Psyche, Magical Journeys of the Goddess
Fellowship of Isis Liturgy by Olivia Robertson
Part II. The Rays of Ishtar
Magical Journey to
Sirius, Star of Isis. Ray IV
Ritual no. 5
ORACLE OF THE GODDESS ISIS
Priestess: (Invocation) I invoke Thee, our Beloved Mother, Goddess of the stars. Thou Who art winged Daughter of Nuit of the Milky Way, Who holdeth the Star Sirius in Thy hands, bring us once again the love we enjoyed when we were with Thee, and with those who were our kin! We seek our lost twin souls, separated from us by time and space. As You and Your Divine Brother Osiris are One, may we be One with our own twins in divine reality. May we be granted the Oracle of the God Osiris.
Oracle: My dear children, you long for that which you possess already! You are always in My heart. Feel My presence in every breeze, in the flowing of water, in sudden flashes of joy. Deep within your hearts is an image of your Immortal Twin. Therefore when I as woman sought for Osiris, yet was He ever in my heart, unknown to Me as I mourned his loss. Learn from the stars! Many are double, some solitary, and others shine in clusters. Yet all form a harmony of love that forms a rainbow network of colour and sound throughout the cosmos. Seek, for seek you must, for ideal love, but in your restless quest do not carelessly tread upon a beetle - He is Kephera Who bears the hidden sun! Pity the anguish of an animal caught in a trap - Anubis suffers in fox form. Poison weeds, and you sear Osiris.
When you learn to recognise the divinity in all beings, your reward will be unexpected! You will find your own spiritual family, your lost twin, your very self. The arduous search, the suffering, the loneliness, form part of the growth of a nobler humanity. To learn the task of that new humanity, turn to My Divine Brother, Osiris!
My daughter, I come to you as a Light from behind you. Face the God Osiris and receive His words!
ORACLE OF THE GOD OSIRIS
Oracle: The goal is clear, the Judgement imminent. Humanity was given the task of protecting and fostering the development of all species on earth. Instead of protecting, you have exploited the creatures entrusted to your care. What is the courage in killing wild animals with superior weapons! Some of you take pleasure in killing birds, and most of you devour the carcasses of beasts, birds and fish, though your proper food is from grains, nuts and herbs. I am the Green Osiris. Through greed you have polluted the air and springs, rivers and oceans. So you threaten all life on earth. I am the blue Osiris of air and water. You poison your very food with chemicals. I am Osiris of the grain, Who dies at harvest, scatters grain over the earth, and I resurrect in Spring.
Harken well. The patience of the Deities is- not forever. We heed the suffering of earth's animals, birds, reptiles and insects, the annihilation of whole species. We deplore the destruction of rain forests. There are those of you who are forming a new humanity and Who heed the Divine Voice. Spread this message. Let humanity change its ways before it is too late. Know that I am Osiris the Judge. I judge the fitness of humanity to remain upon the earth! If it is a choice between mankind and the rest of nature, Nature shall be preserved.
The task of the new humanity will be to heal earth's injuries and restore nature in her beauty. I am Osiris of the Inner Voice of Conscience. My heart is in Abydos, the dwelling-place of Love. As Isis and I are One, be you at one with Nature. So shall you all shine forth like stars.
Priestesses wear silver star crowns and hold silver wands tipped with stars. Priests wear high white headdresses and hold white staffs. Women Voyagers wear silver circlets, men, white headdresses, and all company are in white robes with pectorals of silver 8-pointed stars. On a white draped altar are 7 lighted candles, a silver vessel of spring water and burning incense. Jug of water and glasses nearby.
1st Priest: Fellow Voyagers who seek Divine Union through love, we assemble in our Holy Temple to travel in trance to the Star Sirius, within the constellation Canis Major. Harken to the words of Plutarch, who writes of Sirius in his treatise on Isis and Osiris. He identifies Oromasis God of Fire with Osiris: "Oromasis was born of the purest Light: and being thrice increased withdrew from the Sun to as great a distance as there is from the sun to the earth, and adorned the Heaven with planets and stars, among which He established one as Guardian and Guide to the others, Canis Major, The Dog Star. (Priest makes the arrow sign of Sirius with staff.) I invoke the God Osiris! May He bless our voyage to Sirius! (He offers incense.)
1st Priestess: The Magi taught that the Sun behind the Sun was Sirius. They knew it for twain long before astronomers learnt this. It was told in Finland long ago that the lovers Zulamith the Bold and Salami the Fair were separated. To be together again, they toiled for a thousand years to build a bridge between them. Thus they made the Milky Way. When they had completed their star bridge, they...
"Straight rushed into each other's arms
And melted into one;
So they became the brightest Star
In Heaven's high arch that dwelt -
Great Sirius, the mighty Sun
Beneath Orion's belt."
(She makes sign of Ankh with wand.) I invoke the Goddess Isis, Who did not rest from Her search to find Her Brother, the God Osiris. Together They form the twin stars of Sirius, called Star of Isis. (She offers incense.)
2nd Priest: Aristophanes spoke of Twin Souls, as told by Plato: "Humanity through its sins was divided into two halves who endlessly seek each other. Human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called Love. Because of the wickedness of mankind Deity hath dispersed us. And let no one oppose Love. For if we are friends of Eros and His Mother Aphrodite we are at peace with the Deities." So shall we find our own true loves. If our loves were perfectly accomplished, and each one were returned to his or her primaeval nature and were to find his or her original true love, then our humanity would be happy!
1st Voyager: We would seek our lost twin souls and so attain Divine Union!
1st Priest: Is this the desire of all? (Omnes express consent.) So mote it be.
2nd Priestess: (anoints each brow with water with these words) May you attain aetherial being!
BUILDING "STELLA MARIS"
1st Priestess: Let us create a Star Ship for our trance voyage. May Isidis Navigium, Isis of Ships, inspire us to build "Stella Maris", Star of the Sea of Space.
Music. Mahler, Richard Strauss, Scriabin are relevant.
1st Priestess: Fellow Voyagers, let us with dance create around us the Sea of Space between ourselves and Canis Major. We call upon the Holy Lion Twins, The Goddess Tefnut and the God Shu of the waters of Space. (She makes circle with wand. Dance of Space.)
2nd Priest: We need to find our way through the constellations and planets. To do so we ask for the aid of the Goddess Nuit of the Milky Way and the God Geb of planets! (He makes 7 star signs, each star with 8 rays, with staff.)
Star Dance.
2nd Priestess: To build "Stella Maris" may the Goddess Isis and God Osiris, help us! (She marks out ship with wand, which has circular floor and walls and domed roof. Dancers create ship in dance.)
1st Priest: That our good ship may be able to travel so mighty a distance, we need power! For this may the Goddess Nephthys and the God Set bring us a pillar of Aetherial fire within our craft! (He marks out central pillar with staff.)
Fire Dance.
2nd Voyager: We need a Guide and Protector for so long a voyage!
1st Priestess: This is so. And what better Guardian can we have than the God Anubis, no less than the mighty dog whose form encompasses the Stars of Canis Major. See! He standeth, with human body and Jackal Head, at the door of our ship. He raises his arms to signal that our journey begins. Let us be seated in a circle with earthly eyes closed, seeing with inner vision.
2nd Priest: Our fiery pillar changes colour as our ship begins to rise through our Temple into the sky above. Now we are in the aetheric realm, finer counterpart Of Our physical world. Through the seven portholes in our "Stella Maris" we see that blue sky has given way to black space. Alas, we see our own earth, once so lovely with blue and green atmosphere, now ugly with polluting poisons. Earth falls away and becomes tiny, a crescent like unto the moon. The moon and the planets fly by us. What awe we feel as the golden sun changes to brilliant white and 'blots out our portholes with its size! It cannot hurt our aetherial bodies. But even the sun becomes small and then vanishes. Now, in the darkness of space we fly past flaming constellations of myriad many-coloured stars, some with encircling planets, crescent shaped shadows.
1st Priest: We travel beyond the speed of earthly light, yet feel no disquiet but a new lightness and - bliss! All earthly sorrows and worries fall from us like shadows. Approaching us, seen from the portholes, is the constellation of the giant Orion with his belted sword. We are entering the astral realm of Aphrodite and Orion!
THE REALM OF APHRODITE AND ORION
1st Priestess: Our vessel changes colour as it enters the astral world. All the hues of the rainbow pour through the portholes and the very craft herself is now luminous with quivering colours.
1st Priest: Harken to the story of the Goddess, the God and the Red-Eyed Beast! The mighty Hunter Orion, whom some call Sahu, and others, Osiris, Tammuz and Adonis, loved hunting beyond anything in life. He ignored women, study and religious practices, and aspired rather to be a hero, mightiest of the mighty. There was only one creature in the sky who defied him: the Red-eyed Beast of Beasts, Monarch of the sky! Few had even seen the Beast for sure, for some said he was a rampant white bull, many, a bristling boar, and others swore he was a stag with silver horns. But all agreed that he had a baleful red eye that fixed his enemies rigid, until he gored them to death with his sharp horns. Orion, in order to rule the sky, was obsessed with slaying this Beast. He sought for him unceasingly.
1st Priestess: Now it happened that the passionate Goddess of Love Herself, Whom some call Ishtar, and others Isis, Astarte and Aphrodite, fell in love with Orion and pursued him across the sky. But he cared for nought but to slay the Beast, despite warnings of the Goddess. Finally the Beast it was who found Orion, fixed him with his Red Eye and gored him to death! Orion sank in a sea of his own blood into the Western Abyss. When the Goddess saw this She lamented the death of Orion and sought his soul in the very Abyss itself. There at last she found his dead body, and through her magical art brought him back to life! Orion rose from the depths in the Eastern Heaven as a God. He awaited the Goddess and when She also ascended He gave Her a ring of stars, the Pleiades. His sword was now transformed into a magical flute and for Her He created the music of the spheres. But know that foolhardy heroes still seek to kill the Red-Eyed Beast, and by him are slain! They can only be restored to life by the Goddess of Love.
1st Priest: Hear the Hymn to Aphrodite of Sophocles:
"My children, Love is more than Love alone,
For Love hath many another name.
Ay, Love is Death; Love is a Power eternal;
'Tis passion's heady wine, 'tis wailing anguish,
'Tis frenzy at its starkest. Love hath all
Strong purpose, utter peace, wild violence.
It melts its way into the hearts of all
That breathe on earth - what does not yield to Love?
It moves the plunging fishes of the deep,
Seizes the four-foot creatures of the land,
Flutters its wings among the birds of the air;
Nor beast nor men escape, nor Gods in Heaven.
Love masters Zeus Himself.
Love needs no spear, no sword-blade, to confound
The wisest plans alike of God and man.
1st Priestess: Our ship has stopped. Anubis opens the door! See beyond is a garden of pomegranates, hibiscus and sycamores, watered by a fountain in which Naiads and Tritons bathe. (Nymphs dance, encircling the great god Pan.) Here Eros and Psyche wander, arm in arm. Let us join them!
Silence
1st Priestess: Fellow Voyagers, let us return from the joyful realm of Aphrodite and Orion. We feel within us love irradiating our hearts. Anubis closes the door. We seat ourselves in our circle.
2nd Priest: Our ship now travels past Orion and approaches the constellation of Canis Major. O wonder! We begin to hear the music of the stars. At first we hear only the flute of Orion . . . now a harp is plucked . . . one by one, other musical instruments add to this harmony. We realise these notes come from the seven stars of Canis Major and the host of smaller stars in their retinue. Leading them is the Announcer, followed by the white Murzim, and Muliphen, the vanishing one. Behold the pale yellow Wezen, and Adara, a binary, one star pale orange and the other, violet. There is the pale orange Furud, the Bright Single One surrounded by a cloud of little stars, the Apes. And Al Adhara lends its pale red to this kaleidoscope of colour. Sovereign of all shines the white Sirius! We enter the Realm of Sothis and Anubis where Philia, Spiritual Friendship, may be found.
THE REALM OF SOTHIS AND ANUBIS
2nd Priestess: Our ship begins to slow down. In this sphere dwell those of the Celestial Company. All true friends find their spiritual family here, from whatever star they come. In a land of music, temples, stately trees and a murmuring ocean, is Aset Shemsu, Retinue of Isis. Dwelling with the compassionate Isis of Ten Thousand Names, is Osiris the Just, Thoth, God of Wisdom; Maat of Truth and Hathor of Love. The laughter-loving Horus is with Sothis of spiritual Light. And all Seven are protected by the encompassing aegis of Anubis.
2nd Priest: Harken to the prophetic words of the Bard of Eire, Aeon, who tells of the Avatars of the coming Aeon of Harmony: "There was a divine companionship between the youth Aodh and the maiden Aoife, the companionship of those who know themselves from earth to heaven, and it was such a divine companionship they wished to create. Did they not in the dances they taught, whether by music or motion or by some magic, make men and women so rapt and exalted in their imaginings that they became God and Goddess to each other and knew that they must cling to that in each other for evermore? It was such heaven-making companionship they came to inspire. It is wonderful to go on forever under sun-rich, star-rich skies, ever falling deeper into the enchantment of the universe, and to know there is no end to it, no end to the lovely things we discover in each other."
2nd Priestess: Friends, Anubis opens the door to the sphere of Sothis and Anubis. He beckons. Let us enter.
Silence
2nd Priestess: Friends, let us return to our good ship "Stella Maris". Anubis closes the door. How happy and radiant we feel, with light from the stars shining in our bodies! In each of us is a star, singing in harmony with others.
1st Priest: Our ship now follows the Path of the Arrow and flies directly to the heart of Canis Major, Sirius. As we approach it, we see through our portholes that it is in verity two stars. We enter the Divine Realm of the Heavenly Twins.
THE REALM Of THE HEAVENLY TWINS
1st Priest: Colour and music are here in perfect accord and tell us mysteries. Symbols reveal themselves in their divine Truth. Listen to the story of the Heavenly Twins. In Sirius They are beautiful brother and sister Deities, with hair as black as space and bodies resplendent with white Light. But They hear the lamentations upon earth from those who struggle to return to Deity, so They Themselves descend there. Upon earth They are as dead, lying in trance, impenetrably concealed beneath shrouding veils. But to those who uncover Their mystery They shine forth as stars! In Their realm They are The Twins Isis and Osiris, Ishtar and Tammuz, Astarte and Adonis, and all Lovers, united in Divinity. Harken to the sonnet addressed by Elizabeth Barrett to her lover, the poet Robert Browning:
1st Priestess: "When our two souls stand up erect and strong,
Face to Face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,
Until the lengthening wings break into fire
At either curved point - what bitter wrong
Can the earth do to us, that we should not long
Be here contented? Think! In mounting higher
The angels would press on us and aspire
To drop some golden orb of perfect song
Into our deep, dear silence. Let us stay
Rather on earth, Beloved - where the unfit
Contrarious moods of men recoil away
And isolate pure spirits, and permit
A place to stand and love in for a day,
With darkness and the death-hour rounding it."
Such divine love, "Agape", illumines all spheres. Let us therefore seek for it, and bring it back to earth. Behold, our ship rests. Anubis opens the door. He beckons to us. A mysterious white mist is all we can see beyond. Let us enter the Realm of the Heavenly Twins, and like Isis and Osiris find our other selves.
Silence
1st Priestess: Hard is it to withdraw from perfection. We may have had a glimpse of our twin souls and so feel harmony with all. But we are called back to our endangered earth, there to share what we have gained with all beings thereon. So we return to "Stella Maris". Anubis closes the door. We seat ourselves for the voyage back to earth.
1st Priest: Our ship begins to sink rapidly. We see the Twin Stars of Sirius become as One. Now it forms part of Canis Major and we hear the music of the Celestial Company of Stars. We see again mighty Orion, following the evasive red-eyed Taurus, and our ship is illumined by glorious colours. These fade as "Stella Maris" moves still more swiftly, outstripping light. Orion becomes a distant figure with Sirius twinkling below. Our ship flies through flashing constellations in the direction of our own sun. The sun sails by. Now we recognise earth and moon amidst the sun's encircling planets. "Stella Maris" hovers over our land, and some dreamers on earth see her and wonder! She now sinks gently into our temple. How flat and unreal it looks, like a faded picture- postcard.
2nd Priestess: But each of us has a light on the brow and a glow in the heart! We become aware of our earthly bodies.
2nd Priest: Anubis gives the signal. We must dissolve "Stella Maris". He raises his arms in farewell, and leaves us through the doorway.
Priesthood and Voyagers dissolve the star ship in reverse order to its building. When all are seated in circle, glasses of water are drunk to ensure return from trance. Reports are shared and star rays of love, harmony and truth from Sirius are sent forth. Thanks are given to the divine ennead, Tefnut and Shu, Nuit and Geb, Isis and Osiris, Nephthys and Set and Anubis.
Sources: "Five Great Dialogues", Plato, trans. Jowett, Walter Black, N.Y. "Greek Poetry", trans. Lucas, Everyman. "Le Comte de Gabalis", de Villars. Private edition. "The Avatars", AE, MacMillan. "Goddesses of Chaldea, Syria & Egypt", Durdin Robertson, Cesara. "Star Names", Richard Hinckley Allen, Dover, (which was used throughout Part II).
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