Death Doulas, Isis, Venus and Sirius

The rising of the ancient star Sirius just before the Sun each year marked the New Year in Ancient Egypt. This stellar rising augured the flooding of the Nile in ancient times, which was considered an auspicious occurrence foretelling abundance and spiritual blessings for the year ahead.

Sirius as Spiritual Guide for our Sun

Fixed stars are not visible in solar conjunction, but regain their visibility from our human perspective, as they rise in the East, immediately before dawn, like a glorious cosmic lightworker literally bringing their light to the darkness of night, indicating not only a new day, but an entirely new cycle is upon us.

Sirius is considered the Spiritual Sun to our Sun, and to the Sun, what the Sun is to Earth. The Sirius star system holds its own cosmic note, and our Sun knows how to hear and align with that note, as though it were responding to a cosmic tuning fork. Sirius is a bit like an elite team of spiritual mentors for our Sun.

Sacredness of Number 7

The exact moment of the heliacal rising of Sirius varies depending on location but we can all celebrate the solar conjunction with Sirius during July each year, with the 7^th day of the 7^th month as our marker. 

Why would we do this? It is taught in the Western Mystery traditions that Sirius is the stellar gateway for higher spiritual consciousness to reach the Earth. The 7^th chakra and the 7^th dimension of spiritual consciousness are spiritual gateways in Western Mystery Traditions which have evolved from syncretic spiritual traditions from Egypt, as well as Greece and India. In Pythagorean spiritual numerology, the 7 combined the physical number 4 with the spiritually creative number 3 and we end up with the number 7 representing the sacred potential of humanity. 

In Christianity, this is the four corners of the earth united with the holy trinity. In Judaism, it is the Sabbath, the holy day of rest after work. In Ancient India we have references to the 7 worlds that create the Universe, the 7 rivers from which various civilisations emerged, and the 7 great sages known as the Saptarishis.  

The 7 is a symbol of a stepping up and into a new cycle, with a quality of spiritual evolution.

The Solar Promise of Goddess Isis

The Ancient Egyptian Goddess Isis was believed to be one of the divine beings emanating from Sirius, and she ensouled the star in the form of Goddess Sopdet (or Sothis) as a divine personification of Sirius. 

With her annual stellar rising, and the flooding of the Nile, she was a goddess of prosperity and abundance, fertility and blessings. 

Recognised as the divine mother – of Venus, no less – with the five-pointed star upon her head, Sopdet – Isis, is a guiding and protective, regenerative and loving force. She brings spiritual light.

Divine Death Doula

Sopdet-Isis is also known as a psychopomp. Although I cannot help but find this word hilarious, the nature of the role itself I hold in deep reverence, for it is about guiding the souls across thresholds. If we wanted less snort-laugh inducing terminology we could perhaps call her a divine death doula or a death-walker.

All births and beginnings hold the paradox of occurring very close to death. Death itself is seen as a portal into new life in numerous spiritual belief systems around the globe, including that of Ancient Egypt. 

“Embracing symbolic spiritual death is part of how we become more alive. We shed the skins that we have outgrown, just like one of the hieroglyphs associated with Sopdet which is the cobra. The snake sheds its skin when it outgrows it. The snake can be a symbol of growth and also of cleansing, purification and renewal.“

Goddess Isis and the Divine Masculine

Another symbol integral to the hieroglyphic depiction of Sopdet is the upwards facing triangle. In the spiritual traditions of India, Nepal and Tibet, this represents the upward flowing energy of awakening, or masculine spiritual energy or light. In alchemy it represents the element of fire. Sopdet-Isis shines the solar promise of light, of spiritual ascension, and most importantly, of the nourishment for the feminine earthly expressions of being that occurs when spiritual growth is genuine.

The link between Goddess Isis and the healing of the masculine energies is powerful. She overcomes the toxic, destructive masculinity of Set, who murders her husband. She moves through a challenging journey towards reclaiming her lost husband, and birthing her son, Horus, a solar deity who returns wisdom, justice, light and order to the chaos of destructive jealousy wrought by Set. Isis teaches us that the love, resourcefulness, wisdom and patience of the feminine is what conquers toxic masculinity and allows space for a healed masculinity to be born.

Amplified Healing Channels

There are certain times throughout the year when the spiritual dimensions align cosmically with earth to provide what I would describe as amplified prayer channels. It’s a bit like a spiritual sit-down with the Great Ones. Just as the moon appears closer during a super moon, during these amplified spiritual happenings, the Great Ones who are always aware of us, loving and caring for us, are a little more accessible to humanity.

The rising of Sirius is one of those spiritual boosts to bridge the divide in consciousness and that temporary vibration-elevation helps us see, sense and feel more clearly at a spiritual level. I encourage you to take advantage of this, and on 7/7 (which is a powerful number for channelling healing, spiritual wisdom and higher understanding) perhaps consider a prayer practice or sacred offering of whatever truly speaks to your heart.

Genuine Spiritual Masters

One of the most beautiful Full Moons of the year, the Full Moon in Capricorn occurs around the Sirius rebirth, typically falling in July. This is also known as Guru Purnima, or the Full Moon of the Masters.

It’s my experience that genuine spiritual masters don’t give a hoot what religion you follow. They want your enlightenment and freedom for you, they want you to embrace the truth of your soul journey and manifest your divine destiny. They want the best for you in every possible way because that is what love is and what love does.  

You’ve possibly seen artwork that depicts the Earth surrounded by loving spiritual beings shining blessings, or human hands holding our planet in a circle. Our amazing training team calls this ‘hands across the ocean’ and they use it to describe their experience of holding space from locations in Australia and North America and the United Kingdom, when our Community of the Sacred gets together to offer healing circles for our planet.  

That sense of being totally embraced, held and supported is a reflection of what occurs spiritually during this Full Moon, and in every genuine connection with a spiritual master. You could imagine every master from every tradition, every genuine teacher, every skilful guide, and Bodhisattva and saviour and redeemer, all of them, totally united at the heart level, and shining their goodness, grace, wisdom and love like a big lunar beam onto Earth, bathing all her precious creatures, including all of humanity, in a spiritual live-stream. 

Because humanity has a special role in all the earthly kingdoms as channels for spiritual energies, this transmission is particularly significant to our human family. A prayer practice or meditation during this Full Moon can be spiritually potentiating in a way that uplifts you, uproots karmic stagnancy and allows you to move more freely and joyfully towards your destiny.

New Moon in Leo 

The Full Moon of the Masters is followed by the New Moon in Leo, that affirmation of heart and fresh starts once more. Leo rules the heart, and the Cosmic Lion as the signifier of Leo (its cosmic spirit animal, if you will) roars with courage. 

The New Moon in Leo can be a time to give your heart permission to take up some space in your life. The soul can be relegated to the side-lines far too often. Coming off the spiritual free flow of the shining light of Sirius, we can allow new heart truth, a soul vision, a deep yearning quest of your spirit to become known to us. Through a simple prayer offering, you can ask the Universe to support you in fulfilment of your heart, for the spiritual benefit of all beings.

We work with the light and blessings of Our Lady Isis in the Kuan Yin Transmission and in Saraswati Healing. These courses are just some of the offerings in our Community of the Sacred, where you will find a warm, wise and welcoming group of humans who honour individuality and connection, and are working together to bring spiritual benefit to our planet. 

Gratitude for art by Jimmy Manton from Alana’s Isis Oracle deck

We love to curate playlists that sing to the soul and we offer this beautiful music mix to support you on your authentic healing journey.