Out of the primal waters, Atum arises and gives birth to the male Shu (Air, Life, Space, Light) and female Tefnut (Moisture and Order), who gives birth to Nut, the sky goddess, and Geb, the god of Earth. (Right here you can see that the Egyptians had a different consciousness then we do. For us, we see the masculine Deity in the heavens, while we see the Earth as feminine.)
Shu lifts his daughter Nut away from his son Geb, supporting her so she can give birth to the stars and heavens. And Nut also gave birth to two sets of twins, Isis and Nephthys and Osiris and Set. They were born during the sacred five days between the years that Thoth, the Moon god, had to win from Ra, the Sun god. Isis and Osiris loved each other in the womb, and Nephthys married Set.
Osiris, who was given the dark, rich earth around the Nile to rule, and his sister, Isis, taught the Egyptians the arts and crafts of civilization: how to plant and harvest, how to gather fruit and cultivate wine, how to create art and build cities. Osiris often traveled to other countries to teach these matters, and Isis stayed in Egypt to rule and keep the peace.
But Set, who was given the desert to rule, was jealous of his brother and wanted to rule in his place. So one day he constructed a richly decorated chest and gathered his friends and his brother for a feast. Bringing the chest out, he promised as a jest to give the chest to whoever it fit exactly. Everyone was either too short or tall, but it fit Osiris perfectly. Once he lay within it, Set slammed the chest shut, nailed the lid and sealed it with molten lead. Then Set and his fellow conspirators flung it into the Nile.
When Isis heard of the murder, she cut her hair and put on mourning and searched everywhere up and down the Nile for the coffin. Some children told her they had seen where the chest had floated into the ocean and Isis discovered that it had arrived at Byblos in Phoenicia, where it lodged in a tree. This tree grew around the chest and was so beautiful that the king and queen had the tree cut down and made into a pillar for their palace.
Isis went to Byblos and sat veiled and mourning by a well, disguising her divinity. Soon some of the queen's maidens came to the well and Isis offered to braid their hair in the Egyptian manner. When they returned to the palace, the queen saw their braids and smelled a delightful fragrance on them, and sent for Isis to come serve her in the palace. She made her the nurse for her child.
At night, Isis would take the child into the great hall, feed him from her finger and hold him in the fires to give him the gift of immortality. Then she would transform herself into a swallow and fly around the pillar that contained Osiris' body, singing mournfully. One night the queen came in and saw her son lying in the fires and screamed, depriving her child of immortality.
Once Isis reveals who she is, the king and queen help her take down the pillar and remove Osiris' body. Isis takes him back to Egypt and hides his body in the marshes of the Nile. It is there that she conceives her son Horus, taking the form of a kite and with her great wings, breathing life back into Osiris' body.
When Isis gives birth to Horus in the marshes of the Nile, she has to leave him for a time. When she returns, she finds him almost dead, stung by a scorpion. She calls on her teacher Thoth, who gives her the Words of Power to heal Horus. She becomes the Mistress of Magic, bestowing her magical incantations on the Temples for the healing of her people.
Isis leaves Osiris' body to take care of her son Horus, thinking it well hidden. But one day Set, who is out hunting, comes upon the chest and tears Osiris' body into 14 pieces and flings them into the Nile. When Isis discovers this, she once again sets out to reclaim Osiris' body, along with Nephthys and Anubis, her son Horus and her teacher Thoth. They find only 13 parts--his phallus has been swallowed by a fish. Isis makes a replica of the missing phallus to take its place, wraps the body in a mummy with great ritual, and once again with her wings revives Osiris to become King of the Underworld and Eternity, where he judges the souls of the dead.
Now Horus fights Set for the Kingship and finally defeats him. When Horus brings Set to his mother, Isis, she takes pity on Set's wounds and lets him go free. When Horus discovers this, he is so angry he cuts his mother's head off, but Thoth quickly replaces it with the head of a cow. Isis now becomes Hathor, the ancient goddess of Childbirth and fertility. They finally defeat Set and restore peace and prosperity to the Nile Valley.
As you can see, this new terrorist gang should be called Set, who is a figure of chaos and death. It's time to reclaim our symbolic heritage, which has been used and abused by patriarchy just as women and the divine feminine have been demonized throughout patriarchal history.
Isis as Magician and Healer
While we often think of Isis in her roles of lover and mother, I'd like to consider her role as mistress of magic and healing. Ritual magic and healing are aspects of Isis' gifts. You need humility, perfectionism (in pronouncing the Word correctly), efficiency in a crisis, the correct application of the learned skills and techniques for problem-solving, intercession for others and healing.3
One story about Isis tells of how she poisons the sun god Ra and then gets him to tell her his NAME--which is his power--so she can cure him. After this, she has the power to heal both physically and psychologically. There were many healing temples throughout Egypt, and there are inscriptions there that tell of those who came to sleep in her temples and be healed through dreams.
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