A Rattle for the Goddess
By Jo Hirons-Vironov from Northern Earth 74
Jo Hiron-Voronov, responding to an enquiry in our 'Looking for Clues' section, introduces the magical instrument, the sistrum, and describes how its use would place the bearer and audience in a liminal space.
As the myth of Orpheus explains: music opens the gates to the Underworld. Going back to ancient models, there is ample evidence that music formed a strong part of the shaman's armoury both for combating unwelcome spirits and for creating an opening for sacred dialogue between the visible and invisible worlds.
We are probably all familiar with shamanic drumming - that hellish rhythm which holds open the perilous road to the Otherworld. Perhaps less familiar are the rattles and shakers so very often, but not exclusively, found in female mysteries. These primitive instruments provide incessant rhythm - releasing the mind from the everyday sphere. Devotees of the rave scene will vouch for altered states produced by the combination of powerful rhythm with frenzied dancing - on a quieter level, the same release is sought through the rhythmical repetitions of the rosary, Kabbalistic exercises or mantra.
Of all the sacred rattles, the best documented is the sistrum, sheshesht, of Egypt, in use until fairly recently in the Coptic (Christian) Church, a remarkable, barely-changed survival through seven thousand years of human worship.
Derived from a loop of dried reeds or papyrus flowers, brought as offerings to the presiding goddess and forming part of the ritual harvest dances in her honour, its onomatopoeic name recalls one of Egypt's most ancient and protective deities, the cobra-goddess Wadjet, said to be summoned by rustling sounds and charmed by rhythmic music.
The sistrum is a loop of stiff bronze ribbon fixed to a sturdy handle, with three to four metal bars pushed through either side, often decorated with rings and bells; when shaken, these loose pieces of metal chime together. The bars were often each made of different materials/metals and were thus interpreted as representing the four elements which made up the living world. Three-bar sistra were said to represent the three seasons. A degree of tuning was possible - some produced an unnerving raucous sound, whereas others were described as 'of sweet enchantment'.
Some of the oldest sistra have cross-bars in the shape of serpents, recalling the early harvest rituals; later examples have elaborate iconography which explicitly states their desired effect. These early rattles are highly shamanic - they recall the rituals of the Siberian Tungus tribesmen, where spirits are trapped in wooden rings and passed along a ribbon representing the shaman's road and symbolising the connection between earth and the spirit world. In Egyptian mythology, chthonic serpents are seen as intermediaries with the underworld. Sacred pathways are marked by the twining coils of snakes, and the sun itself, on its nightly underground journey, travelled through the bowels of a great serpent.
Sistra were used in the worship of the great goddesses of Egypt - Hathor, Bast and Isis. Of these Hathor is perhaps the oldest, being the ancient birth-death-mother who became, like the Greek Aphrodite, goddess of love, beauty and music. We have evidence of this ancient cult from pre-Dynastic grave goods - painted pots show cow-dancers, horned priestesses of Hathor, moving in rhythmic lines, whilst others hold sistra and drums. Some even seem to show the commencement of a shamanic journey, as a mythical landscape appears, often reached by ladder or serpent path.
Their cow-horned goddess masks were incorporated into the handle of the sistrum; an unusual image, being full-faced and cow-eared, whereas most portrayals of Egyptian gods are in profile only. The mask-face was frequently crowned with a box-like structure, the naos or shrine, or with a tomb portal.The sound of the sistrum thus evokes the power of the goddess, creates a sacred, protective space, and opens a pathway to the otherworld, which can be crossed both ways. The oldest forms consist simply of the gateway itself.
Many shamanic initiations feature this ascent to the sky and/or descent to the underworld, there to encounter guardians or opposing spirits, sky-gods or underworld deities. The shaman in animal mask or fantastic costume undertakes a journey no sane person would consider, to reconnect heaven and earth. The Hatoric cow-dancers, with their rhythmic singing and chiming sistra, open the path. The shrine building should be seen as the same 'dream house' where native American shaman initiates undergo a ritual death, sometimes depicted as physical dismemberment and resurrection by the spirits. Just so Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead and resurrection, is dismembered by his rival Seth and restored to life by Isis.
Some of the more familiar tales of Isis, as collected by the Greek historian Plutarch, were originally tales of Hathor. In some versions, it is Hathor, not Isis, who is the mother of the falcon-god Horus. In later versions, Hathor, as goddess of love, is the consort of Horus when he reclaims the throne of his father. Some hints of hathor's powerful past remain - she is said to have been born as Sekhmet, the lioness-goddess of destruction, before she was tamed and gentled. These later tales explain the shrine as the house of reeds built to guard Hathor when she gave birth to her son, Ihy, child-god of music. Her name, 'Hwt-hor', signifies 'house of Horus' and the image of the falcon often nestles on top of the sistrum-shrine. 'Horus' was held to mean 'the distant', or 'sought from afar'. Perhaps we have here a shamanic microcosm - the sun-falcon was thought to be the chosen incarnation of the god, and spirits rode within his wings; Hathor, as sky-goddess, enfolding the god.
The most famous temple to Hathor was at Denderah, its name derived from her title 'Ta Neteret', the Goddess. These temples often incorporate the cow-mask and a sacred shrine in the supporting pillars. Indeed, she is also called 'Iunet', 'she of the pillar', and there is evidence that her earliest form of worship was as a horned cow-head set upon a ritual pillar.
The sistrum was later used in the temple rituals of Bast, goddess of joy, dancing and merrymaking, and also of beer and fertility. She is often depicted as a domestic cat, rather than the lioness, her original incarnation. Some sistra show cats sitting neatly on top of the naos-shrine, or sprawling with delicious ease around the hoop-top. Baskets of kittens cling to the side of the loop, as sistra became wedding charms (kittens representing children). The hathor mask is still present, often elaborately bewigged, and now called Nebet-Hetepet, lady of joy, a fertility goddess of a particularly erotic nature.
The iconography of the sistrum became more complex. The handle, which could be of bronze or faience or silver inlaid with enamels, was also often in the form of the dwarf-god Bes, an earth-spirit representing the massive nature of the Earth concentrated into one small form. As a dwarf, he represents energy, strength and vigour. He protects the house and, by extension of this sacred space, the world itself. Bes protected the newly-born, fought against demons, and was called Aha, 'fighter'. He is often shown strangling two serpents, gazelles or lions in much the same way as Gilgamesh or Hercules. Like Hercules, he has a club and lion-skin. Plutarch says that the sistrum was used to frighten away Typhon - Seyth, god of Chaos. Thus, the sistrum can be seen to open the way to the underworld and to protect against harmful spirits which can invade the sacred enclosure.
Other forms of sistrum handle incorporate the Djed pillar. This fetish object was interpreted either as a tree in which the body of Osiris was concealed or as the backbone of the dismembered god. Groups of female musicians were present at the heb sed or jubilee festival of the pharaoh, which involved, in addition to ritual races and combat, the erection of the sacred pillar. It can be seen as a type of world tree, symbolising the continuing stability of the king's reign and his worthiness to act as intermediary between men and gods. The Djed pillar, like the more familiar ankh, was worshipped in its own right, as the symbolic representation of the god and as the dwelling place of the god. Just so, the sistrum was held to contain the very presence of the goddess herself. In this living form, called Baat, the sistrum was seen as a pillar separating earth and sky, often acting as a balance between the rivals Seth and Horus, as hathor herself was seen as an appeasing and mediating force, compelling these eternal opposites to care for mankind.
Plutarch recalls a particular sistrum on which the faces of Isis and Nephthys appear. As Isis is the consort of Osiris, and Nephthys of Set, this again suggests a balancing of opposites. Such an instrument could have been intended for a funeral, as both goddesses were seen as guardians of the dead. They are often shown winged, or as protecting birds, their great age shown in their names - Isis (Auset), 'Enthroned Queen', and Nephthys (Nebhthwt), 'Lady of the House'. Models of the sistrum were associated with funerary rites, often broken as a sign that life had ended.
Thus the sistrum-shrine, the sacred space opened by its music, is both the birth and the death house - the gates to the Underworld.
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