All contents (unless otherwise noted) are copyright Desirée Isphording 2004, 2005 and may not be copied, modified, or distributed without prior express permission.
"Isis" is the Latinized name of the Egyptian Goddess known as Eset or Ast or Aset (which is represented in hieroglyphs by the phonetic sign for "throne"). I am choosing to utilize "Isis" rather than the technically more accurate "Aset" in this essay because that is how many people refer to Her in Her supposedly Egyptian form. Many Kemetics, Ancient Egyptian Reconstructionists, and other Egyptian-inspired Pagans consider Aset and Isis to be distinct but related Deities, the latter being more of a Greco-Roman construction than a native Egyptian one. However, I am writing this essay with a more general Pagan and New Age audience in mind, and many of those individuals do not acknowledge such a distinction and/or still identify Aset, the Egyptian Isis, with Her Greco-Roman attributes. This essay is intended to draw attention to the shadow side of Isis which has been virtually neglected by many of the works of Neo-Pagans with which I have come in contact.
The Goddess Isis has been revered in varying forms since practically the dawn of history, and now Her worship is again being revived by modern Pagans. In pre-dynastic Egypt, Isis was worshipped as an independent Deity in the city of Sebennytos prior to being incorperated into the Osirian myths, and Her worship continued in Egypt on the island of Philae into the sixth century AD, which was well into the Christian era. She became highly popular with the Greeks and Romans who discovered Her when they acquired Egypt as part of their expansive empires. As Her cult grew, it "eventually spread beyond Egypt, to Syria, Palestine, Greece, and throughout the whole Roman Empire."1 She absorbed man of the attributes of other Goddesses, much like the Egyptian God Amen before Her absorbed the roles and powers of other Gods. In this process, Isis became an almost Universal Goddess figure - the Celestial Queen of Gods and men.
Since the New Kingdom, but particularly in the first century BC, she increasingly assumed positions and functions formerly associated with Hathor, so that far beyond Egypt's boundaries she eventually becomes the "goddess of all goddesses." 2Her specific traits as an Egyptian Goddess, which even before Her journey across the Mediterranean were already changing, and the shadowy aspect of Her nature dulled and finally washed away as She evolved into a Goddess of Many Names. It is as a Goddess of Myriad Names and Faces that most now know Her, and She has come to be viewed in equally as general terms as the Wiccan Goddess can be. Yet She is much more than even the benificent Goddess of which all other Goddesses are aspects. This Universal Isis lacks depth and form because She has been deprived of the Dark aspect the original Isis possessed. It is time to acknowledge Her role as a Dark Goddess.
Isis is generally depicted as the quintessential mother Goddess: kind, compassionate, loving, and always benevolent. Most popular New Age and even Pagan resources only present Isis as the Egyptian equivalent of the Catholic Mary.3 The perception of Isis as a mother Goddess is indeed valid, but although some might find evidence to support the idea that She is the perpetual Deity of light and love, this hardly even begins to either define or classify Isis. To catagorize Her as the typical mother Goddess would be to tell half the story.
It is often forgotten that nurturing is not the only aspect of being a mother. When describing the mother aspect of the Goddess (Isis included - ) Pagans generally focus on Her as a gentle caretaker, rarely is the mother's role of protecting Her children recognized. For the purpose of protecting offspring, a strength and ferociousness is required that is normally not associated with the mother aspect of the Goddess.
The Egyptians could be assured of Her capacity to be aggressive and downright ruthless in the protection of Her loved ones through myth. Upon the untimely death of Osiris, the sovereignty of Egypt was to be held by his brother (and murderer) Set to whom it would be given because Osiris had no known male heirs. However, Isis animated the corpse of Osiris and conceived Horus (a.k.a. Horus the Younger, Hor-sa-Aset, Harpokrates, etc.). It was not long before Set discovered that Isis had a child and that there was a potential threat to His position as pharaoh, and once He found out He devised all manner of plans to rid Himself of Horus. While still a small child, Horus was bitten by Set in the form of a poisonous snake, and in Her grief and anger over the state of Her son, Isis literally halted the sun's passage through the sky. This caused abysmal darkness to fall on Egypt, and the life of the entire planet was endangered until a cure for the poison was found. As Horus grew, the feud between uncle and nephew deepened until the other Gods had to intervene in order to solve the matter without excessive destruction. At one point, due to the savagery of fighting Isis did on Her son's behalf (this included spearing Her own brother Set while He was in the form of a hippopotamus), the Gods refused to admit Her onto an island where the Divine tribunal agreed to meet to settle the matter of Egypt's rulership. Determined to defend Her son at any cost, She disguised Herself as an old woman so that the ferryman would allow Her passage onto the island. When She got there, She took the form of a seductive young woman to catch Set's attention. She told Set that she was the widow of a cowherd, and that a stanger had come and usurped the inheritance Her husband left despite the fect that She had born the cowherd a son, who would be the rightful heir. Set was taken by the story of the attractive woman and declared that Her son should receive his rightful inheritance, thus condemning Himself for stealing the rightful inheritance of Horus. Isis then transformed into a kite (some say a vulture) and yelled "You have judged yourself with your own words!"
In nature the mother's role as defender and guardian of new life is manifested in the very biological traits the possesses, for in much of the animal kingdom the female is comparitively larger than the male. This observation is especially true of diurnal raptors, birds of prey that are primarily active during the daylight hours, because "in almost all species, females are larger than males - noticeably so in some species."4 The Goddess Isis was commonly known to appear as a kite, a raptor that closely resembles a falcon. After reassembling the dismembered corpse of Osiris which had been scattered throughout Egypt by Set, Isis took the form of a kite and gave the breath of life to Her husband/brother with the great sweep of Her wings. It was also in this form that Isis conceived Horus once She revived Osiris. She is frequently shown in both fully kite form as well as in human form with the wings of a kite. The winged Isis along with a winged Nephthys, Selket (Serket), and Neith are poised at each of the four corners of many a sarcophagi and canopic chest in order to guard the bodily remains of the deceased, which in Egyptian funerary belief holds the key to a pleasant afterlife. Thus represented on such containers, Isis' protective qualities are invoked for eternity.
Isis is, in fact, a mother Goddess, but Her scope extends furthur than the common vision of what a mother Goddess should be to include insidious cleverness and righteous anger.
Isis' more intense, darker side can also be highlighted in Her status as the Mistress of Magic, the Great Enchantess, and the magic implied in this case does not involve visualizing white light or harmonizing chakras. Egyptian myth actually reveals that Isis was once mortal woman albeit with significant magical ability (heka) since She was instructed by the God Thoth in the ways of magic. The myth continues furthur saying that Isis was not content with the sphere of mankind and sought a position among the Gods. In this distant past, the sun God Ra regurlarly roamed the earth to admire His own craftsmanship and to enjoy the beauty of His creation. Using Ra's own spittle and some soil, Isis molded a poisonous snake and placed it on the ground near a road Ra was known to frequent. Ra was bitten by this snake as He strode through Egypt, and as a result He became quite ill. He called upon all of the Gods to find a cure for the pain which flowed thourgh His body like liquid flame and crippled Him, but They did not succeed. With the situation becoming ever more critical, Isis finally came forward and assured Ra that She was capable of healing Him. For such healing to take place, however, She required the knowledge of Ra's secret name, which was none other than the closely guarded key to His true power. At first Ra hesitated and told Isis that He was "Kheperi in the morning, Ra at noon, and Atum in the evening," but as the poison coursed with even greater intensity through His limbs, He yielded. Thus Isis obtained the knowledge of Ra's secret name, relieved Ra of His anguish, and claimed Her status as a Goddess.
Such devious cunning, brazen tenacity, and potent energy are traits hardly emanated from the Isis that is generally portrayed - soft, gentle, and with a slight smile on Her lips. Egyptian myth illustrates that She most certainly has a darker, more powerful aspect, and this is the aspect that completes Her.
2) Görg, Manfred. "Gods and Deities." Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs. Regina Schulz, Matthias Seidel ed. Cologne, Germany: Könemann, 1998. 438 - 39.
3) Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. 2nd edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 2002. 529.
In fact, it is widely held that Christian images of the Virgin and Child were directly inspired by the many Egyptian representations of Isis with Her son Horus seated on Her lap (especially those created in the Late and Greco-Roman periods of Egyptian history). The specific type of image of Mary holding the infant Jesus came to be called the "Throne of Wisdom," which became popular during the Romanesque period, and within Christian iconography Mary came to be regarded as the figurative throne by which Christ anchors His majesty on earth. This Christian idea can also be linked to Isis since the Egyptian word for "throne" is used to render Her name and since Egypt's own pharaohs were often shown seated in Isis' lap or suckling from Her breast as a way to anchor the king's reign as Divinely approved.
4) Clark, William S., and Brian K. Wheeler. Peterson Field Guides: Hawks. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1987. 6.
All contents (unless otherwise noted) are copyright Desirée Isphording 2004, 2005 and may not be copied, modified, or distributed without prior express permission.