Isis
July 25th, 2009 | 
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Isis was a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs. She was worshiped as the ideal mother, wife, matron of nature and magic. She is seen as the patroness of magick and spell-casting, having tricked the Sun god Ra into giving her his secrets. Isis is therefore the most powerful and frequently invoked goddess in formal magick. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans, the downtrodden, as well as listening to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats and rulers.
Isis is also known as the goddess of simplicity, protector of the dead and goddess of children from whom all beginnings arose. Isis was also the Lady of bread, of beer and of green fields. In later myths, Ancient Egyptians believed that the Nile River flooded every year (returning fertility to return to the land) because of her tears of sorrow for her dead husband, Osiris. This occurrence of his death and rebirth was relived each year through rituals.
The goddess Isis (the mother of Horus) was the first daughter of Geb, the god of the Earth and Nut, the goddess of the Overarching Sky and was born on the fourth intercalary day. Isis absorbed some characteristics of Hathor, a powerful deity. In later myths about Isis, she had a brother Osiris, who became her husband. She was said to have conceived Hourus. Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Seth. Her magical skills restored his body to life after she gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the earth by Seth. Shortly after 2,500 B.C., during the fifth dynasty, the first written records concerning the worship of Isis appeared. The worship of Isis eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She remained in Mediterranean lands in her guise as the Black Madonna, holding her infant son, Horus, until the Middle Ages continuing until the suppression of paganism in the Christian era.
She is sometimes represented as a vulture in which forms she appears on protective amulets known as an ankh, the symbol for life, engraved on each talon. Isis demonstrated the power of maternal protection when she hid Horus in the marshes from his evil uncle who would have destroyed him.
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