ISIS MOON TEMPLE
HOLY HIGH ALTAR OF ASET
PAGE 9
Of all the gods and Goddesses, Aset is the most excellent: the Universal all embracing, all encompassing Mother Goddess. She is everything women should be, a no nonsense female who wielded magick and used it to look after everything. Aset is a Goddess of courage. Set could not undo Her. Aset was strong, a loving mother who protected Her son Horus as fiercely as any wildcat. She was brave and tough enough to rear Him alone in the wilderness of the papyrus swamps. Aset acted as regent for Her Son, kept safe the empty throne of Egypt and saw to it that He was prepared to take His rightful place upon it when it was time. Aset battled the forces of Darkness and Chaos with Light and Words of Power. She saved Egypt, brought humans agriculture and civilization. It is Aset who guides us when we are lost, Aset who enfolds us in the protection of her wings when we are in times of trouble. Her priests serve Her and everything She stands for in a constant eternal love.
Aset of the winged arms, first Daughter of Nut, the overarching sky, and the Earth God Geb, was born in the Nile swamps on the first day between the first years of creation. From the beginning, Aset turned a kind eye on the people of Earth, teaching women and men to plant, grind corn, spin flax, weave cloth, the mysteries of birth, and the mysteries of love. The goddess lived with her brother, Asar, god of Nile waters and the vegetation that springs up when the river floods. Alas for Aset, her beloved Asar was killed by their evil brother, Set. The mourning Goddess cut off her hair and tore her robes to shreds, wailing in grief. Then she set forth to locate the body of her mate. Eventually Aset arrived in Phoenicia, where Queen Astarte, pitying, but not recognizing the pathetic Goddess, hired Her as nursemaid to the infant prince. Aset took good care of the child, placing him in the palace fire to burn away his mortality, where the terrified mother found him smoldering. Astarte grabbed the child from the fire, thus undoing the magic of immortality that Aset had been working on the child. Aset was called on to explain Her action, and thus the identity of the Goddess was revealed and Her search explained. And then Astarte told Aset that the fragrant tamarisk tree in the palace contained the coffin and body of the lost Asar. Aset carried the tree-sheltered corpse back to Egypt for burial. But the evil Set was not to be thwarted. He found the body of Asar, stole it, and dismembered it.
The search of Aset began anew, and this time Her goal was not a single body, but many pieces to be found and reassembled. The Goddess did find the arms and legs and head and torso of her beloved, but She could not find his manhood and substituted a phallus which she had shaped out of the earth of the Nile. Then Aset invented the rites of embalming, for which the Egyptians are still famous, and She applied them with magical words to the body of Asar. The God rose, as alive as the corn after spring floods in Egypt. Aset magically conceived a child through the substituted phallus of the revived Asar, and that child was the Sun God Horus.
There was another tale told of Aset the magician. Determined to have power over all the gods, She fashioned a snake out of the earth and sent it to bite Ra, highest of Gods. Sick and growing weaker, He called for Aset to apply Her renowned curative powers to heal Him. But the Goddess claimed to be powerless to purge the poison unless She knew the secret name of Ra, His name of power, His very essence. Ra demurred and hesitated, growing ever weaker. Finally, in desperation, He was forced to whisper the word to Aset. Aset cured Ra, but Ra had paid the price of giving Aset eternal power over Him. When Aset was born in Egypt, the name of the Goddess was Aset (Au Set, Auzit, Eset), which means "Exceeding Queen" or simply "Spirit." The colonizing Greeks altered the pronunciation to yield the now familiar name of Isis, a name used through the generations as the worship of Aset spread from the delta of the Nile to the banks of the Rhine.
Like the Goddess Ishtar, of whom a similar tale of loss and restoration was told, Aset took on the identities of lesser Goddesses until She was revered as the Universal Goddess, the total femininity of whom other Goddesses represented only isolated aspects. She became the Lady of Ten Thousand Names, whose true name was Aset. She grew into Isis Panthea, Isis the All-Goddess. She is the Moon and the Mother of the Sun; She is mourning wife and tender sister; She is the culture bringer and health giver. She is the Throne. The Goddess Hethert (Hathor) became another of Her forms. She was also Meri, Goddess of the sea; and Sochit, the cornfield. But Aset was and is everlastingly, to Her fervent devotees, the Blessed Goddess who was all things in Herself and who promised: "You shall live in blessing, you shall live glorious in my protection, and when you have fulfilled your allotted span of life and descend to the Underworld, there too you shall see me as you see me now, shining ... And if you show yourself obedient to my divinity, you will know that I alone have permitted you to extend your life beyond the time allocated to you by your destiny." Aset, who overcame death to bring her lover back to life, can as readily hold off death for her faithful followers, for the all-powerful Aset alone could boast: "I will overcome Fate."
