isis is also usually made of red stone or painted red—and it may be meant to represent a knot tied in cloth. The ancient Egyptians associated red with fire, blood, and the sun. It could be a color of destructive power and associated with anger as well. We are used to Sakhmet being associated with red, but it turns out Isis is a Red Goddess, too.

Isis the Great Golden One; Iset Nebut Weret—while we are familiar with Isis being called, like Hathor, the Golden One, here She is the Great Golden One, an epithet She shares only with the Creator Goddess Neith. Gold is associated with the sun and Divinity. What does it mean that She is not only the Golden One, but the Great Golden One?

Isis, She of the Beautiful/Good/Perfect Face in the Barque of Eternity; Iset Noferet Hor em Wia Heh—the Barque of Eternity if the boat that travels into the Otherworld, both the underworld and the heavens. What does it mean that Isis is the beautiful-good-perfect face in that holy boat?

Isis the Lady of Awfulness; Iset Nebet Neru—this is the literal meaning of awful, as in “full of awe,” but also a designation of Her great, and sometimes scary, power. See more about this one here.

Isis the Great One in the Beginning; Iset Weret em Hat—this epithet is from Her temple at Philae and is another epithet Isis shares only with the Creator Goddess Neith. This is Isis as a Primeval Goddess, the First Goddess. Similarly, She is called the Great Goddess “of the coming into being” and is the Great Goddess “in the First Time,” the Zep Tepi. We also have inscriptions calling Isis Sha’et, “She Who Was First,” from a number of places, including Philae, Dendara, and Edfu.

Isis the Great in the Place of Her Heart; Iset Weret em Set Ib-Es—this one is from the Horus temple at Edfu. What do you think ‘the place of Her heart’ is?

Isis, Her Years are Eternity and Everlastingness; Iset, Renput-s Neheh Djet—learn more about Neheh and Djet here and here.

Isis the Perfect Musician; Iset Khunet Noferet—from Dendara. Isis is also called “the Musician of the Spoken Words” and the Shemayet, the “Chantress.” The Chantress was a high-ranking priestess in ancient Egypt. Read more about AE priestesses and the Chantress here.

Isis and the pharaoh raising the djed pillar

Isis, She Who Makes Shadow with Her Feathers; Iset Iret Shut em Shuut-Es—from a stele now in the Louvre. We know about Her wing symbolism, but what about the shadow of Her wings?

Isis the Djed Pillar; Iset Djedet—now isn’t this interesting? Osiris is usually associated with the djed pillar. But here we have Isis as the female djed pillar. The djed represents stability, so that is likely the meaning here: Isis is strong, stable, dependable.

On the other hand, She also personifies Her own symbol, and is called Isis the Excellent Isis Knot (Iset Tiet Menkhet)…for Isis is All Things and All Things are Isis.

There are so many more, but that’s enough for now.

If, in your connections with Isis, you discover any of the Mysteries of these epithets, I hope you’ll share them here, on Facebook, or on BlueSky.

Syncretism & Isis

The worship of Isis is one of the most important examples of religious syncretism in the world. Whenever the topic of syncretism arises, you will inevitably find a discussion of Isis included.

When it comes to religion, talking about syncretism often centers on whether it is a good thing or a bad thing.

But maybe, syncretism just is—unless a culture or religion is completely isolated. Because anytime peoples and cultures and religions encounter each other, there has always been—among at least some of those peoples and cultures and religions—some form of syncretism.

The Isis keystone on the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

And yes, of course, you’re right; it’s time for a definition. So, what is syncretism?

When we look at the various definitions, we see that it is usually said to be the combining, attempting to unify, assimilating, blending, fusing, reconciling, harmonizing, mixing, and other similar terms, the various aspects of two or more religions or Deities. Sometimes, religious syncretism is called theocrasia, Greek for “God-mixing.”

At the time of the rise in the popularity of the worship of Isis, interchanges between Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures— trade, technologies, philosophies, and yes, spiritualities—were also flourishing.

The influence of those cultures upon each other is often given as a primary example of syncretism on a broader scale. The ancient Egyptian city of Alexandria is an example of a highly syncretic—or we might say, multicultural or diverse—city. Christianity, also developing at about the same time as the spread of Isis’ worship, is another example of a syncretic worship, both in its origins and in its much later expressions, as it absorbed and transformed many of the Pagan traditions it encountered, forcibly or not.

Those who consider religious syncretism bad generally point to a “watering down” of the original tradition; there is also a legitimate concern with appropriation. Those who say religious syncretism is good generally associate it with positive innovation in religion rather than corruption. Others suggest that we retire the term entirely, because this kind of mixing is simply inevitable. Yet others prefer to retain the term since studying how it happens is valuable in researching the development of many of the world’s religions.

Interestingly, it may have been the Greek priest Plutarch—who wrote down a Greek narrative version of the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris—who coined the term syncretism. He used it to describe how the various Cretan tribes came together as one when faced with external threats. So, for him, it was positive mixing toward a greater good for Crete.

Isis of Coptos, wearing the Horns & Disk crown associated with Hathor

Syncretism was one of the ways Isis gained many of Her 10,000 names. Yet this all started within Egypt itself.

Those of you who have been following along with this blog already know how the Egyptian Deities are liable, at most any time, to morph into each other, to combine with each other, or to appear as each other. It is—as I have said so many times that you’re tired of reading it—one of my favorite things about the ancient Egyptian conception of the Divine. It is fluid. It can change. It can show Itself to us in myriad forms. For me, this fluidity is a genuine reflection of the Divine nature.

Egyptian combinations of Deities could demonstrate similarity: Isis-Hathor. Another might enable a Deity to express power in a specific way: Isis-Sakhmet. Mostly, in Egypt, Goddesses could flow only into other Goddesses, Gods into other Gods. Isis is unusual in that She could combine with Gods as well. We find an Isis-Anubis in the later mythological texts, as well as an Isis-Horus.

An image of Demeter, but with the tiny horns of Isis-Io upon Her forehead

In this way, Isis could be almost any other Egyptian Goddess as well as some Gods. We discover many of Her names in the Oxyrhynchus hymn, which gives us Her names and epithets, first within Egypt, then throughout the Mediterranean.

Outside of Egypt, one of the first important Deities Isis is syncretized with is the Greek Great Goddess Demeter. This went as far back as the 5th century BCE when the historian Herodotus declared that Isis IS Demeter and that Isis and Osiris were the only Deities worshiped throughout all of Egypt. (This wasn’t strictly true, but that was his impression.)

The Isis myth, as recorded and interpreted by Plutarch, gives us the perfect example of a syncretic myth.

As Plutarch tells it, the wanderings of Isis include episodes similar to those in Demeter’s story of wandering in search of Persephone. Like Demeter, Isis (in disguise as a human woman) weeps at a spring (in Demeter’s case, a well) and is invited into the royal house to be the nurse of a royal infant. At night, She tempers the child in a fire, making him immortal.

One night, the queen sees this process and, quite understandably, screams bloody murder, thus interrupting the magic and prohibiting her child from gaining immortality.

But let’s go one step further into this particular syncretism. Some Egyptologists believe that this “burning baby” episode may actually have originated in Egypt—with what they call the “burning Horus” formula—and from there it was imported into Demeter’s myth. So, in this case, both cultures were inspired by the other and each added a detail from the other Great Goddess’ myth to their own story.

There are numerous images that show Isis combined with Goddesses other than Demeter from throughout the Mediterranean region. We find Isis-Aphrodite, Isis-Astarte, Isis-Selene, Isis-Sophia, Isis-Artemis, Isis-Rhea, Isis-Fortuna, and many more. Just as She had within Egypt, now Isis flowed into Goddesses far beyond Egypt. So much so that She eventually became THE Goddess to many people, both within and without Her native land.

The human pathos of Isis’ story, Her fierceness in defending both Her husband and Her child, Her powers of resurrection and rebirth, and the magic that always clings to Isis like a potent perfume—all contributed to the spread of Her religion in the Greco-Roman world. People saw Her in their own Goddesses and they saw their own Goddesses in Her, eventually adopting Her as their own. Syncretism.

For today, I’d like to leave you with a syncretic hymn to Isis. It is one of four written in Greek and carved on the temple of Isis-Hermouthis (Hermouthis is a Hellenized form of the Cobra Goddess Renenutet) in the Egyptian Faiyum, where She was paired with the Crocodile God Sobek. The hymn was written by a man named Isidorus; judging by his name, he was at least a devotee. He may have been a native Egyptian who was either given or adopted a Greek name. Some researchers even think he could have been a priest of Isis, but we just don’t know.

Here is one of his four Faiyum hymns to Isis:

O wealth-giver, Queen of the Gods, Hermouthis, Lady,
Omnipotent Agathē Tychē [“Good Fortune”], greatly renowned Isis,
Dēo, highest Discoverer [generally, this means “creator”] of All Life,
Manifold miracles were Your care that You might bring livelihood to mankind and morality to all.

You taught customs that justice might in some measure prevail;
You gave skills that men’s life might be comfortable,
And You discovered the blossoms that produce edible vegetation.
Because of You, heaven and the whole earth have their being; and the gusts of the winds and the sun with its sweet light.

By Your power the channels of Nile are filled, every one,
At the harvest season and its most turbulent water is poured
On the whole land that produce may be unfailing.
All mortals who live on the boundless earth,
Thracians, Greeks, and Barbarians,
Express Your fair Name, a Name greatly honored among all, but
Each speaks in his own language, in his own land.

The Syrians call You: Astarte, Artemis, Nanaia [Mesopotamian Love Goddess closely associated with Inanna];
The Lycian tribes call You: Leto, the Lady;
The Thracians also name You as Mother of the Gods;
And the Greeks call You Hera of the Great Throne, Aphrodite,
Hestia the Goodly, Rheia and Demeter.
But the Egyptians call You Thiouis [from Egyptian Ta Uaet, “the Only One”] because they know that You, being One, are all other Goddesses Invoked by the races of men.

Mighty One, I shall not cease to sing of Your great Power.
Deathless Savior, many-named, mightiest Isis,
Saving from war cities and all their citizens: men, their wives, possessions, and children.
As many as are bound fast in prison, in the power of death;
As many as are in pain through long, anguished, sleepless nights,
All who are wanderers in a foreign land,
And as many as sail on the Great Sea in winter
When men may be destroyed and their ships wrecked and sunk,
All these are saved if they pray that You be present to help.

Hear my prayers, O One whose Name has great Power; prove Yourself merciful to me and free me from all distress. —Isidorus wrote it*

If you would like to hear a poetic and profound piece on syncretic Deities, I invite you to listen to this episode of the wonderful podcast The Emerald: Let Us Sing of Syncretic Gods, of Outcasts and Wanderers. Yes, of course, Isis is mentioned.

*Translation from Vera Vanderlip, The Four Greek Hymns of Isidorus & the Cult of Isis.

The Magical Hair of Isis

We are not immune to the charms of a beautiful head of hair—and the ancient Egyptians weren’t either.

But they took appreciation for hair, especially feminine hair, to a whole new level of magnitude. For them, hair was magical. And, of course, Who would have the most magical hair of all? The Goddess of Magic: Isis Herself.

A beautiful woman with beautiful hair — The charm of beautiful hair

I have always understood that the long hair of Isis in Egyptian tradition—disarrayed and covering Her face in mourning or falling in heavy, dark locks over Her shoulders—to be the predecessor of the famous Veil of Isis of later tradition. Ah, but there is so much more.

In ancient Egypt, it was a mourning custom for Egyptian women to dishevel their hair. They wore it long and unkempt, letting it fall across their tear-stained faces, blinding them in sympathy with the blindness first experienced by the dead. As the Ultimate Divine Mourner, this was particularly true of Isis. At Koptos, where Isis was notably worshipped as a Mourning Goddess, a healing prayer made “near the hair at Koptos” is recorded. Scholars consider this a reference to Mourning Isis with Her disheveled and powerfully magical hair.

Mourners use various mourning gestures and dishevel their hair

It is in Her disheveled, mourning state, that Isis finally finds Osiris. She reassembles Him, fans life into Him, and makes love with Him. As She mounts His prone form, Her long hair falls over Their faces, concealing Them like a veil and providing at least some perceived privacy for Their final lovemaking. As the Goddess and God make love, the meaning of Isis’ hair turns from death to life. It becomes sexy—remember those big-haired “paddle doll” fertility symbols?

A mourning woman with her hair over her face from the tomb of Minnakht

This pairing of love and death is both natural and eternal. How many stories have you heard—or perhaps you have a personal one—about couples making love after a funeral? It’s so common that it’s cliché. But it makes perfect sense: in the face of death, we human beings must affirm life. We do so through the mutual pleasure of sex and, for some couples, the possibility of engendering new life that sex provides. The lovemaking of Isis and Osiris is the ultimate expression of this. Chapter 17 of the Book of Coming Forth by Day (aka the Book of the Dead), describes the disheveled hair of Isis when She comes to Osiris:

“I am Isis, you found me when I had my hair disordered over my face, and my crown was disheveled. I have conceived as Isis, I have procreated as Nephthys.” (Chapter 17; translation by Rosa Valdesogo Martín, who has extensively studied the connection of hair to funerary customs in ancient Egypt.)

There is also a variant of this chapter that has Isis apparently straightening up Her “bed head” following lovemaking:

“Isis dispels my bothers (?) [The Allen translation has “Isis does away with my guard; Nephthys puts an end to my troubles.]. My crown is disheveled; Isis has been over her secret, she has stood up and has cleaned her hair.” (Chapter 17 variant, translation by Martín, above.)

This lovemaking of Goddess and God has cosmic implications for its result is a powerful and important new life: Horus. As the new pharaoh, Horus restores order to both kingdom and cosmos following the chaos brought on by the death of the old pharaoh, Osiris.

Not only is hair symbolic of the blindness of death and the new life of lovemaking; the hair of the Goddesses is actually part of the magic of rebirth. Isis and Her sister, Nephthys, are specifically called the Two Long Haired Ones. The long hair of the Goddesses is associated with the knotting, tying, wrapping, weaving, knitting, and general assembling necessary to bring about the great Mystery of rebirth. Hair-like threads of magic are woven about the deceased who has returned to the womb of the Great Mother. The Coffin Texts give the name of part of the sacred boat of the deceased (itself a symbolic womb) as the Braided Tress of Isis.

Mourners, probably Isis and Nephthys, throw Their hair over the Osiris

In some Egyptian iconography, we see mourning women, as well as the Goddesses Isis and Nephthys, with hair thrown forward in what is known as the nwn gesture. Sometimes they/They actually pull a lock of hair forward, especially toward the deceased, which is called the nwn m gesture. It may be that this gesture, especially when done by Goddesses, is meant to transfer new life to the deceased, just as Isis’ bed-head hair brought new life to Osiris. It is interesting to note that the Egyptians called vegetation “the hair of the earth” and that bare land was called “bald” land, which simply reiterates the idea of hair is an expression of life.

Spell 562 of the Coffin Texts notes the ability of the hair of Isis and Nephthys to unite things, saying that the hair of the Goddesses is knotted together and that the deceased wishes to “be joined to the Two Sisters and be merged in the Two Sisters, for they will never die.”

Isis and Nephthys pull a lock of hair toward the deceased

The Pyramid Texts instruct the resurrected dead to loosen their bonds, “for they are not bonds, they are the tresses of Nephthys.” Thus the magical hair of the Goddesses is only an illusory bond. Their hair is not a bond of restraint but rather the bonding agent needed for rebirth. Like the placenta that contains and feeds the child but is no longer necessary when the child is born, the reborn one throws off the tresses of the Goddesses that had previously wrapped her or him in safety.

The Egyptian idea of Isis as the Long-Haired One carried over into Her later Roman cult, too. In Apuleius’ account of the Mysteries of Isis, he describes the Goddess as having long and beautiful hair. Her statues often show Her with long hair, and Her priestesses were known to wear their hair long in honor of their Goddess.

This is sketched from a coffin from Gebelein, 13th dynasty where either a long-haired female image or a long-haired female is spreading her hair over the deceased.

This little bit of research has inspired me to want experiment with the magic of hair in ritual. In Isis Magic, the binding and unbinding of the hair is part of the “Lamentations of Isis” rite (where it is very powerful, I can tell you from experience), but I want to try using it in some solitary ritual, too. I have longish hair, so that will work, but if you don’t and are, like me, inspired to experiment, try using a veil. It is most certainly in Her tradition. (See “Veil” in my Offering to Isis.)

If you want to learn more about the traditions around hair and death, please visit Rosa Valdesogo Martín’s amazing and extensive site here. That’s where most of these images come from…many of which I had not seen before. Thank you, Rosa!

I have her book on the subject on order, but the publisher has postponed its release several times. Here’s hoping it arrives sometime soonish.

The Goddess of Willendorf

In Search of the Feminine Divine