Nephthys, My Matron

From a historical perspective, Nephthys is the sister of Isis and Osiris and the wife of Set.  There are many perceptions about her role in ancient Egypt, but while she is typically depicted as a funerary goddess, she is also a goddess of birth as one of her roles is to stand at the head of the bed to comfort women in childbirth.  After Set cut Osiris into pieces in his bid for power, she lamented Osiris’ passing with Isis and journeyed with her to find the pieces of Osiris’ body.  She is believed to be the mother of Anubis.

Nephthys symbol, as seen in the photo, is a house with a basket atop it.  Her name means mistress of the house.  I was taught by my first teacher that Nephthys is a true virgin woman in the original sense of the word.  A virgin woman in ancient days was a woman who owned her own power and was independent.

From a personal perspective, Nephyths is my matron.  She claimed me early in my life and has called to me, guided me, and protected me every since.  Relationships with deities and other guides are very personal things and I believe that deities choose us and not the other way around.  I’ve also found that the deities we may be drawn to intellectually may not be the deities we will be called to work with because the deities that choose us often exhibit traits that we need to work on and not traits we already possess.

While my experience with Nephthys is personal and not everyone will have similar experiences, it will give you an idea of how a deity chooses you and what the experience of developing a relationship with a deity is like.  When I first started studying paganism seriously when I was in my early 20s, I read about deities that everyone had heard of such as Isis, Athena, Zeus, etc.  These were the deities I had studied in school when I was told they were myths that ancient people believed and I didn’t realize that the worship of mythologies was alive and well in the modern era.

I picked up a copy of Alan Richardson’s book, Earth God Rising:  The Return of Male Mysteries, and there she was, this mysterious goddess that I had never heard of.  I felt a sense of knowing that this was someone I needed to get to know better.  Over the next few weeks, references to her turned up in other books.  I found a statue of her in the museum and I knew she was to be one of my guides.

My relationship with Nephthys is complicated, like most relationships are.  She is very loving and I know she will always protect me, but she is not a warm and huggy goddess.  She is more like the stern drill instructor that pushes you to do better because she knows you can.  She pushes me to be my best.  She shows up in my dreams and visions sometimes dressed as a drill instructor and sometimes as herself with her wings spread and her symbol on her head.  I also know she is around when I see hawks flying as the kite (a relative of the hawk) is one of her symbols.  I’ve only seen her in a waking state once in my life.  I was in the bathroom at the library and I looked up and there was this beautiful woman with hawk wings in the mirror.  At the time, I didn’t realize that Nephthys sometimes showed up as a hawk so I spent hours researching hawk goddesses until I finally found a picture of Nephthys as a hawk and realized that the woman I saw in the mirror was my beloved Nephthys.

I am dedicated to Nephthys, the Morrigan, and Yemaya, but Nephthys is my Matron and my primary goddess.