Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

OSIRIS

A symbol of the First Logos,—the Higher Self.

“Upon the first of these five new-made days Osiris was born, and a voice from heaven proclaimed, The Lord of all things hath appeared.'" - Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, § 12.

At the dawn of complete manifestation, the First Logos forthpours on the highest plane, that of atma. The "voice" refers to the Word which was in the beginning with God": it signifies the expression of the creative energy of the Logos,-the advent of duality,-Spirit-Matter.

"Hesiod makes the first elements of creation to be Chaos, Earth, Tartarus, Love. Let us distribute his names and assign them thus: to Isis that of Earth; to Osiris that of Love, to Typhon that of Tartarus, for his Chaos seems to imply a certain place or basis for the Universe." - Ibid., § 57.

This is correctly given :-Isis, buddhic (higher earth), Osiris, atmic (Love Divine), Typhon, astral (Tartarus), Chaos, primordial formless matter.

“Osiris was beautiful of face, but with a dull and black complexion; his height exceeded five and a half yards." - Ibid.

This statement signifies that the Logos at manifestation was perfect potentially, but actually was non-existent, and, as it were, "black,” which stands for negation. The height refers to the five planes whereon his evolution would be accomplished, and commencing from the Unmanifest above atma.

“O Osiris, son of Nut, I have given unto thee the sovereignty of thy father Seb, and the goddess Mut, thy mother, who gave birth to the gods, brought thee forth as the firstborn of five gods, and created thy beauties and fashioned thy members." - BUDGE, Book of the Dead, Ch. CLXXXIII p. 627.

Here Osiris is said to be the son of space (Nut) and time (Seb). "Mut " represents the formative energy in space, differentiating the Divine attributes. The "five gods” represent the principles of the five planes of manifestation, of which the first produced and highest is atma (Osiris).

“The legend that ascribes the discovery of vine culture and the making of wine to Dionysus reminds us that the Egyptians gave the honour of those inventions to Osiris, but it is only a subordinate feature with the Egyptians, whereas in Greece Dionysus soon came to preside, pre-eminent and unique, wine. If the worship had not more completely preserved more essential characteristics, it would be almost impossible to justify the identity in origin of Dionysus and Osiris. The rites of the festivals, especially those of the Anthestêria, are the only things that still prove it."

"Those mysteries, so sacred to the ancients, would be incomprehensible to us if certain details did not reveal their purpose and analogy. The queen's companions were fourteen in number, and offered sacrifices to Dionysus on fourteen altars, with other ceremonies not less secret than the rest. The ceremonial commemorated both the number of murderers who, according to the Cretan legend, massacred Dionysus, and the number of pieces into which they divided the corpse. Foucart rightly mentions the Egyptian legend in which Typhon, having assassinated Osiris, tore his victim into fourteen pieces, which he scattered among the nomes. Isis collected them, put them together, and from their union drew her Osiris, whom she resuscitated. . . . The sisters Isis and Nephthys, assisted by Horus and Anubis, made in fourteen moulds the fourteen pieces of which the divine body had been reconstructed, and then combined them into a perfect statue. They then endowed the statue with life, and rising from its funeral couch, it became again the god himself. Our knowledge of the ceremonies of the Anthestêria scarcely permits us to doubt that the Egyptian Osiris was the original of the Attic Dionysus. We have in both cases the resurrection of a god who had been treacherously mutilated, the number of pieces is the same, and the march of events identical: just as Isis sought everywhere for the remains of Osiris, so Demeter never rested till she had gathered together those of Dionysus, and only after she had restored the body did the god come again into existence." - G. MASPERO, New Light, etc., pp. 236, 238.

The dismemberment and reconstruction of the Archetypal Man are symbolised in the New Testament, and in the scriptures of India and Findland. To say the terms are "religious borrowings" explains nothing of their origin and meaning.

See Also

APIS
ARCHETYPAL MAN
ASCENSION OF OSIRIS
BIRTH OF OSIRIS
CHAOS
CIVILISING
CROCODILE
DAYS (five)
DEATH OF LEMMINKAINEN
DEATH OF OSIRIS
DIONYSUS
DISMEMBERMENT
EARTH (great)
HEIGHT OF OSIRIS
INCARNATION (Spirit)
ISIS
MEMBERS
MOIST
MOUTH (speech)
MUMMY
MUT
NUT
OAK
OLYMPUS
PAMYLES
PRAGÂPATI (Relaxed)
RE-STAU
RESURRECTION
SEB
TARTARUS
TATTU
TYPHON
WEEPING
WORD
YUDHI