Isis and Osiris XIII: Briefly Revisiting the Talismans of the Mysteries

𓎬 𓊽 𓋹

When I revisited the Horus myth in light of discovering what Plutarch censored from it, I had neglected to revisit the sacred talismans of the mysteries, but I think what was omitted from the trial makes it clear what's going on with them.

Each of these objects represent, I think, a token from a critical scene in the mysteries themselves. The tyet knot is Isis's girdle, which she removes when she cuts her hair and puts on garments of mourning—I presume she gives the girdle to the initiate watching the mysteries, or perhaps a miniature version is given them in reminiscence of it. The djed pillar is the stalk of heather in which Osiris was imprisoned, which was perfumed and wrapped in linen and given to Malkander and Astarte—I presume a normal-sized heather stalk wrapped in linen is given to initiates at that point in the mysteries.

But what about the ankh?

Well, the tyet is intentionally soft—not only is it a garment, but it is also representative of feminine matter, which receives and is changed by receiving. The djed is intentionally hard—not only is it a structural element in the story, but it is also representative of masculine spirit, which gives and is unchanged by giving. But these are just the same as the parts of Horus mentioned in the trial: his Isaic part is his soft tissue, his flesh, while his Osirian part is his structure, his bones. By defeating Set he legitimized himself to his father, but by beheading Isis he delegitimized himself from his mother, and so the council of gods gave him the kingdom but took away his flesh. This is saying that when the soul no longer has need of a material crutch, the nature of the cosmos is that they ascend to an unembodied life.

But this is just what we see in the ankh, which writers from antiquity on all agree is representative of "eternal life," and which is expressed in the object itself: it's hard and structural like the djed—presumably initiates were given one made of reed or something—but it has the shape of the tyet knot. This is indicating spirit shaped by matter, which is just what the ascended soul is when divested of its material part: a living idea given its peculiar form through its exile in the world.

So I wonder if the ankh talisman was given to initiates as a part of the trial scene, as a symbol of Horus and a reminder that "eternal life" isn't a gift or an inevitability, but something to be hard-won through the contemplation of the mysteries and the development of one's own, personal meaning from them.