charisma

I generally do not read a great deal of fiction but earlier this year I picked up a copy of Paulo Coelho's book "The Alchemist". I forget the reasons I decided to read this book though it must have involved the plot of the book being connected to the Egyptian great pyramids. I can't recommend this book highly enough. The messages within it are very motivating, strike deep into your psyche, and touch on the journey that we are all on called life. 

I think this ability of the author to connect with our yearning souls is what makes his books popular. This book talks about everyone having a Personal Legend and when you are serious about discovering this legend Coelho tells us "when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it". The protagonist goes off on his journey to find his treasure located on the Giza plateau near the great pyramids in Egypt and eventually learns that the greatest treasure is the journey in search of the treasure. It's an idea that is an enduring nugget of wisdom, even Miley Cyrus has a song called "The Climb" which is speaking of the same thing. The title of the book is a great choice as it alludes not only to the alchemist in the story but points us to another understanding of the ancient practice of alchemy. I think those in the middle ages that pursued it as a way to change base metals into gold missed the point of the exercise. Esoterically the practice of alchemy concerns your soul and how the process of material incarnation is designed to change your soul into something greater. It is the ultimate form of magic. Anyway because of my enjoyment of that book I decided to read another of Coelho's books. After doing a little research on the other books he has written I chose "By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept: A Novel of Forgiveness". 

The descriptions of the book left no doubt that it was a book that was greatly influenced by religion and Coelho's Catholic beliefs. The negative reviews of the book were generally people turned off by the religious aspect of it and how it predominated the story. However I thought to myself it might be refreshing and interesting to read about the author's views on religion and how he incorporates it into this story. I have my own strong beliefs but I am tolerant of other views. I thought I knew enough about the Catholic religion but it turns out I should have long looked into what they believe and what practices they follow. I do realize that what Coelho delves into in this book does go further than mainstream Catholicism would ever care to go though I have been curious for a while concerning its deep Mary reverence and worship. The group that Coelho focuses on are called Charismatics. It is a renewal of faith through the Holy Spirit. This Catholic form of Charismatic renewal features faith healing, glossolalia (speaking in tongues), and prophesy. These attributes figure prominently in the story. It wasn't long into this book that I was struck dumbfounded.

Turns out this book is about Goddess acknowledgement and worship. The male lead in the story has received a gift of healing, a grace from the Lady of Graces and he must reconcile his calling against a woman from his childhood whose love he has never forgotten. I'll stop here as I don't want to give away the story. I was dumbfounded because I have met enough Christians in my life that attribute things that happen to them to God; usually they are all positive. I am sure you know the type and might even be one yourself. Well I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe I was drawn to this book because of the Goddess. Normally I wouldn't read a work of fiction that is a love story intermingled with Christianity. Not really my cup of tea. The reverence shown for the Virgin Mary in Catholicism I started to look into. I had done a little bit of research before and had known about their Mariolatry and Martin Luther's polemics against it. Little did I know the Ave Maria, the Rosary, the Assumption, the Festival of the Madonna, Notre Dame etc. were expressions of this deep devotion to her. From the research I did it seems the history of the Roman Church and its related entities - the Eastern Orthodox and Anglican Church share in this Mary worship with it being very predominant in the Eastern Orthodox beliefs. The Anglican Church, while recognizing the role of Mary, play it down to a degree. The reformers that broke away from the Catholic Church and still splinter today all seem to denounce this form of worship as idolatrous. I guess in a way it is if you have systemically eliminated any role of the divine feminine in what you are preaching. If the female is as divine as the male then it stands that it would not be idolatry at all instead it would be honouring the role of the Goddess in this form of worship. However years and years of persecution of the Goddess by paternalistic misogynists have led Christians to believe there is no room for the feminine in the godhead. 

I investigated further the name used for this form of worship, Charismatic, which is describing a revival of faith guided by the Holy Spirit. This confirmed my suspicions. Charismatic comes from the the idea of charisma. A person with charisma is someone who is very compelling and has a gift of being able to persuade and guide another person or group. A successful politician would have this attribute. This word comes from the Greek kharisma which has a meaning of a favour, a divine gift. This is getting pretty close to the idea of the Holy Spirit granting these graces to those asking for favours. The root of kharisma, which is kharis, means grace, beauty, and kindness. Where this gets really interesting from my standpoint is the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite, the Greek iteration of the ancient Egyptian Goddess Hathor, had three attendants called the Kharites who were the most important of the female attendants of Aphrodite and were known as the three goddesses of the graces, graces meaning gifts.   

Three Kharite attendants of Aphrodite

Here is a floor mosaic of Aphrodite, Adonis, and the Kharites from Imperial Roman times found in ruins beneath the Church of the Virgin Mary in Madaba, Jordan.

According to Nonnus, who wrote the ancient epic poem called the Dionysiaca, these Kharites were said to have their home in Byblos:

"The soil of Byblos where the Kharites(Graces) have their home, where Assyrian Kythereia [Aphrodite] dances."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 3. 110 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.)

This Nonnus hails from Akhmim (the Greek Panopolis) in Upper Egypt around the time of the end of the 4th century AD. About this time there was still a great pagan influence in the area and the city had a reputation for being home to the greatest magicians and alchemists in Egypt so suffice to say Nonnus would have grown up around much knowledge of the gods and goddesses. I highlight his mention of Byblos because of the Lady of Byblos, the Phoenician goddess Ba'alat.

Ba'alat Gebal

Byblos, the modern Jebeil in Lebanon, is the city where the body of Osiris, in the coffin Set had prepared for him and nailed him shut in, floated to after Set and his compatriots dumped it in the Mediterranean, giving us an idea of the relationship between the Egyptians and Phoenicians and their gods and goddesses at the time. Ba'alat is also shown on a cylinder seal in Egyptian style with the trademark Hathor hair-do and in one inscription she is said to be "beloved of Hathor".

Okay so it is fair to say there is a connection with the ancient idea of the Greek kharisma, the Greek goddess Aphrodite, the Phoenician goddess Ba'alat, and the ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor. Remember it is said that Hathor had her own retinue of followers called the seven Hathors that were announcers of the fate of a child at the time of his birth and protected the child from evil spirits. 

Seven Hathors with the Bull of the West - the Lord of Eternity

Not to step on anyone's religious toes, but I don't see Christianity in its original form as being much different from what was already well known, believed, and worshipped by Pagans. It was repackaged into a new brand that celebrated the divine son and the Goddess while kicking the father upstairs thus minimizing his psychotic tendencies through the intercession of his son. 

This deep reverence of Catholics that is shown to Mary really got me thinking about the roles of the two main Mary characters in the New Testament. There is the mother of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and also the female companion of Jesus that he loved more than his disciples - that being Mary Magdalene. The first Mary is representing the pure female who in this state of heavenly purity is tasked with giving birth to the saviour of the world. The second Mary, who Jesus loved so very much, has derogatorily been called a whore and a secret lover of Jesus. Among the disciples of Jesus she is among the most prominently mentioned and in the "Gnostic Gospels" a large cache of which was found at Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt in 1945, there is much revealed about her importance to Jesus and his story that was left out of the accepted canonized gospels. She was present at the crucifixion and was the first to witness the resurrection of Jesus. Also Jesus had driven seven demons out of Mary Magdalene as told in Luke 8:2 and Mark 16:9. She was known as the "Myrrh Bearer". Magdalene comes from the Hebrew Magdala which is a tower and may refer to the town in which she was born but curiously it is a euphemism in the Talmud for braiding/curling women's hair which in those times designated an adulteress. It is claimed that she is one of the same as Mary of Bethany (the sister of Lazarus and Martha). I'd like to address these attributes that I have detailed above about these two Marys. It is pretty much impossible to prove any of the assertions I'll make so take them or leave them with the understanding they are my beliefs and beliefs that are important to me.

The Virgin is the Goddess that births the latent soul of all men into this world. She is our spiritual mother in the material plane that is to give birth to our soul once awakened. In the Old Testament this idea was in the story of the barren Sarah who eventually conceived a miraculous child, as well as in Rachel who eventually conceived from the seed of Jacob and gave birth to Joseph. Joseph was left for dead in Egypt, Egypt being a metaphor for the material plane in the Old Testament, before experiencing a resurrection of sorts and rising to become ruler of Egypt due to the grace of prophesy he had received. This Virgin Goddess gives birth to the archetypal son of man, Jesus. This story being the story of the soul encapsulated in one man in the New Testament. She is not the mother of all but the womb that carries the potentiality of our greater self that is waiting to be impregnated. In ancient Egypt this was Isis. She gives birth to the re-born enlightened soul Horus. Horus battles with Set, the ancient Egyptian god of chaos and destruction bent on destroying him much like Jesus has his epic battle with Satan. Horus eventually subdues Set and rules over all Egypt. Conversely Mary Magdalene is the representative of the mother of all.

Mary Magdalene

She is the Eve of the Old Testament who is the mother of all life. She is the force present in all women that allow them to create new life and care for them as only a mother with her unselfish love can do. Misogynist men, their religion, and the god they worship deride her as a whore because of her ability to share in and create life which threatens their pursuit of dominance and power. They confuse life and fecundity with whoredom. These types of men are the biggest whores walking the planet and judge others by their own foul ways. In Judaism they recognize the Goddess as a whore who disguises herself as a widow as in the story of Tamar in Genesis 38. Judah had to give her his sons and when he did not commit a third son to her she seduced Judah into sleeping with her and impregnating her. When Judah called her out for her adultery and wanted to burn her she had the goods on him and he had to let her be. To this day Rabbis are forbidden to marry a whore or a widow which seems to them to be one in the same. Their cult of monotheism still fears the Goddess. This cult of monotheism they began carried on into Christianity in order to legitimize Christianity against its Pagan competitors and the Goddess was hushed up and hidden away; however you can still find her. The Pagan converts weren't going to let go of the Goddess. Just like the goddess Hathor in ancient Egypt who is present at all instances of birth and death, Mary Magdalene was present at the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection of Jesus. At Jesus' initial birth in Bethlehem the Goddess was represented by the gifts of myrrh, frankincense, and gold that I detailed in this blog post called Scent of a Woman. The aromas of frankincense and myrrh are burning during services at Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches in honour of Mary "the Myrrh Bearer". One of the most important aspects of goddesses in ancient Egypt was their hair and the role it played in mourning and rejuvenation. The hair of Hathor is iconic in its shape and its braids.

Hathor's hair-do

Therefore it is no surprise that Magdala is known in the Talmud as a hairdresser - a braider and curler of hair that is also an euphemism for an adulteress. It is important though to also look at the meaning of magdala as a tower in Genesis 11:1-9. This is the story of the tower of Babel angering the Lord as he was convinced mankind had acquired so much wisdom that nothing they planned would be impossible to accomplish. The idea of the tower connected to Magdalene is the wisdom of the Goddess. Being jealous of this, the Lord scattered people throughout the world and confused their languages. I believe the underlying idea of this passage is that a city with a tower, a migdol, is a place that worships the Goddess thus incurring the wrath of the Lord. Before tackling the seven demons driven out of Mary Magdalene I'd like to mention Magdalene's association with Mary of Bethany who curiously had a brother Lazarus that Jesus raises from the dead as told in John 11:38-44. It is like the mythographer got lazy and decided to coat the tale of Osiris from ancient Egypt being resurrected from the dead in terms of his proper Egyptian name Asar and add the Greek appendage 'us' onto the end of it. It is really quite remarkable. The two Marys in Egypt, Isis and Nephthys (Nephthys being an aspect of Hathor - see this blog post) are present for this raising of the dead of Lazarus. The seven demons driven out of Mary Magdalene by Jesus corresponds to the seven Hathors that follow the Goddess around. It would be considered an act of divination and that's why the story has Jesus purifying her so she would not face condemnation. This cleansing of Mary by Jesus however was conveniently ignored by the writer of the Book of Revelation in his grand polemic against the Goddess in chapters 17 and 18 when he refers to her as the "Whore of Babylon".

The Whore of Babylon

We can see that the idea of Babylon comes from the tower of Babel and the Lord's hatred of mankind acquiring wisdom from the Goddess. The Whore, which can also be translated as idolatress, is described as riding on a beast with seven heads, an allusion to the demons Jesus had already cast out to purify her. This woman is described as being "arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:" which is an obvious allusion to this Goddess. The purple is referring to tyrian purple, the purple made famous by the Phoenicians. 

This fornicator is said to sit upon many waters, waters being a metaphor for humanity. Water is connected to the Goddess; water is the healing property of the healing grace of the Goddess. We grow in the womb of our mother surrounded by her water. To this day, breakaway Protestant churches and other non-catholic churches hurl accusations against the Catholic Church accusing it of being the "Whore of Babylon". Little do they know that this Lady, Mary Magdalene, is the Church and the Bride of Christ. The Book of Revelation condemns the Goddess, calling her a witch and allows the beast to burn her. A substitute "new Jerusalem" takes her place as the bride of Christ. These rantings in the Book of Revelation aren't about subduing the beast; no instead it is misogyny writ large. Its condemning of the Goddess along with sorcerers and magicians is a slap in the face to the life and times of Jesus as told in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus was born of a Goddess, cavorted with a Goddess, and practiced magic and sorcery. The Book of Revelation repudiates and condemns all this behaviour and the life of Jesus that had been told. This book frankly belongs in the Old Testament where it can feel at home frothing at the mouth over women and the serpent.  

Phew. I guess that had to come out of me at some point especially after my previous blogs have explained my cavorting with the Goddess and sorcerers. Immediately following one ayahuasca ceremony I wrote immediately about what occurred describing it as thus:

At times I experienced some amazing visions with my eyes open. I saw the shaman’s assistant José appear with light enveloping him and he had the appearance of a saint. At points in the ceremony it felt like he was being used as a channel for the goddess. He would be speaking quickly in a hushed religious tone much like a scene from the exorcist. It felt like a presence of the Virgin Mary. I totally see why in people who have these visions nothing can ever shake their faith. They have seen this spirit dimension and it is real.

I'm frankly amazed I got that feeling and wrote about it using those terms when I was watching that healing take place. Another thing I have noted is that this folk healing in the Amazon region has this underlying Catholic feel wrapped up in it. The Church authorities know about it and do not actively encourage traditional shamanism in the region but they also don't go out of their way to discourage it. Furthermore in reading biographies of the shamans of the Amazonian region it is quite startling the amount of them that talk in grand reverence about the Virgin Mary and other Catholic saints that they have mixed into their folk healing practices. 

So to get back to the topic of the book "By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept: A Novel of Forgiveness" and the Charismatics, I'd like to explore the place where a great majority of the book takes place and that is the town of Lourdes in the south western Pyrenees region of France. It is where in 1858 young Bernadette Soubrious witnessed multiple manifestations of the Lady known to her as the Immaculate Conception in a grotto (cave) after crossing a small stream to get to it. To this day the Goddess sighting is known as "Our Lady of Lourdes". The waters of the creek have been purported to heal pilgrims to the area, healing being one of Mary's graces. This isn't a one time happening though as in this case she had multiple visions of Mary and if you research the history of these visions you will find them all over the world. This wikipedia entry gives a good overview of the various reported Marian apparitions. This fascinates me because in doing research about the ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor it is surprising to find that she appears as the 'Lady of' many of the places in ancient Egypt as well as faraway foreign towns. She was the patron goddess of the mines in the Sinai giving the impression she appeared in the dug out mountainside. She has a huge connection to the mountain in the Valley of the Kings known as Ta Dehent leading me to believe that this area was chosen to bury the dead royalty due to the presence of the Goddess in the area. Here is a list of Hathor's centres of worship:

Atfih (Aphroditopolis)

Abu Simbel

Abydos

el-Ashmunein (Hermopolis Magna, Khnum)

Beni Hasan

Busiris (Abusir)

Busbastis

Byblos (Gubla, Jebeil)

Deir el-Bahari

Deir el-Medina

Dendera (Iunet, Tentyris)

Edfu (Apollinopolis Magna, Djeba, Mesen)

El-Kab (Nekheb)

Faras

Gebelein (Per-Hathor)

Heliopolis (Iunu)

Hiw (Hut-sekhem, Diospolis Parva)

Ihnasya el-Medina (Herakleopolis Magna)

Imet (Nebesha)

Kom Abu Billo (Terenuthis)

Kom el-Hisn (Imu, Momemphis)

Kom Ombo

Medjden (near Assiut)

Medjed (Deir Durunka)

Memphis (Men-nefer) 

Mirgissa

Lower Nubia (Wawat)

Philae

Punt

Qis (Cusae)

The Red Mountain

Rohesa (near Latopolis)

Sais

Serabit el-Kadim (Sinai)

Sinai

el-Sirria (Axwj)

Ta-Djeser (The Land of God)

Terraneh

Thebes (Waset)

Tihna el-Gebel (Tehne, Akoris)

Timna 

Upper Nubia (at Kalabsha)

Obviously I cannot definitely say whether these places became centres of Hathor worship because of a sighting but it is interesting to ponder. 

In conclusion the point I am making in this blog post concerns the role of the feminine divine in our modern forms of spirituality. For all the talk of family values and values promulgated by the institution of the Church in our society it feels empty and incomplete without any role for the feminine: the wife, the mother, the daughter, to play in the divine sphere. A family consisting of just a father and son do not constitute a role model for human relationships and social units. What is passed down in our western traditions are ideas about women that are thinly veiled misogynistic practices by those who fear the power of the Goddess. Her messages of kindness, love, wisdom, healing, and hope were not welcomed by the power hungry. Women in scripture are depicted as being either pure docile virgins or mischievous plotting whores who practice sorcery. Some societies veil them and treat them like second class citizens. Spiritual communities such as medieval Catholics yearned for connection with the Goddess and the laity resorted to worship of Mary that to pious observers was full on idolatry. In response, the connection to the feminine divine by breakaway Church reformers was pretty much severed. At various times in the history of mankind and his beliefs there have been reformations and renewals of beliefs. As it stands now the role of the divine in our lives is nearly empty and for future generations it will be lost. It is time to look at the damage done by the spiritual persecution of women, make amends, and restore in our beliefs the completeness of family we yearn for.

scent of a woman

Hail to thee, Lady of Fragrance,
Great Sekhmet, Sovereign Lady
Worshiped one,
Serpent who is upon her father…
Your rays illumine the Two Lands,
The two Regions are beneath your sway.

 
Al Pacino's performance as Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in the movie "Scent of a Woman" is one of my favourites of all time. This blog entry will not be about the movie but instead will be about Hathor, the greatest goddess to come out of Egypt.

Until the Late Period Hathor was the only goddess to possess temples of her own throughout the country, with a major sanctuary as the goddess of the southern sycamore at Memphis.
Ancient Egyptian Religion, Stephen Quirke, page 126

I cannot do justice to Hathor in a blog entry so it is necessary to concentrate on an aspect of the great lady, and that aspect I wish to write about is the Lady of Fragrance. First let's examine the name Hathor and get a handle on its meaning. The ancient Egyptians called Hathor Hwt-Har. Hwt means house and Har is referring to Horus; Horus being the enlightened ba who is destined to become a glorious, imperishable, and transfigured soul. House of Horus could mean that Hathor represents the abode of Horus in the sky and as the Lady of Turquoise Hathor plays that role. However the Pharaoh of Egypt, known as the living Horus, is said to be the son of Hathor. As I've mentioned before Horus is also the son of Isis. Were the ancient Egyptians confused or did they have disparate beliefs that were melded into an official religion that then had to account for Horus having multiple mothers? I've read a few books by Egyptologists that say that is the case. However what does 'house' mean in this regard. We live in a house so sure it can mean a dwelling place but we also know from the royalty we studied in history class that house can mean a dynasty or a genealogy such as the "House of Windsor" or the "House of Saud". This meaning is rather enlightening then. Horus then becomes the offspring of the line of gods and goddesses of which Hathor is the matriarch.

Hathor, being the consort of Re, is responsible for the Ennead of Iunu (Heliopolis). Shu (air/light), Tefnut (moisture/heat), Geb (earth), Nut (sky), Osiris (Ba/soul) and then Isis (womb of the incarnated Ba/spiritual mother), who gives birth to Horus in the material plane, are the direct ancestors of Horus.

Are you Horus, son of Osiris? Are you the god, the eldest one, the son of Hathor? Are you the seed of Geb?
The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, R.O. Faulkner, Utterance 303, Paragraph 466

Hathor is the mother of the Ennead and therefore the great mother of the all important Horus. The ancient Egyptians rather than being confused about who was the mother of Horus, were in giving Horus two mothers, being clear of his origins. The confusion of Isis-Hathor is a product of modern scholars attempting to make sense of something for which they do not as of yet have a complete understanding. The same could be said about the Greeks and their propagation of a Hellenistic Isis that embodies all the attributes of the great goddesses of ancient Egypt.

With that out of the way, let's investigate my aromatic mistress! Hathor is present at all scenes of birth and death in ancient Egypt. To the ancient Egyptians there was no real death or finality in the way we would think of death. Death was a re-birth or a changing of state. The soul is entombed in matter in the west mirroring the sun's descent into the waters in the evening and the soul is re-born in the east as is the sun on the occasion of our material death in the west when we give up the ghost; ghost being our word for the ancient Egyptians' concept of the life force which they called ka.

The truth is seen by those who travel in the sun-boat through the gateways of the raging-beneficent goddess in the night. And it is seen by the ritualists in the temple when they extinguish their flames for the ancestral dead in the Ancestor Ritual and utter their great prayer of trust in the returning goddess. Glittering in the dawning sky, she is praised both by the living on earth and by those in the Dwat, the goddess who brings to birth a new world at dawn. A glorious moment of cosmic unity is experienced as these worlds of the living and the dead merge and meet in the ninth hour of the night.
It is important to realize that Hathor herself manifests differently in this crucial transition zone, depending on whether she is to be seen as a night or day goddess. From the perspective of those living on earth in the daytime cycle, she appears bearing the young sun child in her womb, nurturing his Ka-life in the secrecy of the eastern horizon. To those Bas making their night journey through the Dwat she appears as the celestial cow of the starry night heavens, the returning Eye goddess emerging from the Western mountain wearing her symbolic menit-necklace of attraction, the vital goddess of desire, through whom life is continually born anew at the close of the night.
My Heart My Mother, Death and Rebirth in Ancient Egypt, Alison Roberts, pages 182 to 184

The ancient Egyptians traded extensively with the semitic Phoenician city state of Byblos, known in those days as Gubla/Gebal. Today it is the city of Jubayl in modern Lebanon. The inhabitants of Byblos worshipped a goddess, Astarte, who they would refer to as Ba'alat which means Lady. This Queen of Heaven was the Phoenician Goddess of Love and Fertility and equated with the planet Venus. Venus and Aphrodite being of course Roman and Greek iterations of Hathor. A cylinder seal from Byblos shows Ba'alat with Hathor hair, wearing the headdress of Hathor as well. Other representations of Ba'alat show her with a uraeus on her forehead and in another she is said to be "beloved of Hathor".

The Hebrew word for frankincense is lebona, which means pure or white and describes both the visual attributes of frankincense as well as the area, white snow capped mountains of Lebanon, where it is grown. The resin that flows from the frankincense bush is milky white.

Since ancient times, frankincense resin has been used to manufacture incense, cosmetics, and perfumes. Arabian women still burn frankincense to perfume their bodies, in particular the vulva (Martinetz et al. 1989). This not only lends them a more pleasant scent but also is said to make them more erotic.
http://lucidconsciousness.com/psychotropia/?p=999

In the book of Jeremiah 44 (King James Version) we read Jeremiah commenting on the idolatrous practises of the cities of Judah in relation to our Queen of Heaven:

17 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of food, and were well-off, and saw no evil.

Hathor would welcome the newly dead with food and drink, her role being one of an oasis in the hostile desert. There were also wild celebrations of food and drink at Hathor's Festival of Drunkenness that would occur shortly after the cyclical inundation of the Nile in mid-late summer.

The Lady of Fragrance was also connected to the aromatic myrrh which was highly prized in ancient Egypt. Queen Hatshepsut pictorially presents to us at her temple in Deir el-Bahri an expedition to the land of Punt in year 9 of her reign to procure among other things myrrh, frankincense and gold that were pleasing to the Mistress of Punt, Hathor.

Hatshepsut's devotion to Hathor is shown in the chapel of Hathor at the site where she dances before Hathor as well as suckling an udder of Hathor.

"the best of myrrh is upon all her [Hatshepsut's] limbs, her fragrance is divine dew, her odour is mingled with that of Punt."
Ancient Records of Egypt, J.H. Breasted, Vol. 2, pg.274

The Online Etymological Dictionary gives the history of the word myrrh as such:

myrrh
Old English myrre, from Latin myrrha, from Greek myrrha, from a Semitic source (confer Akkadian murru, Hebrew mor, Arabic murr "myrrh"), from a root meaning "was bitter."
https://www.etymonline.com/word/myrrh#etymonline_v_19344

From this we can take the greek word "myrrha" and investigate its origin. Myrrha is a goddess also known in greek as Smyrna. She is the mother of Adonis, the result of an incestuous relationship with her father. Her father Cinyras was tricked by Myrrha into sexual intercourse and this enraged him. He pursues Myrrha intent on killing her until Myrrha petitions the gods to intervene. They turn her into a myrrh tree. The child Adonis would then eventually be slain by a wild boar, echoing the story of Osiris and Set (The ka killing the ba again.) The legend of Adonis harkens back to the Phoenician Adon, the son of Ba'alat. The theme of incest is also present in the kingship of ancient Egypt as the Pharaoh, who is the living Horus, must impregnate his mother Hathor as Kamutef, the bull of his mother, in order to engender his next incarnation as Pharaoh in the cyclical legitimacy of kingship.

The theme of incest that is connected here between Hathor and Myrrha reminds me of the story of Lot in the Bible - Genesis 19: 30-38. Lot is tricked by his two daughters who get him drunk one night and then are impregnated by their father in order to continue their bloodline. The justification would then be that the bloodline was too important to let perish so the act was condoned and tolerated. I'm more interested in the name Lot here. I've commented in this blog space before on the many inversions of ancient myths that are present in the Bible. This is another one of them. Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary gives us this information concerning Myrrh:

Another word lot is also translated “myrrh” (Gen. 37:25; 43:11; Revised Version, marginal note, “or ladanum”). What was meant by this word is uncertain. It has been thought to be the chestnut, mastich, stacte, balsam, turpentine, pistachio nut, or the lotus. It is probably correctly rendered by the Latin word ladanum, the Arabic ladan, an aromatic juice of a shrub called the Cistus or rock rose, which has the same qualities, though in a slight degree, of opium, whence a decoction of opium is called laudanum. This plant was indigenous to Syria and Arabia.

Lot is translated from myrrh! There is also the claim that myrrh can also refer to the lotus. The Online Etymological Dictionary says this about the lotus:

lotus
1540s, from Latin lotus, from Greek lotos, name used for several plants before it came to mean Egyptian white lotus (a sense attested in English from 1580s); perhaps from a Semitic source (confer Hebrew lot "myrrh").
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=lotus

There's the connection to lot again. Why stop now, let's look up the name Lot from some trusted Bible sources:

Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
Lot
Lotan, wrapt up; hidden; covered; myrrh; rosin

King James Dictionary
Lot
Portion; destiny; fate.The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my LOT. (Psalm 16:5)

Hitchcock's dictionary gives us the myrrh connection again and the King James dictionary gives us an interesting definition of the name connecting it to fate and destiny.

In ancient Egypt it was said that whenever a child was born the seven Hathors would be present to announce the fate of the child. It was believed that these ladies could exchange a prince born to ill-fortune with a child with a better fated outlook on life.

One other epithet of Hathor I'd like to mention now is "The Golden One".

Much farther north in Middle Egypt, and thus closer to the royal capital at Memphis, was the town of Kusae, where Hathor was the chief deity as Lady of Kusae, at least from the early Middle Kingdom. The great tombs belonging to local princes at Meir testify to their devotion to this goddess, who was also referred to there by a priestess's text as The Gold.
The Great Goddesses of Egypt, Barbara S. Lesko, page 96

In a private tomb from the reign of Thutmose III, the owner praises Hathor as the very sun itself: "When you rise you come in peace. One is drunken because of your beautiful face, O Gold, O Hathor!"
The Great Goddesses of Egypt, Barbara S. Lesko, page 109

You may have guessed now why I've included the veneration of Hathor as "The Gold" along with her fragrant attributes. It is getting close to Christmas and the celebration of the birth of Christ. I had mentioned earlier that Hathor is present at all scenes of birth and death and this is one birth the Great Lady wouldn't miss for the world. The story goes that the wise men bring their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Now we know what the real symbolism is behind these gifts.

We are a week away from Christmas so why stop now? Let's look at chapter 2, verse 1 to 11 of the Book of Matthew (King James Version):

1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,
6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
7 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.
10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.

Now, it says in verse one that these wise men came from the east with the speculation being they may have been Persian Magi. In any event they are from the east. Verse two says they saw a star in the east announcing the saviour's birth. Tradition has it that they followed the star as the famous song written in 1857 by Rev. John Henry Hopkins relates:

We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light

Born a King on Bethlehem's plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again
King forever, ceasing never
Over us all to reign

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Frankincense to offer have I
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Prayer and praising, all men raising
Worship Him, God most high

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes of life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Glorious now behold Him arise
King and God and Sacrifice
Alleluia, Alleluia
Earth to heav'n replies

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

However, following a star in the east would not lead you west unless you are following the star from the moment it rises in the east until it sets in the west and is directly overhead - from which you would get an awful crick in your neck halfway through your journey. If you are following a bright star such as Sirius you would be heading southeast at first and then eventually south and then southwest by your orientation to the star. A more plausible explanation is that this 'star' they are following is the planet Venus. Venus is our royal lady Hathor who will be visible in the west after the sun sets in the evening and then is visible in the east shortly before the sun rises in the morning. Except for the moon, Venus is by far the brightest object in the night sky and it is a star of royal beauty bright. Venus will guide you westward at night and then direct you towards the reborn sun in the east in the morning, "thy perfect(ed) light". Hathor is the announcer of the birth in the morning of the sun as I wrote in this blog entry. In Matthew 2:5 we learn of the prophecy being fulfilled of the messiah being born in Bethlehem and explains why the Magi are heading to that town. Bethlehem means House of Bread. Curiously the ennead in Egypt located in Iunu (Heliopolis of the Greeks and On of the Bible) of which Hathor is the matriarch, was also known in ancient times as a major storehouse of grain, i.e. the place of bread. The result of the ennead of Iunu is the birth of Horus, our transfigured soul. The pharaoh was known as the living Horus and would be an object of worship and even Hathor would worship the living Horus. Here is a scene from Deir el-Bahri showing Hathor as the cow Mehet-Weret licking the hand of the pharaoh as a sign of reverence.

Of a similar nature is the portrait found several times in the sanctuary of Hathor at Deir el-Bahri which depicts Hathor as cow-goddess licking the queen's hand. This gesture can be interpreted either as a mark of favour or as a sign that the goddess recognizes the queen and wishes to give her power.
(Author cites E. Naville, The Temple of Deir el-Bahari, 1895, IV pl. LXXXVII, XCIV, XCVI.)
Hathor and Thoth, Two Key Figures of the Ancient Egyptian Religion, C.J. Bleeker, page 52

In Matthew 2:11 it is written that the wise men prior to giving Jesus their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, worshipped him. What does worship mean in this case?

Strong's Concordance:
4352 proskuneo (pros-koo-neh'-o); from 4314 and a probable derivative of 2965 (meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master's hand); to fawn or crouch to, i.e. (literally or figuratively) prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to, adore): KJV-- worship.

The Magi in their travels along with their gifts and adulation of the king of kings give away who they really are representing. This Lady of Gold, Lady of Fragrance is the greatest goddess of all; without her we are nothing.