I Work With: Bast

We live in a vast universe. The spirits of Ancient Egypt, skilled in Shamanism, are perfectly equipped to navigate it. Their anthropomorphic natures give them inherent skills and highly evolved senses human beings lack. The Egyptians, who were excellent observers of nature, witnessed these spirits in an animistic universe. The Egyptian pantheon as we call it, offered their services as protectors, farmers, embalming experts and artisans. Bast, like many a spirit named the Eye of Ra, was regarded as the avenging, offensive hand of the imperial sun. Her protection extended to Lower Egypt, as the northern counterpart of Sekhemet. She was not, as SD Cass attests in his award winning essay, a less feral, sated version of the aforementioned lioness. It was Artemis, after all, cunning,  solitary, huntress Artemis, who the Greeks associated with Bast (and by extension, the Italio-Roman witch queen Diana, I suppose).

Bast seems to me a keenly realized deity whose bright eyes are always observing me. She is clear and crisp as peppermint. Though I don't mean this in an amorous context (Bast is , after all, not a spirit of sexual or romantic love), there is a romantic side to Bast. It's in her refined, displaced nature, like the aloof desert cat or strays I met in Albuquerque. She also has the ability to change her shape as the Egyptians early on depicted her with the face of a lioness. Even after she became represented as a woman with a cat's face, she held in her hands an aegis bearing the face of an angry lioness.

It should be noted that Bast is still a mystery to us in the modern day. What little information survives from the ancient world comes from pyramid and wall texts. There are no prayers from these bygone days preserved to her. Much of her activities relate to her relationship with the pharaoh, the state and Ra. We do know that the Egyptian people prayed to her and that countless cat statues were offered to her by everyday people. She and Sekhemet were similar in prominence to Uadjet and Nekhebet, the transcendent bird /snake goddesses found in innumerable artistic scenes and the pharaoh's crown. For my part, I felt Bast's presence gradually, but when I finally acknowledged her, she produced some vivid actions in nature. In the end, only Bast can teach you about Bast.

 Bast can help us travail new Shamanic depths. If you feel endangered or that an enemy intends some sort of wrongdoing, Bast can deflect or defend you from these actions. If you feel you've been cursed, if you lack good fortune, Bast may be of help to you. She can rip away negative energy and associations. Hexes are no match for her. Bast is also a provider who can teach you how to access the universe's abundant nature. I have known Bast to attend and save her totem animals, to return them if they've wandered off from home, though she is not strictly the "Goddess of Cats." She responds favorably to chanting and drumming, like the lwa of Vodou and African Diaspora. Offer Bast fresh water, flowers, exotic incense, bars of chocolate and jewelry. She is the kind of spirit who needs communication from her followers. It is best, when you're ready, to create a shrine or space on your altar for Bast and to pray by candlelight with incense or another gift during petitions. Try not to attend this skilled spirit empty handed. Remember, as a teacher of mine once said, honor should be given simply for the sake of giving honor.