Auset the Nubian

Description

Isis of 10,000 names, the Great Goddess of Nubia, Mother of the Gods, Giver of Life, Maker of the Sunrise, Weret Hekau, Great Enchantress. She holds the Ankh, symbol of Life, and the sistrum of the Kemetic temple dancers. She wears the horned solar disc of Het-Heru (Hathor) and the vulture crown of Mut (the Mother). Auset is clothed in the night sky, with her wings extended, and her hips encircled by the red belt, the Knot of Isis.

As the star Sirius, her rising with the sun signals a new year and the fertilizing floodtide of the Nile. From this Auset was also praised in these her names: Opener of the Year, Creatrix of the Nile Inundation, Lady of Abundance, of Green Crops and of Bread.

I originally drew this image in 1985 for the Daughters of the Moon Tarot, depicting her as the High Priestess, second Arcana of the Tarot, unveiled once again. I took the two pillars in the medieval cards back to their origin as the Lotus and Papyrus pillars of ancient Egyptian temples.

Auset herself is one of the most ancient known archetypes of the high priestess, long before the Tarot was dreamed of. She was the shapeshifting and transformative shaman, with a healing power great enough to revive the dead.