Many of these concern matters beyond the physical. She controls the activation of the Kundalini, or ‘serpent power’ in the opening of the psychic centres. She also taught the other Deities knowledge of the stars. Many of those who have experienced psychic transformation through visions of Isis speak of Her coming from the stars. It is no coincidence that so many UFO contactees speak of a ‘woman of divine grace’ imparting wisdom to them, for this was always Her role, whatever form the vehicle was seen to take, and whatever the literal truth of these encounters. Isis is, after all, Daughter of the Star Goddess Nuit.

Those who work with the Goddess in Her myriad forms will discover that the only thing that is constant is constant change! Isis is Mistress of Magic, said to be greater than a thousand magicians. As Mistress of Egypt, the land first known as Khem, She has now brought Her Alchemy (named for Her land) to the thousands of members of the Fellowship of Isis. They have experienced major life changes, an explosion of creativity, a change in the direction of their life, increased psychic abilities and deeper insights into the mysteries and also into their everyday life.

The Fellowship of Isis is now a major force in the international movement for the renewal of the religion of the Goddess. To understand how this came to be we must look into the way that She revealed Herself to the founders of the Fellowship.

Olivia’s vision of the Goddess certainly began to have an Alchemical effect upon her life. She realised it was a Sangreal, a Holy Grail, symbol of the divine feminine principle: “It came in the form of the sign of Mars, and the evil super-child, legs straddling the world, the sort of child who bullied everyone in the sand pit. Then I saw this symbol reversed and becoming the Holy Grail. It was the sign of Venus, or the Ankh, the host was there, the circle of Mars, but reversed over the equal armed cross, and the outline of a cup. Across the ankh or the sign of Venus were two horns, and the host, the sacred bread, was resting upon these things. Only later I recognized that these were the horns of Hathor which I used for the emblem of the Fellowship of Isis. So the discovery of the Goddess was a bit like Cinderella’s fairy godmother revealing herself, or Venus appearing suddenly in a rock in Tannhauser.”

It was to her brother Lawrence (Derry), that the truth of the reality of the Goddess first manifested. Both had read the Acts of the Apostles in their early 20s. Derry became a clergyman, and he came through his studies, and through intuition, to see ‘God the Mother’, the Divine Feminine. He became completely converted. Olivia comments: “I was always trying to bring in the God, although my brother was totally for the Goddess, as was my nephew. Then I realized that it had to be like this to be totally effective. Derry didn’t like the sacrifice of Christ, bloody, violent, tortured on a cross, a horrific unnatural image. But a woman gave blood monthly, naturally, as a source of life, fertility. The Mother was all-important. Derry saw that our neglect of this had brought so much horror into the world, from the Synod of Whitby, where the new Christians decreed that women had no souls, to the witch burnings were millions cruelly lost their lives. One day I found Derry un-nailing Jesus from a crucifix in our chapel. I saw that the Goddess was right and his kindness told me that I should work with him on reintroducing the religion of the Goddess. It was the same kindness shown by the woman washing the feet of Christ and the mercy of the Magdalene.”

This discovery of the Goddess overturned the whole of Olivia’s life. The Goddess was everything she had been taught to despise as an Anglo-Irish Protestant, socialist and materialist. The shock of finding that these things were actual, that “we should take heed of the Lady up in the tree” was enormous.

Olivia was, at that time, a highly successful novelist. She had left Ireland during WWII to act as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse) for the Red Cross. While staying with a clergyman relative in Somerset, she had seen the bombers flying to and from Coventry. Until then she had been a committed pacifist. Her old socialism and idealism were still there, but tempered by the Morrigan, the Goddess Who helps men pass over after death on the battlefields. Olivia was proud to have been present in ‘England’s Finest Hour’.

After the war Olivia returned to Ireland and researched the street games of the Dublin slum children. She was surprised to encounter the ancient mysteries in their play. She wrote for the Irish Times, Tribune and for Radio of how ancient mystery-games had been transformed by the children’s experience of poverty; the ancient game of hopscotch, where the final goal had once been ‘heaven’, now finished at the GPO, since that was where their fathers went to draw the dole! She found that these games had come down via ancient traditions based on pagan ritual, from initiations into mystery cults and warrior societies; the ‘piggy in the middle’ that children pushed around had once been the symbol of the soul.

Olivia also investigated and wrote on the pioneers of baby therapy, including the Sister Mary Kenny technique for helping malformed children, and the work of Estrid Dane, of the British War Relief Society of the USA. Estrid Dane developed the work of the Neumann-Neurode method of exercises for infants, making the spine move freely through natural movement rather than ballet or ‘physical jerks’ exercises. This system had similarities with both Yoga and Eurhythmics, and the free-expression in the dance of Isadora Duncan. This led Olivia to the realisation that it was good for both physical and mental health for people to project themselves. They could get rid of inhibitions which clog up the system and cause all sorts of problems, through chanting, song, and natural dance, the domain of the Goddess Hathor. By free expression, children could develop their personalities and adults transform their lives.

When she turned to writing novels, Olivia was immediately successful. Her second novel ‘Field of the Stranger’ was a Book Society choice and received extremely good reviews in the London Times Literary Supplement and the Chicago National Herald, to name but two. This novel was set in the Irish countryside she knew so well and until the Goddess arrived, Olivia played the part expected of her. She wore the usual dark browns, wore no make-up and kept her hair short, since at that time and in her circles it was not the done thing to look feminine, since femininity was equated with foolishness. Suddenly she decided to allow the inner transformation to show to the outside world. She grew her hair, astonished that she could grow so much of it, began to wear bright colours and make-up. She began to write rituals and use romantic language rather than the ‘very good Anglo-Saxon ‘Low Dutch’ English”. She recalls: “I suppose I appalled my previous readership. I was told that ‘Field of the Stranger’ was in every country house in England. I produced my last work for orthodoxy in 1956, ‘Dublin Phoenix’ for Jonathan Cape. It sold out on the first day of publication, but my star was transforming, I was changing. I felt like I was growing wings, emerging from a chrysalis. I was doing Yoga and I seemed almost to become younger. I was very short-sighted but I stopped wearing glasses and my sight improved, curiously. I started wearing black velvet and silver amulets. I supposed my friend and I, with our pre-Raphaelite look, were pioneer hippies!”

Although her experiences in the war had transformed Olivia’s view on pacifism, she nevertheless feels that the Goddess began increasing the strength of Her Call after the explosion of the atomic bomb:“We are gardeners of the earth, as in Eden. We are guardians looking after all the species, and are part of the great symbiosis of animal and angels. We have failed, so we are getting help from non-human realms. I am totally against duality, everything being seen as good against bad, black and white. The most horrible demons come from inside you, and so you have to transform them.”

The reintroduction of the religion of the Goddess through the Fellowship of Isis has worked, and Her Alchemy is shaping and changing the lives of those who have answered the call. Isis in Her 10,000 Names is being animated across the planet. Some, for instance, are following the path of Sekmet, the Lion-headed Goddess Who transforms war to joyous celebration; some honour Brigid, the Celtic Goddess of smith-craft and poetry, Who transforms mere words and base-metals; others have chosen Artemis, Mistress of the Beasts, and strive to make the world a better place for animals, and there is a growing band working with the Goddesses Gaia and Elen, dedicated to the conservation of our precious earth. Kwan Yin and Amaterasu are being heard again in the Far East. The celebration of Ngame of Africa and Lakshmi of India continues after thousands of years. Through the Fellowship of Isis, one may experience communion with, and receive wisdom from, all of These and more. The Alchemy of Isis, the ultimate transformation, is slowly but steadily changing the world.

This article was originally published in the Neptune Press edition of the "Call of Isis", 1993.  Re-printed here by permission. Cover art for this edition of "Call of Isis' from a painting by Judith Page. Aerial view of the 'Macha' or 'Crow's Foot' courtesy W. Kelton. Photo of Clonegal Castle, courtesy of Olivia Robertson. "Super Child" drawing by Olivia Robertson, from her novel "St. Malachy's Court". Cover of 'Field of the Stranger' reproduced by permission. All rights reserved.