Daughter of Isis by Lilian Nirupa (book recommendations .TXT) 📕

sometimes, she would have preferred the more spontaneous rhythms of her old country.
She was surprised to find Lizla sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree, holding a copy of the same papyrus roll with the golden cord ending in purple silk buttons that she had received from Ishtar-la that very morning.
Lizla saluted her politely, but somehow distant. She liked her, but she was Mikos’s younger sister and Lizla did not know how much Mikos had shared with his sister about their strange encounter in the underground pyramid of light. Lizla was young enough to fear having to be different. Somehow her spiritual and mythical experiences made her fear isolation from other people, particularly when they were obviously scheduled to be classmates. But she did not need to fear. Mikos’s rational nature was even more apprehensive than Lizla, about sharing his own hardly understood psychic experiences to his own family. Lizla suspected that much, when she encountered the clear blue eyes of her new class mate greeting her with a humble, “Good morning Princess Lizla.” There was nothing in that look to suspect that her secret had been betrayed.
Lizla embraced her friend’s sister with what seemed to the Greek girl surprising candor. Princess Lillie had always maintained a respectful but rather haughty distance with her in spite of being her older brother’s lover. But Lizla asked eagerly, “Hello my friend, how are you doing? You must be feeling rather homesick, here in our strange land? How is Mikos, I have not seen him in the last few days.”
Annouk-Aimee returned the embrace and smile with a warm and thankful heart. “I have not seen him either. I think he is quite enthralled with his studies of Yoga and Astrology. He was talking of following Suryananda when he returns to India next year,” she answered shyly, not knowing if she had revealed too much of his brother’s plans.
But Lizla laughed heartily! “Ah, Mikos your brother soaks knowledge like a sponge, and I am sure he will feel more comfortable in India with their intense theories and elaborate diagrams.” Suddenly, Annouk-Aimee felt an intense liking for Lizla. How sweet and beautiful she was and how accurately she had described her brother’s studious nature. “It seems like we are in the same class,” Lizla continued as she saw Annouk-Aimee holding the golden laced papyrus with the Temple of Love seal engraved in the outer border.
“Yes, and it seems we both have the same teachings to study under these perfumed trees...” Annouk-Aimee ventured, admiring the gorgeous surroundings.
Lizla answered, “I don’t understand much of it, but I hope it will be explained in class. I know the Isis invocation, at least, so I am confident that the teachings are going to be consistent with our previous ones.”
Annouk-Aimee smiled shyly. “Your previous ones,” she thought to herself, not daring to reveal her secret apprehension. The mystic invocations were a source of uneasiness as well as wonder.
Lizla saw the frown on her new friend and put her hand on Annouk-Aimee’s shoulder. “I have a favor to ask you,” Lizla said reassuringly. “Would you please teach me Greek? I am sure my father would pay you.”
Annouk-Aimee smiled gratefully. “It would be an honor for me royal princess.”
Lizla was also curious about her new friend’s pregnancy, but she did not dare to ask. Finally she ventured, “How are you feeling?”
Annouk-Aimee blushed, but did not avoid the issue. “I am assuming Mikos told you... Well, it was stupid of me, I guess, but he also probably told you that I was always a bit reckless... Younger sister of three older brothers.”
Lizla thought she had seen it often in the palace. Same thing with Altamira; she could not help a frown as she remembered her cousin’s lover. But she changed her frown to a reassuring smile when she saw Annouk-Aimee’s discomfort. She tried to put an arm around her, but it was too late. The Greek girl said she had to leave promptly and respectfully said farewell.
Lizla was puzzled. She would have to be more careful with this girl; she did not mean to hurt her feelings... “She is surely bashful for a reckless character,” Lizla thought.
Quietly she returned to her strange preliminary homework. After the Isis invocation, the papyrus had a picture of a human body, which was outlined as a female form. Soon she realized the inner drawings explanations corresponded to the information she had learned about in her spiritual training. She was curious about it. Ra-Ta’s training had been verbal and he had never showed her any pictures or diagrams. He insisted that inner knowledge should be acquired through meditation alone...So what were those pictures?
Lizla was puzzled; it seemed there was more to those chakras than the circles or wheels in the Ka. “Do you suppose you can find them in a human body?” she wondered. She would have to ask Ishtar-la about that. She had taken basic anatomy courses before and remembered earlier sneaking into one of her Uncle Ptolemy’s private libraries, the uncle who was obsessed with death and embalming. That was the only time she had seen text with pictures about the body like this.
She wished she was back at the palace in Tanis, so she could sneak back into her uncle’s libraries again. Lizla’s curiosity was insatiable. But then she thought that the Isis Temple must have a library since it had two schools: the Temple of Healing and the Temple of Love.
At any rate, it was interesting in the pictures that the chakras were connected to the physical organs in the body. “Will this course contain classes in medicine?” she wondered. Lizla was also very curious about that. She had training in spiritual healing, but her knowledge of medicine was rudimentary and mainly about the muscles and skin rashes.
She suddenly felt hungry. So she went back to the Temple grounds and returned to her room to bathe and change for dinner.
Meanwhile, Ishtar-la was fascinated with her new discovery, received at the library: The ivory box, with the golden engraving of an Ankh, the Cross of Life, on its cover, contained three papyruses. The first one said “Structures of the Ka.” The second one and the third one were encased in a silver cylinder container and were merely marked, “To be opened only when first scroll is completed.”
Ishtar-la was a little annoyed at this. “How do they know when I’ve finished?” she said to herself, and tried to open the two tubes in vain. She thought of asking someone to help her, but she could not find an explanation of how the precious box had come to her. Magic was not familiar territory for Ishtar-la. She was a wise and devout woman, but preferred to leave the supernatural realms to priests and diviners. Her earlier training was also riddled with a superstitious fear of the unknown, like the presence of demons and evil entities....
Carefully she unwrapped the first scroll and saw it contained several sections. The first one was marked “Instructions to the Teacher” in three languages: the sacred Egyptian hieroglyphic, Persian and Greek. She was familiar with Persian, part of her princess training in Babylon, and of course, she was well versed in Egyptian hieroglyphics from her mother’s heritage and recent temple work. The manuscript had a picture of a female form shape with description and explanations of the chakras.
On a different section she found a picture of an astrological chart, which she remembered coincided with hers. Again her superstitious fear made her put the scroll aside. How did that happen? Who has the magic? Who had her chart? Her name was not mentioned at all. It simply said “Teacher’s Sample Chart.”
Then there was another diagram where the two pictures were combined, with specific instructions on breathing exercises. The legend underneath that picture said “The Flow of Love Power.”
Then there was another section with physical exercises and a demonstration of Hatha Yoga and Persian calisthenics that was supposed to be the prelude for the training session.

Chapter 13 – The Temple of Love
The Temple of Love was located in the middle of the three tree groves that flanked the Eastern horizon of the Isis Temple compound. It had a magnificent entrance where five major columns surrounded the Isis monument. This statue of the Goddess was 25 feet in height and her luminous eyes had been designed in shining dark lapis lazuli. Much commentary surrounded that decision, but it was ironically Ra-Ta’s influence that had prevailed to give the Goddess of Love dark blue eyes, just like the ancient legends said the ancient sages had envisioned the Goddess. Her body was made of translucent rose alabaster.
The Temple of Love was a new construction and so was the statue. Lizla reflected on this the first day of the year, just two months before her 15th birthday. It gave her a sense of relief. A lot of the girls at her age were already married. Her gorgeous sister had a child already. But she would be 15 and still in school. The calendar for the Temple of Love duration was three years, and she would be a grown up woman by then and could choose her own husband, so she hoped.
What she did not know was that Ra-Ta, her mother, and the Pharaoh had already arranged that. The political situation was unstable, her stars marked a strange destiny and Lizla would be better off marrying at a mature age when her studies had been completed and she would be sure of her own needs and direction. Once married, Pharaonic Coronation would be imminent and the prince consort should be the ideal Pharaoh to share her throne.
The trumpets heralded the birth of Ra over the horizon and the morning procession began. The high priestess of the Isis Temple went before her train of younger priestesses, leading them through a corridor of burning candles that trailed the passage from the main temple to the Temple of Love. The trail of beautiful priestesses behind her were resplendent under the sun, as they were adorned in their best clothes and each one carried a tray of flowers, a burning candle made of pure bees wax, and a small gold container of saffron rice and barley signifying beauty, light and abundance.
The high priestess’s arms were bare and her white linen tunic enhanced with a silk shawl of luminous purple, simply adorned with a heavy necklace of gold and lapiluzli. Like her attendants, her hair was adorned with a jasmine garland that fell behind her up to her waist. When the high priestess arrived at the new statue to inaugurate the Temple of Love school year, she stopped, raised her eyes and intoned the Isis Invocation. When she finished, she stood silently and signaled her attendants. They surrounded her in a semicircle and started chanting a love hymn to God, Love and the sustaining power of the universe. All the while, they were waving the trails in unison.
The priests of the Ra-Temple, the students and their families, and some royal princes, including Princess Lizla and the Queen’s Mother, were attending the ceremony from the Temple balcony. They were touched by the beauty and devotion of the priestesses and stood in reverent silence.
When the priestesses finished their chants, they bowed to the magnificent statue, and deposited the offering trays with their burning lights by the small wall that surrounded the statue. A small pond had been created around the statue, which those walls contained.
From their veranda on the temple’s second floor, Lizla could see her Mother trying to hide her tears. The queen mother did not notice her reflection in the small pond, but Lizla’s heart understood. She would have to return to the royal palace in Tanis and work on the political schemes that would support the legitimate