Legend of Isis and Ra --------------------- Now Isis was a woman who possessed words of power; her heart was wearied with the millions of men, and she chose the millions of the gods, but she esteemed more highly the millions of the khus. And she meditated in her heart, saying, Cannot I by means of the sacred name of God make myself Mistress of the earth and become a Goddess like unto Ra in heaven and unto Earth? Now behold, each day Ra entered unto the head of his holy mariners and established himself upon the throne of the two horizons.. The holy one had grown old; he dribbled at the mouth,his spittle fell upon the earth,and his slobbering dropped upon the ground.And Isis kneaded it with earth in her hand and formed thereof a sacred serpent in the form of a spear; she set it not upright before her face but let it lie upon the ground in the path whereby the great God went forth, according to his hearts desire, into his double kingdom. Now the holy god arose,and the gods who followed him as if he were pharoah went with him; and he cam eforth according to his daily wont; and the serpent bit him. The flame of life departed from him,and he who dwelt among the cedars was overcome. The holy god opened his mouth,and the cry of his majesty reached up to heaven.His company of gods said What hath happened?and his gods exclaimed What is it? But Ra could not answer for his jaws trembled and all his members quaked; the poison spread swiftly through his flesh just as the Nile invadeth all his land.When the great god had stablished his heart, he cried unto those who were in his train, saying,Come unto me ye who have come unto being from my body, ye gods who have come forth from me, make ye known unto Khepera that a dire calamity has fallen upon me. My heart percieveth it, but my eyes see it not; my hand hath not caused it,nor do I know who hath done this to me.Never have I felt such pain, neither can sickness cause more woe than this.I am a prince, the son of a prince,a sacred essence which has proceeded from God. I am a great one, the son of a great one,and my father planned my name;I have multitudes of names and multitudes of forms, and my existence is in every God.I have been proclaimed by the heralds, Tmu and Horus,and my father and mother uttered my name but it hath been hidden within me by him that begat me who would not that the words of power of any seer should have dominion over me. I came forth to look at that which I had made; I was passing through the world which I had created, when lo! Something stung mebut what I know not. Is it fire? Is it water?My heart is on fire, my flesh quaketh, and trembling hath seized all my limbs.Let there be brought unto me the children of the gods with healing words and with lips that know, and with power which reacheth up to heaven. The children of every god came to him in tears; Isis came with her healing words and her mouth full of the breath of life, with her enchantments which destroy sickness,and with her words of power which make the dead to live. And She spake, saying,What hath come to pass, o holy father?What hath happened? A serpent hath bitten thee and a thing which thou hast created has lifted up his head against thee. Verily it shall be cast forth by my healing words of power and I will drive it away before the sight of thy sunbeams. The Holy god opened his mouth and said,I was passing along my path,and I was going through the two regions of my lands according to my hearts desire, to see that which I had created, when lo! I was bitten by a serpent that I saw not. Is it fire? Is it water? I am hotter than fire, col and the sweat rusheth to my face even as in the time of summer. The Isis said to Ra;O tell me thy Name, holy father, for whosoever shall be delivered by thy Name shall live. And Ra replied stubbornly, I have made the heavens and the earth, I have ordered the mountains, I have created all that is above them, I have made the water, I have made to come into being the great and wide sea, I have made the Bull of his Motherfrom whom spring the delights of love.I have made the heavens,I have stretched out the horizon like a curtain, amd I have placed the soul of the gods within them. I am he who, if he opens his eyes, doth make the light, and, if he closeth them,darkness comes into being. At his command the Nile riseth,and the gods know not his Name. I have made the hours, I have created the days, I bring forward the festivals of the year,I create the Nile flood. I make the fire of life, and I provide food in the houses.I am Khepera in the morning, I am Ra at noon, and I am Tmu at even. Meanwhile the poison was not taken away from his body, but it pierced deeper, and the great god could no longer walk. Then Isis said unto Ra ;What thou hast said is not thy Name.O tell it to me,and the poison shall depart;for he shall live whose name shall be revealed. Now the poison burned like fire,and it was fiercer than the flame and the furnace, and the majesty of the god saidI consent that Isis shall search into me and that my Name shall pass from me into her Then the god hid himself from the gods,and his place in the boat of millions of years was empty. And when the time arrived for the heart of Ra to come forth. Isis spake unto her son Horus saying;The god hath bound himself by an oath to deliver up his two eyes, the Sun and the Moon. This was the Name of the great god taken from him; May Ra live! and may the poison die, may the poison die,and may Ra live! These are the words of Isis, the Great Goddess; the Queen of the Gods, who knew Ra by his own Name. ********************************************* As with all of the ancient legends which have been told and re-told over the millennia, this legend can be interpreted on various levels of meaning. The first and immediate reaction of the casual observer, perhaps one who has been saturated with fear-based programming and doesnt yet know the true nature of the Cosmic Mother; would be to portray Isis as a power-hungry witch or sorceress with evil intent, and they would feel tremendous sympathy towards Ra. Now, this kind of superficial interpretation is believed to be the truth by many; however, in actual fact, there are several deeper and more substantial interpretations for those with some knowledge of symbolism and Cosmic events. A key to the understanding of what these ancient stories are meant to tell us is that thery have been designed to lure the uninitiated into delusion and the more advanced seeker into realms of discovery. First we must ask, why is the Great Goddess portrayed as a woman without any power right in the beginning of the story?. And the Sun God, Ra, is supposed to be the epitome of vital energy and the life-giving powers of the Sun. Early on in the tale it is apparent that quite apart from being a vital God, Ra is getting old and senile, his power weakening and having dribbling saliva from the mouth. Ra is also portrayed in the tale as the all-powerful Creator God, and repeatedly insists throughout that as he was the sole creator of all things, the exclusive power should remain his to wield. As we all know, the Egyptians always held the serpent in high reverence, equating the serpent and especially the sacred Asp, with Divinity. The serpent is the symbol of Infinity and Re-Birth.Every re-birthing is preceded by a death, and this death is not always pain-free. Sometimes we take too long to make our choices, despite what the Inner voice tells us, and then one has to pay the price for this inactivity in the current of the Celestial river .The serpent demonstrates the transmutation of water into wine, as the old skin is sloughed off periodically to make way for a glossy new coat of scales.The endings and beginnings of any cycle of activity has an Alpha and an Omega, a start and an ending. Thus the tale is symbolic of the Transitions of the Ages. The other way of interpreting the tale is by observing what happens when there is a fundamental imbalance between the Yin and Yang energies of the Unverse. Ra attempts to maintain his perceived superiority over the ancient Moon worship; and needs a number of the Elohim to assist him in this task. The boat of a million years , propelled by Apep is directed by Ra and his entourage of gods, while he revels in what he sees to be his creation . The serpent which Isis forms is made by Ra himself, as the spittle of advanced old age mixes with the earth, and it bites him, to demonstrate that imbalance brings only pain, suffering and dis-ease to the lands which once knew all about balance and harmony in the first days when The Goddess ruled with equality and peace, Yin and Yang working together as one... and as Ra does not want anyone to usurp his monopoly on spiritual power, he refuses to surrender and hand over his secret magickal name to Isis, even though he knows that to hand over his name means giving his essential power to that person and of necessity, sharing the rule of the land which will bring healing and love to all who dwell on it. Eventually, when the pain becomes too much to bear and the torment of not being able to cope with things on his own becomes too much for him, Ra relents and hands Isis back the worship of the Sun and the Moon and transfers back the power to be shared equally between Isis and Set , Horus and Nephthys ~ all of the aspects of the Divine whom we love so well; both dark and light, both male and female, light and dark. The Tale also demonstrates an ending of domination by one of either Yin or Yang energies, within the vortex of the Great Mother. Domination of the Yang energies bring about an imbalance which is characterised by too much action and aggressive behaviour, whilst am excess of Yin results in a corresponding decrease in any action at all and very passive behaviour.To develop any ability at all or create anything of any lasting value, both Yin and Yang must work together , not in competition but in complementary harmony. This is the reason why the ancients knew that the essence or likeness of the Divine is Androgynous, and that all things come from the Great Goddess. By Zephonith
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 07:47:14 +0000