*Ø* Blogmanac November 3 | And today is ...
The Isia, ancient Egypt (Oct 28-Nov 3); seventh and final day, known in one form to the Romans as the Hilaria
The cult of Osiris became a mixture of the primitive rites of savage community and some of the highest ideals of an advanced form of religion.
Margaret A Murray
The Rebirth of Osiris via the milk of Isis, representing resurrection;
The Time of the Receding Waters of the Nile
According to one legend, Isis, mother and consort of God, Lady of Heaven (Heq) collected the dismembered parts of her husband's body and united the fragments by magic powers. On this last day of the Isia, after an enactment of the story of the death of Osiris at the hands of his brother Set, the people followed the mourning cortege of Isis, to her temple.
It was a public occasion, marked in the Roman calendar with the name Hilaria – “Osiris has been found”, the crowd shouted for joy. At the end of the festival, when the above words had been shouted, the priests would fashion a small image in the shape of the crescent moon. Images of Osiris were made of paste and grain; these were watered until the barley sprouted and then floated down the Nile with candles as part of the planting ceremonies. The crowd departed from the temple and made its way down to the sea on the final night. The Hilaria was given over to unrestrained rejoicing, because the god, now risen to immortality, would assess all who had become divine by drinking the milk of Isis.
Osiris would sometimes appear as the Tet pillar, symbol of strength and stability in life and renewed power after death, and he was then called Osiris Tet.
“Herodotus tells us that the grave of Osiris was at Sais in Lower Egypt, and that there was a lake there upon which the sufferings of the god were displayed as a mystery by night. This commemoration of the divine passion was held once a year: the people mourned and beat their breasts at it to testify their sorrow for the death of the god; and an image of a cow, made of gilt wood with a golden sun between its horns, was carried out of the chamber in which it stood the rest of the year. The cow no doubt represented Isis herself, for cows were sacred to her, and she was regularly depicted with the horns of a cow on her head, or even as a woman with the head of a cow.” Source
The legend and cult of Osiris indicate belief in the Incarnate God and the ritual custom of killing of the king (cf Lammas at the Scriptorium). In the resurrection of Osiris the Egyptians saw the promise of everlasting life for themselves beyond the grave. They believed that every man would live eternally in the other world if only his surviving friends did for his body what the gods had done for the body of Osiris.
A great feature of the festival was the nocturnal illumination: throughout the whole of Egypt, people fastened rows of oil lamps to the outside of their houses, and the lamps burned all night long. This universal illumination of the houses on one night of the year suggests that the festival might have been a commemoration not merely of the dead Osiris but of the dead in general, like the night of All Souls’, discussed in yesterday’s Almanac.
em xena ba-a sauti
Let not be shut in my soul;
sauti xaibita un uat
let not be fettered my shadow
en ba-d en xaibit-a maa-f neter aa
for my soul and for my shadow, may it see the great god.
Chapter XCII of the Egyptian Book of the Dead
“… the khaibit or shadow of the man, which the Egyptians regarded as a part of the human economy. It may be compared with the {Greek skia'} and umbra of the Greeks and Romans. It was supposed to have an entirely independent existence and to be able to separate itself from the body; it was free to move wherever it pleased, and, like the ka and ba, it partook of the funeral offerings in the tomb, which it visited at will.” Source
Note: Frazer (Golden Bough), following Plutarch, fixes the dates of the Isia at 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th of November.
Osiris and other ancient gods and saviours similar to Jesus
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
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Feast Day of St Winifred (Winefride)
The patron of North Wales, a virgin martyr, was the daughter of a Welsh chieftain who was instructed by St Bueno, her uncle. When Prince Caradoc made unwanted advances to her; she fled, but he cut off her head. Miraculously, St Bueno breathed life into her again. She died a second time about 660.
The miraculous healing spring of Holywell (Flintshire, UK) flowed from where her head had come to rest; pilgrims in former days travelled to bathe in its charmed waters.
A history published in 1485 claimed that the waters from this saint’s well could heal both man and beast:
... sprang up a welle of spryngyng water largely enduring unto this day, which heleth al langours and seknesses as well in men as in bestes ...
At the Scriptorium: Sacred wells, springs and grottoes
The Isia, ancient Egypt (Oct 28-Nov 3); seventh and final day, known in one form to the Romans as the Hilaria
The cult of Osiris became a mixture of the primitive rites of savage community and some of the highest ideals of an advanced form of religion.
Margaret A Murray
The Rebirth of Osiris via the milk of Isis, representing resurrection;
The Time of the Receding Waters of the Nile
According to one legend, Isis, mother and consort of God, Lady of Heaven (Heq) collected the dismembered parts of her husband's body and united the fragments by magic powers. On this last day of the Isia, after an enactment of the story of the death of Osiris at the hands of his brother Set, the people followed the mourning cortege of Isis, to her temple.
It was a public occasion, marked in the Roman calendar with the name Hilaria – “Osiris has been found”, the crowd shouted for joy. At the end of the festival, when the above words had been shouted, the priests would fashion a small image in the shape of the crescent moon. Images of Osiris were made of paste and grain; these were watered until the barley sprouted and then floated down the Nile with candles as part of the planting ceremonies. The crowd departed from the temple and made its way down to the sea on the final night. The Hilaria was given over to unrestrained rejoicing, because the god, now risen to immortality, would assess all who had become divine by drinking the milk of Isis.
Osiris would sometimes appear as the Tet pillar, symbol of strength and stability in life and renewed power after death, and he was then called Osiris Tet.
“Herodotus tells us that the grave of Osiris was at Sais in Lower Egypt, and that there was a lake there upon which the sufferings of the god were displayed as a mystery by night. This commemoration of the divine passion was held once a year: the people mourned and beat their breasts at it to testify their sorrow for the death of the god; and an image of a cow, made of gilt wood with a golden sun between its horns, was carried out of the chamber in which it stood the rest of the year. The cow no doubt represented Isis herself, for cows were sacred to her, and she was regularly depicted with the horns of a cow on her head, or even as a woman with the head of a cow.” Source
The legend and cult of Osiris indicate belief in the Incarnate God and the ritual custom of killing of the king (cf Lammas at the Scriptorium). In the resurrection of Osiris the Egyptians saw the promise of everlasting life for themselves beyond the grave. They believed that every man would live eternally in the other world if only his surviving friends did for his body what the gods had done for the body of Osiris.
A great feature of the festival was the nocturnal illumination: throughout the whole of Egypt, people fastened rows of oil lamps to the outside of their houses, and the lamps burned all night long. This universal illumination of the houses on one night of the year suggests that the festival might have been a commemoration not merely of the dead Osiris but of the dead in general, like the night of All Souls’, discussed in yesterday’s Almanac.
em xena ba-a sauti
Let not be shut in my soul;
sauti xaibita un uat
let not be fettered my shadow
en ba-d en xaibit-a maa-f neter aa
for my soul and for my shadow, may it see the great god.
Chapter XCII of the Egyptian Book of the Dead
“… the khaibit or shadow of the man, which the Egyptians regarded as a part of the human economy. It may be compared with the {Greek skia'} and umbra of the Greeks and Romans. It was supposed to have an entirely independent existence and to be able to separate itself from the body; it was free to move wherever it pleased, and, like the ka and ba, it partook of the funeral offerings in the tomb, which it visited at will.” Source
Note: Frazer (Golden Bough), following Plutarch, fixes the dates of the Isia at 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th of November.
Osiris and other ancient gods and saviours similar to Jesus
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
Feast Day of St Winifred (Winefride)
The patron of North Wales, a virgin martyr, was the daughter of a Welsh chieftain who was instructed by St Bueno, her uncle. When Prince Caradoc made unwanted advances to her; she fled, but he cut off her head. Miraculously, St Bueno breathed life into her again. She died a second time about 660.
The miraculous healing spring of Holywell (Flintshire, UK) flowed from where her head had come to rest; pilgrims in former days travelled to bathe in its charmed waters.
A history published in 1485 claimed that the waters from this saint’s well could heal both man and beast:
... sprang up a welle of spryngyng water largely enduring unto this day, which heleth al langours and seknesses as well in men as in bestes ...
At the Scriptorium: Sacred wells, springs and grottoes
Pip Wilson posted item above at 7:18 PM | Permalink
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