In the spirit of a happy Equinox, and the 32nd birthday of the Fellowship of Isis, I felt a bit of humor would be appropriate. After all, birthdays are an occasion for laughter and celebration.

Several years ago, I had the good fortune to attend a workshop with Amber K, who was teaching about Discordian teachings. The workshop was entitled, "Hail Eris! Hi, Coyote!" at which we were drawn into the mythos of the trickster deity, Coyote, and eventually asked to complete a Coyote story of our own, starting with a short introductory set up by Amber K and her partner. It was one of the most enjoyable workshops I've ever attended, as it recognized that the Gods and Goddess also love humor, even when it's slapstick.

At the same festival, I became a member of Amber K's "Order of the Moose," and obtained a t-shirt that has become one of my favorites. She wrote it, and the statements on it descend in smaller and smaller type down the shirt. I love to wear it in places like airports, because people get to reading the statements, thinking it's just a typical New Age paean to the Goddess, then they hit the "twist" statements lower down and lose it laughing. When you're in a situation of tension or distress (and an airport surely qualifies), laughter goes a long way toward relieving the unhappiness and shifting the energy toward a more bearable state.

The t-shirt says:

"The Earth is our Mother.
The Sky is our Father.
The Moon is our Sister.
The Wind is our Brother.
(now the type is starting to get fairly small.)
The Moose is our Great-uncle.
The Stinkweed is our Second Cousin.
I don't think we're related to mosquitos at all.
The Zucchini is our Third Cousin Twice Removed from Poughkeepsie."

People usually break down and start laughing at the line about Stinkweed.

It is from teachings such as this that I developed the idea of an aspect of Isis of 10,000 names called "Isis Hilaria." The ancient cultures from which we draw many of the aspects of the Goddess that we worship all had a high respect for the human need for humor. From Uzume, the Japanese Goddess of Laughter who drew Amaterasu from her cave hiding place, to Baubo, the Greek Goddess of Laughter who drew Demeter out of her intense grief, to Sheila na Gig of Ireland, who similarly used bawdy humor to relieve grief and pain, we see Gods and Goddesses everywhere who teach us to make merry.

In ancient Egypt, they also had a high appreciation of laughter and merriment, as a relief from the various pains and hardships of everyday life. Bast, whom we usually think of as "the Cat Goddess," was principally a Goddess of celebration, joy, and merriment. Her
festivals featured laughter, drunkenness, sexual activity, pleasures of all kinds, and generally joy in all its forms. When our first Egyptologists encountered the records of these ceremonies, their Victorian prudery was much inflamed, and they toned down the meanings of the texts describing Bast's festivals because they were "shameful excesses." How wrong they were!

The ancient Egyptians, particularly the everyday people living in the countryside looked forward to Bast's festivals with great anticipation, since they were a break from their normal lives that gave them great pleasure. It was specifically that aspect of "pleasure" that confounded our Victorian Egyptologists. Bast was also the Goddess of new growth, the Lady in Green, and the patron of Peret or Proyet, the season of Emergence. After the months of the Inundation (Akhet), and the pestilence it brought when the waters receded, a celebration of life and joy was much anticipated. New crops had been planted and the first green shoots of the new harvest were confirming that the people of Khem had survived another difficult year, alive and thriving. Bast embodies that joy, which we would associate with the Spring Equinox and our celebration of the birthday of the Fellowship.

The Egyptians saw nothing wrong with sexuality, and indeed created some of the most beautiful poems anywhere celebrating sexuality in a deeply loving relationship. In many ways, their attitudes were much more benign than our own.

So, in my concept of Isis Hilaria, I've subsumed the many different aspects through which the ancient Egyptians celebrated laughter--even their fondness for puns in their hieroglyphic writing--and found one of her names that is most neglected. This is Isis with the funny nose and fake glasses, who finds you in your darkest times and heals you with silliness, ridiculous situations, and a deep belly laugh. Isis Hilaria celebrates all joy and humor that is well-meaning, and used to relieve, rather than cause, pain. Through her, you can reach back to the ancient Gods and Goddesses whose myths embodied elements of laughter, joy, and pleasure, and reclaim your human right to be happy.

Our celebrations of the Goddess are so often *so* serious, with everyone deeply focused on seeing Her in Her most intensively transformative aspects. We create rituals of great seriousness, and solemnity, which are wonderful, but not joyful. Let's take a moment to celebrate the other side of the Goddess--joy, pleasure, and laughter--by offering our happiness up to Isis Hilaria, and learning how to see her hand in our own pratfalls. That would be a worthy avenue for growth in the Fellowship of Isis, for all of us.

Happy Oestre! Celebrate the Lady in Green as she brings the newshoots of plants and the buds on the trees back to us after the cold of winter. Be happy, be joyous! Smell the scents of new growth, and revel in the feel of the warming earth as you plant seeds for summer's flowers and vegetables. Find your own moments of pleasure to offer up to Isis Hilaria!

 

About the Author: Michael A. Starsheen is an ordained priest in the Temple of Isis and the Fellowship of Isis. Michael put up what is believed to be the first ever FOI related website on the internet in late 1994. The website was titled after his FOI centre “Lyceum of Isis of the Stars.” It was primarily a teaching site for his lyceum. By early 1995 there were several pages on the site devoted to the Fellowship of Isis, including a copy of the Manifesto and detailed information about the Star of Ishtar Tiamat Dragon Diagram. He did it the hard way, because this was during the period when everything had to be programmed by hand - one pixel at a time. Michael is a skilled poet, writer, teacher and artist. You may view a new version of his Isis of the Stars Lyceum website here: http://www.isisofthestars.org/  If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the art displayed with this article, it is available at Michael's storefront at lulu.com. His storefront contains a listing of his current books, "Mythic Voices" and "Universal Alchemy" and other pieces of his artwork. www.lulu.com/Starsheen

 

 

Artwork pictured above, "The Magician" Ryder-Waite-Smith tarot, illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith.