M. Isidora Forrest's Blog

Isis the Scorpion

I think this is the last installment about Scorpion Goddesses, at least for now…

You may recall from last time that the Scorpion Wives of Horus were sometimes invoked during childbirth. You may also remember that one of the types of bloodshed associated with Them is “the first blood of childbirth.” And that further, They may be connected to the Seven Hathors, Who are clearly Ladies of Love and its frequent result, children—for They are the Goddesses Who arrive to foretell the fate of newborns (most especially royal ones, of course).

Here’s an example of a spell where all our Goddesses come together. This rite is to assist a woman in the throes of childbirth who is experiencing a difficult birth. Here, the physician/magician takes on the Kheper (or form) of Horus to call upon His Scorpion Wife, Sepertuenes, as well as Nekhbet, the Vulture Mother Goddess, and a prehistoric Serpent Goddess named Wenut or Unut. Finally, Hathor is invoked to give the birthing mother health:

Come down, placenta! Come down, placenta, come down! I am Horus the Conjurer! And the one who is giving birth is [already] better than she was, as if she were delivered. O Sepertuenes, wife of Horus, O Nekhbet the Nubian One and the Eastern One, Wenut, Lady of Wenu [Hermopolis]! Come, please, act for the one who is in Your power! See, Hathor will place Her hand on her as an amulet of health. I am Horus Who saves her!

Borghouts, spell 61, my capitalization

So, here we have Horus calling one of His Scorpion Wives, the great Vulture Goddess of Egypt, a Serpent Goddess, and Hathor (Who, in other contexts, is also a partner of Horus) to help a woman in labor. Why these Goddesses?

Nekhbet in Her vulture form

The vulture hieroglyph is the Egyptian word for mother, mut. So naturally, the Vulture Goddess Nekhbet is associated with mothers, children, and childbirth. This idea persisted so strongly that in the 5th century CE, a Greek writer known as Horapollo noted that when the Egyptians wanted to say “a mother,” they would draw a vulture. He tells us that, since there are no male vultures, when a vulture wishes to conceive, she exposes her vulva to the North Wind for five days…specifically, during the five epagomenal days at the end of (or outside of) the Egyptian year. He tells us that the vulture is a devoted mother, for if she cannot find food for her young, she will tear her own thighs so that the chicks may feed on her blood (not unlike the European legend of the self-sacrificing mother pelican; hmmm). The Greeks, too, understood Nekhbet’s connection with childbirth for they referred to Her main temple/city, Nekheb, as Eileithyiaspolis. Eileithyia is the Greek Goddess of Childbirth.

Nekhbet is also connected with the number seven (seven Scorpion Wives, seven Hathors). She has Seven Arrows—powerful, sometimes malevolent, forces that the Goddess can use for good in order to protect the king (and perhaps us, too, if we conjure nicely).

Wenut in Her hare form

The Serpent Goddess Wenut’s name means “the Swift One.” So it makes sense to invoke the Swift One to bring about a swift birth. We can certainly imagine the quick strike of a snake leading to such a name. But the serpent isn’t Wenut’s only animal. She is also, even more strongly, connected with the hare. Hares, too, are notably swift, regularly eluding larger, fierce predators. They are also, like rabbits, associated with fecundity. The name Wenut may also be related to a word meaning “to exist,” and so, after death, the Goddess offers ongoing existence and rebirth in the otherworld. Wenut shows up in many of the most well-known funerary texts, such as the Pyramid and Coffin Texts, though not as often as some other Deities. Generally, She is an Upper Egyptian Goddess, Who could sometimes be identified with Nekhbet.

How do our Scorpion Goddesses fit in? First of all, pain and blood; the pain and blood of childbirth. You might recall that the ancient Egyptians conceived of the pain of poisoning as burning. The idea of a burning pain can easily be extended to the pain of birth. (And they weren’t the only ones who conceived of birth pain like this. The Greek Birth Goddess Eileithyia carries burning torches as a symbol of the burning pains of childbirth.) So, it may be that both the Serpent Goddess and Scorpion Goddesses are associated with birth pains due to the important ability of these Goddesses to remove such pain.

Mama scorpion and her scorplings

If you recall some of the scorpion spells from last week, you might remember that the poison is commanded to “flow out” or “flow down;” this would be a very appropriate magical command for birth, too. In the spell above, it is the placenta that is commanded to come down.

What’s more, as a generally protective Goddess, Serket and Her sister Scorpion Goddesses, also protect children. Indeed, it is especially important for children to be so protected, then as now. With their smaller body size, a scorpion sting or snake bite can much more easily kill a child. On the other hand, it may have been the image of the prolific mother scorpion carrying her scorplings (don’t you adore that term?) on her back that so strongly connected the scorpion with birthing and motherhood.

Taweret, the Great One

Now, let’s bring in another Divine player Who we have not yet mentioned but Who plays an important part of all this Egyptian birth magic, though not in this particular spell. She is the Goddess Taweret, “The Great One.” Taweret is the Hippopotamus Goddess of Birth, protectress of mothers and children. As a big-bellied hippo, She is (seemingly) forever pregnant; and hippos, like lions and raptors, were known to be especially fearsome when protecting their young. As She was envisioned in ancient Egypt, Taweret is a composite Goddess, having elements of hippo, lioness, and crocodile. And—yep—the Great One specifically protects against scorpion sting and snakebite, too.

Iset Djamet, lower right, Serket in the upper center with Her scorpion above Her. There is an iteration of Isis standing right behind Iset Djamet with Her throne above Her head. This is from the astronomical ceiling in Senenmut’s tomb.

If we look to the Egyptian skies at night, we can see Taweret and Serket together. The Great Hippo bears a crocodile on Her back (or sometimes just a croc’s tail), while Her (lioness?) paws drive in a mooring post and subdue a smaller crocodile.

Here is a slightly different arrangement of the constellations showing the connection between Iset Djamet, the Foreleg, and Serket. This one is from the tomb of Pademenope.

Sometimes, this constellation is called Reret, Female-Hippopotamus. Sometimes She is Reret Weret, Great Female Hippopotamus. But other times, this constellation is called Iset Djamet (“Isis of Djamet,” which is the ancient Egyptian name for Medinet Habu, where the Ogdoad is supposed to be buried. The Great God Google tells me Djamet means “males and mothers,” presumably referring to the four primordial male/female couples of the Ogdoad). The hippo Iset Djamet is said to hold a golden chain that secures Set’s leg (probably the constellation of the Bull’s Foreleg, Meskhetyu) to a mooring post so that He can’t roam about the skies causing problems for the Deities.

Isis with Taweret legs (?), serpents in hand, and crowned with scorpions on a Cippi of Horus

We find both the Scorpion Goddess and (perhaps) the Hippopotamus Goddess united in a very interesting and rare image of Our Lady Isis. Here, Isis (specifically labeled as Isis) stands upon a crocodile, with a serpent (or heka serpent wand?) in each hand. Above Her horns-and-disk crown is a scorpion, with another scorpion just behind Her head. But look at Her legs. Some scholars have guessed them as the legs of a deer or gazelle. But Robert Ritner suggests that they are Taweret’s legs. Now, I haven’t found a Taweret with hooves like this yet, but I’m going to bet Ritner has seen more examples of obscure Egyptian art than I have. Though I wonder whether they might be a misinterpretation of Taweret’s lioness legs, with their backward knee bend?

And we have now circled back to Isis, She to Whom this blog is dedicated. Isis is All Things, and All Things are Isis. Isis is the Goddess of Ten Thousand Names. She is the Delta Scorpion Goddess Iset Ta-Wahaet, the Upper Egyptian Scorpion Goddess Iset-Hededyt, and She is Isis-Serket. Since one of Her sacred birds is the vulture, She is easily connected to Nekhbet. And like many Goddesses and Queens, She often wears the vulture headdress. Like Wenut, She is a Serpent Goddess, a fire-spitting Uraeus Goddess—and Her husband is Usir Wennefer, “Osiris the Beautiful Being” or “Osiris Existing in Perfection,” an epithet that may be related to the root of Wenut’s name. Isis is a Healing and Magician Goddess, powerfully adept at laying down poisons and helping birthing mothers bring their children to the beautiful light of day. As we have just seen, Isis can be understood as one of the identities of Taweret, the Great One of Childbirth. And, of course, Great Isis and Great Hathor have been sharing a connection for millennia. Like all of these Goddesses, from Scorpion Wives to Reret Weret, Isis is the Lady of Protection—on earth, in the heavens, and in the otherworld—as She wraps Her wings around each one of us.

The Goddess in Her outdoor temple at the Hallows

She to Whom One Petitions

We are not yet done with our fierce friends, the Scorpions.

Last time, we learned that Horus, Son of Isis, is married to (at least) seven Scorpion Goddesses. From the little we have left to us of Their myths, it seems They are most often involved with healing poisoning or inflammation. Usually, Their husband Horus is the one They heal…and by extension, the human sufferer, who is identified with Him.

One of the interesting things about the power of these Goddesses is that, frequently, Their blood is involved in the healing. And it is very particular type of blood. It is the blood shed by the virgin Goddess on Her first night taking Horus to Her bed.

Art by yangzeninja. See more work here.

A quite obscure (as in not-very-understandable) spell in the collection of anti-scorpion-sting spells from the Chester Beatty papyri refers to the blood of (probably) Sepertuenes Who “tells Her name to Horus every three years, the hidden blood being on Her thighs since Horus opened [i.e. had sex with] Her.”

Horus could also be invoked by the blood of another of His most-well-known wives, Ta-Bitchet (alternatively, Tabitchet, Ta-Bitchet, Ta-Bithet, Bithet, and maybe, Biyet):

Hail to You, Horus, by the blood of Tabitchet; Horus opened Her on a bed of ebony. Biyet [Bitchet?], the Lady of the Cobra, a Daughter of Pre! I will recite/enchant against her as a hero. A falcon is to the right, another one to the left of Her. However, I will escape. Horus, hail to You!

Borghouts, spell 97 (my capitalization)

Here, it looks like Horus is invoked by the blood of His wife to help the sufferer repel a cobra bite (?) in a heroic, Horus-like fashion. The venom from both snake and scorpion are often equated, so a Scorpion Goddess is equally adept at drawing out the poison of a snake as She is at commanding a scorpion’s venom to leave the body.

Ta-bitjet by Doug Morgan. You can purchase the art here.

In the next spell in Borghouts, 98, the sufferer invokes Bitchet, the wife of Horus, by the “blood of the first childbirth of the uraeus” and by declaring himself to be Horus. In Spell 99, Bitchet is called a Daughter of Osiris. (So are She and Horus half-siblings?)

Here’s another interesting spell invoking two of Horus’ most well-known Scorpion Wives:

Spell for Enchanting a Scorpion

O Mistress of [. . .], skin-wearer who has come forth from Heliopolis, the Daughter of the Hooded One [or “She of the Nemes Headdress;” possibly equating the hood of a cobra with the Egyptian nemes headdress], without my adding Sepertuenes, She to Whom the Earth Petitions, recite, pray for this young Horus that he might go off recovered to his mother, by the blood of Ta-Bitchet since Horus opened Her in the evening. Seal the mouth of every reptile, O Ta-Bitchet, Shining of Face, Mn.t [which Ritner has as “so-and-so”], O wife of Horus. May Horus live, being healthy/recovered.

Borghouts, spell 101; translations compiled from both Borghouts and Ritner

This one is a bit confusing. But it looks like Tabitchet is invoked by Her own blood to heal the sufferer, who is identified with Horus, Her husband. There is disagreement among the translators where the spell says, “without my adding Sepertuenes.” Above is Ritner’s translation, while Borghouts has it as “I will not leave out Sepertunenes.” Personally, if I were doing this spell, I would add Her, thereby including both of Horus’ powerful wives in this Working to heal a human “Horus.”

There’s also the Egyptian word mn.t, which Ritner translates as “so-and-so.” Does that mean there are a string of common epithets of Tabitchet that we are supposed to know and to add to the spell…similar to how the PGM instructs the magician to “add the usual”?

Now, you may have noticed that the Scorpion Goddesses’ blood is either first-sex-hymen blood or first childbirth blood. This is very powerful and life-giving blood. Another kind of female blood, menstrual blood, had its place in magic, too…and is particularly connected with Our Goddess Isis. See more about that here.

The Seven Hathors; this piece is broken, but someone has kindly added it back digitally

Given those connections, you will not be entirely surprised to see that the Scorpion Goddesses are also associated with childbirth. And that the seven Scorpion Goddess Wives of Horus may also be connected to the Seven Hathors.

The seven Hathors are generally considered Goddesses of Fate, like the 13 faeries in the Sleeping Beauty tale, Who arrive at a birth to foretell a child’s fate. They are especially found in Late Period temples, where They attend the birth of the Divine Child honored in that particular temple, often but not always, Horus. Like the Scorpion Goddesses, the Seven Hathors are also seven Daughters of Re and are invoked in anti-poison spells—as well as in love spells—as you would expect since They are Hathors. Hathor Herself is also associated with scorpions. On the Metternich Stele, Hathor—identified by the sistrum naos on Her head—is shown subduing frightening handfuls of serpents and scorpions.

The Seven Hathors playing sistra and hand drums

Professor Robert Ritner has suggested that these seven Hathors and the seven Scorpion Wives of Horus—due to Their seven-fold nature and connection with both birth and poisons—may be the same Goddesses, or at least highly-related sets of seven. (On a healing stele, Tabitchet receives the Hathorian epithet “the Golden One.”) Further, Ritner thinks They are connected with the seven maidens in the PGM text of the Charm of the Syrian Woman of Gadara that we looked at last week.

And he also suggests that the seven scorpions that accompany Isis to Chemmis (Panopolis; today Akhmim) may also be the same Goddesses. The Isian scorpions, however, are disguised through use of magical names. As you may remember, in the tale of Isis and the Scorpions, Isis and Her girls are heading to Their refuge in Chemmis. There is another text in which the Scorpion Wives are addressed as “Lady of Chemmis.” So Isis and Her scorpions and the Scorpion Wives of Horus can both be tied to the same place. Ritner has suggested that the names given in the story (Tefen, Befen, Matet, etc.) are magical names of the wives of Horus. He’d need to explain that a bit more to me, but nonetheless, it’s interesting.

Isis, Horus & the Seven—really big—Scorpions

Maybe Horus knew these Scorpion Goddesses since His nursery days and then fell in love with Them as He grew. (This would be similar to the Greek Dionysos. His nurses took care of Him while He was a Child God, then accompanied Him as Maenads, though not wives, as an adult.)

There are two interesting Coptic spells, which are much later than the spells we have looked at so far, which involve Horus, Isis, and seven maidens. One seems to be a spell to cure insomnia and the second is definitely an erotic spell. The papyri in which they are found are known as the Schmidt papyri. In them, Horus is complaining to Isis that seven maidens—perhaps a much later version of our Scorpion Goddesses?—are ignoring Him when He so clearly wants them.

Here’s the first one, the insomnia cure, though the translators also wondered whether it was originally an erotic spell:

Hear Horus crying, hear Horus sighing: “I am troubled, poured out/melted for seven maidens, from the third hour of the day until the fourth hour of the night. Not one of them sleeps. Not one of them dozes.

Isis His mother replied to Him within the temple of Habin [near Hermopolis, where a temple and priest of Horus are mentioned as late as the 7th century CE] with Her face turned toward the seven maidens and seven maidens turned toward Her face: “Horus, why are you crying, Horus, why are you sighing?”

“Do you wish that I not cry, do you wish that I not sigh, from the third hour of the day until the fourth hour of the night, while I am poured out/melted for seven maidens, not one of whom sleeps, not one of whom dozes?”

Schmidt 1 papyrus, my capitalization

Horus weeps

This spell goes on to give some instructions for sleep and connects it to some angels who made Abimelech (one of several Philistine kings in the Hebrew bible) sleep. That, though, is not the point. The point is Horus sighing and crying over those seven maidens.

The second Schmidt papyrus may refer to the same seven maidens. In it, Horus is complaining to Isis that He “found seven maidens upon a spring of water. I desired, but they did not desire. I agreed, but they did not agree.” Then this Horus-Isis dialog is used to segue into a spell for a love-lorn seeker who says he desired a woman, but she did not desire to receive his kiss.

Somebody has messed with this, charmingly

In a lecture on this topic, Ritner suggests that while Horus was longing for these seven Scorpion Goddesses, He did the unwise thing and amorously lept on top of Them. They—predictably—stung the crap out of Him. Thus, His need of healing. Yet again.

And so, perhaps, a more ancient story of the yearning-but-stupid Horus evolved into this erotic spell where ‘He desired, but They did not desire.’

Well, we have still not covered everything that these Scorpion Goddesses have to tell us…so, I guess, Part 3 is for next time.

The Goddess Serket guarding one of Tutankhamon’s shrines, along with Her sister Goddesses, Isis, Nephthys, and Neith

Sometimes we need the magic of Dangerous Goddesses. And so, let us call upon the Scorpion Goddesses, Whose poison heals.

You already know that Isis is a Scorpion Goddess. She is Iset Ta-Wahaet, “Isis the Scorpion.” And She is linked with Serket, the Egyptian Scorpion Goddess par excellence, as Isis-Serket.

But did you know that Isis’ son Horus also has a thing for scorpions, specifically for Scorpion Goddesses? Well, He does. Indeed, He is apparently married to (at least) seven of Them. Just like those seven scorpions that accompany Isis when She is fleeing from Set after baby Horus’ birth. Hmmm…do scorpions run in this family?

A Horus king: King Scorpion (with label)

But let’s back up a minute. How do we know about Horus and the Scorpion Goddesses? It’s not part of the Egyptian mythology we’re familiar with. And that’s true; it isn’t. But then we have so few of the ancient Egyptian myths. And much of what we do have is so confusing and obscure (I’m looking at you, Delta Mythological Manual) that we can hardly make a coherent story out of it. That just wasn’t the way the Egyptians did things. Very often, the only way we know about a myth is from the fragments of it hidden in other texts…particularly in magical texts that include what is known as a historiola, a little bit of a myth that relates to the subject of the spell.

Horus often needs some help

Our boy Horus is often the subject of these historiolas, particularly when the spells invoke the aid of Isis as healer. Just as Isis comes to the aid of Horus in the story, so She will come to the aid of the present-day sufferer, who is identified with Horus. There is a whole series of these types of spells that are intended to cure inflammation, which can include anything from the pain of swollen breasts in a new mother to the fiery pain of poison from a snake bite or scorpion sting, which the Egyptians described as “burning.” As a whole, these spells are sometimes referred to as “burning Horus” spells since Horus is so often in fiery pain for one reason or another—and requires healing.

There’s an interesting example of this from the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri, aka the PGM.

The Charm of the Syrian Woman of Gadara for Any Inflammation

The most majestic Goddess’ [Isis] child [Horus] was set aflame as an initiate—and on the highest mountain peak was set aflame. And the fire did greedily gulp seven springs, [seven] of wolves, seven of bears, seven of lions, but seven dark[-blue] eyed maidens with dark[-blue] urns drew water and becalmed the restless fire.

PGM XX

Horus is almost always on a mountain or in the desert when He gets burned. In this case, His burning is an initiation, which recalls Plutarch’s version of the Isis-Osiris story where Isis nurses the child of Queen Astarte and burns away the mortal parts of his body at night, thereby initiating him into immortality.

In another example, Isis is speaking to a feminine person and tells her to get water to relieve Horus in Isis’ own absence:

My son Horus is burnt upon the gebel (mountain). There is no water there. I am not there. May you (fem.) bring water from the banks of the stream to extinguish the fire. Recitation over milk of a woman who has borne a male child.

Papyrus Ebers

Here, milk is blessed and charged by speaking this spell and then used to soothe the burn. Learn more about Isis and milk here.

One of Horus’ Scorpion Goddess wives? Art is by Lorenn Tyr. See more of their art here.

It is in these types of healing spells that we meet the Scorpion Goddess wives of Horus. Traces of Them have been found in papyri, on ostraca, in graffiti, and on healing statues dating from the 14th century BCE to the end of dynastic Egypt. There may even be an older allusion to Them in the Coffin Texts, where Horus is said to “belong to the Great Lady of the Desert, the Lady of Flame … Who bites with Her mouth, Who strikes with Her tail” (my capitalization). So these Goddesses were quite well known and remained so.

In one of the spells in the Turin papyrus, the Goddesses are said to be Daughters of Re and They bring drink and magical knots to heal Horus during one of His mishaps. In one of the papyri collected by American mining magnate Chester Beatty, we find a long-ish spell against scorpion stings. In the spell, the scorpion’s poison is called to flow out of the person. The poison is called forth seven times—in the names and by the power of each the seven wives of Horus. As Scorpion Goddesses Themselves, They are capable of calling the poison out of the sufferer. In this particular spell, instead of being the victim of poisoning, Horus “the Physician” is working with His wives to draw out and remove the poison.

Horus with the 7 scorpions; drawn from a healing statue of Djed-Hor

This spell includes a few of the names of the Goddesses. It is quite damaged, so we can’t see all Their names, though from the structure of the spell, we know seven were originally listed. Yet a list of all seven can be reconstructed from a variety of sources. There are two that are the most well known, appearing in a number of other surviving spells. They are Sepertuenes, “She to Whom One Petitions,” and Ta-Bitchet, which combines the Egyptian feminine article ta with a Canaanite or Amorite word and may mean “The Daughter.”

Isis, Horus & the 7 scorpions; drawn from the Metternich Stele that includes the story of Isis & the 7 Scorpions

Other Scorpion Goddesses identified as wives of Horus include Ifdet, “She Who Runs,” Wepetsepu, “She Who Judges Misdeeds,” and Sefedsepu, “She Who Slaughters Misdeeds (or misdeed doers?).” And finally, Metemet-nefertiyes, (the first part of Her name is not translatable, then…) “Beautiful When She Comes,” and Batcheh. Batcheh is not translated but She defines Herself in another text as “the uraeus Who bore the Gods.”

In another of the Chester Beatty papyri, we learn of another Goddess Who may also be a wife of Horus. She is Sefet-Sefekh, “Seven Slayers,” Who recites a spell for the sufferer as She did for Horus when He was poisoned. (Or it may be that ‘Seven Slayers’ is an amalgamation of all seven wives.) In still another, we have a wife of Horus named Tamenet…though I wonder if that name might be a corruption or shortening of the first part of Metemet-nefertiyes’ name. And there may be others listed in other spells, but this is uncertain due to the deteriorated state of the texts.

A classic Goddess Serket; note the stars on each of the scorpion’s claws

Some scholars think that all these Scorpion Goddesses may be manifestations of the one Great Scorpion Goddess, Serket. In one spell against poisoning, Wepetsepu specifically calls Herself not only by Her own name, but also says She is Serket. Serket is named as a consort of both Horus the Younger and Horus the Elder. In some tales, Serket is the mother of the four Sons of Horus; in others stories, Isis is the mother of the four Sons of Horus (the Elder). And of course, Isis and Serket can be connected as Isis-Serket.

In a spell invoking Sepertuenes, the scorpion who stung the sufferer is addressed with reference to “your mother Isis.” So the scorpion is a daughter (apparently all scorpions are daughters) of Isis the Scorpion Goddess. In addition to Isis’ identification as Iset Ta-Wahaet, we discover another Scorpion Isis. This one is Iset Hededyt, a name that relates to the concepts of whiteness and luminosity.

Hededyt, the very dangerous, light-colored scorpion

It seems that the Egyptians classified scorpions by color, either light or dark. So as Isis Hededyt, She is associated with the lighter-colored types. One scholar I’m reading thinks that Hededyt may be able to be identified as the androctonus australis scorpion, loosely meaning “southern man-killer.” As you might guess, this desert-dweller is quite poisonous, indeed it is one of the world’s most dangerous. Hededyt is called a Daughter of Re, just like the scorpion wives of Horus, and She protects Re as He journeys in the solar barque. In later periods, She protects Osiris and Horus and becomes—forevermore—Iset Hededyt. Iset Hededyt seems to be more associated with Isis’ Upper Egyptian forms, while Iset Ta-Wahaet is associated with Lower Egypt.

There’s more to say about Horus and His Scorpion Goddess wives and how Robert Ritner*, Professor of Egyptology at the Oriental Institute and author of The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice, thinks they may tie in with the PGM spell we started with. But this post is long enough for now. We’ll do Part 2 next time.

*Sadly, Professor Ritner has passed away. He and his excellent work will be missed.

Which mad monk made this?

I have for you today, my dear Isians, the slightly strange tale of how a magic healing spell of Isis may have come to be used as a magic healing spell in Ireland.* I know. But let’s see where this goes.

The healing spell in question was one of the most popular in Egypt—indicated by the fact that we have at least eleven copies of it surviving. The spell is in the form of a historiola. That is, it tells a myth, then the statement that the human sufferer will be healed, just as the sufferer in the story is healed. In this case, the myth is the story of Isis and the Seven Scorpions, and the magic is for someone who has been stung by a scorpion (and any other venomous creature).

Such venomous bites and stings happened fairly frequently in ancient Egypt. There was quite a variety of scorpions, ranging from less to quite harmful; but any sting was especially dire if it was a child or a cat who was stung.

But Our Lady, Who is a Scorpion Goddess Herself, has quite a good relationship with scorpions. At Isis’ sanctuary at Koptos, it was said that during the time when the women ritually lamented with the Goddess, they could walk through a mass of scorpions unharmed. Late legend had it that scorpions would refuse to sting any woman—or any worshipper of Isis, for that matter—out of respect for the Goddess. And, of course, one of Isis main myths has to do with Her seven scorpion companions. Her son Horus, too, has a way with scorpions, going so far as to marry seven Scorpion Goddesses.

An image of Isis-Serket in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore; the inscription says,”May Isis give life.”

In case you’ve forgotten the myth, let me refresh your memory.

In the tale, Osiris is dead, and Isis, disguised as a human, is fleeing in an attempt to hide Her newborn child, Horus, from Set. Seven magical scorpions accompany her. In what smacks of a ritual formula, we are told that the scorpions Tefen and Befen walked behind Isis. On Her right was Mestet, on Her left, Mestetef. Before Her walk Petet, Thetet and Maatet.

Upon reaching a city at the edge of the papyrus swamps, Isis found She was weary and approached the home of the chief woman of the district for shelter. But seeing the scorpions, the woman was afraid and angry that anyone would dare approach her home with these dangerous creatures. She refused the Goddess. The scorpions became angry at the rejection and vowed revenge. While Isis found refuge with a poor woman, the scorpions gathered all their poison together and placed it in the tail of Tefen. Tefen entered the home of the chief woman and stung her young son who fell instantly from the terrible poison. Then a fire broke out in the woman’s house, followed by unseasonable rain. (Perhaps like the fever and sweating one might get from a poisonous bite.) But Isis took pity on the child and cured him. The Goddess commands the scorpions’ poison to “fall down upon the ground,” which it does, and the child is cured. With the kindness of the Goddess, the chief woman was ashamed of her behavior and filled the home of the poor woman who had sheltered the Goddess with beautiful gifts from her very own home.

Coptic Madonna and Child

After relating the myth, there are several scorpion-sting healing spells, including instructions to make a poultice from “bread of barley,” salt, and garlic to help the healing.

I’m reading a paper by a researcher who works on the transmission of folklore across nations. Lloyd Graham sees the Isis myth as the “Ur-tale,” that is, the original tale from which all the others may have developed. To see how the spell might have traveled, we need to reduce it to its key components: a Deity disguised as a human (not an uncommon motif), the Divine guest is given a poor welcome, an innocent suffers because of the poor welcome, the Divine guest takes pity and cures the sufferer, and the one who mistreated the guest repents; followed by a magical charm, and specific things to be applied to the wound.

In the Greek islands, in Italy, in Hungary, and in Ireland we find very similar tales. Usually, the disguised Deity is Jesus (or a monk or a saint). The good guy in the story is a husband, or there’s an innocent child, while the bad guy is invariably an unkind wife. Usually, the inhospitable one is rich, while the welcoming one is poor, as in the Egyptian tale. Sometimes the good husband or innocent child is the sufferer, sometimes the wife herself suffers.

Coptic textile interweaving pattern

A Hungarian version has St. Anthony traveling with “seven demons of illness,” like Isis’ dangerous companions. In some versions of the story, one of these demons inflicts the pain, rather than the saint—again like Isis’ scorpions. In other versions, Jesus (or the saint or the monk) eventually heals the sufferer—often out of pity for the innocent sufferer, rather than in response to the distress of the wife. In general, the ailments are pains in one part of the body or another, rather than venomous bites. There is usually a repeated, spoken charm, and often bread, salt, and garlic are involved in the cure. In a Hungarian version, the charm even instructs the pain “to go down under the ground” or prays that the illness be “taken into the earth,” just as Isis instructs the poison to “fall down upon the ground.” There are enough parallels that a number of other scholars have pointed out the resemblance to the Egyptian original, as well.

Interestingly, the very closest European charm to the Egyptian Isis spell is the one from Ireland. It was extremely popular: 127 versions of it have been found to date, all of them in Irish language, plus there are some Gaelic versions from Scotland.

Here’s the Irish version: Mary and baby Jesus are traveling as humans through the Irish countryside. (In some versions, They are traveling in Egypt, running from Herod. So, like Isis and Horus, They are fleeing an enemy to protect a Holy Child.) They seek lodging for the night, but are refused by the unkind wife. Her kind husband, however, offers them somewhere to sleep.

Coptic textiles, with interweave and animals

During the night, the husband suffers a sudden-onset pain (the Irish word used in some spells can also be indicative of an animal bite as well as a sharp pain) and the wife asks the strangers for help. Mary does so by placing baby Jesus’ hand over the site of the pain and reciting a charm that translates, “A gentle man and a fierce woman, who left the Son of God lying in the flax.” Then there are instructions for some herbal cures to follow the incantation.

Since this spell is much closer to the original, perhaps its journey to Ireland was more direct than the other versions. And indeed, there is evidence that some early Coptic monks migrated to, and settled in, Ireland. The Copts were early Christians from Egypt, but they also tended to retain the powerful magic that was part of their Egyptian heritage. We have copies of quite a few Coptic spells, and it seems clear that many just substitute the names of Christian Deities for the original Egyptian ones, though this particular spell is not among the ones we have. Egyptologist Robert Ritner suggests that the Book of Kells madonna and child image bear similarities to Egyptian Coptic images, including the intricate interlacing patterns. There are even Coptic legends that Jesus was born in the Egyptian Faiyum and spent His childhood in Egypt. Coptic Christians first came to Ireland in the 4th or 5th centuries CE, and the Book of Kells dates to about 800 CE, providing plenty of time for such influences to be well integrated in Ireland. And indeed, Ritner credits Coptic Christians with introducing a number of Egyptian motifs to Ireland.

Madonna and Child, Book of Kells

Similarities between the Child Gods, Horus and Jesus, are not hard to find—even when it comes to venomous beasties. Child Horus is often show holding dangerous animals, including scorpions and serpents, harmlessly in His hands, and both He and Isis are appealed to as Savior Deities. Jesus, too, had many folk tales of curing snakebite and the Gospel of Pseudo-Mathew has Him declare that all beasts must be tame before Him. Most of us are already familiar with how easy it was to assimilate Isis, Mother of the God, with Mary, Mother of the God, so there’s no need to go into that here.

So, there we are. It seems an ancient Egyptian Isis spell may have found its way to Ireland. In the study of cultural diffusion, it isn’t all that unusual for a particular motif, such as this one in the tale of Isis and the Seven Scorpions, to be accepted far from its original home. The story had an important moral lesson, and was a magical cure for pain. It seems reasonable that it should have been preserved, simply changing the names and details to suit the local culture. The moral lesson—be kind to strangers—is universal. In fact, it is important to our times right now. Should we fail to heed it, the scorpions will surely sting us, too, and more painfully than they already has. Let us work for kindness—and justice—and hope that the Goddess’ mercy will help us heal.

*FOI members will know that the international Fellowship of Isis was established in Clonegal Castle in County Carlow, Ireland in 1976.

“How can I tell is Isis is calling me?”

This is one of the most common questions people have, especially when they’re just starting, or are only a few years into their Pagan or Kemetic paths.

It’s a very good question to ask, but one that’s a little hard to answer. So bear with me.

Sometimes, people tell me that they have had dreams with what they think could be Isiac imagery. Sometimes they’ve had a vision or some other experience during a ritual. Sometimes it’s a feeling, sometimes a wish, or even a hope.

What do we mean by “calling”?

To try to unravel this, the first thing we need to figure out is what we mean by “calling?” In other words, if She were calling us, what would that mean? What would that be like? What kind of obligation, if any, comes with that calling? Because so many of us have Christianity in our personal backgrounds as well as Christianity being so prominent in our societies, we might automatically associate “a calling” with a vocation for the ministry or priesthood. It’s certainly possible. But there are other possibilities, too.

What calling means to us can also depend on where we are in our spiritual journey, as well as what we’ve been studying or reading or thinking.

For instance, let’s say you’re very interested in ancient Egypt, you’ve been reading about it, and you’re in a spiritual circle of some kind that regularly invokes Deities. Then one night, you have a powerful dream in which a beautiful, Egyptian woman seems to welcome you. You think She might be Isis. Well, She might, indeed. But, She could also be one of any number of Egyptian Goddesses, which you would know about from your reading. What you personally intuit from your own dream will be very helpful here. If you think the Goddess in your dream is Isis, you can follow that thread. We’ll talk about that shortly.

On the other hand, let’s say you’ve never had any particular connection with ancient Egypt and you’re not on any specific spiritual path. Then one night, you have a powerful dream in which a beautiful, Egyptian woman seems to welcome you. You think She might be Isis. This may be just a dream. But if you find it exceptionally powerful, keep looking. A dream like that might be pointing out that your soul is yearning for some positive Mother or Divine Feminine energy in your life. That knowledge—in and of itself—is very valuable information. Such a dream could be the impetus to set you on a spiritual journey as you seek to discover more.

Here’s another scenario: let’s say you have that same dream. But you don’t feel that you’re ready—or that you even want to—do anything about it. You absolutely don’t have to. If it’s an important knock on your spiritual door, She’ll knock again. And it’s okay to say no. You won’t hurt Her feelings and there are no negative consequences.

Look for signs

So. Dreams are one way to hear Isis if She’s calling you. But if you, like me, are a crappy dreamer and neither remember them nor write them down, there are other ways to hear and answer Her. There are usually signs. Signs can be tricky. In most cases, a sign is something unusual that catches your attention and relates to the particular Deity involved, in our case, Isis. Because She is a Bird Goddess, it might be wings and feathers. You may hear the sound of wings at an odd time. Or a bird swoops down immediately in your line of sight, startling you. Or a feather drops from the sky. Her symbols—like the Knot of Isis or a throne—might show up unexpectedly. Perhaps you overhear Her name in a passing conversation between strangers. This will happen, not just once, but many times. Be patient. Wait. And look and listen for the signs.

What if I want to call Her?

Now, if you’re actively wanting Her to be calling you, signs and synchronicities can ramp up. Does a breeze rustle the leaves of a tree as you pass, thinking of Her? It is Her breath. Have you found a piece of jewelry engraved with Her image? She confirms your Path. Did that hawk circle above you as you drive your car down a country road with Her name on your lips? She is guiding you. 

Is it foolish to see these signs everywhere? Is it “just my imagination?” In some cases, sure, there will be a kind of confirmation bias. But that doesn’t matter; She’s on your mind. You’re thinking of Her. It has begun.

Sometimes, there are other ways to tell. You might have an intuition of Her presence about you. Or something weird might happen. I’ve had incense burn and disappear all by itself, strangers have given me unexpected Isis gifts, very loud disembodied voices have spoken my name. What your weird thing might be, I can’t say.

Now’s here’s a secret

Now. There’s also an important secret about all this that I’d like to share with you. Two, really. The first is that if you want to connect with Isis, you don’t have to wait for Her to call you. You can call Her, too. Light a candle. Say a prayer. Ask Her to come into your life. If you like ritual, use the Opening of the Ways here.

The second is that being called by Isis doesn’t necessarily mean you are being called to a lifelong relationship with Her. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re being called to serve as Her priestess, priest, or priestex. It might mean you’re being called to learn more about Her—right now and perhaps only for a while. Perhaps you’re being called to relationship. And like any relationship, that means investing time. Spend time with Her, in meditation and prayer. Read about Her in anything and everything you can get your hands on. Get to know Her. See how She feels to you. Do you like Her energy? Does it fit with yours? That’s what I mean by following the thread…and just see where it leads you.

And if you find, after time, that this is not the relationship for you, that’s perfectly okay. You will have learned. You will have grown and your spiritual world will have been expanded.

But if you find that, like me, you are a lifetime (or longterm) devotee of Isis, then I know you will discover for yourself Her deep love, wisdom, power, and magic.

Ma’at, the Goddess of Truth & Rightness, can be identified by the Feather of Truth upon Her head.

In honor of the upcoming Autumnal Equinox, I offer a post on the Lady of the Balanced Scales, Ma’et, and Her powerful connection with Isis.

As I am sure you know, Ma’et is the Egyptian Goddess of Truth, Universal Order, and Right. The ideas related to Her form the core of the ancient Egyptian conception of the way things should be. Ma’et was considered to be the very food of the Goddesses and Gods. Ma’et explained the relationships between humanity and the Divine. Ma’et was natural law and social law. Ma’et was not only justice, but also fairness and even kindness toward one another. Ideally, the king who ruled Egypt, the viziers who advised the king, the judges who made decisions that affected the people, and the people themselves all operated under the laws of Ma’et. If they did, peace and plenty and Divine favor would reign in the land.

A beautifully curvy Ma’et

The quintessential symbol of Ma’et is the shut, the ostrich plume that represents the “lightness” and all-pervading, airy nature of Truth and Right. It is against the Feather of Truth that the heart of the deceased is weighed during the post mortum judgment before Osiris. The 42 Assessors Who witness the judgment each hold a Ma’et feather. Following a successful judgment, and as an attestation of their truthfulness, the deceased were sometimes shown wearing Ma’et feathers upon their heads and suspended from their wrists and arms.

Isis, too, is associated with these ideals and sometimes Ma’et is assimilated with Isis. The Osirian Hall of Judgment is also known as the Hall of the Two Truths. Twin Goddesses, the Ma’eti (the Two Truths), presided over it. Very often, the Ma’eti were specifically identified as Isis and Nephthys. (As an aside, I have always found the idea of the Judgment Hall being the place of Two Truths to be a particularly wise concept; there are always at least two sides to any story and both are likely to be true—from the perspective of each participant.)

Without Her twin, Isis was identified with Ma’et’s singular form. The Coffin Texts tell us that Isis comes before the deceased as Ma’et. An inscription at Denderah says that Isis the Great is not only Mother of the God, but also Ma’et in Denderah. Plutarch records a tradition that points to an identification of Isis with Ma’et (“Justice”) in Hermopolis. He writes, “that is why they call the leader of the muses in the city of Hermes at once Isis and Justice, since she is wise…” One scholar has suggested that this Hermopolitan ennead of Muses might have consisted of Isis-Ma’et, Isis-Hathor, and the Seven Hathors.

The Two Truths in the Judgment Hall weigh the heart of the deceased against Truth, Ma’et.

Isis has always been considered a wise Goddess. A Turin papyrus tells us, “Isis was a woman wise in speech, her heart more cunning than the millions of men, her utterance was more excellent than the millions of gods, she was more perceptive than millions of glorified spirits. She was not ignorant of anything in heaven or earth.” In this aspect, Isis is called Rekhiet, “the Wise Woman.” One of the titles of Isis of the star, Isis-Sothis, is Rekhit, “Knowledge.” This easily led to Isis’ later identification with Sophia (Gk. “Wisdom”). From his Egyptian studies, Plutarch concluded that Isis is a Goddess “exceptionally wise and a lover of wisdom.”

As time passed, Isis’ reputation as a Goddess of Truth, Rightness, Justice, Wisdom, and Law increased. The hymns to Isis at Her temple in the Faiyum oasis say that Isis, “taught customs that justice might in some measure prevail” and that She is “a judge with the immortal gods.” The hymn’s author, Isidorus, writes to his Goddess, “You are directing the world of men, looking down on the manifold deeds of the wicked and gazing down on those of the just” and “You witness individual virtue.” Like Demeter, Isis was called Thesmophoros, “Lawgiver.” A number of Greek inscriptions from Delos and one from Athens calls Her Dikaiosyne, “Righteousness” or “Lawfulness.” Others call Her Nemesis, a Greek justice-bringing Goddess. The ancient historian, Diodorus Siculus, records that “Isis also established laws, they say, in accordance with which the people regularly dispense justice to one another and are led to refrain, through fear of punishment, from illegal violence and insolence . . .”

Ma’et as the Justice card in the Ostara Tarot deck

In almost all of the surviving Isis aretalogies (self-statements), the Goddess affirms Her connection with Ma’et. In the aretalogy from Kyme, Türkiye, Isis says of Herself, “I made the right to be stronger than gold or silver. I ordained that the true should be thought good. I devised marriage contracts. I ordained that nothing should be more feared than an oath. I have delivered the plotter of evil against other men into the hands of the one he plotted against. I established penalties for those who practice injustice. I decreed mercy to suppliants. I protect righteous guards. With me the right prevails.” Similar statements are included in other aretalogies including one from Maronea in Greece, which says that Isis “established justice, so that each one of us, just as he by nature endures equal death, may also be able to live in conditions of equality.” In the late Hermetic texts, both Isis an Osiris are known as lawgivers. One such text, the Kore Kosmou, tells us that Isis and Osiris learned the secrets of lawgiving from God and so became lawgivers for humankind.

The words of the Lady of Words of Power are not only words of magic, but also words of Truth and Justice.

By the way…what inspired me for this post was an interesting article by Christopher Faraone and Emily Teeter that opines that the Greek Wisdom Goddess Metis was either directly or indirectly derived from the Egyptian Goddess Ma’et. (Zeus married, then swallowed, Metis because She was destined to bear Him a daughter Who would be as powerful as Zeus and as wise as Metis—Metis was already pregnant with Athena—and a son Who would be greater than His father. Zeus was not happy with either of those things, so He decided to take Metis into Himself.)

Justitia, by Howard David Johnson

Faraone and Teeter argue that 1.) both Metis and Ma’et were understood as concepts and personified Goddesses 2.) The fact of Zeus swallowing Metis may derive from the Egyptian idea that the Deities “lived on” and “ate” Truth (Ma’et) 3.) Both Metis and Ma’et legitimate the kingship 4.) Just as Egyptian kings had Ma’et names among their coronation names, so Zeus has a number of epithets that include Metis. Interesting, isn’t it?

Kleopatra as Isis

In the last post, we started looking at some connections between Kleopatra and Isis, as well as the history of the Ptolemaic queens identifying with a core selection of Goddesses, first and foremost among Them is our Lady Isis. And we saw how, when Kleopatra returned from Rome to Alexandria, she often portrayed herself as Isis in public, including important religious festivals.

As there were many such festivals in Egypt, there were many opportunities for Kleopatra’s people to see her as Isis the Queen. Indeed, upon her return from Rome, she threw herself into ruling Egypt, strengthening Alexandria’s intellectual supremacy—from the arts to engineering—building temples, encouraging medical research, and making sure her people were fed, in good times or bad. And always, as Egypt’s ruler, she had duties of making offerings to the Deities. We can be certain that Isis was paramount among those to Whom the queen made offering.

Kleopatra gained such a reputation for wisdom and fairness that people appealed to her for justice constantly. Schiff writes, “The wise queen granted a general amnesty before she moved about the country for audits or religious festivals; to fail to do so was to be greeted by a thousand plaintiffs.” Kleopatra’s reign is also notable for the absence of revolts in Upper Egypt, a state of affairs that had not been true for a century and a half.

Kleopatra continued work on the Hathor temple of Dendera (where there is also a smaller temple of Isis). She finished the work her father had begun at the Horus temple of Edfu. She built an oracular boat shrine at Koptos. Read about that here. She had a shrine honoring Divine Children built at Hermonthis, near Luxor. She continued work on a huge monument to Caesar, the Caesareum, in Alexandria. She continued the work at Isis’ Philae temple, which had also been started by her father. But her largest project, according to Schiff, was a temple Isis in Alexandria, of which, unfortunately, nothing remains.

Kleopatra as an Egyptian queen; exact provenance unknown

(Schiff did not say which Isis temple she was referring to. Possibly, it is the one associated with the Pharos Lighthouse that was found by Goddio and his team. Or maybe it was the temple of Isis connected with the famous Alexandrian Sarapion, the temple of Isis’ Hellenistic consort, Sarapis. The Sarapion had a temple to Sarapis and to Isis, side by side, along with a smaller Haropokrates temple attached to the Sarapion. I would assume it is not Kleopatra’s personal temple on Antirhodos, which was a smaller, private temple, near the royal quarters, where the queen could worship Isis in private. It, too, is at the bottom of the bay.)

Kleopatra granted the right of sanctuary to an Isis temple in Ptolemais in Upper Egypt and, near the end of her reign, to a Jewish synagogue, possibly in or near Leontopolis in Lower Egypt. This right enabled people to seek asylum within the walls of the temple and the synagogue. They could not be harmed or seized while on the sacred properties. If a person chose to live within the temple, this sanctuary might protect them forever; or it might allow for a pause in hostilities so that disagreements between people or groups could be fairly adjudicated.

By the time Marc Antony entered the picture, Kleopatra as Isis was well established, though she wisely chose to greet him at Tarsus (in Türkiye today) as Aphrodite. If you don’t know the story, Antony had summoned the queen to answer questions about her loyalty to Rome and to get funds for an upcoming war. Kleopatra’s famously lavish and gobstopping arrival—all gold, perfume, and purple sails—made questions of loyalty moot as Antony found himself engulfed in the queen’s extravaganza, which quickly made Kleopatra the gracious and generous host rather than the summoned subject.

The Donations of Alexandria, with Kleopatra in the dress of Isis

So, Kleopatra won Antony over.

Time passed, and the ever-fertile queen birthed three children with Antony: Alexander Helios, Kleopatra Selene, and Ptolemy Philadelphos. We next meet the family during what is known as the Donations of Alexandria. This was a huge celebration, including processions, ceremony, and feasting for the people of Alexandra, which celebrated Antony’s martial victories. During the ceremony, Antony awarded lands he had conquered, as well as some he had not yet conquered, to Kleopatra and her children. And so, it seemed that the Egyptian Empire was once again expanding under Kleopatra.

The Donations ceremony took place in the Alexandrian gymnasium, sort of a city center where public buildings were located, and which could hold a very large number of citizens. Upon a silver platform rested two golden thrones, one for Kleopatra and one for Antony. Smaller, lower thrones were provided for the children. Reportedly, Antony was dressed as Dionysos, with ivy crown and thyrsos in hand, and seated upon one of the golden thrones. He addressed Kleopatra as the New Isis and invited her to join him on the other throne. She was attired in full Isis regalia, and with the royal crown of Egypt upon her head. The children were costumed as well, according to the dress of the nations over which they now ruled. Thousands cheered as they saw their queen as Isis with Her Horus, and as the Great Mother of Abundance with her many children about her.

Was Kleopatra a genuine devotee of Isis? And did she think she was Isis?

Even with all the evidence left to us from Kleopatra’s life and death, we cannot know what was truly in her heart when it came to her devotion to Isis. She left us no diaries or personal hymns to the Goddess. Yet, there is absolutely no reason not to think that Kleopatra’s worship of Isis was genuine. When she needed to appear as a Divine ruler to her people, Isis was the Goddess she chose. The fact that she had a personal temple near her royal quarters would also seem to indicate that she was sincere in her worship of Isis. She wanted Her temple nearby.

Kleopatra certainly tried to emulate the Goddess in ruling Egypt wisely, from building and maintaining the temples to feeding her people, even in terrible years when the harvest failed. The fact that we have no records of internal revolts during her rule further points to the success of her reign, at least domestically. Later traditions connected Kleopatra’s name to magic and alchemy, reasonable pursuits for an educated, intellectual, and curious queen, and also connected with the Goddess Isis.

Kleopatra from a 1910 advertisement series for Dewars whiskey.

Kleopatra most certainly identified with the Isis and Osiris myth, especially after Caesar’s death. I also would not doubt that on those festival and public occasions where she dressed as Isis, that she probably intended to—and may have actually accomplished—carrying the energy of Isis. Remember that there was an eternal Egyptian tradition of royalty being, in some measure, divine. The pharaoh IS Horus, or Horet, in this case.

What’s more, I am certain that Egyptians practiced what is today known as the Assumption of the God/dessform, Drawing Down, or Aspecting. They may have called it by the Egyptian name Kheperu, “transformations.” Kheperu is when the priestess—and the pharaoh was always the highest high priest of ancient Egypt—ritually takes on the form and energy of the Deity. With that spiritual tradition firmly in place in Egypt, it seems very likely to me that Kleopatra would have actually tried to embody Isis’ energy. She was a Ptolemy. Her family had ruled Egypt for hundreds of years, and Egyptian rulers were always connected with the Deities. She was very well educated. She knew the traditions, including the traditions of the clergy.

And when she died by her own hand, rather than suffer the torture and humiliation of Octavian’s Roman triumphal procession, legend has it that she chose to die by the bite of an “asp.” Aspis is what the Greeks called the Egyptian cobra, the uraeus serpent. Thus, it would have been a royal death, a fiery bite from the fiery Eye of Re—which is also one of the many, many forms of Kleopatra’s Goddess, Isis.

I wish I knew how personally devoted Pharaoh Kleopatra VII was to Isis.

Was she a true devotee of the most well-known and powerful Egyptian Goddess of her time? Was her identification of herself as “The New Isis”—just as her father, Ptolemy XII, had called himself “The New Dionysos”—merely a political stratagem? Was it some combination of both? Were there other reasons?

Let’s look for clues.

The stele here shows Kleopatra (you can see her name in Greek on the second line from the top) as a male pharaoh making offering to Isis Who is nursing Horus. The Greek text reads, “For Queen Kleopatra, the Father-Loving Goddess, this place [topos] of the synod [a group or assembly of people] of Snonaïs [an epithet of Isis], whose synagogue leader is Onnophris [this is a personal name in this instance, but it is also an epithet of Osiris]. Year 1, Epiphi 1.”

The temple complex of Soknopaiou Nesos today

So, this limestone stele was dedicated by the head of a private group of worshippers of Isis Snonaïs to Kleopatra, showing their loyalty to the queen. It was dedicated in “Year 1,” that is, the first year that Kleopatra took the throne in 51 BCE at the age of 18. So, from the very first, Kleopatra was clearly associated with the Goddess, and with worshippers of Isis.

The stele is from the Faiyum, where Isis was often worshipped with the local Sobek, Lord of Crocodiles, and where Isis might also take the serpent form of Isis Thermuthis (a syncretism of Isis and Renenutet). The group had a physical place where they worshipped (the topos), and from the names researchers have been able to connect with the group, they seem to have all been men.

The deceased worshipping a sacred crocodile

Isis Snonaïs is a local form of the Goddess worshipped in the Faiyum. Egyptian Goddesses and Gods were often given place-name epithets, drawing them closer to their local worshippers. While there’s no town in the Faiyum of that name, some scholars have suggested that the epithet might be connected with the temple of Sobek called Soknopaiou Nesos, the “Island of Sobek, Lord of Pay.”

The temple there is dedicated to Sobek Soknopaios and Isis Nepherses. Nepherses comes from Egyptian nfr st, “Beautiful Throne” or “Beautiful Place,” but, since “st” is also a part of Isis’ name, some Egyptian wordplay was surely intended, and which can be interpreted as, “Beautiful Isis.” In a text known as the Book of the Faiyum, Isis Nepherses is said to be “beside Sobek of Genut [unknown place], at peace on Her hill, this place is in Her name, it is the place of the flood,” (And, so now I am imagining Her temple as a high place, while the land below is flooded during the Inundation. A holy place, indeed.)

Kleopatra in Egyptian form; in the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose

There’s a lot more that’s of interest about Isis Nepherses, but since we’re on Kleopatra’s trail, we’ll come back to Her another day.

As you know, the Egyptian pharaoh and the royal families were, from the earliest times, closely connected with Deities. The living pharaoh was Horus—as well as the son of numerous Goddesses and Gods. The Egyptian queens partook of the Divine power of the Two Ladies: Isis and Nephthys, or Nekhbet and Wadjet, as well as other important Goddesses like Hathor. And of course, Egypt also had female pharaohs.

When the Ptolemaic dynasty came to power, the Ptolemaic queens took advantage of this Egyptian tradition of powerful women to gain authority, influence, and wealth for themselves. Arsinoë II was identified as “king” in Egyptian sources. Berenice II was called the Female Pharaoh, and Kleopatra I ruled with her son Ptolemy VI, both as pharaohs. In fact, all the Ptolemaic queens held a great deal of power, whether recognized by a specific title, such as pharaoh, or ruling as regents with an often-much-younger male relative.

Kleopatra VII as Isis, complete with Isis Knot and fringed mantle

It was also Ptolemaic tradition for the queens to identify with powerful Goddesses. On top of their list were Isis, Aphrodite, Hathor, and Demeter. Scholars studying these queens believe that this religious identification with Goddesses was essential in helping the queens gain and retain power—but it also led to greater opportunities for many more-ordinary women in Egypt to participate in Hellenistic society in expanded roles.

The Roman poet Lucan, in his On the Civil War, writes disparagingly about Kleopatra. He has her say to Caesar as she asks for his support, “I will not be the first woman to rule the cities along the Nile; gender makes no difference in Egypt. This land knows how to be ruled by a queen.” In Lucan’s opinion, this was, of course, a terrible and degenerate thing. His work was among the volumes and volumes and volumes of nasty Roman propaganda against Kleopatra, which both preceded and followed her death.

Yet, while the Ptolemaic queens did identify with other important Goddesses, their identification with Isis was the most frequent. In this way, Kleopatra VII was following in the already deep-set footsteps of her foremothers. Egypt’s last pharaoh, however, took her identification with Isis to a new level, appearing in public as “the New Isis.” Plutarch, in his Life of Antony, tells us that Kleopatra “both then and at other times when she appeared in public, assumed a robe sacred to Isis, and was addressed as the New Isis.”

And there was good reason for her to do so. It would not be out of line to say, quite simply, that Isis was THE most well-known and well-loved Goddess in Hellenistic Egypt. What’s more, Her worship was widespread outside of Egypt and throughout the Mediterranean world, too. She was worshipped in much of the Roman world, as well. In Pompeii, for instance, scholars estimate that a full ten percent of the population were Isis devotees. And this in a polytheistic world. Isis’ popularity would have been politically important in Kleopatra’s dealings with Rome. Read about Isis in Rome here. On the other hand, Isis temples and Isis worshippers in Rome went through periods of severe disfavor. There was suspicion about this foreign cult—and thus suspicion about this foreign queen, clearly representing the suspicious Goddess Isis.

Kleopatra and Caesarion offering to the Deities on Hathor’s Dendera temple

Kleopatra’s public identification with Isis is very well known. In Egyptian texts, she is called Daughter of Geb, Who is, of course, Isis. Interestingly, as king, she took a Horus Name, but it was a Horet Name, a Female-Horus Name. (In case you were wondering, it was Weret-Tut-en-Ites, “Great Image of Her Father,” very similar to her Greek epithet, Philopator, “Father-Loving.”) Kleopatra was titled, “Queen of Upper Egypt, land of the White Crown; Queen of Lower Egypt, Land of the Red Crown.” Goddesses, including Isis, were frequently called by this and similar queenly titles.

When Kleopatra gave birth to Julius Caesar’s son, whom she called Caesarion, and whom she would eventually crown as king beside her, Kleopatra began connecting herself and Caesarion with Isis and Horus.

When Caesar had his “Et tu, Brute?” moment while Kleopatra was visiting him in Rome, the Isis and Osiris myth came to life for her even more palpably. Her Roman ally, and the father of her child, was dead. As she speedily returned to Alexandria, now she was a grieving widow with a fatherless son, just as Isis was. And while she had often identified with Isis, her Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, Stacy Schiff, says that following this return to Alexandria from Rome, the Isis-Kleopatra identification really took off.

If Caesar had returned from Alexandria [after spending time with Kleopatra and begetting Caesarion] more royal than before, Cleopatra returned from Rome more godly. She vigorously embraced her role as Isis, with full emphasis on her maternal command . . . At festivals, she appeared in her striking Isis attire.

Stacy Schiff, Cleopatra, a Life

And I see that, once again, the length of this post has gotten away from me. So, that’s enough for now. Next time, we’ll see how Kleopatra’s “godliness” manifested, speculate on the queen’s devotion to the Goddess, and on whether she thought she really was Isis.

Kleopatra as Isis-Aphrodite with cornucopia and ankh; in the Hermitage Museum, RU

Do you remember a few years back when a spate of Cleopatra biographies came out all at the same time?

No? Okay, you might not. But I do. Why? Because of Kleopatra’s (Greek spelling) important connection with Isis. Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra: A Life, and Duane Roller’s Cleopatra: A Biography attempt to help redefine Cleopatra from the seductive femme fatale of legend and imagination to the real-life Queen of Egypt that she was. She was the last pharaoh of Egypt and she was a very remarkable woman.

Kleopatra was of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek family who ruled in Egypt after the death of Alexander (the Great) Conquerer. She was not “the first of her name.” “Kleopatra,” meaning “glory of her father,” was the seventh of that name. The six Kleopatras before her were also powerful queens, wielding enormous power, either as co-rulers, or highly influential in their courts. Our Kleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes and (probably) his queen Kleopatra V Triphania. I say probably because there are theories that suggest that Kleopatra’s real mother may have been of a native Egyptian priestly family. This idea is based on the discovery of the skeleton of Kleopatra’s blood sister, Arsinoë. The discoverers say that the skeleton indicates some subsaharan African ancestry. So, if Arsinoë had an Upper Egyptian mother, maybe Kleopatra did, too. But at this point, this has not been established.

On the other hand, Kleopatra was the only member of the Ptolemaic dynasty who learned to actually speak Egyptian, including several regional dialects. Her multilingual abilities enabled her to speak directly with the priests—and I hope, priestesses—of the temples without the need for a translator. (Most of the Egyptian temples left to us today were built during the 275-year reign of the Ptolemies. Kleopatra continued work on the temple of Hathor at Dendera, she built temples to celebrate the birth of her son, Caesarion, built a private temple of Isis on the island of Antirhodos (now submerged in Alexandria’s bay, and expanded the temple of Isis and Osiris at Taposiris Magna.)

At the time all the biographies were coming out, novelists also took up the Kleopatra theme. Interestingly, several have published stories about Cleopatra’s daughter, Selene. One is Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray. In Dray’s book, Selene, like her mother, is a devotee of Isis. And here’s a bit of trivia for you: Stephanie used my Isis Magic as a resource for the Isian rituals that appear in her book; she even used excerpts from some rites (with my permission, of course).

A bust of Kleopatra; now in the Berlin Museum

Exhibits about Kleopatra have been making the rounds of museums throughout the world during the last few years, too. There are been a number of them. Starting in November of this year, in Milan, an exhibition called Cleopatra: the Truth, will tell the story of the (ongoing) search for Kleopatra’s tomb by Kathleen Martinez and Egyptologis Zahi Hawass. Read about it here. Martinez is a Dominican archaeologist, best known for her work in search of the tomb of Cleopatra in Egypt. She heads the Egyptian-Dominican mission in Alexandria and is in charge of cultural affairs at the Dominican embassy in Egypt.

Martinez has been searching for the tomb of Antony and Kleopatra for years. Her latest work has brought her to Taposiris Magna, about 30 miles west of Alexandria. There Kleopatra expanded an existing temple to Isis and Osiris. Until Martinez’ work, the tomb of Kleopatra and Antony was believed to have been in Alexandria itself. Other Ptolemaic dynastic tombs are also believed to be in Alexandria, but none has yet been found.

According to the Greek philosopher and historian Plutarch and the Roman historian Suetonius, after Octavian defeated Antony and Kleopatra, and they both committed suicide (Antony first; she about a week later), Octavian let them be buried together. While he greatly wanted to show off the defeated queen in his triumph—which would have been both torture and humiliation for her—once both were dead, Octavian allowed the unfinished tomb (which presumably was being prepared for Kleopatra as pharaoh) to be completed, and both Antony and Kleopatra were buried together.

A conception of what her face might have looked like based on the famous bust

Plutarch tells us that during the war with Octavian, Kleopatra “had constructed tombs and monuments notable for their beauty and height, which were located near the temple of Isis.” This is why Martinez is searching areas near a temple of Isis, such as the Isis and Osiris complex at Taposiris Magna. Plutarch further says that Kleopatra collected a trove a royal treasures in gold and jewels—along with enough wood to burn it all and, presumably, deny it to Octavian.

Taposiris Magna means the “Great Tomb of Osiris.” So, it makes complete sense that there would also be a temple of Isis there. Martinez has discovered the foundation deposits of just such a temple there, which link the temple to the Ptolemies (Ptolemy IV and Arsinoë III specifically) and to Isis. The dedication reads, “The King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ptolemy, living forever, beloved of Isis, son of Ptolemy, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, and his wife, Arsinoë, both benevolent Gods, consecrated this temple to the mother Isis.”

Here’s a link to a CBS story on the discoveries. Here’s some more about Taposiris Magna. If you want to see a picture of the foundation plaque (it is made of glass, which is interesting), go here. It was on temporary display at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

There’s another Kleopatra-linked Isis temple that you may have heard of, and which I mentioned above. This one was on the royal island of Antirhodos, in the harbor of Alexandria, and it was Kleopatra’s private Isis temple. Today, it is underwater and has been studied by Franck Goddio and his team. If you’re interested, here’s a longish video about their work including illustrations of what the temple likely looked like. Very “Greco” and a little bit “Egyptian.” Goddio suggests that it is near this Isis temple that Kleopatra had her mausoleum built, and that it, like a good deal of the royal quarters in Alexandria, is now sunk below the waters of the harbor. This makes a certain amount of sense if for no other reason than travel distance. Alexandria was the center of Kleopatra’s fight against Octavian. It would have been much easier to have the tomb prepared, and to have Antony moved there after his suicide attempt, if the mausoleum were nearby, rather than 30 miles away. But who knows?

Cleopatra, by John William Waterhouse, a favorite of mine

Other suggestions are that they were buried near the still-undiscovered tomb of Alexander the Great in a place called the Soma, or that the Ptolemies had above-ground tombs in the royal quarter, that are now underwater due to the earthquake.

Many thanks to the priestesses of the Mt. Shasta Goddess Temple, who got me started on this track. Next time, we’ll look at Kleopatra’s connection with Isis Herself. How genuine was it?

For me, there are two things that make August wonderful, here in Portland, Oregon. One of them is all the produce that I can go pick on Sauvie’s Island, fresh from the farmers’ fields. (My countertops are full of peaches and tomatoes and peppers right now.) The other—and the more important for us local Isiacs—is the heliacal rising of the Star of Isis, Sirius.

While everything else starts to crisp in the late-summer heat, I am refreshed in the cool morning of Her rising power.

Now some of you may be saying, “wait, wait, I thought that happens in July.” It certainly could. When you are able to see Her heliacal (“before the sun”) rising depends on where on this globe you are.

Here in Portland, in 2026, Sirius rose yesterday, August 22, about an hour before the sun. (If you’d like to know when She rises in your area, here is a free, online calculator. Just give it a date near when you think Sirius might rise in your area (in the northern hemisphere, try starting on July 1st, for instance), and let it use your local time. Then look down the resulting chart until you no longer see “Not observable” and instead see a date and time. Hover your mouse over the time for additional details. Basically, you’d want to be in place about an hour before the given times.)

The Lotus Temple of Isis is moving to its new home; this photo was taken on Winter Solstice, notice the circle of sunlight on the sun in the interior of the temple.

Alas, here in Portland, as is so often the case, we had cloudy skies yesterday morning, so I was unable, once again, to see Her rising. However, the cloud cover is better for our firefighters, so absolutely not complaining.

In my own little part of the Universe, however, something else momentous happened yesterday. The Lotus Temple of Isis, which has been in my backyard for 16 years, was taken down, and is being moved to storage until it can be repaired and re-erected at Ffynnon. Many blessings to all of you who helped bring the Lotus Temple to her new home.

Isis & Sirius & Other Temples

And speaking of temples, did you know that some Egyptian temples were oriented to the Star of Isis? While Isis has connections to both the sun and the moon, the heavenly body in which I most easily see Her is the star—Her star: Sirius (Sopdet in Egyptian, Sothis in Greek).

Iset-Sopdet following Sah-Osiris in Their celestial boats

I fell in love with Her as Lady of the Star the first time I saw Sirius through a telescope. As I watched, Her brilliant star sparkled with rays of green and blue and pink and white. It was incredibly, unutterably beautiful. It was alive. And pure.

Likely, you already know why Sirius was important to the ancient Egyptians, so I won’t repeat that here. But I would like to add a few interesting bits about Sirius that you may not know about; in particular, the orientation of some Egyptian temples and shrines to Sirius at the time of their construction. For instance, the small Isis temple at Denderah and Isis’ great temple at Philae seem to have been oriented toward the rising of Sirius. Philae may even have a double stellar orientation: one axis to the rising of Sirius, one to the setting of Canopus.

Overall, Egyptian temples have a variety of orientations. A survey of temples taken between 2004 and 2008—that actually went to the temples in Egypt and measured the orientation—showed that most temples were oriented so that the main entrance faced the Nile. But not only that. It seems that the temples were also oriented toward other astronomical events, most especially the winter solstice sunrise, which of course makes very good sense as a symbol of rebirth.

Orientation to Sirius is rarer and harder to be certain of because the earth’s position in relation to the stars has shifted over the millennia.

A Horus temple, called the “Nest of Horus” on the summit of the highest peak of the Hills of Thebes, seems to have been oriented to the heliacal rising of Sirius around 3000-2000 BCE. Nearby, an inscription carved in rock during the 17th dynasty (1580-1550 BCE) records the observation of just such a rising of Sirius. This high place would have been ideal for Horus in His nest to await the coming of His mother Isis. On the other hand, the archaeoastronomers who did the survey I mentioned believe that it may also be oriented to the winter solstice sunrise, an event closely associated with Horus, son of Isis.

The original temple of Satet on Elephantine; made of mudbrick nestled among the natural boulders

Another temple that may have a Sirius orientation is the archaic temple of the Goddess Satet on the island of Elephantine. The original temple was built amidst the great boulders on the island and really is quite simply the coolest temple ever. It seems that when it was built (around 3200 BCE) the rising of Sirius and the rising of the winter solstice sun were at the same place (though not the same time) in the sky—so it could have been built to accommodate both important astronomical events.

After the initial study, the same team followed up with a survey (in 2008) of some temples in the Fayum that they hadn’t been able to study before as well as temples in Kush. They found generally the same results, except for the Nile orientation, since many of these temples were built far away from the river.

At Philae, the researchers made note of a son of a Priest of Isis, Wayekiye, son of Hornakhtyotef, who was “hont-priest of Sopdet” and ”wab-priest of the five living stars” (the planets) and “chief magician of the King of Kush.” This inscription on Isis’ Philae temple dates to about 227 CE. It emphasizes the importance and sacrality of the study of celestial objects and events to the kingdom and it is quite interesting that this was the work of the Chief Magician. This study also revealed that most Kushite temples and pyramids were oriented either to the winter solstice sunrise or the rise of Sirius.

The star Sopdet over the head of the Goddess

Another interesting thing the study found was that by the time of the New Kingdom, in the 34 temples that were unmistakably dedicated to a Goddess—specifically Isis or a Goddess associated with Her—the most important celestial orientation point was the rising of Sirius. But, in addition to Sirius, the star Canopus was also a key orientation point. According to their data, Goddess temples, in general, were more often aligned with the very bright stars, Sirius and Canopus, while God temples were more often oriented to key solar-cycle events. Isn’t that interesting?

And so, for me and other Isiacs at the 45.5th parallel, the New Year has come. And this year, for me, began with the moving of the Lotus Temple to its new home, just as the Philae Temple of Isis was moved from its original home on the island of Philae to its new home on the island of Agilika. I look forward to seeing it re-erected in the future.