Two Lands: March 2009

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Hymn to Osiris

The doors of perception open; what was hidden has been revealed. It is myself I see and a thousand colors swirling in liquid light. I am where the sun sets below the mountains. I am in this body. I am that star rising above clouds hung by a thread from its ocean moon. Hail myself traversing eternity walking among gods, a shuttle flying across the loom through the threads of time. This is all one place, one cloth: a man's life endures. On earth flowers grow, snakes crawl and wisdom lies in the palm of a hand. All this is will be - hawks and sparrows, the thousand lives within.

I have come home. I have entered humanhood, bound to rocks and plants, men and women, rivers and sky. I shall be with you in this and other worlds. When the cat arches in the doorway, think of me. I have sometimes been like that. When two men greet each other in the street, I am there speaking to you. When you look up, know I am there - sun and moon pouring my love around you. All these things am I, portents, images, signs. Though apart, I am a part of you. One of the million things in the universe, I am the universe, too. You think I disquise myself as rivers and trees simply to confuse you? Whatever I am, woman, cat or lotus, the same god breathes in every body. You and I together are a single creation. Neither death nor spite nor fear nor ignorance stops my love for you.

May we come and go in and out of heaven through the gates of starlight. As the houses of earth fill with dancing and song, so filled are the houses of heaven. I come, in truth. I sail a long river and row back again. It is joy to breathe under the stars. I am the sojourner destined to walk a thousand years until I arrive at myself.

The Egyptian gods Osiris and Isis were both brother and sister, husband and wife. Their mother was Nut, Goddess of the Sky; their father was Geb, God of the the Earth; and it is said that the twin brother and sister were already in love with each other in the womb of their mother.

As king and queen of Egypt in the first age of teh world, these two gods bestowed on humankind the gifts of civilization.