Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult ArtsSilberer, Herbert
Religion
Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts
Silberer, Herbert
Alchemy; Society of Rosicrucians; Symbolism (Psychology)
brother Set, which happened according to the original version on account
of desire for power, later tradition substitutes an unconscious incest
which Osiris committed with his second sister, Nephthys, the wife of Set,
a union from which sprang Anubis (the dog-headed god). Set and Nephthys
are, according to H. Schneider, apparently no originally married brother
and sister like Osiris and Isis, but may have been introduced by way of
duplication, in order to account for the war between Osiris and his
brother. With the help of Anubis, Isis finds the coffin, brings it back to
Egypt, opens it in seclusion and gives way to her tender feelings and
sorrow for him. Thereupon she hides the coffin with the body in a thicket
in the forest in a lonely place. A hunt which the wild hunter Typhon
arranges, discovers the coffin. Typhon cuts the body into fourteen pieces.
Isis soon discovers the loss and searches in a papyrus canoe for the
dismembered body of Osiris, traveling through all the seven mouths of the
Nile, till she finally has found thirteen pieces. Only one is lacking, the
phallus, which had been carried out to sea and swallowed by a fish. She
put the pieces together and replaced the missing male member by another
made of sycamore wood and set up the phallus for a memento (as a
sanctuary). With the help of her son Horus, who, according to later
traditions, was begotten by Osiris after his death, Isis avenged the
murder of her spouse and brother. Between Horus and Set, who originally
were brothers themselves, there arises a bitter war, in which each tore
from the other certain parts of the body as strength-giving amulets. Set
knocked an eye out of his opponent and swallowed it, but lost at the same
time his own genitals (testicles), which in the original version were
probably swallowed by Horus. Finally Set was overcome and compelled to
give up Horus’ eye, with the help of which Horus again revivified Osiris
so that he could enter the kingdom of the dead as a ruler.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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