Spells of the goddess Isis as protector of women and children
Isis is one of the best-known goddesses in Egyptian religion and mythology. Not only is she the representation of the feminine, the queen, the mother, but she also plays a major role as the architect, along with Anubis, of the resurrection of her brother and husband, Osiris, as well as of conceiving her son, Horus, from his dead body. She is therefore also a goddess associated with life. And, of course, with magic. In Egypt, the goddess Heka, as we saw in the articles on Egyptian magic, was the personification of a cosmic power, a creative force of beginnings. The very writing of the word "hekay" or "hekau" is found on many figures and objects, intended to render them magical. However, as a primordial divinity, Heka remains abstract outside of the strictest priestly circles. Thus, Isis, as the wife of Osiris—and therefore as queen—as the mother of Horus-Ra, and the principal deity of virtually all Egyptian pantheons, ends up occupying the place of goddess of magic.
The best-known myth about her spells is the one in which she herself creates a serpent, which bites the god Ra. Ra, the father of all creatures, does not know the true name of this serpent, since he did not create it, and ends up giving in to Isis's request out of pain, who heals him in exchange for knowing Ra's true name, thus becoming a goddess on his level. In the ancient world, words were the key to magic: written or spoken, they controlled whatever was being spoken, especially when its "true name" was known, as is the case in the myth. Hence, in Egyptian magic, we find several names to define certain things, people, or gods, as they have generic names and names of power.
Mentioning Isis or using an amulet or image of the goddess became a magical act, as it evoked episodes in which she had emerged victorious. For example, against scorpion stings, because Thoth helped her heal her son, and she later saved another woman's child:
"Come, Tefen, appear on the ground and leave here, do not come near!
Come, poison of Befen, appear on the ground. I am Isis, the goddess,
the mistress of words of power, who performs magical deeds,
whose words are enchantments (...)
The child lives, the poison dies!
As the sun lives, so the poison dies.
We have another example of the expulsion of spirits and illnesses with the help of Isis:
"Whatever he suffers in his body, the torment will be sent from it to this statuette of Isis, until he is completely healed."
And the so-called Buckle Amulet or Knot of Isis makes it clear that she is a favorite goddess for magic:
"May the blood of Isis, the powers of Isis, and the words of power of Isis be effective to protect this powerful one."
Undoubtedly, the influence of Isis in Greece and Rome spread so rapidly not only because of her exoticism, but also because of her magical and mysterious character. In the mysteries of Isis, in addition to initiations, magic was present as the goddess's ability to perform miracles: see, without going any further, the work of Apuleius, where the protagonist is freed from his curse of being a donkey by participating in a procession of the goddess. The Roman representation of Isis also carries a sistrum, a musical instrument considered a tool for warding off spirits. But in the Egyptian world, Isis is a goddess as powerful as she is unattainable by humans.
To understand Isis's role as a magician within the Egyptian world, one must understand her religious position of power, as queen of the gods, patron of mummification—as Thoth and Anubis performed the first mummification with her husband—and as a "mother" to the Egyptians, especially to the pharaohs, the living gods. See Coffin Text 334, where the deceased begins by saying: "I am a raging bull, my mother Isis conceived me..."
or text 33, where the gods say: "Behold, gods, the divine spirit whom Osiris has made his son, whom Isis has made her child."
Their priests and priestesses held a prominent place in the cults of the Egyptian Ennead and in the cities where they were the titular goddess. Among the many cultic missions of the priesthood were also magical and esoteric activities, such as the interpretation of dreams and predictions in general, as well as the healing, through amulets and recitations, of certain illnesses, and especially women's health, especially in matters related to fertility and childbirth. Their priests were therefore mostly doctors and midwives.
Isis as Protector of Childbirth
Among the techniques of the priests and priestesses, we find, for example, identifying a woman's pregnancy and the sex of her future baby. This was done through urine and barley and wheat seeds that were expected to sprout if she was pregnant. Depending on which seeds grew, the baby's sex would be male (barley) or female (wheat). It has been surprising to discover recently that this is a hormonal issue and that pregnancy predictions would be fairly accurate, while sex predictions were more based on statistical factors.
Pregnancies were protected through prayers to the goddess Hathor, goddess of love, to Tueris, the hippopotamus goddess, and to Isis, who had received protective magical spells from Atum, to prevent Seth from harming her or her son Horus.
"Oh," says Atum-Re, "guard your heart, woman. How do you know it is the god, lord and heir of the Ennead, who gave you the egg?"
"I am Isis, the purest and most esteemed of the gods. The god in my womb is mine; it is the seed of Osiris."
"Oh, my lady," Atum replies, "pregnant and hidden. You will give birth, pregnant as you are with the seed of Osiris for the gods. May the enemy who killed his father not reach or break the egg you carry. The Great One in Magic will protect him from him."
Then Isis said, "Hear this, gods, what Atum-Re, Lord of the Mansion of Images, has entrusted protection for me and my child in my womb. He has woven a retinue (...) around this falcon in my womb." Coffin Text 148.
We have examples in literature of magical protective measures being taken as soon as the pregnancy was discovered. These protections not only involved certain rituals, but also more everyday and simple things, such as wearing amulets throughout the pregnancy. In the text of Setne II, when his wife Mehusekhe announces her pregnancy, he himself places an amulet around her neck and recites a spell with it. Although the most common amulets are of the gods Bes and Taewret, there is evidence that goddesses such as Isis, Hathor, Bastet, and Sekhmet were also commonly used. Furthermore, these same goddesses also appear in funerary tomb texts, because they aid in the "rebirth" of the deceased.
Regarding the moment of childbirth, the birth of Horus was commemorated, and the woman in labor was "turned" into the goddess Isis: in this way, through transfiguration magic, the woman would emerge victorious and healthy from childbirth, as would the baby, just as had occurred in sacred times. Since the mortality rate among women in labor and young children was quite high in ancient times, every precaution was insufficient. Terracotta statuettes of goddesses or simply women with their heads and hair dyed blue—a divine characteristic—or with cow ears and horns, as well as other attributes of the deities, have been found in family homes. Archaeologists and anthropologists consider the possibility that these were representations of the mother as a goddess, to protect her and her descendants—that is, once again, transfiguration magic.
To accelerate labor, the moment of Isis's birth was recreated. The doctor or midwife recited the birth of Horus, invoking the gods as if the human woman in labor were the goddess, so that they would come to her aid.
<< "O Re and Aten, O gods of the sky, of the land of Amente and divine council that judges this entire earth, (....) come! Isis is in labor pains, she was pregnant but the months are over, for her son Horus, protector of his father" (they continue listing the chaos, storms, floods and other misfortunes that could happen while the goddess is busy giving birth, paralyzed...) It is not I who speaks, it is Isis, she repeats it to you! Take care of this woman who gives birth, xxxxx, daughter of xxxx, in the same way >>
Spell 34 of the Leiden Papyrus I 348 f
The Tyet Knot and Other Magical Knots
As we saw in the article on Egyptian Talismans, the Tyet represents a red knot and is also called the "Knot of Isis." While it was initially associated with the goddess's genitals, some studies now suggest that it was a special bandage worn by women during menstruation, represented by the color red. Its shape has also been compared to that of the ankh, attempting to find a connection with the symbol of life.
Although the earliest traces of this symbol date back to the First Dynasty (34th to 30th century BC), it appears that its evolution into an amulet came later; according to mythology, the relationship with Isis was strengthened, and religion endowed the goddess with magical and healing powers.
Knot magic is nothing new in the ancient world, and there are those who have tried, without much success, to link the Tyet with texts in which Isis's womb is "knotted" to protect her pregnancy. For example, in the spell that appears in the Text of the Sacrophages 148 - intended to take the form of Horus's falcon - the goddess Isis recalls that the god Atum "knotted" a divine entourage for her son...
<< (Atum-Re entrusted protection for me and for my son in my womb. He has knotted around my son, heirs of Osiris, a retinue (...) I have been given protection by Atum-Re, Lord of the gods, for the falcon I carry in my womb.>>
And based on this premise of knots, we will find many funerary texts where a place or person is tied, or even where the mummification bandage is referred to as knots, as a form of magical protection. Specifically in relation to childbirth, wool knots were inserted into the pregnant woman's vagina to "close" the flow until the time of delivery. In other words, the Egyptians were aware not only of the absence of menstrual flow, but also possible hemorrhages, and the "breaking of waters" as indicators of the moment of delivery. Any fluid outside of these moments was a bad sign, a miscarriage, and therefore, the outlet was "knotted," as if it were a sack or wineskin. The gods invoked for these particular labors are Tait, goddess of wool, and Anubis, as can be seen in the examples found in the London Medical Papyrus, comparing the blood with the flooding of the Nile:
"The Flood has set foot on the land of Tait, throw out what is in you!" - These words should be said after tying two knots in a string at the edge of the cloth, and placing it at the entrance inside her vagina, to protect her from whatever works against her.
"To prevent hemorrhage. Anubis has come to keep the Flood at bay so that it does not defile what is pure, the land of Tait. He fears what is in it." - This spell should be said over the threads of the The edge of a cloth with a knot tied in it. To be applied inside the vagina. >>
When the time of birth approached, on the other hand, all possible knots had to be undone, including those in clothing, hair, or other household utensils.
Isis, Knower of All Names
We already mentioned at the beginning of this article that the goddess Isis became the most powerful sorceress among the gods thanks to her deception of Ra, who eventually revealed his true name. However, the goddess also had the ability to know the names of unborn babies. Therefore, when labor lasted a long time or when more than nine months had passed, the goddess Isis was used to "invoke" the children by their true names and thus help them be born.
In the Westcar Papyrus (220), Isis invokes the children in a woman's womb to bring them forth. To do this, once again, sympathetic magic is used, recalling an episode in the that the goddess helped Rudjedet, the wife of a priest, who had conceived the babies of Ra himself, give birth to triplets. To deliver them, the goddess Isis called them by their proper names:
"To the first she said: Do not be so powerful in your mother's womb, you whose name is Mighty!" To the second she said: Do not trample on your mother's womb, you whose name is Tread of Re! To the third she said: Do not be in darkness in your mother's womb, you whose name is Dark!"
Similarly, adopting the magical position of Isis, women in labor and midwives would call the baby by name and invite it to leave the womb. There is also evidence of the use of amulets that generically represented babies, or homeopathic amulets that conjured "the exit," and which the people involved would carry in their right hand. According to ancient medical texts, it seems that the hematite stone It was also a common amulet worn around the neck or hand, as it was believed to control blood flow.
Sekhmet, Hathor, and Khunhum were also favored auxiliary gods for the "the "opening" of the womb, and they could be invoked together with Isis or with separate spells. It is worth highlighting divine iconographies such as that of the "Abydos Brick," where, although the entire image is "Hathoric," it is the goddess Isis who stands before the woman in labor, receiving the newborn in her arms. These bricks were used to support the feet of the woman about to give birth, as the iconography attests to by the wear and tear on the upper part of the brick.
Finally, we must emphasize that a specific characteristic of the purely Egyptian goddess Isis is that, despite being the goddess who speaks the most in Egyptian texts, she never speaks to mortals, always to gods or, failing that, to the children of gods and their representatives. Hence the importance, when conjuring in her name, that both children and mothers, midwives, or anyone else, keep in mind a mythical moment in which they play, as in a play, a divine role. It was not until the Hellenistic period that and Roman, that the goddess Isis will be much closer and will take on an even more magical and varied role.
Pietro V. Carracedo Ahumada - pietrocarracedo@gmail.com
Bibliography:
-Goudsouzian, C. E. Becoming Isis: Myth, Magic, Medicine, and Reproduction in Ancient Egypt. University of Memphis, 2012.
-Markéta Svobodová - Sexual Passages in the Lives of Women in Ancient Egypt: Birth and Fertility of the Woman according to Ancient Egyptian Sources. Charles University in Prague, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, 2016.
-Tyldesley, J. Daughters of Isis. Penguin Books Limited, 1995
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