The Egyptian Mysteries – The Story of Creationby MoonDancer
In the beginning, there
was nothing – just the serpent Atum biting his tail. After experiencing
loneliness, he decided to
create the universe – starts, planets, and of course the planet earth and
all the life there.
In the early years of Earth, Geb – the god of vegetation, and Nut – the
Goddess
of the sky, constantly made
love. Nut gave birth the Sun god Ra, and the moon god Thoth.
They also are the parents
of the famous set of quintuplets, Isis, Osiris, Nephthys, Set, and Horus.
When Ra heard that his mother
was pregnant with these quintuplets, he became jealous that his
mother had any other interests
than him. So Ra separated Geb and Nut with Shu – who would l
lift her up and separate
her from Geb her lover forever. Ra also forbade Nut to give birth
on any
calendar days of the 360-day
year. So the quintuplets grew up in their mother’s womb, with Nut
struggling and straining.
Osiris married Isis, Nephthys married Set. It is said that the time
in the
womb corrupted Set – made
him angry – a bad person so to speak. He became angry with the
other gods that would allow
Ra to treat his mother and his siblings in such a manner.
Eventually, Thoth beat Ra
at gambling, and won just enough time for his mother to have 5 days to
give birth to her 5 children,
thus giving us the 365 day calendar we have now. All her children
were born fully grown.
Isis, it is said, was born in the Nile swamps on the first day of these
5 won
days. From the beginning,
Isis turned a kind eye to the people of the earth, teaching women to
grind corn, spin flax, and
weave cloth (161 Monaghan).
Alas for Isis, her
evil brother Set killed Osiris. He hid the body in a tree and floated
it down the
riverbank. The mourning
goddess wandered the land searching for her beloved – tearing her
robes, wailing. She
eventually arrived in Phoenicia, where Queen Astarte hired her as a
nursemaid for her infant
prince. Isis took great solace in caring for the child, placing him
like a log
in the palace fire.
One day, Queen Astarte stumbled upon her son smoldering. When she
grabbed her son from the
fire, she undid the magic of immortality Isis had been working on the
child (161 Monaghan).
Needless to say, the goddess
had to reveal her identity, and explained her sorrowful search.
Astarte realized the fragrant
tamarisk tree she had brought to the palace must contain the body
of Osiris. Astarte
let Isis get her beloved back, and Isis then attempted to bring Osiris
back
from the dead – but Set
thwarted her plans and stole Osiris’ body and dismembered it into
14 pieces – each piece being
hidden separately.
But Isis would not be defeated.
She went on another search, but came up short. One piece was
missing – his phallus –
which had been gobbled up by a fish in the Nile. So Isis shaped a
phallus
out of gold for her beloved.
Isis then created the process of embalming and then applied that with
magical words to the body
of Osiris. His body rose, and the goddess conceived a child through
the golden phallus.
Soon after their lovemaking, Osiris’ spirit took his place as lord of the
Underworld. Isis gave
birth to a falcon headed child – Horus.
This very condensed version
of the story was taken from memory with the help of the version
found in Patricia Monaghan’s
book The Goddess Path. For a full story of the Egyptian myth
of creation and a deeper
look into the Egyptian mysteries, I highly recommend the book, "The
Myth of Isis and Osiris"
by Jean Houston.
Sacred Symbols, Jewelry,
and Amulets of the Goddess (58-60 Regula)
The Ankh, bread, burin (an
engraving tool), cornucopia, the cup and the cross, grain measure
(modis), harpoon, spear,
horns, lamp, lantern, phallus, magic circle, crescent moon, full moon,
pentagram, rudder, sail,
scepter, ships, sistrum, situla, spnge, serpents, thet or set knot, throne,
triangle, uraeus, wand,
wheat, wings, yoni, djed, the amulet of Isis, the Vulture amulet, the lotus
staff, robes
Sacred Animals to Isis (52-54
Regula)
The Apis bull, beetles,
cats, crocodiles, dogs, dolphins, eagles, gazelles, griffons, hawks, lions,
peacocks, pigs, rams, scarabs,
scorpions, serpents, sphinxes, swallows, vultures
All Material Here Is The Intellectual Property of MoonDancer
Copyright 2001