Calling on Isis



Isis ~ Tutankhamun Shrine, Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, Cairo, Egypt


My heart aches for the people of Egypt today. Reports this morning indicate that over one hundred people have died in the revolution there, over four thousand have been injured, and around five hundred people are missing, most of them, women. Why the women?

The American Embassy is advising U.S. citizens to evacuate immediately, and is now arranging for planes to be made available for that purpose.

As I sit here on a peaceful Sunday morning here in Weldon Spring, I pray for the people of the Middle East, for this uprising will certainly not end in Tunisia or Egypt, but will echo through the region, if not the world.

I pray, too, that the violence will spare the treasures of ancient Egypt housed in the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo. The artifacts of the very cradle of civilization are at stake.

Among them is the Tutankhamun Shrine, housing the above iconic etching of Isis. She is the only Egyptian diety to be portrayed with wings, which she is said to have used to fan breath into the dead. Her name means "throne" and all of the pharaohs claimed the right to rule as her son or daughter.

The text to this hymn, and ode to Isis,  was found in 3rd/4th century BCE (Before Christian/Common/Current Era) in Nag Hammadi, a city in upper Egypt on the west bank of the Nile.

Hymn to Isis
Ancient hymn of the Goddess Isis

For I am the first and the last
I am the venerated and the despised


I am the prostitute and the saint
I am the wife and the virgin


I am the mother and the daughter
I am the arms of my mother


I am barren and my children are many
I am the married woman and the spinster


I am the woman who gives birth and she who never procreated
I am the consolation for the pain of birth


I am the wife and the husband
And it was my man who created me


I am the mother of my father
I am the sister of my husband


And he is my rejected son


Always respect me
For I am the shameful and the magnificent one

Isis is considered to be the  power of love, loyalty, and creativity within the Divine. She is the powerful spirit of all women, the personification of the Divine Feminine.

I see her spirit alive in the women who know the true meaning of power.  True power is the strength to show kindness when others show violence. True power is the demonstration of love when others demonstrate hate.  True power is using a kiss when others use bullets.

I see her in the woman's face pictured below.  Isis, your people need you.

Today I wish you the strength to substitute love for hate.




The power of Isis - Egyptian protestor kisses the cheek of a riot police officer
Courtesy The Atlantic