It seems like a huge patriarchal rip-off that neither the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, nor the Russian Orthodox Church considers the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ, to be divine. They caution their flocks that they may honor and venerate Mary, but they must not worship her.
In all fairness, she was a mortal. By all accounts, a nice Jewish girl that would have made a good wife for any doting
mother’s son—until voila! The Immaculate Conception. This move is not without precedent. Seducing mortal women was one of Zeus’s favorite pastimes. But the key word here is seduced. At least Leda got to enjoy it. God didn’t seduce Mary. He didn’t even offer polite conversation. All she got was a visit from his messenger, the Archangel Gabriel, who said, “Honey, you’re pregnant. In nine months you will bear God’s son. Take good care of him so that he can grow up and be crucified.”
She did.
And he did.
Mary did a lot of weeping.
As a pagan, I’m quite happy to view Mary as a goddess; according to Catholic dogma, she never died, but ascended directly into heaven. That’s immortal enough for me. Catholic laity, as far as I can tell, worship her as a goddess and the clergy make little effort to patrol that fine
line between veneration and worship. The Virgin Mary has inspired, healed, and transformed people’s lives for centuries. Millions of people, even non-Catholics, visit her sacred sites all over Europe, Western Asia, and the Americas. Every other street corner in Italy is graced with a shrine to The Virgin Mary. She even has her own radio station, WBVM, out of Tampa, Florida. Protestants point out that the New Testament has very little to say about Mary and makes no mention of anything that would set her apart from all other mortal women—except that she was the mother of Jesus.
The similarities between the Egyptian goddess Isis and The Virgin Mary are so striking that some believe that early Christian spin-doctors lifted the Mary’s story straight from the myth of Isis.
Isis is a loving wife and mother, a friend to beggars and slaves as well as pharaohs and wealthy aristocrats. Centuries before Jesus was even a gleam in God’s eye, Isis was worshiped all over the Mediterranean as The Great Goddess of magic and fertility, the protector of the dead, and guardian of the Mysteries. She is primarily a solar goddess, but she also has lunar associations. The Virgin Mary is sometimes pictured with a crescent moon at her feet. When Isis wept for the loss of her husband, Osiris, her tears flooded the Nile River, bringing water and rich silt to the parched fields. The Virgin Mary’s tears are also legendary.
Some of Isis’s many titles are:
Queen of Heaven,
Mother of the Gods,
The One Who is All,
Star of the Sea,
Great Lady of Magic,
She Who Knows How To Make Right Use of the Heart,
Light-Giver of Heaven,
Lady of the Words of Power,
Moon Shining Over the Sea.
Virgin of the World
Some of Mary’s many titles are:
Queen of Heaven
Mother of God
Stella Maria (Star of the Sea)
Our Lady of Good Council
Our Lady of Victory
Our Lady of Sorrows
Ever Virgin
All Holy
See also:http://www.aldokkan.com/religion/isis.htm for a bit more information. Isis is a very old and complex goddess. For a thorough understanding I recommend reading Isis Magic by M. Isidora Forrest or visit her blog at www.isiopolis.com.
As I was writing The High Priestess post, I wanted to mention The Virgin Mary as a goddess that represented this archetype, but I took a second look and realized that this wouldn’t work because she also fit the archetype of The Empress. Then I looked at my goddess attributions for these two cards and noticed that Isis also represents both archetypes. In her veiled aspect, she is The High Priestess; and in her unveiled aspect, she is The Empress. This dual association suggests how these two immensely popular goddesses embody the mysterious and paradoxical
feminine archetype. They are virgin mothers, symbols of fertility and aesthetic guardians of the Mysteries, ladies of great joy and great sorrow, and mothers of gods and loving mothers of humanity. A perfect and potent combination of the High Priestess and Empress archetypes.
11 thoughts on “The Virgin Mary, Isis, The High Priestess, and the Empress”
Simone’s painting is excellent!!
As you always say
” if something is working just steal it”, and Isis was
a very popular goddess.
So what about Eve, where does she fit in, no virgin birth for her…:(
Don’t know exactly how she fits in. I wouldn’t call her a Goddess, but she is the mother of the human race.
She started out immortal and ate of the fruit and became mortal, the other way around from Mary who started out mortal and became immortal.
I really like this post. One of my favorites so far. Good pictures too 😉
Mary was married to her husband Joseph who was consecrated to temple work (house of Israel). He had to fulfill certain Jewish cleansing rites before he could come in unto Mary, though married to her. During this time the bible says the Angel(messenger-Gabriel came in unto her) and let her know that she was special picked. A little bite of the old apple in Eden I suspect. According to linage, she had direct link to David’s throne; only Joseph was Jewish(meaning he was a Jew also). She was a Queen so to speak, but the whole problem with the crucifiction was that no heir of Jehoiakim was ever going to be allowed to sit as king on the throne of the linage of Jehoiakim , ever again because of his and his forefather’s evil rulership. Jeremiah36:30 That is why God chose Cyrus King of Persia to be messiah and bring them back from Babylon and were reigned over by Gentile times’ until the time of their fullness come, in 1948 exactly 2300 years from 352 BC. The 490 years persecution beginning at Jerusalem started then as the Greek horn, broke to grow the North, South, Eastern, and Western Empires, blah, blah, blah; you know the rest. It was Germany that carried out a type of what Rome did to Jesus on the cross, as Jesus prophesied this as the lot coming upon the Jew. Oh by the way, for any Christian reader out there: Jesus warned his Jewish disciples that this was the beginning of the tribulation (at the temple toppling) and the coming to pass (pass being the key word, meaning OVER! He said” these are they that come to you about me, saying I AM Christ. Also saying the time is now! From these turn away, don’t be one of those in the world that are decieved, as these would decieve the whole world. What’s my point: simply this. Jesus was messiah: annointed, even the madgi knew this when they brought the gifts from the head Madgi Daniel who died without an heir except Jesus. Those, Jesus warned of, were Greek, Christ is greek. Guess what was bargained in the translation from messiah to christ? The Greek sold Jesus as God! How many times did the people pick up stones because of flying rumor of this. They had no problem with messiah, but Christ was a countra-revolutionary word, even the prophet Jesus warned against. All goes back to what Mary did in getting pregnant with the pagan messenger Gabriel(Persian angel stemming from Babylonian captivity, beliefs. Had he done this before she was married, then she would have been stoned by Joseph. Take your pick of Isis, Hellenism’s Helena, or Mary High Priestess. Or get back to the God that has no form, that said I’ve given you all you need, as Moses taught of me. Lastly, know this! This same Greek nation, that split into four Empires already knew they weren’t Jews and wanted no part of anything from a people they took into slavery back in 352 BC !! However, it was under the Greeks that Isis was transformed into HELLENISM !! Do you see the Greeks at work here even now? It’s fitting that they would call Jews the Anti-Christ, because we never bought into it.
I said Mary wasn’t married because The Holy Bible says she wasn’t. In the revised, standard edition, the book of Matthew says she was betrothed. I took that to mean that she hadn’t married yet. In the book of Luke, when the Angel Gabriel tells her that she will bear God’s son, she replies, “How can this be, since I have no husband? (italics are mine).
The Gospel of Luke is the only one that names Gabriel as the angel that came to Mary, and Gabriel is very clear that Mary is carrying God’s child. I have never heard anyone claim that Jesus was The Archangel Gabriel’s son.
It is my understanding that the gospels were written in Greek because Greek was the language of scholars at that time, and Greek Civilization had the same cachet then as the USA does now. I have no doubt that things got translated funny and the real sense was buried. I am unaware of any source that does more than speculate about what the gospels really meant. All we have is what’s written, inaccurate as it probably is, and that’s what I was quoting.
My point was that Mary was a virgin and had no say in her impregnation. These days, we would say she was raped.
I agree with most of this. (Btw, I’m a Protestant Christian.) I think it’s blatantly unfair that the church can be described as the “bride” of Christ, but the Catholic church (and others) are staunch patriarchs.
I’ve had the same theory for a while now that the “veneration” of Mary was added in by the early Catholics because the Cult of Isis was hugely popular.
My main reason for commenting though is that Mary wasn’t raped by God. That’s an unfortunate misconception. When Gabriel appeared to her, he/she/it specifically said “You WILL become pregnant and give birth to a son. (Luke 1:31)” When she replies that she’s a Virgin, the angel replies, “The Holy Spirit WILL come to you. (Luke 1: 35)” She wasn’t impregnated until AFTER she already been told about it and agreed to do so. In Matthew it does mention that Joseph didn’t know that she was with child until Gabriel came to him, but that deals with Joseph specifically. Mary had already been told about it.
So she wasn’t raped. She agreed to it before the conception.
Last thing, Zeus didn’t always seduce his mortal “lovers.” Many times it was just plain rape, complete with bestiality.
Hi Justin
Thanks for stopping by.
I hadn’t made that exact connection between the “veneration” of Mary and the Cult of Isis. Interesting point.
Your argument about the virgin birth is quite valid. But the Bible doesn’t tell us what Mary was thinking at the time she agreed to the deed, and we can only guess at her feelings.
She was a young, dutiful woman looking forward to her wedding day. Or perhaps she wasn’t. The marriage was probably arranged. An angel in full angel regalia (which, I am told, can be pretty impressive) swoops down and tells her-yes tells her, I don’t see any “Would you likes?” or “Would it be OKs?” in Luke 1:26-38-that “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Mary must have been a devout Jew or she wouldn’t have been chosen to bear the God’s son. So she would have been God’s obedient servant, in fact, she tells Gabriel this. “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord: let be according to your word.” She doesn’t say “Great, count me in.” She may have been horrified, or she may have been ecstatic. My point is, she really had no choice in the matter.
And yes, Zeus raped every one of those women. Even the ones he seduced. They had no choice either.
I think our difference of opinion comes from what we’re calling rape.
Hi ya’ll! I’m very late replying here, just wanted to know if Isis was connected to my dear mother, Mother Mary. And she is! Lovely. If ya’ll wanna know about Mary’s life, please read The Mystical City of God. It is a holy document, one that the Church would like to see vanish. The woman who wrote this book was known to bilocate, and her body is still incorruptible, beautiful as ever, 400 years or so later. She and Mother Mary were tight, yo! God bless the Goddess! Goddess bless the God!
Thank you for your comment.
The Goddesses in the Mediterranean area tend to blend into each other. Some more so than others.
I will check out The Mystical City of God.
There’s certainly many similarities between Isis and “Holy Mary.” Not just Isis and Mary themselves, but also the child the bear, but also the relation between the Pharoah and Horus the Pope and Jesus, and their positions in Egyptian religion and Catholicism respectively.
The Bible doesn’t actually go into much detail about the nature of the angels, but usually when they appear they look quite intimidating and inhuman, but it doesn’t actually say that Gabriel appeared in full angelic form. He/she/it may’ve taken a more human form. But his/her/its words weren’t intimidating or threatening, and were kind and promised her great things. You may already know this, but given the culture and time period, and Elizabeth’s reaction, it’s a very good possibility that Mary would’ve been happy to have children. Technically there was no asking how she felt, but she never gave any sign of protest, and just 8 verses later she’s singing about how she loves God and that he’s done great things for her, so it’s pretty safe to assume that she wanted to have God’s son, and that she definitely had choice in it. I haven’t had it happen to me personally, but I’ve become way more aquainted with the suject than I would ever want to, so I have really strong feelings on the subject of rape. Mary herself never actually gave any signs of reistance, and the Bible never gives any signs that bad things would happen if she didn’t agree. It’s not like God would’ve picked someone who He knew wouldn’t agree to it.
Yes, I agree. This is why I’ve never really liked the Greek myths, and I always hated Zeus. It’s reasons like this that I always loved Egyptain paganism, because the women have much better and stronger roles, and their gods just seemed more like more ethical, more pleasant people.
I think we’re gonna have to agree to disagree on the rape thing. I see what you’re saying and I understand.
We are on the same page about Greek vs Egyptian mythology though. In fact I was so fascinated by your comment that a wrote my next blog about it.
Please check it out and let me know what you think.