Today On International Women’s Day

March 8th, 2021 – International Women’s Day 

“We take spiritual initiation when we become conscious of the Divine within us, and thereby contact the Divine without us.” ― Dion Fortune

Today on International Women’s Day, we here at the Temple of Isis celebrate the spiritual path that the Divine Mother Isis created through her own Embodied Archetype as the Sacred Feminine Principle of Ancient Egypt. 

Isis herself is the Holy Wisdom, the Creatrix of the material world, when she refers to Wisdom as, “the mediatrix between Heaven and Men.” Isis, is an emanation of the Creator Gods of Egypt, who embodied the archetype of the beneficent mother and savior goddess. It was she who bestowed sovereignty upon the pharaohs, lending them the right to rule their kingdoms under Her name.

Her devotion transcends class and culture. Her worship spread from the shores of Egypt, throughout the Mediterranean, into Ireland, England, Gaul, Anatolia, the Middle East and along the Silk Road, into Russia.

She was a healer, a wife and lover, a mother, and not just to her son Horus, but to her devoted. She resurrected the dead and provided her milk of abundance. One of her most important attributes was her accessibility. By her myths, not only was she powerful, savvy and a loving protectress, but equally important, the people felt she could understand their pain.

The people knew her as a Goddess who had experienced the sorrow of loss, betrayal, and strife. They believed she could understand and alleviate their sorrow and if they performed the right rituals and carried out her favor, they too might have some control over the forces of chaos that threatened their lives. She could provide light, truth, salvation and security

So today we celebrate Her spiritual descendants who followed along in Her divine path :

Cleopatra VII Philopator – As the last ruler of Ancient Egypt, She was known by Her royal name “The great Lady of perfection, excellent in counsel.” She ruled Egypt as the last great true daughter of the land – speaking Latin, Greek and Egyptian. She promoted traditional Egyptian art & culture and enlarged the famous Library of Alexandria. During her 21 year rule of Egyptian, She held her country again the ever hungry grasp of the Roman empire. She revived and promoted the worship of her personal deity, Isis, introducing this Great Mother Goddess to the whole of the Roman Empire thus immortalizing Herself and Her deity. She is known for sailing about the Mediterranean on a golden boat with her beloved Anthony, enacting the love between Isis and Osiris, for indeed she saw herself as the earthly embodiment of the Goddess!

Empress Zenobia – As the queen of the Palmyrene Empire , She launched an invasion which brought most of the Roman East under her sway and culminated with the annexation of Egypt. During this time, as a true daughter of Egypt She declared herself a daughter of Isis, the Great Mother Goddess opening and dedicating an imperial temple to Isis in the capital then Zenobia assumed the title of empress. Zenobia claimed to be descendant of Cleopatra through the direct bloodline of her daughter, Cleopatra Selene, another beloved daughter of Isis who ruled a kingdom in North African again the political machinations of the Roman Empire. Zenobia was a truly enlightened monarch and she fostered an intellectual environment in her court, which was open to scholars and philosophers. She protected religious minorities like the early Christian church and the Jewish faith, both of which in later years claimed her as a spiritual ancestor. Her rise and fall has inspired many historians, artists and novelists, and today she is a national symbol in Syria.

Florence Nightingale – During her tour of Egypt in 1849, before she launched her now famous crusade that totally modernized nursing into what we know as today, she had a vision of Isis in the temple of Abu Sibel. 

She described in her letters as “Yet I have a love for the place; it is so innocent, so childish, so simple, so like the Athor, “the Lady of Aboccis” (the old name of Aboo Simbil) whom it represents. Athor means the habitation of Horus, and Horus means God; therefore Athor is nature, the world, in which God dwells, and which reveals Him. Her inscription calls her the “nurse, who fills heaven and earth with her beneficent acts”. As such, she is identical with Isis. And her temple is so like nature, cheerful and simple, and to me at least, not very interesting, with her great broad innocent face and child-like expression, for it would not do if nature always kept us in a state of excitement. She is the same as the Grecian Aphrodite, yet how different her simple, almost infantine, beauty to the more intellectual, yet at the same time more sensual, conscious beauty of the Greek Venus. It is the difference between Aspasia and Desdemona. She is also the goddess of joy, the lady of the dance and mirth, a sort of joy like that of children playing at daisy chains, not that of the feast of Epicurus. She is a secondary goddess, and her connection with the earth is mo.re intimate than that of the real goddesses-her expression shows none of their supernatural serenity, but a simple enjoyment of her flowers and creatures.” 

It is here at this temple, where she fell in love in Isis as the Divine Nurse, Mother of Horus. During this time period, she had the mystical experience that inspired her towards wanting to truly help others, truly following in the footsteps of Isis, the Divine Nurse.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis – As the eternal archetype of what a ‘first lady’ should be, Jackie O’s love of Isis is well documented. It is said that as Jackie O went through the tragedies of her later life, she found herself deeply identifing with the archetype of Isis. With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that it was Jackie O who urged JFK to convince Congress to approve the $10 million contribution to the cause of saving the Temple of Isis at Philae during the construct of the new Aswan High Dam in the 1950s. In return, Egypt offered the U.S. the Temple of Isis from Dendur. It was Jackie O, who behind the scenes got the temple moved indoors at the MET to be a memorial to Jack who she saw as her Osiris. One of the last books she published in her life was “Isis and Osiris: Rediscovering the Goddess Myth.” The founder of the Fellowship of Isis, Lady Olivia Robertson loved to recount the letters she exchanged with Jackie O about the mysteries of Isis.

Lady Olivia Robertson – As the great lady who brought forth the divine light of Isis into our modern world. She embodied Isis in her role as ‘The Lady of Ten Thousand Names’ for Lady Olivia was not only a world renowned mystic but also a best selling Irish author known for her work “The Dublin Phoenix” that truly captured the life and times in Dublin during the 1950s. One of the highlights of her life was in August 1993 when she was invited to attend the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. She was chosen to represent the Goddess movement. She was delighted to be able to breakfast there with H.H. the Dalai Lama, an encounter she deeply cherished for the rest of her life.

Lady Loreon Vigne – As an embodied of Isis, she wrote “Isis, the ancient Egyptian Goddess of Nature, became my mentor, and perhaps even my Mother, at the tender age of six. It was She Who later prompted me to create Isis Oasis and to develop and expand it for twenty-five years. In Her honor I continue to do Her work. I believe the name and spirit of the Goddess Isis must be kept alive in this modern world.” later in her life, she said “I know it is my destiny to leave a legacy of bringing the Temple of Isis back into prominence. It is an ancient concept, perhaps older than any other belief system on the planet: the return to the divine feminine and the expansion of freedom of thought, free of dogma. I coined the word “catma” to express the qualities of the Temple of Isis. A cat is independent and balanced, loving and gentle.” 

It is by her love of the Divine Mother Isis, that I am able to write this message today on International Women’s Day about the Daughters of Isis here at the Temple of Isis in Geyserville, CA. 

By the words of Lady Loreon Vigne :

As she often sang for many of us here at Isis Oasis over the years:

“Isis is silver,

Isis is gold,

Isis is young,

Isis is old,

All that Isis is,

Is yet to be told,

All that is,

Is what Isis is.”

Rev. Justin Howard

Isis Oasis Sanctuary, 2021