Offering & the Sacred Symbols of Isis

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