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NEPHTHYS Wife of Seth and sister of Isis and Osiris, her role is invariably helpful and benign. She searched with her sister for Osiris’s body, helped her to reassemble the body her husband had mutilated and remained a helpmate to Isis through her pregnancy and early days of motherhood. However, Nephthys is often most remembered for her Underworld protective role, standing behind Osiris as the heart of the deceased is weighed. She also helped Isis in her role of assisting and protecting the dead. With Isis, Neith and Serqet, she formed the quartet of deities who protected the young Tutankhamun and other Pharaohs and nobles in death. Isis and Nephthys face each other with outstretched wings on the ids of mummies or stand at the head and foot of the mummy. A nature goddess Nephthys she represented sunset and both she and Isis rode on the solar boat at the first sunrise But mainly as the shadow alter ego of Isis, she symbolised the darkness, silence and hidden mysteries and what was invisible Isis was the birth goddess, she the death. Yet it was the death that led to rebirth and so she is a symbol of hope. Nephthys is shown as a woman with a pylon, a tower surmounted by a dish on her headdress, called the symbol for a mansion and in her protective role she has outstretched wings. Invoke her for compassion, gentleness, reconciliation, acceptance of what cannot be changed, for soothing sorrow, for support in difficult times and for endings that lead to beginnings. Her colour is black.
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