Daughter of Isis by Lilian Nirupa (books to get back into reading .TXT) 📖

the crocodiles’ teeth. As for his left leg, Lizla did not say, but she feared it would require amputation.
She cleaned and washed the wounds of both the child and father, and gave them some grapes and figs. Then, ordering the rest of the caravan to proceed with their normal routine, she stood by the ailing man, promising to take him to the Temple’s hospital, as soon as he had rested some. Kneeling by the side of the man, she closed his grateful eyes and ordered him to rest, putting an end to his litany of blessings and praises to the Gods for saving his family.
She laid her hand on the man’s forehead, underneath which, Ra-Ta had taught her, was man’s inner vision center. Then she put another hand on his chest to calm his nerves. As she closed her eyes, she repeated the Invocation to ISIS, mother-healer. A warm, pink glow covered them both and in a few minutes, the man was sleeping. She cleaned and bandaged the wounds as well as she could.
Lizla went to the river to wash her hands and came back by the man’s side. There she sat on the brownish sand to ponder and rest.
She had come to find an answer to the Goddess and what had she found? A deep, serene glow of contentment; partly from the glory of Isis’s presence and the gentle fire of healing love that her hands still felt. The river had given her a new lesson, just like when she was a child. A family forgetting their personal safety, just thinking of one another, the healing of the River, the Goddess’s love and wisdom, and the deep contentment of her heart. Yes, she knew what to do. If the stars gave her an opportunity to be a healer to her country that was what her heart desired. She would tell the Goddess, “Yes!”
She finally felt hungry. She stretched out in the sand and reached for the rest of her fruit. Contemplating the soft ripples of the Nile coming from the shore she finished her lunch quietly, thanking her ka both for her meal and for the wise solution to her problem. Taking a small bookcase from her box she wrote a few lines.
Then she rose to her feet and called two young boys who were playing on the beach.
”Do you want to earn a silver coin?” Lizla asked.
“Really?” Their eyes shone incredulously.
”Do you know where the temple of ISIS is?”
”Yes, we do, princess.” They both bowed as they answered reverently. That was a well-known privileged ground.
”All right, take this message and give it to the guard at the door, and I will give you the coin.”
The boys departed with exhilaration.
Half an hour later, two slaves carrying a palanquin and accompanied by Ra-Ta arrived with two litters. They accommodated the sleeping man on one and the mother and children in the other, as the boy was wounded and the mother was with child.
Before Ra-Ta could ask her any questions, Lizla, interrupting any formalities, communicated to him both the events of the day and her decision to accept the Goddess’s plea.
Ra-Ta listened calmly as usual, noting with satisfaction her unusual excitement. It was considered impolite to talk to the teacher without being addressed.
Ra-Ta was a gifted and experienced astrologer as well as a renowned excellent teacher. He knew enough about Lizla to understand her feelings, but he still was amazed at the extent of her gifts.
“How did you put him to sleep? Did you have a sedative?” Ra-Ta asked her.
She answer plainly. “No, I just laid my hand on his head for vision and my other hand on his heart for calmness, and invoked the name of ISIS. It didn’t occur to me about a sedative. I was just listening to my Ka.”
Listening to one’s Ka, or psychic double, was a way of inner atonement that was widespread in Egypt. The word “Ka” could be a “soul,” “spirit,” “effective personality” or “effectiveness, glory and success.”
Ra-Ta nodded approvingly. Yes, she had done an excellent job. The Temple had a sizable hospital, as Isis was the magician and healer “par excellence” worldwide; her cults attracted the medicine man in almost all his healing invocations. Under these royal healing auspices, the humble family would find refuge until the man was healed and the woman delivered her baby.
Lizla took delight in picking up and caressing the little girl Amura-bel, whom she had found so seriously meditating in the water. Then, on impulse she asked the mother for her birth date. She would use her case in her astrology classes. Who knows? Sometimes even the peasants could have strange destinies. Ra-Ta frowned upon it, but accepted it. He was still puzzled by the healing powers of his disciple.
Ra-Ta realized that the wounded man’s left leg was very bad. It may even have to be amputated. That would be no problem in the temple. It held the most competent surgeons of the world known at that time. But perhaps it could be saved. His other wounds looked clean and some restoring could be seen already in the torn tissues. Amazing!
Ra-Ta and Lizla fell into silence as they walked side by side the palanquins on their way back to the Temple. They arrived by mid-afternoon and went in directly to the hospital. Without delay, three priestesses took care of the wounded man and a doctor was called in. The woman and children were taken to the guestrooms, which they entered rather timidly as they were not used to so much luxury.
Lizla went to her room with her teacher’s blessings. There, before her beloved picture, she sat in meditation. Half an hour passed before her excitement would subdue enough that she could tune in to the higher levels.
There she found her graceful Mother ISIS, waiting for her for the answer.
“Mother, I’ve decided to follow the destiny the stars have marked for me,” Lizla said, her heart glowing with gratitude, as she saw the Goddess smiling.
“Very well then, I think you have made the right decision. But because of it, your training must continue. So much you will accomplish, so much you must learn.”
“I would be grateful for that too, Mother. I’ve noticed that learning has made my life richer in just a few weeks and I would love to continue. Mother,” Lizla’s Ka was prompting her for more. “There is something I saw today – when I helped this man. Do you expect me to heal people?”
“Yes, I noticed with pleasure your delight in that too. A child of mine in my temple should follow my path, healing and magic. But you will follow my path all the way. You will be a queen; you will help heal your country. And an Egyptian queen must be a WOMAN.” The letters seemed to impregnate like fire on Lizla’s mind. “A woman equal in power to the Pharaoh, a woman, queen and favorite in the midst of a harem of the most beautiful women in the world today. Do you see what I mean?” Isis eyes were compassionate and almost merry. Lizla nodded respectfully but felt a pang of uneasiness creeping into her heart.
“You have no need to worry. Don’t forget, it is your destiny.” The Goddess continued, “but you want to succeed, don’t you?” Lizla felt her proud Leo Venus rising to the occasion.
“Yes,” she answered daringly.
“Very well, in the morning you will tell Ra-Ta to take you to Ishtar-la. She will be your tutor. Good night now.”
Lizla felt blessed and rested. She kept a quiet vigil until dinnertime. She had a lot to think about.

Chapter 4 – The Ancient Sacred Coin
The evening came in glowing pinks over the sandy dunes. Shadows of purple fingers ran down through the dark elevations, caressing the ancient slopes where the long standing shapes of the great pyramids of Giza evoked a past of mystery and wonder.
After the dinner feast – the night of the Nile’s blessing festival – Lizla left the quiet temple grounds following the gay noise that came from the guest quarters. It was a deep blue sky, pregnant with millions of stars, while the moon was approaching its fullness. Dreamily wandering through the gardens, she passed olive trees and date palms, underneath which the flowerbeds were profuse with roses, jasmines and lilies. A large verandah surrounded the guest quarters, and a long corridor covered with a heavy mat of vines connected these apartments with the Healing Temple and the Temple of Love.
The Temple of Love was utilized for preparing princesses and nobles for marriage and motherhood. It also functioned to heal the heart wounds and balance the minds of those whose spirits had been broken or bruised by dark emotional experiences. The Healing Temple was another health center dedicated, however, to more physical types of cures than the Temple of Love. Both of them were surrounded by beautiful gardens, whose relaxing and refreshing atmosphere were as much a healing influence as the science that was practiced indoors. The whole complex of the Isis temple was located in a natural oasis, and its lush, vivid greenery provided an uplifting experience for the weary pilgrim who had come necessarily through many hours of the desert’s incandescent heat.
Here and there among the rose bushes, angel alabaster lamps threw rose, blue and purple color around the darkening garden. By one of the lamps, by the twisted arm of an old vine, she saw and heard a couple speaking in deep passionate tones. Lizla hid beneath the palm trees as she recognized Psusennes, the lion hunter, whose penetrating looks she had found embarrassing lately. His partner was a young princess of lower rank, Altamira, daughter of Pharaoh’s younger brother and one of his concubines. Lizla had seen Altamira before, and although she knew her to be several years her senior, Lizla never felt too much respect for her. Her manners were lacking the serene composure of a real princess, Lizla thought, and her capricious games had hurt Lizla’s younger brother and sisters several times. She also was very mean to the servants.
But Lizla was puzzled by the way she conducted herself with Psusennes. She was all sweetness and coyness, like a silk and linen doll, lost in his strong arms. Lizla noticed for the first time with admiration his magnificent athletic figure, his muscular shoulders, arms and legs. He seemed totally absorbed in the playful coquettish smiles of Altamira, who alternated between languid glances and sparkling vividness. Lizla was puzzled by both. Remembering her newly discovered gifts of psychic perception, she decided to try it on both lovers and understand this new mystery.
First she tried it on Psusennes, at the moment in a passionate embrace, pressing his lips against Altamira’s, who surrendered with obvious eager desire. His long fingers caressed passionately the slender body of his lover, nude to the waist, while a free flowing skirt covered loosely the well shaped sun tanned legs adorned with Persian silk sandals embroidered with precious stones. As Lizla tuned into him, she felt startled. A current of vivid fire came up her womb into her breasts and between her legs. She vaguely remembered the lines of a poem, where the poet described his lover as one “with pomegranate breasts bursting with life and intoxicating power.” She looked and touched her own breasts and found they were small and flat compared to Altamira’s. A tint of rage mingled with the newly found fire and made her take stock of her feelings. Was this a new form of magic?
Altamira’s voice was heavy with passion and a slant of jealously as she complained mildly. “Ah, my lord, thou are a master in the art of Love. By now I thought you had forgotten me for another one, as