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Isis-Seshat Journal Personal Post of the Fellowship of Isis Issue #29 Spring 2011

Volume 8 Number 1 2

THE JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE & TSUNAMI

The Divine Mother, Isis, Amaterasu, Kwannon, loves and cares for each one of Her children suffering from the earthquake. We in the Fellowship of Isis together with all who love Her send Her Blessings to all in Japan.

--Lady Olivia Robertson

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Isis-Seshat Journal Issue #29 Vol.8 No.1 ISSN: 1552-082X

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Cover art: Faun and Water Nymph, by Sara Kobuszko ...... p.1 Inside Front Cover: For Japan, by Lady Olivia Robertson ...... p.2 Subscription Information ...... p.3 Letter From the Editor……………………………… ...... p.4 Letters From Readers ...... p.6 News ...... p.7 Deosil, by Lillian Morgan Evans ...... p.10 To Our Native Goddesses and Female Protectors, by Pavel Tulaev ...... p.11 Report on Magical Workings For Egypt, by Lady AMber Dawn ...... p.20 Thank God It’s Over! by Gloria Taylor Brown ...... p.23 Healing By Laying On of Hands, by Sarah Rooke...... p.25 Meditation and Hymn to Herakles, by Demetria Nanos ...... p.27 Contemplations on the Manifesto of the Fellowship of Isis: Founders, by Deena Butta………………… ...... p.29 Diana Nemorensis, by Myth Woodling ...... p.31 Magic of Manifestation at Isis Oasis, by Loreon Vigne ...... p.32 My Trip To Egypt: Ten Things, by Lady AMber Dawn ...... p.34 The Mist It Tells Me, by Dorn Simon-Sinnott ...... p.35 Story of an Iseum, by Lady Haight-Ashton ...... p.36 Exploring Eos, by Demetria Nanos ...... p.38 Contributors To This Issue ...... p.52 Inside back cover: Archpriesthood Union Directory...... p.53 Back Cover: The Manifesto of the Fellowship of Isis ...... p.54

Uncited artwork from Dover Publications and Microsoft Office. All legal rights reserved by the contributors.

ISIS-SESHAT SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Inside USA: $30 per year or $8 per issue, shipping included. Outside USA: $38 per year, or $10 per issue, shipping included

ISIS-SESHAT c/o Deena Butta 3334 W. Eastwood Ave. Chicago IL 60625-5334 USA

Please make checks out to “Deena Butta” with “magazine” in the memo line.

You may also send payment via Paypal to [email protected]

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Dear FOI Family,

I get Equinox Jitters every year about three weeks before the actual equinox. Do you?

The rising of the earth energies floods my being like a strong electrical current hitting the system…without the transformer to step down the energy, it almost makes your system vibrate with more energy than it can handle.

It is important to stay grounded at this time of year. The FOI “Spring Rite of Good Health” is helpful for that reason, and excellent practice to celebrate it every spring regardless of your other observances and celebrations.

Among the various lessons we face in this school called “Life On Planet Earth” are those about levels of reality, as demonstrated on the glyph of the Qabalistic Tree of Life. Each individual finds some lessons of the different sefirot (spheres) easier to grasp than others.

My own personal curriculum is taught by the sphere of Geburah, which corresponds to the planet Mars and its mysteries. What IS energy? What IS conflict? What IS effort? What IS striving? Is Mars really about aggression? What are its deeper levels of meaning? For example… what does it really mean to be a warrior? What is right action?

The Lyceum of Alexandria chose Magic of Mars and the Morrigan, with its mystery of the jeweled scabbard, as our Vernal Equinox ritual. It seemed pertinent in light of the political and natural turmoil erupting around the world…although in actuality we were guided to select this rite before all that started. I believe we shall be processing its lessons and those of its corresponding sefira for some time ot come.

This year‟s Goddess Festival liturgy will be The Winged Pegasus.

It is about creativity, which requires its own kind of strength and right action. Going into the 5th world, we will need creativity. The Winged Pegasus honors the Muses, goddesses of the arts and sciences. Associated with their story are the Goddess Mnemosyne, and the gods Apollo. Zeus, and Poseidon. Water is a major theme in The Winged Pegasus.

It is hard to think of the Muses without thinking of the Muses Symposium, an FOI society created by Lady Olivia in 2007. Its hallmark is freedom from structure and necessity. The arts 5 can save the world. People communicate on multiple levels with each other through the arts (even the verbal ones) and they bypass the conflict by going to the heart of their vision.

The Muses Symposium is an important network within FOI. Estara and Deena feel called to be more active with The Muses Symposium at this time, thus they have created Helicon, a new chapter of the Muses Symposium, which has as its purpose to introduce and connect everyone who serves the goddess through creative effort.

The Muses Symposium is open through Helicon to all people doing creative work in the arts and sciences, who want to find each other, and promote the message of the land of Arcadia, the many Arcadias in our world, and the work of FOI.

Visit The Muses Symposium Blog http://musessymposium.blogspot.com and the Muses Symposium website www.musessymposium.org Conact Estara or Deena to be listed as a member of the Muses Symposium, or to have your Arcadia listed. Olivia says: “Dionysos and Apollo represent love and truth. Symposiums take place in lectures halls, but Arcadians meet in pubs.” These two are in harmony with each other in the Eleusinian Mysteries as well as atop the Parthenon.

What is the difference between an art, an art form, and art? What distinguishes the arts from anything else?

Anything can be an art if it is done in a way that imbues it with beauty on any or all levels of reality. If something is done thoughtfully and with care, it becomes something powerful that reverberates throughout the worlds. It becomes an art, something beautiful, for all times. When something is simply done mechanically or in a hurry or thoughtlessly, it is cold, without any kind of fire. And it is not an art.

Anything can be done artfully. In the new world that is coming, to make it a world of beauty, all things must be done as an art…that is, with care and thoughtfulness and reverence.

And where is Arcadia? It is wherever these things are accomplished! Arcadia is wherever your particular creative source is located, physically or metaphysically. Giving it a name and honoring it raises the vibratory level of where you are. That is your Arcadia!

The Muses \Symposium encourages all arts and art forms that honor the goddess and heal humanity. But it can also help to raise our level of awareness so that even the most humble things we do become an art.

May you walk in beauty! May strength and vitality surround and fill your being! May you dwell in Arcadia! Blessed Be! and Happy Spring!

Love and blessings, Deena

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LETTERS FROM READERS

From Victoria Preobrazhenskaya, Egyptian Theater of the Mysteries in Moscow, On International Women‟s Day, March 8, 2011:

Dear Ladies…Priestesses and daughters of the Great Mother! I congratulate you, on this International Women‟s Day [March 8] of Spring and Sun! May there universe filled with light! I wish you all the best…. Love, Kindness and Joyfulness! The Sunshine of Hearts! The Female Age of Light is coming! An Age of Harmony and Gold! Planet Earth has a new future -the Enlightened World of Light! Let's bring this future closer! For, it is woman who bears Inspiration, Love and Beauty to this world. And much depends on the openness of our hearts and the wish to change all around us, filling it with a radiance of divine love and joy.

Let there be light! Hurrah! With Love, Yours, Victoria Preobrazhenskaya

From Vincent Akpabio Nigeria, March 2, 2011: “…There is clear evidence that our entire family if not the Whole Village, were devotees of The Great Goddess. Last year in our plot of land, a sacred site, once a shrine of a Great Goddess. My Great-Grandfather and even my Grandfather converted to Christianity and abandoned the site. It is now in bush farm land but it is still alive. The Name of the Deity of Goddess in our language is EKE-EYEN. This means “THE CHILD‟S MOTHER,” like the Madonna or Holy Mary. She carries a baby on her back and cares for the entire family/village. Something unusual happened after the rediscovery of the forgotten Mother. My elder brother Michael in his residence at UIyo – the capital of Akwa Ibony State, fell seriously ill. His whole compound became filled with vultures. An Oracle told Michael that the Ancient Ones had come to inform him to come to the Sacred Site and take the office of Eka-Eyen…. Michael miraculously recovered his health. His family Ekwere offer libations to the Great Mother.

From Jeremy Taylor, New York: Hello, Not sure if anyone is interested in this, but even in the age of email, Facebook, etc., I still enjoy getting real letters in the mail from all over! I enjoy meeting new people, and learning about different places and cultures... I also collect coins, stamps, paper money, and other little trinkets that are unique to the country/region where they originated... And if anyone has anything that they collect that I can help with, let me know! Some of my interests include photography, wildlife, nature, environmental issues, history, gardening, paganism, Eastern religions, and 7 making new friends from all over. I am looking for female penpals aged late teens to mid-30s or thereabouts who either have similar interests or are just looking to make a new friend! I live in upstate NY. While I am primarily looking for penpals from other countries, if you live in the USA and are interested, let me know! If you are interested in this, you can write to me at: Jeremy Taylor PO Box 261 Selkirk NY 12158 USA Hope to hear from you soon!! Jeremy Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jeremyjtaylor Earth Survey Project: http://earthsurvey.blogspot.com Jeremy's website: http://jeremyjtaylor.tripod.com

NEWS

Olivia: Priestess of Isis: DVD available for purchase.

In August of 2009, Steven Jones wrote the following: "Over the past 18 months myself and documentary producer Dennis Murphy have been filming the life story of Olivia Robertson at Conegal Castle and various locations in Ireland.

The documentary is complete and Olivia is delighted with the results...[It is] a feature length documentary exploring the life and philosophy of one of the founder members of The Fellowship of Isis, Lady Olivia Robertson: Priestess of Isis."

This documentary, Olivia: Priestess of Isis, is now commercially available as a DVD. It was released on January 20, 2011. Copies can be ordered from Logic Reality (see contact options below.)

The video is £15.00 + P&P, via PayPal. The price includes a donation to the Fellowship of Isis. [email protected] 07974407336 [email protected] www.logisreality.co.uk Logic Reality 7 St. Marys Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, L25 7RR UK.

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News from Clonegal Castle… Figure 1 Cave of the Mothers Wooden African Carving of Mother & Child. The Mother Goddess, Eke-Eyen. Behind, the 3 Artistic Creators, Pele, Brighid, Maya. Stone figure of Child of Gaia. Painted cloth of Persephone, Queen of Hades.

Figure 2: Oasis Shrine The Goddess Gangur, hand-crafted and painted by Devotees in Rajasthan village. She is connected with the Goddess Parvati. She 'protects from excessive male violence.' So She is Gangur the Protectress. Before Her is a bowl offering water to a jade dragon, a sea monster, a frog and a crocodile. An elephant bears fruit for the hungry. To the left is a banner of Green Tara, Goddess of Compassion. To the right is a wall hanging of Radha and Krishna, happy, divine lovers. He plays his magical flute.

Figure 3: Asian Shrine Quan-Yin, Goddess of No Plays, with Uzumi & Pia, Japanese No Goddesses.

Figure 4: Outside Door to the Temple Olivia has painted the Goddess Ariadne below a tiled picture of the Snake Goddess, which she got at Knossos in Crete. Ariadne is painted in front of the Outer Door of Her Labyrinth, which is the plan of the Temple of Isis with 5 chapels of the Elements and 12 Zodiac Shrines. She upholds 2 snakes, dual aspects of the Melusina - Kundalini Powers of Life.

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NEW ISEUM OF EKE-EYEN, THE GREAT MOTHER… From Lady Olivia Robertson: “Support for this Iseum in Nigeria would be so helpful in the form of books and magazines and exchange of ideas through personal letters.” Please send donations to:

THE REV. VINCENT AKPABIO FOI PO BOX 14949 KANO, NG 700203 KANO STATE, NIGERIA

From Anastasia Fennell, Coordinator of International Educational and Cultural Programs, in alliance with UNESCO, in Moscow… About the Egyptian Theatre of Mysteries of Victoria Preobrazhenskaya: “All members of FOI are welcome to come to Russia, at least for holidays. Every member of FOI community will get a free ticket on the performance of the Egyptian Theatre of Mysteries. The last play , "The Sacred Labyrinth," had a great success in Russia. You are very welcome to Watch it online at this link:

http://victoriara.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=163

Soon it will be totally translated into English. The Theatre of Mysteries of Victoria Preobrazhenskaya is the embodiment of supreme art, and was created in the name of the Great ISIS of ARTS. By Victoria Preobrazhenskaya. It plays a fundamental role in the forming of the new community of transformed humanity, dedicated to the Great Mother of Light, who has many names; and the greatest of them are White Tara, ISIS, and Divine Mother Sophia, symbol of Divine Wisdom. She is MARIA, DEVI, and Christos (Symbol of Divine-Cosmic Consciousness.) Our official site www.victoriara.com is one more cosmic platform for all Fellowship of Isis members. Welcome to Russia!”

From Kasey Conder, Utah: The Temple of Isis Utah is now a fully recognized 501(c)3 foreign non-profit incorporation within the State of Utah, in connection with the Temple of Isis in Geyserville, California. All clergy within the Temple of Isis and Fellowship of Isis are now legal clergy within the State of Utah, granted through the mother temple in Geyserville. Legal status within the State of Utah will be granted to all Temple of Isis and Fellowship of Isis Priest/esses who are of legal age as defined by state law, as long as they have regular communion with any religious society. As far as "regular communion" there really is no definition within the law, and we at the Temple of Isis Utah are not going to make stipulations. The Temple of Isis Utah can now accept non-profit donations via PayPal at a link on our webpage http://www.templeofisis.com/SaltLakeCityUT/ . Your donation, however large or small, helps us promote, fund, and rent space for public Isian events and other future projects . Members of the Temple of Isis Utah Founding Board are: Kasey Conder, Melissa Dionne, Alexius Gallegos, and Nathan Neville.

Lady Olivia’s Autumnal USA Journey 2011… Weekend of October 1: Chicago, Illinois. Contact: Deena, (773) 478-4763 or [email protected] Weekend of October 8: Geyserville, California. Contact: Loreon, [email protected] or (707) 857-4747 Weekend of October 15: Salt Lake City, Utah. Contact: Kasey Conder, (801) 755-4419 or [email protected] Weekend of October 22: Phoenix, Arizona. Contact Stephanie: (602) 391 5825 or [email protected] Weekend of October 29: Chicago, Illinoi. Contact Deena: (773) 478-4763 or [email protected] 10

DEOSIL By Lillian Morgan Evans

Brighid, to you Are my words spoken at the sacred spring Rising unfrozen from the earth… Rising, like the green leaves from bulbs Hidden in their blanket of dark soil. Rising, like the animals, from Winter slumber Now that sunlight lingers just a wee bit longer.

Brighid, to you Are my words spoken under budding trees, Strength and renewed energy rising within them… Rising, like the fire on the hilltop Kindled in your honor under blue sky. Rising, like the old dreams awakened By your warm touch upon my heart.

Lady, I know Spring will come For I hear your music.

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“Our warmest wishes to all members of the Fellowship of ISIS. It is my pleasure to share with you an article dedicated to the Goddess-Mother in many of Her Images. It was written by very famous Russian Historian, Pavel Tulaev. If our community can be useful somehow for the Fellowship of Isis, we are very happy to be at service to you.”— Victoria Preobrazhenskaya, through Anastasia Fennell.

TO OUR NATIVE GODDESSES AND FEMALE PROTECTORS by Pavel Tulaev www.tulaev.com.

TEMPTATION BY THOUGHT

The Eternal Feminine Essence surrounds and permeates us throughout our lives. We are conceived in the womb of the Mother. We live on the generous gifts of Nature and, we leave this world, we return our earthly bodies to Mother Earth, even if we pass through fire first. To this cycle of Being – from birth to Death – we assign the simple word Life and sometimes forget to ponder the Forces and Gods that stand behind it.

The Christian religion, which claims a monopoly on doctrinal truth, imposes its dogma – in which everything is allegedly as clear as 2 x 2 = 4 – on those people who expect simple answers to complicated questions. For instance, the world is created by the Holy Trinity of God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. Because Woman clearly has no place in this single-sex triad, theologians developed the teaching on the immaculate conception of Christ the Saviour by the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. However, the Church did not expand the triumvirate of celestial power, even though, for Catholics, God the Son is, by virtue of his grace, equal to the Father – hence the famous addition filioque in the Credo.

Many Catholic and Orthodox theologians, not to mention classical philosophers, understood the lameness of the single-sex Trinity. They either exalted to the high heavens the cult of the evangelical Mary, wife of the carpenter Joseph of Nazareth, or they represented the Holy Spirit as a dove, thus hinting at the feminine nature of the Holy Spirit. Finally, they developed entire teachings on Sophia, the Supreme Wisdom of God. But the Church, every time, has castigated these defiant efforts to conceptualise the place of the feminine principle in Creation as heresy or soulless materialism, deserving only of condemnation. And this is understandable, because, for Christians, free Thought itself is a temptation or seduction. They are enjoined to restriction of the Soul and to obedience to the Church.

In the Semitic, or so-called Abrahamic, religious tradition, from which Judaism, Christianity and Islam all grew like boughs from a single trunk, God (Yahweh, Jehovah, Sabbaoth) created the universe out of complete nothingness. Between the non-created God and the world he created lies an abyss unfathomable by our intelligence: Yahweh is antipathetic, even hostile, to the world, and that is why Jesus Christ, the “son” of this creator deity, calls himself „King not of this world‟.

Modern science has studied many sources of Christianity, which, over the centuries of its development, has also absorbed and integrated non-Semitic elements (Hellenic, Buddhist, Gallic, to name but some). But the Biblical tradition bound together tightly the Old Testament (Judaism) and the New (essentially Christianity). This is expressed, in particular, in Jesus Christ‟s lineage – son of Abraham, son of David – with the Gospels start (Matt. I, 1-17).

The non-created God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, with the disembodied Holy Spirit, have usurped the divine rights of our Mother Nature, our fertile earth, even the entire universe, and have placed on all of these the humiliating seal of sin, seduction and eternal slavery.

Fortunately, however, there are places where this kind of unnatural order of things does not exist. After all, it is a comparatively recent phenomenon in time, having arisen no more than two thousand years ago, when the philosophical understanding of the Single, Absolute Principle of the world was displaced by Christian theologies. Before that time, there existed throughout the world dozens, hundreds, even 12

thousands of gods and goddesses, starting from the supreme Brahman, the “God of Gods” Svetovid, and the omnipotente Zeus/Perun, to Mother-Earth, the celestial Lada and the wise Athena/Minerva.

Yes, the so-called pagan gods are an endless majority, for they are diffused not only through the centuries and millennia, but also across the endless stretches of the universe. Countless are the names, epithets, totems and qualities of all the Gods. Once you realise that, it is best just to shrug your shoulders and not bother about the details. Our task, however, is not to close out eyes to Heaven-and-Earth or to engage in self-deceit. We want to know the complete truth, the facts, and to understand the essence of things, at least to the extent that our intelligence will permit.

THE NAMES AND FACES OF THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN

Let us note first of all that the Gods, being the fictive principles of being (eidoses, spirits), represented by people in images and myths, form in aggregate not a chaotic throng, but rather a certain link among the elements of a single whole. It may not always be possible to explain that link by our logic, but it is always established. The Gods, like people, have their own genealogy, history, geography, structure and hierarchy. It would not be possible, still less for one person, to study all at once this endlessly varied collection of Gods. But we can try to conceptualise the deities closest to us, those whom we call Native Goddesses and female Protectors (Slavonic “beregini”).

Mother Earth

The fundamental idea for heathens and pantheists, who do not accept the Christian theory of creationism, is that Nature is self-sufficient; it brings forth intelligent beings, including mankind. In the Aryan tradition, Nature was from the very beginning seen as a bisexual being. Like the Greek Gaia, who gave life to Uranus/Sky, the titans and titanesses, and the Vedic dual god Dyava-Prithivi (Sky-and-Earth), Nature gives birth to itself of itself. In the Slavic tradition, this sexual unity is expressed in images of Rod and the Rozhanitsy (goddesses of fertility).

Mother Earth is one of the most ancient chthonian Goddesses; their cults were widespread on our continent during the tens of thousands of years of the matriarchate. The archaic female deities had similar names among related peoples (Ind. Pramater, Lat. Mater Matuta, Gr. Demeter, Slav. Mat‟-Zemlya). It would appear that the famous, obviously pregnant, clay figurines of the Tripoli culture, and similar “Venuses” from the Paleolithic period, belong to this precise group.

Night

The female principle in ancient mythology was not reduced to earthly matters and childbearing duties. The Sumerian goddess Anu ruled the heavens, and the Egyptian Nut (our Noch‟, Greek Nyx) personified the celestial vault with the stars of the zodiac. Here, there is absolutely no underworld, no earthliness. What we do have is the exalted prototype of the Queen of Heaven, who was called the Bogoroditsa (Mother of God) in Orthodoxy.

It is important to note that the ancient cult of the Queen of Heaven is to be found not only Sumeria and Egypt beliefs, which influenced the Biblical tradition, but also in the beliefs of people of Aryan and European origin.

Isis

The daughter of the goddess Nut and the god Geb, who was also the sister of Osiris, was glorified in Egypt under the name Isis, although she is also called “she of a thousand names”. In the well- known “Hymn of Isis” (3-4 century B.C.), the Goddess is honoured as the contradictory variety of female incarnations. Above all, she was worshipped as the goddess of maternity, wisdom and power. She became the wife of Osiris and mother of the hawk-headed Horus, having taken over some of his attributes. The symbols of the Goddess were a royal throne, birds‟ wings, and a headdress in the shape of a sun disk framed by the horns of the sacred cow of Heliopolis. The legend of the resurrection of Osiris, 13

whose dismembered bode Isis assembled, recalls the myth of Purushа and the mystery of the Christian Eucharist.

“Isis Unveiled”, a book that was popular at the end of the 19th, and beginning of the 20th, centuries, and which contains a deep analysis of the origin of magic and the occult sciences, became one of the foremost works of the founder of modern theosophy, Elena Petrovna Blavatskaya.

Rhea

In ancient mythology, the Rhea myth is developed in some detail. The daughter of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), she became the wife of Chronos and bore him Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Aida, Poseidon and Zeus. The Hellenes gad especial love for the tale of the birth of Zeus – his mother hid him on the island of Crete immediately after conception.

Ancient Rhea, wife of Chronos and mother of Olympian Zeus, (slavonic Div) is named in Orphic hymns “the first mother” or “the one mother of the highest gods and mortal man” (or in another translation “the mistress” or “the first mother of mortal men and the gods”. Western literature links Rhea to Cybele, who was worshipped in Phrygia (Troas). She, too, was considered to be the goddess of fertility, and was called the Great Mother (Gr. Megale meter, lat. Magna Mater). She is depicted with a crown on her head, seated on a throne or on chariot drawn by lions.

Rita

The attributes of the Greek Rhea recall the Indo-Aryan Rita. The Rigveda(??), states that “to Rita belong the expanses of Earth and the Heavens”, on her the universe rests, for “Rita is the law which all gods and humans must obey”. She is the essence of things and the natural rhythm (harmony) which synchronise our being, giving it balance and harmony. In Slavonic mythology, Rita is expressed through the concept of Pravj, the upper part of the tree of the world, where the gods live.

The Sun was one of the material incarnations of the celestial cycle, and in the Vedic tradition was seen as the eye or face of Rita. Permanent companions and guardians of the Goddess were called the Adityas, 12 children who symbolised the months of the year and the zodiacal constellations. In the Rigveda, the year is called “Rita‟s 12-spoked chariot”.

Freya

The Scandinavian Freya (old Ic. Freyja – mistress) is similar to the Greek Rhea, not only in attributes, but also in name. She was revered as the goddess of fertility, love and celestial glory, and so in the West is frequently compared to the Egyptian Isis. The beautiful Freya presided at the feast of the Valkyrie, the celestial maidens who welcomed to heaven (Valhalla) warrior heroes who had fallen in battle.

Freya differs from her Germanic counterparts (Old Ger. Frija and old Ic. Frigg) in that she is one of the Vanir. She was the daughter of Njordir, and was born in Vanaheimr, the country of the Vans, located at the mouth of the River Tanais (now the Don River)which the Norsemen called either the Tanakvisl or the Vanakvisl. In heaven, Njordir was ruled the kingdom of Noatun, whence he commanded the winds and waters. Freya, like Frija, was considered to be the wife of Odin. When he set off on faraway campaigns, she would weep golden tears of grief; unable to stand the pain of separation, she would go to unknown lands to find her husband.

Modern scholars and writers Freya compare to the Slavonic Priya, mentioned in folklore as the goddess of love and spring. After all, did her name not give rise to words like “prijasnj” (love) “prijatelj” (friend) and “sprijati” (ukrainian). It is possible that our ancestors called the Freya we have described Priya, for the Slavs (Wends) lived in close contact with Germanic peoples. Their myths and legends permeated each other.

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Reitia

Reitia, while genetically related to the Vedic Rita and the Hellenic Rhea, has been little known to us [until latest time]. Similar in attributes to the Roman Minerva (Etruscan Menrve), she is a goddess who was worshipped by the Wends and the Raeti, who lived on the Eastern slopes of the Alps in the pre- Christian era. She is linked to the cult of knowledge and handicraft. She is also a healer and celestial protectress. Archaeologists have found Raeti figurines made of autochthonous clay and terra cotta, and this over a wide area: from the Adriatic and Istria to Pannonia and Illyria.

On ceremonial objects, faceted pencils and alphabet tables, this phrase in Wendish is frequently repeated: ME GO DONASTO REJTIJAI (Sloven. Jaz ga donasm Retiji), meaning “I bring this sacrifice to Reitia.

Some think that Reitia was a strictly female goddess linked to the lunar cycle and the afterlife. Others advance the argument that she is close to Oranta (the Spartan Artemis Orthia). One ancient representation of her as the Slavonic Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven, on a mosaic panel in St. Sophia‟s Cathedral in Kiev repeats the pose of the Goddess pray with arms raised toward heaven.

Lady-Lada

In the Slavonic world, the principle of cosmic harmony, love and accord (rus. – lad) expressed the image of the goddess Lada, who corresponded to the Greek Leto and the Roman Latona. The followers of the cult of Lada were of Hyperborean descent, and are remembered in the folklore of many European peoples from the Baltic Sea and the snows of the north to the Adriatic and the Balkans. It is no accident that the Goddess, represented in a four-sided idol, probably of Lada, from the Zbruch (river) a circlet the size of a finger ring.

The classical sculptures of Lada (Latona) which have come down to our times show her with two infant twins either in her arms or on her lap. The twins are Artemis (Diana, the Slavonic Dzevana or Zhiva), the wondrous archer and patroness of animals and hunters, and Apollo (Kupalo, Kupavon), the generous giver of riches and accurate archer.

Lado, my dearest, you are a twice-blessed Mother. Gods are your infants, the glorious brother and sister. Svarog’s wheel rotates your heavenly throne. Unfettered Boreas unfurls your wings. The spring sun gives life to all around you. Birds sing in triumph and young girls dance in rings. Clear waters compose magic hymns And the grasses sing a lullaby to the Earth.

Obviously, the worship of Lada (Leto) and her companion Leli (Artemis) was a development of the more ancient cult of the Rozhanitsy (the „ancestresses‟ and „mistresses of the world‟), who were also shown as a pair and were symbolised by two celestial elk-cows or deer, or by the constellations Ursus Major and Minor.

Artemis

The astral Bear was also a totem of Artemis (in translation from Greek and Thracian artemis means bear). The alpha star of Ursus Minor – the Pole Star – always points north, because it is located at the tip of the unmoving axis of the astral sky, on which the zodiac revolves. Dwellers in the north called Ursus Major the Elk (sokhaty, meaning having branching antlers) or elk-cow. In Poland, the Pole Star was Gwiazda Losiova (Elk Star). Gradually, the cult of the elk-cows was supplanted by worship of the astral Bear, which is linked to the Komoyeditsa festival (slavonic festival for the spring equinox).

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Artemis is the daughter of Leto and Zeus, and the older twin of Apollo. The ancient Greeks and Veneti revered Artemis (Diana) as the Goddess of the Hunt. She is shown with a bow and full quiver of arrows beside a woodland deer. She was the guardian of the will of the Olympians, the patroness of the Trojans and the Amazons. More ancient cults linked her to the principle of fertility. Her shrines were located near springs and marshes, from which flowed the life-giving waters of the rivers.

Zhiva (Spring)

Diana (Artemis) is compared to the Slavonic Goddess of life, who had similar names among related peoples: Deva, Dzeva, Dzevona (Ziewonia), Zhiva, Siva (Siwa), Lithuanian Seewa. She correlates to Lelja, the daughter of the Goddess Lada. Zhiva was the image of spring, the blooming of nature, female beauty, and youth. She is represented as a young girl with flowing tresses, wearing a crown of spring flowers, and bearing an apple or bunches of grapes in her hands. Her totem is the oracular cuckoo, the symbol fate.

There exists a ritual known as the spring incantation, when young women go into the woods together, and with their whooping bring on the end of winter. This sending-off of the winter was celebrated in Rus‟ by the Shrovetide merrymaking. When spring arrives, it is greeted with joyful songs and circle dances.

History confirms the existence of a temple to Zhiva in the ancient lands of the Slavs. Named Zhivets, it stood on a high hill, and people gathered there in May to ask the Goddess for long, happy health.

Minerva

It is pleasant to suppose that the Romans, in imitation of the Hellenes, took over the image of Minerva, the Goddess of wisdom, from ancient Greece, where she was revered under the name Athena, but this is not quite true. The priests of Rome of course knew of the existence of the Athenian Acropolis, but the cult of Minerva was not imported from there ready-made. The genealogy of the Roman Minerva was closely connected to the Etruscan Menrve. The latter was the ancient Goddess of the Aegean- Anatolian range, the patroness of handicraft and warriors. The Etruscan Menrve, like the Greek Athena, is shown in helmet and armour, with a spear in her hand.

Latin sources repeatedly confirm the existence of a Goddess of wisdom among the northern peoples, whom they called Gauls or Germans. Julius Caesar writes that the Gauls had approximately the same ideas about the gods as did the surrounding tribes. Their Minerva was the patroness of handicraft and the arts. We know from other ancient sources that the helmeted Minerva, with spear and shield in her hands, together with Diana, armed with bow and arrows, protected Gallic warriors in battle. This means that she was also the Goddess of war and celestial glory, just like Athena, Bellona and Friya.

The Irish Brigita (c.f. the German Frigga), was similar to Minerva; her cult united the most important characteristics of the Gallic goddesses. She was considered to be “the mother of all the gods” (mater omnium deorum) was the patroness handicraft and the arts, and was given special devotion by priests, physicians and blacksmiths. In Christian literature, was given the name St. Bridget, being responsible, as before, for generic and creative attributes.

Athena

According to cosmological myth, Athena was born from the head of Zeus, when he swallowed his wife Metis (a Greek word meaning thought or wisdom). The son of Rhea and Chronos, having become the chief of the Olympic pantheon, was worshipped by the Greeks as father of the gods and of people, lord of lords, and symbol of the principle of godly power.

Athena, the Greek Goddess of wisdom and just war, who symbolised the mental and creative forces, and possessing many attributes identical to those of Minerva (Menrve), was also not Greek in the 16

ethnic meaning of that concept. Long before her cult arose on the Acropolis, she was known to the Pelasgians and Etruscans. In his description of the goddess‟s main festival – the Panathenaea – Callimachus unequivocally calls the priestesses of Pallas “the daughters of Pelasgus” and “fair-haired girls”, stressing their racial and ethnic identity.

Athena‟s most famous totems were the snake and the owl. From time immemorial Snake had been the symbol had been the symbol of the power of the earth and the underworld (afterlife). It had been the symbol of the female deities of the period of the matriarchate, who were linked to the magic of the vestal virgins, and who later started to become symbols of wisdom. We find the snake image in representations of the Indian goddess Kali, the Mediterranean Gorgons the Scythian snake-woman (Echidna, Ora).

Athena‟s (Minerva‟s) Owl symbolised the night sky. The bird-like appearances of the Goddesses that were worshipped throughout Bronze-Age Europe is linked to hyperborean (polar) mythology. The celestial companions of the Goddess of Wisdom were not only owls (eagle owls), but other birds as well, the eagle, the hawk, the crow, the cockerel, as is demonstrated by the images that have survived.

The statues of Athena Parthenos (5th century B.C.) place Nika, the companion of Victory, in the palm of the Goddess of Wisdom and War. Nika is similar to the Germanic Valkyries and our goddess Slava (glory) who accompanied warrior heroes to Irij (Paradise).

Mokosh (Destiny)

Mokosh (Makosh, Mokosha) is one of the names of the Goddess of Destiny. She is represented as a lovely young woman who spins the thread of human life. Her attributes are a spinning wheel, a spindle, and flax. She is the patroness of needlework, spinning and weaving. The word Mokosh (mokos) itself indicates spinning, which brings the Goddess close to the fairy-tale witch who had a magic spindle (western Slav. Mokoska), and Mokosh is sometimes called “the celestial spinner”. Her key characteristics make her resemble the Greek Tyche and Roman Fortuna. One ancient image of Athena, from Troy, also showed a spindle and spinning wheel.

The Slavs and Balts also called the Goddess of Destiny “Fate” or “Srecha” (luck), as well as Suzhenitsa (Judge), for she is able to judge and pass sentence; she brings luck, good or ill.

There exist, in classical mythology, correspondences to the Goddess of Destiny: the Greek Moirae or Fates (literally “Lot”), the Roman Genius and the Scandinavian Njorna. All these express, one way or another, the principle of celestial predestination The Fates were considered to be the daughters of Night, which begot the starry sky, and its symbol – the wheel of the zodiac – was turned by the omniscient Fortuna.

In Russian ancient prayers (заговоры), the Goddess of Destiny is on the magical island of Buyan, in the Sea (Ocean). The stone Alatyr, “the father of all stones”, also known as Bel-goryuch, is also there:

On that stone Alatyr On her throne Sits the maiden king. Mistress of needlework, She passes her golden thread Through [the eye of] a steel needle And sews up bloody wounds.

Mokosh was the only female deity in the Pantheon of Prince Vladimir. The Mokosh cult did not disappear with the encroachment of Christianity, despite the Church‟s attempt to replace the Goddess with St. Paraskevi-Pyatnitsa the patroness of spinners.

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Celestial Marriage

Those are some of the names of the most venerated celestial Goddesses of our forefathers, which were later combined into the single image of the Queen of Heaven. Yjwever we might name this Great Goddess (Mother of the World, Mother of God, Great Mistress, Destiny), she is always and forever deserving of the deepest reverence and contemplation. In her essence, she is the Divine Mother made manifest, the life force, the creative energy, the mind and soul of the world (she manifests herself in hundreds of ways), and for us the Queen of Heaven is a precious Treasure, an endless Joy, the source of contemplation and inspiration.

The Glorifying of our Native Goddesses ought not, of course, to lead us anti-male lopsidedness, neither in theory nor in practice. The point here is not the ratios of the sexual elements of being. Undervaluation – still worse, denial – of the role of the male spiritual (eidetic) principle leads to epistemological aberration, to straying through the labyrinths of material being, which the Hindus call “being dazzled by Maya”.

The complementary role of the sexes – or, literally speaking, the “poles” of existence – is expressed, in traditional paganism, with the clarity of erotic naturalism. The gods enjoy fleshly love, like “sinful” mortals, they leave progeny, they envy one another, and so on. The world model itself is a sexual union, the sacred marriage of Sky and Earth (Lingam and Yuni).

In hyperborean mythology, the god of the sky (Zeus) has a vertical structure, symbolised by an axis (phallus, tree). Zeus impregnates Leto (Lada), who personifies the astral zodiac, round in form and rotating in function (her symbol is a ring). Zeus and Leto produce twins, namely the polar goddess bear Artemis (Lelya, one of the Rozhanitsy), and Apollo (Kupalu, Dazhbog), the archer, who is associated with the Taurus constellation. Both twins were born under the Pole star at the point of Absolute North on the world axis, which is why they are called hyperborean.

The demonisation of witches

The genetic propinquity and similarity of function of the heavenly goddesses led in Christian times to the analogous, even Pan-European, cult of the Mother of God. The ancient Great Mother was smoothly replaced by the Christian Virgin Mary. The numerous female cults of the past found expression in the image of the Queen of Heaven, in her shrines, statues, icons, canticles and festivals. The variety of Her names, and those of the saints – St. Brigit, Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa (in Russia), the inseparable daughters of Sophia (knowledge), Faith, Hope, and Love, even Sophia, the Supreme Wisdom of God herself – all testify to a heathen heritage within the Church.

The Christian creed, in its efforts to achieve theological universalism and monopoly, first partially adapted, and later demonised, the pagan goddesses. For instance, the water-sprite Keepers, originally venerated as spirits of fertility, plants and water sources, like the Slavonic Veely and Greek Nymphs, were interpreted by churchmen as spirits of fleshly temptation or nocturnal apparitions of girls who had died unnatural deaths.

This demonic image of water-spirites was automatically accepted by the poets, artists and romantics of the 19th century, for whom folktales were attractive exotica. The water-sprites, that appear in the verses of Russian poets V. A. Zhukovski, A. S. Pushkin, and M. Yu. Lermontov, are delightful, unclad girls, “a wonder of the deep, with a green tail”. They live in rivers, pools, and lakes; they splash about in the waves, “playing in the deep of the night”, luring to themselves young lads and monks who pass by.

In eastern Slavonic countries, the conception of witches as demonic essences during the Church‟s encroachment was restricted mostly by folklore. The terrifying tales of the Baba-Yaga, adorned with human skulls and flying in a mortar or on a broomstick, recall very far-off times and reflect but little on the fate of real folk healers and medicine women. By contrast, the fires of the Inquisition blazed for centuries on end in Western Europe, where the Latins and Teutons attacked with cross and sword.

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The massive “witch-hunt” – which was really the Catholic Church‟s fight against the remnants of paganism and those who clung to it – led to the burning of at least 30,000 women suspected of sorcery. According to other sources over 20,000 “heretics” were executed in Germany alone, and 100,000 in Europe as a whole. The Papacy‟s war against the Protestants, according to the calculations of some historians, claimed a total of around 9,000,000 lives. The geography of this veritable genocide coincides with the ancient territories of the Slavs (Wends): from the Baltic to the Adriatic, from the Lada to the Vistula.

The fountainhead of the accusations against witches – from simple denunciations by Christian fanatics to scholarly Catholic treatises – was “the most widely read book in the world”, the Bible. For there, in the Chapter of the Old Testament on laws, it succinctly states “You shall not permit a sorceress to live” (Exodus 22:18). The section on crimes punishable by death adds, “Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the LORD alone, shall be devoted to destruction” (Exodus 22:20). For the Hebrews, the gods of all peoples were pagan and hostile, and by “One God” they meant their Jehovah or Sabaoth.

This aggressive, bloodthirsty method of combating paganism was thoroughly assimilated in Medieval Germany where, in the time of Charles (known to Germans as “the Great”), there existed similar laws: • Anyone from the Saxon tribe who refuses hereafter to be baptised, or fails to appear for that mystery to be administered to him, desiring to remain with pagan beliefs, shall be punished by death; • Anyone whom the devil has perverted and who shares pagan beliefs shall be punished by death; • Anyone who burns the body of a dead person in a pagan ritual and turns his body to ashes shall be punished by death; • Anyone who conspires with pagans against Christians, or persists in hostility towards Christians, shall be punished by death; and so on.

Anything that did not fit into the Biblical and Catholic doctrine was viewed by the Church, from its inception, as “criminal paganism”, “a pact with the devil” and “a conspiracy against Christianity”.

Meanwhile, the so-called “pagan heresies” really did contain certain elements of a return to paganism. They came into being because of either a non-canonical understanding of the image of Christ or liberal interpretations of the Virgin Mary cult (e.g. the Madonna of the East) – all this was severely persecuted by the Church. Driven out by the front door, female cults got back in, so to speak, by a window or secret entrance. For example, the cult of divine wisdom (Athena, Sophia) or sacral energy (Shakti) penetrated medieval literature via the cabbalistic study of Shekina. This may be why Christian theologies combine Paganism and Judaism, which are actually complete opposites.

Russian ethnographers and classicists A. N. Afanasyev, A. C. Famintsyn, D. K. Zelenin, and others besides, return us to the archaic, traditional understanding of our native Spirits, Water-sprites, Keepers and Rozhanitsy, while the modern pagan thinker Dobroslav (A. A. Dobrovolski) also focuses the reader‟s attention on the racial characteristics of the Slavonic nymphs – golden hair, white skin and light- coloured eyes.

In the key works of modern Slavonic scholars, much detailed information, historical and pagan, on the ancient goddesses can be found. Ethnographers, however, who follow the descriptive method with collected data, often ignore the traditional Arian studies, which explain, alongside the spiritual foundations of the world, the mystic meaning of the female forms of being. These are in fact presented clearly and in detail in such classical religious treatises as Devibhagavata Purana, Kalika Purana, Devimahatmiya, and others, which lay out the teachings of Shaktism.

A summary of Feminism

The interest which has sprung up in the Divine Female Principle and its place in nature, in the Native Goddesses and Keepers, the reinterpretation of the Matriarchate, and the study of a wide range of 19

so-called “gender problems” all bear witness to the increased role of women in our time. With a modern education, the profession of their choice, and independent incomes, women have no intention of giving way to us men.

Women have remembered that, in the pre-Christian era, they were not only wives and mothers, but soothsayers, priestesses and healers, while in the Age of Enlightenment there were Empresses and female founders of the Academy of Science. The witches whom the Church has demonised were the original custodians of the ancient traditions, the folk tradition, and, at the end of the day, the race itself, the family and the entire ethnic group.

The soil of women‟s enthusiasm has produced a variety of forms of feminism and of the study of women‟s emancipation, from the demand that men accord them equal legal, political and economic rights to the formation of numerous lesbian communities and projects to resurrect the ancient Amazonian state.

The extent of women‟s emancipation today is so great that there is no real chance of the process being reversed, of a return to the patriarchate, to “housewifery”. Consequently, it seems to me more sensible not simply to criticise the emancipated portion of humanity, but to ask it instead for the answers to some of the key questions of life, and at the same time to make a summary of 20th-century feminism.

Why is it that such a small proportion of modern women strive to rise to the sacred level of goddess, far less Soothsayer, but so very many choose prostitution as their profession? It is common knowledge that nowadays there are more Slavonic women among white slaves and in foreign brothels than women of any other ethnic origin.

Is the demand for “equality” with men not offensive to a dignified, genetically pure, talented woman or girl? In our modern society, the honours of Hero, Esquire, Gentleman, are bestowed upon petty traders and dealers under the foreign titles “businessman”, “merchant” or “manager”. Does this money-grubbing, humiliating, essentially primitive environment really satisfy the female essence?

Is the “social setting” in any way of equal value to divine love and a fully fledged family? What is more important for a healthy, clever woman – to fulfil her cosmic essence, true to gender and race (i.e. have a husband, children, and progeny) or to command a salary that is no less than that which others have? Why is it that in Russia and Ukraine the birth rate is the lowest of all European peoples, but the mortality rate is the highest?

Do the potential Protectors of our race know that 2.5 times more human life is lost to Russians in abortions than were lost in both World Wars, the Civil War and the dispossession of the kulaks all together? That is why our mortality rate has exceeded our birth rate in “peace time”.

Is not the open and active propaganda of homosexuality turning into a kind of proliferated weapon of mass destruction, along with drug addiction, alcoholism and zombification by information overload? In the end, what is the point of eroticism for its own sake, if it leads to the factual depopulation and degeneration of our countries?

Finally, do our blonde bombshells and brown-eyed beauties realise that the Slavonic peoples make up mankind‟s precious gene pool? The representatives of the white race today make up about 8% of the total population of the globe, so why do we consciously place ourselves lower than the Chinese, Arabs and Africans.

Our dear women – mothers, wives sisters and sweethearts – are quite capable of pondering these questions by themselves, without being prompted by men. However, without strong, healthy, clever men – never mind our Native Gods – they will not be able to solve, at a practical level, the problems which have arisen. For Man‟s first step begins…in his mother‟s womb, in that most holy, most intimate part of Mother Nature, which engendered not only people, but our beautiful life itself.

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Queen of Heaven and Mother Earth, Nature and Mokosh-Fate, holy Night and lovely Dawn, Rita, support of worlds, Rhea, mother of gods, happy Lada and wise Athena-Minerva, great goddesses and the gods who love you – what were you thinking, when you created us mortal men and women?

Translated from the Russian edition: Pavel Tulaev. Rodnym Bogynjam I Beregynjam, Moskva, ‘Athenaeum”, 2009, 36 p.

© 2010, Tulaev Pavel, Dr. History, the Director of the Russian ATHENAEUM. e-mail: [email protected]

More info and publication in 10 languages at: www.tulaev.ru and www.ateney.ru

Report on Magical Workings From January 25, 2011 at 2 PM to February 11, 2011 at 8:11 AM For the Egyptian Uprising By Lady AMber Dawn and David H. Motheral Written by Lady Amber Dawn With Invocations by Demetria Nanos Jones

At a time when many were in the midst of the positive energies of Nuit, Oya, Groundhog day, Bridget's day, Perkunas Day with all its Thunder Snow,, the Super bowl etc, I planned to create a ritual for Egypt.

We need to continue to turn up the heat of LOVE towards Egypt. Using my own words and the words of my wonderful sista, Phoenix (D. Nanos), at 2 PM I a cast a circle and shields within a pyramid indicated by candles.

RITUAL

Cast circle. Light a gray or white new 7 day candle , after grounding and centering. Holding the candle in your right hand, pointing towards the heavens, Inhale until your lungs are filled a deep long healing breath. Exhale by placing your tongue placed behind 21

your front teeth. Inhale. Inhale and exhale three times, using the Breath of Fire. *** Center yourself again, then say Blessings for Mother Egypt, twice. Then ask for blessings from Nuit, Sky Mother of Egypt. May she shield Egypt first, then the whole Earth!!!. Inhale and exhale. Say this again. Inhale and exhale. Ask for blessings from Maat, Mother of balance, justice, law and nature. May She bring order from chaos, shielding the land of the valley of the kings and queens! Say this again! Inhale and exhale. Center yourself one last time.

Say aloud twice : “Nuit, cover us ALL with love and bring peace to Egypt. Geb, stabilize the Two Lands! Heru, restore order to the Two Lands! Maat, bless us ALL with peace, natural law, an ordered and just society. So Mote It Be! Blessed Be!”

Lower your right arm, uncast your circle. Inhale then exhale. Sit in silence as long as you deem appropriate.

If we as a group who are in LOVE with Egypt increase the Goddess vibration, I feel we can invoke more real changes into the region. Change is starting to happen in Egypt!!!. The chief of the ruling party has resigned. Muberak has promised to not run in September! Fighting is decreasing!!!. If we can increase the heat of love, many miracles CAN and WILL occur.

Planetary influences on January 26 wer: Sun 6 Aquarius 13, semisextile Pluto at 6 Capricorn 14; Mercury Quintile Jupiter. Plaanetary influences on February 6 were: Venus 2 Capricorn 55, square Jupiter 2 Aries 59. Planetary influences on February 11 were: Mercury 13 Aquarius 31, semisquare Uranus 28, Pieces 31. Planetary influences on February 19 were: Sun 0 Piscesces 45, sextile true nodes 0 Capricorn 50.

I am so sorry that I do not know enough about Astrology to tell you what these degrees and aspects may actually mean. Consult Lady Sarolta at www.moonspells.com. I can tell you what some have said online about these days is that on February 6, 2011, it was a good time for us to "work". The planets‟ lineup also suggests that we “give peace a chance”…that we fortify the basic foundations that we hold dear in our hands and hearts. We must work hard order to gain or regain peace.

For February 19, as read on Victoria Martin Forecast: "The tumultuous events of the week leave people stuck in the middle. Others feel painted in a corner or carried off by the current. Kindred spirits encountered in groups are a safe haven in the storm: isloation is dangerous!"

While David and I were doing the first ritual on February 6, I noticed we had about 40 candles burning brightly. Almost immediately, the energies in the room were very, very electric and warming. I felt that both Maat and Nuit were present in the room, eager to help us! Both of us called the Quarters exactly at 2 PM. For me, it felt immediate; and was filled in a very strong heat and abundant light and love all around!

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I started to coach David to begin the rhythmic breathing to foster more energy in the room. I began to call upon Nuit by these words:

"Blessings upon Nuit; Sky Mother Goddess of Egypt. May Her blessing shield Egypt first then upon the Whole Earth!!"

David repeated my words after I said them. Together we inhaled and exhaled three times, becoming louder with each inhale!

After blessing with Nuit, David and I continued to bless with Maat. We called upon Maat by these words:

"Blessings upon Maat, Goddess of balance, justice, law and nature! May She bring order from chaos, shielding the land of the Valley of the Kings and Queens!"

With these words, the room became hotter. David and I danced around the room in a circle, several times. We spoke about how we in America really needed and wanted Egypt to be a vital force of peace in the Middle East

David's take on the two rituals

His approach is more psychologically inspired.

We got off to a slightly late start due to a tight schedule and a last minute candle malfunction; so while we did manage to raise some good energy, I was a little less focused than I could have been. I also felt that the first ritual for Egypt was very tight and focused because Mubarak was still actively in power over Egypt, and the objective of the workings was clear and simple: end the conflict, bring peace and clarity to Egypt.

By the time of the second ritual, Mubarak was out, various parties in Egypt were arguing about what to do next, events were moving in several different directions at once (and they still are), and several other countries were in various states of civil unrest! All of which meant--in my own mind--less clarity in our second working and a less coherent idea of where, exactly, our energy was supposed to be directed. We offered our good energy with good intent and good love; the rest is in others' hands!

I feel that the noise and sound of the February 19, 2011 ritual had a strong vibration for clearing the clutter created by Mubarak's sudden departure.

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Thank God It’s Over! by Gloria Taylor Brown

I don't know about you, but I am most certainly glad that 2010 is finally over! I am really looking forward to 2011 being a better year, with less disasters, more laughter and joy. Maybe I am just a hopeless optimist, but last year was ROUGH.

After returning from Egypt in April with a fractured ankle, I went through a very tough time. I was unable to continue the Voice for Spirit Broadcasts, and although I facilitated some groups in San Diego, I was not able to teach any classes. I learned a lot of new lessons about soul separation and soul loss that I didn't really want to learn.

I know that some of you had similar issues this last year, so I am not even pretending that my year was the worst I know about - after all, I am alive, and all my issues were very petty on the grand scheme of things. Insh'Allah, 2011 will be a much better year.

So, out with the old, in with the NEW...

Thoth has told me that we are still realigning from the major universal shake-up - or was that a shakedown- that started back in 2008, and continued through this year. Necessary, it may have been, pleasant, it wasn't.

If you have been experiencing a sense of separation, or non-connection with Spirit, please know you are not alone. This is one of the major symptoms I have been hearing about, and feeling personally for the last several months. If you didn't feel this, count yourself as lucky…see Returning From a Long, Long Journey (Below)

With this new year of 2011, we need to focus a new level of attention on achieving our personal and planetary goals. Personal - getting our lives in order, maintaining our current spiritual practices and deepening our connections with Spirit and our Guides. Planetary - yes, we are still working on that World Peace concept, as well as the "Love thy Neighbor as thyself" that we have been given as an injunction.

One note of cheer: Remembering the Divine Within, Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography, the book that was written by Normandi Ellis and myself, along with the participants on our Oct. 2009 tour of Egypt is on its way to Inner Traditions Publishing, and should be released in the fall of 2011….

Returning From a Long Long Journey

I was lost. The walls were made of stone, the tunnel ahead of me long and dark. I felt my way forward, moving toward the small glimmering light. My fingers felt along the wall, touching the rough hewn passageway. How did I get here? I only remembered falling, long ago and far away, down a flight of stairs, in a temple in the south of Egypt. Pain surrounded the memory, the feeling of a loss of structure, of losing myself. Now, here I was. Where was I? 24

This was my experience when I woke up on the morning of the fall equinox, safe in my San Diego home. It took me several days to sort out this strange feeling that I had just returned from a journey that began six months earlier, when I fell down a flight of stairs in Egypt, fracturing my ankle in two places. I had continued on the tour, going on to Jordan, and returning home before I had sought medical care.

Six weeks spent in a cast, with a month recovery time beyond that, had consumed most of the spring. For some reason, I had felt disconnected, unable to create, lost in a fog. I blamed the pain pills, the pain, but even after I was out of pain, and no longer taking pills, I was still having a difficult time.

It was not until I explored this memory fragment, this dream –was it a dream- did I realize what had happened to me.

My realization came over several days of personal reflection and deep communication with Spirit. It was as though I was waking from a long nightmare, or coming back from a serious illness. A portion of my soul had been lost, wandering in the wilderness, for all this time. I had been unable to do any serious psychic work, any teaching, and had felt unable to connect. I had looked like I was present – thought I was just having “a bad day” that seemed to go on and on.

Now, I know that there was a shamanic split, a loss of soul, and the only way I knew this was by getting that piece of me back. I wondered, how many others continue to wander, lost in the wilderness, unable to find their way back? I had learned how to do soul retrievals years ago, gone out and traced down bits and pieces of clients and friends that had gotten lost, but never before had I experienced what it felt like to lose a part of myself – I had not realized, on a individual level, how devastating it was to the personal spiritual journey, nor how unaware a person could be that this was even happening to them! I looked back on the previous six months, and blessed the fact that it had only been six months.

Here is what happened, I believe: When I fell down that stone stairway, a portion of me had continued on down the dark hallway, into the tunnels beneath the temple, slipped through the southern Stargate and traveled the pathways of the Underworld. The purpose of my trip to Egypt had been to open this third gate in the series, but I had thought I had failed, due to a combination of circumstances and sandstorms. We had planned to open the Southern Stargate at Abu Simbel that day, but been unable to travel to the temple, due to closed roads. Instead, we had gone to an island in Lake Nasser, where a temple had been reconstructed that would have been beneath the waters of the lake. In a moment of inattention, and raging codependence, I had slipped and fell.

With both sets of memory now available, the conscious one that returned to San Diego, and the separated soul portion, that traveled a long and arduous journey, through underground stone passageways, emerging far to the north in the cold of islands in the North Sea. It was not until I had picked up a book about the Orkney Islands, a place I had never been interested in, or even was sure where they were, that memory returned – I looked at the pictures on the internet, in the book, and recognized the place at a soul level. Once I recognized where I was and what had 25 happened, I worked with my guides to reintegrate the lost part of my soul. It took several weeks, and even now, I still occasionally feel as though I am experiencing the time lag that comes from traveling through many time zones too fast.

The most important lesson I learned is how unaware I was that this had happened. I knew I couldn‟t write – but blamed it on many other factors. Knew I couldn‟t teach, but blamed it on the economy, not having a place to teach, a myriad of reasons, all meaning nothing.

The good news is that I am once more able to think, to plan, to bring through the lessons and messages of Spirit. I have returned with a renewed connection, and a deeper understanding of just how devastating soul loss can be to the individual. I pray that it will make me a better teacher, counselor and friend.

Opening and traveling through the Stargates has been a fascinating journey, one that continues after beginning almost ten years ago with the arrival of a messenger that told me of the task I had accepted, long before I came into this body. For those of you who want to know more about the Stargates and traveling beyond them, I will be teaching classes on the internet and in person. For now, I am just glad to be back, whole once more. Blessed Be!

PS – Even though I thought I was all “back” when I wrote this article in mid October, I was wrong. It has taken another eight weeks for me to realize just how disconnected I was, and how much of this soul loss was connected to earlier chiseling away of the soul that had occurred. Am I back now? I don‟t know – but at least I am no longer dreaming about walking through stone tunnels in a cold and wet place. Last night, I turned the corner of a long corridor, and found before me great treasures – I look forward to exploring this treasure room in the next year. Won‟t you join me? Thank you to Gloria Taylot Brown, www.gloriataylotbrown.com

Healing by Laying on of Hands: Basic Instructions by Sarah Rooke

Coming from a long line of spiritualist mediums and healers, the advice I was given by a guide many years ago was: “If you have the ability to heal, then go out and do it; it’s as simple as that.”

The basic instructions to heal by laying on of hands is this:

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Let the patient be seated upright in a chair, yourself standing behind them. Lift your arms up and make a prayer/invocation to Deity, saying it aloud or silently as you wish, for only the highest light, ideals and healing power.

Place your hands above the patient’s head, and gradually let them come down of their own accord, for they should be guided or directed to where they need to go from On High. You may feel empathically the condition of your patient in a certain spot, or perhaps have insight into what is wrong, or maybe you might hear an 'inner voice' in the process (this would be your spirit guide).

Do not touch the patient forcibly, only allowing your hands to just touch where they are needed on the patient’s body. You are acting as a channel for spirit to work through you, so higher energies are passing through you onto the patient via the aura. Spirit will know how much healing power you and the patient can take. When I heal, for example, my hands get all hot and tingly, and when the power has gone, they grow cold again.

It is important that you seal the person’s aura along with your own after a healing session. Just use a simple gesture of drawing an 'egg' with your hands around the patient first, then yourself, from both sides of the body. Seal it at the top of the head with a symbol as you feel appropriate – e.g. a cross, ankh, pentagram, etc

If you find yourself using sweeping gestures over the patient, you are clearing away psychic clutter that has accumulated over time. Remember to throw it away safely psychically so it does no more harm. If you are holding your hands over a particular area and it feels warm, this area is most in need. Heat coming from a patient denotes pain. Ask if the patient has seen, or will be seeing, a doctor. Psychic and spiritual healing should be no substitute for orthodox medicine. Any form of illness or disease (note the word dis-ease) has to start on the etheric levels and filter down to the physical. Also bear in mind the ethics of healing and codes of conduct when conducting healing sessions (i.e. be careful where you touch people).

I hope these meager notes are of some help and assistance!

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Meditation and Hymn to Herakles by Demetria Nanos

Moderation in all things. This is the way we are able to maintain ourselves in myriad circumstances. Sacrifice: this is a way we appeal to the universe, We offer to the Great Spirit praise and thanks, We offer to the gods prayers, curses, requests, supplication, and thanks. . Prometheus aided we humans, he was punished, and suffered long; he was given relief, made whole, by the actions of Herakles, ornament and jewel of the goddess Hera, Dactyl, lover, son, step-son, Antagonist, madman, and redeemed through flames. All Hera's male children are fiery, Ares, Hephaestus, Typhon when she was yet Gaea, and Herakles; also the Dactyls who serve their Lady. They create and destroy, they build and tear down, they do not rest until the task is done. Until it is done, completed, then is the moment of rest Followed by activity, movement, industry, The cycle of build, tear down, and rebuild Live, die, be reborn. . This was the lot of Herakles, both divine and human, semi-divine, he had to die and was reborn through the flames that purified him and left only his immortal soul, reformed into divine flesh his afterlife spent in the company of gods, wed to Hebe, the maiden form of Hera, eternally young, beautiful, graceful, and modest. Many tasks, chores, lessons, and labours, He had to accomplish to be worthy. Many battles with evil, within and without himself. So do we, children of the gods and carriers of the immortal spark, invoke Herakles for success in our own struggles forbearance in difficult times remorse for acts and words that were wrong or undeserved and luck in all areas of risk or chance. . The Herakleia is gone now, a Leonine festival that honors he who shed his mortality to Hades like a serpent's skin and his immortal soul ascended to Olympos, in heaven, beyond the clouds. You are our protector, you show us redemption, your agony and resurrection fill us with terror and wonder. . Glory of Hera! She tests our limits, pushes our endurance, and grants us favor for strong effort that we make in order to make our fortunes better. Hera is the goddess who makes one a Hero. Her milk that nursed you is spread among the stars, as the sky reveals its' immortal glory. . Glory of Hera! You remind us 28

How ill chosen it is to ignore the reality of this Earth to dismiss the Divine, to shrug off the Goddess, and then when life is not sweet and easy to revile Her or disrespect Her. That does not bring relief, only more grief. Humility and remorse are unpleasant medicine but the cure is effected and lessons are learned. . Glory of Hera! Your strength and courage, darkness and light, fortitude and perseverance, show us that we can accomplish much, if we are willing to endure the difficulties that success demands. Nothing is easy, nothing is free, except to be born, live briefly, and die. Everything else has a cost and requires our industry to make it happen. . God of the laborers, You used your wits You changed the course of a river, god of the janitors and stable-hands, You herded sacred cattle from where your Pillars are, You visited the Hesperides, twilight maidens of the Evening Star. . You eliminated serpents and dire creatures that endangered humans. Herakles Apotropaios, you repel disease. You descended to Hades and returned full of life, with Cerberus twisting in your arms, seeing sunlight instead of gloom, Perephone's gift to you, her brother in Heaven, on Earth, and Elysium. You turned back Death from the innocent, You played games with children to ease the passage of time, You relax with your brother Dionysos and his wine. Wanderer through the world, you journeyed by land and sea, protector of humanity. . The Dactyl established the Olympics, Your cults are fused now. The Dactyls raised your father Zeus when he was a tot in sunny Crete, and You carry his name, the foremost of them, friend and protector of your Father, . Are you Herakles and Ogmios, carrier of the Ogham, a crane-skin bag at your side? Or perhaps you are Herakles Melqart, Phoenician hero, We know you loved Omphale, the queen who wore the lion skin and carried your club while you spun the thread and wore her clothes, son of Zeus, veiled in modesty, initiated into greater things. Your sons with her became a dynasty for centuries with your glory, your 'kleos', attached. You loved Iolaus, and Hylas, helped them to become men and found them wives. Monikos, the glory of you is the light behind Monaco. . Glory of Hera! Hera Kleos! Be with us now, attend us in our works, share your strength and endurance with us, Help us to achieve that which we seek to come into being. Herakleios! Goddess bless our works, you who present us with what must be accomplished. Godling, God, Herakleios, bless our works You who provide us the strength of will to accomplish. We give thanks for what we are about to accomplish. 29

. Contemplating the Manifesto of the fellowship of Isis: Question 8 of the Manifesto Lessons of The Lyceum of Alexandria by Deena Hartray Butta

Question: “Lady Olivia Robertson is the surviving co-founder of the Fellowship of Isis. Please share what you know about Lady Olivia, and the other co-founders of FOI. Answer: You can learn about the family tree of the Durdin-Robertson family in a genealogy published by Lady Olivia‟s grandfather, Herbert Robertson, titled Stemmata Robertson et Durdin. It will tell you the known ancestors of Lady Olivia Robertson. Lady Olivia‟s spiritual biography is recorded in The Call of Isis and Isis of Fellowship. It is advisable for FOI members to read these 2 books, as it is an excellent way in which to become acquainted with Lady Olivia and her interactions with Isis. These are very personal books, in that she has written very directly about her spiritual evolution. Visit http://www.foichicago.org/gpage3.html for more about Lady Olivia and her various accomplishments, and for a reading list. Visit the Circle of Isis website, easily accessible through the Portal of Isis website www.portalofisis.info for more biographical and historical information about the Durdin- Robertsons family.”

Actually, the full title of the genealogy written by Herbert Robertson is: Stemmata Robertson et Durdin Being Tables Comprising the Known Ancestors of the Children of Herbert Robertson and His Wife Helen Alexandrina Melian Nee Durdin, and (Except in Some Foreign Families) Brothers and Sisters of These Ancestors. London: Mitchell & Hughes, 1893-1895 It is available on microfilm at the Library of congress in Washington DC, and the Family History Center Library in Salt Lake city, Utah.

This fascinating book contains more than 400 pages of the earthly family tree of the Durdin- Robertsons, which goes back to the early Middle Ages and before, and links Lady Olivia‟s family to many other aristocratic families in Europe.

The other co-founders of the Fellowship of Isis were Olivia‟s brother, Lawrence Durdin- Robertson and his wife Pamela nee Barclay. Of course Lawrence and Olivia share the same family tree. Pamela‟s earthly lineage also descended from people who made major contributions to the history of Quakerism and the ethical operation of the world of finance. Read more about this spiritually gifted family at the COI website, http://lotuspharia.freeyellow.com/thecircleofisis/id315.html They are also mentioned in Olivia‟s spiritual biographies.

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Especially significant for the Fellowship are the two small books that comprise Lady Olivia‟s spiritual biography. The Call of Isis and Isis of Fellowship tell of the origins and evolution of the Fellowship of Isis on the spiritual level. This is what links us all, and makes us all FOI family!

These books are more readily available than the Stemmata.

It is especially pertinent that Question 8 of the Manifesto Lesson of the Lyceum of Alexandria has come up for discussion in this Spring 2011 issue, which not only precedes Lady Olivia‟s birthday on April 13…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LADY OLIVIA!

... but also marks the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Fellowship of Isis.

The number 8 (the number of this question in the Manifesto Lessons) has special meaning in the Fellowship of Isis. Its symbolism is seen in the Star of Ishtar superimposed on the Galactic Dragon. Eight is the octave, which represents not only the wheel of the year, but the galactic spiral that is a fractal of our supergalaxy and other universes. The number 8 is an interesting number, having to do with death and regeneration (as indicated by the 8th astrological house and the sign of Scorpio). Baptismal fonts are traditionally often made in octagonal form, representing the Eight-Pointed Star of Regeneration.

What a blessing to have been born (and reborn) in this age, that our paths have crossed with that of Lady Olivia, the Fellowship, and the Water of Life and Regeneration that flows from the Goddess Isis.

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Diana Nemorensis, or Diana of the Grove By Myth Woodling

"Diana Nemorensis, or Diana of the Grove," is part of a larger piece called "Dianic Mythology" which was largely inspired by Leland's text, “Aradia or the Gospel of Witches” . Back in 2003, I sought to imagine a mythological backdrop for Diana, as the mother of Aradia. I presumed that the complex figure of the Italian Diana might have become even more complex through mythological assimilation--by absorbing attributes, functions, and titles of other divinities-- which would explain Diana's later preeminence during the Christian era as a pre-Christian divinity surviving in Italian folklore. The "great goddess" of both Egypt (Isis) and also Babylon (Ishtar) assimilated many lesser goddesses into their personas. In creating "Diana Nemorensis, or Diana of the Grove," I wove together many names. I purposely borrowed the tone of Diana's speech in "Diana Nemorensis, or Diana of the Grove" from a speech spoken by Isis in The Golden Ass (written by Apuleius, 2nd century c.e.), which reflects on the continued influence of Isis on other Neo-Pagan paths.

…Yet the moon shall follow and seek the sun. After having dwelt sometime among her people, Diana again desired the company of Lucetius, and sought him out.

In the wood of Nemi near Aricia, Diana found Virbius, who had been Lucetius. As she was still covered with gypsum, she bathed nude in the sacred lake of Nemi.

As she rose purified from the waters, Virbius and Numa spied her beauty. Standing beneath an oak tree, Numa bowed his head low. Virbus asked, "Beautiful one, do I know you?"

The Lady answered: "I am Egeria. I am Fauna. I am Flora. I am the soul of nature. I am Diana Nemorensis. I am Fortuna Virilis and Fata Diana. I am the light-bearer, Juno Lucina and Hecate Phosphoros. I am Vesta of the hearth. I am Ceres Copia, the harvest mother. I am Bona Dea, the good goddess. I am the Etrusian Leukothea of the wholesome ocean breezes and the moon's tides. I am Dia of the sacred grove on the Tiber.

"The primeval Phrygians call me Pessinuntica, mother of the gods; in Cyprus, I am Paphian Aphrodite; in Crete, I am Dictynna who draws the nets; in Gaul, I am Dea Artio, the bear; I am Diana of Ephesus, the great many breasted mother; for the Sicilins, I am Stygian Proserpine. I am the maiden, Artini. I am Artemis Apollousa, the destructress. I am Luna. I am Losna. In the ancient sands of Babylon, they call me Sharrat Shame, queen of heaven; to the swarthy Egyptians, I am queen Isis. But foremost I am Diana Primigenia, the first-born, mother and beloved sister of Lucetius."

The Lord answered her, "I am Virbius. I am Faunus of the animals. I am Sylvanus of the trees. I am Priapus of the garden. I am Lucetius who turned the wheel. I am Phoebus, the shining one. I am the oracular spirit of Pythian Apollo. I am known as Smintheus, the white mouse. I am Bacchus of the true vine. I am king of the wood, Rex Nemoresis, thus I am Dis and Saturn of the harvest; to the Arcadians, I am hoary Pan, and I am also the Phoenecian Adonis under the myrrh 32 tree. I am Jove Pater. I am Tinia. But first, I was Apulu, the youth, beloved of Artini, the maid. I have known you well. For you, I play the seven sacred notes upon the lyre."

The Magic of Manifestation at Isis Oasis by Loreon Vigne

Sometimes you are on a roll in manifesting…

The other day I said, “I wanna iguana.”

The next day I got a call from a woman who said she had an iguana that needed re-homing. I asked her where she lived and she said it was just down the street from me in the small town where we are. We went over to see the iguana and it was quite a lovely looking creature. It seemed to be both silver, gold, and copper and came with an enclosure and all the needs of an iguana and now she resides in our vivarium that contains quite a number of tarantulas, scorpions, beetles and the like, in addition to a corn snake, bearded dragons, leopard geckos, and a water dragon. They were calling her Princess and we changed her name to Priestess.

The next manifestation was a black swan.

I have both a white and a black swan on the land of Isis Oasis in a pond by the lodge. Recently the black swan laid eggs and I thought, too bad, they would not be fertile. I thought about the possibility of getting a male black swan so I could have swan babies (they are called cygnets.) The next day I got a call from a bird rescue place and they were trying to find a home for a black swan and of course we said we would rescue it. They came from quite a distance and brought it to us. Then they let the swan out of the carrier and it was met by our black swan and together they went off to swim serenely in our pond occupied by 3 Egyptian geese, and the white swan plus a single female mallard we rescued. I now need to manifest a male drake to make her happy.

Finally, I have created in our cat compound one amazing cat. She is a hybrid, half serval and half chausie , or jungle cat with a small amount of domestic. She bred with a serval cat and had one baby over 5 years ago, and then never had a live cub again. That cat I call Miracle since no 33 other cat is quite like her in the world. I call this hybrid the Isis Cat and was somehow guided by the Goddess to create such a cat. Her mother had other litters both before and after her. I was giving up of ever having any more Isis Cats and believed Miracle would be the only Isis Cat that ever was.

Miracle lives in my house and can go out in an enclosure outside my living room at will. She is the most intelligent and beautiful animal anyone could wish to live with. So one day I prayed at my altar to have another baby born that may live.

Sure enough the next day, my animal care person called me as I was out to lunch with some friends and said Mirage, Miracles mom, had given birth but was not caring for the kittens. I quickly left my friends and rushed home. Three babies had been born but only one lived and is now 1 month old. He is a darling boy and I call him Magic. I am hoping to get this species approved by the Cat Fanciers, and begin a new species of cat called the Isis Cat making the name of Isis ever more known.

Beyond this, Isis Oasis is being blessed by having some wonderful volunteers joining us to help us in our next program.

We are soon to be building some amazing temple-like habitats for our endangered ocelots and hope to get the needed license to start the Oasis Safari where families could come and dine at our new restaurant, called Mummy's Kitchen, serving Egyptian-Asian Fusion Cuisine. Then they could tour our 75 colorful birds, our beautiful exotic cats, and our vivarium, and finally see an ecological film in our grand Temple where we have a 9' x 12' screen.

Finally, of course, we are getting ready to have the most wonderful convocation of the Temple of Isis and the Fellowship of Isis with Lady Olivia and many profound programs. This year the date is Oct. 7 to 10 and the Goddess we are dedicating the event to is Heket, Frog Goddess of magic. Since that decision, all manner of frog images keep popping up and I have already purchased a number of Frog sculptures to add to our altar. Perhaps this will be the year some of you will make the journey to Isis Oasis for this very special time here. We now have over 400 Priestesses and Priests who have been ordained in our Temple, and it is so satisfying to see in the 33 years I have been involved in growing the concept of the Goddess. May she never be forgotten. [email protected] www.isisoasis.org 707-857-ISIS

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My Trip to Egypt by Lady AMber Dawn

It balances out, according to the Laws of Maat….and it is a great blessing that this trip took place before the political turmoil that erupted in January…

Top Ten Memories: 1. Temple of Isis 2. Temple of Heru 3. Valley of the Kings 4. A tie: Safir Hotel-Cairo: beautiful 5 star hotel and The Temple of Queen Hatsheput 5. First class flight on Egypt Air: complete with champagne 6. The hummus, yum 7. Egyptian men-also yummy 8. Nile River: buggy, hot but so interesting 9. Cairo: if NYC and London had a baby, it would be Cairo 10. Bargain shopping especially if you've American money

Ten Unpleasant Things About Egypt: 1. The fighting and violence now taking place 2. 95 degrees in the shade on Dec 14 3. Not being able to wear shorts and tank tops if you're a woman 4. Egyptian men: good looking but very, very, very narrow minded 5. American women are easy, see number 4 6. Camel meat---yuck!!! 7. Lugging large bottles of bottled water EVERYWHERE 8. No alcohol in the smaller cities 9. Very dirty in Cairo 10. The Cairo Airport, trust ME!!

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The Mist It Tells Me... By Dorn Simon-Sinnott

Collar doves coo Within this misty day Birds assemble, the worm feast way Sprouting buds continue their growth Insect life, at dusk take flight The chirpiness of avian airs The murkiness of dull mist wears Having a melody, that of may Purifying, refreshing they say

Coastal waters surf and wave Wind kicks up the storm old way Grass and lawn grows beside thorn Without mist and rain, weep and forlorn Nature tries her best you know With so much life to nurture and grow She too, needs a helping hand Try to save this wonderful land

Whenever a wrapper doth fell to the ground Pick it up and state profound Without the earth and air I breathe I could not live so vibrantly

I thank thee Mother Nature I do Please forgive my wrongs of pollute I will adapt to better myself To share the importance of your salute

Global warming it has begun Shifting Natures course throughout Millennia of lives being taken unsung Blindly creating our own blackout

Heal the earth, you heal thyself All those others whereabouts Even your ancestors souls All those to come, to play their roles.

Copyright: Dorn Simon-Sinnott 14/05/09 Dip. Psy. Dip. Crim.

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The Story of an Iseum By Lady Haight-Ashton

The Iseum of the Graceful Goddess located in New Hope, PA is dedicated to the Goddess Selket. She is a Goddess who pulled at my spiritual heart strings many years ago and one who played a role in my spiritual development.

Ancient pyramid texts claim that She was the Mother of Nehebkau, a snake God who protected the pharaoh from snakebites and the Scorpion‟s sting, which was a main cause of death in ancient Egypt. She had power over all snakes, reptiles and poisonous animals. Her Priests and Priestesses were known to be the doctors and magicians of ancient Egyptian medicine. Using a mixture of folklore, magick and science her priesthood was dedicated to healing venomous bites. She embodied both the venom and the antidote. Thus She was honored for giving both the kiss of death and the breath of rebirth.

Selket (Serqet, Serkt, Selqet, Selkit, Selkis) as a Goddess of Magick was worshipped throughout ancient Egypt because of Her protective qualities, though no records or traces of Her temples have been found. Thus for many She still remains a remarkable and fascinating enigma. As a professional psychic, medium and sacred dancer I can feel the influence of Her mysterious ancient power deep within my soul.

She traveled through the millennia and splashed into our consciousness in one remarkable moment when the British archeologist Howard Carter took his long awaited peek into the tomb and said “I see wonderful things”. It was at that moment when Her rebirth was assured. There she stood in this long forgotten tomb in the Valley of the Kings, majestically graceful with Her widespread arms and delicately turned head, poised in powerful silence with her funerary Goddess companions Isis, Neith and her twin sister Nephthys.

The Iseum of the Graceful Goddess‟ purpose is many layered with a grounding focus within the sacred art of creative healing. Our members nurture spiritual and psychic awakening, artistic individualism and growth by nurturing creative inspiration through meditative prayer, sacred movement, music, dance and art. We revere the passion of inspiration. We are dancers, artists, crafters and musicians who embrace the Goddess with open arms.

Many years ago while living in NYC and studying for my first Degree in the Gardnerian tradition of Witchcraft I was relaxing on my couch trying to decide upon my Magickal name and dedication. Deep in thought about Goddesses and their many personas I felt and heard the thunderous sound of heavy footsteps, definitely not of this realm. For one brief moment the floor and walls of my apartment trembled as my attention was focused on the doorway into the next room. As I looked up I beheld the most powerful and intense Goddess. She was Selket. The weight of Her overwhelming power pressed against me and for a split second I was breathless and just as suddenly my breath returned. I knew that She had entered my soul.

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Yet it wasn‟t quite Her time to enter my spiritual life. I was swayed between two Goddesses until I finally chose to dedicate myself to the most ancient of Goddesses, Lilith. But I never forgot Selket‟s profound impact. I knew the day would come when I would embrace Her fully. Upon discovering the FOI and opening my heart to Deity in new and insightful ways, I experienced Divine Communion with the Goddess Selket. She called to me again with the whisper of her Magickal breath as She embraced me within Her graceful arms. The Iseum of the Graceful Goddess was born. Our members meet at every Sabbot and our rituals incorporate parts of my Gardnerian background while embracing the FOI philosophy. We commune with the Divine and raise energy. Since dance is sacred to me as Priestess, we oftentimes incorporate ancient Priestess or processional movements into our rituals. We are blessed to have a wonderful harpist within our group, so singing beautiful chants often influences the energy and adds a lyrical focus.

As creative healers, we each in our own unique way give back to the community. I volunteer my time in many community organizations and use my skills as a lace maker and crochet artist to create colorful and healing afghans for terminally children. And I hope that I bring the inspiration and the healing of Sacred Dance with me whenever and wherever I join in ritual.

As a Priestess I hope to inspire my Iseum members to work as I do by peaceful means, to seek unity rather than division, to be of service to our communities, and to be creative healers, understanding counsels and loving guardians of all life on Earth.

The Graceful Goddess opens her arms to embrace each of us.

References: The Tomb of Tutankhamen by Howard Carter, published by arrangement with E.F Dutton, Excalibur Books, Japan, 1972 . http://www.orderwhitemoon.org/goddess/selket.html Plus material from a compilation of notes that I have gathered through the years from many sources both verbal and written.

Eos, the Dawn, is part of the Sirius connection, as Sirius rises before her, heralding her imminent arrival. This article is part of a series that was written for the Date Palm Forum in August of 2010. You can view it and other items by going online to Date Palm Forum at Yahoo Groups.com.

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Exploring Eos By Demetria Nanos

Eos – The Dawn "[Memnon addresses Akhilleus when they meet in battle :] `Of birth divine am I, Eos' (the Dawn- queen's) mighty son, nurtured afar by lily-slender Hesperides, beside the River Okeanos. Therefore not from thee nor from grim battle shrink I, knowing well how far my goddess-mother doth transcend a Nereis, whose child thou vauntest thee. To Gods and men my mother bringeth light; on her depends the issue of all things, works great and glorious in Olympos wrought whereof comes blessing unto men. But thine -- she sits in barren crypts of brine.'" i

Eos – One of the oldest pre-Hellenic deities that was kept by the Greeks as they assimilated and replaced local gods was the Dawn goddess, Eos. The linguistic connections of Eos with Indo- European Ushas (India), Eostre (Germanic tribes), Aurora (Rome), and Semitic Aya (Babylon), etc. are indicative of the power that the dawn deity once held, and indeed a dawn or dusk deity may have been a solar deity before assimilation, conflation, and merging with later deities occurred. D. D. Boedeker explores the possibility of Eos – Ushas being aspects of a common Pre-Indo-European goddess in her article cited below.ii Eos is also considered to be a carryover of the ancient Hellenic goddess of Day, Hemera, and is named such by Pausanias. Alternate versions of her name are Aos and Aotis. Another of her names or titles is Erigeneia, “Early- Born”. She is called rosy-fingered, rosy-cheeked, Khrysothronos “golden throned”, Khrysopedillos “golden-sandaled”, Rhodopakhos “rosy-armed”, Krokospeplos “Dawn the saffron-robed”, and Potnia “Lady”. Other Cretan goddesses are given this honorific also. Quintus Smyrnaeus calls her “she who brings Light to the world, the Child of Mists (Phaesphoros Erigeneia).”iii

The parents of Eos are children of Ouranos and Gaea, Hyperion and Euryphaessa or Theia. Ovid names Pallas and Styx as her parents, but the older version is preferable for our purposes here. Her brother is Helios and her sister is Selene. Eos accompanies her brother throughout his heavenly travels, for the Dawn heralds the Sun. Eos was named as mother of the Winds and the Stars and their father was her Titanic cousin, the god Astraios, in Hesiod‟s “Theogony”. (Astraios is The “Starry One” is the god of stars, astrology, heavenly oracles, and prophecy. Astraios is also the name of the legendary first king of Crete). Another of her children is said to be Eosphoros, the dawn star Venus; but she herself is also addressed as Eosphoros in later times. Her son by Kephalos is called Hesperos, a variant of the name. She could be invoked as Aura, the breeze, which was the undoing of Kephalos. Her famous lover Orion became a constellation after his death, slain by the jealousy of the huntress Artemis. She is noted for carrying off other handsome young men, Kleitos, Kephalos and Tithonos. She was called Tito as the wife of Tithonos, and Karl Kerenyi ivtheorized that the two names belong to a pre-Hellenic language, indicating Titans.

Goddesses of liminality, the thresholds between worlds, especially of life and death, are also patronesses of initiatory cults. We do not know of a cult for Eos, but she is older than the Olympians, and they cannot stay her from her rounds, anymore than they can make Helios and Selene cease their luminous courses around the world. Once Zeus delayed them, but that is not a 39

Cretan story. Hekate is a cousin of these luminous gods. Hekate is the sister of Astraios, and not controlled by any Olympian, either. This is a good measure by way of contrast, to consider Hekate‟s freedom and power, in order to get an idea of the impact of the original scope of powers of Eos. The ancient world without electricity was largely dependent on maximizing the use of sunlight, something easily forgotten by people who live in an entirely electrically powered world. The dawn was the beginning of everything, the time of transition between the worlds of sleep and wakefulness, the time of action. It is akin to the energy of spring, the rising and unfolding of the individual day. Eos carries mortal men off from their dusty world, and they live forever with her in whatever place she chooses for them to reside. She brings the Light of Day to all humans, colors the sky, racing in her chariot ahead of her brother the sun god. She is a passionate deity, with many lovers and consorts.

Tithonos, a mortal husband of Eos the Saffron goddess of dawn, was also called a king of Kerne, while kern, kornus, korn, are Indo-European root words for „horn‟, „horned‟, (the Greek word is keras) and over time these evolved into „crown‟, „coronet‟, corona‟, „corolla‟, „kerning‟, and „coroner‟ (“guardian of the interest of the Crown”). A noticeable feature of Minoan religion that was displayed in common with Anatolia and the Middle East is a sanctified area for the shrine or altar with “horns of consecration”. It is interesting that the reputed Saffron Goddess has a mortal consort (kingship is conferred or blessed by the goddessv) who is the king of Kerv, sometimes said to be Phrygia in Anatolia, where eventually the historic and mythical King Midas ruled, the man with “the golden touch”. Saffron was used in the funeral beverage of historic „Midas‟, or „Mita‟. It is a blend of barley (beer), Muscat grapes (wine), saffron, and other spices. (You can buy a re-created version of it called „Midas Touch‟ from the Dogfish Brewing Co. here in the USA.) Ker is also the name of an ancient Minoan and pre-Minoan goddess who shall be explored later in this series.

Another man important to Eos was their son, Memnon. Though Tithonos was king of Ker, Memnon was king of the Ethiopians. The sunrises in the east, but varies from northeast to southeast during the year as the seasons change. Ethiopia is east-southeast of Greece and Crete, and it is where Eos is said to have taken Tithonos when first she stole him away. Memnon was so gifted that it took Hera‟s dear warrior-champion Achilles‟ to slay Memnon in battle, while the ancient goddesses Eos and Thetis watched their half-mortal sons fight, knowing the outcome before it happened. Eos took her lifeless son in her arms and flew away with him, and was said to have resurrected him to immortality. This saga is recorded in the “Aethiopis”, only fragments of which remain along with a few allusions to it by ancient writers.

While many Cretan deities have scanty myth left, or are subsumed by later deities of the Hellenes, this passage from an Orphic hymn is worth posting here.

Orphic Hymn 78 to Eos (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) : "To Eos - (Fumigation from Manna.) Hear me, O Goddess, whose emerging ray leads on the broad refulgence of the day; blushing Eos (Dawn), whose celestial light beams on the world with reddening splendours bright. Messenger of Titan [Helios the Sun], whom with constant round thy orient beams recall from night profound: 40

labour of every kind to lead it thine, of mortal life the minister divine. Mankind in thee eternally delight, and none presumes to shun thy beauteous sight. Soon as thy splendours break the bands of rest, and eyes unclose, with pleasing sleep oppressed; men, reptiles, birds, and beasts, with general voice, and all the nations of the deep rejoice; for all the culture of our life is thine. Come, blessed power, and to these rites incline: thy holy light increase, and unconfined diffuse its radiance on the mystics‟ mind."

Abundance of natural resources gave the Minoans what they needed to build, produce, and thrive. Let us explore something that was precious to the Minoan peoples and associated with Eos as well as other solar related cults, magickal practices, perfumery, culinary and visual arts.

Saffron Native flora now includes crocus sativus flowers, the source of saffron, which is the most expensive spice in the world. Used as a food seasoning and coloring, it was also used in medicine, dyes, inks, paints, perfumes and incense. The crocus flower is a triploid, grown from bulbs that are sterile for natural reproduction. It can be propagated by human intervention only. It originated in Central Asia, coming to Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean at a very early date, since it is attested to as being in Crete in the 3rd Millennium BCE. This crocus is related to the wild crocus of Greece, crocus cartwrightianus. The word krokos is older than what we now call Greek language. It is a non-Indo-European remnant of the pre-Minoan society and language that once lived in Crete. Consider this: a beautiful blue to purple flower, only able to reproduce by human hands pollinating them, their stigmas yielding a precious commodity that can be used in many areas of life, from the color of your clothes or hair, to coloring and spicing up your food, flavoring and coloring your medicines, beverages, and perfumes; a valuable item for trade that was desired by many people from almost everywhere in their known world; used as a paint pigment as far back as 50,000 years ago in Iran. Saffron was used in religious iconography as well as being depicted on vases, amphorae, the celebrated colorfully painted walls of ruins in Crete and Thera, etc. Saffron remains a valuable commodity and important source of income for several countries. The following link is to a very good article on saffron, one of ancient Crete‟s most important trade goods on the island and for exports., “The Medicinal Use of Saffron in the Aegean Bronze Age”, Phyllis Young Forsyth, Classical Views ©2000, No.2, Vol. XLIV http://www.arts.mun.ca/mouseion/2000/forsyth/index.html

Saffron is still used in medicine and medical research. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8590890

An article worth the time to read, if only for the comparisons of flower-spirit-boys who became flowers can be accessed through the link below. The author, Ms. Paghat, mentions Prometheus as one of the mythical sources of the crocus flower, and that the crocus, both the purple one that gives us spice and the yellow one that gives us only pigment, were sacred to Persephone and “…were the commonest flower offerings at Her shrines, ...” Ms. Paghat also writes of the place of other crocuses in the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone, and that Eos, the Dawn, was originally the Saffron Goddess of Crete. If you are interested in more along this line, I recommend that you read her online papers. There are a few mentions of other saffron deities from the Middle East and India, other flower daemon tales from different lands, as well as the mention of their passage into fertility images, including the beautiful youth Kronos, at: 41 http://www.paghat.com/saffronmyth.html

While the word krokos was used from Homer on through our time, the older forms of the word from Linear B tablets in knakos, knekos, and knikion. It may be related to Old Hebrew karkom, and Sanskrit kunkuma, related to the Middle Persian word kurkum. For more information along this line, and some links to recipes, try this: http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Croc_sat.html

Saffron gives us beautiful golden hues, from the palest golden hint of color to all shades of gold, yellow, and orange, even to a deep reddish orange hue. It has fragrance, and is a tasty addition to foods. It is often substituted for, since it is expensive. Turmeric or marigold petals are used as substitutes, and they each have their own flavor. The most common replacement for saffron is safflower, carthamus tinctorius, which has a more delicate flavor and scent, and offers a nice yellow to golden range of he when used as a pigment. Safflower is native to Egypt, the Middle East, Iran, India, and central Asia. It is also a source of vegetable oil, used for cooking, body care products, paints, dyes, and light industrial applications. Link for more information: http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Helianthus/index.html

There are allergies and medicine contraindications associated with safflower consumption, though it is safe for most people. Please check this link for allergy information: http://www.ehow.com/facts_5481759_safflower-oil-dangers.html

Here are a few recipes to get you in the mood for this excursion into Minoan culture. Saffron Apricot Rice - serves 4 2 ½ cups water ¼ cup very finely chopped dried apricots 1 cup long grain rice ¼ teaspoon salt 1/16 teaspoon dried ginger or a tiny „dash‟ – to taste 4 saffron „threads‟ Combine water, apricots, and salt in a medium sized saucepan. Bring to a boil, stir in saffron and ginger, and add rice immediately. Reduce heat and cover pan. Let simmer 18 - 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Serve with poultry, seafood, or vegetables. (If you use brown rice, add ¼ cup more water and let simmer 35 – 45 minutes on low heat before removing from heat and letting stand 5 minutes.)

Saffron Mushroom Sauce 3 tablespoons butter 8 oz. sliced fresh mushrooms 3 tablespoons all purpose whole wheat or white flour 1½ cups chicken broth 1 tablespoon minced chives 1 tablespoon minced parsley 1 teaspoon Dijon or Rhine wine mustard 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon black pepper 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon saffron to taste 42

½ cup sour cream Melt butter in medium sized enamel saucepan over medium heat. Add mushrooms, cook until tender. Remove with slotted spoon, set aside. Slowly stir flour into pan, cook until bubbly. Slowly whisk in broth. Add saffron, stir gently. Add mustard, chives, parsley, salt, and pepper, stir. Immediately add mushrooms, stirring gently and well to cover all of them with broth mixture. Cook, stirring Constantly (!) until mixture is thickened. Stir in sour cream, heat until hot. Do Not Boil!!! Keep warm on very low heat until served. Serve soon after finishing the sauce making. This is enough for one whole chicken, 4 chicken breasts, or two Cornish hens. Garnish with extra parsley or thin strips of sweet red pepper.

(Both these recipes were adapted from “The Treasury of Creative Cooking” by the editors of Consumer Guide®, Publications International, Ltd., Lincolnwood, IL. ©1992. „Apricot Chicken Oriental‟, p. 176, original recipe by Harriet Kuhn of Patterson, California; a winner in the Apricot Sweepstakes at the Patterson Apricot Fiesta, sponsored by the Apricot Advisory Board, Walnut Creek, CA. „Chicken with Mushroom Sauce‟, p.336.)

Braised Fennel with Safflower – Fennel is mentioned in Linear B tablets, too. It was the plant that Prometheus is said to have used to bring fire to humans, hidden in its‟ hollow stalk or tube. This recipe is from “Edible Flowers: A Kitchen Companion with recipes”, by Kitty Morse, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California. ©1995 Kitty Morse. ISBN 0-89815-754-4. pp.40-41.

Braised Fennel with Safflower - serves 4 2 Tablespoons butter 2 large fennel bulbs 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 cup chicken broth ½ cup white wine 1 teaspoon crushed safflower salt and pepper to taste

In a heavy enamel saucepan or shallow frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Trim fennel bulbs of feathery fronds (reserve them to add flavor to a broth or stew.) Quarter the bulbs and place in saucepan, along with the lemon juice, chicken broth, white wine, and safflower. Cover tightly and simmer until bulbs are tender, 20 – 25 minutes. Remove lid and, using a slotted spoon, transfer the bulbs to a serving dish. Increase the heat to medium and continue to cook the liquid until it is reduced by half. Pour over reserved bulbs. Season with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

43

i Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 2. 418 ff ii “Aphrodite‟s Entry into Greek Epic”, Ds. D. Boedeker, ©1974, Mnemosyne (Suppl. 32.), Leiden:Brill. iii Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 2. 185 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) iv “The Gods of the Greeks”, Karl Kerenyi, Thames and Hudson, N.Y., NY., ©1951, reprint 1979. p. 199. Library of Congress catalog card # 79-66133 v Kingship is given through Inanna or Ishtar in Sumer, Akkad, and Babylon; Pharaoh becomes the living Horus, meaning he becomes the son of Isis whose hieroglyph sign is the throne; Sekhmet punishes those who disrespect the authority of Re, King of Gods and Humans; Athene installs Erechthonios as king of Athens, Aeneas is granted eventual kingship through the auspices of his mother, Venus, Julius Caesar claimed descent from Venus, etc.

Eos and Aphrodite – rivals, cousins, or cosmic twins of different parents? Eos has several myths extant about her carrying off young men. While that may have to do with initiatory rites of passage, it is also a mythic story type similar in nature to the legends of the Northern European goddess of love and war Freya and the Valkyries carrying warriors from the battlefield. The young men Eos chose might also have died suddenly, and the mourners could have used the template of the Dawn taking a mortal lover with her as a way to assuage their grief.

Dawn is the time when lovers may have one more embrace, as the sun rises, the blood stirs, the eyes open, and a moment of passion can occur. Arousal with a morning erection or stretching and touching each other before arising from bed - that is a gift of Eos, too. The silence, save for the wind and Nature at sunrise is a moment of contemplation or prayer at the beginning of the light of the day - that is communing with Eos. Any sunrise meditation or ritual can add her considerable energies to the purpose being worked for. If your rite includes acts of love, terrific!

Dawn and Death Medically speaking, the early morning, dawn, whenever one awakens from sleep (not a nap), is the most likely time for a heart attack to occur. It is also the time that night retreats, or darkness "dies". If you look at any of the Classical art depicting Eos carrying away her lovers, it is very like our 'modern' artistic visions of depicting angels carrying the spirits of the dead away. Eos is best known in this circumstance for retrieving the body of her son, Memnon. She calls down the Winds to carry their mortal brother off the battlefield, and they make a mournful sound as they do it, sighing, moaning, and grieving. There is a similarity between the art showing her holding Memnon's limp body across herself, and the Pieta iconography of mourning Mary holding Yeshua/Jesus across her body. Yeshua rises, resurrected, through the agency of his Father. Memnon rises, resurrected, through the agency of his Mother. It is said that Thetis was capable of doing this for Akhilleos, but if that happened, we do not have texts recounting it. There was a shrine and temple Thetis built for Akhilleos as a god of sailors on an island in the Black Sea. He is a blessed spirit of the dead, but when his spirit was roused for questions, he told Odysseus that he would rather be a slave on earth than king of the dead. Memnon received life everlasting. The dawn is the promise of rebirth, for every day we see the sun reappear.

Eos and Ethiopia, Hathor and Egypt The cock-crow heralds her arrival; in Egypt the baboons chatter at the rising sun where Hathor is the Dawn. Epithets of Hathor include “The Golden One” and “Lady of Red” (cloth and lifeblood). She is a passionate, beautiful, seductive goddess of amorous delight, who guides one to eternal life in the underworld after the weighing of the heart, etc. She does not drive a chariot, 44

but Hathor carries the sun – as a golden sun disk between her horns, fording the sky-waters, in the shape of Mehet Weret the Celestial Cow. Mehet Weret means “Great Flood” and is the designation of the heavenly ocean or waterways that the gods must navigate. She is depicted rising through the mists and dew of dawn, carrying the sun god Re. These parallels are worth knowing, as the Egyptians had commerce and diplomatic interactions with the Minoans, Mycenaeans, and other neighbors of the Mediterranean. Hathor was the goddess of foreigners and foreign trade. She is a liminal and luminous goddess of the crossings into birth, life, awakening, sexuality, intoxication, conflict, war, peace, death, and the promise of rebirth. All of these apply to Eos save intoxication. There is more that we do not know about Eos than what we do know. It does appear that she shares a great deal with Hathor, but more textual or archaeological evidence is necessary before closer lines can be drawn.

The tale of Eos and Memnon include references to Memnon being a king of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is where Eos had taken her Trojan prince, Tithonos, when she chose him for herself. What, if any, are the links between Hathor and Eos, Hathor and Aphrodite, Helios and Re, Helios and Harakhty –Horus, Nun – Okeanos, etc.? There are obvious manifestations of nature that give rise to similar names and titles of divinities, such as the Rosy Dawn, the Golden Sun, the Golden Lady, etc. The placement of Eos and her mortal family in Ethiopia tells us there is more to discover about this connection. Another interesting connection was in Egypt itself. The speaking statues of Memnon in Egypt were interpreted by traveling Hellenes as being close to Ethiopia, so maybe the voice of the slain demi-god was trying to tell them something. They are really 60-foot tall stone monuments of Amunhotep III, but became tourist attractions for a few hundred years as Hellenes and Romans came to visit them as the Oracle of Memnon.

Ushas, Eos and Aphrodite Eos lives near Okeanos, at the easternmost edge of the world. She rises on the sea-winds and flies through the sky in her chariot, her horses, Lampos and Phaethon, are the colors of the dawn. Aphrodite also rose from the ocean, and flies through the sky, sometimes riding a goose, sometimes in a chariot. The correspondence of Vedic Ushas (Dawn) riding her chariot through the heavens is quite direct with Eos. Rather than horses, Ushas is drawn by seven cows, which reminds one of the Seven Hathors of Egypt in cow goddess form. Returning to Ushas: “In his Secret of the Veda, (Sri) Aurobindo described Ushas as "the medium of the awakening, the activity and the growth of the other gods; she is the first condition of the Vedic realisation. By her increasing illumination the whole nature of man is clarified; through her mankind arrives at the Truth, through her he enjoys Truth's beatitude."”v A wonderful page of Sri Aurobindo‟s website SAKSI is devoted to Ushas. The parallels with Eos are numerous, and reason dictates that these closely related goddesses would share the following: “Usha signifies the dawn of divine consciousness in the individual aspirant. The physical dawn which we see every morning is a physical symbol of this divinity. The onset of the divine consciousness indicates to us the existence of the higher worlds of bliss and perfection which are beyond the pale of our ordinary consciousness.” http://www.vedah.com/org2/literature/rig_veda/gods_of_veda/usha.html

There are many points of similarity between Eos and Aphrodite in their behaviors. They don‟t take “no” for an answer! They are incredibly powerful, passionate, desirous, dominant females 45

in their relationships. They take mortal lovers. They are each loving and devoted mothers, as much as an immortal can be for a mortal child. They make kings of their mortal sons. They mourn their emotional losses with genuine tears (rain and dew) and sobs (wind). They are both associated with the planet Venus, always close to the sun, the Morning and Evening Star. They are primal forces of Nature.

Scholar Gregory Nagy wrote an examination of Hellenic deities abducting mortals and demi- gods. v He notes that the kidnapped men are all taken away on a gust of wind, whether it is Eos, Aphrodite, or Zeus stealing them away. As mother of the winds, Eos utilizes them to help her, as when they helped her carry the body of their brother Memnon. The focus of Nagy‟s article is the presence of the Winds when immortals steal mortals from their world. In another tale, Aphrodite takes Phaethon, son of Eos away with her, and he becomes a servant of Aphrodite in Her service!

The parallel of Aphrodite and Anchises compares with Eos and Tithonos – two heavenly goddesses associated with the planet Venus, dawn, and sunset who race across the sky; and two Trojan princes who father semi-divine sons and are „blessed‟ to live to a very old age. Other parallels that Nagy points out in the same article are the names of the swift horses who ride the winds while carrying Eos are Phaethon and Lampos. Her brother Helios has daughters named Phaethousa and Lampetie, feminine name equivalents of the solar steeds. The tale where Eos is mother of Phaethon gives us another “bright, shining” name. Perhaps Eos and Helios were the original parents of the boy who flew the sun-chariot too close to heaven and earth. Most sources name his mother as Klymene, “fame”.

Nagy analyzed the two goddesses, Aphrodite and Eos, finding that they each partake of the nature and abilities of Ushas, and he proposes that Klymene was introduced as a way to have Helios not commit incest with his sister, Eos. An alternative he also explores is the division of an important goddess into two more „manageable‟ aspects that didn‟t offend human sensibility about incest. The fuzzy incestuous implications of Ushas and Surya, solar deities mating, were too uncomfortable for some to take in an abstract way. He postulates that the possible division of the Ushas archetype into two deities reflected cultural changes and morality.

Aphrodite‟s kidnapping action, mirroring those of Eos, is also a blow against Eos. Perhaps this tale relates a change such as sublimation or absorption of cult, a slow change in culture, or conquest of a people and the replacement of one deity with another. There is always more to explore when we are looking at the family of the Titanic sun god, whose children and grandchildren are rulers of Crete, Phoenicia, Anatolia, and Hellas.

Do Europa and Eos share the threshold of the horizon?

Vision - The sun rise can be likened to an eye opening after sleep; the solar orb rising and setting mimics the action of the eyelid which rises and falls, controlling the amount of light the eye receives. When humans follow natural solar rhythm and cycles of the day, sleeping when it is dark and rising in the morning, the early morning light hitting eyelids is a natural trigger to open the eyes and awaken to the new day. Ancient Greeks believed that sight or vision was granted by or ruled by the Sun, Helios; the Moon, Selene; and Eos, the Dawn. 46

Europa came from the East like the sun, carried on the sacred bull god‟s back over the waves. She is the founder of Minoan culture, the mortal ancestress of the royal family of Knossos through her son Minos the Bull King; her son Rhadamanthys the Wise was a king on Crete and later in Boeotia; and another son, Sarpedon, a warrior-king of Anatolia. A mother of kings, daughter of a king, mated with a god, and afterward she was married to a king, Astraios, who was named after a star god. Was Europa mortal, or is she a transplanted goddess who accompanied the Phoenicians who settled on Crete thousands of years ago? Some scholars believe that Europa's adventure tells of the transfer of a goddess cult from the Levant to Crete. There is not agreement as to whether she was the goddess herself or a legendary founder of the cult, and which cult it is or was. Since Europa was the consort in hierogamos, holy marriage, with the chief of all the Kouretes, the Kouros Zeus, it is probable that she brought the cult of Rhea with her. Rhea is the Great Mother and Zeus is her immortal son, dying and reborn on Crete.

Regarding Europa, P.B.S. Andrews opines that the Phoenician word – names for sunrise - east and sunset - west. q-d-m and „-r-b can be the roots of Cadmus and Europa. If so, the possibility exists for adding the vowel prefix Eu –“good” in Greek, a later language. It is also possible that a bit of poetic word play would come to mind if one considers Eos combined with „-r-b becomes Eo(s)-ur-ba or Eo-ru-ba or (good) wide eyes; „Europa‟ puns as „good‟ (Greek) „sunset‟ (Phoenician) or, Good (eu) Eye (s) - could that be “good sight”, pleasing sight”, or “good vision”? Or, Dawn + Twilight, a doubling of the solar horizon energies, blessings, or powers invoked with that name, Eos, Europa. It may not have been the case, though, that is speculation. Language as a living thing can be expressed in a formal way, or a ritual manner, or with a sense of humor and double entendres. Maybe there was no cobbling together of words from different languages, like we have in modern American English-Spanish, also known as Spanglish. But it is as likely as not that there was a patois combining a pre-Hellenic native Cretan with the Northwest Semitic language spoken by traders and explorers. Hellenic components would come later with pre-Mycenaeans or Mycenaeans. The possibility exists, as many people speak a new language combined with one they already know, a sort of verbal pastiche while learning and refining mastery of the new language one is learning. The Linear A and Linear B texts that are translated reflect this, along with language elements from Anatolia, especially Luwian and later Lycian, Lydian, Phrygian, and Carian connections.

An astronomical correlation that Andrews notes is that Europa riding the bull across the waters can also be a euphemism for the new moon or the sun riding the shoulder of the constellation Taurus, the Pleiades composing the whorl of the shoulder hair on the bull. This would place the Europa saga in the Bronze Age period when the Pleiades heliacal rising meant the spring equinox had begun. He cites this as being in the first half of May approximately 2000 BCE, through the end of April about 1500 BCE. The new moon at sunset during this time would be seen as the crescent horns of the bull holding Europa („-r-b is the sunset).v At the times that the new moon and the Pleiades did not sync up, the next new moon would be when Taurus was mostly setting, but Orion would be prominent in the sky. Andrews calls him the Starry King Asterios, who had to raise the bull king Minos, his successor. There was an eight year cycle (octaeteris) for the new moon to synchronize nearly perfectly with the Pleiades rising. 47

Minos –may not only be mino- related to a bull, but also *menes, I.E. moon. Then there is the possible name-pun with the Egyptian god, Min, lord of sexual ability and fertility. Minos ofd Crete chases women, mates with them, and fathers many children. Virile like a bull …

Andrews declares on page 64 that Europa is a sun goddess, the sun goddess of Knossos, and that statement does link her with the dawn as she comes from the East carried by the Bull, like Ushas is carried in a chariot with seven cows. (the Pleiades perhaps?) He also states that in his opinion, “Eos is evidently the only goddess, as such, who can represent the Aegean sun goddess on the Greek speaking mainland.”

A remnant of Europa‟s legend survives in the tale “The Brown Bull of Norrowa”, where the magic bull takes the princess far away to a new kingdom where he will someday rule as a human king with her as his queen. There are other fairy tales of Europe from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Age of Enlightenment that are watered-down versions of Hellenic, Phoenician, and Anatolian myths.

Dawn Goddesses of other cultures

These goddesses are usually identified with the planet Venus as Morning Star and Evening Star. They are associated with the dawn, and some have mythos that tells of them descending into the Sea or the Underworld, as observed of Venus as the Evening Star, before they rise again.

Astarte: Athtart (Ugarit), Ashtart (Phoenicia), Uni-Ashtart (Etruria) Atargatis, Atar Atah – Syria – she lives in or near the sea, like Eos. Tanit, Tanit-Ashtart (Carthage) – Her title rabat, chieftainess, may be related to „rb, root of Europa. “Eu-“ is Greek for “good, best, excellent”, added to rabat, we get “Good Chieftainess”, an appropriate title or name for a founder or foundation cult. This is my suggested possibility which requires more study and consulting with those who are expert with Phoenician linguistics. Thesan – Etruria Albina – Etruria,. Perhaps she is an aspect of Alpanu, another Etruscan goddess. Aurora, Mater Matuta - Rome Ostara, Austro – Germanic; Eostre, Oestre, Saxon – goddess of dawn and spring, source of our words Estruus and estrogen, both related to the fertility of women. Ausra – dawn, Ausrine – Morning Star - Lithuania Asdghig, Astvik, Astghik – Armenian deity of daylight, lover of the Sun, Vahagn. Hathor, Bast – Egypt - both are morning star and dawn. The Book of the Tuat (Duat) names Bekhkhit, and three other minor goddesses as lighting the sky before Ra. Sauska / Sausga / Shausga – Hittite and Hurrian deity associated with the Morning Star, she also has wings, like Eos. Aya – Sumer Ushas - India Ishtar – Venus identified as her planet, she has wings when she needs them. Ishtar descends into the Underworld, near the Abzu, a watery deep. Sahar / Shahar – shares similar story of her son (planet Venus as Helel) plunging into the sea.iv 48

Liminality at the edge of the world in Minoan and Mycenaean Crete

Eos rises from the sea, in the view of ancient people on Mediterranean islands. Her home is on Aeaea, an island ruled by her niece, Circe, daughter of Helios. Alternatively, her home is considered to be Ethiopia, one of the far ends of the world to the Hellenes. She travels the earth every day. There is little to no cult information about Eos. She was probably honored in tandem with Helios in his temple. Other goddesses, who are Awakeners, with the power of arousal, passion, and insight, are also associated with the planet Venus and are guardians of the horizon like Eos.

Aphrodite rises from the sea

Asherah rises from the sea.

Athirat lives near the sea. The beach is her traditional environment.

Astarte visits the sea to collect tribute.

Atargatis/Atarata is at home in the sea in her marine form.

They all live near the sea, or have a palace or temple there. Moisture is part of the goddesses' attributes, from saltwater tears to sexual juices to blood and milk. Dew is the moisture of Eos.

Here are a few deities and a poet who disappear in the water, lovelorn and grief stricken, or fleeing to avoid attack, like the Evening Star:

Aphrodite plunged into sea.

Ino plunged into the sea.

Britomartis plunged into the sea.

Phaethon plunged into sea.

Phaon plunged into the sea.

Sappho plunged into sea.iii

If one survives the fall, there is a rebirth or renewal. Mortals tend to die in such falls, while deities are renewed. Emerging from the waves after disappearing into them is symbolic of rebirth and regeneration, as in the later Hellenic Hera's annual trip to rest and renew herself in the home of Okeanos and Tethys. 49

Is Eos also the sunset?

As gatekeeper of the sun, she may well be. As the mother of Hesperus, the Evening Star, she extends her realm westward, where the Hesperides live and beyond. She chases the darkness away, so darkness follows behind the courses of the sun chariot.

Europa seems to be the sunset, a gatekeeper for the celestial bull in the sky, the mother of three kings, one of whom was an earthly bull-king of Crete. She is grandmother to Minotauros, a bull- man, a monster, and a holy being of Crete, conceived from a sacred sea bull and a child of Helios. Sky, earth, sea and the underworld are the realms of these Europa related bulls, indicating power, fruitfulness, abundance, and connection with the sacred.

Eos is the dawn of the new and the rebirth of the old, the gift of light, embodying the fresh start that every day brings us. She is beauty, joy, and the pleasure of the senses upon awakening or engaged in romantic pursuits. Eos is the light of realization of the moment. i The Myth of Europa and Minos”, P.B.S. Andrews, Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 16, No.1 (April 1969), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. (pp.60-66) here, page 61. ii “Greek Names in the Semitic World and Semitic Names in the Greek World”, Michael C. Astour, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 23, No.3 (July 1964), University of Chicago Press, ©1964, pp.193 – 201. Page 199. iii Phaethon, Sappho‟s Phaon, and the White Rock of Leukas”, Gregory Nagy, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 77, (1973), pp. 137-177, Published by Dept. of Classics, Harvard University iv―Helel and the Dawn-Goddess: A Re-Examination of the Myth in Isaiah XIV 12-15, J. W. McKay, Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 20, Fasc.4 (Oct., 1970), pp.451-464 About Eos

Eos, the weekly newspaper of the Examples of Eos in popular culture and the WebEarth and space sciences, is published every Tuesday and is distributed by mail and available online to the members of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Eos is read by more than 50,000 geoscientists worldwide, who are interested in atmospheric science, the biogeosciences, geochemistry, geophysics, hydrology, oceanography, petrology, planetology, seismology, space science, tectonophysics, and volcanology. Researchers are employed by academic and research institutions, industry, and local, state, and federal governments. Eos carries refereed articles offering perspectives on current research and on the relationship of geophysics to social and political questions; news; book reviews; meeting reports; calendar of the geophysical year; editorials on significant aspects of scientific studies; a Forum section; announcements of grants and fellowships; employment opportunities; and product advertisements. 50

Eos

The Greek goddess of dawn, representing for AGU the new light continually being shed by basic geophysical research on the understanding of our planet and its environment in space.

Christie Painter , Greek, active c. 450–420 B.C. Bell Krater with Eos and Kephalos, 5th Century B.C Clay 37 cm. high x 32.5 cm. Diam. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Bequest of Saidie A. May, BMA 1951.486 Photography By: Mitro Hood

From a financial blog, dated June 9, 2009: Even those who were never members of fraternities and sororities should recall from high school math that Epsilon doesn’t only refer to the 5th letter of the ancient Greek alphabet, it also refers to Eos, the Greek Goddess of the Dawn. Don’t let the misty, pretty sound of her title fool you – Eos means business. Not only is she the diva of turning over a new leaf, she’s literally the woman who got the world revolving in the first place (by turning the oceans over, she provided the conditions for the possibility of Helios’ rise – Eos is thus the woman behind ―let there be light‖). http://www.getmoneyenergy.com/2009/06/personal-finance-bloggers-weight-loss-challenge-lose-most-weight/ (©August, 2010 Demetria Nanos )

Magical Correspondences for Eos

The solar path from east to west is where her chariot races ahead of the chariot of her brother, Helios, the Sun. She greets us in the East every day. The silence of dawn, the first bird-calls, or wind chimes in the breeze are some of the sounds one hears at dawn. Her time is from first light through the time the sun disk is completely above the horizon. Her children are the Winds and the Stars, and you can invoke her along with them, or them along with her in your work.

Eos is a patron of lovers, embracing at sunset and dawn. She is the power of arousal and gaining awareness, a goddess of realization, renewal, and rebirth. She opens the gates of the 51

Sun, the new day with new possibilities, a chance to see or do something new. Eos is the goddess of the moment you awaken; she is the holder of your dreams, the moment of discovery. Hers is the active awareness of understanding, comprehension, when “it dawns on you.” That is a great metaphor for Eos! Active Eos energy is experienced, in a way, akin to the manifestation of the word,”Eureka!”. From the Merriam-Webster Dictionaryv: ―Main Entry: eu·re·ka Pronunciation: \yu -ˈrē-kä\ . Function: foreign term. Etymology: Greek: I have found it —motto of California.‖

Eos is an initiator, dispelling shadows, pushing away darkness and bringing light, “the dawn of reason”. She encourages activity, work, and industry as well as loyalty, steadfastness, romance, lovemaking, and appreciation of beauty, whether in nature or artifice.

Colors of Eos are all shades of golden, saffron yellow, peach, rose, purple, and violet.

Incenses for Dawn: frankincense, galbanum, storax, sweetgum, dittany, opoponax,

Flowers of Eos: the Crocus, Violet, Daylilies, Tiger Lilies, Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra), Daffodils (a.k.a. Asphodel), Eyebright, Jonquils, Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus), Poppy, and Nasturtium.

Trees include the ash, peach, apricot, cherry, and plum.

Creatures: horse, lark, kestrel, chickens, Abyssinian lovebird, heron.

Foods: apricots, peaches, nectarines, mangoes, honey, saffron, lentils, asparagus, rosemary, rue, lovage, poppy seed, millet, teff, safflower, turmeric, and squash blossoms.

Beverages: Coffee, Dittany of Crete tea, pure water, wine, mead, tej, and fruit juices.

Magical Tool: lamp, candle, aromatherapy oil diffuser.

Gemstones: yellow, golden, and rose topaz, light carnelian, padparadscha, angelskin coral.

Metal: gold, bronze v "eureka." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2010. Merriam-Webster Online. 9 August 2010

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CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

Gloria Taylor Brown is a teacher, healer, counselor and Priestess of Isis. After falling in love with Ancient Egypt at the age of 6, she has studied the history and mysteries of Egypt all her life. She has traveled to Egypt many times, co-leading tours with Normandi Ellis and Nicki Scully. Her website is http://www.gloriataylorbrown.com. 858-531-8289

Deena Celeste Butta is an ArchPriestess Hierophant and member of the Star of Isis. She has been a member of the Fellowship of Isis since 1977. Deena founded the Iseum of Eleusis in 1986, and the Lyceum of Alexandria in 1994. She has been editor of Isis Seshat Journal since 2003.

Lillian Morgan Evans is an FOI member residing in the State of Washington.

Lady Haight-Ashton is Priestess of Selket, Lilith and Hecate of the Iseum of the Graceful Goddess, and an Adepta of Sacred Healing Dance. She is also High Priestess of Sacred Moon Coven.

Sara Kobuszko has been a member of FOI since she was a young teenager. She loves to read, and enjoys painting I Pagan subjects. She loves the Goddess in all of Her aspects. Sara is currently earning a diploma in Indian head massage at a college in the Isle of Wight.

Lady AMber Dawn is a Priestess of Ausset in the Fellowship of Isis. She is founder of the Temple of Lotus Pyramid, and a Reiki Master-Teacher in 3 different Reiki modalities: Sacred flames Reiki, Sechim/Sehkem Reiki, and Usui Reiki. LAD is a student of both Haitian Voudoun and Umbanda, as well as an activist, poet, and creative writer. She lives in Virginia.

Demetria Nanos was raised in a book- and art-loving home by parents who encouraged learning as the key to personal excellence regardless of socio-economic status. She has been active as an astrologer working with various forms of divination and oracular work since 1968, and in magickal/philosophical organizations since 1974. Demetria received her B.A. in Cultural Studies from Columbia College Chicago in May 2009. She and her family live in Chicago.

Lady Olivia Robertson is a co-founder of the Fellowship of Isis, and lives at Huntington Castle Clonegal, Ireland.

Sarah Rooke has been a member of the Fellowship of Isis since the late 1980s. She was ordained priestess of Sekhmet and consecrated Dame Commander of the Noble Order of Tara in 1992. In 1993, she became an Arbandraoi in the Druid Clan of Dana. In 1995, she was consecrated Priestess Hierophant. Her Lyceum is called Isis and Sekhmet of the Stars.

Dorn Simon-Sinnott is an Adept in the Iseum of Aradia and founder of the Iseum of Hekate, Phosphorus, Soteira and Psychopompus Hermeneus. Currently studying Advanced Psychology, Dorn also has training in broadcast media production. A poet and scriptwriter, she is based in Ireland.

Pavel Tulaev is a historian and devotee of the Feminine Divine in Russia. He is also active in the sacred arts, and is connected with the Theatre Of Egyptian Mysteries Of Victoria Preobrazhenskaya in Moscow. His website is www.tulaev.com.

Loreon Vigne is the founder of the Temple of Isis Lyceum and Isis Oasis in Geyserville, California, where spiritually oriented programs, including , including weekly Sunday Goddess Salons, take place throughout the year.

Myth Woodling is a member of the Chesapeake Pagan Community, formed in 2003, and has been active in the Maryland Neo-Pagan/Wiccan community since 1984. Her websites are www.AradiaGoddess.com and www.jesterbear.com/Aradia/dianic.html

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ArchPriesthood Union Directory (Star of Isis Members indicated by*

Barikor, Abraham K. D.: Isis and Ngama Paradise, Rivers, Nigeria. Bhagavati Devi Dasi, Mother Beatrice: Lyceum of the Cosmic Isis, Abia, Nigeria. *Butta, Deena Hartray: Lyceum of Alexandria, 3334 W. Eastwood Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60625 USA. (773) 478-4763 [email protected], www.foichicago.org (Isis Seshat Journal editor; Goddess Festival coordinator; FOI Q&A Forum moderator) Dillon, Ruth & Richard: Crystal Moon Lyceum Matteson, Illinois, US [email protected] Ekwe, Uc hechukwu Oko: Lyceum of the Cosmic Isis Abia, Nigeria *Afarri, Prof. A. E. Isis of the MysteriesAccra North, Ghana. *Almond, Jocelyn: Lyceum of Isis Myrionymous, BM Box 1129, London, WC1N 3XX England. [email protected] (FOI Q&A Forum moderator) Greer, Mary: Isis Aurea 122 Cottage St., Nevada City, California 95959 [email protected] Griffin, Patricia: Lyceum of Aine and Sophia Irelan (Assistant Foundation Center Temple priestess) Kurimoto, Sumika: Lyceum Isis Orientalis Tokyo, Japan [email protected] MacWatt, Ian: Isis Invicta England Matthews, Caitlin & John: Domus Sophiae Terrae and Sancte Gradalis Lyceum BCM Hallowquest, London WC1N 3XX England [email protected] McCord, Julie (Estara T’shirai): Lyceum of the Wayfarer California [email protected] Merron, John: Elen of the Green Ways P.O. Box 196, London WC1A ILY England Nwogu, Sunday: Isis of Happiness Imo, Nigeria Nwonti, Joseph: Lyceum of Miraculous Healing Rivers, Nigeria Ohnuma, Prof. Tadahira: Lyceum Isis Orientalis Tokyo, Japan [email protected] Okoruwa, Michael: Temple of Ngame Edo, Nigeria Onyeani, Apostel Paul: Isis of Divine Healing Cotoneu, Benin Republic *Regula, DeTraci: Throne of Isis Lyceum California [email protected] *Robertson, Olivia: FOI Foundation Center Clonegal Castle, Enniscorthy, Ireland (FOI co-founder; Star of Isis and FOI Q&A Forum overseeing consultant; creator of FOI policies and procedures) *Rogers, Cathryn Anne: Font of Isis Lyceum Minnesota USA [email protected] (FOI Q&A Forum moderator *Silver, Connia: Crossroads Lyceum P.O. Box 19152, Tucson, Arizona USA [email protected] (FOI Central homepage; FOI central register; FOI Q&A Forum moderator) Starsheen, Michael Artonn: Isis of the Stars Lyceum 203 Marion St., Dunsmuir, California 96025 USA [email protected] *Sudheer, Swami Prem: Lyceum of Brighid 166 Rullion Rd., Penicuik Midlothia, EH26 9JB Scotland Vigne, Loreon: Isis Oasis 20889 Geyserville Ave., Geyserville California 95441 USA [email protected] (Temple of Isis legal status / federal recognition in California USA) Wehmeyer, Claudia & Thomas: Tara Hedge Lyceum Westfalia, Germany [email protected] Wilson, Steve: Isis of Time and Space England [email protected] Wise, Caroline: Isis of the Thames P.O. Box 196, London WC1A ILY England (London Convention

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Aset Shemsu - the logo of the Fellowship of Isis

The hieroglyphs were researched by Lawrence Durdin-Robertson and drawn by Olivia Robertson Aset Shemsu - The Retinue of Isis

MANIFESTO

Growing numbers of people are rediscovering their love for the Goddess. At first, this love may seem to be no more than an inner feeling. But soon it develops; it becomes a longing to help the Goddess actively in the manifestation of Her divine plan. Thus, one hears such inquiries as, "How can I get initiated into the Mysteries of the Goddess? How can I experience a closer communion with her? Where are her nearest temples and devotees? How can I join the priesthood of the Goddess?", and many other such questions.

The Fellowship of Isis has been founded to answer these needs. Membership provides means of promoting a closer communion between the Goddess and each member, both singly and as part of a larger group. There are hundreds of Iseums and thousands of members all over the world, since the Fellowship was founded in 1976 by Lawrence, Pamela and Olivia Durdin-Robertson. Love, Beauty and Truth are expressed through a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-racial Fellowship. The good in all faiths is honored. The Fellowship of Isis has no particular affiliations.

The Fellowship is organized on a democratic basis. All members have equal privileges within it, whether as a single member or part of an Iseum or Lyceum This manifesto applies also to the daughter societies: the College Of Isis, the Spiral of the Adepti, the Spiral of Alchemy, the Noble Order of Tara, and the Druid Clan of Dana.

The Fellowship respects the freedom of conscience of each member. There are no vows required or commitments to secrecy. All Fellowship activities are optional and members are free to resign without question. Membership is free.

The Fellowship reverences all manifestations of Life. The God also is venerated. The Rites exclude any form of sacrifice, whether actual or symbolic. Nature is revered and conserved. The work of the Noble Order of Tara is for conservation of Nature.

The Fellowship accepts religious toleration, and is not exclusivist. Members are free to maintain other religious allegiances. Membership is open to all of every religion, tradition and race. Children, listed as "Children of Isis", are welcomed, subject to parental consent.

The Fellowship believes in the promotion of Love, Beauty and Abundance. No encouragement is given to asceticism. The Fellowship seeks to develop friendliness, psychic gifts, happiness, and compassion for all life. The Druid Clan of Dana develops Nature's psychic gifts.

The College of Isis has been revived after its suppression 1,500 years ago. Like Aset Shemsu, The FOI itself, it has always been alive in the Inner Planes. It is from these Inner Planes that its return has been inspired. Magi degrees may be conferred through Lyceums of the College. Correspondence courses are offered. There are no vows nor secrecy.

Iseums are the very Hearths of the Goddess, or Goddess and God to Whom they are dedicated. These are listed, along with Lyceums in every Isian News. Tara Priories and Dana Groves are also listed regularly. All these centers and Isian News are for FOI members only.

The Fellowship of Isis Foundation Union Triad is over-all Custodian for the Fellowship. The Fellowship of Isis Priesthood is derived from a hereditary line of the Robertson from Ancient Egypt. Priestesses, priests, every member, have equal honor. Priestesses and Priests work with the Goddess - or Goddess and God - of their own Faith. Every human, animal, bird, tree is an eternal offspring of the Mother Goddess's Divine Family of Life.