I have had this statue for yonks, and had been meaning to give it a lick of paint for some time now. You might think it strange that I have a statue of the Virgin Mary, but in my opinion, this portrayal is based on Roman goddess statues, and the Virgin Mary was given many attributes of Isis, who was worshipped across the Roman Empire, including Britain. The title "Queen of Heaven" was given to many celestial goddesses, and to me this represents the great Cosmic Mother who births all of creation. Lucius Apuleius adressed the Queen of Heaven by many names, recognising her presence among all cultures. He describes how she appeared to him in a vision: "Then by little and little I seemed to see the whole figure of her body, mounting out of the sea and standing before mee, wherefore I purpose to describe her divine semblance, if the poverty of my humane speech will suffer me, or her divine power give me eloquence thereto. First shee had a great abundance of haire...

The sacred texts of the Egyptian pyramids identify the Pharaoh with both Horus and Osiris. During life on Earth, the Pharaoh is identified as Horus, but during death he is known as Osiris. The notion of Horus as the Pharaoh seems to have been superseded by the concept of the Pharaoh as the son of Ra during the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt. Ra is the Egyptian god of the midday sun. Ra was identified with another sun god, Atum, and so they became known as Atum-Ra. Later, Ra was identified with Horus, and combined they were known as Re-Horakhty. Following this, Ra was identified with Amun and became known as Amun-Ra. For a while, the worship of Ra was replaced with another solar deity, Aten. Every dawn, the goddess of the night sky, Nut, gave birth to Ra, and in the evening he descended back into the underworld. When equated with Horus and Osiris, Ra is born as Horus at dawn and becomes Osiris at dusk. Osiris is the Egyptian god of the Underworld. He is depicted as a partially mumm...