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| Art by Carrie Martinez |
Women have lost much of their divine heritage. It is important for each of us to see ourselves in the divine. We also must ensure that none of our sisters are left out in our individual attempts at empowerment. Patricia Monaghan explained, “There has never been only one religion of the goddess. Every continent, every culture, had its own vision of the way that divine feminine should be pictured. Each culture pictured her as one of their own. She was black in Africa, blonde in Scandinavia, round-faced in Japan, dark-eyed in India. For the goddess was the essence of woman’s strength and beauty to each one of her daughters, so she had to look like them. When ancient women looked at their goddess, they saw themselves.”1
One of my first introductions to the Divine Feminine was Patricia Lynn Reilly's book, A God Who Looks Like Me—and, it shook me to my core. I have come to realize over the years that we have a long way to go in the Goddess community in terms of representing all ages, sizes and colors of Divine Women. Representation is important—particularly when the Goddess being depicted is, in fact, Black.
bell hooks wrote, “Women need to know that they can reject the powerful's definition of their reality—that they can do so even if they are poor, exploited, or trapped in oppressive circumstances. They need to know that the exercise of this basic personal power is an act of resistance and strength. Many poor and exploited women, especially non-white women, would have been unable to develop positive self-concepts if they had not exercised their power to reject the powerful's definition of their reality.”2
And that is a really important thing to remember. Because, as Marion Woodman said, “When you’re living your own reality, you become the sovereign of your own life.”3
Given the fact that most of us are not taught anything other than white male history in school, it is important that we take up the task of educating ourselves. And each of us have considerable work to do. While I have been studying alternative narratives since college, I still have some major blind spots—particularly around the importance of African history. Anthology contributor Tyreesha Garrett encouraged me to begin to dig deeper through the works of Anthony Browder. Recently Browder stated, “I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that when people of African ancestry are exposed to the truths that have been historically hidden away from us, it changes the way we see ourselves—it increases our level of respect for ourselves and those who look like us. It changes everything. And that is the reason why this information is still not being taught in schools to this very day.”4
It is crucial to recognize that the Goddess many of us know as Isis is the ancient Nubian Goddess, Auset—who was later renamed by the Greeks. Contributor Olivia Church explains some of this process in her upcoming book: “From earth, sea, and sky, to life, death, and magic, Isis’ powers became all encompassing. During the Graeco-Roman Period, starting in 332 BCE, Mediterranean culture flooded Egypt, bringing its Gods to Egypt and taking Egyptian Gods across the sea. The Greeks and Romans who travelled to Egypt interpreted Egyptian religion through their own eyes, thus merging and assimilating cultural ideas (Stadler, 2017). It is during this time that Isis underwent transformations which are recognisable to how we view her today (Bowden, 2010). The Greeks and Romans attributed new areas of influence and symbols to Isis, leading her to gain more and more epithets, until she was thus-named Isis myrionymos, or Isis of innumerable names (McCabe, 2007). At the height of this period there was little beyond her divine sphere of influence.”5
Dr. Muata Abhaya Ashby has extensively explained how redressing misconceptions and errors around geography and traditions is necessary for world healing. “Ancient Egyptian culture and philosophy is crucial to the understanding of world history and spirituality. One of the misconceptions which is still promoted and prevalent in modern times is that Egypt is not a part of, or located on, the continent of Africa. Rather, it is espoused that Egypt is in the Middle East. This information is incorrect, as Egypt is where it has always been located, though in history it extended beyond its current margins, in the northeast corner of the African Continent. Further, it is widely believed by others that even though Egypt may be in Africa, that it was not an African country, and still others may agree that it was an African country, but not originally founded and populated by “black” African people... These errors must be redressed in order for humanity to move forward... Africa provides a common ground, literally and figuratively, for humanity to come together as… the spiritual roots of all religions and spiritual traditions can be traced there as well... The world community needs to have the knowledge of its African human and spiritual origins so that Africa can take its rightful place as the “parent” of all humanity. It is important to understand that the names of the Ancient Egyptian divinities which have been used widely in Western literature and by Western scholars are actually Greek interpretations of the Kamitan (Ancient Egyptian) names.”6
Acknowledging and revering our ancient Mother Auset is an important step toward reconciliation.
Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum Ph.D. wrote, “Slave traders, slaveholders, and imperialists (european, arab, and north american) enslaved Africa’s peoples. African resources were stolen, african treasures sacked, icons and other art objects were looted and taken away. African traditions were appropriated, destroyed, distorted, or suppressed. What remains in Africa today is what could not be stolen: the memory of the dark mother in rock engravings, cave paintings, other art, and rituals.”7
It is time to bring these images and rituals back to the public eye.8 Art and rituals are perhaps even more important than the written word. There is no denying the pull of ancient symbols on our psyches. They go beyond 'logic' into the deep recesses of the heart. When we take this a step further and incorporate rituals honoring the Divine Female, we begin to heal ourselves.
Isis remains a powerful archetype for many women throughout the world. Understanding where She originated from is critically important. Elinor W. Gadon wrote, “While the Goddess indeed had many names, many manifestations throughout human history, she is ultimately one supreme reality. Only after the patriarchal Indo-Europeans overthrew the cultures where the Goddess had flourished from earliest times and imposed the worship of their sky gods was her identity fractured into myriad goddesses, each with an all-too-human personality. We know these goddesses best from Greek and Roman mythology.”9 We also know that these myths are usually distorted by patriarchal thought.
Goddesses have been defragmented and disempowered throughout patriarchal history. I have come to realize during the course of putting this anthology together that we still have quite a lot of digging to do. My hunch is that we are missing out on the full divinity of Auset when we only focus on what we have learned about Isis. There is likely a richer, untainted HERstory still hidden which must be brought to the forefront.
May the words and art within this anthology uncover what patriarchy has tried to bury—and may every woman become sovereign unto herself through the wisdom of The Goddess of Ten Thousand Names.
An excerpt from the introduction to our upcoming anthology, On the Wings of Isis: Reclaiming the Sovereignty of Auset.
Read the first excerpt here.
Notes:
1 Monaghan, Patricia. The New Book of Goddesses & Heroines. Llewellyn Publications; 3rd edition, 1997. (Bold type is mine.)
2 hooks, bell. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Routledge; 3 edition, 2014.
3 Woodman, Marion. Interview with Elizabeth Lesser. O, The Oprah Magazine, 2012.
4 Browder, Anthony T. “New Findings from Egypt & Sudan with Anthony T. Browder.” Rock Newman Show; Sep 23, 2016.
See also: Mami Wata's Africa's Ancient God/dess Unveiled Vol. I & II
5 Church, Olivia. Isis: Great of Magic, She of 10,000 Names. Pagan Portals series, Winchester, Moon Books; 2021 (p. 42).
6 Ashby, Dr. Muata Abhaya. The African Origins of African Civilization, Religion, Yoga Mysticism Ethics Philosophy and a History of Egyptian Yoga (Book 1 - Part 1). Sema Institute, 2011.
7 Birnbaum, Lucia Chiavola Ph.D. “African Dark Mother - Oldest Divinity We Know.” Authors Choice Press, 2001.
8 See The Sacred Magic of Ancient Egypt: The Spiritual Practice Restored (2002) and by Rosemary Clark (Llewellyn Publications).
9 Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess: A Sweeping Visual Chronicle of the Sacred Female and Her Reemergence in the Cult. HarperOne; 1989.
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