(29) Isis holds in her right hand a small sailing ship with the spindle of a spinning wheel for its mast. From the top of the mast projects a water jug, its handle shaped like a serpent swelled with venom. This indicates that Isis steers the bark of life, full of troubles and miseries, on the stormy ocean of Time. The spindle symbolizes the fact that she spins and cuts the thread of Life. These emblems further signify that Isis abounds in humidity, by means of which she nourishes all natural bodies, preserving them from the heat of the sun by humidifying them with nutritious moisture from the atmosphere. Moisture supports vegetation, but this subtle humidity (life ether) is always more or less infected by some venom proceeding from corruption or decay. It must be purified by being brought into contact with the invisible cleansing fire of Nature. This fire digests, perfects, and revitalizes this substance, in order that the humidity may become a universal medicine to heal and renew all the bodies in Nature.

(4) A To say by Nut: N., I have given to thee thy sister Isis, 3 that she may take hold of thee, that she may give thy heart to thee which belongs to thy body.

(19) The explanations in these pages of the symbols peculiar to the Virgin Isis are based (unless otherwise noted) on selections from a free translation of the fourth book of Bibliotèque des Philosophes Hermétiques, entitled "The Hermetical Signification of the Symbols and Attributes of Isis," with interpolations by the compiler to amplify and clarify the text.

(11) When I behold Thy mouths, striking terror with their tusks, like Time’s all-consuming fire, I am disoriented and find no peace. Be gracious, Ο Lord of the gods, Ο Abode of the universe!

(23) The ancients gave the name Isis to one of their occult medicines; therefore the description here given relates somewhat to chemistry. Her black drape also signifies that the moon, or the lunar humidity--the sophic universal mercury and the operating substance of Nature in alchemical terminology--has no light of its own, but receives its light, its fire, and its vitalizing force from the sun. Isis was

(48) Plutarch describes the requisites of a follower of Isis in this manner: "For as 'tis not the length of the beard, or the coarseness of the habit which makes a philosopher, so neither will those frequent shavings, or the mere wearing [of] a linen vestment constitute a votary of Isis; but he alone is a true servant or follower of this Goddess, who after he has heard, and been made acquainted in a proper manner with the history of the actions of these Gods, searches into the hidden truths which he concealed under them, and examines the whole by the dictates of reason and philosophy."

(26) Other hieroglyphics seen in connection with Isis are no less curious than those already described, but it is impossible to enumerate all, for many symbols were used interchangeably by the Egyptian Hermetists. The goddess often wore upon her head a hat made of cypress branches, to signify mourning for her dead husband and also for the physical death which she caused every creature to undergo in order to receive a new life in posterity or a periodic resurrection. The head of Isis is sometimes ornamented with a crown of gold or a garland of olive leaves, as conspicuous marks of her sovereignty as queen of the world and mistress of the entire universe. The crown of gold signifies also the aurific unctuosity or sulphurous fatness of the solar and vital fires which she dispenses to every individual by a continual circulation of the elements, this circulation being symbolized by the musical rattle which she carries in her hand. This sistrum is also the yonic symbol of purity.

(94) Or canst secure thyself from his talons! The Koran cries out even to the last day, "O people, given up as a prey to ignorance, If ye have imagined me to be only empty fables, Ye yourselves who abuse me will see yourselves Annihilated, and made like a tale that is told!" A gnat came in from the garden and fields, And called on Solomon for justice, Saying, "O Solomon, you extend your equity Fish and fowl dwell under the shelter of your justice;

(1) IT is especially fitting that a study of Hermetic symbolism should begin with a discussion of the symbols and attributes of the Saitic Isis. This is the Isis of Sais, famous for the inscription concerning her which appeared on the front of her temple in that city: "I, Isis, am all that has been, that is or shall be; no mortal Man hath ever me unveiled."

(39) From a golden ring on her left arm a line descends, to the end of which is suspended a deep box filled with flaming coals and incense. Isis, or Nature personified, carries with her the sacred fire, religiously preserved and kept burning in. a special temple by the vestal virgins. This fire is the genuine, immortal flame of Nature--ethereal, essential, the author of life. The inconsumable oil; the balsam of life, so much praised by the wise and so often referred to in the Scriptures, is frequently symbolized as the fuel of this immortal flame.

(28) In this figure the pagan naturalists represent all the vital powers of the three kingdoms and families of sublunary nature-mineral, plant, and animal (man considered as an animal). At one of her ears was the moon and at the other the sun, to indicate that these two were the agent and patient, or father and mother principles of all natural objects; and that Isis, or Nature, makes use of these two luminaries to communicate her powers to the whole empire of animals, vegetables, and minerals. On the back of her neck were the characters of the planets and the signs of the zodiac which assisted the planets in their functions. This signified that the heavenly influences directed the destinies of the principles and sperms of all things, because they were the governors of all sublunary bodies, which they transformed into little worlds made in the image of the greater universe.

(538) 1302 To say: Back, thou lowing ox. 1302 Thy head is in the hand of Horus; thy tail is in the hand of Isis; 1302 the fingers of Atum are at thy horns. 28. A LITANY OF ASCENSION,

(42) 32 Take the breast of thy sister Isis, which is protected(?); take this in thy mouth. An empty mns-jar.

(35) The statue of Isis was placed on a pedestal of dark stone ornamented with rams' heads. Her feet trod upon a number of venomous reptiles. This indicates that Nature has power to free from acidity or saltness all corrosives and to overcome all impurities from terrestrial corruption adhering to bodies. The rams' heads indicate that the most auspicious time for the generation of life is during the period when the sun passes through the sign of Aries. The serpents under her feet indicate that Nature is inclined to preserve life and to heal disease by expelling impurities and corruption.

(535) 1280 To say by Isis and Nephthys: 1280 The .t-bird comes, the kite comes; they are Isis and Nephthys. 1280 They are come in search of their brother Osiris; 1280 (They are come) in search of their brother N. 1281 Thou who art (here), thou who art (there), weep for thy brother; Isis, weep for thy brother; Nephthys, weep for thy brother. 1281 Isis sits, her hands upon her head; 1282 Nephthys has indeed seized the tip of (her) two breasts because of her brother, N.; 1282 Anubis being on his belly; Osiris being wounded; Anubis being before the fist (?). 1283 Thy putrefaction, N., is not; thy sweat, N., is not; 12 83 thy outflowing, N., is not; thy dust, N., is not. 1284 .ti son of .ti (is) at Mnii, coming as Mn.ti, 1284 to divide in three these your four days and your eight nights. 1285 The stars follow thy beloved b.wt, 1285 who is chief of thy nm (attendants); thou art chief of those who are chief of the nm.w (attendants); thou hast made nm the nm.w. 1285 Loose Horus from his bonds, that he may punish the Followers of Set; 1286 that he may seize them; that he may remove their heads; that he may take off their legs. 1286 Cut thou them up, take thou out their hearts; 1286 drink thou of their blood; 1287 count their hearts, in this thy name of "Anubis counter of hearts." 1287 Thy two eyes have been given to thee as thy two uraeusserpents, 1287 for thou art like Wepwawet on his standard, Anubis who presides in s-ntr. 1288 O N., the houses of the great who are in Heliopolis make thee "first"; 1288 the spirits and even the imperishable stars fear thee. 1288 The dead fall on their face before thee; the blessed dead(?) care for thee. 1289 "Eldest (son), 'Im is for N.," say the Souls of Heliopolis, 1289 who furnish thee with life and satisfaction. 1289 He lives with the living as Seker lives with the living; 1289 he lives with the living as N. lives with the living. 1290 O N., come, live thy life there, in thy name, in thy time, 1290 in these years, which are to be peaceful, according to (?) thy wish.

(3) But you, O ye Daêvas! are all a seed from the Evil Mind . He who offers sacrifice to You the most is of the Lie-demon, and (he is a child) of perversion . In advance (are your) deceits whereby ye are famed in the sevenfold earth!

(32) Thou hast no sovereignty over thine own passions, How canst thou sway good and evil? Thy hair turns white without thy concurrence, Whoso bows his head to the King of kings Will receive a hundred kingdoms not of this world; But the delight of bowing down before God Will seem sweeter to thee than countless glories." Haste to renounce thy kingdom, like Ibrahim bin Adham, To obtain, like him, the kingdom of eternity. At night that king would sleep on his throne,

(33) From the right breast of Isis protruded a bunch of grapes and from, the left an ear of corn or a sheaf of wheat, golden in color. These indicate that Nature is the source of nutrition for plant, animal, and human life, nourishing all things from herself. The golden color in the wheat (corn) indicates that in the sunlight or spiritual gold is concealed the first sperm of all life.

(418) 742 To say: Greetings to thee, Fine Oil. 742 Greetings to thee which was on the brow of Horus, which Horus put on the head (horns) of his father, Osiris. 742 N. put thee on his head (horns), as Horus put thee on the head (horns) of his father, Osiris.

(11) Diodorus writes of a famous inscription carved on a column at Nysa, in Arabia, wherein Isis described herself as follows: "I am Isis, Queen of this country. I was instructed by Mercury. No one can destroy the laws which I have established. I am the eldest daughter of Saturn, most ancient of the gods. I am the wife and sister of Osiris the King. I first made known to mortals the use of wheat. I am the mother of Orus the King. In my honor was the city of Bubaste built. Rejoice, O Egypt, rejoice, land that gave me birth!" (See "Morals and Dogma," by Albert Pike.)