What is the Knot of Isis?

A sign of the protection of Isis, often made in red stone and laid on the mummy.

What the sign shows: A knotted cloth, shaped like an ankh with its arms folded down.
How Gerald Massey read it in 1907: Massey reads the red knot as the blood of Isis: the mother’s blood as the source of life, and so a sign of being saved.
Where you see it today: Red jasper Knot of Isis amulets are in most museum collections of Egyptian jewellery.
Where it stands in Massey’s book: Massey names it 8 times across the book. Book IV, p. 194: “Words of power, learned by heart”; Book IV, p. 232: “The red amulet of Isis”; Book II, p. 113: “Charms for the dark road”.
Signs that look like it: Ankh, Djed pillar and Shen ring. The app’s Symbol Trainer sets them side by side, so the eye learns to tell them apart.
In Massey’s words: “The Tet-tie, now a buckle, represents the blood of Isis, the saving blood, the soul of blood derived from the virgin mother, which was imaged in the human Horus.” (Gerald Massey, Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World (1907), Book II, p. 116)
In the app: Trainer › Symbol Trainer › Knot of Isis. The app’s Symbol Trainer reads 42 signs this way, each with Massey’s own words and the page they stand on.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

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