Temple of Isis

"The kernel of the Isis archetype is the consciousness of being the seat of life; a woman's awareness of her own function of beginner, nurturer and medium for life to accomplish its means."
- Manuello Dunn Mascetti, The Song of Eve

"The Spirit of Nodens - God of the Great Deep - flashed forth as lightning from the depths and formed a throne in celestial realms - a seat of stone - whereon the Goddess was established. She ruled from the throne of stone which Nodens had fashioned, and about her the temple of Nu-Isis grew into being. This also was of stone, hollowed out, and of the lightning. And this Seat of Stone whirled forth in the heavens - the vehicle of Nodens' fire - veiled from mortal eyes by a vitreous curtain of deep unyielding ocean."
- Kenneth Grant, The Hidden God

"Isis, represented in the Song of Solomon by the dark maid of Jerusalem, is symbolic of receptive nature - the watery, maternal principle which creates all things out of herself after impregnation has been achieved by the virility of the sun."
- Manly P. Hall, Masonic, Hermetic, Quabbalistic & Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy

"Isis' magic was allied to the wisdom of Thoth and given to mankind as a skill in Healing; she was also responsible, as the counterpart of Osiris, for teaching the household arts to women. She taught them weaving and spinning, and how to grind the corn. Her strongest appeal was to the sorrowing wife and devoted mother - every woman could identify with her and she has been seen by some commentators as the archetype of a cult that continues in the Christian churches to the present day."
- Richard Patrick, Egyptian Mythology

"Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria, had openly embraced the cause of Isis, the Egyptian goddess, and had anthropomorphized her into Mary, the mother of God."
- H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled

"Immaculate is our Lady Isis...the very terms applied afterwards to that personage (the Virgin Mary) who succeeded to her form, titles, symbols, rites, and ceremonies....Thus, her devotees carried into the new priesthood the former badges of their profession, the obligation to celibacy, the tonsure, and the surplice, omitting, unfortunately, the frequent ablutions prescribed by the ancient creed." "The 'Black Virgins' , so highly reverenced in certain French cathedrals - proved, when at last critically examined - basalt figures of Isis!'"
- King, The Gnostics and their Remains

A single flame gathered strength from the women who circled around it.. Their spirit breathed as one into the crucible, and the flame leapt forth from the life-giving elixir of souls. These priestesses of Isis came not to praise a Goddess, but to sanctify the hallowed presence of LIFE within themselves, and in all that shared their world. This was ISIS to them...the Giver of Life.

"Come forward to me," she sang, "compose your song into my heart and live it in your soul."

(This meditation I was inspired to create for our JOURNEY OF HORUS into Egypt. It was preparatory for our experience as a group in the Temple of Isis at Philae. I am repeating it here, as I felt it was appropriate to do so. I have made some slight modifications for ROA.)

In your inner vision, visualize yourself in the midst of a light pink sky. It is the first shades of dawn and you are floating in the midst of pale mauve and white clouds, drifting in a pastel sea comprised of crystalline showers of light. Like tiny specks of fairy dust, they rain upon you and you feel these crystal particles transmitting Light into your body. The sensation is peaceful, yet quickening to your higher senses. You surrender in trust to the emotion of oneness, of loving that impels you forward through the sky.

Coming into your sight now is a single golden star, brilliant and beckoning to your soul. In response to your mere thought, you find yourself inside the star. All time is loosed from its bonds upon you. You can now simply ‘be’, in all time, in all space, eternally

You find yourself standing in the Solar Boat of Ra, the prow shaped in the image of a falcon head symbolizing Horus, Son of the Sun. You know you have donned the garment of your ancient and future self. You are a high priest or priestess of the Temple of One. Now you glide among the sacred realms and the worlds of twilight. With you on this vessel of passage are the other Women of the Avalon Shield.

Together, you come upon the Temple of Isis at Philae. Two rays or beams of light, one Yellow and the other Green penetrate the temple and your being alights from its vessel and moves through the entwining rays into the Temple of the Mother-God, Isis Resplendent.

The stones of the temple floor are smooth yet powerful beneath your bare feet. You feel the language of the ancients in them as the sacred meaning rises through the soles of your feet, permeating your entire body. You say within your heart:

“Lo, I have come unto thee, Mother of the World. I am thy Child, thy suckling babe. Hear me, for I shall become you and dance your dance in the greater assembly of heavens. I am the Child, I am the Mother. I am She who carries thee within me.”

As you summon the Goddess Isis, so you see before you the symbol of the Tskahara, The Unbinding. This is the power-sign to release the knot that binds the mind to the fallen world. Feel the unbinding of your karmic knot in the solar plexus. Loosen it and let it go.

Chant seven times (either aloud or in silence) the mantram of this Temple of the Horian Way: See-has-seso-meh. As you do, feel the knot in your solar plexus region dissipate and dissolve away.

Begin to free-flow for several minutes in integration with Isis in Her Temple of Light.

Now, with Horus as your guide, return to the Solar Boat. As we, the Women of the Avalon Shield, embark into the eternal sea, so we turn around and gaze one last time upon the sacred center we leave behind. Inscribe this image into your mind, as you move into the enveloping mist of your passage home. Upon the horizon, you see a golden star. Sail through the star, it is your portal of return.