Isis and Osiris - Hardcover

Cott, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385417977 ISBN 13: 9780385417976

Publisher: Doubleday, 1994

Synopsis

Cott recounts the Egyptian myth and then examines it via interviews with the archpriestess of the Fellowship of Isis (a worldwide organization of over 15,000 members in 60 countries); the spiritual leader of the Ammonites and her nine-year-old son who is believed to be the incarnation of Isis and Osiris' son; and two psychologists who run workshops in which patients reenact the Isis/Osiris story as a means of therapy. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Rebirth of the story of Isis and Osiris in modern times: the 12th book by Cott (Wandering Ghost, 1991, etc.), a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and Parabola. Drawing on various sources, from Plutarch to Joseph Campbell to Norman Mailer's Ancient Evenings (``the most volatile and audacious version...in modern times''), Cott retells the story of Isis and Osiris, twin sister and brother, wife and husband, goddess and god--a simple story with many twists. Osiris seems to be the god of resurrection and Isis goddess of the mother principle--or, Cott says, so it seems in modern eyes. He interviews Dr. James P. Allen, a noted author of Egyptian creation myths and an associate curator of the Department of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum, who goes quite finely into family ties among the gods but thinks that the anal insemination of Set by Osiris and of Osiris by Set did not mean that sodomy was acceptable to ancient Egyptians. At Clonegal Castle, Ireland, Cott joins with Olivia Robertson and her brother Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, archpriestess and hierophant, who have their own Temple of Isis and spearhead a revival for worship of the Egyptian gods with the Fellowship of Isis, an organization of some 11,000 people living in 60 countries, including Ireland, Japan, Nigeria, the US, India, and New Zealand. Despite bad vibes in the tabloids, the 70-plus Olivia insists that ``We don't have orgies, we have ecstasies.'' Cott also visits the Ammonite Foundation in Egypt; and the Isis and Osiris Workshop in Edmonton, Canada, run by psychologists of archetypes, Evangeline Kane and her husband Franklin, who give the myth absorbing Jungian interpretations. More journalistic than inspired or in any way convincing. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

In this exotic piece of reportage, Cott ( The Search for Omm Sety ) first retells the Egyptian myth of Isis, goddess of fertility and healing, who restored to life her murdered twin brother and lover Osiris. Cott then investigates the myth's continuing appeal to contemporary devotees, some of whom strain credulity. In Ireland he met Olivia Robertson, archpriestess and founder of the Fellowship of Isis, who, with her brother, an Anglican clergyman, performs mystery plays and rites in their castle's basement temple. In Cairo, Cott talked with Sekhmet Montu, leader of the Ammonites, a secret sect which claims to be a direct branch of ancient Egypt's religion; she maintains that her nine-year-old son Heru is an incarnation of the god-being Horus. Through interviews with Egyptologists, a New York artist steeped in Egyptian symbolism and a Canadian couple who are both psychologists and conduct Isis/Osiris workshops, Cott fathoms the myth's appeal to modern wisdom seekers. Illustrated.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0385417977
• ISBN 13: 9780385417976
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1000