Mythic Monday: 5 Secrets of Bast by Flossie Benton Rogers

Bast or Bastet comes to us from the dim origins of ancient Egypt. She was a warrioress cat goddess from Lower Egypt, the northern region of the land at that time. Bast is 5000 years old. Her worship can be traced back to around 3000 B.C.E. In her beginnings, she was associated with a lioness but later came to be aligned with the domesticated house cat. Another feline who was associated with a lioness and warrioress is Sekhmet of Upper Egypt. It’s interesting that these two female cat deities diverged even more as the centuries passed, rather than becoming more closely affiliated.

Bast is on my mind at this time because recently I was adopted by a special kitty, Marigold, or Mistress Marigold as I sometimes call her. A calico or tortoiseshell, she needed hernia surgery and is now recuperating from it. She has to be confined to a crate and neck collar for two weeks, so as not to rupture her sutures. My friend Meg brought a second crate to attach to the one I bought, so at least Marigold can walk around and stretch in a two-bedroom condo. She was just beginning to make herself quite at home in my lap before the surgery, and we both look forward to her regaining that honored cushion for her royal rumpus. Now let’s take a look at Marigold’s patron.

1) Bast’s name is often translated as “devouring lady,” as befitting a warrioress. However, there is also a connotation to her name that signifies “as precious as perfume.” She is a powerful but accessible goddess. She is a predator and can be blood thirsty, but her stalking qualities help keep out populations of rats and vermin. She thus serves as defender of humans, helping to maintain the food source—grain—and assuring better health for human kind. The cat is also a loving, if always inscrutable, companion.

2) Bast is sometimes shown holding an ankh, or the “breath of life.” From a sacred word, sound, or vibration was born all of creation, and Bast is a divine mother or creatrix goddess, as well as a taker of life, or warrioress. Goddesses often exhibit such an innate duality, as does life itself.

3) Bast is frequently depicted as a woman with a cat’s head. Down through history, cats seem akin to the power and mystery of the female, from goddess to fairy to witch.

4) Cats were sacred to Bast. She was their protectoress, and they freely roamed her temples as symbols and incarnations of the goddess. To kill or harm one was sacrilege.

5) During the earliest era of her worship, Bast was considered the daughter of the sun god Ra. During later Hellenic times, however, when Greek influence imbued Egypt, Bast became associated with the moon goddess Artemis. I think of Yeats’ poem about a cat: “Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?” and “Minnaloushe creeps through the grass, alone, important and wise, and lifts to the changing moon, his changing eyes.”

Do you like cats? I’d love to see a photo of your feline friend, if you would share.

Cheers & Happy Reading!
Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic with Paranormal Fantasy Romance