Sphinx, Goddess Myths and Mysteries
Fellowship of Isis Liturgy
VI. Uranus: The Coming Forth by Day
ORACLE OF THE WINGED ISIS
Invocation: Winged Isis, Daughter of Nut of the Stars and Geb of our Earth, as you raised Osiris from the dead, bring us to eternal life.
Oracle of the Winged Isis: How you dreaming souls long for the stars! Yet the encircling stars are within your own bodies, which are not to be despised. It is only by honouring the dullest, most opaque physical matter that you may safely attain the soul's flight. For although many attain spiritual purity, and sing with the Sons and Daughters of Light in everlasting realms of beauty, yet to uncover your own innate divinity, you require the heights and the depths; light and darkness, passion and purity. Know that I and My Sister Hathor, the Cow Goddess, are One. We are both within your souls.
Invocation: Horus of the Rising Sun, whose Piercing Eye sees into every heart: Divine Consort of the Goddess Hathor, bring us courage and determination to win the Crown of Life.
ORACLE OF THE WINGED HORUS
Oracle of the Winged Horus: I can only aid you to achieve the goal of your life, if you know what it is! Before you sleep at night, pray that your questing soul may find out the true meaning of your life on earth. Ask that in your awakening you will remember. Then you will arise with joy at the rising sun, as I do. During the day you will be inspired to achieve your purpose, inspired by seeming miracles. For day and night are part of a whole. You will be illuminated by your hidden glory. I am One with my Father Osiris and My Mother Isis. Discover Us within your hearts.
Priestesses wear silver star crowns and carry gold wands. Priests wear gold phra headdresses and carry silver staffs. Women wear silver circlets, men gold headbands. All wear many-coloured, rainbow-hued robes. On a gold and silver draped altar let there be 6 lighted candles, a bowl of water, burning incense, a sistrum and a scroll. Music may be played throughout.
Priest Hierophant: Seekers who would uncover the secret of the Mystery of the Veiled Isis of Spiritual Truth, we are assembled to understand The Coming Forth By Day of our souls. (offers incense.) I offer incense to the Triple Goddess as Aset, Aset-Hathor and The Winged Isis. May she bring us to Knowledge of our own divinity, as heirs to Her Motherhood.
Priestess Hierophant: As Her heirs we would fulfil our true part in Her divine plan for earth. (offers incense). I offer incense to the God Horus, Divine Son of Isis and Osiris. May He help us to achieve our destiny with his Hawk's Eye of Vision!
1st Priestess: (anoints each brow with water) Receive vision from your third eye!
1st Priest: Let the mystery be unfolded. The Sphinx and pyramid are seen by all: known to few.
MYSTERY OF ASET AND ASAR
Enter 3 Goddesses in gold masks. Nut wears starry mantle, Hathor in gold, Neith in white.
Nut: Sisters, let us send an Emissary between Ourselves and humankind. We may need humans to be Our deputies for implementing our plans for evolving earth life.
Neith: You, Nut, weave the starry web of Destiny, but I Neith, as Spiritual Teacher, require minds that can comprehend My own. No human minds are capable of this. So why do we wish for this communication?
Hathor: For a very good reason. We must somehow influence human beings, to prevent the destruction of all other life forms.
Neith: I know your love for beasts and trees! I make room for the heart of Hathor. Let Thoth, God of Wisdom, be our translator!
Enter Thoth in silver mask, carrying pen and scroll.
Thoth: My task shall be to project divine concepts into the human. Basically, humans reject learned texts and religious commands. I shall entice them into wisdom with pictures and stories drawn from their own daily lives!
Hathor: This follows my own heart. Show us such a tale.
SCENE 2. SEKHET-HETEPU, FIELD OF REEDS
Thoth: I take you to Sekhet-Hetepu on the Nile Delta, long before anyone thought of building a pyramid! This is a simple story of farmers and fishermen; and their feud with hunters and gatherers. The heart beats faster because of the loves between two men and two women. Watch and listen.
Enter Aset and Asar. Aset has long black hair and wears a plain brown wool garment embroidered at the neck. Asar wears a plain conical headdress and white garment. On his face are the gold lines of a chieftain, two on his cheeks and one on forehead and chin. He has a small black beard.
Aset: My dear husband, heed the fears of Nephthys and myself. Do not invite Seti and his warriors to this feast! How can he forgive you for taking his own wife, Nephthys. He must kill you to maintain his honour as Chief of his wild followers.
Asar: (laughing) It was Nephthys, his captive, who was dishonoured - he refused to take her to his bed. And I have provided her with our fine son, Anubis! I am the victim - his warriors raid our cattle and sheep and steal from our granaries.
Aset: They have good reason to do this. We have fenced off land to grow our wheat. We herd our cattle on their hunting ground, where once deer browsed and their ass carts were heavy with timber.
Asar: I have brought prosperity to our tribe by learning how to grow wheat, from the sea-traders. Have they not brought us our finest bull? Yet it is for our own good that we should stop these raids. I invite my brother Chieftain to this feast to make peace. I shall teach our guests to eat animal meat rather than human prisoners. And you and Nephthys will instruct their women in the arts of spinning and weaving.
Aset: You shall have your way. But from what Nephthys has told me, Seti is no man of peace. But we shall provide a great feast.
Thoth: I present you now with a picture of what happened at this feast!
Mime presentation. Seti enters with his warriors wearing animal skins; Seti in a red-feathered headdress. Asar's followers wear white and are unarmed. Music from pipes, drums and sistra.
Thoth: Seti was proud of his cunning plan to entice Asar to his own destruction. Set's warriors managed to get Asar drunk on much beer. Then Seti presented his host with a rich gift, a coffin in the form of a human body, covered with paintings of beautiful women and hunting scenes. (Coffin is brought in.) Seti suggested that Osiris should lie in it, as a jest. Asar readily agreed to do so. And the warriors surrounded the coffin and shut it. After a long time when they were sure Asar was suffocated, they dispersed. But Asar's faithful followers, who had been hiding for fear for their lives, crept forth and they rescued the body of Asar and carried it far away, to be concealed among the marsh-dwellers. And Isis and Nephthys wept for Asar and both sought far and wide for his body, that they might give him an honourable burial.
End of dance. Enter Aset and Nephthys.
Aset: For weary months we have searched for the body of Asar, so mysteriously vanished from his coffin. And all in vain. Seti also searches, maddened with rage, for without the body of the dead chief, he cannot take his lands!
Nephthys: We two receive no respect as widows of a Chief - yet we are forbidden to remarry. Our lives are in danger from Seti. In this remote marshland we may hide in safety.
Enter Astarte, Marsh-Chief's Wife.
Astarte: Welcome, noble ladies. Despite your woebegone appearance, I deem you no beggars.
Aset: Oh, we are indeed beggars and suppliants. We seek for the lost body of our husband, the Chief Asar. The wicked Seti of the South Hunting Lands has murdered him - but Asar's body has vanished.
Astarte: Well, ladies, I have no corpse to offer you! But I have a very handsome young man within my home, lying on my best sycamore bed, unable to move or speak. Enter!
Thoth: Witness now the wonder!
Flute music. Enter dancers who mime Thoth's words, Aset and Nephthys joining in. Dancers reveal Asar in white, lying prone.
Thoth: Aset and Nephthys found the young man was Asar, lying as one dead. And Nephthys wept at his head, and Aset stood by his feet, and they made a chant. (Aset and Nephthys chant) Then Aset lifted up her arms as wings and she performed a magical dance, moving her arms over the body of Asar. And she kissed his lips. And Asar opened his eyes and slowly he arose to his feet. And he embraced Aset.
End of dance.
Hathor: What a lovely story. It brought tears to my eyes. What happened to them all?
Thoth: Asar, Aset, Nephthys and Anubis lived hidden in the marshlands. And their happiness was complete when Aset gave birth to a beautiful son, whom they called Heru, after Asar's favourite hawk. And young Anubis acted as guardian with his faithful hound. But Asar was drowned in a fishing expedition on the Nile and his soul came to the Underworld of Amenti. When Heru grew to manhood, he came forth and showed himself to the people. And they accepted him as son of Aset and Asar, and so hailed him as their chief. Heru fought a mighty battle with Seti, and won the victory, though he lost an eye. Witness how Aset and Heru brought peace and prosperity to the two lands.
Enter Aset and Heru.
Aset: My son, you are the victor, but do not kill Seti. The people believe he murdered your father, but you and I know this was not so. As the Gods have mercy, so must you.
Heru: So shall it be. I shall forgive Seti, and bestow upon him a mighty bull, two beautiful wives and a fine piece of pasture. (He picks up a crook and wheat flail.) From henceforth, I decree that our two lands shall be as one. I shall be called The Pharaoh, bringer of justice, and I shall bear the crook of the herdsmen and the farmers' flail. I shall wear the two crowns, one within the other.
Aset: I grant you the Throne of rulership of earth. Nephthys of the Moon shall stand by my side
and we shall support your rule of justice and peace.
Thoth: This simple story is my theme, that shall change the lives of millions.
Neith: It is a basic human story, but without spiritual or intellectual meaning.
Thoth: Ah, great Neith, I have something more to your liking! Our first variation is set just after the first mighty pyramid was capped with gold, in the reign of the Pharaoh Cheops. We shall witness the ceremonial Initiation of a Priestess and a Priest in the inner chamber of the pyramid.
SCENE 3. THE JUDGMENT OF ASAR - HALL OF JUDGMENT
Dancers in elaborate Egyptian costumes and jewelry. Music with drums, flutes, sistra and stringed instruments. Dancers mime the ceremony as described by Thoth. Aset wears a throne on her head, Nephthys, a moon. Thoth has an ibis mask and Anubis, a jackal's head. Deities wear gold masks except Nephthys, who wears a silver mask, and Osiris, a blue mask and white mummy wrappings. Procession. The words of Thoth's narration are mimed.
Thoth: The two neophytes face the Guardian, the jackal-headed Anubis. He permits them entrance. The God Heru with His Hawk's Head leads them before the Assessors. In the form of an ibis I note the Negative Confessions of the candidates on my scroll. The Eater of the Dead, a crocodile, waits to devour rejected evil emanations.
Priestess: I have not told lies to exalt myself before the humble. I have not received rich gifts by instilling fear. (She continues her own confession.)
Priest: I have not misused my power. I have not pursued my ambitions through deception. I have not instilled fear into the hearts of the simple and children. (He continues his own confession.)
Thoth: The hearts of the neophytes, held within canopic vases, are weighed by Anubis and watched by the Goddess Maat, as these are weighed against Her Feather of Truth. The neophytes are pronounced innocent. Heru leads them before the enthroned God Asar, with blue face and white mummy's wrapping. He holds a gold crook and flail. He accepts the neophytes as future participants in the joys of Amentet, his Underworld Realm, where they shall partake of beer and cakes and reap head-high wheat. All rejoice. The neophytes Come Forth by Day.
Nut: There is virtue in this judgment; but where shines inner divinity?
Thoth: This shall manifest in my final variation.
SCENE 4. THE FIELD OF REEDS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Thoth: The cycles of time and space curve and we find ourselves back in the Field of Reeds, Sekhet-Hetepu. Our comet of communion has returned after 4,000 years. Our actors of the simple story return. Aset, Asar and Heru are now known as Isis, Osiris and Horus.
Enter Isis, Osiris, Horus, Seti, Nephthys and Anubis in modern dress Enter dancers in floating robes who make a dance of winged beings.
Seti: My violence has become transformed into the lightning of creation. I build a new world.
Nephthys: My secret love is open to the Day. I rejoice in my black son Anubis of the occult ways.
Isis: My mighty kite's wings stretch across the sky and sweep their long feathers upon the earth like glittering pathways to resurrection.
Osiris: At last I have unwound my mummy wrappings. My sphinx still keeps its animal body but now has grown wings.
Horus: My winged disc encompasses the rising sun of a new aeon - yet humbly shines forth in golden wheat. All creatures upon the earth are the living shadows of the Deities.
Anubis: Once I guided souls through The Judgment. Now I lead the questing soul through the cycles of space and time. Those who are dead shall awaken. They shall be One with the glory of the Mothers, Nut, Hathor and Neith.
End of Play
Sources: "The Book of the Dead and Coming Forth by Day", E. A. Wallis Budge, Kegan Paul. "The Goddesses of Chaldea, Syria and Egypt", Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, Cesara, Clonegal Castle. Psychic description of Aset and Asar by Noel Daly.
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