Essay on Aset, the Egyptian, or Kemetic, Isis
O Isis, Great of Magic, Heal me. Release me from all things bad and evil.
So reads part of a spell contained
within the Ebers Papyrus, a medical text from the New Kingdom period of ancient
Egypt.
“Isis” is the Hellenized version of this ancient Egyptian goddess. Her name in hieroglyphics is shown on temple reliefs and walls as:
Transliterated, Her Name becomes Aset.
The Goddess is often depicted bearing the
throne-sign on Her head, indicating Her long connection to the King and rule
over the land and people of ancient Egypt.
Here on in, Isis will be
referred to as Aset.
Aset
is one of the oldest deities named in ancient Egypt; in fact, She is one of the
earliest deities created. In the Pyramid Texts, the oldest religious texts
discovered in ancient Egypt thus far, when Atum arose out of the primeval watery
chaos of Nun, he created Shu and Tefnut, who in turn gave birth to Geb and Nut.
The children of Geb and Nut were Wesir, called Osiris by the Greeks, Aset,
his sister and wife, called Isis, his brother Set, and Nebt-Het, called Nepthys
by the Greeks, sister and wife to Set.
Although Osiris/Wesir lay dead after
his murder at the hand of his brother Set, Aset, by virtue of Her magical
skills, was able to bring life enough to Her husband, that She became pregnant
by him and subsequently gave birth to their son Heru, called Horus. She hid with
Heru in the marshes of the Delta, until he was old enough to return to the
divine Council and claim his right to the kingship.
Because of this single event, that is,
Aset as wife and mother, She was revered in the Graeco-Roman world, and
is worshipped even today, primarily as the Divine but kindly patroness of wives
and mothers, gentle patroness of marital fidelity. Unlike many of the Greek
goddesses whose stories told of many romances with both deities and mortals, Aset
was a wife who never remarried or ever flirted, and the ancient stories seemed
to show Her as a mother whose every activity revolved around her devotion to Her
son, similar to the Greek goddess Demeter, who brought winter to the world in
grief over the abduction of her own daughter.
However, Aset was more than
merely a divine wife, widow, and mother. She was consort to a king, daughter to
the creator-god, and possessor of the secret name of the creator-sun-god, Ra.
Here, once again, however, Her nature is too narrowly circumscribed. Aset is the Great
of Magic, Possessor of great magical skill. But She is still more than a
mystical, arcane representative of some mysterious Power, that only initiates
may “tap” therein.
Aset
is no rebel, She never rails against the overlordship of the Lord of the Gods,
but She will sneak around a restriction in order to accomplish the goal She
believes must be accomplished, that is, the goal of Right. In “The
Contendings of Horus And Set,” although She has been forbidden to attend
the Council, which will decide the fate of Her son’s heirship to the throne, Aset
bribes the ferryman with gold and disguises Herself.
Aset is
a Shapeshifter, a chameleon-like deity who can disguise Herself as a sultry
young woman so that when She speaks with Her brother Set He does not know Her.
In the recounting of that scene in the story of “The Contendings of Horus and
Set,” Aset uses Her magical skill not to flirt with Set, or even to
merely embarrass him. She has a precise goal in mind—by the use of Her golden
clever tongue, Her wise use of words, to cause Set to in a sense to judge
against his own challenge of Horus for the throne.
Aset
takes pity on the plight of other children besides Her own, as in the story of
“Aset and the Scorpions.”
She is a deity, not merely a Mother. Netjer cares for and watches over Its
children, the creations of Its tears. So too does Aset. She cares about
the life and health of all the people created by Atum-Ra and over whom the King
rules.
Among the “Hymns to Aset"
is the "Hymn to Osiris,” inscribed on a New Kingdom stela. Aset
is described at “One whose speech cannot fail.” This is an attribute
essential to Her, which is too often overlooked. Aset is She who is clever of
tongue, who knows the power of precise use of words, and the correct manner and
time of their speaking.
Aset
is one of thousands of very distinct, very independent, deities worshipped in
ancient Egypt throughout its history. Aset is also one Name of an aspect
of Netjer, or God. As the wife of Osiris, who legend says was the first king of
ancient Egypt, Aset as his consort devotedly assisted him in governing
the land and its people. Because of Her close connection to both Osiris who was
King and to Horus who is King, She guards the King and the Throne, not merely as
a Protector entity. Aset reverses the fratricidal murder of Osiris by
Set, their brother by giving birth to their son, even though Her husband is
already dead, and blocks the varied attempts of Set to keep Horus, Her son, from
the throne which was his father’s.
She is Mother, She is Nurturer, She
provides Power to the King, who just happens to be Her child. Aset, who
healed Horus of the poisonous bite of a scorpion, heals, by Magic. She acquired
great Magic, if not the Magic, by demanding Hidden Wisdom from Ra, not
merely for Herself, but for Her son, the King, to enable him to rule. She
challenged Ra, the creator sun-god, to divulge his secret name, the source of
his greatest wisdom, by poisoning him. In the story of "Aset
learns the Secret Name of Ra" She calls Ra father and comes running
to his aid demanding to know who was responsible for his plight.
Aset
calls Herself, the “cleverest and most august of the gods.” As the
stories about Her illustrate, Aset is the Goddess who excels in the
display of power to overcome obstacles. She is not Power for its own sake, to
flaunt its possession over others. She seeks and wields Power to accomplish the
goal of bringing about Ma’at, the Order of what should and must be.
Aset complements the creative power, with a defensive power, that
removes threats to life and to health.
The great temple at Philae, dedicated
to Isis, contains many hymns written to Her and about Her during the Ptolemaic
Age, late in the Egyptian history. She is hardly ever referred to as a
Mother-Goddess, and then, only in Her connection as Mother to the King. In the
earliest known hymn to Aset so far found, written in the sanctuary of the
Temple at Behbeit el-Hagar in the Delta, which predates those hymns found on the
walls at the Temple of Philae, praises and jubilation are offered to Aset
while worshippers bow to the ground for Her “ka in peace, like Atum when He
sets in the horizon.” She is described further as the very image of Atum,
and as “the great, the divine mother, the mistress of Hebit, resting inside
her bark as Atum when he sets in the western horizon.” An inscription on
the lintel of the sanctuary calls Aset the queen of the gods, the Lady
of inheritance, and the divine female falcon.
Beautiful paintings of Aset and
the Egyptian King can be seen at the Chapel
to Aset at Abydos, and in the tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the
Kings. Her connection to the King and Kingship is perhaps best illustrated at
the great temple of Karnak, the complex built to honor the Name of Amun, the
state god of Egypt during the New Kingdom period.
On the west wall of the hypostyle hall
at Karnak, a relief shows Aset holding the sistrum, leading King Seti I
into the presence of the god Amun-Ra. Of all the gods who could have been chosen
to illustrate the divine benediction of the reign of Seti I, the choice of Aset
should be seen as a clear focus on Her position as Guardian and Power of the
Kingship. She is depicted wearing the uraeus on her brow, and the horned
headdress, atop a circlet of serpents. Above Her, an inscription reads that She
declares Herself to be the august daughter of the god Amun-Ra, child of the
majestic sun god worshipped at Thebes. She reminds Amun-Ra that he has seen and
acknowledged His son Horus to be the ruling king of Thebes and declares the
petition, “May You imbue him with life and stability as a son, glorious and
complete.”
Each person comes to God in his and her own unique individual way. God is full of infinite variety, and knows each of Its children in a unique and individual manner. In the following pages, material will be presented which will assist in illustrating Aset the way Her earliest worshippers knew Her. As Mistress of the Heavens, Queen of the Gods, Great of Magic.
For more about the worship of Aset according to The House of Netjer and Kemetic Orthodoxy , the faith practiced by the webmaster, see "Essay on Aset Part 2."
Copyright 2001/2002 by Khenmetaset/Marie Parsons. All rights reserved. No material may be reproduced from this website, which is for educational purposes only, without express permission from Khenmetaset. All non-original material is referenced.