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Osiris
Osiris is perceived as the
God of Life and
Death, the Master of Nature and the
Lord of the
Silence. He represents the
divine masculine
manifestation of Nature, the
sparkling essence
of the Afterlife and the
cyclic streaming plane
of the
Underworld. Since
ages past he is known
as the “Lord of Love” and “He who is permanently
Benign and Youthful”.
In
Egyptian mythology,
Osiris is the oldest son
of the Earth god
Geb and the
flowing Sky goddess
Nut. He is
husband and brother to
Isis,
goddess
of fertility and the
feminine aspect of
creation.
Horus, the
eye of the Sun is the
son
borne from the sacred entwined pair.
Osiris symbolizes an
aspect of the Sun and
Solar
activity, the energy of Life which
promenades
out from the inner centre, the
core of
existence. Our Egyptian ancestors associated his
benign wisdom with the
cycles observed in the
flora and
fauna, and the annual and
life-prospering flooding of the Nile.
The three properties of the Sun are made
manifest as the trinity of
Life, light and
heat,
symbolizing the spiritual, intellectual and
material facets of sentience.
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“In all
probability, Osiris represents the third, or
material, aspect of solar activity, which by
its beneficent influences vitalizes and
enlivens the flora and fauna of the earth.
Osiris is not the sun, but the sun is
symbolic of the vital principle of Nature,
which the ancients knew as Osiris. His
symbol, therefore, was an opened eye, in
honor of the Great Eye of the universe, the
sun.”
- Manly Palmer Hall
(Secret
Teachings of All Ages) |
Osiris is also associated with the
constellation
Orion (the
Hunter). The three Kings of
Orion’s
belt (gold,
frankincense and
myrrh) hold a
sacred place as does the star of
Sirius, the
brightest star in the sky, the
heavenly pointer
showing the place where the
Sun of the morning
will be borne during the
Winter Solstice.
Osiris
also holds within himself the
flowing
visage of the “Green Man” as he is a symbol for
Nature. The Egyptian culture
inherited their
traditions from their
Druidical cousins, the
people of the Arya (ancient Ireland), who came
and seeded the East, after the great
West to
East movement across the plains of the
World.
Osiris wears the
Atef crown which combines the
Hedjet (crown of Upper Egypt) with
red Ostrich
feathers symbolizing
Ma’at, the
goddess of
truth, justice,
morality, and
balance. He
carries the
crook and
flail,
symbols for Oneness
and Life (spiritual,
mental, emotional and
material).
The scholarly grand-master
Manly Palmer Hall of
esoteric and
occult tradition, provides a
poetic
account of the story of
Osiris;
Plutarch (the
ancient mage of Ascent) further asserts that the
Greeks recognized in Osiris the same person whom
they revered under the names of
Dionysus and
Bacchus.
While he (Osiris)
was away from his country, his brother
Typhon,
the Evil One, like
Loki of Scandinavia,
plotted
against the Sun God to
destroy him, as he wanted
to inherit the throne, fuelled by his
wild
jealousy and envy for his
brother.
The
Egyptian
archetypal personality of
Typhon is
Set. This is
why the sun sets at
sunset, as
Set is in
domain
while
Osiris (Horus)
resides in the deep
Underworld, to be
borne again. There are
twelve
hours (horus), as
twelve is the number of
“houses” the
Sun passes through within its
cycle, which is infinite along the vertebrae of
rhythm and walking without pattern.
Set (Typhon)
gathered seventy-two persons as
fellow
conspirators and attained his
nefarious end in a
most subtle manner. He had a
wonderful
ornamented box made just the size of the
body of
Osiris. This he brought into a banquet hall
where the gods and goddesses were
feasting
together. All admired the
beautiful chest, and
Typhon promised to give it to the one whose
body
fitted it most perfectly. One after another lay
down in the box, but in disappointment rose
again, until at last Osiris also tried. The
moment he was in the chest Typhon and his
accomplices nailed the cover down and
sealed the
cracks with molten lead. They then
cast the box
into the Nile, down which it
floated to the sea.
Plutarch states
that the date upon which this occurred was the
seventeenth day of the month Athyr, when the
Sun
was in the
constellation of Scorpio. This is
most significant, for the
Scorpion is the
symbol
of treachery. This is why
Judas kisses
Jesus to
betray him, as the
kiss is the symbol of the
mark of the Scorpion. It is associated with the
cycle of Death. The time when
Osiris entered the
chest was also the same season that
Noah
entered
the ark to escape from the Deluge. Yes, the
proverbial splash of cold water to
unfreeze the
joints of Mankind.
The
Pans and
Satyrs (satire) first discovered that
Osiris had
been murdered (this is from where the word panic
originates).
Isis received news from
children
who had witnessed the murderers making off with
the box. She robed herself in
mourning and
started forth in quest of him.
Isis is the
feminine reflection of the
One and how
beautiful
that she honoured Osiris in
taking on the
mission to bring him unto her. Nowadays in the
supposed “civilised” world where great progress
is made every moment, Isis would have gone off
to pull someone else, perhaps even ending up
with
Set. It has happened and will happen again
as long as there is a loss of Self in the
psyche, individually and collectively.
The
chest
containing Osiris had floated to the
coast of
Byblos and lodged in the
branches of a tree,
which grew up around the box. This
amazed the
king of the country, and he ordered the
tree to be
cut down and a pillar to be made from the
trunk to
support the roof of his palace. He should have
rather used his thick skull.
Isis visited
Byblos and
recovered the body of Osiris. She
brought her friend and ally back to life,
by use
of a spell that she learned from her father.
This spell gave her time to
become pregnant by
Osiris before he again
died. The Sun spends the
night in the
Underworld, is
re-incarnated as
King of the Underworld, and
God of
Reincarnation.
Typhon
stole the
body of Osiris, and
cut it into fourteen parts,
which he scattered over the Earth.
Isis gathered
up the pieces but only found
thirteen. His
phallus had to be
made magically in gold as the
original had fallen into
river Nile and was
swallowed by a fish.
Bon Appétit!
Isis later gave
birth to Horus after the
resurrection of Osiris.
Horus
symbolizes new beginnings and is
known as
the vanquisher of the evil Set (darkness).
It is said that in
alchemy, when the
Sun dies, it
must die in
water. This is perhaps why in some traditions
Osiris transmutes into water and
inherits the
personality of the fish. The story of
Osiris
becoming fish-like is
cognate with the story of
the
Greek shepherd god Pan becoming
fish-like
from the waist down in the river Nile after
being attacked by Typhon (Capricornus).
This attack was
part of a generational feud in which both
Zeus
and
Dionysus were
dismembered by
Typhon, in a
similar manner as Osiris
was by Set.
Isis
Isis is the
feminine aspect of Life, the
mother and
wife as
well as the Matron of Nature and
Magic. She is
the goddess of Motherhood,
fertility
and her way is the flow of nurture and
Love.
Isis is the
first daughter of
Geb,
the god of the Earth, and
Nut,
the goddess of the
Overarching Sky, and was born
on the fourth intercalary day.
The
headdress worn
by Isis symbolizes the
auric bodies. These
expressions can also be found around
haloes and
aureole. Frank C. Higgins, a well known
Masonic
symbolist has noted that the
ornate headgears of
certain gods, goddesses and Pharaohs are
inclined backward at same angle of the
Earth’s
axis. Absolutely heavenly and
fantastic!
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“Isis is
sometimes symbolized by the head of a cow;
occasionally the entire animal is her
symbol. The first gods of the Scandinavians
were licked out of blocks of ice by the
Mother Cow (Audhumla), who symbolized the
principle of natural nutriment and fecundity
because of her milk. Occasionally Isis is
represented as a bird. She often carries in
one hand the crux ansata, the symbol of
eternal life, and in the other the flowered
sceptre, symbolic of her authority.”
- Manly Palmer Hall
(Secret
Teachings of All Ages) |
Isis is also known as the
goddess of simplicity,
Protector of the Dead and
goddess of Children
from whom all beginnings arose. The
Knot of Isis
represents the idea of
eternal life and
resurrection.
The star, Spica and the
constellation which corresponds to
Virgo,
appeared in the sky above the horizon at the
time of year associated with the harvest of
wheat and
grain, and thus became
associated with
fertility and the
goddess Hathor.
Isis would
come to be connected with the
heavenly
Celestials through her later embrace with
Hathor, the
Celestial Beacon of
Life and
Nurture.
Isis also assimilated
Sopdet, the
personification of the
star Sirius, since
Sopdet, rising just before the
flooding of the
Nile, was seen as a bringer of fertility, and so
had also been identified with
Hathor.
Isis is usually depicted
holding a lotus, and
also Sycamore tree. These symbols of the
Earth
symbolize the
Tree of Life and
permeate the
sacred kinship with the
Druids of the Arya.
In the
Book of the
Dead Isis is described:
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She who
gives birth to Heaven and Earth, She who
knows the Orphan, She who
knows the widow Spider, She who
seeks Justice for the poor people, She who
seeks Shelter for the weak people, She who
seeks the Righteousness in her people. |
Numerous titles were
bestowed upon the Queen of
Heaven; Mother of the Gods;
The One Who is All;
Lady of Green Crops;
The Brilliant One in the
Sky; Star of the Sea;
Great Lady of Magic;
Mistress of the House of Life;
She Who Knows How
To Make Right Use of the Heart;
Light-Giver of
Heaven; Lady of the Words of Power;
Moon Shining
Over the Sea.
In conclusion, the story of
Isis and
Osiris
reminds us to gather our
Heavenly bodies of
Sacred essence and remember that we all have the
Divine breath within us, which can
further us to
new places of excitement and
vigour upon the
Majestic path of Life.
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