On the last evening of our Egypt journey, one of the participants read the following passage at our closing ceremony:
I have taken pains to empty myself of the illusions of flesh, to accept failure, even success when it comes, but not to crave it as men crave wine. I have looked into my heart and seen jealousy, pride and greed. I’ve seen fear and resistance to change. Even as I cast these off as a snake sheds skins, I’ve been tempted to congratulate myself. I have regretted the past and longed for the future, forgetting to notice the mountain of the present. But today, for this moment, I am here with you unburdened by thought and filled with joy. In this moment I regret nothing for the paths I chose led me here. I offer you my life. In this moment as the veil opens and before it closes, I see us as we are – that we gods, that all that exists and can be named is god coming from the body of god. If I but touch the present, I shall know what lies before and behind for these, too, are holy members of his body. I am, therefore, a god among you, born in the company of men. I tell in truth, here, in my field behind this sometimes slow and stubborn donkey, I am standing before god. It is good to be here.
~Awakening Osiris by Normandi Ellis
As my eyes filled with tears as one of my new traveling friends read this, all I could feel was my ‘human’ self and my divine self merge as one. There is a misconception that Egypt is a ‘culture of death.’ However, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s a culture of life, rebirth, and awakening. As Ellis writes, “Osiris, the god of the dead, is a green god, an image of the seed waiting in the dark to burst forth into renewal. His death and rebirth illuminated the path from darkness to light, from unconsciousness to enlightenment.”
In some way, do we not all have Osiris within us?
Awakening more~
Mary Anne