Well in Time (23 page)

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In her generosity, Isis saw that these maids of the court were yet untutored in the refinements of womanhood that she had so long nurtured among the people of Egypt. Taking pity on these roughly coiffed but kindly girls, she offered to plait their hair and they readily agreed. With delight they then rushed off to show Queen Astarte their newly styled hair, in the process drawing with them the divine scent of Isis that pervaded them like strong perfume.

The queen, enchanted both by the lovely hairdos and the scent that wafted around the girls, soon extracted from them how they had come by these refinements and sent a servant to invite Isis to the palace. Isis was in the guise of an old, bedraggled woman when she arrived, and still her essence was so sweet that the queen invited her, then and there, to become the nursemaid to her two children, young Prince Maneros and his baby brother, Dictys.

Isis accepted this assignment because, upon entering the palace, she knew her quest was at an end. She could sense the closeness of her love and she was determined to locate him. So she cared for the little princes by day and at night searched the palace for Osiris.

Before long, she discovered his essence exuding from the vast tamarisk pillar in the throne room. Confounded by its imprisoning structure, each night she turned herself into a swallow and flew round and round the pillar, crying her love in anguish to her husband and brother.

Isis was of such a sweet and loving nature that the little princes flourished under her sway. The baby Dictys especially was fond of her and she of him. So Isis made a decision such as only a goddess can make: she would confer immortality upon baby Dictys!

So each night, when she had tired of flying about the pillar, calling to Osiris, she did further magic. Taking baby Dictys by the heel while chanting mystical words, she would dip the infant into the flames of the evening fire, in the same way that an armorer would commit a sword to hot coals to temper the metal.

This was her routine for many days and nights, until one night when Queen Astarte discovered Isis in the act of holding her child into the flames! You can imagine, I’m sure, how it must have appeared to the frantic mother, who screamed that the new nursemaid was trying to kill the little prince!

A furor was raised in the palace of King Malcander that night and before the coming of the dawn, all was revealed. Isis showed herself in all her glory and reproached the queen for rupturing the magic that would have gifted her son immortality. For their part, the king and queen cowered before the radiance of the goddess and offered her whatever treasure she might wish in their kingdom. But Isis asked for only one thing, the great tamarisk pillar, which they granted her without hesitation.

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Immediately Isis caused the tree to be hewn open and discovered the golden box within it. At the sight of it, she threw herself down upon it with wails of such terrible anguish that it is said poor baby Dictys died of fright upon hearing them, thus punishing his mother for subverting the will of a goddess.

In fact, we now see the terrible side of the goddess, for every god and goddess possesses one. The good King Malcander now supplied Isis with a ship to return her and her treasure to Egypt, and sent young Prince Maneros to accompany her. But once they were at sea, Isis caught the boy spying on her as she opened the lid of the box to tend to Osiris. In a rage, with one blow-like glance of her eyes, she knocked him overboard and into the sea.

Soon, their ship was navigating across the mouth of the Phaedrus River, which was in flood. The force of the current was so powerful that it threatened to sweep the ship away from sight of land, out into the open sea. Isis was outraged by this impediment to her homeward journey. She shouted a curse at the river, which immediately dried up and has remained so ever since.

Such is the power of the goddess, my child. We mortals cannot comprehend it nor the morality that propels it. There are some who call the gods unjust and whimsical in their actions. But it is a universal law, which even the gods and goddesses cannot violate, that every curse shall lead to an even greater blessing. And so it was with Isis, whose one objective was to return Osiris, in all his benevolence, to the land of Egypt. And so, as we shall see, it eventually was with Set, whose black magic only conferred great blessings upon all, through his downfall.

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Some say Isis took Osiris to a cave and some that she hid him in the marshes of the delta. In any case, she stowed him away in a secret place and began working her magic over him. Because he was a god and incorruptible, his body was perfectly preserved and unblemished, even in death. And because she was a goddess, she knew the magic spells to return life to his lifeless body, even as your Savior Jesus is rumored to have done to Lazarus.

At last, Osiris’s eyes fluttered open and the first thing he beheld was the beautiful face of his beloved Isis. Immediately, while he was still in a barely conscious state, they desired one another, as couples sometimes do who have just awakened from sleep. After so long a separation, it was a joyous and passionate coupling, and Isis knew from the instant it occurred that she was pregnant with a son.

Afterward Osiris rested while Isis went to find food, leaving her love unattended. Now, it happened that Set and his henchmen were hunting that night, by the light of the moon, for Set was of a beastly disposition and felt most comfortable hidden in the cloak of night, as is often the case with evil ones. Imagine his amazement when, on the night wind, he smelled a whiff of his brother Osiris!

Like a wild predator, Set followed the scent until he arrived at the hiding place prepared by Isis. When he saw his brother alive and resting sweetly, Set flew into a titanic rage. He fell upon Osiris, rending his body into fourteen pieces. These he gave to his henchmen, telling them to distribute them as widely as possible, from one end of Egypt to the other, so that the parts could never again be reassembled. Off into the night loped these evildoers, bearing away the separate parts to be hidden.

When Isis returned, expecting the adored company of her love, she came instead upon an empty, blood-soaked box. How great was her anguish then! No consolation was possible. And here we see how great is the power of love. Exhausted and grieving as she was, she set forth immediately to discover what had happened to Osiris, with the sole intent of bringing him once more to life.

It did not take long for Isis to receive confirmation of the murder.The minions of Set could not stop bragging of their exploit, and Set himself went about shouting his triumph. The news was soon buzzing even among the lowly people of Egypt, how Set had brought his brother low for a second time.

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This time Isis enlisted the help of her sister Nepthys, who had left Set in disgust and horror because of his evil doing. They also begged aid from Nepthys’ son, Anubis, who turned himself into a jackal, so that he might use his delicate nose to sniff out the hidden parts of Osiris.

By day these three traveled on land, guarded by seven deadly scorpions. By night, they moved upon the broad breast of the Nile in the royal barge. So great was the radiance and power of the goddesses that crocodiles in the river and scavenger birds of the air refused to touch the pieces of the god.

Slowly, Isis recovered the parts of the dead Osiris. At each place where she found a part, she caused a temple to be erected, honoring him. That is how there come to be thirteen holy temples dedicated to Osiris in the land of Egypt.

I see you are alert, dear child. The bread and cheese have served you well. For you are wondering now why there are only thirteen temples, when Osiris was rent into fourteen pieces. That is because one of the pieces was lost. The phallus of Osiris was thrown into the Nile and was swallowed by a fish! The loss of the phallus was divinely ordained, you see. It went into the great river that waters all Egypt and in this fashion inseminated the entire land, bringing fertility to humans, animals, and plants alike, and demonstrating, even in death, the dominion of Osiris over his brother Set.

Isis made Osiris a new phallus of cedar wood and gold, and through her magic, fused it to the reassembled body. But the soul of Osiris had been too long in the underworld, and even the magic of Isis could not return him to life on this earthly plane. His spirit had flown and taken up residence in the Hall of Timelessness, there to act as judge upon those traveling between this world and the next.

So Isis went to an island in the Nile called Philae, at the southernmost boundary of Egypt, close to the First Cataract. There she erected a great temple, the holiest of all, for there was where she had found Osiris’s heart, and it was there that she buried the body of her beloved, the god who had brought the joys of civilization to Egypt.

By then, Isis was heavy with child. It was time for her to give birth, but she was harried by Set and his hoard of evildoers. She was driven forth from the towns and took refuge in the swamps of the Nile delta, and there, accompanied only by wild dogs, she gave birth to their son Horus, who one day would avenge his father and mother against Set.

You must be wondering why I am telling you this story. Entertaining as it is, it is not apparent what is its connection to the explanation I have promised you regarding this community. But have patience, dear child, for I am about to embark on a story that will make all clear to you.

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Now, we move forward in time, to the years following the Crucifixion of the one you call the Lord Jesus Christ. These many centuries later, a temple still flourished on Philae in the Nile River. This temple, sacred to the goddess Isis, was built more than three hundred years before the Christian era by the last dynasty of Egypt, the Ptolemys. It was erected on the site of the temple built by Isis—in fact, including the earlier structure in its architecture.

Because it was believed to be the burying place of the god Osiris, it was still a deeply sacred site to the Egyptians. Only priests and priestesses were allowed to live there and so the island was known as The Unapproachable. It was so sequestered that it is said that fish did not visit its shores nor did birds fly over it.

I regret that you will not be able to travel with me to Philae. You would be overcome with awe at its beauty and grandeur. But your path leads elsewhere, my little friend, while mine will lead to Philae one last time. To me, it is the most sacred site in all the world. It is likely that when I go this time, I shall not return. I ask nothing more of the Great Mother than that She allow me to pass from this world while within the sacred compound at Philae.

Since you will not see this marvel in your lifetime, I will describe it to you. Imagine that you are approaching a small, low island by boat on the river. Rising from the green water is a building of such magnificence that I can scarcely convey its beauty to you. A double colonnade extends to greet you at the water’s edge. Before the entrance to the sacred courtyard are two huge lions, carved in granite, and behind them two obelisks, each tall as a great tree.

The great gate to the temple is formed by two immense pyramid-shaped pylons, carved with monumental figures of Isis and Osiris, and behind them, across a courtyard, are two more, forming the entrance to the most sacred area. The columns that support the temple roof are massive, completely covered in hieroglyphs carved into the stone and painted in bright colors, and at the top there are capitals in the shape of papyrus bundles and palm fronds.

No, I cannot convey to you the grandeur of this place that is so dear to me. And dear, for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is that it is the resting place of the body of Osiris. Or that the temple is sacred to Isis. But there is yet another reason and it bears directly upon the history of the community in which you now take shelter.

You may not know that dynastic Egypt of the Pharaohs was conquered, first by the Greeks and then by the Romans. Yet all during that time, for a period of close to a thousand years, Philae remained a sacred site where the ancient Egyptian religion was practiced, even while foreign influence and persecution flourished.

Because it was the last outpost of Egyptian religion, many devoted followers went to Philae on pilgrimage. The temple even attracted Greek and Roman pilgrims, who came to pray for healing and wisdom from the mysterious goddess Isis. Even after the Romans converted to Christianity, three hundred years after the death and resurrection of the one you call Jesus, still the temple and its religious practices survived for another two centuries.

Finally, in the Christian year 550, the Byzantine emperor Justinian officially closed the temple of Isis on Philae. It was the last so-called pagan temple active in the Mediterranean world—although I have visited a Roman temple to Isis that still remains active in England. The chapel that was dedicated to Osiris was rededicated to the Christ, and the temple of Isis was converted to a church honoring the Virgin Mary. All was then maintained by a Coptic Christian community that lived on the island, until even that was closed down by Muslin invaders in the seventh century.

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So you see, dear child, that the temple on Philae has had a long and tumultuous past. It was during the time of Emperor Justinian, when the temple was closed to ancient Egyptian practices, that we again pick up the thread of my tale. For this transition from Egyptian to Christian religion on Philae was not a peaceful one.

One day, as the priests were going about their sacred rituals within the temple, a mob broke in! These were Christian zealots who could not tolerate the thought of another religion besides their own. You must understand that they were coarse and uneducated people, while the priests whom they attacked that day were inheritors of thousands of years of knowledge, culture, wisdom and magic.

The Christian mob swept through the Temple of Isis, sacred to Egyptians for a thousand years, defiling the place—breaking statuary, hammering off hieroglyphs, and killing as they went. Perhaps never before on this earth has there been such a wasteful slaughter—one which set human culture back by centuries.