IO / ISIS

THE DREAM AND THE MYTHOLOGY

by Dee Finney

9-24-00 - DREAM - I was in a house that had 12 foot high ceilings. In the kitchen was a huge bird cage on one end of the room. High up inside the bird cage were two smaller bird cages. One had two colorful parrots ... really large birds. The other cage had smaller birds like Cockatiels. These were various colors also. I wasn't prepared to have birds in the house. There was no food or water available for them and there were no dishes for food or water in the openings provided in the large cage.   I saw two tiny little birds come towards the openings and they plucked feathers out of their chests to begin making nests so they could lay eggs. Some of the feathers blew out of the cage onto the kitchen floor.   I was really excited about this but I wasn't prepared. A very tall young woman was with me and I asked her if she would go into the big cage and open up the small cages so the colorful birds would be free within the big cage. I assured her that she would be okay in there. I did this because she was so much taller than I and could reach the cages easier than I could. Then one of the smaller cockatiel size birds came to the opening of the cage. That made me nervous because I don't care to have birds flying free that will come and sit on my shoulder. I always worry they will peck on my ear or something. But this sky blue bird came out of the cage and flew onto my shoulder. He was so sweet. He rubbed his little cheek on my cheek and spoke like a human. He said, "See! My cheek fits against your cheek bone!" and he rubbed on my cheek just like a human. His feathers were really soft against my skin. My fear left me. Joe was sitting at my feet and the bird began to speak to Joe, speaking of physics and electrical concepts.  This bird obviously was better and smarter than bird or human. Joe then went to work on his computer on the other end of the room. The room was then the livingroom. It was a huge long room like we have at home. There was a little train track all around the room like people have at Christmas time. It was obviously Christmas time because an empty Christmas tree was against the wall and the train track ran behind it, and along the wall and behind the furniture, all the way around the room. Suddenly a slightly larger train came into the room from the hallway. My own train was on the tracks so the larger train bumped into the back end of it and jammed against it. No sooner had this happened, then another slightly larger train came into the room on the tracks and bumped into the back end of the other engines.  This one was large enough to bump the first two trains off the tracks. Then a LARGE train engine came into the room on the tracks. This engine was taller than myself and about 6 feet long. This one stopped in the center of the short wall and morphed into a LARGE silver opening in the wall and that morphed into a hologram picture. In the hologram appeared a scene of Africa and coming across the Savannah grass were two huge patriarchal lions. They were padding towards me with strict business on their faces. They weren't just out for a morning stroll. They walked side by side like they were working together ... not enemies ... and both had the same serious purpose. I'm sure we'll find out soon what that purpose is. Then a sweet chubby woman came out of the train engine along with two males whom I assumed were her two sons who were like in their late teens or early twenties. She was about 5' 5" tall, obviously a buxom  motherly type. She brought with her numerous gifts and placed them under the Christmas tree which miraculously was beautifully decorated. I couldn't imagine out what she could have brought us as gifts because I hadn't even thought about Christmas and what I might want or need. She couldn't have read my mind. I spent a moment or so thinking about this. She obviously brought us what she knew was good for us to have. I was thinking about the gifts when another woman came into the room from the hallway with her children who ranged in age between 8 and 12. She had three children with her. The oldest was a girl, the other two were boys. This woman was shorter ... about 5' tall. I think her daughter was taller than she was.  She looked rather familiar to me but wasn't someone I was friends with. She came in and said, "Where is my Christmas card?" I didn't even remember having received a Christmas card from anyone. But she walked across the room and found her Christmas card hanging on the wall along with a variety of other Christmas cards which were decorating the wall. She was very pleased. One of the small sons seemed to be ill and lay face down on the couch. The first woman came over to him. She sat on the couch next to the boy and carressed his hair and his cheek. She was so sweet and motherly. I believe she healed the boy of whatever was ailing him. Just then, another woman came walking through the room. She was the same size as the first woman, but she was wearing a grey suit without a blouse under it. She would have been a very buxom woman but she deliberately showed us that both breasts had been cut off and she had masculine hair on her chest. As I began to wake up, I saw a printed page with two names listed together - OMAH and OBAH.  Below that a few lines was the name IO. Before I did the research I didn't know that the Roman/Greek IO was also the Egyptian ISIS. I am so blown away by this dream, I just feel like I should lay down and just breathe quietly for awhile.  (smiling) I couldn't find anything in English on Omah or Obah.

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From: http://w1.xrefer.com/entry/344030 Goddess It has long been argued, on the basis of archaeological evidence, that the original deity, or form given to the creative power behind the world, was the mother goddess. Cultic figures of pregnant women have been found at the oldest layers of ancient Near Eastern civilization, in Egypt and in the Indus Valley. Pregnant women were vital to the survival of society and the ability to give life pointed to a creator goddess. Simply known as the Devi, Goddess, she is still the most powerful god in villages in southern India, while tribal goddesses such as Kali ('The Black One') became national deities. A mother goddess (Gaia, 'mother Earth') was the focus of worship in pre-Hellenic Greece, but as in India, the invading Aryans brought male deities. Goddesses were the subject of powerful myths such as those of Isis, Demeter and the Babylonian moon goddess, having the power to resurrect their husbands, renew the earth, and grant fertility and health. Some were married off to the invaders, as in the case of Meenakshi, 'the fish-eyed' Tamil goddess of Madurai (now said to be an incarnation of Parvati), a mountain goddess and consort of Shiva. Goddesses are often manifestations of Nature--mountains, rivers or astral bodies--or have the power to inflict illnesses such as cholera or smallpox. Here they verge on the demonic. (Perhaps because of male fear of uncontrollable female sexuality, demons are often female.) Women and female deities are seen as empathic with Nature or part of it, whereas male deities engage in battle, dominate storms and are generally 'macho'. There are famous war-like exceptions, Durga, Kali and the huntress goddesses, but they have a tender side as well. On the other hand, particularly in Vaishnavite Hinduism, male deities such as Vishnu were felt to be incomplete and had to have a female consort to complete the fullness of deity. Sakti, the female power in the god, is of great importance in Tantricism. The Sakti principle points to another development, the emergence of female deities who personify abstract principles, such as Wisdom, Good Fortune, Love, etc. The archetypal example of this is the Greek goddess Athene, who sprang fully grown, clothed and armed from Zeus's head as the goddess of wisdom and valour. A female principle, Wisdom exists as a separate entity in the later writings in the Hebrew Scriptures. The questions are whether these female deities are meant to be or act as role models, whether they reflected the role of women in societies, or whether, as in the case of the Virgin Mary, it is a question of compensatory deification, in which female deities are honoured by a male priesthood while women are kept in submission. Two trends have emerged among women theologians and worshippers today, alienated by male-dominated churches and synagogues. First, there is the attempt to revive knowledge and worship of the ancient mother goddess, especially (in the UK, at least) the Celtic goddess: this is sometimes combined with a 'green' approach, and with interest in Gaia (see Gaia hypothesis). Second, there is a restructuring of mainstream religion, as when words like 'God/Ess' are used to symbolize a non-patriarchal deity, or God is addressed as 'She' in the liturgy. EMJ Further reading Asphodel Long, In a Chariot Drawn by Lions; The Search for the Female in Deity; , Margaret Murray, The Genesis of Religion.

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The image of the great goddess Isis depicted a bird/woman with wings outstretched who flew in the realms of spirit. The relationship between her and her falcon-headed son Horus symbolized the archetype of the mother and child union. Although strength is now associated with masculine energy, the powerful lioness-headed goddess Sekmet had a woman’s body, not a man’s. She represented the strength and power of the African sun at high noon. Her archetype lives in the major arcana tarot card “Strength.” On Sekmet’s crown was a solar disc and a cobra. Uachet the cobra and her vulture twin-sister Nekabet were desert warriors who protected the Sekmet and other deities. A composite creature of human, bird, lion, and bull - the sphinx - represented the four alchemical elements: the human represented the astrological sign Aquarius, air; the bird represented Scorpio, water; the lion represented Leo, fire; and the bull represented Taurus, earth. Centuries later these same four animals and their powers were borrowed by Christianity and given to four of the twelve apostles. Elsewhere in the ancient world it was not unusual for the goddess to be depicted in animal and human form. The ancient Hebraic goddess Lilith had the wings and claws of a bird, and owls and lions as her animal familiars. Recreated as a she-devil and demon, Lilith was stripped of her power by the monotheistic patriarchal religion of Yahweh. The goddess has been interpreted in three aspects: the virgin, the mother, and the crone. The virgin is the youthful girl and young woman, the new moon of potential. The mother is the full moon, pregnant with life. The crone is the wise old woman, the waning moon, who understands death’s mystery. The virgin archetypes are ever popular, for they are pleasing to men. The mother archetype also pleases and serves men, for mothers take care of boys and men and give them children. In Christianity, where the trinity is cast in masculine terms, the goddess survives as Mary, a combination of virgin and mother. But the crone, the most powerful aspect of the feminine deity, has become invisible and unwanted ever since the goddess and her animals were declared profane. Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with a new code of laws written on tablets, only to destroy the tablets by throwing them at a statue of Hathor the golden calf. “Thou shall have no other gods before me...” especially not an animal goddess. A healing can occur as humans acknowledge animals in their role as healers, protectors, allies, and teachers. By reclaiming the ancient wisdom, the animals again may become sacred. As the goddess is respected and honored, her animals too become respected, for the two are inseparable. See More: ANIMALS AND THE GODDESS

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Io/Isis was a priestess of the Roman/Greek goddess Juno/Hera. Juno was the jealous wife of Jupiter/Zeus, the king of the gods. Jupiter was very unfaithful. When Jupiter fell in love with Io, he changed himself into the shape of a dark cloud to hide himself from his jealous wife Juno. However, Juno looked down on earth and noticed the small cloud. She knew it was her husband. As soon as Juno arrived, Jupiter immediately transformed Io into a white cow to avoid his wife's wrath. But Juno tied the poor cow and sent her faithful servant Argus to watch over Io. Argus had a hundred eyes and only a few were ever closed at any time. To free Io, Jupiter sent his son Mercury to sing and tell boring stories to make Argus sleep with all his eyes. Mercury told so many stories that finally Argus close all his hundred eyes. Only then did Mercury kill Argus and untie Io who ran home free. Yet when Juno discovered what had occurred, she was so furious that she sent a vicious gadfly to sting the cow forever. Meanwhile, Io who was still prisoner into the shape of a cow could not get rid of the malicious gadfly. Finally, after Jupiter vowed to no longer pursue his beloved Io, Juno released Io from her inhuman prison, and Io settled in Egypt, becoming the first queen of Egypt. The Jovian moon Io was named for the mythological character Io by Johannes Kepler, and Simon Marius. And finally, when Voyager 1 passed Io in March 1979 and imaged the surface, the image clearly showed the hoof print of a heifer! Jupiter's moon, Io

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Argus In Greek mythology the Argus was a beast and son of Arestor with a hundred eyes of which he could only close two at a time. He was placed by Juno to guard Io, whom Jupiter had changed into a heifer. But Mercury, who was sent to carry her off, managed to surprise and kill Argus whereupon Juno transfered his eyes to the tail of a peacock, her favourite bird. In Greek mythology, Argus was the name of the builder of the Argo, the ship that carried the hero Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece

"Tell me: to what region of the earth I have wandered in my wretchedness?" "This god Zeus, desirous of union with this mortal maid, has imposed upon her these wanderings. Maiden, you have gained a cruel suitor for your hand." Prometheus to Io.

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Io is said to have been turned into a cow, either by Hera or Zeus, and then forced to wander over the whole world. The Persians, believe that Io, daughter of Inachus, was seized together with other women by Phoenician merchants, who sailed away for Egypt with the kidnapped women on board. That explanation would account for Io's disappearance from Greece.

The Persians agreed that this abducting of Io by the Phoenicians was a wrong that Asia did against Europe. So when later the Europeans carried off the Phoenician princess Europa, they say, Asia and Europe were then even; for they, accepting again counsel from their wisdom, did not believe either in the tale of Zeus the bull conveying the princess Europa to Crete through the sea. The Persians kept a book concerning the abduction of women and the wrongs that Asia and Europe performed against each other, the Europeans (the Greeks) then, sent the Argonauts to the city of Aea in Colchis, and carried off the Colchian princess Medea. That was the third wrong, they say, and when the Colchians demanded the restitution of Medea the Greeks answered that they had been refused reparation for the abduction of Io. After that the Trojan seducer Paris decided that he would make a Greek woman his wife and, taking lessons from the past, he abducted Queen Helen of Sparta. And he feared nothing; for this had been done before several times.

However, on this occasion the method found no tolerance; for a powerful fleet gathered at Aulis and sailed to Troy in order to obtain, by persuasion or by force, the restoration of Helen and the property that Paris had taken with him. This was unprecedented, and even though the Trojans then pleaded the seizure of Medea, war broke up nevertheless. The Persian's opinion is that there is no reason to go to war for a matter of abduction of women, arguing that the women would never have been carried away, had they not wanted it themselves. And that is why they think that the Greeks did even a greater wrong when they became the first to stage a huge attack and raze a city for the sake of a woman.

It has been established by mythologists that Io, who was a priestess of Hera, was not abducted by Phoenician sailors, but instead was turned into a cow and forced to leave her country and wander throughout the world, after having been seduced by Zeus. Some have said that Hera, out of jealousy, turned Io into a cow, but others have said that Zeus made the transformation, swearing that he had not been with the girl. Painting by Casdiglione Giovanni Benedetto 1609-1663/65 Io the cow. In the background are seen Zeus and Hera

When Zeus had thus disguised Io under the shape of a cow, Hera, suspecting mischief, requested the cow for herself and set Argus, the All-seeing, to guard the animal. That was the end of the All-seeing; for Zeus, who wished to set the cow free, ordered Hermes to steal it, and this god, following instructions, killed Argus by the cast of a stone, without thinking twice.

This is how the cow went free. But Hera sent a gadfly to infest and torture it, and so Io, tormented by the gadfly's sting, began her wanderings, coming first to the Ionian sea, which is called after her. Then she journeyed through Illyria, which is the region north of Epirus in the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, and came to Mont Haemus in Thrace, and thence she crossed the Bosphorus, which separates Europe and Asia. Io continued her wanderings through Scythia and Cimmeria (to the north of the Black Sea), met in Caucasus the bound Prometheus, and at last she came to Egypt.

Io stated that all these things were caused by dreams. When she met Prometheus, Io told him that her afflictions began with those dreams she had had by night, in which visions told her to leave her maidenhood behind her and yield to Zeus, who loved her. She said to Prometheus, "This I see - A form storm beaten, bound to the rock. Did you do wrong? Is this your punishment? Where am I? Speak to a wretched wanderer. Enough - I have been tried enough - My wandering - long wandering. Yet I have found nowhere to leave my misery. I am a girl who speak to you, but horns are on my head. (Horns are the sign of Isis) She also said that, having told these dreams to her father Inachus, he consulted the Oracle, and the god speaking through it commanded him to banish his daughter from home and land to roam over the whole world, adding that if he disobeyed a thunderbolt from Zeus would destroy his race.

This Inachus did, says Io. And yet Inachus acted as if he were ignorant of what had happened to his daughter. For he sent Cyrnus to look for her, and this man came as far as Caria, the southwestern region of Asia Minor, and not finding her, settled there. Also Lyrcus is said to have been sent by Io's father to search for her, and after having covered a great deal of land and sea without finding the girl, he finally renounced the quest; but being too afraid of Inachus to return to Argos, he went instead to King Caunus of Caria, where he married the king's daughter.

In Egypt the wandering girl recovered her human form and gave birth to Zeus' son Epaphus beside the river Nile. Hera then bade the Curettes to steal the child; and having obeyed the goddess, they were killed by Zeus for having carried out his wife's orders. It was then that Io started her new wanderings, this time in search of her son. And after roaming all over Syria she found Epaphus, who had been nursed by the wife, called by some Astarte and by others Saosis, of King Malcander of Byblus. Together with her son she returned to Egypt and married Telegonus, who at the time reigned over the Egyptians. This is why Epaphus, from whom sprang the Libyans and the Ethiopians, became later king of Egypt and the founder of the city of Memphis.

Having thus settled in Egypt, Io made a statue of Demeter, and this goddess was then called "Isis". And after that the Egyptians also gave Io the name "Isis", and Io-Isis, they say, was made a goddess by Zeus. Isis is known for having mourned the god Osiris, worshipped by the Egyptians, who say that Isis discovered many drugs and was versed in healing, giving aid during sleep while standing above the sick. They say that many who had lost the use of their eyes or other part of their body, whenever they turned for help to Isis, were restored to their previous condition. They call Apollo her son and they say that it was Isis who instructed him in healing and divination. The Drug of Immortality, which achieves the highest form of healing, was discovered by Isis, but the formula remains unknown for the majority of men, as everyone can see.

As reported, Isis appeared in the dreams of the Cretan woman Telethusa, whose husband Lidgus wished to have their child killed, would Telethusa give birth to a girl. But when the child was about to be born Telethusa had a vision in her dreams in which Isis, in the company of other gods (Anubis, Bubastis, Apis, Harpocrates and Osiris), told her not to obey her husband's orders. Doing as the vision said she then disguised her daughter as a boy, thus deluding her husband. Later, this girl, when she was about to marry, became a boy.

Isis is said to have been once saved by a fish, and for this reason, they say, the fish was put among the constellations, being the one Fish that is called southern, which seems to drink from the constellation of Aquarius. This is the reason why, some say, the Syrians do not eat fish; but others say that it is because the goddess Derceto (whom some call Astarte) threw herself in a lake near the city of Ascalon, and was changed, as to the form of her body, into a fish. Since that day then, the Syrians do not eat fish and honour their fishes as gods.

Isis came to be worshipped in a large part of the world as a great goddess, and her manifold nature becomes apparent in Apuleius' invocation, when he says: "Blessed Queen of Heaven,, whether you are pleased to be known as Ceres [Demeter]...who in joy at the finding of your lost daughter Proserpine [Persephone]...gave our forefathers bread raised from the fertile soil of Eleusis; or whether as celestial Venus [Aphrodite]...who at the time of the first Creation coupled the sexes in mutual love ... or whether as Artemis, the physician sister of Apollo, reliever of the birth pangs of women, and now adored in the ancient shrine at Ephesus; or whether as dread Proserpine [Persephone] to whom the owl cries at night, whose triple face is potent against the malice of ghosts...you who wander through many sacred groves, and are propitiated with many different rites...I beseech you [etc.]." [Apuleius, The Golden Ass] And the goddess answers him in similar way: "The Phrygians call me ... Mother of the Gods; the Athenians, call me Cecropian Artemis; for the islanders of Cyprus I am Paphian Aphrodite; for the archers of Crete I am Dictynna; for the Sicilians Proserpine [Persephone]; and for the Eleusinians their ancient Mother of the Corn [Demeter]. Some know me as Juno [Hera], some as Bellona of the Battles, others as Hecate...and the Egyptians...call me by my true name, namely, Queen Isis." [Apuleius, The Golden Ass]

Ancestors and founders of important cities like Mycenae, Thebes and Argos were descendants of Io (or the river god Inachus). These dominated also Crete, Laconia and perhaps Arcadia. The Heraclides were descendants of Io. So were, among others, Cadmus, Perseus and Heracles.

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ISIS - 1ST Century A.D. Like Osiris, Isis was incorporated into the Heliopolitan system (to identify them with the royal family - the king becoming the personification of Horus) and aggregated to her other Goddesses, so that she came to represent The Great Mother herself. Her name means 'seat' and this is usually taken to mean the throne of Osiris, who from earliest times, was regarded as her husband and in Egyptian royal tradition, her brother. She was said to have instituted marriage, and taught women the arts of grinding corn, spinning flax, and weaving. She is also mentioned as having taught Osiris the arts of agriculture. Isis was also the Great Enchantress, with great knowledge of both magic and the arts of healing, the latter of which she taught to humankind, with the help of Thoth. Isis became The Great Mother Goddess of Egypt and elsewhere. In the Ptolomaic era in Egypt, Isis became the official Goddess of the new state cult. Like both Demeter and Cybele, she was a Goddess of fertility, new life and everlasting hope. Isis was worshipped in Greece in the 5th Century AD, and identified with Demeter. As Isis she survived until the end of the pagan world in the 4th century AD, but as Mary and her Son, she is still present to this day. Isis was the daughter of Geb and Nut, and was born significantly on the fourth intercalary day. See Osiris  Isis is described in ancient stories as having great magical skills and was represented in human form, even though she often was described as wearing the horns of a cow. Her personality resembled that of Hathor. Isis (Auset) Perhaps the most important goddess of all Egyptian mythology, Isis assumed, during the course of Egyptian history, the attributes and functions of virtually every other important goddess in the land. Her most important functions, however, were those of motherhood, marital devotion, healing the sick, and the working of magical spells and charms. She was believed to be the most powerful magician in the universe, owing to the fact that she had learned the Secret Name of Ra from the god himself. She was the sister and wife of Osiris, sister of Set, and twin sister of Nephthys. She was the mother of Horus the Child (Hor-pa-kraat), and was the protective goddess of Horus's son Amset, protector of the liver of the deceased. Isis was responsible for protecting Horus from Set during his infancy; for helping Osiris to return to life; and for assisting her husband to rule in the land of the Dead. Her cult seems to have originally centered, like her husband's, at Abydos near the Delta in the North (Lower Egypt); she was adopted into the family of Ra early in Egyptian history by the priests of Heliopolis, but from the New Kingdom onwards (c. 1500 BC) her worship no longer had any particular identifiable center, and she became more or less universally worshiped, as her husband was. Isis Life

RHEA - THE GODDESS/VIRGIN

HEBREW GODDESSES

HOLY BLOOD/HOLY TAROT

THE PATRIARCHAL COVENANTS

GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM

THE PATRIARCHAL PRIESTHOOD OF MELCHIZEDEK SINCE THE TIME OF NOAH

THE ICONS OF THE PATRIARCHAL CHURCH

THE SYMBOLISM IN ST. JOHN'S REVELATION

DREAMS OF THE GREAT EARTHCHANGES
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