The Egyptian Goddess Isis is often
depicted as veiled, as noted in the picture of Auguste Puttemans (1866-1927), Statue of Isis, located at Herbert
Hoover National Historic Site in Iowa (Wikimedia Commons). Isis is by no means
the first or the last manifestation of the Mother Goddess. Her story, with
Osiris and Horus, marks the passage of the sun, moon, and planets in the
backdrop of stars. As most mythical stories, theirs evolved with humans’ first
encounters with stars.
Primal myths are the stuff of
primal astronomy – the extended metaphors our ancestors used to describe the
cyclic movement of the celestial bodies; their infinity (consistency), births
(appearances), deaths (disappearances), rebirths (re-appearances). When humans
first looked at the stars in earnest and unveiled the adage, as above so below,
they had no words to describe what they saw. Expressions of awe became
syllables, and then metaphoric stories helping us to understand the lessons
from our star teachers guiding us from dark (gu) to light (ru). They taught us
how to connect stars to the cycle of the seasons, animal migrations, plant
sprouting, climate, and spacetime. It is the story in the syllabic ancient
Sanskrit mantra, sa-ta-na-ma (infinity, birth, death, rebirth). The story
behind each syllable describes the passage of the Moon, Venus, the Sun, the
Constellations, as well as the passage of Life on Earth.
The largest constellation, later
known as Virgo, became the Great Mother (wisdom, Sophia), upholding the law (Libra),
justice (Scorpio), sustenance (the Milky Way); this being only a small section
of the observable ecliptic trajectory of 12 constellations, innumerable stars and
the stuff of stars (planets, satellites, asteroids, life, dark matter).
When we stopped looking at the sky for guidance to
understand Mother Earth, these metaphors degenerated into religions and history
(or twistory, as The Little Prince
called it), blinding ourselves from what is hidden in plain sight in nature,
trading harmony for disharmony. When was the last time you saw the stars? When
was the last time you laid down on the ground (or a sailboat deck away from
city lights) to see the passage of stars from east to west, as we move in rapid
stillness from west to east? Only when we are ready to continue the natural
evolution of our ancestors, from paupers to corporate giants, will we again
begin to unveil Isis.
