IN BUBASTIS
Herodotis has been quoted as saying: Other temples may be larger, or have cost more to build, but none is a greater pleasure to look at. The site of the building is almost an island, for two canals have been led from the Nile and sweep around it, one on each side, as far as the entrance, where they stop short without meeting; each canal is a hundred feet wide and shaded with trees. The gateway is sixty feet high and is decorated with remarkable carved figures some nine feet in height. The temple stands in the centre of the city, and, since the level of the buildings everywhere else has been raised, but the temple itself allowed to remain in its original position, the result is that one can look down and get a fine view of it from all round. It is surrounded by a low wall with carved figures, and within the enclosure stands a grove of very tall trees about the actual shrine, which is large and contains the statue of the Goddess. The whole enclosure is a furlong square. The entrance to it is approached by a stone-paved road about four hundred feet wide and about two thousand feet long, running eastward through the market-place and joining the Temple of Bubastis to the Temple of Hermes. The road is lined on both sides with immense trees - so tall that they seem to touch the sky.'(Herodotus). I can imagine all those Temple cats climbing the trees, and their tails
hanging down out of them like swishing vines!
Cats were sacred to Bast, and were fed and cared for personally,
by the priests of the temple.
Bast has been worshipped for Thousands of years in Egypt,and is still worshipped to this day,
I would wager that many people have stories such as this one, and I would love to hear them. I invite you to e-mail me with your experiences with Bast. 
Bast is identified with the Sun mostly the gentle rising sun,at dawn, and as such she is called both "Lady of the East" and "The Lightbearer". However,Bast is also concidered a Moon Goddess (cats can see in the dark,and their eyes glow like the moon). Black cats were especially sacred to her, but all animals are under her protection ( even dogs!). And the ancient Egyptian Physicians used the symbol for the black cat in healing. The color green seems to be a very important color for Bast, which makes sense because of affiliation with nature in general, but also the color green is a very balancing color, it sits right in the center of the color spectrum and is concidered to be a very healing color. Being a Goddess of music, one of her symbols is the Sistrum, and of course the Ankh. 
Bast is also known as the Goddess of fire,childbirth and fertility,pleasure,joy,dance,protection against disease and evil spirits,intuition,healing,and marriage. |
|
. |
Sign My Guestbook
|
by the people all over the world who have felt her velvet like touch upon
their souls. She shows herself to you in many ways,depending upon what you need to learn at
the moment.But to those who are open to it, her touch
is unmistakable. Like for example, I had been cleaning
my house and shortly after I had finished the bathroom
I returned to get a towel, and behold, up on top of
the tank of the toilet was a cats claw! And I know it
wasnt there before! And none of my cats had been there
either. Well, over the next few days I found a total of
3 more perfect claws, one of which literally landed on
my leg while I was sitting on the couch, it was coated
in what looked like ectoplasm, and the strange thing is
that at the moment none of the cats were moving(they were all asleep)
and all my family members were staring,unmoving at the
TV.So I guess sometimes her touch can be a little less
subtle if she wants you to get moving!
Background graphics by: