Excerpt form Awakening Osiris, The Egyptian Book of the Dead

Becoming the Child

In seafoam, in swirlings and imaginings I am fish, tadpole, crocodile. I am an urge, an idea, a portent of impossible dreams. I lie between heaven and earth, be­tween goodness and evil, patience and explosion. I am innocent and rosy as dawn. I sleep with my finger in my mouth, the cord of life curled beside my ear. Like a child in its mother’s belly, I am with you but not among you. I know no ending for I have no beginning. I have always been here, a child in the silence of things, ready to wake at any moment.

I am possibility.

What I hate is ignorance, smallness of imagination, the eye that sees no farther than its own lashes. All things are possible. When we speak in anger, anger will be our truth. When we speak in love and live by love, truth in love will be our comfort. Who you are is limited only by who you think you are. I am the word before its utterance. I am thought and desire. I am a child in the throat of god. Things are possible—joy and sorrow, men and women, children. Someday I’ll imagine myself a different man, build bone and make flesh around him. I am with you but a moment for an eternity. I am the name of everything.

I’ve dreamed the nightmare a hundred times, that old revulsion of bone and flesh, waking in sweat, in a headlong rush toward the world, into the cool certainty of fires that burn in sudden stars, the heat in the body. That I am precludes my never having been.

What I know was given to me to say. There is more.

There are words that exist only in the mind of heaven, a bright knowing, a clear moment of being. When you know it, you know yourself well enough. You will not speak. I am a child resting in love, in the pleasure of clouds. I read the book of the river. I hold the magic of stones and trees. I find god in my fingers and in the wings of birds. I am my delight, creator of my destiny. It is not vanity.

There are those who live in the boundaries of guilt and fear, the limits of imagination. They believe limita­tion is the world. You can not change them. There is work of your own to do. You will never reach the end of your own becoming, the madness of creation, the joy of existence.

Dance in the moment. Reach down and pull up song. Spin and chant and forget the sorrow that we are flesh on bone. I return to the rhythm of water, to the dark song I was in my mother’s belly. We were gods then and we knew it. We are gods now dancing in whirling dark­ness, spitting flame like stars in the night.

In the womb before the world began, I was a child among other gods and children who were, or may be, or might have been. There in the dark when we could not see each other’s faces, we agreed with one mind to be born, to separate, to forget the pact we made that we might learn the secrets of our fraternity. We agreed to know sorrow in exchange for joy, to know death in ex­change for life. We were dark seeds of possibility whisper­ing. Then one by one we entered alone. We walked on our legs, and as we had said, we passed in well-lit streets without recognizing each other; yet we were gods sheathed in flesh, the multitude of a single spirit. Gods live even in darkness, in the world above your heads, in the crevices of rocks, in the open palms of strangers.

I am a child, the seed in everything, the rhythm of flowers, the old story that lingers. Among cattle and fruit sellers, I am air. I am love hidden in a shy maiden’s gown. I am the name of things. I am the dream changing before your eyes. I am my body, a house for blood and breath. I am a man on earth and a god in heaven. While I travel the deserts in frail form, while I grow old and weep and die, I live always as a child inside the body of truth, a blue egg that rocks in the storm but never breaks. I sleep in peace in my mother’s lap, a child mesmerized by sunlight on the river. My soul is swallowed up by god.

Out of chaos came the light.

Out of the will came life.

Lecture: Ancient Egypt The god Wsr aka Osiris

Who exactly is Osiris?


Osiris is often depicted holding the crook and flail. He is one of Egypt’s oldest gods and is known for his reign over the dead, resurrection, and fertility. In many depictions found within tombs and monuments, Osiris is almost always seen outlined in black and can be identified through his green skin. Like many great kings, Osiris wears a white crown, known as an Atef crown (Atef is the specific feathered white crown of the Egyptian deity Osiris. It combines the Hedjet, the crown of Upper Egypt, with curly red ostrich feathers on each side of the crown for the Osiris cult), His crown became the symbol of Upper Egypt.


According to Egyptian mythology, Osiris (Asir) was the first son of Geb and Nut and the brother of Set, Horus (the elder), Isis and Nephthys. He was one of the most prominent gods of the Heliopolitan Ennead, but his worship pre-dated the development of this fairly complex philosophy. Although Atum was installed as the head of the Ennead by the priests of Heliopolis, Osiris was considered to be the king of the underworld, and is the only deity who is referred to simply as "god". This gives us some indication of his prominence and popularity.


The oldest religious texts known to us refer to him as the great god of the dead, who once possessed human form and lived upon earth. After his murder by Set he became the king of the underworld and presided over the judgment of dead souls. In order to enter his kingdom, the deceased had to undertake a perilous journey (aided by spells and amulets) to the hall of judgment where their heart was balanced against the feather of Ma'at (justice or balance). It is important to distinguish this from the Christian view of judgment. The ancient Egyptians were a pragmatic people. A person was not expected to be perfect, just balanced. An example of this is the "negative confession" (in which the deceased listed all of the evil things he had not done during his lifetime, i.e. "I never murdered anyone") which indicates that it was more a case of convincing Osiris that you deserved admission rather than passively awaiting judgment.

Appearance:

A mummified man wearing a white cone-like headdress with feathers

Osiris was the god of the dead, and ruler of the underworld.

Osiris was the brother/husband of Isis, and the brother of Nepthys and Seth. He was also the father of Horus.

As well as being a god of the dead, Osiris was a god of resurrection and fertility. In fact, the ancient Egyptians believed that Osiris gave them the gift of barley, one of their most important crops.

Symbols: 

crook and flail, djed,
White and Atef Crowns,
bull,
mummified form,
throne, Bennu (phoenix)

Cult Center: 

Abydos,
Busiris
and Heliopolis

Myths: 

The oldest religious texts refer to Osiris as the great god of the dead, and throughout these texts it is assumed that the reader will understand that he once possessed human form and lived on earth. As the first son of Geb, the original king of Egypt, Osiris inherited the throne when Geb abdicated. At this time the Egyptians were barbarous cannibals and uncivilized. Osiris saw this and was greatly disturbed. Therefore, he went out among the people and taught them what to eat, the art of agriculture, how to worship the gods, and gave them laws. Thoth helped him in many ways by inventing the arts and sciences and giving names to things. Osiris was Egypt's greatest king who ruled through kindness and persuasion. Having civilized Egypt, Osiris traveled to other lands, leaving Isis as his regent, to teach other peoples what he taught the Egyptians.

During Osiris' absence, Isis was troubled with Seth's plotting to acquire both her and the throne of Egypt. Shortly after Osiris' return to Egypt, in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, on the seventeenth day of the month of Hathor (late September or November), Seth and 72 conspirators murdered him. They then threw the coffin in which he was murdered into the Nile, with his divine body still inside.

Isis, with the help of her sister Nephthys, and Anubis and Thoth, magically located Osiris' body. Upon learning the his brother's body was found, Seth went to it and tore it into fourteen pieces and scattered them throughout Egypt. Isis once again found every part of his body, save his phallus (it had been eaten by the now-cursed Nile fish). She magically re-assembled Osiris and resurrected him long enough to be impregnated by him so that she could give birth to the new king Horus.

Seth of course was not willing to surrender the throne of Egypt to the youthful Horus and thus a tribunal of gods met to decide who was the rightful king. The trial lasted eighty years. Eventually through Isis' cunning she won the throne for her son.

Osiris meanwhile had become the king of the Afterlife. He was believed to be willing to admit all people to the Duat, the gentle, fertile land in which the righteous dead lived, that had lived a good and correct life upon earth, and had been buried with appropriate ceremonies under the protection of certain amulets, and with the proper recital of certain "divine words" and words of power. His realm was said to lie beneath Nun, in the northern heavens or in the west.

It is as the King of the Afterlife that Osiris gained his supreme popularity. He was originally a minor god of Middle Egypt, especially in comparison to the gods of Heliopolis and Hermopolis, etc. Noting his increasing popularity, and sensing that Osiris would one day eclipse the adoration of their own gods, the priests of these cities adopted him into their own cosmogonies.

Osiris is the God of the afterlife. With his green skin, Osiris is also a god of fertility, celebrating the return to life each spring after the death of the old year in winter, marked also in Egypt at the rising of the Nile in early summer. Osiris is one of the dying and rising saviours who formed the myth of Jesus Christ in the passion celebration of the annual triumph of light over dark, and of life over death. Easter is connected to the equinox because its natural meaning is the annual change from dark to light at the turning point from winter to spring. Isis, the cosmic mother, the bride of Osiris and virgin mother of Horus, continues today in the form of the Blessed Virgin Mary, adorned with her celestial crown of twelve stars as described in Revelation 12. These twelve stars represent each month of the year in the cycle of the zodiac. Horus, god of the rising sun, son of Isis and Osiris, gave many of his qualities to Jesus Christ. Thoth, God of Wisdom, was a principle source, through his priesthood, of the theology of the word in the gospel of John. Anubis, a god of the dead, was the jackal embalmer who continued as Saint John the Baptist. Nephthys and Set, queen and king of the underworld, morphed into Greek myth in Persephone and Pluto, and continue in Christianity as Martha and Satan. Amun-Ra, God of the Sun, is at the origin of the Judeo-Christian idea of God the Father, whose etymological cognates also stretch to India, through Deus Pater, Jupiter, Zeus Patera and their common origin in the Indian sky god Dyaus Pita. Maat, the Egyptian cosmic order, continued to inspire the New Testament in the name of the Gospel of Matthew.

the Zodiac of Denderah

When Osiris was born many signs and wonders were seen and heard throughout the world. Most notable was the voice which came from the holiest shrine in the temple at Thebes on the Nile, which today is called Karnak, speaking to a man called Pamyles bidding him proclaim to all men that Osiris, the good and mighty king, was born to bring joy to all the earth. Pamyles did as he was bidden, and he also attended on the Divine Child and brought him up as a man among men.

When Osiris was grown up he married his sister Isis, a custom which the Pharaohs of Egypt followed ever after. And Seth married Nephthys: for he too being a god could marry only a goddess.

After Isis by her craft had learned the Secret Name of Re, Osiris became sole ruler of Egypt and reigned on earth as Re had done. He found the people both savage and brutish, fighting among themselves and killing and eating one another. But Isis discovered the grain of both wheat and barley, which grew wild over the land with the other plants and was still unknown to man; and Osiris taught them how to plant the seeds when the Nile had risen in the yearly inundation and sunk again leaving fresh fertile mud over the fields; how to tend and water the crops; how to cut the corn when it was ripe, and how to thresh the grain on the threshing floors, dry it and grind it to flour and make it into bread. He showed them also how to plant vines and make the grapes into wine; and they knew already how to brew beer out of the barley.

When the people of Egypt had learned to make bread and cut only the flesh of such animals as he taught them were suitable, Osiris, went on to teach them laws, and how to live peacefully and happily together, delighting themselves with music and poetry. As soon as Egypt was filled with peace and plenty, Osiris set out over the world to bring his blessings upon other nations. While he was away he left Isis to rule over the land, which she did both wisely and well.

But Seth the Evil One, their brother, envied Osiris and hated Isis. The more the people loved and praised Osiris, the more Seth hated him; and the more good he did and the happier mankind became, the stronger grew Seth's desire to kill his brother and rule in his place. Isis, however, was so full of wisdom and so watchful that Seth made no attempt to seize the throne while she was watching over the land of Egypt. And when Osiris returned from his travels Seth was among the first to welcome him back and kneel in reverence before "the good god Pharaoh Osiris".

Yet he had made his plans, aided by seventy-two of his wicked friends and Aso the evil queen of Ethiopia. Secretly Seth obtained the exact measurements of the body of Osiris, and caused beautiful chest to be made that would fit only him. It was fashioned of the rarest and most costly woods: cedar brought from Lebanon, and ebony from Punt at the south end of the Red Sea for no wood grows in Egypt except the soft and useless palm.

Then Seth gave a great feast in honour of Osiris; but the other guests were the two-and-seventy conspirators. It was the greatest feast that had yet been seen in Egypt, and the foods were choicer, the wines stronger and the dancing girls more beautiful than ever before. When the heart of Osiris had been made glad with feasting and song the chest was brought in, and all were amazed at its beauty.

Osiris marveled at the rare cedar inlaid with ebony and ivory, with less rare gold and silver, and painted inside with figures of gods and birds and animals, and he desired it greatly.

"I will give this chest to whosoever fits it most exactly!" cried Seth. And at once the conspirators began in turn to see if they could win it. But one was too tall and another too short; one was too fat and another too thin - and all tried in vain.

"Let me see if I will fit into this marvelous piece of work," said Osiris, and he laid himself down in the chest while all gathered round breathlessly.

"I fit exactly, and the chest is mine!" cried Osiris.

"And the chest is mine!"

"It is yours indeed, and shall be so forever!" hissed Seth as he banged down the lid. Then in desperate haste he and the conspirators nailed it shut and sealed every crack with molten lead, so that Osiris the man died in the chest and his spirit went west across the Nile into Duat the Place of Testing; but, beyond it to Amenti, where those live for ever who have lived well on earth and passed the judgments of Duat, he could not pass as yet. Seth and his companions took the chest which held the body of Osiris and cast it into the Nile; and Hapi the Nile-god carried it out into the Great Green Sea where it was tossed for many days until it came to the shore of Phoenicia near the city of Byblos. Here the waves cast it into a tamarisk tree that grew on the shore; and the tree shot out branches and grew leaves and flowers to make a fit resting place for the body of the good god Osiris and very soon that tree became famous throughout the land.

Presently King Malcander heard of it, and he and his wife, Queen Astarte, came to the seashore to gaze at the tree. By now the branches had grown together and hidden the chest which held the body of Osiris in the trunk itself. King Malcander gave orders that the tree should be cut down and fashioned into a great pillar for his palace. This was done, and all wondered at its beauty and fragrance: but none knew that it held the body of a god. Meanwhile in Egypt Isis was in great fear. She had always known that Seth was filled with evil and jealousy, but kindly Osiris would not believe in his brother's wickedness. But Isis knew as soon as her husband was dead, though no one told her, and fled into the marshes of the delta carrying the baby Horus with her. She found shelter on a little island where the goddess Buto lived, and entrusted the divine child to her. And as a further safeguard against Seth, Isis loosed the island from its foundations, and let it float so that no one could tell where to find it.

Then she went to seek for the body of Osiris. For, until he was buried with all the needful rites and charms, even his spirit could go no farther to the west than Duat, the Testing-Place; and it could not come to Amenti.

Back and forth over the land of Egypt wandered Isis, but never a trace could she find of the chest in which lay the body of Osiris. She asked all whom she met, but no one had seen it - and in this matter her magic powers could not help her.

At last she questioned the children who were playing by the riverside, and at once they told her that just such a chest as she described had floated past them on the swift stream and out into the Great Green Sea.

Then Isis wandered on the shore, and again and again it was the children who had seen the chest floating by and told her which way it had gone. And because of this, Isis blessed the children and decreed that ever afterwards children should speak words of wisdom and sometimes tell of things to come.

At length Isis came to Byblos and sat down by the seashore. Presently the maidens who attended on Queen Astarte came down to bathe at that place; and when they returned out of the water Isis taught them how to plait their hair - which had never been done before. When they went up to the palace a strange and wonderful perfume seemed to cling to them; and Queen Astarte marveled at it, and at their plaited hair, and asked them how it came to be so.

The maidens told her of the wonderful woman who sat by the seashore, and Queen Astarte sent for Isis, and asked her to serve in the palace and tend her children, the little Prince Maneros and the baby Dictys, who was ailing sorely. For she did not know that the strange woman who was wandering alone at Byblos was the greatest of all the goddesses of Egypt. Isis agreed to this, and very soon the baby Dictys was strong and well though she did no more than give him her finger to suck. But presently she became fond of the child, and thought to make him immortal, which she did by burning away his mortal parts while she flew round and round him in the form of a swallow. Astarte, however, had been watching her secretly; and when she saw that her baby seemed to be on fire she rushed into the room with a loud cry, and so broke the magic.

Then Isis took on her own form, and Astarte crouched down in terror when she saw the shining goddess and learned who she was.

Malcander and Astarte offered her gifts of all the richest treasures in Byblos, but Isis asked only for the great tamarisk pillar which held up the roof, and for what it contained. When it was given to her, she caused it to open and took out the chest of Seth. But the pillar she gave back to Malcander and Astarte; and it remained the most sacred object in Byblos, since it had once held the body of a god.

When the chest which had become the coffin of Osiris was given to her, Isis flung herself down on it with so terrible a cry of sorrow that little Dictys died at the very sound. But Isis at length caused the chest to be placed on a ship which King Malcander provided for her, and set out for Egypt. With her went Maneros, the young prince of Byblos: but he did not remain with her for long, since his curiosity proved his undoing. For as soon as the ship had left the land Isis retired to where the chest of Seth lay, and opened the lid. Maneros crept up behind her and peeped over her shoulder: but Isis knew he was there and, turning, gave him one glance of anger - and he fell backwards over the side of the ship into the sea.

Next morning, as the ship was passing the Phaedrus River, its strong current threatened to carry them out of sight of land. But Isis grew angry and placed a curse on the river, so that its stream dried up from that day.

She came safely to Egypt after this, and hid the chest in the marshes of the delta while she hastened to the floating island where Buto was guarding Horus.

But it chanced that Seth came hunting wild boars with his dogs, hunting by night after his custom, since he loved the darkness in which evil things abound. By the light of the moon he saw the chest of cedar wood inlaid with ebony and ivory, with gold and silver, and recognized it.

At the sight hatred and anger came upon him in a red cloud, and he raged like a panther of the south. He tore open the chest, took the body of Osiris, and rent it into fourteen pieces which, by his divine strength, he scattered up and down the whole length of the Nile so that the crocodiles might eat them.

"It is not possible to destroy the body of a god!" cried Seth. "Yet I have done it - for I have destroyed Osiris!" His laughter echoed through the land, and all who heard it trembled and hid.

Now Isis had to begin her search once more. This time she had helpers, for Nephthys left her wicked husband Seth and came to join her sister. And Anubis, the son of Osiris and Nephthys, taking the form of a jackal, assisted in the search. When Isis traveled over the land she was accompanied and guarded by seven scorpions. But when she searched on the Nile and among the many streams of the delta she made her way in a boat made of papyrus: and the crocodiles, in their reverence for the goddess, touched neither the rent pieces of Osiris nor Isis herself. Indeed ever afterwards anyone who sailed the Nile in a boat made of papyrus was safe from them, for they thought that it was Isis still questing after the pieces of her husband's body.

Slowly, piece by piece, Isis recovered the fragments of Osiris. And wherever she did so, she formed by magic the likeness of his whole body and caused the priests to build a shrine and perform his funeral rites. And so there were thirteen places in Egypt which claimed to be the burial place of Osiris. In this way also she made it harder for Seth to meddle further with the body of the dead god.

One piece only she did not recover, for it had been eaten by certain impious fishes; and their kind were accursed ever afterwards, and no Egyptian would touch or eat them. Isis, however, did not bury any of the pieces in the places where the tombs and shrines of Osiris stood. She gathered the pieces together, rejoined them by magic, and by magic made a likeness of the missing member so that Osiris was complete. Then she caused the body to be embalmed and hidden away in a place of which she alone knew. And after this the spirit of Osiris passed into Amenti to rule over the dead until the last great battle, when Horus should slay Seth and Osiris would return to earth once more.

But as Horus grew in this world the spirit of Osiris visited him often and taught him all that a great warrior should know - one who was to fight against Seth both in the body and in the spirit.

One day Osiris said to the boy: "Tell me, what is the noblest thing that a man can do?"

And Horus answered: "To avenge his father and mother for the evil done to them."

This pleased Osiris, and he asked further: "And what animal is most useful for the avenger to take with him as he goes out to battle?"

"A horse," answered Horus promptly.

"Surely a lion would be better still?" suggested Osiris.

"A lion would indeed be the best for a man who needed help," replied Horus; "but a horse is best for pursuing a flying foe and cutting him off from escape."

"...the time had come for Horus to declare war on Seth..."

When he heard this Osiris knew that the time had come for Horus to declare war on Seth, and bade him gather together a great army and sail up the Nile to attack him in the deserts of the south.

Horus gathered his forces and prepared to begin the war. And Re himself, the shining father of the gods, came to his aid in his own divine boat that sails across the heavens and through the dangers of the underworld.

Before they set sail Re drew Horus aside so as to gaze into his blue eyes: for whoever looks into them, of gods or men, sees the future reflected there. But Seth was watching; and he took upon himself the form of a black pig - black as the thunder-cloud, fierce to look at, with tusks to strike terror into the bravest heart.

Meanwhile Re said to Horus: "Let me gaze into your eyes, and see what is to come of this war." He gazed into the eyes of Horus and their color was that of the Great Green Sea when the summer sky turns it to deepest blue.

While he gazed the black pig passed by and distracted his attention, so that he exclaimed: "Look at that! Never have I seen so huge and fierce a pig."

And Horus looked; and he did not know that it was Seth, but thought it was a wild boar out of the thickets of the north, and he was not ready with a charm or a word of power to guard himself against the enemy.

Then Seth aimed a blow of fire at the eyes of Horus; and Horus shouted with the pain and was in a great rage. He knew now that it was Seth; but Seth had gone on the instant and could not be trapped.

Re caused Horus to be taken into a dark room, and it was not long before his eyes could see again as clearly as before. When he was recovered Re had returned to the sky; but Horus was filled with joy that he could see, once more, and as he set out up the Nile at the head of his army, the country on either side shared his joy and blossomed into spring.

There were many battles in that war, but the last and greatest was at Edfu, where the great temple of Horus stands to this day in memory of it. The forces of Seth and Horus drew near to one another among the islands and the rapids of the First Cataract of the Nile. Seth, in the form of a red hippopotamus of gigantic size, sprang up on the island of Elephantine and uttered a great curse against Horus and against Isis:

"Let there come a terrible raging tempest and a mighty flood against my enemies!" he cried, and his voice was like the thunder rolling across the heavens from the south to the north. At once the storm broke over the boats of Horus and his army; the wind roared and the water was heaped into great waves. But Horus held on his way, his own boat gleaming through the darkness, its prow shining like a ray of the sun.

Opposite Edfu, Seth turned and stood at bay, straddling the whole stream of the Nile, so huge a red hippopotamus was he. But Horus took upon himself the shape of a handsome young man, twelve feet in height. His hand held a harpoon thirty feet long with a blade six feet wide at its point of greatest width.

Seth opened his mighty jaws to destroy Horus and his followers when the storm should wreck their boats. But Horus cast his harpoon, and it struck deep into the head of the red hippopotamus, deep into his brain. And that one blow slew Seth the great wicked one, the enemy of Osiris and the gods - and the red hippopotamus sank dead beside the Nile at Edfu. The storm passed away, the flood sank and the sky was clear and blue once more. Then the people of Edfu came out to welcome Horus the avenger and lead him in triumph to the shrine over which the great temple now stands. And they sang the song of praise which the priests chanted ever afterwards when the yearly festival of Horus was held at Edfu:

"Rejoice, you who dwell in Edfu! Horus the great god, the lord of the sky, has slain the enemy of his father! Eat the flesh of the vanquished, drink the blood of the red hippopotamus, burn his bones with fire! Let him be cut in pieces, and the scraps be given to the cats, and the offal to the reptiles!

"Glory to Horus of the mighty blow, the brave one, the slayer, the wielder of the Harpoon, the only son of Osiris, Horus of Edfu, Horus the avenger!"

But when Horus passed from earth and reigned no more as the Pharaoh of Egypt, he appeared before the assembly of the gods, and Seth came also in the spirit, and contended in words for the rule of the world. But not even Thoth the wise could give judgment. And so it comes about that Horus and Seth still contend for the souls of men and for the rule of the world.

There were no more battles on the Nile or in the land of Egypt; and Osiris rested quietly in his grave, which (since Seth could no longer disturb it) Isis admitted was on the island of Philae, the most sacred place of all, in the Nile a few miles upstream from Elephantine. But the Egyptians believed that the Last Battle was still to come - and that Horus would defeat Seth in this also. And when Seth was destroyed forever, Osiris would rise from the dead and return to earth, bringing with him all those who had been his own faithful followers. And for this reason the Egyptians embalmed dead and set the bodies away beneath towering pyramids of stone and deep in the tomb chambers of western Thebes, so that the blessed souls returning from Amenti should find them ready to enter again, and in them to live for ever on earth under the good god Osiris, Isis his queen and their son Horus.

Another Invocation of Osiris

"I am Osiris Onnophris who is found perfect before the Gods. I hath said: These are the elements of my Body perfected through suffering, glorified through trial. The scent of the dying Rose is as the repressed sigh of my Suffering. And the flame-red Fire as the energy of mine undaunted Will. And the Cup of Wine is the pouring out of the blood of my heart, sacrificed unto Regeneration, unto the newer life. And the bread and salt are as the foundations of my body, which I destroy in order that they may be renewed.


For I am Osiris Triumphant. Even Osiris Onnophris the Justified One. I am He who is clothed with the body of flesh yet in whom flames the spirit of the eternal Gods. I am the Lord of Life. I am triumphant over Death, and whosoever partaketh with me shall with me arise. I am the manifester in Matter of Those whose abode is the Invisible. I am the purified. I stand upon the Universe. I am it's Reconciler with the eternal Gods. I am the Perfector of Matter, and without me the Universe is not."

Is Jesus Occult?

A number of parallels have been drawn between the Christian views of Jesus and other religious or mythical domains. However, Eddy and Boyd state that there is no evidence of a historical influence by the pagan myths such as dying and rising gods on the authors of the New Testament. Paula Fredriksen states that no serious scholarly work places Jesus outside the backdrop of 1st century Palestinian Judaism, which is not the same as saying Christianity lacks Pagan influence.

Scholars have debated a number of broad issues related to the parallels drawn between Jesus and other myths, e.g. the very existence of the category dying-and-rising god was debated throughout the 20th century, some modern scholars questioning the soundness of the category. At the end of the 20th century the overall scholarly consensus had emerged against the soundness of the reasoning used to suggest the category. Tryggve Mettinger (who supports the category) states that there is a scholarly consensus that the category is inappropriate from a historical perspective. Scholars such as Kurt Rudolph have stated the reasoning used for the construction of the category has been defective.

Scholars such as Samuel Sandmel, professor of Bible and Hellenistic Literature at Hebrew Union College, view conclusions drawn from the simple observations of similarity as less than valid. Sandmel called the extravagance in hunting for similarities "parallelomania" – a phenomenon where scholars first notice a supposed similarity and then "proceeds to describe source and derivation as if implying a literary connection flowing in an inevitable or predetermined direction" thus exaggerating the importance of trifling resemblances.

Greco-Roman mysteries

Parallels have been drawn between Greek myths and the life of Jesus. An early example was Friedrich Hölderlin, who in his Brot und Wein (1800–1801) suggested similarities between the Greek god Dionysus and Jesus.

Modern scholars such as Martin Hengel, Barry Powell, and Peter Wick, among others, argue that Dionysian religion and Christianity have notable parallels. They point to the symbolism of wine and the importance it held in the mythology surrounding both Dionysus and Jesus Christ; although, Wick argues that the use of wine symbolism in the Gospel of John, including the story of the Marriage at Cana at which Jesus turns water into wine, was intended to show Jesus as superior to Dionysus.

Additionally, some scholars of comparative mythology argue that both Dionysus and Jesus represent the "dying-and-returning god" mythological archetype. Other parallels, such as the celebration by a ritual meal of bread and wine, have also been suggested and Powell, in particular, argues that precursors to the Christian notion of transubstantiation can be found in Dionysian religion, which incorporated theophagic rituals. Another parallel has been drawn to how in the Bacchae Dionysus appears before King Pentheus on charges of claiming divinity and is compared to the New Testament scene of Jesus being interrogated by Pontius Pilate.

E. Kessler has argued that the Dionysian cult developed into strict monotheism by the 4th century CE; and together with Mithraism and other sects the cult formed an instance of "pagan monotheism" in direct competition with Early Christianity during Late Antiquity.

Mithras

The worship of Mithras was widespread in much of the Roman Empire from the mid-2nd century CE. The Mithra cult in the Roman Empire was a syncretism of different religious motifs, centered on the god Mithras who emerges from a rock. Its closest similarities to Christianity are the story of the slaying of the bull by Mithras; a bull is captured and killed by Mithras when he plunges a knife into it and from the dead bull grain and plants are produced, that symbolize life. Mithras was a solar deity, closely associated with the Roman Sol Invictus.

Stanley Porter argues that Mithraism took hold within the Roman Empire after its expansion and only reached Asia Minor via Roman soldiers in the latter part of the first century, after the basic elements of the gospels were in place, and hence could not have influenced their essential elements.

Early Christian authors noted similarities between Mithraic practices and Christian rituals, but took an extremely negative view of Mithraism: they interpreted Mithraic rituals as evil copies of Christian ones. In the second century, Justin Martyr contrasted Mithraic initiation communion with the Eucharist:

Wherefore also the evil demons in mimicry have handed down that the same thing should be done in the Mysteries of Mithras. For that bread and a cup of water are in these mysteries set before the initiate with certain speeches you either know or can learn.

Tertullian then wrote that as a prelude to the Mithraic initiation ceremony, the initiate was given a ritual bath and at the end of the ceremony, received a mark on the forehead. He described these rites as a diabolical counterfeit of the baptism and chrismation of Christians.

Ancient Egypt

Early in the 20th century, Gerald Massey argued that there are similarities between the Egyptian god Horus and Jesus. Following those ideas, in the 1940s Alvin Boyd Kuhn suggested that not only Christianity, but Judaism was based on Egyptian concepts, and more recently Tom Harpur (a former Anglican priest who explained in his book The Pagan Christ that he believes in a spiritual Christ, but doubts that a historical Jesus existed) has expressed similar views. Harpur acknowledges Massey and Kuhn as his intellectual predecessors and theologian Stanley E. Porter states that most of Harpur's work is directly based on quoting Massey and Kuhn.

Porter has pointed out that Massey and Kuhn's analogies include a number of errors, e.g. Massey stated that December 25 as the date of birth of Jesus was selected based on the birth of Horus, but the New Testament does not include any reference to the date or season of the birth of Jesus. The earliest known source recognizing the 25th of December as the date of birth of Jesus is by Hippolytus of Rome, written around the beginning of the 3rd century, based on the assumption that the conception of Jesus took place at the Spring equinox. Hippolytus placed the equinox on March 25 and then added 9 months to get December 25, thus establishing the date for festivals. The Roman Chronography of 354 then included an early reference to the celebration of a Nativity feast in December, as of the fourth century.

Porter states that Massey's serious historical errors often render his works nonsensical, e.g. Massey states that the biblical references to Herod the Great were based on the myth of "Herrut" the evil hydra serpent, while the existence of Herod the Great can be well established without reliance on Christian sources.

Harpur has noted that Kuhn had expected his ideas to have a Darwin-like impact on religious studies, but that has not happened and Kuhn's concepts are generally ignored or rejected. Porter criticizes Kuhn's work based on various errors such as confusing the dates of the composition of the Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud when drawing conclusions. Porter also criticizes Harpur's views (which are often based on Kuhn) for their lack of rigor and consistency.

Resurrection analogies

The Egyptians had specific harvesting rituals that related the rising and receding waters of the Nile river and the farming cycle to the death and resurrection of Osiris. The cutting down of barley and wheat was related to the death of Osiris, while the sprouting of shoots was thought to be based on the power of Osiris to resurrect the farmland.

Osiris-beds were common in ancient Egypt and were clay representations of a dead Osiris which when watered would sprout shoots in the spring, thus representing his power to control nature even after his death.

Christ myth theory proponent G. A. Wells still sees an analogy with the resurrection of Jesus in the Pauline epistles and Osiris, in that Osiris dies and is mourned on the first day and that his resurrection is celebrated on the third day with the joyful cry "Osiris has been found". However, since changing his position on the historicity of Jesus, Wells now states that the personage mentioned in the Q source is not all mythical and is "not to be identified with the dying and rising Christ of the early epistles". David J. MacLeod states that the Osiris legend is very different from the resurrection of Jesus in that "Osiris did not rise; he ruled in the abode of the dead."

Osiris Ritual and Invocation: THE LAMENTATIONS OF ISIS AND NEPHTHYS

Glorify his soul! Establish his dead body!

Praise his spirit! Give breath to his nostrils and to his parched throat!

Give gladness unto the heart of Isis and to that of Nephthys;

Place Horus upon the throne of his Father

Give life, stability and power to Osiris Thentirti,

Born of the great forsaken one, she who is called also Pelses, the truthful–

Glorious are her acts, according to the words of the gods.

Isis Speaks

Behold now, Isis speaketh,–

Come to thy temple, come to thy temple, oh An!

Come to thy temple, for thine enemies are not

Behold the excellent sistrum-bearer–come to thy temple!

Lo I, thy sister, love thee–do not thou depart from me!

Behold Hunnu, the beautiful one

Come to thy temple immediately–come to thy temple immediately! 

Behold thou my heart, which grieveth for thee;

Behold me seeking for thee–I am searching for thee to behold thee!

Lo, I am prevented from beholding thee–

I am prevented from beholding thee, oh An!

It is blessed to behold thee–come to the one who loveth thee!

Come to the one who loveth thee, oh thou who art beautiful, Un-Nofer, deceased.

Come to thy sister–come to thy wife–

Come to thy wife, oh thou who makest the heart to rest.

I, thy sister, born of thy mother, go about to every temple of thine,

Yet thou comest not forth to me

Gods, and men before the face of the gods, are weeping for thee at the same time, when they behold me!

Lo, I invoke thee with wailing that reacheth high as heaven,–

Yet thou hearest not my voice. Lo I, thy sister, I love thee more than all the earth–

And thou lovest not another as thou dost thy sister–

Surely thou lovest not another as thou dost thy sister!

Nephthys Speaks

Behold now, Nephthys speaketh,–

Behold the excellent sistrum-bearer! Come to thy temple!

Cause thy heart to rejoice, for thy enemies are not!

All thy sister-goddesses are at thy side and behind thy couch,

Calling upon thee with weeping–yet thou art prostrate upon thy bed!

Hearken unto the beautiful words uttered by us and by every noble one among us!

Subdue thou every sorrow which is in the hearts of us thy sisters,

Oh thou strong one among the gods,–strong among men who behold thee!

We come before thee, oh prince, our lord

Live before us, desiring to behold thee

Turn not thou away thy face before us

Sweeten our hearts when we behold thee, oh prince!

Beautify our hearts when we behold thee

I, Nephthys, thy sister, I love thee:

Thy foes are subdued, there is not one remaining.

Lo, I am with thee; I shall protect thy limbs for ever, eternally.

Isis Speaks Again

Behold now, Isis speaketh,–

Praised be An thou shinest upon us from heav’n every day,

Yet can we not behold thy beams.

Tehuti protecteth thee, he causeth thy soul to be established within the Maadet boat, by

the power of thy name of “Iah”!

Come to me; for I would behold thee and thy beauties by means of the Uazit eye,–

By the power of thy name of “Lord of the six festivals”!

Thy royal attendants are by thy side, nor go they forth from thee;

Thou takest possession of heaven by the greatness of thy terrors, and by the power of thy name of “Prince of the fifteen festivals”!

Thou shinest upon us like Ra, the lord–

Glow thou above us like Tum.

Gods and men live when beholding thee-shine thou upon us;

Brighten thou the two lands;

The two horizons are fitted for thy pathways.

Gods together with men are with thee;

No harm cometh unto them from thy shining,

Nor from thy journeying in the celestial boat above.

Thy enemies have ceased to be, for I am protecting thee, oh Ra, lord!

Come thou to us as a babe, thou first great Sun god.

Depart not from us who behold thee

There proceedeth from thee the strong Orion in heaven at evening, at the resting of every day!

Lo, it is I, at the approach of the Sothis period, who doth watch for him,

Nor will I leave off watching for him; for that which proceedeth from thee is revered.

An emanation from thee causeth life to gods and men, reptiles and animals, and they live by means thereof.

Come thou to us from thy chamber, in the day when thy soul begetteth emanations,–

The day when offerings upon offerings are made to thy spirit, which causeth the gods and men likewise to live.

Praise be to the Lord, for there is no god like unto thee, oh Tum!

Thy soul possesseth the earth, and thy likenesses the underworld;

Lo, it is prepared for and containeth thy hidden shrine.

Thy wife is ready to protect thee, and thy son Horus also, as prince of the lands.

Nephthys Speaks Again

Behold now, Nephthys speaketh,–

Behold the excellent sistrum-bearer! Come to thy temple, Un-Nofer, deceased,–come to Deddu!

Behold the bull, the begotten one!

Come thou to Anep (Mendes), the beloved enclosure!

Come to Khar! Come to the two Deddus (Mendes and Busiris), the place which thy soul loveth, and the souls of thy fathers likewise!

Thy son, thy child Horus, born of thy sister-goddesses, is before thy face.

It is I who doth illuminate and protect thee every day–

I will not depart from thee for ever

Oh, An, come thou to Sais, for thy name is “Sau” (protector)!

Come to Aper! Behold thou thy mother, Nut, oh thou lovely child!

Depart thou not from her! Come to her breasts; abundance is therein!

Thy sister, too, is beautiful, depart thou not from her, oh son!

Come to Sais, oh Osiris, and to Tarud,

She who is called also Nisep, born of Pelses, deceased!

Come to Aper, thy city, thy seat, and to the temple of Deb!

Thou shalt rest beside thy mother eternally

She preserveth thy limbs and procureth terror among thy enemies, for she protecteth thy members for ever.

Behold the excellent sistrum-bearer! Come to thy temple!

Come, behold thou thy son Horus as prince of gods and men;

He taketh possession of the cities and the nomes by the magnitude of his terrors;

Heaven and earth are filled with fear of him,

And the barbarians are submissive under his terrors. Thy children are among gods and men,

And the eastern and western horizons are among the attributes of thy producing;

Thy two sisters are at thy side, purifying thy soul,

And thy son Horus admitteth thine attributes. There cometh forth funereal and other offerings–beer, bulls and geese–for thee:

Tehuti proclaimeth thy Heb-festival, and invoketh thee with his protecting formulae;

Horus covereth thy limbs with his protections

Every day thy son Horus glorifieth thy spirit,

And he avengeth thy name by offerings for thy soul placed at thy secret shrine.

As for the gods, their arms bear libation vases for the purifying of thy spirit.

Come to thy children, oh prince, our lord, nor depart thou from them.

Lo! he comes!

Invocation of Osiris

"I am Osiris Onnophris who is found perfect before the Gods. I hath said: These are the elements of my Body perfected through suffering, glorified through trial. The scent of the dying Rose is as the repressed sigh of my Suffering. And the flame-red Fire as the energy of mine undaunted Will. And the Cup of Wine is the pouring out of the blood of my heart, sacrificed unto Regeneration, unto the newer life. And the bread and salt are as the foundations of my body, which I destroy in order that they may be renewed. For I am Osiris Triumphant. Even Osiris Onnophris the Justified One. I am He who is clothed with the body of flesh yet in whom flames the spirit of the eternal Gods. I am the Lord of Life. I am triumphant over Death, and whosoever partaketh with me shall with me arise. I am the manifester in Matter of Those whose abode is the Invisible. I am the purified. I stand upon the Universe. I am it's Reconciler with the eternal Gods. I am the Perfector of Matter, and without me the Universe is not."