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The Egyptian obelisk known as ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’ is located on the Thames Embankment in London. It was originally erected at Heliopolis in Egypt as a natural habitat for one of the spirits of their Sun gods. Heliopolis was built many centuries before Cleopatra’s reign and her connection with it is uncertain, but Heliopolis was known as ‘the city of the Sun’ and called ‘On’ in the Bible. Moses was educated there and it was the Oxford of Egypt where distinguished scholars attended from all over the ancient world. One of their earliest Sun gods was Ra, but Moon worship preceded Sun worship in ancient Egypt, and Osiris was originally a Moon and corn god who evolved into their supreme Sun god and god of the Underworld. He shared the throne with Isis, a great enchantress also associated with the Moon, who eventually became their supreme Mother goddess.

The Sun god Ra represented their Father gods when the early Egyptians were trying to establish the order of creation and the universe. Ra was said to have spoken the first words of creation and bade the Earth and heavens rise out of the deep waters. He then created all things that moved in the waters and upon dry land. He also created all the sky gods, and as the creator he was king of all the gods. He then created mankind who were born from one of his eyes and when he went among them he took their form. Ra had many names that were not known to the gods or to mankind, but he had one secret name which gave him his divine power.

The goddess Isis lived in the world at that time, but she greatly desired to have equal power with Ra, as he was growing old and she was eternally young due to her ability to transform and renew herself with the changing cycles of the Moon. This myth relates to the decreasing light of the Sun during the long winters, when the light of the Moon is brighter and its monthly cycle of increasing light was always visible.

Isis created an invisible serpent that stung Ra, who was stricken with great pain as the venom spread, but the other gods could not help him. When Isis appeared she uttered powerful incantations to subdue the pain, but she asked Ra for his secret name so she could make him live. This he did and Ra vanished from the eyes of the other gods, and the Sun boat was empty in the sky. Isis waited, and as the secret name left the heart of Ra and passed into her own, she spoke to Horus her son and told him to compel the ruling god to also yield up his eyes – the Sun and Moon. Ra was then made whole, but he became angry thinking he had been betrayed by another god, so he decided to destroy everything he had created with a great flood. He then gave his divine kingdom to Osiris and Horus, and to his son Nu, the god of primeval waters, saying, ‘Hear me now, O my son, thou who art mightier than me, although I gave thee life. Steadfast is thy throne; great is the fear of thee among men.’

Isis is portrayed in this myth as the usurper because she is a female goddess. But the Osiris and Isis myth comes from the earliest mists of time in the land of Egypt, where Osiris was originally an ancient king who taught his people how to rear crops and cultivate fruit trees. He was regarded as a human incarnation of the Moon spirit, and as a living ruler he displayed his lunar qualities by establishing laws for regulating the affairs of the living as well as the affairs of departed souls in heaven. Though Osiris manifested as many different gods, including a Sun god, he never lost his association with the Moon. Though he became displaced on several occasions during the long history of Egypt by foreign gods, the ancient civilization of Egypt began with Osiris and ended with Osiris. He was worshipped by their greatest Pharaohs and was always loved and revered by the people.

The rise of the Osiris and Isis divine dynasty represented a reconciliation period when Sun and Moon gods had equal status, and their astrology and religious beliefs became more balanced as a result.