In Egypt, She was called T3 w’t (Tah Uwah-et), “The Only One.” In Greek, this same epithet of the Goddess became Thiouis (Thee-oou-iss). (For some reason, I really like “Thiouis;” I have a chant I like to use with that epithet for Her.) The way some Romans expressed this concept may be summed up in a graffito found on one of the walls of the Temple of Isis in Rome: Una, quae es omnia, Dea Isis, “Being one, Thou art all, Goddess Isis.”

Strange in a polytheistic world, isn’t it?

Maybe yes, maybe no.

It could be confusing to those of us who have been born into a culture steeped in the singularity of the one male Deity. But that was very far from the experience of…