Climax

Climax ~ Create a More Pure Love   

Original painting by
J.G. Bertrand 

Poetry by
Becca Tzigany

CLIMAX – CREATE A MORE PURE LOVE

by Becca Tzigany

Shining stars who fell to Earth
……And into dream
Circling hawk blinks his eyes shut
Incarnadine

Thus myths unfurled
In every direction
Cloaking the world
In prismatic reflections

But now we wake up!
The hawk opens his eyes
What do his talons clutch so fiercely?
We release our grip
and let it go.

As we recant the Dominator Doctrine
We survey the fields we have trekked . . .
Look at the walking wounded!
Count the bodies of the dead:

There – Mars who craved the taste of blood
And Mary who suffered her tears
Of unproven guilt and loss and shame
And Set who acted from fear

Clawing battle of brother ‘gainst brother
And the frustrated longing of lovers

Look at all that’s died within us!
Look at what has passed away!

With this breath in, we are resurrected
With this breath out, we open our eyes

Beholding Purity’s truth
Ignites in us the Real

The angry, wounded Man
Surrenders to be healed.

As he relinquishes control,
He – and us – are made whole.

A flame blazes up
A moonbeam sinks down
The sustaining River of Woman
Rises from underground.

All the prism’s shards
And our dark, secret burrows
Lose their definitions
And patina of sorrows.

They are drawn, swirling, to a point of singularity
A crystalline sea
The ever-stirring All
Life’s ecstasy
Its seductive call to transformation.

We thank the god for planting seeds
And we thank the goddess for bearing
A garden wriggling with wonders
Paradise planetary

Tended with love and eternity
By Isis our Mother.

In the blink of an eye
We re-member one another

Shining stars who rise on Earth
Constellations of shining stars
We are stars Shining.

Artists’ Notes

CLIMAX – CREATE A MORE PURE LOVE

8×8″
Photo: Bertrand, Tzigany

James: After selling our Caribbean home and becoming nomads moving across the globe, after many photo shoots and nine years of training my hand to paint Venus and Her Lover, I completed this, the 64^th and final piece, and only one word came to mind:  Euphoria!  I had known the lay-out and characters for this piece for seven years, since I woke up with the vision one morning at Nassim’s house.   I had been contemplating the dynamics of the imagery all those years.  I always knew it would be the last one I would do.  After all, I had to prepare for it . . . or is it that I had to be prepared by it?

Admittedly, approaching “Climax” was quite daunting:  the size was large (8×8’), and I had never painted on canvas stretched over wood.  Would the metaphors of the message stand up on their own, to be received and understood by the viewers of the painting?  Was I really worthy as an artist to present it?  (cancel/clear!).  After scaling the tallest mountains of world mythology for years, I now stood before Mt. Everest.  Fortunately for me, the weather was good!

I respected “Climax” from its inception as an idea, and my reverence only grew.  I had the habit in my studio of becoming entranced by the imagery of Venus and Her Lover; whenever I would finish a painting, I would just sit before it and let it wash over me.  With “Climax”, this happened  when it was just a drawing.  Once I started painting it, I became obsessed.  I would awaken at dawn and spring out of bed, only to return home around midnight.  On my way out the door of my studio, bone tired, I would glance at the triptych, and before I knew it, I had been standing there for half an hour.  That happened every night.

That was the effect this painting had on me.  I have to let go of any expectations of what other people will get out of it.  Those who have the eyes to see and heart to feel will take what they will out of it.

The elements of “Climax”

Isis/Venus  —  The Egyptian and Greco-Roman goddesses are of the same lineage, and are really the same character:  goddess of love, archetypal mother of her people and devoted partner to her god man.  She hovers above Osiris/Jesus Christ.  Out of her yoni comes a beam of light, passing through the lingam and resurrecting Osiris/Christ to be a whole man once again.  Then the light heads straight into the Ark to charge the crystal that’s inside the golden box.   Isis/Venus, full of light,  points her fingers like a wand, sending the energy to Mars and to Mary.

Alternately, the energy emerges from the charged crystal inside the Ark, through the restored lingam of Osiris/Christ, and into the yoniof Isis/Venus, who then bestows it upon Mary and Mars.  It is up to the eye of the beholder how the energy is moving.

Or maybe the light is moving in both directions!

Isis/Venus  wears a gold necklace with a djed pendant, which represents the backbone of Osiris.  The djed “Pillar of Osiris” is also associated with the tree pillar in which his coffin was entombed in Byblos, which correlates with the tree upon which Christ was crucified.  Her other jewelry is made of her stones:  amethyst (for healing), coral and aquamarine (Isis and Aphrodite/Venus are both goddesses of the sea), quartz crystal (vibrational amplifier), turquoise (sacred to Hathor and Isis), and peridot (green for fertility).  Her crescent crown, with its feminine symbolism of the moon and cow horns, is studded with other Isis gems:  rubies (love, passion, and majesty) and pearls (the moon and the sea); red (the Feminine) and white (the Masculine) are also the colors of Tantra.  Isis was frequently depicted wearing the crescent crown.

 Osiris/Christ  –  Osiris as the god that brings fertility to agriculture and culture to his people is the archetypal Father God who willingly sacrifices himself to become the merciful god of the afterlife.  Both Osiris and Emmanuel (Jesus) die and then are resurrected – in Osiris’ case because of the devoted efforts of his woman.  In the myth of Osiris’ death, after his brother Set dismembers him and casts his body parts throughout Egypt, Isis is able to recover all the pieces except for one: his lingam.  Likewise, in Christianity, Jesus was emasculated by church dogma.   In “Climax”, Osiris’/Emmanuel’s  phallus is restored, so that he can be resurrected (and we can “re-member” him as) a whole man.  At the Grand Unveiling of this painting, Becca and I declared “the end of the Era of the Anger of the Wounded Masculine”.  To underscore this healing, I painted him the sacred color of purple.

Mary Magdalene –  To witness the resurrection of Emmanuel, his partner Mary is there.  With the restoration of Jesus’ sexuality, we can now accept that he and Mary Magdalene were lovers, husband and wife, and mother and father (parents of Sarah) … in other words, the archetypal family.  Our friend Maria modeled for Mary, and she was the perfect one to play the part, as she thoroughly identified with Mary Magdalene and was seven months pregnant when we did the photo shoot.  As with Jesus Christ, this portrayal is a rehabilitation of Mary Magdalene:  from prostitute to the high priestess she likely was, as well as the beautiful mother she is becoming.   Mary Magdalene is birthing the new generation:  the “Indigo” children who enter onto Earth already aware and committed to living peace.  They are not inclined to fall into the traps of fear and subjugation so prevalent in dominator culture.

She wears a gold necklace with a peace sign, a modern symbol invented in the 1950’s to stand for peace and to oppose nuclear arms and tyranny.  Her jewelry is of turquoise, pearls, and rubies; again, the red and white for Tantra.  Her earrings are ankhs, the Egyptian symbol for life.

Mary Magdalene is associated with the Holy Grail: below her  sits the golden chalice of the Divine Feminine, there for anyone to drink from.  In the chalice are two flowers on one stem, an inside story between Becca and me.

Mars/Set –  The warrior god, depicted with his usual red complexion, is now self-realized and therefore no longer needs his sword.  No more projecting outward his inner battle.  The war is over, and he can lay down his sword once and for all.  In the years leading up to my painting “Climax”, whenever I would talk about Mars laying down his sword, I would get emotional.  The whole concept is for me very personal.  Not only is it the process I am in, but it is what I want more than anything for our society:  for the wounded man to stop inflicting pain on others, and to give up the need for any weapon or armor at all.

It was only after months of contemplating the completed painting that Becca had the realization that the Mars character in the painting was also Set, Osiris’ brother and murderer.  She discovered that the color of both of them was red, they both were famed for wielding weapons, that the rulership of Typhon (Set) began under the sign of Scorpio (a Mars sign), and scorpions accompanied Set.   All these associations! . . . and there were Osiris, Set, and Mars – all showing up for healing in “Climax”.

Set, under the name Nebty, worked with gold, and, as it turned out, I had painted Mars/Set wearing a gold necklace with an amulet of the All-Seeing Eye of God.  Now that the god has dispensed with his drive toward conquest and destructive fighting, he can take up his role as protector and provider.  Eye symbolism comes down through the ages from the Eye of Horus through Templar icons and other mystical symbolism.

The sword of Mars/Set is adorned with a ruby, an amethyst, and a crystal:   red and white for the Feminine and the Masculine joined by the healing amethyst.

 

The Ark of the Crystal –  While most people believe that the Ark of the Covenant contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses, we prefer to believe that the gold capacitor box holds a crystalline matrix that is capable of being programmed by our thoughts.  With purity of heart before the Ark crystal, we create a technology that works for constructive, life-generating purposes.    The central design of the Ark is the Flower of Life, a sacred geometric grid of  64 tetrahedrons and spheres, that is the basis of Creation itself.  The Flower of Life is a design found on the walls of the Temple of Osiris at Abydos, likely the oldest structure in Egypt.

The hieroglyphic inscription at the bottom of the Ark reads “Create a More Pure Love”.   It is one of the Twelve Laws of Ammun-Ra, rules for living followed by the Ammonite people in Egypt.  [Isis and Osiris – Exploring the Goddess Myth, p.114]

 Wadjet –  On either side of Isis/Venus, in the two top corners, are two Eyes of Horus.  In Egyptian myth, Horus was the son of Isis and Osiris.  He lost his original hawk eyes in a battle with Set, but Hathor, the cow Goddess of Love and the Moon, replaced his eyes with holy milk.  This symbol for protection, divine vision, and royal power is known as the wadjet, Eye of Horus, or Eye of Ra, and had many, many associations in ancient Egypt.  In “Climax” I took the liberty of placing the Flower of Aphrodite in each eye.  The Flower of Aphrodite is a hexagonal shape from the Flower of Life, and made of vesica piscis.  I liked the Venusian associations, as well as the number six (which Christians demonized), and the resemblance to a cobweb (tantra = web, weaving).

 Hexagram  –   The Star of David, or Seal of Solomon, while emblematic of the Hebrew tradition, is primordially a tantric icon.  It illustrates the interpenetration of the Masculine (the upward-pointing triangle) and the Feminine (downward-pointing triangle) principles, the very process that engenders Creation.  It is the eternal sexual union of Shakti and Shiva.   If you look at the main elements of the painting, you will see that the two upper wadjets and the Ark of the Crystal form a down-pointing pyramid, and Mary Magdalene, Mars/Set, and Isis/Venus form the up-pointing pyramid.  Together they outline a hexagram.  The balance is restored!

Foreground –  The open path into the painting is an invitation for you to step into the Golden Age.  Enter into it.  Come on in to celebrate the healing of the Wounded Male, the restoration of the balance of the Feminine and Masculine Principles (it’s only natural, after all), the birthing of an evolved humanity that acknowledges our oneness, and the experience of right relationship with all of life.

The triptych represents the Holy Trinity:  Mother, Father, Child.  Together they are humanity’s greatest hope for Love and Peace on Earth.

Becca: As a general rule, the poetry of Venus and Her Lover hits me in a flash of inspiration, and I write a poem in one night.  Not so with this one.  I had to labor over “Climax”, getting snippets of ideas and phrases over months, and then working days on the poem.  When a beetle landed on my arm, I saw an Egyptian scarab (khephera), and when the coyotes howled, I heard Anubis crooning messages from the Underworld.  While a poem can take me months of study and contemplation, “Climax” required nearly a year of preparation and penetration.  It was, nonetheless, an eminently satisfying devotion.  Living “west of the village, at desert’s edge” in Taos, I imagined myself in ancient Mediterranean lands.

 One line that came to me out of the blue was the first one:  “Shining stars who fell to Earth”.  I describe our souls as stars who enter into a “dream” or kind of amnesia on the Earthly plane.  The “Circling hawk” is Horus, the hawk-headed Egyptian solar deity, son of Isis and Osiris.  His wadjet eyes gaze out from the painting.

The blinking allusion invokes the Hindu myth in which Brahma creates the Universe each time he blinks.  The time between each blink is a yuga, an age of thousands or a million years.  When Horus blinks his eyes shut, he sees “incarnadine”, the color of flesh and blood, or the back of his eyelids – a play on words about becoming incarnate on Earth.

In this ‘moment’/yuga of shut eyes, the whole worldly illusion manifests, complete with mythologies “in every direction” that cover the world with “reflections” of the original, singular Truth.  The prism is used to illustrate the concept of the One (such as a single beam of white light) being broken into the apparent Many (such as the colors of the rainbow).

In the next instant/yuga, “The hawk opens his eyes” and we awaken to the story/myth/dream we have been telling ourselves is real.  Immediately we notice that we/the hawk are clutching “fiercely” to something:  “the Dominator Doctrine”, which has brought us material progress, as well as suffering, death, and destruction.  Now we can see how humanity has been so scarred by the dominator paradigm that has left us either “the walking wounded” or “dead”.  Amid the fallout:  men fighting wars that engender more wars (“Mars who craved the taste of blood”), women carrying “guilt and loss and shame” (“Mary [Magdalene] who suffered her tears”), terrorism and fear (Set), internecine slaughter (“brother ‘gainst brother”, such as the battle between Set and Osiris), and sexual dysfunction (“frustrated longing of lovers”).   We acknowledge the passing of this whole mess and the crippled attitudes within us.

As we “release our grip” of the dominator mentality – much like Mars dropping his sword – we take a breath in and are reborn with fresh vision.  The resurrection motif corresponds, of course, with Osiris and Jesus Christ who embody the archetype of the Dying and Resurrected God.   “The angry, wounded Man” addresses the loss of masculine power, symbolized by the missing phallus of Osiris, and subsequent outwardly directed anger to compensate for it.  Indeed as Man “surrenders to be healed,” we all can be “made whole”.

In dominator culture, Woman became submissive, and her wisdom had to dive “underground”.  With this reference, I am also suggesting that Mary Magdalene grounded hermetic knowledge into the Earth for us to discover millennia later.  Such an act would have been within her powers as high priestess or Jesus’ most adept disciple. Perhaps she realized she would become the scapegoat, like Eve before her, and her spiritual intelligence would be demonized.  Now, that river of wisdom may surface again, to the benefit of us all.

Entering a new age of partnership and peace, we no longer dwell in a world of separation (“the prism’s shards”) nor of the pathological shadow (“our dark, secret burrows”), which have engendered so much human suffering.

In gratitude, then, we can acknowledge the Masculine’s “planting seeds” and the Feminine’s nurturance of biodiversity. The “Garden wriggling with wonders” harkens to a new Eden, a paradise on Earth.

The whole resurrection scene is presided over by the Great Earth Mother:  in this case, Isis – Queen of the Mysteries, ‘Sovereign of the Elements, Primary Progeny of Time, Most Exalted of the Deities . . .’ (as described by the Roman philosopher Apuleius).

With our true identities revealed and integrated, and the balance of polarities restored  (yin/yang, feminine/masculine), we reconstitute ourselves into wholeness:  “We re-member one another”.    We gain awareness of ourselves as divine – like gods – and made of light/love, the energy of the Universe.

The “point of singularity” describes the crystal structure that rests inside the golden Ark box.  At its core would be a black hole, where the curvature of space-time becomes infinitely large.  Astronomers have observed black holes with apparently infinite density at the center of some stars.  Upon crossing the event horizon to the point of singularity, our physical laws would no longer apply.  In agreement with the physics theories of Nassim Haramein, we believe that the Ark of the Covenant of Moses actually contained a crystalline device of great power.  The warring, dominator mentality caused this technology to be lost to history.  The “Climax” poem likens us to stars, with a black hole at the center;  at our soul center, where physical laws cease to apply and we can experience infinity,  we realize our underlying unity with all Life.

We shine with this realization.  Plugging into an infinite power source and recognizing ourselves as part of the fabric of space-time and Creation, we allow the Earth to takes its rightful place among the galactic family of stars, planets, and conscious beings.

“Climax – Create a More Pure Love” is primarily written in quatrains with a rhyme pattern of abcb, except when a shift of message disrupts the pattern entirely.  Thus, “But now we wake up!”, for example, is declared in free verse, and the description of the point of singularity initiates a different rhyme and line length.   I must confess that this poem resisted fitting into any one style, and I did my best to present it as understandably as I could.  I dedicate this poem to the awakening of humanity into our full magnificence.

§§ See also:  MARY MAGDALENE
§§ To compare with other Dying & Resurrecting Deities, see ADONIS, INANNA, DIONYSUS, DUMUZI, GREEN MAN, OSIRIS, and PERSEPHONE.
§§ To explore the effects of Judeo-Christian philosophy on our sexual natures, see “History, Herstory, and the Spiral of Evolution” and “Why the War”.

____________________________

Excerpted from The Pillow Book of Venus and Her Lover – Reinventing the Myth by Becca Tzigany and James Bertrand
© 2004 Copyrighted material

Mythology Notes

ISIS

(Auset, Aset, Eset, Egyptian,Isothis, Ast, Iausas)  

All hail to our Great Mother Goddess, Lady Isis!  Daughter of Nut the Sky and Geb the Earth, Beloved of Osiris, Mother of Horus, she is Queen of Heaven and Earth!  She has guided us since the dawn of Time.  She understands our sufferings, for she, too, has suffered.

Upon learning of the treachery of Set and the sealing of Lord Osiris in his sarcophagus, Isis, wild with grief, searches the banks of the Nile, hoping to find it.  Her incessant quest leads her to the mouth of the Nile, along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and eventually to Byblos, where she hears there has suddenly sprouted a miraculous tamarisk tree at the Phoenician shoreline.  When she arrives, however, she finds only the broad stump of the recently felled tree. The Syrian king Malcander has just had the wondrous trunk cut for a pillar in his palace.  When Isis arrives at Byblos, she slumps down by the town well, grimy from travel, distraught and exhausted.  The Phoenician queen’s handmaidens, barely noticing the weary traveler, walk up to fill their jugs at the well and playfully splash each other, inadvertently soaking Isis.  When she looks up to rebuke them, she recognizes their youthful beauty and innocence and feels embarrassed at her initial anger.   For the first time in a long time, Isis smiles.  “Come, child,”  she says, “let me braid your hair.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the young woman replies and sits at the feet of the stranger who is so disheveled she would have never guessed her to be an Egyptian goddess.  But sitting there, she basks in the golden aura and sweet breath of the strange woman.  One by one, the handmaidens have their hair braided by her.

Back at the palace, Queen Astarte notices the sweet smell and enchanting hairstyles of her handmaidens, and instructs them to bring the foreign woman to her.  Isis, who has cleaned herself up at the well, complies.  Queen Astarte immediately takes a liking to her and employs her as nursemaid to her newborn son.

After all the weeks and miles of tortured wandering, Isis welcomes the order and peace of Malcander and Astarte’s palace, and falls in love with the baby boy.  How ironic, she thinks, Osiris and I  never had a child, and now I hold this baby in my arms.  In addition, Isis immediately recognizes the vibrant wood of the central pillar of the palace.  Every night Isis makes a magical fire of purification in which she places the darling baby, to burn away his mortality and make him as a god, and while the spell is working, she transforms herself into a swallow.  Round and round the pillar she flutters, twittering,  “Oh my brother!  My beloved husband!  Osiris come back to me!”

One night Queen Astarte awakens.  Hearing the mournful wails of a bird, she steals into the central hall and to her horror discovers that her son lies burning in a fire while a swallow swoops around the new column.

“My son!”  she cries, immediately breaking the spell.  The baby wakes up and begins bawling.

In an instant the swallow changes into a woman and snatches the baby from the flames.  Astarte is awestruck at the radiant goddess now standing before her.

“Who – who are you?  And what were you doing with my son?”  Astarte stammers.

“I am Isis, Queen of Egypt!  You have come too soon, Queen Astarte, for now your son will eventually die, as all mortals must.  I was giving him the gift of immortality.”  Then, feeling the ache in her heart at the thought of death, she continues.  “That beautifully carved pillar over there contains the coffin of my late husband, King Osiris.  You have been very kind to me, Astarte, and I now ask for one more kindness, to give to me the body of my precious king.”

Not only do the king and queen comply, Malcander orders a temple to Isis built of the pillar’s wood, and they provide her with a boat for the voyage to Egypt with the jeweled sarcophagus.  Reaching the Nile Delta, Isis directs the boat to sail up the river to Abydos.  Passing the riverbanks by night, she sees her old palace in ruins, and feels a heavy sadness that lays upon the land like a blanket – the violent rule of Set has its grip upon Egypt.  Upon disembarking, finally alone with the corpse of her beloved, she unleashes her sorrow and immense love, weaving them into a powerful spell.

“Osiris!  Our eternal love does not recognize death!  Our infinite love cannot be confined!  Feel the power of our love!  Feel it moving within you!”

Osiris remains lifeless, the light in his eyes gone out.  Throwing herself on his cold body, Isis breathes her sweet breath into his nostrils, kisses his mouth, and strokes his chest.  “Awake, Osiris!”  she cries.  Emotion seizes her as she dances, reaching skyward for clouds to swirl around her husband.  Thoth, who measures time in moonbeams, showers his light in slow-motion upon the couple.   The nostrils of Osiris flare slightly with the breath of Isis.

Taking the form of a hawk, Lady Isis reaches her wings to surround her husband, and beats them like a throbbing heart.   “Arise, Osiris, arise!  Join with me.  We are one always!  We are one!”  In the magic of that moment Isis feels the presence of her husband.  He does arise, his phallus arises, he breathes her breath, and she takes him into her.  Once again in ecstatic union, their hearts beat as one, as every cell of their bodies vibrate in unison.  Time stops.  Their eternal love triumphs.

Eventually Isis collapses onto the body of her lover, exhausted by sorcery and joy.  When she awakes, she feels a stirring in her womb and realizes her brother Horus returns from Heaven to incarnate on Earth, to make her a mother, and to avenge the treacherous murder of Osiris.  Horus will be known as  the “Twice-born”.

But first – she must finish the magic spell!  Osiris is not yet fully revived.  With dawn approaching, she carries Osiris and his coffin into the hills, hiding it in a cave, and hurries away to find Nepthys and Anubis.   She will need their help and watchfulness in wresting control from Set and re-establishing the reign of Isis and Osiris.

Set, who is out hunting, sniffs the scent of something awry and finds the cave.  Inside he discovers the sarcophagus he has made, and there — Osiris breathing!   Unsheathing his blade, he speaks, “Brother, your time on this Earth is done!”

Blinking his eyes open, Osiris screams, “Isis, come to me!”  Before he can take another breath, Set plunges the knife into his brother’s heart, and then into his stomach, and then into his neck.  Driven by rage, Set hacks his brother to pieces . . . 14 pieces, to be exact.  Carrying them out of the cave, Set runs to the river and casts them into the rushing waters.  “That is the end of you, Osiris.  The end!”  he declares.

Huddling with Nepthys and Anubis, Isis feels a sharp ripple in the wind.  Suddenly standing up, Isis cries, “Osiris needs me!”  The three rush to the cave, but the stone is rolled away and the body is gone.

Isis searches up and down the Nile for fragments of Osiris, and wherever she finds a leg, or a hand, or any piece, she builds a temple to him on the spot.  Thus all over Egypt, temples are built to the god.  In consecrating the temples, Isis teaches the people the ways of worship.  “Like this, we re-collect and re-member the divine Osiris,”  she tells them.  “Bring the parts of yourselves together, too, for Osiris lives in you.  Together we re-member one another.”

She finds all the fragments of him but one:  his phallus.  This vital part of him was eaten by a fish.

Isis completes her temple-building mission and ceases searching any further, for Set is on her trail.  Feeling her son Horus growing in her belly, she retreats to the marshes of the Nile Delta to hide.  There, concealed among the reeds, she gives birth to the new hope of world, the Divine Child Horus.

((( )))

 

Isis is the primordial Great Earth Mother.   For millennia she has been worshipped as Goddess of Love, as Creatress, and archetype embodying the powers of healing, magic, sovereignty and rulership, fertility, midwifery,  motherhood, seafaring, war, dancing, and alchemy.

Originally considered as the Creatress who gave birth to Ra (the sun), evidence of Aset (Isis) first appears in the Nile Delta between 6000-5000 years ago.  When later coupled with the god Osiris, her popularity increased, and even more so when Isis, Osiris, and Horus formed the Holy Trinity or Holy Family.  About 80 BCE, her religion reached Rome, from which it spread throughout the Roman Empire;  hence altars to Isis have been found well beyond the Nile, on the rivers Danube (Austria), Thames (England), and the Seine (France).

The hieroglyph for Aset shows a throne, and the Great Goddess legitimized the reign of the rulers;  pharaohs are often depicted sitting in her lap, surrounded by her arms/wings.  As mother of Horus (Heru), she engendered the bloodline of kings and queens who ruled by “divine right”.   Roman Caesars wanted to trace their ancestry to Isis and Osiris.  “Divine rulers”  believed their “genesis” (= “genes of Isis”) sanctioned their seat on the throne.  Her headdress is often that of a throne or a cow’s horns cradling the moon.

Her persona so grew that she assimilated other Egyptian goddesses:  the cow-headed Hathor, Mut, Nekhbet, Bast, Maat, Heqit, Sekhmet, Neith, and Sati, to name a few.  The Greeks identified her with Demeter, Hera, Selene, and Aphrodite.  The similar names of other Mediterranean goddesses — Ishtar, Ashtoreth, and Astarte — point to a common origin in the past.  She was in fact called, “the goddess of 10,000 names.”

When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century CE, worship of pagan goddesses became illegal.  However, Isis  did not so much disappear as transform into the Virgin Mary.  Images of the Madonna holding the baby Jesus very much resemble those of Isis suckling the infant Horus in her lap.

One might suppose that the role of Isis in the Osirian Mysteries was that of guiding priestess or the essential Feminine Principle as the initiate purified him/herself of the outer trappings of the ego and then discovered his/her fundamental identity as universal energy.  While the details of the Mysteries are not known, the result is:  the initiate, reconnected with Source, lost the fear of death.  In the Isian tradition, priests and priestesses, while nurturing their personal and mystical connection to the goddess, dedicated themselves to service to the community.  During the oppressive years of Christian domination, this played out as preservation of ancient knowledge.

Within the many mystery cults over the past 2000 years, Hermes Trismegistus (the Egyptian Thoth or Tehuti) contained the knowledge, which became known as hermetic wisdom, with Isis as the object of religious devotion.  The ideas of freedom and spiritual transformation were carried forward through Freemasonry (the Enlightenment produced the French and American Revolutions) and Rosicrucianism (Renaissance – 19^th century, whose symbol was Isis’ flower, the rose).  These boys’ clubs, while subject to dominator manipulations even among the spiritually devout, nonetheless allowed Isian ideals to stagger out by the 19^th century, when there was a revival of goddess consciousness.  Most notable was the Theosophical Society, founded by Madame Blavatsky in 1875 in New York, who felt she was channeling Isis through her writings.    The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in the British Isles,    was the first magical order to admit women.  Dion Fortune, a British priestess of Isis, did much to put Isis back into social awareness through her books, such as The Sea Priestess (1938).

The Fellowship of Isis, based in Ireland but with 16,000 members in 96 countries, and the Ammonite Foundation (the Foundation of Ammon-Ra), based in Egypt, are two contemporary groups who actively worship the Great Mother Isis.  The Ammonites claim direct descent from their founder, the Pharaoh Tutankhamon.

With the resurgence of goddess consciousness, Isis is coming alive for more and more people.  To plumb her mysteries, however, is a serious pursuit.  At the temple of Isis in the Egyptian city of Sais, the inscription read, “I, Isis, am all that has been, that is or shall be; no mortal man hath ever me unveiled.”

§§   See OSIRIS
§§   See SET

§§ To further understand the Isian/Osirian Mysteries, see JESUS CHRIST.

Appears in:  First Couple

                       Climax – Create a More Pure Love

 

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JESUS CHRIST

(Yeshua, Christos, Emmanuel, Messiah, Christian, Yahoshua, Lord, Savior, Redeemer, Son of God, Lamb of God)

 

The prophets foretold that “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us’.”  And so it came to pass in Judea, in the days when a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census should be taken. So Joseph goes up from Galilee with his betrothed Mary, who is a virgin and yet miraculously pregnant with child, to Bethlehem. Because of the census, there is no room at any inn for the couple, so it happens that when Mary’s time comes to be delivered, she gives birth and lays the baby in a manger.

In the nearby countryside there are shepherds tending their flocks by night, when suddenly angels of the Lord appear to them shining in brilliant light, so that they cower in fear.  But an angel tells them, “Be not afraid! For I bring you glad tidings of great joy! Unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord! You will find him lying in a manger in Bethlehem.” The shepherds hurry to the city and find the baby as described, peacefully sleeping in an aura of golden light.

Three Wise Men from the East, astrologers who studied the heavens, note the appearance of a star in the sky, and following it, find their way to the manger in Bethlehem, where they fall down to worship the newborn baby. The Three Kings present the Holy Family gifts in honor of the birth:  gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

This is the birth of the Divine Child into our world, he who was immaculately conceived and born of the blessed Virgin Mary. She names him Yeshua, which means “the salvation of Yahweh.”  His parents take him to Egypt while he is yet a child, and upon their return to their hometown of Nazareth, Joseph teaches him how to be a carpenter. Some say that during his youth Yeshua travels East also, to learn mysterious philosophies, and that even at the age of twelve, he astounds the leaders of the synagogue with his knowledge.

Yeshua officially begins his ministry at the age of 30, gathering around him twelve disciples, several of whom are fishermen. “Let me make you fishers of men!” he exhorts them.  Speaking of love and forgiveness and self-knowledge, Yeshua proclaims, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you!” In addition to his sermons, Yeshua performs miracles: healing the sick, raising the dead, exorcising the possessed, changing water to wine, calming a stormy sea, and even walking on water!

After Yeshua angrily chases moneychangers out of the synagogue, the local Jewish leaders become ever more alarmed at his blasphemous ministry, which in turn makes the Roman overlords uneasy about the troublemaker from Nazareth.  At one point, men threaten to stone him.

“I have only been doing good works,”  Yeshua protests.  “For which of them do you stone me?”

They answer him, “Oh, it’s not because you can perform miracles.  It’s because you say you and God are one.  We want to stone you for blasphemy, because you are only a man, but you claim to be God.”

At age 33, he brings his ministry to Jerusalem, entering the city riding a donkey, and the people welcome him waving palm fronds and shouting “Hosanna in the highest!” an exclamation in praise of God.

Events in Jerusalem quickly deteriorate, as within the week, Judas, one of Yeshua’s disciples, turns him into the Roman authorities. Sensing his demise, Yeshua has a final meal, the Last Supper, with his disciples, during which he instructs them in the mystical rite of the Eucharist: by prayerfully ingesting bread and wine, they symbolically partake of the body and blood of their Savior.

Yeshua is tried before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, who finds him guilty of no crime, but who finally yields to the demands of the Jewish mob who demand his death. “Are you the King of the Jews, as they say?” Pontius Pilate asks him.

 “It is you who says so,” Yeshua answers, and says no more in his defense.

After being beaten by Roman guards and jeered by the Hebrew crowd, Yeshua is led to the hill known as Golgotha, “the place of the skull.” There a cross is erected, and Yeshua is nailed to it, to hang there until dead. Around noon, black clouds cover the sky. The three Marys (Magdalene, Salomé, and the Virgin Mother) huddle at the base of the cross, all the other disciples having fled in fear. Finally, Yeshua cries out, “It is finished! Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!” With this, he breathes his last.

The earth begins to tremble and the wind to blow. A Roman centurion who has observed the crucifixion declares, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” Two days later, this would be proven, when the teacher known as Yeshua rises from the dead, to demonstrate that the resurrection of the body is indeed possible. Death has no power over the Son of God.

((( )))

The story of Jesus the Christ would become the basis of the Christian religion, which currently counts nearly a third of the world’s population as members. The Christian Bible, composed of the Old Testament and the New Testament, tells the story of Yeshua’s life in the Gospel (the first four books of the New Testament) and the Acts of the Apostles, and then describes the spread of the new religion through the letters of the missionary Paul and other writings.

Jews at the outset of the first millennium were looking for the prophesied Messiah to free Israel from Roman domination. They expected a king (a Christ, an “anointed one”) in the line of David to restore the Jewish state, thereby establishing the Jews as God’s Chosen People for all the world to see. When Yeshua proclaimed the Kingdom as spiritual rather than earthly, many Jews did not subscribe to his teachings.

Yeshua, who had self-realized to the point of recognizing his own divinity (“I and the Father are one.”  John 10:30), encouraged others to follow him, to pursue their own enlightenment.  To religious leaders, such talk was indeed dangerous, worthy of a stoning.

Others, however, understood the spiritual teachings as a mystical pathway to self-realization. Gnostic Christians, likely the spiritual descendants of Yeshua’s Essene family background, interpreted his life story as allegory, and provided different levels of initiation for aspirants who wanted to experience “death” of the small-minded, materialistic human, reunion with the inner eternal soul, and “resurrection” or rebirth as a “Christed One”, an enlightened being. The Gnostic Mysteries led the initiate into cosmic consciousness. In accordance with Yeshua’s statement, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you,” the Gnostics preached immanence, the sacredness of all life.

By the fourth century, a Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, saw a way to take advantage of the growing proliferation of Christian religions in his pagan empire. Within Literalist Christianity was an authoritarian hierarchy that would lend itself to his goal of one, unifying, “catholic” faith for Rome. Not only did he cease persecuting Christians, he adopted Christianity as the official religion of the vast empire. In 325 CE Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea, in which he and Christian religious leaders reached agreement on official dogma by determining which writings were in the New Testament and which were out, which interpretations would be tolerated and which would be deemed heresy, and exactly how and when to celebrate religious rites. The joining of Church and State spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire, led to a powerful hierarchy of clerics, and rationalized “holy war” even though it contradicted Yeshua’s message of pacifism. Gnostics and others were mercilessly persecuted, their documents destroyed. Once Gnosticism was wiped out, bishops of the new Roman Church could see about rewriting the official version of their religion (and history), based on their Literalist interpretation of a historical Jesus who had given ultimate power to his representative on Earth: the Church.

Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy state in their book, The Jesus Mysteries, “The wanton destruction of our Pagan heritage is the greatest tragedy in the history of the Western world. The scale of what was lost is hard to comprehend. Pagan mysticism and scientific inquiry were replaced by dogmatic authoritarianism. The Roman Church imposed its creed with threats and violence, denying generations of human beings the right to think their own thoughts and find their personal route to spiritual salvation.” [page 250]

When the Roman Empire fell, the power of the Roman Catholic Church grew. It was the one unifying force of Western culture through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and later centuries. Perhaps the medieval title of “Dark Ages” is due to this force which squelched any science that ran contrary to Literalist ideas (flat Earth, seven-day Creation and the Garden of Eden, Earth at the center of the Universe); forbid acceptance of others (heretics, pagans, heathens); denied equality of women; promoted sin, guilt, and shame; and justified violence and domination (continual wars, conquests, slavery, and exploitation of resources). This has been the continuing legacy of the Christian religion, a history that mocks the purported teachings of Jesus Christ.

     Due to the inspirational storyline, as well the Christian Church’s stranglehold on culture, a huge number of masterpieces of Western art are portrayals of the life of Jesus Christ – The Coronation of the Virgin(FraAngelico), The Death of the Virgin (Caravaggio), Christ(Rembrandt), The Holy Family (Raphael), Miraculous Draught of Fishes(Rubens), The Last Supper (DaVinci), The Pietà and the paintings of the Sistine Chapel (Michelangelo) – to name just a few. Representations of the crucifixion have been made in every material imaginable. Bach’s cantatas, masses, and Passions, Beethoven’s masses, Handel’s “Messiah”, and volumes of hymns have been played for the glory of the Christian message. In recent decades, the perennial curiosity about the life of Jesus has been explored through the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar (Rice & Webber), the book and film The Last Temptation of Christ (Kazantzakis/Scorsese), and the film The Passion of the Christ (Gibson), all of which focused on the human nature of Jesus.

Mythically, Jesus fits the archetypes of the Divine Child and the Dying Godman. Throughout history the arrival of the Divine Child has heralded a new season of hope, fertility, and innocence. The Dying and Resurrecting Godman variously represented agricultural cycles (the death of winter and regeneration of spring), or the spiritual process promulgated by the ancient Mysteries, in which the initiate died to his/her lower self to be reborn to the eternal self. As an agricultural mythic cycle throughout the ancient world, the Great Mother gave birth to the Divine Son, made love to him as Stag King in the ritual hieros gamos (sacred marriage) that stimulated the fertility of the crops, and then killed him (or he was dismembered) in a sacrificial rite representing harvest, threshing of grain, or returning essence to the earth, only to resurrect him in the spring. The Sumerian myth of Inanna and Dumuzi marks an early appearance of this motif. In The White Goddess (1948), Robert Graves poetically elaborates on the “White Goddess of Birth, Love, and Death,” who presided over this mythic drama.

In ancient civilizations, the Mysteries were a popular spiritual exercise for the person who wanted to understand the nature of the Cosmos. While the details of the Mysteries were kept secret, initiates who went through the process repeatedly testified that they had lost their fear of death, for they understood the immortality of the soul. The Inner Mysteries required the initiate to pass through levels of training and testing before embarking on the final mystical experience. The Outer Mysteries, on the other hand, were for public consumption: a story about a Dying and Resurrecting Godman, which could be dramatized in theater or celebrated in ritual. The mythic storyline was accessible and engaging. Each region had its own version of him (Osiris and Horus in Egypt, Tammuz in Babylonia, Adonis in Syria, Dionysus in Greece, Bacchus in Italy, Attis in Asia Minor, Mithras in Persia, Odin in Scandanavia) or of her (Inanna in Sumeria, Ishtar in Babylonia, Persephone in Greece). While local details varied, essentially the story goes like this: a divine character (a savior) is born of a mortal virgin mother in a cave or stable on December 25th; shepherds attend; he uses baptism as a symbol of rebirth; he performs miracles (such as turning water into wine); he surrounds himself with a circle of twelve and teaches his followers to mystically experience him through a meal of wine and bread; he rides on a donkey into town, where people greet him joyously with palm branches; he dies in the spring (or is hung on a tree or dismembered); so he travels to the Underworld; but then on the third day he defies death and reappears, with information about the afterlife. This myth was in wide circulation before the alleged time of Jesus Christ.

In their book The Jesus Mysteries, Freke and Gandy propose that Jesus was not in fact a historical person, but the local version of the Dying and Resurrecting Godman for the Jews living around Alexandria, Egypt, a cosmopolitan city that had long traditions of celebrating the Mysteries of Osiris and the Mysteries of Dionysus. Quite possibly the Therapeutae community of Alexandria, in the early centuries of the Christian Era, adapted the Mysteries to fit into the Jewish expectation of a Messiah, only instead of a conquering king, they offered a cosmic savior. Gnostic documents that have come to light in the past hundred years (the Nag Hammadi Library, for example) lend credence their thesis.

Modern Christians might take offense at the notion that Jesus is a myth. To early initiates of the Mysteries of Jesus, however, entering into mythical time allowed them to experience the divinity of Jesus as eternal, universal, and deeply personal. The sacraments of baptism, holy communion (the Eucharist), and the passion of the crucifixion fit easily into the curriculum of a mystery school. Literalist Christianity, with its authoritarian structure, truncates the power of the sacraments by severing the follower’s connection with his/her own inner wisdom. It can be argued that insistence on a narrowly-defined historical Jesus does not enhance Christ’s ability to transport followers into their own spiritual rebirth; on the contrary, it inhibits their self-realization as mythical, eternal beings.

A more visionary interpretation of the historical Jesus is offered by educator Roger Weir, who argues that Jesus was in fact a real person who headed the Therapeutae and that Mary Magdalene carried forth his teachings. His lecture series, Jesus in Alexandria and Mary Magdalene – The Origins of Shared Presence, backs up the historicity of Jesus with impressive scholarship.

Astrologically, the myth of Jesus Christ may offer another explanation. Jesus can be seen as a solar deity. The sun, the generator of life on Earth and the center of attention for an agricultural people, continually weakens until the winter solstice (around December 22nd), when it is at its lowest point in the sky, near the constellation of the Southern Cross, or Crux. Its setting point stays low for three days, until December 25th, before beginning its journey back to longer days. It was believed that the Sun died at the Cross/Crux, was dead for three days, and then was born again on December 25th. However, this resurrection was not celebrated until the spring equinox, when daytime officially becomes longer than night. [Zeitgeist]

The brightest star in the winter night sky is Sirius. On December 24th, Sirius is aligned with the three prominent stars of Orion’s belt, known as the Three Kings. Following the line-up of stars indicates the point in the east where the sun will rise (or be born) or December 25th. The constellation Virgo (the Virgin) was represented by the glyph for “m” (for Mary, mother of Jesus, or Myrrha, mother of Adonis?). Ancient astrologers were well aware of these celestial configurations and events. [Zeitgeist]

Additionally, they were aware of the precession of the equinoxes, which traces the Earth’s path through the twelve signs of the zodiac. The sun (or solar deity) is surrounded by a circle of twelve, and the tilt of Earth’s axis traces a path through this outer circle. When Jesus was supposedly born, the Earth was just leaving the Age of Aries, symbolized by the ram (a frequent Hebrew image), and entering the Age of Pisces, symbolized by the fish. The dying age was marked by the sacrifice or slaughter of the “Lamb of God”, and the rising of the “Fisher of Men”. To this day Christians use the fish as their symbol. Our solar system will leave the Age of Pisces in 2150 and enter the new age of the water bearer, though some might argue that the Age of Aquarius is already dawning. [Zeitgeist]

Within the Judeo-Christian mythos, Jesus as Messiah is considered the “new Adam”.  Adam, who fell from grace at a tree, is redeemed by Jesus, who died on a tree. Equally true, of course, is that without Eve’s Original Sin with Adam, there is no need for the “new Adam”; without the judgment of a severe God (Yahweh), there is no need for a sacrifice (the crucifixion). The feminine corollary is that Eve condemned all of humanity because of her sexuality, and Mary Magdalene, the “new Eve”, redeemed womanhood when she renounced her sexuality.

A non-Literalist construal of these two symbolic tree events is that the soul falls into duality, time, materialism, and pain (Adam and Eve thrown out of Eden), until the soul remembers its eternal nature through love (Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension to Heaven).

The astrological, mythological, and esoteric interpretations of the Jesus story do not necessarily contradict the existence of a historical Jesus, though they certainly widen its context. During this transitional time of the change of ages, and now that the Church has loosened its grip on people’s thinking, there is much more new information to contemplate concerning the identity and meaning of the monumental character known as Jesus Christ.

§§  See also  MARY MAGDALENE
§§ To compare with other Dying & Resurrecting Deities, see ADONIS, INANNA, DIONYSUS, DUMUZI, GREEN MAN, ODIN, OSIRIS, and PERSEPHONE.
§§ To explore the effects of Judeo-Christian philosophy on our sexual natures, see “Why the War” in The Birthing of Venus and Her Lover.

 

Appears in:  Climax – Create a More Pure Love

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MARY MAGDALENE

(Mary of Magdala, María Magdalena, Christian, La Madeleine, la Maddalena)

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OSIRIS
(Auser, Aset, Unnefer, Assur, Usire, Egyptian)

 

Conceived from the love of Heaven (the Goddess Nut) and Earth (the God Geb), Osiris lay in the great womb of the Sky with his brothers Set and Horus and his sisters Isis and Nepthys, until finally came the moment to be delivered.  Osiris was the first to be born, and as he fell to Earth and into time, a voice boomed throughout Creation, “Now has come the Lord of All Things!”

Osiris is very handsome and larger than life, his dark skin the color of the rich floodplain of the Nile River and his clear blue eyes shining as the sky.  Where he walks, plants sprout in his steps.  The people he finds living along the Nile had been sustaining themselves through gathering and hunting, and since Osiris understands very well the ways of plants, he teaches them agriculture.  With the resulting abundant harvests, he shows them how to grind grain for bread, brew beer from barley, and make wine from grapes.  The stability that agriculture brings allows more than their primitive huts, so Osiris instructs them in architecture.  Working together, Osiris and his partner Isis educate the people in all the arts of civilization.

The people, who are now benefitting from much fuller lives, adore the couple and make them king and queen.  As temples are constructed, the divine pair instructs their subjects in the rule of law and spiritual practice.  When Egypt is enjoying stability and prosperity, Osiris sets out to civilize other lands, leaving Isis to rule in his absence, which she does justly and compassionately.  Wherever Osiris and his army go, they are welcomed.  His troops arrive brandishing musical instruments instead of weapons, with Osiris at the forefront, winning people over with his new systems as much as by his charisma.

When, after many years abroad, he finally returns to Egypt, the godman is anxious to be reunited with his beloved Isis.   For although they had known and loved each other from the beginning in the eternal womb, Osiris feels the sting of absence that earthly time and distance bring.  Only in making love with his wife does he recapture the comfort of eternity.

Among the celebrations to welcome Osiris back is a party thrown by his brother Set.  What the king does not realize is that Set is disgruntled with the newfangled methods that Osiris has brought; Set thinks he is more connected to the spirit of the land and therefore he should be king.  Nonetheless, Osiris travels southward and arrives at Set’s castle, dressed in green and white fine linen.  As usual, several people approach Osiris to praise him:

“Since your reign on Earth, the Nile floods with regularity, making the land fertile.  We are all eating well, thanks to you!”

“My grapes swell with sweet juice, and my wine is the best ever.  May I offer you some?”

“All honor to Lord Osiris!  Long live the King!”

Set, dressed in animal skins, approaches him.  “Osiris, brother!  Welcome to my home!  Come inside – we have roasted lamb and wine awaiting you.”  The two brothers walk in, accompanied by Set’s pack of hunting dogs.

In the middle of the evening of dancing, eating and drinking, a sarcophagus draped in hides is brought into the great hall.  A hush falls on the group as Set speaks.  “In honor of my brother’s return, I have made this fine sarcophagus.  This prize goes to whoever will fit perfectly in it!”

Set pulls away the covering to reveal an ornate, jeweled coffin – truly a work of art.  A couple drunken men jostle to step into it, and everyone laughs.  Unbeknownst to Osiris, Set has made the sarcophagus with the help of the Ethiopian Queen Aso, whose sorcery determined the exact measurements of Osiris.  Also, Set has invited 72 compatriots, promising them a place at court when he becomes king.

Wanting to go along with the revelry, Osiris steps into the golden box.  As he lays down, he cries, “Hey – it fits me!”

Bam!  The lid slams shut, followed by men nailing it tight and sealing it with molten lead.   The 72 conspirators hoist the coffin on their shoulders, carry it to the banks of the Nile, and throw it into the rushing waters.

“That’s the end of my foolish brother and his destructive agricultural ways!”  snarls Set.  “Now I shall be King of Egypt!”

What Set does not count on is the loving bond between Isis and Osiris.  The Queen will set out to find the body of her brother-husband, and with her formidable magical powers, bring him back to life.  Set’s angry determination eventually leads him to the cave where she has hidden the body.  Rolling the rock away, he absconds with the body.

“This time I will make sure he cannot be revived!”  roars Set.  Pulling out his sharp blade, he hacks the body into fourteen pieces and scatters them into the Nile, dispersing Osiris to the four corners of Egypt.

Although Isis seeks out the body parts and works again to resurrect her husband, in the end, his spirit must go to Amentet, the Underworld.  Osiris dwells in the timeless darkness, despairing that he has lost his wife, his life, and all the pleasures of his accomplished reign on Earth.  Gazing onto Earth he sees that Isis is consecrating temples to Osiris all over Egypt, so that the people might re-member him.  He also sees that Isis is pregnant.  She is carrying their son.

Overcome with yearning, Osiris rages in the Land of Nothingness until he completely exhausts himself.  Weeping with wrath and longing, he cries to know his son.  The tears of the god form a river . . . a river through the Underworld.  Finally Osiris faces facts:  Set reigns now in Egypt with cruelty, but his son will one day avenge his death.  Isis will see to it that their son grows up knowing the truth.  He can do his part, too, by coming to them in dreams.   As much as he would like to punish Set as evil, he has to recognize Set as his twin, his brother, his shadow.

Finally Osiris is reborn as King of the Underworld, baptized in the river of his own tears.  He sets about doing what he knows how to do:  sowing seeds, building palaces, setting the place in order.   His most important construction is a set of scales.

Now when souls enter the Underworld, there will be a place for them to work and to rest.  When they arrive, their heart is put on one scale and the feather of Ma’at (Goddess of Truth) on the other.  Thus is justice done.  When we die, we can take comfort in the fact that Osiris will receive us.  He is the wise and just ruler of the Afterlife.

 

((( )))

 

Beyond being an important deity in the Egyptian pantheon, Osiris is a seminal archetype of the world’s mythology.  He is the Dying and Resurrecting Godman, the civilizer through agriculture, the force of fertility, the lover of his woman, and the champion of justice and wise king.  Sir Wallis Budge, Keeper of Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum, describes the savior god thus:  “. . . Osiris was of divine origin, that he suffered death and mutilation at the hands of the powers of evil, that after great struggle with these powers he rose again, that he became henceforth the king of the underworld and judge of the dead, and that because he had conquered death the righteous also might conquer death . . .”  [Egyptian Religion, p.61]  Among his over 200 names, his epithets include Lord of Lords, King of Kings, the Resurrection and the Life, and Eternity and Everlastingness.

The parallels between the mythologies of Osiris, Dionysus/ Bacchus, Adonis, Jesus and many others point to a common progenitor, which by reason of age would have been Egyptian.  Joseph Campbell points out:  “The recurrent mythological event of the death and resurrection of a god, which had been for millenniums the central mystery of all of the great religions of the nuclear Near East, became in Christian thought an event in time, which had occurred but once, and marked the moment of the transfiguration of history.”  [Masks of God – Occidental Mythology, p. 334]

In addition to the many similarities of the Egyptian and Christian stories, there are marked differences.  In the Adam and Eve story, Woman is the downfall of Man, but Osiris is castrated and killed by Set, his brother.   Jesus was supposed to rise from the dead because of the power of the god Yahweh, his father, but it is the power of the goddess Isis that resurrects Osiris.  The sexual egalitarianism of ancient Egypt is in marked contrast to Christian sexism.  On a further sexual note, Egyptian mythology includes accounts of phallic erections, the generative power of lovemaking (Isis on top!), and a homosexual encounter (between Horus and Set), whereas the virgin birth, celibate Jesus and disciples, and Mary Magdalene’s role as sinful prostitute emphasize Christianity’s asexual – and even antisexual – ideology.

Osiris is part of the Egyptian holy trinity of Father (Osiris), Mother (Isis), and Child (Horus), and even more foundationally, as part of the Ennead, the first nine gods whose myth explains Creation.   Atum (The All) evolved into Shu (Void) and Tefnut (his female counterpart), who gave birth to Geb (Earth) and Nut (Sky), who bore Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nepthys (Horus the Elder is often included in this last iteration of Creation).

As Lord of the Underworld and judge of the dead, Osiris gave comfort to ancient Egyptians.  It has been argued that the Egyptian obsession with mummification was a derivative of people’s desire to be resurrected physically, just as Osiris did in the myth.   Indeed according to the story, Isis, Nepthys, and Anubis, upon reassembling his body parts, wound treated gauze strips around the body, thereby inventing the embalming process and its rituals.

The passion of the death and resurrection of Osiris was celebrated annually in the spring:  people mourned that he died and was dis-membered (akin to the threshing of grain), endured the Underworld, and then re-membered him and his rebirth (akin to green shoots emerging from the Earth).  Like a seed’s cycle of harvest, dormancy, and sprouting, the Osirian Mysteries were a natural pageant for an agricultural society.  For more serious devotees, however,  the Inner Mysteries offered a path of initiation through which the spiritual seeker could experience his/her own death (of one’s lower nature) and subsequent rebirth (into one’s spiritual nature).  Jean Houston comments:  “The sacred act of the Osirian rites is the remembering of Osiris.  To forget one’s name, to forget one’s sanctity, to forget one’s relationship to the divine was to die while still living.  It was the worst of all possible sins.  Therefore, the rites were celebrated yearly.”   [ The Passion of Isis and Osiris, p. 190]   She goes on:  “The Lesser Mysteries [the Outer Mysteries] taught the initiate stability, creativity, and strength in order to become a fit vehicle for the Great Work.  The Greater Mysteries [or Inner Mysteries] made rebirth of the new self possible by releasing attachment to the here and now.”  [The Passion of Isis and Osiris, p. 191]

Osiris was associated with the star Sirius, and the rising of his star in the east (pointed to by the “Three Wise Men”, the three stars in the constellation Orion’s belt) heralded the rising of the floodwaters of the Nile.  Without the annual flooding of the Nile, agriculture and the great Egyptian civilization would not have been possible.  The vegetative spirit that is cyclically reborn is echoed in his mythological functions:  Osiris was considered the source of the yearly Nile flood, as well as the force that caused plants to sprout and the sun to rise and set.  At harvest time, the spirit of Osiris in the wheat, emmer, and barley was “cut down” and thrashed “into pieces”.  Through the powers of the goddess, he was reborn (as green shoots) in the spring.  As such, he represents the eternal return of cyclical time on Earth.   In contrast, his wife and sister Isis represents the durative realm of archetypal time. [The Passion of Isis and Osiris, p. 88-89].

Were the myth of Osiris and Isis to be read literally, the ideas of Zecharia Sitchin and Erich von Däniken would come into play:  that the Earth was visited and seeded by extraterrestrials.  Keeping in mind that Sothis (which we know as Sirius) was Osiris’ star, then several facts and anomalies would become relevant:  that the pyramid complex at Giza and the Nile River correlate to a star map of Orion and the Milky Way; that the Giza pyramids and other monuments would have required sophisticated technology to construct; and the resurrection myths associated with Abydos might indicate advanced knowledge of genetics.  A literalist interpretation would have the civilizing influence of Isis and Osiris become the kindly nudge to human evolution by benevolent ET’s, and the battle between Horus and Set as a power struggle between sun gods (or ET’s left to their own devices on their Earth outpost).

Alternately, Osiris could have been the first human being to unite Egypt – after a struggle with tribal hunters (personified by Set) – making Isis and Osiris the first royal couple who were then deified. Horus, their son, then initiated the line of “divine kings”.  Horus’ name, Heru, can be found in the word PHeru (Pharaoh).  Roman rulers also justified their authority by claiming descent from the gods, as in the name Caesar (Osiris = Assur –> C+Assur = Caesar).

Generally, however, Osiris is not today considered to have been a historical person, but a continual presence in Egyptian cosmology for millennia.  Pharaohs derived their legitimacy from their embodiment of the solar divinity (Horus or Ra/Re), their place in the bloodline, and their perpetuation of the order and ritual originally set down by Osiris. For the ancient Egyptians, of course, Osiris was indeed a real being . . . ruler of Earth and the Underworld, in whom they could trust to ensure the continuity of life’s (and death’s) fundamental forces.

__________________________

 

SET
(Seth, Setekh, Sutekh, Egyptian)

All homage to our Earth Father Geb and our Sky Mother Nut, from whom proceed all life!  It is the love between them that produces two sons, golden Ra of the Sun and silver Tehuti of the Moon.  When they are born, they crawl on their mother’s belly, round and round, marking the day and the night.  Geb yearns for his wife, and mountains reach for her, while Nut responds with moist dew, and soon, she is pregnant again.  Now first son Ra, immensely pleased with himself and his splendid solar rays, jealously regards the possibility of more siblings.  He raises Nut high above the Earth, so that only her fingers and toes arch toward her husband Geb.  In addition, so as to prevent his siblings’ entry into the world, he forbids their birth on any day of the year.  Nut’s belly swells, and she cries out to be delivered.

“I am perfect unto myself!  What more could the world want than my glorious light?”  Ra announces, ignoring the suffering of his mother.  “Besides, I can produce children myself!”  With this his strokes his phallus, spewing his seed onto the surface of the Earth.  These offspring are called humans, and they are scattered aimlessly by the winds, landing where they may.

Inside Nut’s womb are five children:  Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus.  So long do they lie together, they grow to adulthood.  Hearing their mother’s moans, they eventually learn the cause of the trouble:  their older brother Ra.  Set volunteers, “Let me out of here and I will do battle with Ra!  I will punish him for the way he is treating our mother!”

“But Set, Ra is our brother!”  Isis counters.

“Perhaps we should try to reason with him,”  Osiris offers.

“We cannot do anything until we are born into Time and Space!  We are trapped in eternity here!”  Set wails.

Tehuti, also known as Thoth, is as clever as he is wise.  Feeling compassion for his mother Nut, he invites Ra to a game of checkers.  Cagily he lets Ra win for awhile, but eventually beats him.  “By my reckoning, brother, you owe me about five days worth of your golden light.”  Ra flashes anger at him with blazing eyes, for he knows he has been beaten.  “Tell you what we’ll do,”  Tehuti says.  “Let’s take those five days out of time . . . five days that Nut our mother could well use.”  Fair is fair, and Ra acquiesces.

Nut’s labor begins, and her five children draw lots to determine when each would leave the primordial womb.  Osiris is born first and immediately makes peace with Ra, so that the two work together to green the sun-blistered Earth.  The Nile River surges to greet Osiris.  Horus is born next but spurns Earth, flapping his wings to stay with his mother, the Sky.  On the third day Set is born, landing in the red sands of the desert, where he will conspire for vengeance against his brother Ra.  Isis and Nephthys, devoted sisters, emerge on the fourth and fifth days, respectively.

Humans are amazed to behold the radiant gods.  Now order and purpose inspire their lives.  The divine partnership of Osiris and Isis raises civilization along the black, loamy banks of the Upper Nile.  Nephthys joins her beloved Set in the Lower Nile, but he is away all the time with bands of hunters and their dogs.  Out into the red desert they roam, where they discover metals in the mountains.  Learning to forge metals, they soon have sharp blades to help them in the hunt.

Set challenges his brother Osiris for the throne by drowning him in the Nile, and after Isis resurrects him, he kills him again by chopping his body into fourteen pieces.  Then Set rules over Egypt with an iron fist, while Osiris languishes in Amentet, the Underworld.  When Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, grows to manhood, he seeks to avenge the death of his father and regain the throne.

Set pleads before the Council of Heaven that as the son of Nut and Geb,  he is the rightful ruler, but Horus counters that since Set murdered his father and stole the kingship unfairly, he has the right to the throne.  They take the fight onto Earth:  they swing clubs and swords and shoot arrows at one another; they transform themselves into bears, clawing and biting; as a snake Set attacks Horus who takes the form of a mongoose.

Chaos prevails.  For years the combat continues.  At one point when fighting as hippopotamuses, Isis comes to her son’s aid and throws a spear at Set.  “Sister, release your spear!  You have wounded your brother!”  Set cries.  Overcome with compassion, Isis withdraws her spear.  So incensed is Horus at what his mother has done, that in a fit of rage, he swings his sword, cutting off her head.  Tehuti (Thoth), witnessing the atrocity, swoops down on Earth and immediately places a cow’s head on Isis.  Horrified at what he has done to his mother, Horus flees into the mountains, but Set, taking the form of a boar, tracks him down, knocks him to the ground, and plucks out his eyes.  Hathor finds the blind, beaten hawk god and replaces his eyes with a soothing balm of love.   Now, with his wadjet eyes, Horus has a new, more loving vision.

Witnessing the atrocities of war, Ra the Sun God summons Horus and Set before him and the Council of Heaven.  “Listen, you two.  This battle has gone too far, and for too long.  Make peace with one another.  Horus, you may rule the north, and Set, you rule the south.”

Set, grumbling under his breath at relinquishing land to his upstart nephew, nonetheless invites him to his palace.  Together they dine, drinking beer into the night.  “If our lands are to coexist, then we must coexist,”  Set says.  They fall asleep together, and in the middle of the night, Set seduces him.

In the morning Horus awakes with a hangover and escapes the clutches of his uncle, conspiring to reignite the battle.  The Council of Heaven, however, has convened to hear both of their arguments again, to settle the dispute once and for all.  During a break in the deliberations, Set strolls in the gardens and finds a beautiful woman weeping.  “What is the matter, fair maiden?”  Set inquires.

“Oh, kind sir, my husband was a shepherd and when he died, a stranger came and stole the flocks from my son!”

“Why, that’s terrible!  It’s not right!”   Set says, comforting her.

Suddenly the woman changes into a swallow and flies into the tree overhead.  It is Isis!  Chirping loudly and raising a ruckus, the bird attracts the whole company of gods and goddesses outside.

“What’s going on here?”  Ra demands to know.  Isis recounts what Set said.

“Well, then, Set,”  Tehuti declares, “you yourself have decided on justice.”

“Give Set to me,”  Ra offers.  “He is a strong, fearless warrior, and I need him on the Barge of the Sun.  He can stand on the prow of my boat with his spear and part the waters of darkness.”

“So be it!”  Tehuti announces.  “Order is restored in all the worlds!”  And so it is:  Set accompanies Ra on his daily journey through the sky.  Osiris rules down below in Amentet.  Horus rules on Earth.  And Isis is universally recognized  as the Queen of Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld.

((( )))

 

Set is a very ancient god from predynastic times in Egypt.  His bones were considered the iron found in the earth, and as Nebty (“he of the gold town”), he was associated with metalworking.  Certainly the early hunting tribes would have valued the ability to forge metals and skill with weaponry.  He was the god of the hunt, of thunderstorms, the desert, and sandstorms; to deal with Set was to understand the restrictions placed by Nature’s limitations.

Red was Set’s color, probably due to the red sands of the desert.  Sometimes he was depicted with deathly white skin and red hair; other times a composite creature with the body of a greyhound; a long, erect, forked tail; and the head of a jackal or a camel.  Dangerous animals accompanied the Desert God:  snakes, crocodiles, hippopotamuses, and scorpions, and well as animals of the hunt:  pigs, dogs, jackals, and antelope.

As the Egyptian pantheon evolved, Set and Horus were often paired, attesting to the unification of Egypt:  Set of Upper Egypt (the southern borderlands) and Horus of Lower Egypt (the north, the Nile Delta).  Set was also associated with night, and Horus with day; the two of them did battle each dawn and dusk.  Eventually this duality became more polarized, with Horus representing good and Set evil.  Accordingly, the Greeks associated Set with Typhon, a serpent-dragon monster that wreaked havoc trying to undermine the gods of Mt. Olympus.  As Set became more and more the embodiment of evil, by the 10^th century BCE, statues and bas reliefs of him were defaced and his worship severely curtailed.

Even so, while Egypt is made up of narrow agricultural plains (represented by Isis) made fertile by the annual flooding of the Nile (brought by Osiris), it is predominantly a land of the arid, red desert (ruled by Set).  To survive in such a dangerous landscape, the ancient Egyptians understood they had to deal with the brutal realities of Set.

 

§§ See also ISIS
§§ OSIRIS
§§ MARS

 

Appears in:     Climax – Create a More Pure Love

 

§§ = Refer to the section indicated in The Pillow Book of Venus and Her Lover – Reinventing the Myth, or in The Birthing of Venus and Her Lover,  for related information.

 

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MARS
(Ares, Greek, Roman) 

No Mythology Notes for Mars, since he is treated in depth within the text of The Pillow Book of Venus and Her Lover – Reinventing the Myth.

 

VENUS
(Aphrodite, Greek, Roman) 

No Mythology Notes for Venus, since she is treated in depth within the text of The Pillow Book of Venus and Her Lover – Reinventing the Myth.

 

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Excerpted from The Pillow Book of Venus and Her Lover – Reinventing the Myth by Becca Tzigany and James Bertrand
© 2004 Copyrighted material