Here's
the text of a presentation given by deTraci
Regula during the FOI Convocation at Isis Oasis, Geyserville,
California, 1998.
Used by permission of the author. Who Put the Hissss in Isisss? by deTraci Regula
Isis
and the serpents share a long history. In the beginning,
the word for "deity" was composed of the god
or goddess's name and the small image of a snake, most likely a
cobra. There is some speculation that the
pharaohs of Egypt were ritually sacrificed at the end of their term, and
that the
Sed festival, or jubilee, was originally the
moment of truth for the pharaoh, who would celebrate his reign and then
accept
the bite of a poisonous asp. While
direct evidence for this practice is scanty
now, it is interesting that Cleopatra chose this method to end her own
life when
she believed that it was futile for her to
attempt to continue her rule of Egypt. Cleopatra, no matter how we
interpret her
in modern times, was a rarity among the
Ptolemaic rulers. She studied ancient Egyptian and was proud to be a
priestess of
Isis. There is some evidence that the
priesthood of Isis made a bargain with Julius Caesar to support her
claim to the throne
of Egypt. Did she know something we don't
about the practice of ritual royal suicide in previous times? In
myth, we have an echo of this practice
in the story of Isis and Ra. In this story,
Ra is old, so decrepit that as he goes on his daily travels, his spittle
dribbles
onto the ground. The needs of humankind are
neglected; the universe itself is fraying a bit due to the inability of
the solar
power to maintain order. Isis,
a magician, a wise woman, is distressed by
this state of affairs. She looks at the neglected fields, scorched by
accident
by Ra. She looks at the dried bed of the
Nile, evaporated by Ra in a frenzy of heat. She looks at the parched,
sunburned skin
of the human people of earth, the dried-up
breasts of mothers whose babes cried unsatisfied, at the dehydrated
animals, dying
in their tracks as they quested for water.
She looks at the rainclouds far away whose moisture would not even reach
the ground
before it was burned away by Ra's mad power.
With one word, he can set all right again. But he will not speak the
world.
His bones are old, he likes the heat. His
eyes are growing dim, and he needs his own great blaze of light to let
him see.
He will not speak the word. Isis,
a magician, a wise woman, a daughter of Ra,
conceives a desperate plan. She knows the art of image magic, and can
create life
out of inanimate objects. But for the
supremely immune Ra to be affected by her arts, the image must have
something of him
in it. One day, Isis follows after Ra and
gathers the earth that he has moistened with himself. She fashions from
it an image
of a small snake, the very toxic dart, and
brings it to life. Isis
lays the snake in his accustomed path, with the instruction to bite Ra
as he passes. This he does, and the snake
springs up and clamps its fangs into the
divine flesh. Ra, surprised, makes his way back to his abode, where a
tremendous
fever takes him. He shudders in his limbs, he
cannot believe the virulent poison can be harming him, Lord of the
Gods. His
own fire should be sufficient to burn away
any other, but it is not. He has control over all the things of the
universe, but
not this one. Too delirious to even begin to
find out why this creature's poison can harm him, he welcomes Isis, who
rushes
in, to apparently comfort him. "Oh, my father, what is it? What causes you so much pain?" "I wandered today and was bitten -bitten by a snake!" "But father, how can
the venom of a mere snake harm you, who rules all beasts?" "Daughter, I do not know ---AHHH! The pain! It burns me! I burn from within like fire! Heal me!" Isis goes through the motions of healing
him, but it is useless, as she well knows. "Father, I cannot heal you. The power of the poison is too strong!" "What am I to do! What am I to do! I cannot bear it!" "There is one thing
that might work, father. Give me your name. In your name I may be able to command the fire to cease." "Unnnnngh....I am the Lord of Light,
the Power of Fire...." "Yes,
yes, everybody knows those. Those aren't working. Give me your name, your one true name." "AAHAHHAGH! No....not my true name -...not even to you,
my daughter....AHHAHGH!" "Give
me your name, father! Your one true name,
your one secret name, the name before all other names, give it to me
that I may
save you!" "Ahhhhh......aaaaa....all
right......my daughter.....come close......AHHH....." Isis leans her ear to her father's mouth. He speaks syllables to her. She straightens up in disgust. "Father,
if you do not give me your
true name, you will die of this burning.
Don't play games with me, Isis of the Words of Power. I'll know the true
name when I hear it. That's not it." "AHHHHHHGHHGHHGHG! I will tell it! I will tell it!" Isis leans in. She hears the mystical syllables, and this time, she rises up, satisfied. "What are you waiting
for! Now heal me, daughter! Heal me!" Isis speaks the words, the syllables of Ra's one true name. The poison flees his limbs, the sweat dries on his
brow, he lies back in relief, free. "Now, daughter, speak the words back to me, give me back my one true name, my one secret name." "Father,
one day I may need to heal
you again. If you have lost all
consciousness, how could you tell it to me then? No, I will keep this
word." And
Isis left her father's bedside. She
went and stood alone in the sunlight. She
looks at the neglected fields, scorched by accident by Ra. She looks at
the dried
bed of the Nile, evaporated by Ra in a frenzy
of heat. She looks at the parched, sunburned skin of the human people
of earth,
the dried-up breasts of mothers whose babes
cried unsatisfied, at the dehydrated animals, dying in their tracks as
they quested
for water. She looks at the rainclouds far
away whose moisture would not even reach the ground before it was burned
away by
Ra's mad power. Isis
says the Word, and the Word is good. So
Isis has been associated with snakes from apparently the very beginning
of her career as a goddess. In Egypt,
her images often include the snake,
especially the cobra. The cobra is often depicted on the base of the
crown of Isis. The
sacred uraeus, which, when worn by queens,
indicates their identification with the divine, is a near- constant
companion.
In images from the Graeco-Roman era,
priestesses are depicted carrying serpents in procession. Serpents
entwine around surviving
altars, or rise up around the body of Osiris. Even
in ancient Egypt, the symbol of the snake indicates power, sometimes
referred to as the "flame". Many
of the representations of snakes in
conjunction with Isis are symbols of what we sometimes call "Kundalini" -
the
serpent line band of energy that connects our
power centers together. One of the most important forms of Isis as
snake goddess
is that of Thermouthis, the serpent goddess
of the fields, often represented as a cobra crowned with the headdress
of Isis.
Isis and Wadjet Isis
is the Throne
goddess, wearing the seat of power as her
symbol. The other throne-related symbol is that of the Wadjet, which
refers to the
goddess of that name and to the flaming
serpent protecting the throne. It's natural that Isis would also be
associated
with the protective force of the throne. In
the Pyramid Texts, the creator-god Geb, god of earth, gave the cobra as
a symbol of legitimacy to the king. When
Isis is raising Horus at Khemmis in the
Delta, Wadjet is said to be his nurse. Wadjet also had a leonine form,
as did Isis.
The name "Uraeus, which of course is a Greek
version of the Egyptian, derives from the term "yaret" which refers
to the cobra as it rises up in anger,
preparing to spit flames to defend the Pharaoh. This defense can also be
offensive -
the cobra worn on the forehead of the king
acts as a kind of spiritual flamethrower during times of war. Even
Ra wears the Uraeus, which wraps around
his solar disk. Wadjet also defends Ra,
destroying evil serpents in the underworld. The power of the Uraeus
endured even in
the Amarna period, still clinging to the
abstract solar disk favored by Akhenaten. Even he could not safely
dispatch the sacred
snake. Some Snake Names Isis and Nepthys: Aar-ti, or Arar-ti, the two Uraei-goddesses Isis alone: Ast A uraeus in the boat of Af Isis and Renenutet (Thermouthis) By
far the most potent snake
form of Isis is when she is known as
Isis-Thermouthis or Isis-Renenutet. This cobra- goddess form is a
guardian of the Pharaoh
and also a guardian of the granaries and
fields. Renenutet is often depicted as a woman with a cobra's head.
Renenutet
is also considered to be part of the flame
that protects the Pharaoh, combining with Wadjet to accomplish this
task. Her gaze
is said to vanquish all enemies, clearly an
observation based on the habits of the physical cobra, who seems to
hypnotize
its prey. However, this same intent emanation
from her eyes causes things to grow. She is believed to be part of the
force
encouraging the child in the womb to enter
this world. She, like Isis, is a fate goddess, associated with the span
of life
and the fortune that comes with each life. Renenutet was mated with Sobek, one of Isis's alternative husbands, and she is shown as a nursing mother, occasionally
with a crocodile as the baby. Ouch! The Greeks called Isis combined with Renutet "Isermouthis". In the Hymns of Isidorus, Isis is praised as Isis-Hermouthis: "Hail,
Agathetyche, greatly renowned Isis, mightiest Hermouthis, in you every city rejoices; Another hymn asks: "Who built this holy temple
to greatest Hermouthis? In
fact, prior to her conjoining with Thermouthis, Isis was not often
regarded as a cereal goddess, a goddess of
grain. This identification was crucial to her
later identification with Demeter, and her rite of the Thesmophoria. Isis and Sarapis The
most prevalent snake form of Isis, however, appears when she is
depicted with Sarapis. Both of them frequently
have coiled lower bodies very reminiscent of
the Chinese goddess Nu Kua and her consort, and this can be seen as a
metaphor
for the energy exchanged in sexual
intercourse. The lower bodies are united; the upper bodies are free to
ascend in the air,
paired but still individual. Temple Practice
At
one temple, potential
priestess walked barefoot through a room
filled with allegedly venomous snakes or scorpions. If their faith were
strong, supposedly
they would not be bitten. Or, perhaps, if
their faith were strong they WOULD be bitten, and given an experience of
the realms
of death which is often mentioned in
connection with initiation ordeals. In the Mensa Isiaca, an altar top made in Alexandria, Isis sits throned, surrounded
by serpents with crowns. Quotes of Note Of
course, serpents are often given phallic
meanings, often to the obscurance of their other interpretations. It is
interesting,
however, that of the two objects that Isis is
commonly associated with making out of clay, one is a phallus, and one
is a
serpent. In one perspective, the drooling,
staggering, impotent god-form of Ra is brought back into harmony with
the universe
through the intervention of the serpent that
bites him. Though it is not at all clear in the myth if Isis completely
heals
Ra -though she might, once she has the word -
is possible that here, too, she has in essence replaced his phallus by
the snake
and re-potentized him. She has gone into his
body and searched out the word, as one source puts it, reversing the
usual order
of things. "So far as I can make out the
serpent-symbol has not a direct phallic reference, nor is its attribute
of wisdom
the most essential. The idea most intimately
associated with these animal was that of life, not present merely, but
continued,
and probably everlasting. Thus the snake Bai
was figured as Guardian of the doorways of the Egyptian Tombs which
represented
the mansions of heaven. A sacred serpent
would seem to have been kept in all the Egyptian temples, and we are
told that many
of the subjects, in the tombs of the kings at
Thebes in particular, show the importance it was thought to enjoy in a
future
state. Crowns, formed of the Asp or sacred
Thermouthis, were given to sovereigns and divinities, particularly to
Isis, and
these no doubt were intended to symbolize
eternal life. Isis was goddess of life and healing and the serpent
evidently belonged
to her in that character, seeing that it was
the symbol also of other deities with the like attributes. Thus, on
papyri, it
encircles the figure of Harpocrates, who was
identified with Asclepius, while not only was a great serpent kept alive
in the
great temple of Serapis, but on later
monuments this god is represented by a great serpent with or without a
human head."
- C.S. Wake quoted by M. Oldfield Howey. "Mr. Cooper has pointed out that the good serpent of Egyptian mythology is always represented as upright, whilst the evil serpent is shown crawling, and this is usually the only distinction made." The moon-goddess Isis being the feminine counterpart of Osiris, we must expect to find the mysteries of her worship equally entwined with Ophiolatry. According to Montfaucon, the Isaic table, which described these mysteries, was pictured with serpents in every part as emblems of the goddess. The particular serpent most pictured was the asp, so famous as the instrument of Cleopatra's suicide. This reptile is said to be identified with the horned viper of genus Cerastes, a snake about fifteen inches long, said by Herodotus to have been common near Thebes. In the British Museum there is a head of Isis wearing a coronet of them. It is painted or carved upon the tiaras of kings, the priestly robes, and the image of the goddess, and it was the chief symbol displayed upon the sphinxes. In olden days the living reptiles were housed in Isis' temple, and sanctified the offerings of her worshipers by crawling over and around them.Montfaucon also describes an engraved plate of gold which was found in an old wall at Malta in 1694. This plate was rolled up in a golden casket; it consists of two long rows which contain a very great number of Egyptian deities, most of which have the head of some beast or bird. Many serpents are also seen intermixed, the arms and legs of the gods terminating in serpent's tails. The first figure has a upon its back a long shell with a serpent upon it; in each row there is a serpent extended upon an altar. Among the figures of the second row there is seen an Isis of tolerably good form. This same plate no doubt contains the most profound mysteries of the Egyptian superstition. Blavatsky - "Esculapius, Serapis, Pluto, Knoum and Kneph, are all deities with the attributes of the serpent. Says Depuis, 'They are all healers, givers of health, spiritual and physical, and of enlightenment.' The crown formed of an asp, the Thermouthis, belongs to Isis, goddess of Life and Healing." R.E. Witt - "She was the invincible Queen, whose emblem was the Egyptian cobra, the uraeus." Other References George
Hart - A dictionary
of Egyptian gods and goddesses. Excellent,
detailed reference with an especially good section on Isis. Vera F. Vanderlip - The Four Greek Hymns
of Isidorus and the Cult of Isis - Detailed examination of these praise-songs from the Faiyum. Note: This is the text of material I presented at the Isis Oasis Convocation on October 19th, 1998. At the Convocation, snake priestess Le'ema danced with her serpents and then passed her serpents through the audience. We also selected oracles from the assembly, and went through the Isis Oasis grounds to the small pyramid, where the Oracles entered the pyramid with the snakes and then emerged with sacred insights to share with the assembly. It was a splendid event, (though we did lose a few audience members about the time the snakes came through).
About the Author: Rt. Rev. deTraci Regula is a long time member of the Fellowship of Isis. She is Priestess, Hierophant, ArchPriestess and ArchDruidess within the Fellowship of Isis and ordained within the Temple of Isis. deTraci is author of “The Mysteries of Isis: Her Worship and Magick” and “Sacred Scarabs for Divination and Personal Power” both published by Llewellyn. deTraci is a founding member of the Circle of Isis Advisory Board and the Muses Symposium. She has traveled extensively over the past several years and is currently working on several exciting projects. The article was featured on deTraci’s “Mysteries of Isis” website along with many other wonderful offerings.
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