Isis is an ancient Egyptian Goddess who was considered to be the 'Mother Goddess' or 'Mother of all Creation'. She is associated with motherhood, love, marital devotion, healing, eternal life and the casting of magical spells due to her considerable powers and well known position as a magician. She is the goddess of day while her twin sister Nephthys is the goddess of night showing their opposing natures. At different times of the year she was known by different names according to her actions. As a light giver she was known as Khut, as the earth goddess she was known as Usert, as the goddess of the underworld she was known as Thenenet, to name a few. There were many other names that she went by and positions she employed. She actually was attributed at least one or more attributes that all the other goddesses in Ancient Egypt were said to have making her one of the significant powers.

Isis was said to be the sister of Osiris, who later became her husband, as well as Nephthys and Seth. She was the daughter of Nut and Geb and the mother of Horus who was only conceived due to her magical powers.

Before the story of how Horus was conceived the story of Isis and Ra must first be told. Isis was already a very powerful magician when she came up against Ra. She used her powers to make Ra reveal to her his secret name, which held a considerable amount of power in itself and which also allowed her control over Ra for fear that anyone else might learn it. She used her magic to summon up a venomous snake out of dust mixed with the spittle of the god and she made it bite Ra by uttering over it words of power. She then made Ra tell her his secret name before driving the poison out of His limbs, and thus allowing him to recover once he had told her. She was the only divinity to ever discover this secret name and its great powers were very useful to her.

Her and Osiris's brother later on murdered Osiris and dismembered his body before sending the sperate parts to the four winds. Isis had to retrieve and reassemble Osiris's body to allow his to enter the underworld and she also used her powers to impregnate herself from her husband’s complete corpse. This led to the birth of her only son Horus which she had to hide from her brother Seth for fear that he might murder the baby as well. When Horus had grown up he went on to defeat Seth and become the first ruler of a united Egypt. Due to this Isis was seen as the protector of the pharaohs and the symbol of the throne was to represent her name.

The goddess Isis was depicted in many different ways but always with certain symbols, which were connected with her. She was depicted as a woman wearing a vulture headdress with the solar disk between a pair of horns known as the horns of Hathor. She is occasionally depicted wearing the double crowns of the North and the South with the feather of Ma’at. She is also often shown with the baby Horus suckling and sitting in her hat which has caused many associations with Jesus and the Virgin Mary in Christian mythology. Many believe that this depiction of Mary and Jesus actually came from Isis and Horus since she was the divine mother. Sometimes on her head is the miniature throne, which is her connection with the pharaohs and her son as well as being the ideogram of her name.

She is also sometimes shown to be enthroned alongside her husband Osiris with winged arms and occasionally with tears, or as a kite over his mummified body. These depictions of Isis often have a mixture of these symbols, which allows the depictions to be identified as her.

Her symbols are the throne, the kite, the scorpion and the throne ( ) while the sistrum and the rattle, to ward off the evil spirits, as a magical knot known as the Tat, Tiet, Tyet or the ‘Knot of Isis' were seen to be sacred to her. Her star was the star Sept, or Sirius, which was considered very important, as it's appearance not only marked the start of the Egyptian New Year but also marked the advance of the inundation of the Nile, which symbolised and brought forth the prosperity of the country through the wish of the mother goddess.

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Silversweet



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