Cyprian/Googling the Goddesses

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

So this is a free-form rant, pull up a chair, imbibe your favorite psychotropic 
and get ready to do some heavy-duty traversin'.

In my neck of the woods there's certain things you do all the time without too 
much prompting. Like invoking the Goddesses. There's a chant of "Isis, Astarte, 
Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Innana", I do it all the time, cranks up the 
juices for me, like a plum for the soul. Guess I've spent more time than 
most in the presence of all these inconvenient deities. My Mom would have 
all these ikons around the house from Ancient Egypt, most charmingly 
Bast/Bastet:

http://tinyurl.com/yvrsdn

. . . .their cat divinity. In any case, was Googling the Goddesses this morning 
because: I wanted visual images of these fine Goddesses to work with, and I 
really wanted background and history. If I'm invoking these deities all the 
time, I'd better know what I'm Invoking. So I'm looking at Isis and see that she 
is specifically associated with magic. Isis delivers the real goods in my 
favorite Goddess novel, "The Golden Ass":

          When I had ended this prayer, and made known my needs to the 
          Goddess, I fell asleep, and by and by appeared unto me a divine 
          and venerable face, worshiped even by the Gods themselves. 
          Then by little and little I seemed to see the whole figure of her 
          body, mounting out of the sea and standing before me, and so 
          I shall describe her divine appearance, if the poverty of my human 
          speech will allow me, or her divine power give me eloquence to 
          do so.

          First she had a great abundance of hair, dispersed and scattered 
          about her neck, on the crown of her head she wore many 
          garlands interlaced with flowers, just above her brow was a disk 
          in the form of a mirror, or resembling the light of the Moon, in 
          one of her hands she bore serpents, in the other, blades of corn, 
          her robe was of fine silk shimmering in divers colors, sometime 
          yellow, sometime rose, sometime flamy, and sometimes (which 
          sore troubled my spirit) dark and obscure, covered with a black 
          robe in manner of a shield, and pleated in most subtle fashion 
          at the skirts of her garments, the welts appeared comely, 
          whereas here and there the stars peaked out, and in the middle 
          of them was placed the Moon, which shone like a flame of fire, 
          round about the robe was a coronet or garland made with flowers 
          and fruits. In her right hand she had a timbrel of brass, which 
          gave a pleasant sound, in her left hand she bore a cup of gold, 
          out of the mouth whereof the serpent Aspis lifted up his head, 
          with a swelling throat, her sweet feet were covered with shoes 
          interlaced and wrought with victorious palm.

          Thus the divine shape breathing out the pleasant spice of fertile 
          Arabia, disdained not with her divine voice to utter these words 
          unto me:

          "Behold Lucius I am come, thy weeping and prayers has moved 
          me to succor thee. I am she that is the natural mother of all things, 
          mistress and governess of all the elements, the initial progeny of 
          worlds, chief of powers divine, Queen of heaven, the principal of 
          the Gods celestial, the light of the goddesses: at my will the planets 
          of the air, the wholesome winds of the Seas, and the silences of
           hell be disposed; my name, my divinity is adored throughout all 
          the world in divers manners, in variable customs and in many names, 
          for the Phrygians call me Pessinuntica, the mother of the Gods: 
          the Athenians call me Cecropian Artemis: the Cyprians, Paphian 
          Aphrodite: the Candians, Dictyanna: the Sicilians , Stygian 
          Proserpine: and the Eleusians call me Mother of the Corn. Some 
          call me Juno, others Bellona of the Battles, and still others Hecate. 
          Principally the Ethiopians which dwell in the Orient, and the 
          Egyptians which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and 
          by their proper ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call 
          me Queen Isis. Behold I am come to take pity of thy fortune and 
          tribulation, behold I am present to favor and aid thee. Leave off 
          thy weeping and lamentation, put away thy sorrow, for behold 
          the healthful day which is ordained by my providence, therefore 
          be ready to attend to my commandment." 

http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/lucius-assa.html

Astarte is the one that eluded me, I've got a Kali lunchbox, fer Chrisake. But 
Astarte is an early form of a very well known Goddess, Venus. Which leads us 
back to Cyprian.

I haven't looked inside AtD for a while now, cramming on magic so's I can keep 
up to speed at work. But I was left with the impression that Cyprian was the 
fourth element in some sex magic with a major-league mathematical twist, 
procreation in Riemann space. So, noting that he eventually becomes a nun, 
I couldn't help but notice this from the bog-standard Wiki listing:

          Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war. Her 
          symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, and 
          a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus. Pictorial 
          representations often show her naked.

          Astarte was accepted by the Greeks under the name of 
          Aphrodite. The island of Cyprus, one of Astarte's greatest 
          faith centers, supplied the name Cypris as Aphrodite's 
          most common byname.

Link over to the Wikipedia listing for Cyprus:

          The name Cyprus has a somewhat uncertain etymology. 
          One suggestion is that it comes from the Greek word for 
          the Mediterranean cypress tree (Cupressus sempervirens), 
          or even from the Greek name of the henna plant 
          (Lawsonia alba), (kýpros). 

          Another school suggests that it stems from the Eteocypriot 
          word for copper. Georges Dossin, for example, suggests 
          that it has roots in the Sumerian word for copper (zubar) 
          or for bronze (kubar), due to the large deposits of copper 
          ore found on the island. Through overseas trade the 
          island has given its name to the Classical Latin word for 
          the metal through the phrase aes Cyprium, "metal of 
          Cyprus", later shortened to Cuprum.[5] Cyprus is also 
          called "the island of Aphrodite" [6], since the Greek 
          goddess Aphrodite, of beauty and love, was born in 
          Cyprus.

Perhaps Cyprian is moving from Venus to Isis by becoming a Nun, he became 
a womb the only way he could, or perhaps a Maxwell's Demon of sorts. Then 
there's the question of the alchemical significance of copper:

          Represents the planet Venus, and its corresponding alchemical 
          metal, copper. Because of its association with Venus, it is also a 
          symbol of femininity. The symbol has been described as 
          representing the mirror of the goddess, but is most likely a 
          variation of the ankh.

http://altreligion.about.com/library/glossary/symbols/bldefsvenus.htm

I suppose there's an alchemical relationship between silver and Isis, seems like 
she would be the High Preistess, but hey---don't take my work for it, let's ask 
little Nickey Nookshaft, and could you please pass me one of those raspberries 
soaked in aether, they are eveh' so divine:

          . . . .the most spiritual form of Isis the Eternal Virgin; the Artemis 
          of the Greeks. She is clothed only in the luminous veil of light. 
          It is important for high initiation to regard Light not as the perfect 
          manifestation of the Eternal Spirit, but rather as the veil which 
          hides that Spirit. It does so all the more effectively because of 
          its incomparably dazzling brilliance. Thus she is light and the 
          body of light. She is the truth behind the Veil of Light. She is 
          the soul of light.

That excerpt from Crowley's Book of Thoth is derived from Lon Milo
DuQuette's "Understanding Alester Crowley's Thoth Tarot", page 103.

Just in case anybody's still awake, here's an alchemical rite of Isis:

http://www.fellowshipofisis.com/liturgy/alchemistrite.html

You know, there's a copy somewhere of Israel Regardie's "Golden Dawn" 
just waiting for me to crack it open. 

Adios & like some of us folks out here in the sticks say when the occasion
justifies: Blessed Be!