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Astarte
Astarte was connected with
fertility,
sexuality, and
war. Her symbols were the
lion, the
horse, the
sphinx, the
dove, and a
star within a circle indicating the planet
Venus. Pictorial representations often show her
naked.
Astarte was accepted by the
Greeks under the name of
Aphrodite. The island of
Cyprus, one of Astarte's greatest faith centers,
supplied the name Cypris as Aphrodite's most common
byname.
Other major centers of Astarte's
worship were
Sidon,
Tyre, and
Byblos. Coins from Sidon portray a
chariot in which a globe appears, presumably a stone
representing Astarte. In Sidon, she shared a temple with
Eshmun. At
Beirut coins show
Poseidon, Astarte, and
Eshmun worshipped together. Other faith centers were
Cytherea,
Malta, and
Eryx in
Sicily from which she became known to the
Romans as
Venus Erycina. A bilingual inscription on the
Pyrgi Tablets dating to about
500 BC
found near
Caere in
Etruria equates Astarte with
Etruscan Uni-Astre that is,
Juno. At
Carthage Astarte was worshipped alongside the
goddess
Tanit |
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The tallest Egyptian Obelisk graces the square in front
of the
Lateran Basilica in Rome. This the
cathedral church of Rome and the official
ecclesiastical seat of the
Bishop of Rome, who is the
Pope. Officially named
Archibasilica Sanctissimi Salvatoris ("Archbasilica
of the Most Holy
Saviour"), it is the oldest and ranks first (being
the cathedral of Rome) among the four
major basilicas of Rome, and holds the title of
ecumenical
mother church (mother church of the whole inhabited
world) among
Roman Catholics.
Twenty-eight ancient Egyptian are known to have
survived, plus the "Unfinished
Obelisk" found partly hewn from its quarry at
Aswan. These Obelisks are now dispersed worldwide,
and only eight remain in Egypt. |
Iemanja
(Yemaja, Imanja, Yemayá, Jemanja, Yemalla, Yemana,
Yemanja, Yemaya, Yemayah, Yemoja, Ymoja, Nanã, La Sirène,
LaSiren,
Mami Wata) - divine mother
goddess, divine goddess of the sea and Mother of
mankind. The lineage is traced from Africa through the
Yoruba spiritual lineages to include
Anago,
Oyotunji,
Candomblé and
Lucumí/Santería
and practitioners are found throughout areas of
Brazil,
Cuba, Dominican Republic,
Puerto Rico,
Guyana,
Trinidad and Tobago, the
United States,
Mexico and
Venezuela. |
Mary_Magdalene
often referred to as a
prostitute, but she was never called one in the New
Testament. Mary Magdalene is honored as one of the first
witnesses of the
Resurrection of Jesus, and received a special
commission from him to tell the Apostles of his
resurrection (John
20:11–18. Mary's role as a witness is interesting
due to the fact women at that time could not be
witnesses in legal proceedings.citation
needed] Because of this, and
because of her subsequent missionary activity in
spreading the
Gospel, she is known by the title, "Equal of the
Apostles." |
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The French tradition of
Saint Lazare of Bethany is that Mary, her brother
Lazarus, and Maximinus, one of the
Seventy Disciples and some companions, expelled by
persecutions from the
Holy Land, traversed the
Mediterranean in a frail boat with neither rudder
nor mast and landed at the place called
Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer near
Arles. Mary Magdalene came to Marseille and
converted the whole of Provence. Magdalene is said to
have retired to a cave on a hill by Marseille, La
Sainte-Baume ("holy cave", baumo in
Provencal), where she gave herself up to a life of
penance for thirty years. When the time of her death
arrived she was carried by angels to Aix and into the
oratory of
Saint Maximinus, where she received the
viaticum; her body was then laid in an oratory
constructed by St. Maximinus at Villa Lata, afterwards
called St. Maximin. In 1279,
when
Charles II, King of Naples, erected a Dominican
convent at La Sainte-Baume, the shrine was found
intact, with an explanatory inscription stating why the
relics had been hidden.
In 1600, the relics were placed in a
sarcophagus commissioned by
Pope Clement VIII, the head being placed in a
separate
reliquary. The relics and free-standing images were
scattered and destroyed at the
Revolution. In 1814, the church of La Sainte-Baume,
also wrecked during the Revolution, was restored, and,
in 1822, the grotto was consecrated afresh. The head of
the saint now lies there and has been the centre of many
pilgrimages.
Other religions, especially Christian
Mysticism and many New Age faiths, venerate Mary
Magdalene as the Bride of Christ, an avatar of Sophia,
and even the Co-Messiah with Jesus Christ, or simply
combine all three. |
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Some
modern writers have come forward with claims that
Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus. These writers cite
Gnostic writings to support their argument. Sources like
the
Gospel of Philip depict Mary Magdalene as being
closer to Jesus than any other
disciple |
Our_Lady_of
_Guadalupe |
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Having endured humiliation and degradation as a
slave, then having been enfranchised as a citizen, a Roman
freedman or freedwoman lived in a world that must have seemed
filled with complexities, ambiguities, and paradoxes – not to
mention opportunities. Those privileges included, but were not
limited to, the right to marry legally, to produce a legitimate
Roman family, to vote, and to acquire wealth. Yet behind every
new advantage, a reminiscence of one’s servile past could
potentially tarnish the brilliance of that opportunity, a
circumstance that distinguished ex-slaves (libertini )
from freeborn citizens (ingenui ). Although they were
permitted to participate in the political process by voting,
libertini could not stand for prestigious elected office.
Although able to accumulate property, a freed slave might have
had to hand over a portion of his estate upon death to the
former master (patronus). And as slave owners
themselves, many freed people were at the same time tied by
bonds of obligations (obsequium, officium, and
operae) to their own former owners. As the very designation
libertinus makes explicit, an ex-slave’s past clung to
his or her legal and social identity at least as much as the
newly acquired citizen status. Nonetheless, to the extent that
freed people could accumulate wealth, they could also be
prodigious patrons of art and architecture
The Freedman in Roman Art and Art History
by Lauren Hackworth Petersen |
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Ship of Isis
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Stella Maris/Isidis Navigium
-one of the modern Carnival's more obvious predecessors.
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This Isis festival of the waters still survives throughout the
Americas and Europe with the virgin Mary replacing Isis.
The Romans celebrated the goddess Isis as the patroness of
sailors and inventor of the sail. The festival of
Isis, where her image is carried to the sea-shore to bless the
start of the sailing season, was called the "Carrus Navalis"
("ship cart"). Many believe this is the true origin of the
word "Carnival," not the "Farewell to the flesh" from the Latin
roots, carne [meat] and vale [farewell], which has been
popularized.
Queen Isis is the Ocean Star, or Stella Maris, as Mary would
later be called in Latin, the guide and protector of navigators
identifying Isis with Sirius, the brightest star and main
beacon point in the sky for sailors. The heliacal rising,
or date when Sirius can first be seen rising in the east just
before the rising of the Sun - fell each year on July 26,
which historically was associated with the annual Nile flood.
The Ocean Star festival
was
celebrated on the 5th of March. On the
evening of this festival, there are ceremonies and songs on
boats that blaze with lamps and colors. This day is also an
important time marker. It is now 140 days, or 14
decans (10-day "weeks"), until a new flow of red water should
begin the next Nile flood on July 26.
When winter storms lose their force, a ship is dedicated to Isis
as a new season of sailing begins. This is the ancient Egyptian
festival of Isidis Navigium (the ship of Isis), or the
Ploiaphesia, which honored Isis' invention of the sail and her
patronage of sailing-craft and navigation.
As part of the festivities, a parade was performed in honor of
Isis. Here is one description:
"Following in a procession of mummers,
the priests carry emblems of Isis. The Chief Priest
carries a lamp, a golden boat-shaped light with a tall
tongue of flame from a hole in the center. The second
priest holds an auxiliaria (ritual pot) in each of his
hands, and the third carries a miniature palm-tree. The
fourth priest carries a model of the left hand with the
fingers stretched out, the emblem of justice as well as
a golden vessel in the shape of a woman's breast. From
the nipple falls a thin stream of milk. The fifth cleric
carries a winnowing-fan woven with golden rods, not
osiers. The final man, not a priest, carries a wine-jar.
Next in the procession comes Anubis with a face black on
one side and golden on the other, and a man carrying a
statue of a cow, representing the Goddess as the
fruitful Mother of us all. After them walks a priest
with a box containing the secret implements of Isis’
cult, and another priest carries a secret vessel in his
robes.
It is a small container of burnished gold with thickly
crowded Egyptian hieroglyphics and a rounded bottom, a
long spout, and a generously curving handle. Along the
handle is an asp raising its head and displaying its
throat.
Waiting at the seashore is a beautifully built ship
covered with Egyptian hieroglyphics. The sail is
fashioned of white linen inscribed with large letters
with a prayer for the Goddess's protection of the
shipping lanes during the new sailing season, and the
long mast is made of fir. The prow is shaped like the
neck of Isis's holy goose, and the long keel is cut from
a solid trunk of citrus-wood.
"The ship is purified with a lighted torch, an egg, and
sulphur, and then hallowed and dedicated to the Goddess.
All present place winnowing-fans heaped with aromatics
and other votive offerings on board while pouring milk
into the sea as a libation. When the ship is loaded with
gifts and prayers for good fortune, the anchor cables
are cut, setting the ship free." |
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An Isidis
Navigium Procession
345 AD
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"Into this playful masquerade of the overflowing
populace the
procession proper now marched its way. Women glowing in their
white vestments moved with symbolic gestures of delight.
Blossomy with the chaplets of the Spring, they scattered
flowerets out of the aprons of their dresses all along the
course of the holy pageant. Others, who bore polished mirrors on
their backs, walked before the Goddess and reflected all the
people coming after as if they were advancing towards the Image.
Others, again, carrying combs of ivory, went through the various
caressive motions of combing and dressing the queenly tresses of
their Lady; or they sprinkled the street with drops of unguent
and genial balm.
"There was a further host of men and women who followed with
lanterns, torches, wax tapers, and every other kind of
illumination in honor of Her, who was begotten of the Stars of
Heaven. Next came the musicians, interweaving in sweetest
measures the notes of pipe and flute; and then a supple choir of
chosen youths, clad in snow white holiday tunics, came singing a
delightful song which an expert poet, by grace of the Muses, had
composed for music, and which explained the antique origins of
this day of worship. Pipers also, consecrated to mighty Sarapis,
played the tunes annexed to the god's cult on pipes with
transverse mouthpieces and reeds held sidelong towards the right
ear; and a number of officials kept calling out, "Make way for
the Goddess!"
(Philocalus, Kal. anno
345) "March 5. Isidis navigium, [more] |
| Isis
gains power of rebirth
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Isis became the most powerful of the gods and
goddesses in the ancient world. Ra, the God of the Sun,
originally had the greatest power. But Ra was uncaring, and the
people of the world suffered greatly during his reign.
The goddess Isis tricked him by mixing some of his saliva with
mud to create a poisonous snake that bit him, causing him great
suffering which she then offered to cure. He eventually agreed.
Isis informed Ra that, for the cure to work, she would have to
speak his secret name (which was the source of his power over
life and death). Reluctantly, he whispered it to her.
When Isis uttered his secret name while performing her magic, Ra
was healed. But the goddess Isis then possessed his powers of
life and death, and quickly became the most powerful of the
Egyptian gods and goddesses, using her great powers to the
benefit of the people. |
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Hilaria – “Osiris has
been found"
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The Hilaria of the
Isis-Osiris cult was marked on November 3, to honor the
resurrection of Osiris. The Hilaria of her great
rival, Cybele
the official Great Mother of Rome, was merged into
Easter in the grand mix that became the Roman Catholic
Church following the
Council of Nicea
in 325 AD |
It was a public occasion, marked in the Roman calendar
with the name Hilaria – “Osiris has been found”, the
crowd shouted for joy.
At the end of the festival, when the above words had
been shouted, the priests would fashion a small image in
the shape of the crescent moon. Images of Osiris were
made of paste and grain; these were watered until the
barley sprouted and then floated down the Nile with
candles as part of the planting ceremonies. The crowd
departed from the temple and made its way down to the
sea on the final night. The Hilaria was given over to
unrestrained rejoicing, because the god, now risen to
immortality, would assess all who had become divine by
drinking the milk of Isis.
The gods did not fare any better
in these plays: In the
Contendings of Horus and Seth [4]
the council of gods deliberated for twenty four
years about who should inherit Osiris - Seth or
Horus. The debauchery of Seth was equal only to
his stupidity and Horus wept like a baby on
being beaten. Hathor, when called before the
creator, dropped her clothes to show how little
she valued his decisions.
While this is not theatre in
our sense, it is certainly dramatic dialogue,
funny and at times bawdy, which was probably
recited before audiences:
After a considerable while
Hathor, Lady of the Southern Sycamore, came
and stood before her father, the Universal
Lord, and she exposed her vagina before his
very eyes. Thereupon the great god laughed
at her. Then he got right up and sat down
with the Great Ennead. He said to Horus and
Seth: "Speak concerning yourselves."
Seth, great in virility,
the son of Nut, said: "As for me, I am Seth,
greatest in virility among (the) Ennead, for
I slay the opponent of Pre daily while I am
at the prow of the Bark of the Millions,
whereas not any (other) god is able to do
it. I should receive the office of Osiris."
Then they said: "Seth,
the son of Nut, is correct."
Thoth let out a
loud cry, saying: "Is it while a bodily son
is still living that the office is to be
awarded to a maternal uncle?"
Then said Banebdjede, the
living great god: "Is it while Seth, his
elder brother, is still living that the
office is to be awarded to the (mere) lad?"
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The temple of Isis at Pompeii. Engraving by Francesco Piranesi,
1788. London, British Museum. Pompeii. |
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ISIS at POMPEII
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Isis worship was the last great Mother Goddess religion,
competing with Christianity against the official Roman deities
and Mithraism till its suppression and destruction by adherents
of Christianity. When Mount Vesuvius erupted, we were
given a remarkable record of one the great cultural centers of
antiquity. Pompeii was a thriving cultural and commercial center
of the Mediterranean.
Here Isis was not only the Egyptian goddess
but the great mother goddess. Greek influence is widely apparent,
and Isis worship by the Greeks began after Alexander the Great
conquered Egypt. When the Romans conquered both Egypt and Greece
itself, the worship of Isis spread throughout the Roman Empire.
She was venerated as a loving mother goddess who promoted
fertility, oversaw the changing of the seasons, and healed the
sick. She was also the patron of sailors. There were temples
dedicated to Isis and her brother/husband Osiris throughout the
Greco-Roman world. These temples were the sites of elaborate
daily and annual rituals and were administered by an educated
priesthood skilled in music and medicine. Isis worship was
especially popular with women and with the new elite who gained
wealth and prominence as the Roman empire expanded. |
| Isis worship was concerned about the acquisition of
knowledge, since knowledge could only be attained from the gifts
of the gods
[3]. Priests of Isis typically shaved their heads and
wore linen garments rather than wool
[3]. Isis worship did not include a Messianic
apocalyptic worldview
[2]; however, Isis worship typically excluded other
deities and approached a monotheistic viewpoint
[2]. Services occurred daily with a solemn morning
opening and a nightly closing filled with singing
[2]. A ritual bucket for holy Nile water, the situla,
and a rattle, the sistrum, were both used in worship
[1]. |
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The Temple of Isis in Pompeii was small
but
ornate. It was destroyed in an earthquake in A.D. 62 but was
rebuilt shortly after that. The renovation was financed by a
freed slave in the name of his young son. There may have been
political motivations for this, since freed slaves were not
allowed to hold public office, and the son who was appointed as
a member of the city council was only six years old. The Temple
has a mixture of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman architectural
features. This is not surprising since Roman architecture of
this period was very ornate, often used bright colors, and
borrowed and mixed styles from many eras.
There were many statues in the Temple of Isis and the portico
walls were covered with elaborate murals. To the left of the
temple was a small roofless structure containing a tank that may
have held the sacred water from the Nile, which was very
important in many Isis ceremonies. In the rear of the sanctuary
was a room containing a marble table where sacred meals were
probably served.
Oh holy and blessed Lady the perpetual
comfort of humankind who by thy bounty and grace nourishes
the whole world and bears a great compassion to the troubles
of the miserable as a loving mother would
Lucius Apuleius
After Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332
B.C., he and his successors the Ptolomies continued to support
the cult of Isis, though in time, the different gods in the Isis
pantheon were merged with Greek gods such that Osiris became
Osirus-Serapis-Pluto, and Horus became Horus-Harpocrates-Apollo.
When the Romans conquered Egypt in the first
century B.C., they in turn venerated Isis. Like other agrarian
peoples, the early Roman had reacted to the complexity of life
by seeing hosts of gods ruling different
things. There were separate gods for different places, different
aspects of nature, different stages and conditions of life, and
different times of year. There were also state gods that all
citizens were expected to worship as a patriotic duty. Later,
when Rome started to conquer more and more of her neighbors,
foreign gods were also tolerated. But as more and more gods were
added, and as Roman society got farther and farther away from
its agrarian roots, there was a movement towards seeing the
separate gods as different aspects of the same deity, and of
seeking more compassionate deities. The worship of Isis was part
of this trend. She became immensely popular- first with women
and freed slaves, but later with the upper classes of society as
well. The priests of Isis became more powerful as well. These
priests were ascetics- according to ancient sources they bathed
in cold water twice each day and twice each night, and shaved their
entire bodies once every three days.
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The Spread of the Cult of Isis
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Testimonies of the cult of
Isis are found in Athens, at Tithorea near Delphi (where there
was the most sacred of the Greek sanctuaries of Isis), in many
centers of Greece, in the islands of the Aegean Sea
(particularly at Delos), in Asia Minor, in Northern Africa, in
Sicily, in Sardinia, in Spain, in Italy (especially in Campania
at Pompeii, Pozzuoli, Ercolano), in Gaul and in Germany.
Caligula built a temple to Isis in Rome in 38 AD, but from the time of
Julius Caesar there had been a temple to Isis and Serapis on Capitoline
Hill. There was a temple of
Isis in Southwark, London.
In Rome, the cult had great success. Towards
88 b.C. it was in operation in
a college of pastophori: a brotherhood of priests who
brought small shrines with the divine images in procession.
In 65 b.C. an altar devoted
to Isis in the Capitol was destroyed by order of the Senate.
The followers of Isis, belonging to all the social classes, were
involved in the political and social struggles of the last times
of the Republic. The Senate ordered the destruction of temples,
altars and statues of the goddess in
58, in 54, in 50 and in 48 b.C..
In 50 b.C. the consul
Emilius Paolus didn't find any worker willing to demolish the
sanctuary of Isis.
In 43 b.C. the triumviris
(Mark Antony, Octavian and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus) promised to
consecrate a temple to Isis at the Republic's expenses, but the
promise was not kept.
After the battle of Actium (31 b.C.)
and the death of Cleopatra (69 b.C.-30 b.C.) and of Mark Antony
(81 b.C.-30 b.C.) the persecutions against the Greek-Egyptian
cults resumed.
In 28 b.C. Augustus (63 b.C.-14
AD) prohibited the cult of Isis within the sacred enclosure of
the city (pomoerium).
In 21 b.C. Agrippa, in
absence of August, prohibited the Alexandrine cults within a
kilometer and a half from the city.
In 19 AD Tiberius (42 b.C.-37
AD) ordered the temple of Isis demolished and her statue thrown in the Tiber River. |
The situation changed with
Caligula (12-41 AD), descendant of
August and of Mark Antony, who built a great temple devoted to
Isis in Campus Martius: the Iseum Campense. He was emperor for
just four years (37-41 AD)
According to Josephus, Caligula himself donned female garb and
took part in the mysteries he instituted, and Isis acquired in
the Hellenistic age a "new rank as a leading goddess of the
Mediterranean world."
In the second
century AD Rome became the center of the religion of Isis: it
became the sacrosancta civitas according to the denomination of
Apuleius in the Metamorphoses.
The great cult of Isis survived until
385 AD, when Christians
destroyed the Serapeum of Alexandria, and subsequently the cult
was forbidden by the the edict of Thessalonica, issued by
Theodosius (347-395).
In 394 the last official
rites were celebrated in honor of Isis in Rome.
In 536 the emperor Justinian
(483-565) ordered the closing of the last temple of Isis,
situated in the island of Philae on the Nile at the borders with
the Nubia, and converted it to a Christian church.
Black Madonnas
Many have theorized that these images and statues hearken back
to the worship of the ancient Goddesses Isis and Demeter;
indeed, some of the statues themselves are believed to be
pre-Christian. Certainly, the image of the divine mother and
child-god are older than Christianity, and the tendency of the
Catholic Church to borrow, consciously or subconsciously, the
iconography of
widespread Pagan cults at the time of it's founding is well
known.
Mary Magdalene The
black Madonna statues have also been connected to Mary
Magdalene, who is often seen as the counterpart of the Virgin
"Goddess" Mary- an emblem of fertility and sexuality, a
substitute for the missing "Goddess consort" to Christ.
Yemanja
is an orisha, originally of the Yoruba
religion, who has become prominent in many Afro-American
religions. She is a mother goddess; patron deity of
women.
Yemanja is linked to the ocean and mermaids,
representing the feminine universal principle. She is
considered the patron of fishermen. Once a year on
February 02 and/or December 31, people in Brazil go to
the beaches by the thousands, dressed in white, to offer
gifts of flowers, candles, perfume, mirrors, etc. to
this entity. Yemanjá is also related to the Moon and the
moonlight, and her day is Monday. Blue and silver are her
colors |
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Every February 2 in Salvador,
Bahia, there is a celebration of Iemanjá, which
involves thousands of people lining up at dawn
to leave their offerings at her shrine in Rio
Vermelho. Presents for Iemanjá usually include
flowers, perfume, and objects of female vanity
(jewelry, combs, mirrors). These are gathered in
large baskets and taken out to the sea by local
fishermen. Afterwards a massive street party
ensues.
In Rio de Janeiro, Iemanjá is celebrated on New
Year's Eve, when millions of cariocas dressed in
white gather on Copacabana beach to greet the
New Year, watch fireworks, and throw flowers and
other offerings into the sea for the goddess in
the hopes that she will grant them their
requests for the coming year. |
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- Africa: Yemoja, Ymoja,
Iemanja Nana Borocum, Iemanja Bomi, Iemanja
Boci
- Brazil: Yemanjá, Iemanjá,
Janaina
- Cuba: Yemaya, Yemayah, Iemanya
- Haiti: La Sirène, LaSiren (in
Vodou)
- USA (New Orleans Hoodoo): Yemalla,
Yemana
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Yemalla pictured in New Orleans
Hoodoo
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Our Lady of Guadalupe,
also
called the Virgin of Guadalupe. It is Mexico's most
beloved religious and cultural image. Our Lady of
 Guadalupe
is known in Mexico as "La Virgen Morena", which means
"The brown-skinned Virgin". Our Lady of Guadalupe's
feast day is celebrated on December 12, commemorating
the account of her appearances to Juan Diego on the hill
of Tepeyac near Mexico City from December 9 through
December 12, 1531. The Virgin of Guadalupe represents a
special relationship between the indigenous peoples of
the American continents and the Catholic Church.
It has also been suggested that "Guadalupe" is a corruption of a Nahuatl
name "Coatlaxopeuh", which has been translated as "Who
Crushes the Serpent". The Virgin's image as the Woman of
the Apocalypse from the New Testament's Revelation 12:1:
"arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and
upon her head a crown of twelve stars." |
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The
Roman Isis of |
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Ten Thousand Names |
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Queen of Heaven |
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Mother of the Gods |
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The One Who is All |
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Lady of Green Crops |
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The Brilliant One in the Sky |
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Stella Maris, or
Star of the Sea |
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Great Lady of Magic |
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Mistress of the House of Life |
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She Who Knows How To Make Right Use of the Heart |
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Light-Giver of Heaven |
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Lady of the Words of Power |
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Moon Shining Over the Sea. |
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High Priestess of Nut "Mistress of Magic" |
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Demeter to the Greeks |
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Ceres to the Romans |
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Spirit of the world order and bearer of the Feather of Truth |
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The Giver of Life and Crone of
Death |
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"The One Who Is All" or Isis
Panthea ("Isis the All Goddess") |
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goddess of medicine and wisdom |
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the protector at
childbirth, for nurturing and caring of children and for
everyone who is in need |
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teacher of the skills of
reading and agriculture |
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Goddess of the Earth in
ancient Egypt and loved her brother Osiris |
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Her name literally means female of
throne, i.e. Queen of the throne. Her original
headdress was an empty throne chair belonging to her murdered
husband, Osiris. As the personification of the throne, she was
an important source of the Pharaoh's power. |
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Isis embodies the strengths of
the feminine, the capacity to feel deeply about relationships,
the act of creation, and the source of sustenance and protection |
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a clever trickster empowered
by her feminine wiles rather than her logic or brute strength |
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"Isis is, in fact, the female
principle of Nature, and is receptive of every form of
generation, in accord with which she is called by Plato the
gentle nurse and the all-receptive, and by most people has been
called by countless names, since, because of the force of
Reason, she turns herself to this thing or that and is receptive
of all manner of shapes and forms. She has an innate love for
the first and most dominant of all things, which is identical
with the good, and this she yearns for and pursues; fbut the
portion which comes from evil she tries to avoid and to reject,
for she serves p131them both as a place and means of growth, but
inclines always towards the better and offers to it opportunity
to create from her and to impregnate her with effluxes and
likenesses in which she rejoices and is glad that she is made
pregnant and teeming with these creations. For creation is the
image of being in matter, and the thing created is a picture of
reality."
by Plutarch, Moralia
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The Nag Hammadi text, Thunder,
Perfect Mind, offers an extraordinary poem spoken in the voice
of Sophia as the feminine divine power: |
"I am the first and the last I am the honored one and the
scorned one I am the whore and the holy one I am the wife and
the virgin… I am the barren one, and many are her sons I am the
silence and the incomprehensible I am the utterance of my own
name… " |
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Also from the Nag Hammadi text,
the Apocalypse of Adam gives us another description of the dive
feminine |
"..from the nine Muses, one (Sophia) separated away. She
came to a high mountain and spent time seated there, so
that she desired herself alone in order to become
androgynous. She fulfilled her desire, and became
pregnant from her desire."
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Cleopatra |
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Cleopatra was born in Alexandria in 69 B.C.
during the reign of the Ptolemy family to Ptolemy VII. Cleopatra
appears to have been a popular name in the family, as her mother
bore the name as well as an older sister, making the new
daughter Cleopatra the Seventh. Cleopatra took control of the
throne of Egypt at only 17 years of age. |
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Isis is most commonly pronounced
eye-sis. The true Egyptian pronunciation is unknown
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"To the Sea" |
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In the Pythagorean tradition the Crier in the Mysteries would
call, "To the Sea" and the candidates for the mysteries had to
enter the ocean, with the intent of being purified by the salt
water. |
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Meditation In Movement |
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Dance was once the way in which
the village healed itself. It was meditation in movement and
linked this with the ancient gods and deepest feelings known to
people. This allows the fullest expression of the spirit in the
physical body. Through dance our consciousness is allowed
to inhabit the whole of the body |
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Sistrum |
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The Sistrum From Plutarch's Isis
and Osiris. "The Sistrum is designed to represent to us, that
every thing must be kept in continual agitation, and never cease
from motion; that they ought to be roused and well-shaken,
whenever they begin to grow drowsy as it were, and to droop in
their motion. |
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To this day the celebration of the flooding of
the Nile each year is called "The Night of the Drop" by Muslims.
. . for it used to be named "The Night of the Tear-Drop," a
remembrance of the extent of the Isis' lamentation of the death
of Osiris, her tears so plentiful they caused the Nile to
overflow. |
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Madonna of the Grotto
--Rabat Malta
more from a Goddess Journey |
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...Revel in pleasure while your life endures
And deck your head with myrrh. Be richly clad
In white and perfumed linen; like the gods
Anointed be; and never weary grow
In eager quest of what your heard desires -
Do as it prompts you...
-- Lay of the Harpist
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After the fall of the great Pharaonic era and the
worship of gods and goddesses, many statues of Bastet were discovered, adorned
with gold jewellery, with their tails wrapped around their bodies to the right,
with gifts of perfume and treasures. Today, many households own a small statue
of Bastet to protect the family.
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