Dying in Egypt: An Egyptian Mystery
One of the most prominent gods of Ancient Egypt is Osiris. He's always been there, hanging out with Isis and Nephthys and being murdered and brought back to life, there as the pharaoh who passed away and became one with him, hidden within the tree in his sarcophagus, or being raised as the Djed Pillar in the temples but he's never really interacted with me on a personal level in the same way that Hathor or Isis have. Until my last trip to Egypt in February!
In this blog, I’m going to share with you a little about what's known as the “Osirian Mysteries”. They are vast and multi-layered and there's no way to cover all aspects of them in one email, blog, or one short video, so I'm going to focus on just one thing .... or try to!
The Osirian Mysteries
If you were to Google "what are the Osirian Mysteries" you'll find many references to his murder and dismemberment by his brother Set, the reenactment of his death and resurrection through "mystery plays" yearly in the temples, or how the common people of Ancient Egypt viewed Osiris as a ruler of the underworld and honored him so that they would be honored in death with him.
I feel that yes, that's a part of the story that we can regurgitate ad nauseam but....wait, there's so much MORE! It's within his story that we can find ways to truly incorporate the principles, to bring about our own death and resurrection in THIS life, not the after life, for the greatest transformation of all time!
Ok, maybe that last sentence was a bit over-dramatic, but it IS very exciting. Potentially.
Behind the scenes with Osiris....
During my last trip to Egypt we visited the usual temples and sites, including the chapels of Osiris on the rooftop at the temple of Hathor at Dendera. While we were there, we magically timed things (or the Universe magically timed things for us) so that we were the only ones in the chapel. Our Egyptologist said, "If you want to do something special, you can." I'm not one to pop into "something special" like that so I just nodded and moved my Self closer to the wall and just stood there silently, really looking at the carvings on the wall.
There was Osiris, lying on his bier, dead and lifeless, attended to by Isis and Nephthys. There was Osiris, lying on his bier, half dead and alive just enough to conceive a son with Isis as a kite above his awakened member. There was Osiris, lying on his bier, waking up with his arm to cover his tired, sleepy eyes and one leg up as if to roll him Self over to get up off of his bed. There was Osiris, within a shrine as the Djed pillar being attended to on either side by Isis and Nephthys within their own shrines. There was Osiris, waking up holding his flail and his crook, rising from his bed as if getting ready to rule. There was Osiris, on his bier in the form of the khepera…the sun, risen and transformed.
As I stood there looking at these ancient carvings 2,000 years old I contemplated within my Self that I wasn’t going to be back in Egypt for an entire year and that I really had to make the most of my alchemical time here….to deeply take in and absorb the messages and the strength and the courage that Egypt always gave to me that was depleted while I was at home. Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked at Osiris and was struck by his stories of dying and lying dead upon his bier in his rooftop chapel. I felt the message of dying to the old ways of being, of dying to the old stories I clung to that no longer served me, of dying and mourning my own death within Things and the death of the things I thought would last forever like my farm and my marriage, of dying and more importantly, surrendering to that death, of dying and knowing that once I could surrender I would be ok….that everything would be ok.
I was with my small group and holding space for them to process their own messages from this place, but Osiris came for me out of nowhere. I knew that I needed to emerge from his chapel into the light, transformed in some way while still dying a little inside. It was profound in ways that words don’t do it justice for sure.
When we did emerge from his chapel to go to the next area of the temple, our Egyptologist also emerged with tears in his eyes. He looked at me incredulously and asked, “What did you DO in there?! I could feel it!” I explained my dying process and everything I felt from Osiris and how I took it all in to take home with me inside my chest so that I could benefit the most from my time in Egypt and the gifts it was giving to me. He said, “That was really powerful. I never felt anything like that before.”
In the chapel of Osiris at Philae….
We also explored the chapel of Osiris at the temple of Isis at Philae and on his own temple island. Inside his chapel we read the chapter from Awakening Osiris titled, “Awakening Osiris” and were blessed by his presence and touched by the words. This temple was first on our pilgrimage, and I felt the presence of Osiris deeply. When we were on the island, we did a short ritual of anointing to become one with the neteru. It was here that Osiris began to come closer and open my heart to his message. I needed to feel the support of Isis and Nephthys in this place. The experience here was touching and powerful but nothing like what was to come at Dendera.
A surrender to a death….
So what to do now? Now that I’m back home for a year? I die. I surrender to what must die. The things I need to let go of need to be let go with a sense of finality in the same way we experience death. We move on. We move on into the light, emerging with the khepera into a new day and a new way of being within that day of opportunity.
I let go of my horse and where she’s buried. It’s so hard! I let go of my farm and the hope that I can have it in a divorce. I don’t want to lose this dream! I let go of the dream and memory of the way I felt free there. Why do I have to let go of this place? It’s not fair! I let go of the past so that I can look to the future.
What about you?
And so…. I ask YOU to look at how you can embody this part of the Osirian Mystery. What part of you is dying or needs to surrender to a death, a finality, an ending? What part of mourning are you processing right now or need to? I know….it will be hard to let go, just as if you were diagnosed with a terminal illness and were trying to come to terms with your eventual demise. This is that same principle …… but with IN life! It’s a following of the mantra, “Just keep keepin’ on” and transforming it a bit to “Just keep letting go”.
It’s day by day. It’s back and forth. It’s waffling and talking your Self into something and back out again. If you’re doing all of that, you’re doing it right. You’re processing and coming to terms with letting go.
And just like Osiris, you’ll soon be strong inside and strong in your thoughts….just like the seated Osiris with a Djed pillar for his head. You’ll be solid.
Keep letting go. You got this.