"... For I Am Isis."

"Get back, O Lion, bright of mouth and shining of head; retreat because of my strength, take care, O you who are invisible, do not await me, for I am Isis."

This line is from Plate 10-B of the Papyrus of Ani, a work known popularly (with added text from other Egyptian works) as the Egyptian Book Of The Dead or The Book Of Going Forth By Day. It's one of my favorite lines.

Aset, known as Isis to the Greeks, is not a goddess I work with: I am no Kemetic Pagan. I do find her mythology compelling, though. While reading through this work I found myself flipping around for references to her and to her sister Nephthys, known also as Nebet-het, the wife of Seth, also known as Sutekh. Nephthys rarely appears without Isis: one of the lines later in Chapter 17, also located on Plate 10-B, is

"I have become pregnant as Isis, I have conceived as Nephthys. Isis drives out those who would await me, Nephthys drives off those who would disturb me. The dread of me follows after me ..."

They also speak on Plates 33A and 33B, soon after a chapter for a knot-amulet of red jasper:

"Words spoken by Isis: I have come that I may be your protection. ... I clear your windpipe for you. I cause you to be a god with your enemies fallen under your sandals. May you be vindicated in the sky and may your flesh be powerful among the gods."

"... Words spoken by Nephthys: ... I have come that I may be your protection. My protection is about you, my protection is about you eternally. Your call has been heard by Re, you have been vindicated by the gods. Raise yourself up, so that you may be vindicated because of what has been done against you."

If you're interested, the very last words of the Papyrus are addressed to a third goddess, Hathor, known also as Het-Heru:

"Hathor, Lady of the West; She of the West; Lady of the Sacred Land; Eye of Re which is on his forehead; kindly of countenance in the Bark of Millions of Years; a resting-place for him who has done right within the boat of the blessed; who built the Great Bark of Osiris in order to cross the water of truth."

#mythology