As we know, spring is the time celebrate the the death of winter and the re-awakening of the earth. After the cold and dark winter months, we re-emerge from our cocoons of introspection and reflection to re-engage in the life-giving energies of strength, renewal and cleansing. The equinox’s light and dark are equal as the Sun God’s energy increases to balance the Maiden Goddess’s maturation. The Wheel of the Year moves toward nature’s warmth and the Divine Couple’s fertility that is celebrated at Beltane.
During this time of year, I honor my Kemetic deities and reflect on “The Osiris Myth,” wherein the god Osiris gives us the themes of rebirth/resurrection, the goddess Isis represents renewal and cleansing and the posthumous conception and birth of their Son, Horus shows us the crucial and powerful fertility of the Divine Couple.
Isis is connected with the Sky and Cosmos (“Queen of the Heavens”), queendom, femininity, magick and healing. Her Brother and Husband, Osiris is connected with fertility, kingship, and is the Ruler of maat, the ideal natural order whose maintenance was essential in ancient Kemetic culture. Their Brother, Set is associated with the control of Violence and Chaos, best illustrated in the accounts of His assisting the Sun God, Ra on His daily mission to repel the formidable monster of chaos/destruction.
Regardless of his reasoning, the myth tells of Set murdering and dismembering Osiris (who was the Ruler of Egypt at the time) and Isis’s efforts to revive Him. Isis (with the help of Thoth and Anubis) mummified and administered several magickal healing spells and protections. Throughout the ordeal, Isis and and Her Twin Sister Nephthys also offered extensive sorrowful cries and angry pleas, which helped reanimate Osiris when combined.
Now resurrected, Osiris was only allowed to rule as King in the Underworld - reviving and presiding over the Judgement of souls. After Her husband’s rebirth, Isis continued Her duties in the Heavens but took a more active role in funerary rites by serving on the Divine Judgement Council and guiding the souls of the deceased through the dangerous Underworld. Being relegated to the Underworld, Osiris needed an Heir to continue his work on Earth and in the Heavens. Isis’s re-awakening of her Life-Giving Husband made their Divine Son, Horus’s birth possible.
