I’m going to keep a little reminder at the top here for a while. If you plan to purchase the new 25th anniversary edition of Isis Magic, you can save 25% with the code ISIS25 at checkout from the publisher’s site. The offer is only good until 6/28/26, which is when the book is officially available.
Though many people first think of Isis as a Moon Goddess, Our Lady is full of Fire and Light. In fact, this blog began way back in 2010 as part of a community summer solstice festival dedicated to Isis, the Radiant Goddess.
(In later periods of Her worship, yes, it’s true, Isis was indeed associated with the moon; in fact, that’s how She entered so very prominently into the Western Esoteric Tradition. You can learn more about about that whole lunar thing here.)
So today, as we approach the summer solstice and temperatures in Portland are feeling a bit too summery for me, let’s look at Isis’ solar nature.
As far back as the Pyramid Texts, Isis was connected with the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius. It was said to be Her ba, Her soul or manifestation. Isis’ mother is Nuet, the great Star Goddess of the Night Sky, so it’s not surprising that Her daughter has stellar connections, too.
But the sun was always central to Egyptian thought and worship, so it also makes sense that Isis, one of its most important Goddesses, also had solar associations. In some places—notably, Her famous temple at Philae, and Her smaller temple at Dendera—Isis was worshipped specifically as a Sun Goddess. Among Her solar epithets are Female Re (Re-et) and Female Horus (Horet). She is The One Who Shines Like Gold. Isis is She Who Rises/Shines as the Golden One and the Golden Sky; gold, of course, being the color of the sun.
Sometimes, Isis is the daughter of Re, the Sun God. And She, like many of the Goddesses, is the Eye of Re, the Uraeus, the Cobra Goddess Who coils upon the Sun God’s brow to protect Him; and Who fights a constant cosmic battle against His great opponent, Apop (Gr. Apophis).
An inscription at Philae calls Isis Neseret-serpent on the Head of Horus-Re, Eye of Re, the Unique Goddess, Uraeus. A hymn from Philae calls Her “Eye of Re Who Has No Equal in Heaven and on Earth. The Eye of Re is His active power. While He maintains His place in the sky, the solar power—the Eye Goddess—goes forth to manifest His Divine will. In this way, Isis and the other Uraeus Goddesses (such as Nephthys and Wadjet) are similar to Shakti, the active, feminine Power related to the God Shiva in some Hindu sects. From inscriptions at Coptos, we learn that Isis is the Eye of Re Inside the Whole Solar Disk; She is the Living Power within the sun itself. While from Dendera, we read that Isis is She Who Shines as the Right Eye During the Day, and here we can clearly see Her as the sun itself.
Ah, but sometimes, Isis is a primeval Goddess Who Herself gives birth to the Sun God Re. Turnabout is fair play and so She is His mother, the Great Golden One. Isis’ husband, Osiris, the dark Lord of the Underworld, is proud to say that He is the brother of Isis, the Radiant Goddess, and He is joyful when He sees Her radiant presence in the depths of the Underworld. In various temple inscriptions, Isis is described as “bright.” She is the “One with a Bright Face,” or with “Bright Hair,” or with “Bright Two Eyes,” or “of Bright Form.” Isis is the One Whose Divine Splendor Brightens.
As this illuminating Goddess, Isis is also one of the Deities Who travels with Re in His solar barque as it moves through the Otherworld. Again, She protects Him and helps battle His foes—and, no doubt, lights the way.
As most of you already know, Isis is associated with the Sun God and the sun in several of Her important myths. In the tale of Isis and Re, Isis gains power equal to Re’s by learning His secret name, first by poisoning, then by healing the ailing God. In another, with Her magical Words of Power, Isis stops the Boat of the Sun in the sky in order to receive aid for Her poisoned child, Horus.
At Isis’ influential temple at Philae, She is clearly worshipped as a Sun Goddess and as the sun itself. A Philae hymn to Isis praises Her saying, “You are the one who rises and dispels darkness, shining when traversing the primeval ocean, the Brilliant One in the celestial waters, traveling in the barque of Re.” An inscription on the first pylon (gate) at Philae says Isis is the One Who illumines the Two Lands with Her Radiance, and Fills the Earth with Gold-dust. (I love this so much.)
Like many other Egyptian Deities, Isis was often envisioned with immortal, golden, solar skin. Some of Her sacred images would have been covered with gold, earning Her, like Hathor, the epithets The Gold and the Golden One. A Philae hymn addresses Her, “O Golden One; Re, the possessor of the Two Lands, will never be far from you.” Some scholars believe that the holy of holies at Philae may have once been gold-leafed so that it always appeared filled with golden, solar light.
At Her Philae temple, Isis is first of those in heaven: “Hail to you, Isis, Great of Magic, eldest in the womb of her mother, Nuet, Mighty in Heaven Before Re.” She is the Sun Goddess in the Circuit of the Sun Disk and Her radiance outshines even that of Re.
From Her great temple at Philae, Isis’ identity as a Sun Goddess flowed back up the Nile to Her temples at Memphis and Isiopolis in the delta. From there, it entered into the Graeco-Roman culture in the famous aretalogies (self-statements) of Isis. From a papyrus found in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, we learn that one of Isis’ many names is Name of the Sun and that She is responsible for the rising of the Sun: “Thou [Isis] bringest the sun from rising unto setting, and all the Gods are glad.” In an aretalogy from Kyme, in modern Turkey, Isis says of Herself, “I ordered the course of the sun and the moon.” And later in the same text She says, “I am in the rays of the sun” and “I inspect the courses of the sun.”
Throughout Her worship, Isis has always shown Her life giving, fructifying power in the image of the sun. She is the Radiant Goddess, the Lady of Sunlight and Brightness, and now, as we approach the summer solstice, She is in Her solar power once more.
Isiopolis 