cover image The Passion of Isis and Osiris

The Passion of Isis and Osiris

Jean Houston. Ballantine Books, $24 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-345-39779-9

Well-known psychologist and author Houston begins this highly adventurous book with a poetic retelling of the Egyptian myth of nature goddess Isis and her brother and husband, Osiris, the legendary ruler and god of the underworld. She then chronicles the cult of worship of Isis and Osiris, a chief religion of the Roman Empire until around A.D. 400. Mining archetypal spirituality in the manner of Joseph Campbell, Houston sifts ancient Egyptian myths for their contemporary relevance as keys to personal transformation. Finding love amid sorrow, accepting loss and death, reconciling body and soul are among the lessons she gleans from the Isis/Osiris legend, to be achieved by ``entering an Egyptian state of mind, allowing for the simultaneous existence and experience of all things in motion.'' To that end, she sets forth self-help exercises, including journal-keeping, dreamwork, creating sentences in hieroglyphics, body movement, meditation and sailing with Osiris into the underworld. (Jan.)