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Offering & the Sacred Symbols of Isis
| By: M. Isidora Forrest Imagine an ancient Egyptian scribe writing. He’s making a calendar of the festivals held at his temple. The one he’s working on now is the celebration of the Birth of Isis. He lists the gifts that the priests and priestesses offer to the Goddess: fruits, vegetables, flowers, meat. He records how the offerings are carried in procession to Her shrine. Then, suddenly overcome by the beauty of the recalled ceremonies and his own love for the Goddess, he adds a note to his work — a note unlike any of the other entries in the calendar. You can feel his emotion as he writes, “It is sweet to serve the Beautiful One with right offerings!” This notation is to be found in the Denderah temple calendar, where a priestly scribe — not too unlike the one we just imagined — inscribed it long ago. Indeed it is sweet to serve one’s Goddess or God with offerings. Hallowed by tradition, enlivened by sacred magic, making offering is one of the most ancient and intimate ways we human beings have always communicated with our Deities. And offering is still important today; for it is a significant way that those of us interested in the Great Egyptian Goddess Isis can develop and deepen our relationship with Her. Yet offering is something that most modern devotees of the Goddess know very little about. I wrote Offering to Isis to address this gap, to provide ways you can use offering rituals for spiritual growth and sacred magic — and so you can discover for yourself how sweet it is to serve the Beautiful One with right offerings. The Sacred Symbols of Offering Of course, that begs a question. If it is sweet to serve Isis with right offerings, what are the “right” offerings? First of all, know that any offering you give in love is right to offer Isis. She will always know your heart. However, there are certain things that have a special affinity with Her. They are Her “sacred symbols.” They include things like the famous Knot of Isis and the many plants and animals sacred to the Goddess, such as the lotus, the persea and the kite hawk. They also include items related to Her worship and magic, like the situla, a ritual vessel, and a mysterious magical implement known as a “black Isis band.” Offering to Isis identifies 72 of these sacred symbols of the Goddess and, in a two-to-three-page entry, explains each one’s meaning. You’ll learn, for instance, how Isis is connected with dreams. You’ll find out whether we can best consider Her a Moon Goddess or a Sun Goddess, and why one of Isis’ many names is “the Great Mooring Post,” an Egyptian idiom for Death. You’ll find out why an egg is an ideal offering to Isis, discover the fig’s connections with Isis’ sexuality, learn the deeper meaning of Her unique emblem, the throne, and much more. What making offering has to offer us You’ll also find out how to use the Goddess’ sacred symbols in offering rituals that employ the ancient Egyptian magical technique of the Going Forth of the Voice. Egyptologists know this as an invocation, or spoken offering. If you haven’t worked with offering rituals much, I hope that you will. At its most beautiful, making offering is always about love. It is a human tradition that expresses and creates relationship with the Divine. It is an act of devotion, a communion with Isis. Making offering lets us give thanks, celebrate, meditate or even ask for help. Importantly, making offering is a path to an open heart. Many spiritual traditions recommend it as part of the training required for spiritual growth. It is one way to reduce the desire and greed that too often characterize our relationship with the material world. By making offering, we accustom ourselves to the openness of giving — as we discover, or rediscover, the sweetness of making offering to Isis, the Beautiful One. Offering to Isis explains 72 sacred symbols related to the Goddess Isis and how today’s Neo-Pagans, Wiccans, Neo-Egyptians, Hermetics, Magicians and others interested in Isis can use them in new offering rituals of spiritual growth and sacred magic in Her honor. The offerings: Acacia Ankh Ba Birthing Bricks Black Earth Black Isis Bands Black Kite Black Robe Boat Bread Breast Canine Carnelian Children Cow Crocodile Cry of Isis Divinations Dream Ear Egg Eye Fig Flame Gold Green Plants Heart Holy Cobra Horns and Disk Crown Knife Knot of Isis Lamp Lapis Lazuli Lotus Magical & Healing Herbs Magic Mayet Feather Milk Moon Mooring Post Mourning Myrrh Nebet Basket Osiris Hydreios Palm Branch Papyrus Perfume Persea Phallus Philosopher’s Stone Rose Rudder Sail Scorpion Sisters Sistrum Situla Star Sun Sycamore Tree Tears Throne Unknotted Cord Urnula Veil Water Weaving Wind, Air, Breath Wine Wings Womb & Vulva Words of Power
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