Saturday, February 11, 2017

A drum for the Cat Goddess


A new drum from Journey Oracle is all about the love of cats.  This Cat Goddess has appeared with one eye looking into the possibility of kitty comfort and one eye looking with a predator's gaze.


Bast, the Cat Goddess of ancient Egypt, also has this multi-dimensional nature.  She is both a Sun and a Moon Goddess because of her sacred and all-seeing eye.  She is the Goddess of sensual pleasure, protector of the household, and bringer of health.



Sometimes she is shown holding a sistrum, a rattle used as a musical instrument in ancient times and associated with Hathor. Agile and lithe, Bast was recognized as the goddess of music and dance.


The Priestesses of Bast dressed in the color red, because Bast was the daughter of the Sun God, Ra, She would ride through the sky with her father protecting him from his enemies.  And here our Cat Goddess sits atop a Priestess's red robe.


The interlacement pattern tied into the back of this cat drum represents the Ninefold Goddess.  Nine is sacred in Arabic numbers because the digits of every multiple of nine add up to nine again.  And how perfect for the love of cats, who are said to have nine lives.


This myth may have begun in ancient Egypt.  Atum-Ra was a sun god who gave life to the gods of air, moisture, earth and sky, who in turn, produced Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys.  These gods are collectively known as the Ennead, or the Nine.  And we know who was riding around with Ra in his boat that was pulling the sun across the sky.


This post was approved by a local expert who posed for the drum painting and likes being called a Goddess.