Mirror of Isis - An Official Fellowship of Isis Publication

SUNDAY SERVICES

The Temple of Isis is a fully recognized non-profit organization, not following concepts normally associated with traditional religion, striving rather to create an entirely new path of spiritual experience. There is no sermon, yet a Priestess or Priest of Isis will be in attendance to guide each Sunday afternoon. We begin with a private meditation in the small Isis Chapel or on the grounds under the sacred 500-year-old Douglas Fir. There will be time to visit the animals and birds that live at Isis Oasis to get in touch with the beauty of nature first-hand and close-up.

We will gather in the Pavilion for tea at 4 PM and a discussion of a universal topic - all will be invited to participate and share equally. At the Grand Temple we will gather to partake of the program of the day, which could take many forms - video, song, dance, readings - all selected for its pertinence to our topic. This will be followed by a sharing of ideas. Our Sunday Temple program is designed to teach subjects like ecology, science, archeology and other subjects that promise to enrich and enhance our lives.

There is no fee for the Sunday Service activities, ALTHOUGH, any donations will be gratefully accepted. This offering is open to all interested in the wonders of nature, who wish to Bridge the gap of the ancient past and the present, creating a new era.

Prs.H. Laura Janesdaughter
Temple of Isis/Los Angeles

NEW FOI ADVISORY BOARD - CIRCLE OF PELAGIA

Laura announced that while visiting the Temple of Isis - Los Angeles, Lady Olivia Robertson, the Circle of Pelagia was founded. The Circle of Pelagia will join the Star of Isis, the Circle of Isis, and the Circle of Brigid has Advisory Boards to the Arch Priesthood Union and add additional presence of the Fellowship of Isis on the Global Web. The Circle of Pelagia is dedicated to the free flow of friendship celebrating the Love of the Goddess for all that is.

Prs. Christine Irving
Iseum of Mary Magdalene
Nevada City, California

IN HONOR OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

Last year, about this time, Kathryn Smith and I decided to write a series of poems in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our Lady stepped in and doused us with the Holy Water of Inspiration. Before we knew it, Kathryn and I were collaborating on a full-length play depicting the Life and Times of our dear Mamacita Lupita. We produced our play, a Rose in Winter last December in Nevada City to a full house and rousing applause. This year we plan to repeat the performance twice on Saturday, December 9 at 7:30 PM and again on Sunday, December 10 at 2 PM. The performance will take place at The Off Center Stage at 315 Richardson Street in Grass Valley, California. Call 530.272.2268 for tickets and information. The following short history and background is taken from the first act of our play and traces the history of the Black Madonna in whose lineage Our Lady of Guadalupe belongs.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BLACK MADONNA

“In the beginning, there is Isis: Oldest of the Old, She is the Goddess from who all Becoming Arose. She is the Great Lady, Lady of Ten Thousand Names, Mistress of the Two Lands of Egypt, Mistress of Shelter, Mistress of Heaven, Mistress of the House of Life, Mistress o the Word of God. She is the Unique.

The sun mistress
And daughter of the lord of gods
Spouse of the king.
She who became pregnant
And carried the good god,
She who gave birth to the son
Horus, the lord.
Isis, the great mother of gods
Queen of the mamissi.*

Mamissi is the place in Egyptian temples where one performs rites of purification before proceeding farther. It is also the spot where Egyptian women came to give birth if they wanted their child to be born in a temple.”
Throughout the ages, kingdoms and dynasties of Egypt, Isis maintains her hold on the hearts and imagination of the people. Over and over they paint and sculpt her - Isis of the Ten Thousand Names enthroned with the child god, Horus on her knee. As the might of Egypt wanes Isis moves on into Greek lands and Roman, following the troops north and west into Gaul, Germania and finally the British Isles.

Probably, it is the camp followers of the Legionnaires, wives, daughters, concubines, prostitutes and laundrywomen who cannot do without:

“Isis who gives birth to heaven and earth, she who knows the orphan, She who knows the widow, She who seeks justice for the poor, and shelter for the weak.”

Five centuries into the Christian era, thirty-five hundred years after her name first appears in writing, the Roman Emperor Justinian closes the last temple of Isis. It is a terrible time of great upheaval and change.
Lawlessness reigns; brigands, mercenaries and hoards of the dispossessed roam the countryside. It is a time to hunker down, obey whoever happens to be in charge and bury your treasures. Down into the Earth go the statues of Isis. People bury her in caves, under rocks, and in the hollows of trees.

The Christian Church, glorifying and celebrating the masculine principle but forgetting the feminine - grows in power and authority. Then comes the Black Death; great waves of bubonic plague crash across Europe decimating her population. Clergy and laypeople alike fall to the disease. People yearn for comfort, surcease from suffering, and relief from the pain of loss. Out of this great longing the cult of the Virgin is born.

The feminine divine, in the form of Mary, Mother of God, sweeps back into the church. Her feminine divine, in the form of Mary, Mother of God, sweeps back into the church. Her arrival healds a creative outpouring of the people. Farmers, day laborers, stonemasons, glass blowers, wood carvers appear as if by magic in droves to erect her temples. As the stone spires of cathedrals push higher up into the sky, out of the Earth come the statues of Isis. Ancient Isis, black and beautiful, holding her child. And the people place their old goddess in the new churches and add “Maria” to the list of ten thousand names.

Rosa des Rosas
Contiga* to Mary in court language of 12th Century Spain
(Mixture of Spanish Portuguese, French Italian)
*Contiga are songs of courtly love written either to Mary or to a noble lady, whom the singer loved from afar.

Rosa des rosas
et Flor des flores
Doñ a des dõ nas
Señ or des señ ores
Rose de beldad e de parecer
et Flor d’allegrí a et de prazer
Doñ a en mui piador seer
Señ or en toller cortas et Dolores
Rosa des rosas
et Flor des flores
Doñ a des dõ nas
Señ or des señ ores
Esta Da que tenor por Señ or
et de que quieroseer troubador
se eu, per en, poss’auer seu amor
dou so demo os otros amores
Rosa des rosas
et Flor des flores
Doñ a des dõ nas
Señ or des señ ores

And Flower of all flowers
Lady of all ladies
Liege of all lords
Rose of beauty and Truth
And flower of joy and of youth
Lady enthroned in great holiness
Liege Lord who bears our sorrows
Rose of all roses
And Flower of all flowers
Lady of all ladies
Liege of all lords
This is the Lady I hold in liege
For who I long to be the troubadour
So that, in this I may have her love,
Giving it first place over other loves.
Rose of all roses
And Flower of all flowers
Lady of all ladies
Liege of all lords.

Barbara Lee Westlake, Prs. H. of She of the Green Wings and Crescent Moon Lyceum, and head of the Spirit Care Yoga Center in Mt. Shasta, sent us this lovely account of the marriage of Diveena and Marcus at which she had the honor of officiating.

DIVEENA AND MARCUS WED IN HAWAII

It was a deeply felt honor for me to marry two of my very best friends, Priestess Diveena and Marcus. I want to preface by saying that both Diveena dn Marcus and their house survived the recent 6.6 earthquake on the Big Island very well. Their house was built up to the most recent earthquake standards by a very savvy engineer, so they experienced no loss of house or contents.

Diveena was divinely led to Hawaii, and after experiencing both Ohau and Maui went on to the Big Island to stay with people that she had never yet met: Steve and Jo Anne. A dear friend of hers in Sonoma with a crystal store, when he found she was going to the Big Island, wanted her to meet a man that had hit him in a car while drunk driving and that he had forgiven and kept out of prison. That man was Steve who was so overwhelmed by gratitude to be so forgiven by someone he had hurt that he transformed himself and turned his life around.

Diveena is deeply moved by the energy of the Hawaiia creator goddess Pele. Diveena and Marcus, after living at a lower elevation near the Hilo area, decided to make their home in Volcano, very near one of the homes of Pele in the Kiluea Caldera and active volcano of Kiluea. The little hamlet of Volcano is at an elevation of 4500 feet. In the winter it is necessary to use fuel to heat the house, so their climate is very close to what it was in Sonoma, except for more rain!

Diveena and Marcus decided to hold the wedding in the garden of Ira Ono’s Garden Arts Gallery. Diveena does computer work for Ira at his Gallery, and Ira’s garden contains a very sacred grove where the wedding ceremony was held. The elements of earth, air, fire and water were honored, and Diveena and Marcus were blessed by the element of water at their wedding in the form of raindrops! Diveena and Marcus exchanged their own vows, and the special black weddings rings of a very lightweight titanium alloy were blessed by me and then exchanged.

Diveena’s friend, Lauren Pomerantz arom Maui sang and hummed softly throughout the ceremony while the flute was played by another friend. Diveena wore sacred Hawaiian white flowers in her hair and Marcus and I were both given a necklace of sacred Maite green leaves to wear. These leaves only grow in the rainforest and can only be collected by people who are licensed to do so and know how to harvest the leaves to prevent destruction to the plant and the proper time of year to do the harvesting.

Diveena’s dear friends, Chikumba and Onaiya, prepared a very special Hawaiian reception dinner. The wedding cake and the groom’s choclate cake were both made by Diveena - as she used to have a business making special occasion intricately decorated cakes while still in high school. The reception was an evening of enchantment in Ira’s Gallery and soon to be Café . Chikumba and Onaiya’s food was exquisitely and ovingly prepared and delicious to eat.

Diveena and Marcus both feel blessed to be where they are in Volcano, and within a larger community of people that honor the land, as well as surrounded by dear friends with whom they can commune and share on a deep spiritual level. Diveena and Marcus hold a payer circle every 13th of the month in Volcano at their house currently. If you are on the Big Island at that time of month, please feel free to join them (Diveena and Marcus can be reached at 808-985-8304). There were four of us that came from California for the wedding and Diveena and Marcus graciously opened their home to us