A while ago, I was reading Raphael Patai’s important work, The Hebrew Goddess. In his introduction, he writes, “…the Hebrew goddess succeeded in surviving. She underwent, to be sure, an astounding metamorphosis, but then that too, is the mark of a living deity.”

Those sentences made me jump up and down and shout, “yes, Yes, YES!” For that is precisely the point I find myself called to make, again and again, in relation to Isis. Because She is a Living Deity, and because Her worship is not an Society for Creative Anachronism-like recreation but a living thing itself, the way people throughout history have experienced Isis naturally reflects their own society. They put Her in their society’s clothing. Surprise! This ancient Egyptian Goddess suddenly speaks their language; well, yes, of course She does.

For example, ancient…