The temple of Isis stands its ruined columns in defiant beauty. Many men tried to destroy the feminine aspect of divinity, but it recurs often because true immortality lies in stories.

At the Temple of Isis
© 2011 by Helen Heightsman Gordon

When you mended your husband's limbs, Isis,
you restored his masculine power
with feminine love and healing
so that your son Horus could be born.
New life sprang from Osiris’ maimed body,
resurrected, restored, reunited with you.
With words for time we honor Horus – horas, heurs, hours.
Our legends made him king of the underworld
for half a day of darkness. Then legend says
the sun-god Ra assumed dominion of the sky,
adding fire to earth, air, and the water of the Nile –
elements that revitalized Earth, time and time again.
Your legends told of a universal truth, a promise
of resurrection through ancient mysteries.
Enlightenment banished the fear of death.
The legends solaced us for generations, assuring us
that love and healing can magically overcome
loss and grief and destruction. The life force will win.

Romans tried to erase you from the holy trinity
of Isis, Osiris, and Horus, but you lived on in stories,
reincarnated as Mary, the Mother of Jesus,
the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Holy Ghost.
Emperors banned your rituals, priests ravaged your temples,
because you loved not only their kind, but humankind.
Wars, vandals, and quakes have shaken your monuments;
yet your half-ruined temple columns stand upright,
framed by flaming sunsets, molded by morning light.

Clumsy restorations cannot truly honor your temples.
Honor instead their stoic endurance, their defiant beauty,
knowing that true immortality lies in stories.