Bastet's Place

Midi playing: Kitty's Wedding

Welcome to the land of contentment, otherwise called Bastet's place. Do you worship Bastet? Study her? Or just like cats? Then you've come to the right place. Granted, what I say may not be in the records. I will say things from the Tameress point of view and the historical. We are also accepting Bastet artwork. They must be in gif or jpg form, and bmps can also be accepted. To enter your work, just E-mail me with your name, and site if you have one. I will post your name on Credit Where Credit is Due.

Bastet is a goddess portrayed with a cat's head. She most often is wearing a green or turquoise dress. When Bastet was first introduyced, she sometimes had a lion's head, as a solar deity. In Tameress, she always has the head of a cat. The cat is most often portrayed as black or grey, but modern artists have experimented with other colors.

Bastet is sometimes called Bast, but Bastet has become her more popular name. Her cult center in ancient Egypt was Bubastis. See where the name comes from? She was a goddess of contentment and a guardian against evil spirits in the night.

In Tameress, she is not a solar deity, but a lunar one. Her moon phases are when the moon is full and new. She is a symbol of the night, as most cats are nocturnal anyway. She is a goddess of motherhood, maternity and childbearing. Many statues of the goddess portray her with a sistra, or a rattle, while kittens play or sit at her feet.

In ancient Egypt, Bastet had a child by her father, Ra by the name of Maahes. Maahes was said to have had a lion's head. In Tameress, it is believed that all living things somehow stem from her. Like most pagans view their mother goddess.

Her personality seems to be well understood. She is a very content and patient goddess. Most people with cats can perhaps identify her personality a little better. She enjoys attention, but can be quite content on her own. Her temper is rarely outstanding. Her fuse is quite long on her tolerance level. Being a mother goddesss, she understands that children make mistakes and must be forgiven for those we cannot help.

I have looked at many things relating to Bastet recently, and I notice the perfume bottle is one of her prominant symbols.Author David Lawson suggests that her rituals involved perfume and purity. Being a goddess of fertility and menstruation, the rituals would consist of ways of cleansing the menstruating body and purify the scent. Another of his suggestions was that the perfume symbol was Bastet's scent of seduction. Ladies, you know what I'm talking about, don't deny it.

Bastet is a symbol of femininity for the most part and is just as important if not more important to Tameress than she was in ancient Egypt. She is a goddess of music, though, I'd guess the style of her music would be calm and relaxing, seeing as she is a goddess of contentment and relaxation.

Why a cat for a goddess? Believe me, I've heard my share of men who say "Cats are so vain. They don't do anything." Eat your heart out guys. We just pamper them too much. In ancient Egypt, the Egyptians would have to worry about snakes around their homes and mice getting into their grain. It is assumed that a feral cat, most likely and yellow or tan cat with spots, as most cat pictures show, had been observed by Egyptians attacking the snakes and feeding on the mice. What an omen!

Cats were soon put in temples and kept as highly regarded pets. Some noblemen were even able to train thier cats to hunt and retrieve, like we do today with hunting dogs. However, the cats were most likely used to retrieve waterfowl.

When a cat died, especially if it was born out of the Baset temples, it would be mummified with due respect and dressed properly. Some say the Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to show their mourning for their lost feline.

Many cultures can find a place in the evil side to put cats. The Middle Ages saw them as evil creatures of Satanism. A cat's appearance, in the wrong light, could seem devilish, but his is not how the Egyptians saw them. The cat was nothing but good. There is no hearing of an evil feline deity, just bad-tempered, mischevious ones and in Tameress, tempting ones.

What else does Bastet stand for in Tameress? As a mother goddess, she also represents dependance and guidance. Most portraits of her show her with a contented motherly smile. Others show her as a watchful cat sitting majestically to guard her home and people. She is a goddess of animals and secluded hiding places. As a cat-goddess, the domestic cat is very sacred to her.

Bastet's attire in cat-form are quite majestic indeed, and surely cats in ancient Egypt recieved such collars and piercings. I would suggest, however, that, no matter how sacred Bastet is to you, do not pierce your cat's nose, or ears or any other part of their body. It's probably not legal anyway and perhaps classified as inhumane.

Lawson makes other mentions of Bastet in Eye of Horus, that, although some cults say she was the daughter of Ra, other cults claim she is the daughter of Isis and Osiris. And hhe shares that her sacred color is turquoise. Although in Tameress, other colors are purple and faded colors as well.