The Love of Isis Restores by Hazel DaHealer

Illustration by Arna Baartz from My Name is Isis

Isis represents restorative love. Her love was lost to death yet restored to life. The journey Isis took to restore life to her much-loved Osiris was not a beautiful journey along scenic paths. If we look at the symbolism of her hair being cut and her robes being torn to shreds as she searches for the fourteen pieces of the body of Osiris, we see she is going forth not as a Queen but as someone who is worn down and not at her best.

It's through the process of restoring life that Isis resumes her name as Au Set which roughly translates into ‘exceeding Queen.’ Her legend presents her wings as protective. Isis is most often depicted with the Ankh which is the ancient symbol of life. She is the bringer of life that was once thought to be lost.

Life during the COVID19 pandemic offers us a chance to revisit Isis and let her story restore our path through the chaos to a place of sovereignty. A lesson we can adapt to our journey is that first we must grieve. We grieve the lives lost to the disease and the lifestyles we lost during this part of our journey. Many of us are privileged to find our main complaints at this time to be the inability to physically gather with our loved ones and the inability to travel unrestricted. We suffer the sadness and stress that comes from not being able to maintain our hair to our usual standards.

Once we realize we are in mourning we can begin our search for wholeness. We can miss the physical contact, but we have the ability to gather via electronic means such as Zoom. We also begin to realize that the external definition of beauty we took on is no longer valid. We see the beauty of the grey blossoming from our untreated hair. We are no longer busy so now our focus shifts to those in our household and those who are our loves.

When we take a look at ourselves and realize we have the ability to reassemble our lives around those we love – and the lifestyle we desire born of our new focus – it is then that we are wrapped in the protective wings of Isis. The new life we bring from the disruption and mourning is like Horus who was conceived through the reassembled parts of Osiris.

Our challenge today is to search out the missing pieces of our lives and reassemble them in a way that restores our lives. Through this restoration our love of people, places, events, and objects takes on new facets. It's this new life born from loss that makes us stronger. We grow because we somehow sought out what we have lost and recrafted a better way. May Isis restore the love and a more sustainable life to you, your loved ones, and the world that we share! Walk in strength and beauty as the Lady of Ten Thousand names.

Blessed BE!

An excerpt from the upcoming Girl God anthology, On the Wings of Isis.

Hazel DaHealer lives surrounded by family in the beautiful state of South Carolina. She has contributed to Original Resistance: Reclaiming Lilith Reclaiming Ourselves and Inanna's Ascent: Reclaiming Female Power. Her chosen career helps restore order to the chaos life brings for many. Hazel is embracing her inner Isis as she restores her own life to a more Queenly state of being.