ISIS MOON TEMPLE
HOLY HIGH ALTAR OF ASET
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Aset, a Magician, a Wise Woman, a Daughter of Ra, conceives a desperate plan. She knows the art of image magic, and can create life out of inanimate objects. But for the supremely immune Ra to be affected by Her arts, the image must have something of Him in it. One day, Isis follows after Ra and gathers the earth that He has moistened with himself. She fashions from it an image of a small snake, the very toxic dart, and brings it to life. Aset lays the snake in the accustomed path of Ra, with instruction to bite Ra as He passes. This the snake does, and the snake springs up and clamps its fangs into the divine flesh. Ra, surprised, makes His way back to His abode, where a tremendous fever takes Him. He shudders in His limbs, He cannot believe the virulent poison can be harming Him, Lord of the Gods. His own fire should be sufficient to burn away any other, but it is not. He has control over all the things of the universe, but not this one. Too delirious to even begin to find out why this creature's poison can harm Him, He welcomes Isis, who rushes in, to apparently comfort him. "Oh, my father, what is it? What causes you so much pain?" "I wandered today and was bitten -bitten by a snake!" "But father, how can the venom of a mere snake harm you, who rules all beasts?" "Daughter, I do not know. The pain! It burns me! I burn from within like fire! Heal me!" Aset goes through the motions of healing him, but it is useless, as she well knows. "Father, I cannot heal you. The power of the poison is too strong!"
"What am I to do! What am I to do! I cannot bear it!" "There is one thing that might work, father. Give me your name. In your name I may be able to command the fire to cease."
"I am the Lord of Light, the Power of Fire...." "Yes, yes, everybody knows those. Those aren't working. Give me your name, your one true name." "No....not my true name, not even to you, my daughter!" "Give me your name, father! Your one true name, your one secret name, the name before all other names, give it to me that I may save you!" "all right my daughter, come close" Aset leans her ear to her father's mouth. He speaks syllables to her. She straightens up in disgust. "Father, if you do not give me your true name, you will die of this burning. Don't play games with me, Aset of the Words of Power. I'll know the true name when I hear it. That's not it." "I will tell it! I will tell it!" Aset leans in. She hears the mystical syllables, and this time, she rises up, satisfied. "What are you waiting for! Now heal me, daughter! Heal me!" Aset speaks the words, the syllables of Ra's one true name. The poison flees His limbs, the sweat dries on His brow, He lies back in relief, free. "Now, daughter, speak the words back to me, give me back my one true name, my one secret name." "Father, one day I may need to heal you again. If you have lost all consciousness, how could you tell it to me then? No, I will keep this word."
And Aset left her Father's bedside. She went and stood alone in the sunlight. She looks at the neglected fields, scorched by accident by Ra. She looks at the dried bed of the Nile, evaporated by Ra in a frenzy of heat. She looks at the parched, sunburned skin of the human people of earth, the dried-up breasts of mothers whose babes cried unsatisfied, at the dehydrated animals, dying in their tracks as they quested for water. She looks at the rainclouds far away whose moisture would not even reach the ground before it was burned away by Ra's mad power. Aset says the Word, and the Word is good. So Aset has been associated with snakes from the very beginning of her career as a Goddess. In Egypt, Her images often include the snake, especially the cobra. The cobra is often depicted on the base of the crown of Isis. The Sacred Uraeus, which, when worn by queens, indicates their identification with the Divine, is a near constant companion. In images from the Graeco-Roman era, Priestesses are depicted carrying serpents in procession. Serpents entwine around surviving Altars, or rise up around the body of Osiris. Even in ancient Egypt, the symbol of the snake indicates power, sometimes referred to as the "Flame". Many of the representations of snakes in conjunction with Aset are symbols of the serpent line band of energy that connects our power centers together. One of the most important forms of Aset as Snake Goddess is that of Thermouthis, the Serpent Goddess of the fields, often represented as a cobra crowned with the headdress of Aset.
Aset is the Throne Goddess, wearing the Seat Of Power as Her symbol. The other throne related symbol is that of the Wadjet, which refers to the Goddess of that name and to the Flaming Serpent protecting the throne. It's natural that Aset would also be associated with the protective force of the throne. In the Pyramid Texts, the Creator God Geb, God of Earth, gave the Cobra as a symbol of legitimacy to the King. When Aset was raising Heru at Khemmis in the Delta, Wadjet is said to have been his nurse. Wadjet also had a leonine form, as did Aset. The name "Uraeus", which of course is a Greek version of the Egyptian, derives from the term "Yaret" which refers to the Cobra as it rises up in anger, preparing to spit flames to defend the Pharoah. This defense can also be offensive. The Cobra worn on the forehead of the King acts as a kind of spiritual flamethrower during times of war. Even Ra wears the Uraeus, which wraps around his solar disk. Wadjet also defends Ra, destroying evil serpents in the Underworld. The power of the Uraeus endured even in the Amarna period, still clinging to the abstract solar disk favored by Akhenaten. Even He could not safely dispatch the sacred snake.
Some Snake Names - Aset and Nepthys, Aar-ti, or Arar-ti, the two Uraei Goddesses; Ahkuti The two Snake Goddesses (probably Aset and Nepthys); Aset alone, Ast A Uraeus in the Boat of Af.
