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| A Brief History Leaving aside a moment the question of the true age of the Egyptian civilizations and its antecedents, indications of the worship of Isis stretch back to the pre-dynastic period, approximately 6,000 years ago. Isis is mentioned in the 4th-dynasty Pyramid Texts, and was one of the few Egyptian deities to be worshiped throughout Egypt, rather than in a single city or area. Some of the chief temples of Isis in Egypt are those at Philae and Behbeit el-Hagar.  At a very early period, the worship of Isis was exported throughout the Mediterranean basin, and temples and chapels to Isis were built in hundreds of locations. Isis was largely accepted by the Greeks as one of their own. She was shown on coinage, grew to become a supreme goddess of sea-faring, had a temple on the Acropolis, and was the patron deity of the Ptolemies, the Greek rulers of Egypt. During this period, with her consort Serapis, a living form of Osiris, she presided over the Museum and Library of Alexandria, then the foremost educational institution in the world, renowned for its physician's college among others. With the ascendency of Rome, the worship of Isis traveled with the Roman Legions, who often had Isian clergy with them to minister to the soldiers. Isis found devotees from all classes of society, including many of the emperors. Many of the Greco-Roman temples have been lost through the centuries, or rebuilt into churches, but among those that can still be visited are those at the Greek island of Delos, and on the island of Santorini, at Dion in the Macedonian region of Greece, at Pergamon in present day Turkey, at Szombathely in Hungary, at Trier in Germany, and at Pompeii in Italy. Other temples and shrines existed at London, in Spain, France, along the north coast of Africa, and throughout the present-day Holy Land and the Middle East. In essence, if one has European or Mediterranean ancestry, chances are good that there was a worshiper of Isis in the family.  As Christianity became politically powerful, the temples of the other divinities were closed. Active Isis worship persisted until at least 537 at Philae in Egypt, and in the eighth century a cleric protested against the continuing worship of Isis at Mt. Anzin in France. Private worship persisted regardless of persecution. As late as the 16th century, a woman was found offering veneration to a statue of Isis which stood in Notre Dame in Paris, which incorporates an altar to Isis in its stonework and is probably erected over an earlier temple of Isis. Many statues of Isis nursing her son Horus were renamed as Mary and Jesus. Thinly-veiled Isis remains within the Coptic Christian Church as St. Isis, still worshiped with the sound of sistra. The images of dark or black virgins frequently have Isian predecessors, and throughout Europe, churches were built on temple sites.  The influence of Isis can also be felt in the medieval Courts of Love in the Lanque d'Oc civilization of southern France, in the Cathar "heresy", and in Templar, Masonic, Theosophical and magical beliefs and practices. In the Far East, Isis strongly influenced the development of the worship of Kuan Yin, who may in fact simply be a renamed Isis brought into the East through the Graeco-Indian kingdoms established by the officers of Alexander the Great. Like her Temple of Philae in Egypt, which through international co-operation has not too long ago emerged from the waters of the Nile, which have concealed it for decades, the renewed worship of Isis is now returing to our conscious-ness and to our hearts.  |
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42 Ideals of Ma'at
Facilities & Location Isis Oasis Sanctuary |
Isis Oasis Sanctuary 20889 Geyserville Ave. Geyserville, CA 95441 707-857- 4747 Toll-free 1-800-679-7387 FAX: 707-857-3544 isis@templeofisis.org |
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