All Episodes

June 27, 2025 46 mins

In this fourth episode of the Myths of Egypt series, we follow Isis, goddess of healing, resurrection, and relentless devotion. From her search for the shattered body of Osiris to her quiet exile in the reeds with the infant Horus, Isis becomes the sacred thread that binds life and death, love and legacy. So snuggle up in your blankets, and have sweet dreams. 

The music in this episode is Over the Dunes by Jon Sumner. 

Text a Story Suggestion (or just say hi!)

Support the show

Need more Dreamful?

  • For more info about the show, episodes, and ways to support; check out our website www.dreamfulstories.com
  • Subscribe on Buzzsprout to get bonus episodes in the regular feed & a shout-out in an upcoming episode!
  • Subscribe on Apple Podcasts for bonus episodes at apple.co/dreamful
  • To get bonus episodes synced to your Spotify app & a shout-out in an upcoming episode, subscribe to dreamful.supercast.com
  • You can also support us with ratings, kind words, & sharing this podcast with loved ones.
  • Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/dreamfulpodcast & Instagram @dreamfulpodcast!

Dreamful is produced and hosted by Jordan Blair. Edited by Katie Sokolovska. Theme song by Joshua Snodgrass. Cover art by Jordan Blair. ©️ Dreamful LLC

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome to Dreamful Podcast bedtime stories for
slumber.
There are no new supportersthis week.
However, I would like to takethis time to thank everyone who
has supported the show over theyears, and this goes well beyond
the monetary paid subscriptions.
This is the people who tap theTexas show link in the show

(00:43):
notes to send me a message orsend a story suggestion, which
helps so much with my episodeplanning.
And it's the people who I seewriting each other in the
comments on Spotify, which I tryto read, but it's a little
difficult to keep up with that.
And the people who engage onInstagram or write a lovely

(01:04):
review.
And the people who engage onInstagram or write a lovely
review.
I just really appreciate all ofyou, and your support has made
it so I am continuouslymotivated to keep this podcast
going.
So I just want to take a momentto thank everyone, even you,
dear listener.
You have really made thispodcast such a wonderful project
.
Of course, if you'd like tosubscribe to receive bonus

(01:26):
episodes and a shout out on theepisode, you can visit
dreamfullstoriescom and, on thesupport page, find a link to
become a Buzzsprout supporter orsubscribe via Supercast.
If you listen on Spotify, youcan also support the show with a
rating and review.
Or, even better, share thepodcast with a loved one.
A rating and review.

(01:47):
Or, even better, share thepodcast with a loved one.
This is the fourth episode inthe Myths of Egypt series, where
we meet the goddess whogathered what was scattered, who
raised the lost and who heldthe world together with
whispered spells.
This is the story of Isis,magician of the marsh.
So snuggle up in your blanketsand have sweet dreams ¶¶.

(02:48):
In every tale of grief and love,of what was broken and then
remade, there is a thread thatleads back to Isis.
To the Egyptians, she was morethan a goddess.
She was magic made flesh, amother whose protection never

(03:12):
faltered, a mourner whose griefshaped the rhythms of the earth.
Her name was carried in healingspells, carved into temple
walls, whispered over the sickand the dying.
She crossed deserts and seas insearch of what was lost.

(03:36):
She defied death to create life.
To create life.
Before Egypt had kings orpyramids, before the Nile had a
name, there was Isis.

(04:01):
She was born from the union ofNut, the sky, and Geb, the earth
, a daughter of elemental forceand silent power.
Her siblings were gods of lightand darkness.
Osiris would become king of thefertile black land, set, who

(04:22):
ruled the wild red desert, andNephthys, the shadow, who stood
between them.
Isis was radiant and sharp, agoddess of keen perception,

(04:43):
sacred knowledge and watchfuldevotion.
Her name was written with thehieroglyph of a throne, and she
came to embody that symbol, thefoundation upon which power and
lineage rested In the earliestmyths.

(05:21):
She was not the loudest renewaland resurrection, not just as
lovers, but as two halves ofEgypt's soul life and death,
growth and decay, order andtransformation.
Isis loved Osiris not only ashusband, but as the one who

(05:47):
ruled beside her in harmony.
Under their reign, egyptflourished crops rose from the
soil, justice was balanced withmercy, and the rhythms of life
pulsed in harmony with the Nile.
But harmony breeds envy.

(06:10):
Set their brother burned withresentment.
With resentment, he was lord ofstorms and chaos and he could

(06:31):
not bear to see the throne inOsiris' hands.
One night, through cunning andcruelty, set trapped Osiris in a
box of polished cedar, sealedit shut with lead and cast it to
the Nile.
The coffin drifted north pastriverbanks and reeds until it

(06:54):
vanished beyond Egypt's border.
When Isis learned what had beendone, her heart hardened to
resolve.
She donned mourning garments,left the palace and the gods and
walked alone into the world.

(07:15):
Her footsteps crossed desertsand seas, searching every shore
and shadow.
At last, in the land of Byblos,she found Osiris, his coffin,
encased in the trunk of atamarisk tree, now part of a

(07:38):
foreign king's pillar.
She brought him home to Egyptand morning made motion.
But Set, always watching, foundthe body again.
In a rage, he tore Osiris intopieces, scattering them across

(08:02):
the two lands so that no lifecould ever be drawn from death.
Isis did not weep.
She searched again, walking thebanks of the Nile, whispering
his name into the waters,following the scent of cedar and

(08:26):
his memory.
With the help of her sisterNephthys and the jackal-headed
Anubis, she found and gatheredeach fragment, bone by bone,

(08:50):
bone by bone.
They washed him in sacred oils,wrapped him in linen,
embroidered with spells, andanointed his brow with signs
only gods could read.
And when the body was wholeagain, isis spoke the ancient
words, words born before timepast through her lips, like wind

(09:11):
through reeds, the linenstirred a flicker of light
passed across his face.
Osiris lived again in the deep,sacred realm of the Duat, the
land of the dead, where he wouldnow reign as king.

(09:35):
And from that moment of union,brief and eternal, a child was
conceived, a son destined tochallenge, set to restore what
had been taken.
But for now, isis fled into themarshes, her womb, full of a

(10:06):
future, the world was not yetready to see.
With Osiris crowned in the realmbeyond, isis disappeared into
the edgeses, the wild, tangledwaters of the Nile Delta, where

(10:28):
wreaths whispered secrets andcrocodiles slid silently beneath
the surface.
There, among the sedge andshadow, isis gave birth to her
son, horus, the falcon child,the last hope of a broken throne

(10:55):
whose wrath had not faded.
Forsett knew that if the childlived, the balance of power
would tip again.
So Isis raised Horus in silence.

(11:17):
She nursed him in secret,shielded his body with her wings
and sang spells into the airaround them to bend illness and
bite away from his skin.
Seven scorpions walked with herspirits of protection, sacred

(11:39):
guardians born of the earth'sdarker forces.
Born of the earth's darkerforces.
They followed in silence, theirtails curled, their stingers
ready, forming a living circlearound the goddess and her son.
And though they belonged tovenom and dusk, they bowed to

(12:04):
her command.
In this exile, isis became morethan a queen.
She became a mother who carriedthe weight of two worlds the
memory of a lost love and thefuture of a justice.

(12:24):
Still unborn, horus was oftenill, weakened by the poison of
snakes or by the fevered dreamsthat haunt children marked by
fate.
But Isis drew his sickness outwith spells that rose from her

(12:47):
breath when his tiny cheststilled.
She called upon every name.
She knew, every secret.
Ra had whispered every wordthat once stirred Osiris from
death.
And Horus breathed again, notbecause he was invincible, but

(13:09):
because Isis would not allow himto fall.
She wove his life from memory,magic and will, a falcon cradled
in reeds, destined to rise.
As Horus grew stronger, isisstepped from the marsh and into

(13:40):
the realm of gods.
She had walked the lands ofgrief and birth.
She had raised the dead,nurtured the living and guarded
the balance between the two.
And now Isis turned that wisdomtoward the heavens.

(14:01):
In one tale, she approached Ra,himself ancient and radiant, but
weary with time.
She watched as his lips crackedwith age, his breath labored
beneath the weight of eons.
He ruled all, but still keptone secret his true name, the

(14:28):
name that held his essence.
And Isis, wise beyond reckoning, knew that names held power.
She formed a serpent from Ra'sown saliva, mixed with dust, and
left in the path of the sun.

(14:48):
When Ra passed, the serpentstruck His body, twisted with
agony, for no god could healwhat was made from himself.
Isis appeared calm andunwavering.
She offered to save him, butonly if he surrendered his true

(15:12):
name.
And under the weight of pain,ra whispered it into her ear.
Isis did not steal his power.
She used it to strengthen herson, to cloak Horus in divine
right, to crown him withlegitimacy that even Set could

(15:36):
not deny.
For when Horus finally stoodbefore the gods demanding the
throne stolen from his father,it was Isis who testified for
him.
She exposed set schemes.
She healed Horus's wounds.

(15:59):
His eye, gouged in theirbattles, torn in celestial
struggle, was made whole againthrough her words.
And when the gods faltered,when politics, when politics
tangled truth and verdict, isisstood alone, holding up her son

(16:25):
with irrefutable purpose.
Horus would inherit the thronenot only because he was born of
Osiris, but because he wasraised by Isis.
And so her magic endured Intombs carved deep beneath the

(16:55):
earth, in temples crowned withsunlit stone.
Isis is there, arms outstretched, wings unfurled.
Her image guards the coffins ofpharaohs, cradled the hearts of
the newly dead and whisperedprotection over the breathless.

(17:17):
She was the goddess of kings,the one mothers prayed to during
childbirth and the one whosename was etched into healing
charms, passed hand to handthrough the villages of the Nile
, in every spell that sought tomend, in every rite that called

(17:44):
for balance.
Her voice echoed Even asdynasties shifted and gods rose
and faded from favor.
Isis endured because she hadwalked through loss and returned
with light.
She was a thread between earthand afterlife, between cradle

(18:11):
and coffin.
Grief-laced, resolute and tenderbecame a pattern etched deep
into the heart of Egyptianbelief, because it promised that
the broken could be gathered,that what falls apart might

(18:35):
still be made whole.
Still be made whole.
Isis shows us that power doesnot always come from might, but
from endurance, from searchingwhen the trail has gone cold,

(18:56):
from speaking names aloud whenothers forget, from speaking
names aloud when others forget.
She was a mourner who became ahealer, the mother who became a
maker of kings, the widow whowove resurrection from silence.

(19:19):
Her legacy is of love thatwalks through ruin and does not
turn away.
In her story we remember thatrestoration is possible even
when nothing remains but dustand memory.
In every tale of grief and love, of what was broken and then

(19:54):
remade, there is a thread thatleads back to Isis.
To the Egyptians, she was morethan a goddess.
She was magic made flesh, amother whose protection never

(20:16):
faltered, a mourner whose griefshaped the rhythms of the earth.
Her name was carried in healingspells, carved into temple
walls, whispered over the sickand the dying.
She crossed deserts and seas insearch of what was lost.

(20:37):
She defied death to create life.
Before Egypt had kings orpyramids, before the Nile had a
name, there was Isis.
She was born from the union ofNut, the sky, and Geb, the earth

(21:03):
, a daughter of elemental forceand silent power.
Her siblings were gods of lightand darkness.
Osiris would become king of thefertile black land, set, who

(21:34):
ruled the wild red desert, andNephthys, the shadow, who stood
between them.
Isis was radiant and sharp, agoddess of keen perception,
sacred knowledge and watchfuldevotion.
Her name was written with thehieroglyph of a throne and she

(21:55):
came to embody that symbol, thefoundation upon which power and
lineage rested In the earliestmyths.
She was not the loudest nor themost feared, but she was the
one God's turn to when all elsefailed.
She would become wife to Osirisand their union would bind

(22:22):
together, rule, renewal andresurrection, not just as lovers
, but as two halves of Egypt'ssoul.
Life and death, growth anddecay, order and transformation.
Decay, order and transformation.

(22:49):
Isis loved Osiris not only ashusband, but as the one who
ruled beside her in harmony.
Under their reign, egyptflourished crops rose from the
soil, justice was balanced withmercy, and the rhythms of life
pulsed in harmony with the Nile.

(23:10):
But harmony breeds envy.
Set, their brother, burned withresentment.
He was lord of storms and chaosand he could not bear to see

(23:34):
the throne in Osiris' hands.
One night, through cunning andcruelty, set trapped Osiris in a
box of polished cedar, sealedit, shut with lead and cast it
to the Nile.
The coffin drifted north, pastriverbanks and reeds Until it

(23:54):
vanished beyond Egypt's border.
When Isis learned what had beendone, her heart hardened to
resolve.
She donned mourning garments,left every shore and shadow.

(24:26):
At last, in the land of Byblos,she found Osiris, his coffin,
encased in the trunk of atamarisk tree, now part of a
foreign king's pillar.
She brought him home to Egyptand, warning, made motion.
But Set, always watching, foundthe body again.

(24:53):
In a rage, he tore Osiris intopieces, scattering them across
the two lands so that no lifecould ever be drawn from death.
Isis did not weep.

(25:13):
She searched again, walking thebanks of the Nile, whispering
his name into the watersfollowing the scent of cedar and
his memory.
With the help of her sisterNephthys and the jackal-headed

(25:36):
Anubis, she found and gatheredeach fragment, bone by bone.
They washed him in sacred oils,wrapped him in linen
embroidered with spells andanointed his brow with signs
only gods could read.

(25:56):
And when the body was wholeagain, isis spoke the ancient
words, words born before time,passed through her lips like
wind through reeds.
The linen stirred a flicker oflight passed across his face.

(26:23):
Osiris lived again in the deep,sacred realm of the Duat, the
land of the dead, where he wouldnow reign as king.
And from that moment of union,brief and eternal, grief and

(26:47):
eternal, a child was conceived,a son destined to challenge, set
to restore what had been taken.
But for now, isis fled into themarshes, her womb full of a

(27:12):
future the world was not yetready to see.
With Osiris crowned in therealm beyond, isis disappeared
into the edges of the world,into the marshes, the wild,
tangled waters of the Nile Delta, where wreaths whisper secrets

(27:42):
and crocodiles slid silentlybeneath the surface.
There, among the sedge andshadow, isis gave birth to her
son Horus, the falcon child, thelast hope of a broken throne.
She kept him hidden from Set,whose wrath had not faded.

(28:03):
Forsett knew that if the childlived, the balance of power
would tip again.
So Isis raised Horus in silence.
She nursed him in secret,shielded his body with her wings
and sank spells into the airaround them to bend illness and

(28:29):
bite away from his skin.
Seven scorpions walked with herspirits of protection, sacred
guardians born of the earth'sdarker forces.
Born of the earth's darkerforces.
They followed in silence, theirtails curled, their stingers

(28:54):
ready, forming a living circlearound the goddess and her son.
And though they belonged tovenom and dusk, they bowed her
command.
In this exile, isis became morethan a queen.
She became a mother who carriedthe weight of two worlds the

(29:20):
memory of a lost love and thefuture of a justice.
Still unborn, horus was oftenill, weakened by the poison of
snakes or by the fevered dreamsthat haunt children marked by

(29:42):
fate.
But Isis drew his sickness outwith spells that rose from her
breath.
When his tiny chest stilled,she called upon every name.
She knew every secret.
Ra had whispered every wordthat once stirred Osiris from

(30:02):
death and Horus breathed again,not because he was invincible,
but because Isis would not allowhim to fall.
She wove his life from memory,magic and will A falcon cradled

(30:24):
in reeds, destined to rise asHorus grew stronger, isis
stepped from the marsh and intothe realm of gods.
She had walked the lands ofgrief and birth.

(30:45):
She had raised the dead,nurtured the living and guarded
the balance between the two.
And now Isis turned that wisdomtowards the heavens.
In one tale, she approached Ra,himself ancient and radiant but

(31:08):
weary with time.
She watched as his lips crackedwith age, his breath labored
beneath the weight of eons.
He ruled all, but still keptone secret His true name, the

(31:32):
name that held his essence.
And Isis, wise beyond reckoning, knew that names held power.
She formed a serpent from Ra'sown saliva, mixed with dust, and
left in the path of the sun.

(31:52):
When Ra passed, the serpentstruck His body, twisted with
agony, for no god could healwhat was made from himself.
Isis appeared calm andunwavering.

(32:14):
She offered to save him, butonly if he surrendered his true
name, and under the weight ofpain, ra whispered it into her
ear.
Isis did not steal his power.
She used it to strengthen herson, to cloak Horus in divine
right, to crown him withlegitimacy that even Set could

(32:37):
not deny.
For when Horus finally stoodbefore the gods demanding the
throne stolen from his father,it was Isis who testified for
him.
She exposed set schemes.
She healed Horus' wounds.

(33:00):
His eye gouged in their battles, torn in celestial struggle,
was made whole again through herwords.
And when the gods faltered,when politics tangled truth and
verdict, isis stood alone,holding up her son with

(33:25):
irrefutable purpose Horus wouldinherit the throne, not only
because he was born of Osiris,but because he was raised by
Isis.
And so her magic endured Intombs carved deep beneath the

(33:52):
earth, in temples crowned withsunlit stone.
Isis is there, arms outstretched, wings unfurled Her image,
guards the coffins of pharaohs,cradled the hearts of the newly
dead and whispered protectionover the breathless.

(34:15):
She was the goddess of kings,the one mothers prayed to during
childbirth and the one whosename was etched into.
Healing.
Charms passed hand to handthrough the villages of the Nile
and every right that called forbalance.

(34:47):
Her voice echoed Even asdynasties shifted and gods rose
and faded from favor.
Isis endured because she hadwalked through loss and returned
with light.
She was a thread between earthand afterlife, between cradle

(35:11):
and coffin, and her storygrief-laced, resolute and tender
, became a pattern etched deepinto the heart of Egyptian
belief, because it promised thatthe broken could be gathered,

(35:33):
that what falls apart mightstill be made whole.
As this shows us, the powerdoes not always come from might,
but from endurance, fromsearching when the trail has

(35:54):
gone cold, from speaking namesaloud when others forget.
She was a mourner who became ahealer, the mother who became a
maker of kings, the widow whowove resurrection from silence.

(36:15):
Her legacy is of love thatwalks through ruin and does not
turn away.
In her story we remember thatrestoration is possible even
when nothing remains but dustand memory ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶,

(40:01):
¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶,¶¶, ¶¶ you.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club

Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club

Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.