Category Archives: Moon Goddess

Is Isis a Moon Goddess?

Last night, we held our All-Hallows Eve rite (a bit early, I know). As we welcomed our Honored Dead in the presence of the Dark Ones, many of us were very aware of the bright moon shining above, just two days past a full Hunters’ Moon.

The moon, the moon, the moon. And I am thinking now of the moon and Our Lady Isis.

When we first encounter Isis, we often first discover Her as a lunar Goddess, a Goddess of the Moon. But is She?

A lovely lunar Isis; you can purchase a copy of your own here

Well, that really kind of depends on when you ask.

If we’re asking for today, for now, then yes, She is. And She has been for more than a millennium. But She took a rather circuitous route to get there. So let’s follow that trail a bit and see how it happened.

Early in Egyptian history, Isis was firmly associated with the heavens—with the star Sirius in particular, and with the sun, too—but She was not considered a Moon Goddess.

Moon Gods were the norm for Egypt—Iah, Thoth, Khonsu, and Osiris are among the most prominent and the moon’s phases were quite important to the ancient Egyptians. Scholars generally agree that the first Egyptian calendars, like those of so many ancient people, were lunar based. The temples marked the moon’s changes and especially celebrated its waxing and full phases. But the face the Egyptians saw in the moon was masculine rather than feminine.

The horns of the Moon Goddess rising

For example, the waning and waxing of the moon could be associated with the wounding and healing of the Eye of Horus. So, perhaps we can think of Isis as the Mother of the Moon. Indeed, She was called “Isis, Who Creates the Moon Eye of Horus by Her Heart.” In some myths, Isis is the one Who heals Horus’ Eye, in others, it is Thoth or Hathor and we see this reflected in Isis’ epithet as She “Who Heals the Left Eye.”

By the time of the New Kingdom, the beloved of Isis, Osiris, becomes prominent as a lunar God. We have a number of examples of statuettes of Osiris-Iah—Osiris assimilated with Iah, a Moon God—or simply as Osiris the Moon. So in this case, Isis is married to the Moon. But She’s not really a Moon Goddess Herself.

On the other hand, the Greeks and the Romans were all about the Moon Goddess. In fact, the moon itself was simply called “the Goddess.” People spoke of doing something “when the Goddess rises.” They would kiss their hands, extending them toward the rising moon, “to greet the Goddess.” Magical texts give instructions for performing a certain ritual “on the first of the Goddess,” meaning at the new moon. When they saw Isis with Her horns-and-disk crown, they saw a Moon Goddess.

The lunar Eye of Horus

And because we have so much information about Isis from these Moon Goddess-loving people, today when many people think of Isis, the moon is one of the first things they associate with Her. Yet, interestingly, it seems to have been a third century BCE Egyptian priest named Manetho who first connected Isis with the moon. By the following century, when Plutarch recorded the most complete version of the Isis-Osiris myth we have, the tradition of Isis as a Goddess of the Moon was firmly established—even in Egypt.

Of course, it was easy to associate the fertility-bringing moon with the fertile Mother Isis. The ancient world also associated love affairs with the moon (the romance of moonlight, you know) and, in Her passion for Osiris, Isis was a famous lover.

A Roman Isis with lunar crescent

Of course, the moon and the obscuring darkness of night were connected with magic, too—and Isis was one of Egypt’s Mightiest Magicians from the beginning. She was called Lady of the Night. One Egyptian story told how a particular magical scroll—which the tale calls a “mystery of the Goddess Isis”—was discovered when a moonbeam fell upon its hiding place, enabling a lector priest in Isis’ temple to find it.

Today, we also connect the moon with emotions, the deep, the waters, the feminine (taking our cue from the ancient Greeks and Romans), the home, Mystery, and change (to name but a few). And Isis can definitely be associated with all of these things—from the emotional passion of Her myths to Her ancient Mysteries and Her enduring role as the Goddess of Regeneration and Transformation.

This beautiful lunar Isis is by Reinhard Schmid. You can see his work here

So is Isis a Moon Goddess? She certainly has been for a very, very long time. Whether we choose to honor Her in this form has more to do with us than with Her. Many contemporary Pagans will probably be quite comfortable working with Isis as a Moon Goddess; a strict Kemetic Reconstructionist, not so much. But Isis is a Great Goddess; She is All, and so, for me, She is unquestionably to be found in the deep and holy Mysteries of the Moon.

And yet, and just for myself, while I do find Her in the moon, I resonate most strongly with Isis of the Stars and Isis of the Eternities of Space and Isis the Radiant Sun Goddess. Nevertheless, I still feel the call to explore Her important lunar aspects. What about you?

Is Isis a Moon Goddess or Sun Goddess?

Isis as a Lunar Goddess by artist Mikewildt. Visit him on Deviant Art here.

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.
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.

Isis, Osiris & the Rites of Spring

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 in the 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.

Is Isis a Moon Goddess or a Sun Goddess?

A lovely painting of a lunar Isis by artist Katana Leigh. Visit her site here.
A lovely painting of a lunar Isis by artist Katana Leigh. Visit her site here.

As we fast approach the time when Night and Day, Moon and Sun come into a brief and beautiful balance, I’d like to share this post about Isis’ lunar and solar natures.

Modern Pagans often 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. The Isis-Moon connection 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.

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).

Phoenix by the famous illustrator Boris Vallejo; looks like a rather Isiac phoenix to me!
Phoenix by the famous illustrator Boris Vallejo; looks like a rather Isiac phoenix to me!

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.
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 worshipped 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.” (I absolutely adore this praise of Her!)

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. O how I would love to have seen that.

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.

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.”

Throughout Her worship, Isis has always shown Her life giving, fructifying power in the image of the Sun. She is the Radiant Goddess, the Lady of Sunlight.

Now enjoy this lovely animation of Isis birthing the Sun by Lesley Keen:

Is Isis a Moon Goddess?

Will you be able to see the lunar eclipse and “blood moon” tomorrow? Sadly, it looks like it’s going to be a cloudy sky for me, but I hope you will have better viewing conditions. (For a good explanation of the science, visit here.) With the moon in high focus right now, let’s look at Isis’ association with the moon.

So…is Isis a Moon Goddess?

Well, it depends on when you ask.

Early in Egyptian history, Isis was firmly associated with the heavens—with the star Sirius in particular, and even with the sun—but She was not considered a Moon Goddess.

The horns of the Moon Goddess rising

Moon Gods were the norm for Egypt—Iah, Thoth, Khonsu, and Osiris are among the most prominent and the moon’s phases were quite important to the ancient Egyptians. Scholars generally agree that the first Egyptian calendars, like those of so many ancient people, were lunar based. The temples marked the moon’s changes and especially celebrated its waxing and full phases. But the face the Egyptians saw in the moon was masculine rather than feminine.

The lunar Eye of Horus

For example, the waning and waxing of the moon could be associated with the wounding and healing of the Eye of Horus. And so, we can perhaps think of Isis as the Mother of the Moon. In some myths, Isis is the one Who heals Horus’ Eye, in others, it is Thoth or Hathor. By the time of the New Kingdom, the beloved of Isis, Osiris, becomes prominent as a lunar God. We have a number of examples of statuettes of Osiris-Iah—Osiris assimilated with Iah, a Moon God—or simply as Osiris the Moon. So in this case, Isis is married to the Moon. But She’s not really a Moon Goddess Herself.

On the other hand, the Greeks and the Romans were all about the Moon Goddess. In fact, the moon itself was simply called “the Goddess.” People spoke of doing something “when the Goddess rises.” They would kiss their hands, extending them toward the rising moon, “to greet the Goddess.” Magical texts give instructions for performing a certain working “on the first of the Goddess,” meaning at the new moon. When they saw Isis with Her horns-and-disk crown, they saw a Moon Goddess.

A Roman Isis with lunar crescent

And because we have so much information about Isis from these Moon Goddess-loving people, today when many people think of Isis, the moon is one of the first things they associate with Her. Yet, interestingly, it seems to have been a third century BCE Egyptian priest named Manetho who first connected Isis with the moon. By the following century, when Plutarch recorded the most complete version of the Isis-Osiris myth we have, the tradition of Isis as a Goddess of the Moon was firmly established—even in Egypt.

Of course, it was easy to associate the fertility-bringing moon with the fertile Mother Isis. The ancient world also associated love affairs with the moon (the romance of moonlight, you know) and, in Her passion for Osiris, Isis was a famous lover. Of course, the moon and the obscuring darkness of night were connected with magic, too—and Isis was one of Egypt’s Mightiest Magicians from the beginning. One Egyptian story told how a particular magical scroll—which the tale calls a “mystery of the Goddess Isis”—was discovered when a moonbeam fell upon its hiding place, enabling a lector priest in Isis’ temple to find it.

This beautiful lunar Isis is by Reinhard Schmid. You can see his work here.

Today, we also connect the moon with emotions, the deep, the waters, the feminine (taking our cue from the ancient Greeks and Romans, no doubt), the home, Mystery, and change (to name but a few). And Isis can definitely be associated with all of these things—from the emotional passion of Her myths to Her ancient Mysteries and Her enduring role as the Goddess of Regeneration and Transformation.

So is Isis a Moon Goddess? She certainly has been for millennia. Whether we choose to honor Her in this form has more to do with us than with Her. A modern NeoPagan will probably be quite comfortable working with Isis as a Moon Goddess; a Kemetic Reconstructionist, not so much. But Isis is a Great Goddess; She is All, and so She is unquestionably to be found in the deep and holy Mysteries of the Moon.

For myself, while I do find Her in the moon, I resonate more strongly with Isis of the Stars and Isis of the Eternities of Space and Isis the Radiant Sun Goddess. Nevertheless, I feel called to explore this aspect of Her. What about you?