Brigid Part III. Introduction: The Lightening Flash of Isis

"The Muses Inspire" by Olivia Robertson

Fellowship of Isis Liturgy

by

Olivia Robertson

Brigid of the Rainbow Planets

Adventures of the Alchemical Twins

The Octagonal Temple of Alchemy

"The Lightening Flash of Isis"

Introduction to Rituals Five and Six

Sometimes my two months in the United States is spent peacefully, with no particular spiritual happening. What I usually experience, in company with so many, is a flow of electric like power, especially when this is generated by an Isian procession. Movement helps the power flow. When I give Ordination and Initiation, this flow of silvery or golden power is enjoyed by the candidate. I use the word “enjoy”, because receiving an electric shock is both painful and dangerous. The life-flow of the Melusina (Kundalini) energy is both inspiring and ecstatic.

This year matters were very different: both challenging and rewarding: unexpected and exultant.

It began this autumn when I experienced a visitation at night from the Dark Goddess in black robes. I offered to go on my knees, but she forbade this with the unmistakable words: “I am not an executioner.” I wondered why I had offered to go on my knees, not my usual behaviour. The words were meaningless to me. Next day the Hurricane Katrina hit followed by the breaking of the sea-walls. I interpreted the words as follows. I had offered to go on my knees to The Dark Moon Goddess, for Her to refrain from flooding New Orleans! She was the Sea Goddess, Yemaya, Isis, the Morrigan. Her reply meant that She was not responsible for this disaster: it was due to human greed and folly. Why build one’s home on a swamp? Why live on dunes along the Gulf of Mexico? Above all, why deny human culpability in causing global warming, leading to floods?

I shall not use the names of members who experienced the Goddess presence during my stay. I myself had seen a lightning flash of white light and saw a “sun” in my room at midnight at the Summer Solstice in 2000. Later these energies entered my body – the white light within my head, and the golden sun in my solar plexus. Now these phenomena were to occur during my American visit. An account of a full apparition of the Goddess, seen by a Priestess in Isis Oasis, is given in the new edition of Isis Seshat magazine.

During my stay with the Rt. Rev. Deena Butta at our Chicago Lyceum at Circle Sanctuary, guests of the Wiccan spiritual leader, Selena Fox, an FOI Priestess, I gave a guided “vision quest.” An FOI member said that during the subsequent night she had been awakened by a blinding flash of white light – she had held up her arm across her face. Then when she looked she saw that this Light formed the beautiful halo round the white figure of the Goddess. The Goddess embraced her, saying: “At last you have returned to me! Be Prepared.” Our member gathered that the words referred to what the Native Americans call: “The Great Awakening”.

I thought this was sufficient inspiration for my journey. But there came a similar apparition in New York State.

During my stay at the Rev. Mary Browne’s Lyceum in Berne, I presided over a Wiccan style ceremony to welcome New York Wiccan visitors.

I invented a rite involving people circling a magical cauldron three times, making a wish for all to hear. I noted how serious the wishes were. Afterwards one of the members of Mary’s Priesthood made this report. She said she was nearly blinded by dazzling white light. The Goddess appeared before her and said clearly: “You are sacred.” This had particular relevance for this Priestess.

The third occurrence of this White Light was when I gave the accolade with a sword at Mary Browne’s Priory of Tara, initiating a Grand Dame Commander of the Order of Tara. The Candidate next morning declared she had not slept all night. During the ceremony, when the sword touched her shoulders, a flash of brilliant White Light touched the top of her head and descended like a sword right down through her body.

The fourth manifestation of the White Light came while I was staying in Los Angeles. A Priestess there told me that during the night a blinding flash of White Light so dazzled her that she put her arm across her face. She thought that perhaps she had sent the Apparition away with her protective arm.

In accounts of apparitions of the Virgin Mary, this Light and its alarming brilliance has often been recorded. What did all this mean? My final visit was to spend two nights with a Priestess in New Orleans. “You will know my house by the blue roof.” Blue roofs are dotted all along the Gulf Coast of Mexico to act as cover for damaged or destroyed roofs. I travelled round New Orleans, through square miles of desolation that has been compared to bombed Dresden and Berlin. I saw the Voodoo looking orange hieroglyphs on doorways, with date and the number of dead within the house, to be collected by ambulances. I was told that two months ago there had been some sharks and alligators swimming down streets.

I attended, as I usually do, the Day of the Dead, on the evening of the 1st November, by the famous Sally Anne, scholar and Voodoo enthusiast. We gathered to honour the God of the Dead. People around me prayed for people they had lost, and were turning to the Loas for spiritual comfort. The Loas are like spiritualist Guides and Guardian Angels, and help those who suffer in this world and the next. One woman next to me, bewailed her family.

It was during my third Initiation of a Dame of Tara in New Orleans, that the Goddess came again. Our rite was conducted on Native American Indian lines. The Candidate and I wore red warrior headbands, and her lover, also Native American Indian, assisted in the ceremony, while our Hostess drummed. The pair asked would I be Elder for their traditional wedding? So the Rite was performed.

Then I thought, this is for earthly marriage. Why not the Solar Alchemical Wedding Rite of Isis? This consisted of the pair creating a solar sun between their hands, as Isis gave birth to Horus the Sun God. They then bestowed their Blessings on the Sun, spreading its rays to all. This had been performed at our FOI presentation at the Chicago parliament of the World’s Religions in 1993.

For me the culmination of my USA experiences, was the successful formation of the Solar Orb by the Bride and Bridegroom, which was actually seen by two Priestesses. The Silver Star represents Truth, the Sophia, and the Golden Sun, Love, Hathor. The body of Isis contains both Star and Sun, as do we all, however flickering the spark of divinity within each and all of us! All that is shall be reborn.

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