The Importance of Ritual

Rituals can be any kind of action we do on a regular basis both on a mundane level and magical level.
we do rituals at the esbats (full moons) and during the Sabbats (holy days) to help us attune with the cycles of life,death and rebirth as well as the seasons.
But what about small daily rituals?

I have recently hit a rough patch both emotionally and spiritually. the other night i got out of my funk enough to do some much needed cleaning within the shrine room. I smudge it to help get the odd feelings out of it.Which did help a little.
Normally in the altar room is where i get little messages and what not and I though about how long it had been since i have done any form of ritual in this place. the last one i can honestly remember was a Noumenia for Hekate. and that was some odd months ago.

It has been nearly a year since i have performed the daily ritual of Senut. Though i no longer practice many of the things taught within the Kemetic Orthodoxy ,it is very much still apart of my spiritual path through the gods I worship. My mother Bast-Mut and Beloveds Nebthet and Hethert.

While putting some things away in the closet  which normally stores my crafting supplies I found a picture that had been gifted to me of Ma’at.

Ma’at is balance,truth  and the concept that whatever you do, negative or positive is going to have a consequence. could be bad, could be good. it all depends on the universe (contraty to popular belief the concept of Ma’at is not like Karma) point is. everything causes a reaction.

When we are not within Ma’at there is chaos.there is a build up of Isfet.the negative things that eat away at us throughout our day.

Much like my altar room that i had neglected. i have neglected myself in some ways and chaos has ensued. Depression has crept in like a thief and i have withdrawn into myself.

Yesterday I forced myself to get up and perform Senut.
It..made me feel a lot better than what i had been feeling. Although at the same time all i could do was apologize for being so distant. For..not coming before the first set of Gods that i had worshiped in so long ( I am a hard polytheist…so i don’t exactly see all gods as one.)

After my time in shrine , though i didn’t have anything formal written. I went to Hermes Altar and then to Hekate’s and talked to them for a bit. I thanked them for what  i had and for the help they had given me and ask that they be with me always. I lit candles and incense and then when i left my altar room…it felt better. I then came back in my own room and did Qi gong for about 15 minutes. I ended up feeling the best i had in a while and not nearly as stressed.

It had never occurred to me that doing daily rituals/devotionals may help lighten my heart and my mood with it. There is importance in Rituals. and not just when we want something or to achieve a specific goal in mind. But just spending time with the Gods and Goddesses we love above all others. Thanking them. not asking for anything but just talking with them as we would old friends, or parents even. It lightens our hearts and helps us start the day right. It gives us the courage to deal with the crap of every day, mundane stuff that can wear us down.

That is the importance of doing daily rituals and devotionals. I had never bothered to think about that before now.

Be blessed.

Amber~

Divinations and Desserts.

This is an event that our community had last year in hopes of making money for our local Pagan Pride Day.
20 dollars gets a person a 15 minute reading with the reader of their choice and afterwards a lovely dessert and coffee.also of their choice.

or just go straight for the sweets . 5 dollars get you dessert and coffee

Im trying to spread the word out  so if any of my readers are from the Gastonia/Charlotte Area here in NC. please try to stop by .

Last year i had the pleasure of helping set up,break down, and watch the tickets with a friend. this year i am actually offering up my talents as a reader.

For more information on DnD please check out the website for directions and reader Bio’s.

Divination and Desserts

Blessings!

Dusty

Sometimes animals find their ways to us in the strangest of ways or during the oddest of times.
Dusty is one of our cats that i feel privileged to have ever gotten to know and love.When he showed up on our doorstep 3 or 4 days before valentines day 2011 it was an odd time in my life. I was dealing with a loveless marriage and trying to figure out just who i was. One morning i went to go let my cat Jamie inside and mistook him for Jamie until well i looked closer. He just showed up out of nowhere.
 We couldn’t very well let him starve so i started giving him food and water but soon noticed he couldn’t eat it. the hard food literally hurt him to eat so we gave him wet food and on occasion i gave him noodles (which he turned out to LOVE but Macaroni was his absolute favorite)

  Mom and I decided that after about three weeks and no one claiming him and him not even bothering to leave we should take him to the vet and everything so we do. I was hopeful at first but when the Dr came back in the room the news wasn’t so good. He had the tell tell signs of Feline Leukemia. Uvetis and the thrush like sores that form in the mouth.. So my future ex husband decided to pay for the blood test which tests for FIV, FelV and FPV.
He came back FeLV positive. It took everything not to just break down in tears at the vets office especially after hearing that our options were put him to sleep (which the ex wanted) or we could keep him and treat the symptoms as they come.
To me it didn’t seem fair that..after living a rough life with no food or affection, he finally got the chance and then…you find out just how sick he is..
     Well i wasn’t having it. Why should he be put down because hes sick and old? we don’t put elder people down so my mother and i agreed to get the antibiotics (much to the displeasure of my ex) and see what we could do.  I asked about foster homes for cats like this I mean i had seen them on animal planet a  time or two so i knew they were out there. So Dr.Jon gave me a name
Friends of Feral Felines and at the time it was just links upon links of places that took in Feral cats. Most places did not take in FeLV positive cats. and the few that did they weren’t taking in any because they were  gearing up for “Kitten season”
With each click and exploration of a website my heart sank. It didn’t seem rationale to me to put him to sleep when he could still have a nice,comfortable life despite his sickness. Feeling frustrated i left the computer and went outside. i opened a can of food and this caused him to pop his head out from under the steps I then measured out the needed amount of anti-biotic and mixed it in with his food which he ate happily.
    I cried a bit as i pet this scruffy dingy cat who looked so rough. My mom came outside and we talked and then made the choice that we would keep him. we would just keep him away from our other cats so not to infect them.He lived outside under our trailer until it was time for us to move. He had gotten a bit used to me petting him and picking him up i was surprised when he allowed me to put him in the carrier to move him to the new house. It was here that he flourished.
He stayed outside on the deck or screened in porch whenever it was warm enough. Whenever the weather got cold he lived in my shrine room away from other animals except dogs.
He gained weight, started to groom,and explored the yard.he was happy and so became more loving.
During this course my marriage fell apart, turned violent and then the ex left. So it was just my mother, our pets and I. which isn’t so bad at times.

but then at the start of the year Dusty’s health began to go. he became slower.didn’t yearn to leave the safety of my shrine room as much and ate less and less. He had good days and then he had more bad days. Then i noticed he had been with us a year and it was amazing to see how he had changed in a year. he was skin and bones when we first found him. Didn’t want to be picked up or had hardly any need for affection from humans.
But now he came when called, he loved to be nosy whenever anyone had food out on the deck and gods forbid it be macaroni! he would be in your plate. But we never yelled at him. he deserved whatever he wanted , food , attention, whatever we could give him.His eye sight began to go as well.
He loved to be around me whenever i was digging in potting soil or preparing seeds and plants to be planted.
 It was nothing for me to walk in the shrine room at night and find him curled up in front of Hekate’s altar. quite a number of times i walked in to see him curled up on it. In front of her image…..
    that was where i found him today….curled up at the feet of the Goddess.lifeless.

Dusty taught me about things which terrified me. Because of him i had to know as much as i possibly could find out regarding FeLV which opened my mind a bit.In a way he taught me to be a bit of a fighter, he was a humble cat but a fighter in his own way and i feel very lucky to have known him.  He had been sick and left alone in the world or as our vet told us, it was very possible that he had at one time been someones pet that after he stopped being little and cute, was dumped out somewhere.
 even through that he loved us just as much as we loved him

Rest well in the arms of the Goddess my Dusty.

Reading Bones

Divination.
Some people use it, some people don’t while others are always up for a reading.There was a time when i was actually quite terrified of it especially reading cards.
not the cards themselves but rather they would reveal something horrible and that is what terrified me.It was not until i found my spiritual path that i realized there are so many more types of divination than just cards and a crystal ball.
I have met an amazing person who once showed our group skittles divination (that was awesome). Of course there is Tarot cards/Oracle cards/angel cards, Runes, crystal gazing,the use of mirrors. Tea leaves, reading omens, I have a friend who actually does something involving wax which is pretty neat. There are so many ways to divine the future.

I tried multiple decks and could only read with pretty much one. Runes…while i have a set, I can’t use them.
The method i use is one of the worlds oldest forms of divination which i didn’t know when i pretty much fell into it.
Reading Bones.
I have often read that chicken or even possum bones have been heavily used for this purpose. By root workers/doctors  or practitioners of Santeria and other African religions.
(here is a good website for those that wish to be more informed
http://readersandrootworkers.org/index.php?title=Category:Throwing_the_Bones_and_Reading_Other_Natural_Curios )

For me the connection i have with my bones is..its a wonderful thing. These bones were gifted to me by the animal itself.He died of natural causes and i went through the burial rites as i do for all my animals. But four small bones. vertebrae. would not stay buried. Something tried to dig him up and i reburied him. a few weeks later the same four bones were once again uncovered. I yet again reburied them. three days later they were uncovered yet again. So  i took them, cleansed them and made a pouch for them to live in. I had no idea what to do with them. So one night on full moon i took the pouch with me to ritual and afterwards when everyone left, i showed the bones to my friends (who is also priest and priestess)  Raven held them gently and said they had wild energy which i thought funny because Draco (my large,kind,black and white cat) was a bit wild. He would fight with himself when he ate, he would sneak up on other cats in the house and just terrorize them on occasion. But he was very sweet and was almost always with me.

He said he could see me doing readings with them and all I could think was”read with bones? yea right i can’t even read with cards”
So they stayed in their pouch until one morning before 8 am it hit me. I got this crazy idea of how to read with them,so i set forth creating a cloth with four symbols,four quadrants where the bones would land.
when my cloth was done and it matched up with how my guides had wanted i tried doing a few readings even using some family members as guinea pigs unbeknownst to them …The first time i ever realized that something i had seen in my readings came into being it really messed with me in a lot of ways and it still does at times but so far the bones and my guides have not led me wrong.

I am in no way related to the Santeria or Voduo communities, as I said this was something i purely fell into.I charge 10 dollars for a reading.5 for a general reading.

This may just be a bone reading or it may also involve the use of pendulum (for confirmations) and Angel cards.
It has taken some time trying to merge my role as reader into the rest of my life because its something i have always been afraid of on some levels but the more i acknowledge it and the more i try to integrate it the easier things become. I was once told by a friend when she did a tarot reading for me ” you’re guides are trying to help you to help yourself and you have to listen!”

Amendment one.

I haven’t really kept up with the Pagan blog project the way i had hoped. I had wanted to write out a couple of blogs this week. one on my different kind of divination skills, the other about International pagan coming out day. That just isn’t happening because the one thing i keep thinking about is the up coming vote on Senate Bill 514 or Amendment one here in North Carolina.

It amazes me how most people won’t do the research and that all they can see is the “Gay Agenda” for which it goes against. They don’t want to believe that it can royally screw over so many other couples in the process. Not just same sex couples.
As a Bi woman who is predominately drawn to women, and a same sex domestic violence survivor, the other things tacked on to this bill just sickens me.
The language is so vague and broad that it could have an effect on the protections that are currently in place for domestic violence victims who are not married to their abusers.
and Undercut existing child custody and visitation rights that are designed to protect the best interests of children.It could have an effect on the elderly who receive pension and other much needed benefits who are not married.
Of course it would ban same sex marriage which by the way is pretty much pointless as it is already stated that in North Carolina marriage is between one man and one woman.  However it would also pretty much bar all domestic legal unions/common law marriages and restrict their rights as well.
the amendment could also have the potential of invalidating trusts,wills, and end-of-life directives.

No woman (or man) Should be forced to marry a cruel,barbarian just to be protected from the person. That doesn’t make any sense or at least to me it doesn’t.It is never easy to walk away and and a good bit of the time its when one does walk away that they are in the most danger.these protections are needed!

No one should be scared of loosing their children if something happens to them or the other parent. Statistics should be enough to let anyone know that children raised in the system don’t have a better life,why separate them from a parent if something happens to the other because they weren’t married?

No person should risk loosing everything.Pensions,benefits, or having their wills and other highly personal decisions made void.

This Amendment doesn’t do a damn bit of good to ANYONE. it doesn’t help families. it doesn’t protect the sanctity of anything.

and in all honesty if marriage was so sacred…why would spouses go around cheating on one another? what about the celebs that marry to make millions when there is obviously no real affection. or…oh i dunno Brittney spears 55 hour marriage?
Marriage between two men or two women can destroy the foundation of this country and the family but all those other things don’t? riiight…

People wake up. do you’re  own research open your eyes and you’re minds. and please for the love of all that is decent. if you are a North Carolinian vote NO on Amendment one next week.

Pagan Blog Project- First C post- The Cat

Cats have always been associated with witches, witchcraft, and magic. They are mysterious, cunning, and very charming creatures most notably honored by the ancient Egyptians and sacred to mother Bast.

They are associated with Diana as she seduced her brother while in the form of the cat.
Even Freya has a chariot pulled by Cats.

The cat also has it’s place within myths , legends and folklore from around the globe.
Having a black cat cross your path was said to bring bad luck.
in Japan the cat in many legends brought good fortune and prosperity in its form as the Maneki Neko or Beckoning cat. Though the Japanese also had creatures called the Bakeneko which were a sort of cat demon, or “monster cat”

The Bakeneko would supposedly haunt any household it was kept in.
They were a danger if allowed to be in the same room with a fresh corpse for cats were believed to have the ability of reanimating a body by jumping over it .
A cat could become a Bakeneko if it lived to become a certain age (older than 10 years).
These creatures would walk around on their hind legs, their tails would split into two ( becoming Neko-tama) , gain magical powers and increase in their size.
It was said they would devour their own masters in order to gain the ability to shape shift into a false human.

These Bakeneko are nothing like the Maneki Neko.

There are a few stories of how the Beckoning cat came to be. The three most popular are
The Temple Cat
The Courtesan
and The Old woman.

[interesting fact for Anime nerds!]
Meowth from Pok’emon was inspired by the maneki neko. It’s interesting that his signature move was Pay day and that the coin on his head resembles the coin or charm often held in the paws of the beckoning cat.

In Celtic Mythology there is a creature known as the Cat Sith or Cat Sidhe.
It was claimed the Cat Sith were fairy creatures said to take the appearance of a large black cat with a  white spot upon its breast. Legends claim that these spectral cats haunt the Scottish highlands. While other folklores claim these were not fairies but rather transformed witches.

These legends are far more common to the Scottish than the Irish.
British crypto zoologists, Karl Shuker proposed that the legends of the Cat sith possibly stemmed from the Kellas cats which are hybrids between European wild cats and domestic cats found only in Scotland.
In America black cat’s were thought to be the familiars of witches while in Europe it was white or orange cats that were the traditional cat for witches.

Ellen Dugan writes in her book “The Enchanted Cat”
that every color of cat has a magical meaning.

Black: Witchcraft, occult powers,  protections,  a carrier of magick, a good luck omen in Britain.

Tortoiseshell: Women’s magick, as the breed’s genes are only passed on to females, children’s magick, healing and clairvoyance.

Calico: A goddess cat (the three classical colors of the calico are white, reddish orange and black ; the colors associated with the maiden, mother and crone). Calico cats are lucky, whether on land or at sea, and they protect the family and their home from harm.

Golden/Golden brown (such as Abyssinian): a temple cat, revered and regal, playful and wise. These cats can help you access the grace and wisdom of the ages and the magick of the sun.

Buff/Brown (such as Siamese): Originally a royal cat bred in the temples in Siam to keep the line pure. Fame, success, solar magick and longevity.

Orange/Ginger Tabby: Men’s mysteries, a classic domestic cat for the witch’s home. These cats are great for the hearth and home magick.

Gray Tabby: A Cheshire cat, zany and outrageous, who brings laughter and good fortune to witches and their families.

Smoky Gray: Sacred to Freya, weather cat, rain magick, silence and secrets.

White: Healing, faeries, the cath sith, moon magick, enchantment. A good luck omen in America.

Blue/Silver: Once a popular gift for brides in Thailand . Cats with a silvery blue tone to their coats bring love, happiness, and good fortune.

Bi Color (black and white, orange and white, gray and white): According to folklore, bi-colored cats make the best mousers and are very friendly. Also, apply the other color definitions to your two-toned kitty and see what it tells you.

Cat Deities:

There are quite a few deities that are associated with the cat for various reasons.

Bast: Mother of All cat’s, these creatures were sacred to her and often kept in her temple in Per-Bast. If you burn a whisker to her as an offering and make a wish. It just might come true.

Diana:  Mother of Aradia, Queen of witches who disguised herself as a cat in order to seduce her brother.
She was also called the cat that made the stars turn into mice.

Mafdet: Ancient Cheetah headed goddess that predates both Bast and Sekhmet. Was said to protect against the poisonous sting of scorpions and spiders. She was often described as wearing the tails of scorpions in her hair.

Sekhmet: Lioness headed goddess of War, Healing and Divine retribution. Harsher side of Hathor, Consort to Ptah, and one of the Eyes of Ra.

Maahes: Lion headed god of war who guarded the pharaoh. Often cited as a son of Sekhmet and Ptah.

Tefnut: One of the eyes of Ra, a lioness headed goddess. consort to Shu, daughter of Nut and Geb. A goddess of rain.

Constellations:

Felis: Now considered an extinct constellation it was created by  Jerome Lalande in 1799. Because  He was a cat lover. It was located between constellations Antlia and Hydra. It was the only “domestic” cat in the night sky. (I was rather disappointed to read that it had not been included with the list of the 88 constellations)

Lynx: a rather small constellation in the Northern sky. It’s a very faint constellation and its brightest stars form a zigzag line. The only named star in it is Alsciaukat which is Arabic for Thorn.

Leo: Latin for Lion it is one of the 12 zodiac signs in the western zodiac. It lies between Cancer to the west and Virgo to the east.

The cat is a fascinating animal one that captures hearts , I know it has captured mine.
They have been honored as little Gods, revered as sacred animals, companions to the Gods, bringers of luck and prosperity, or haunting spirits with ill intent and harbingers of bad luck.
They have also been persecuted along side of us witches as familiars and servants of Satan.
Like the followers of the old ways, they too have certainly come a long way as their roles in society evolved.

Cat’s Once worshiped as Gods, They have Never forgotten – Unknown.

Lupercus

Lupercalia is an ancient and possibly pre-roman celebration of purification and the beginning of fertility.
The festival was in part a way to honor Lupa,the she-wolf who had suckled the twin orphans ,Romulus and Remus. This would explain the name of the festival , Lupercalia or “the Wolf Festival”.
At one time the celebrations took place near the cave of Lupercal which was located at the base of the Palatine Hill.Here the Luperci (Priests of Lupercus) would sacrifice a Dog and two goats. The dog to represent the protector of the flock and the goats because he was a god of shepherds. It was normally celebrated on February 15th.

It is also one of the Eight Treguenda’s to the Strega falling on February 2nd.
Lupercus or Candelora (as I have also seen it called), marks the puberty of the Wolf God Lupercus.He is the wolf of winter , Traditionally known as the great golden wolf. He drives away the “wolfs of night” and we can  see the solar aspect of Lupercus who was born at Yule as the child of promise.

It was said that the Grigori had set twelve labours for the young wolf God to complete in order to prove his worth as the new sun God. The twelve are interestingly enough connected to the western astrological/zodiac signs and are as follows
To carry the sacred ram and set him among the stars.
To purify the hide of the sacred white bull.
to tame the twin serpents of Teramo.
To carry the Great Sea Crab to the Western Horizon.
To free the sacred Lion.
To fashion a bow for the Goddess Diana.
To forge the Great Scales of Justice for the Gods.
To seal the giant scorpion back within the Earth.
To make a golden arrow for the King of the Centaurs.
To fashion two golden horns for the Great Goat Fish.
To purify the jugs of water which are bore to the Gods.
To leash the two Great Fish of the Sea and set them among the stars.

For the Misfit sanctuary this is a celebration that consists mostly of desserts, it is always done before the fire and it usually entails a gentle scourging from our Priest. ( to promote fertility for the coming year of course and as a way of getting rid of the negative)
and there is even a little bit of howling at the end of the ritual.Followed by more revelry , talking and joking around the fire.

Lupercus is invoked at this time of year to scatter the wolves of the dark winter night. Assisting us in releasing the atavistic power within us all. Through him, we are free of the constraints of our bodies, and of the winter season.

May everyone have a blessed Sabbat whatever it may be!

B week two- Beading for Deities

Beading is an awesome every day kind of craft. It can also be an awesome way of intertwining mundane hobbies with spirituality.Then it becomes doubly awesome!
But in all seriousness, while its always nice to be able to buy something nice for ritual wear,casual everyday wear that shows your beliefs or something to offer to any array of deities it’s even more fun to sometimes be able to just make something nice yourself.
It gives one a chance to be creative, it also puts a bit of yourself into whatever it is that your making.
A part of your heart , your energy and intent. it all goes into it which makes it more special and in my opionion a bit more endearing if its being offered up to a deity.

When making something for an offering i think…handmade items tend to be a bit more well received because time, effort,thought, and love went into making it what it is.

Beaded prayer beads, or beaded gemstone necklaces or bracelets are a wonderful way to show devotion it can be fairly inexpensive  or you can end up spending hundreds of dollars on just the perfect beads and or charms for your piece.

I first got into beading for deities a few years ago. with pagan rosary necklaces and hand held prayer beads.
among the first necklaces included rosary style gemstone necklaces in honor of Set,Nebthet (Nephthys), Bast-Mut and Sekhmet.
and small hand held rosaries one that i had intended to be for Hethert/Hathor but instead Bast claimed  it. I have also done a couple in honor of the Goddess Hekate.

It felt good to be able to make these beautiful things for the gods.Things that other’s would think are beautiful and want to use for their own devotions. While i do see tons of jewelry, far more beautiful than what i can currently make. i am content to Bead for the gods on my own. They know my heart goes into it and thats what matters. Doesn’t have to be fancy just heartfelt.
Find a beautiful crecsent moon charm? some stretch cord and beads and you have a devotional piece of Diana.
Have some black and silver beads laying around? add a key and you have something for Hekate.

Beading can give a creative outlet with the gods as inspiration. Beading for Deities can be an amazing way to connect to the higher powers and make magic of a different kind and its fun!.

these are just some examples of the work i have done

my personal rosary for Bast
Cherry quartz,rose quartz and garnet with a tiara cast (antiqued silver) silver Ankh.

Nebthet Rosary Necklace: Garnet,Amethyst, and black jasper with toggle clasp
(this piece is for sale)

 

Hekate’s Key handheld rosary

Fiery Thor’s Hammer made with pewter charm,barrel clasp,
Fire,Line and red and white agate with hematite
(this piece is for sale)

PBP – Bast

This week’s blog should not be of any surprise to anyone who knows me well, that I should choose Bast for the first B post.
She is my mother Goddess, my patron. the one  whom I love before all others (though I love Hekate  just as much). Many like to box her in to tiny little labeled boxes such as “Goddess of cats” while this is true this is most certainly not her only role.She is so much more than that. She is a goddess associated with joy and a protector of women.There are many misconceptions floating around her.

She first came to me when i was very young. I was probably about..six or seven years old and was up late one night sick with a fever.I had made a bed on the couch and was watching the original Disney channel (ya know when they still showed awesome movies late at night >_>)
and The Three lives of Thomasina came on. Have not seen that movie on since then but anyways i was drifting in and out of a feverish sleep and when i woke up after nodding off the first time the scene that was playing on the tv was the orange cat falling and spinning through blackness talking about having died.
She lands and  she begins to walk and as she travels you can hear the mewing of other cats and see statues lining the steps as she walks. when she finally gets to the top of the stairs she enters a doorway and sees a multitude of cats surrounding a great statue.
She refers to Bast as the “Goddess with the Golden eyes”
The statue has the most intense eyes and shes holding a sistrum while being surrounded by cats.

For years after that she continued to make herself known to me usually through the cat.
but I just had no idea at the time. I  was too young and my parents were making me do the church thing which I absolutely hated. But then when i was 19 i up and moved to Louisiana and got in a really messed up marriage. the guy we ended up staying with who was my soon to be ex husbands NCO claimed to be pagan. so when they would go off to work i would clean house and then my familiar Cricket and I would go up to the shrine room *which wasn’t actually used except for a room to stash his porn* and pour over the books he had. which included
Grimoire for the Green witch by Anne Moura
Book of Shadows by Lady Sheba.
Bucklands complete guide of witchcraft  by Raymond Buckland
and
Solitary Witch: The Ultimate Book of shadows for the new generation by Silver RavenWolf.

reading through these books it was as if i had found some long hidden part of me.
In the book by silver ravenwolf there was a list of deities, Bast would not leave me alone after that but i was reluctant to follow. I wanted to honor a goddess that invoked magic and mystery and fantasy.
Hekate scared the hell out of me at first and Bast wasn’t going to leave me alone but fate intervened and i was not to continue my studies anywhere near my husband or ft.Polk.

I was sent home without my cats. I was heartbroken but i threw myself into my new found beliefs(well not exactly newly found..i just didn’t realize there was a religion around them) I studied and studied and found online groups and eventually momma Bast led me to two places.The Misfit’s which is my home circle and the House of Netjer.
she led other cats to our house and i vowed to care for them if she brought them.i gave offerings to her and she totally took over.i realized she  was my patron and had been for a very long time. Back in 2010 when i underwent the Rite of parent divination within the house of netjer it only confirmed what i felt was right.
I was divined as a daughter of Bast-Mut which is a synchronized form of Bast and Mut, in this role Bast is in her role of Queen.

and that’s just a short run of my journey with her.How I came to know her.

She is sometimes noted as the kinder side of Sekhmet or the Soul of Isis because of a play on her name, A lunar deity or and yes someone even once referred to her as a patron of Lesbians.(and apparently stoners as well O-o) She started out as a lioness goddess much like Sekhmet and some how by the end of it all was turned into a domestic cat. Not that there is anything wrong with that. She was never honored as a Lunar deity in antiquity but rather another solar deity (though I can see the why she would sited as a lunar deity.)
Where Sekhmet represented the fierce,dangerous heat caused by the sun (that could basically kill you and turn you into a crispy critter)
Bast represented the warmth, life giving qualities of it.

The kinder side of Sekhmet would actually be Hethert/Hathor.
when Hethert is angered or whenever her father Ra commands her to do his bidding,She turns into the figure of Divine retribution, Sekhmet.

The entire “Soul of Isis” thing comes from a play on her name.
Ba which is a word used for the soul
Aset which is the Egyptian name for Isis.
Bast, actually means Devouring lady and as far as i know she never really had a connection to Aset.

Bast does have connections to the goddess Mut. and is occasionally sited as the wife of Ptah (which is normally given to Sekhmet) It is said that she is the mother of the Lion god Maahes.
She is one of the Eyes of Ra which is a title given to many different gods and goddesses including Tefnut,Sekhmet,Mafdet and Hathor.

Her “cult” Center was in Per-Bast also known as Bubastis and tell- Basta which is in Lower Egypt.

Festivals to her include
Feast of chewing onions for Bast
Feast of Bast of Mennefer
Saq-Bast- Ankh-Tawy
and Feast of Bast and Bast guards the two lands on December 24th and 25th.

She is mentioned twice in the 42 negative confessions.
once directly in purification 13
“Hail Bast, coming forth from the shrine. I do not eat my heart”

and again with others bearing the title of eye of Ra in Purification 8.

“Hail fiery one,coming forth backwards, I do not speak lies”

She is a strong Goddess. loving and empowering but not one that is always coddling. I see a bit of the dark and light within her. It’s hard for me to picture her in a way that many new age people do: As a fluffy, sex kitten type of Goddess.

Even when i first stumbled upon Wicca i could never see her like that, but rather a fierce being that could be loving and sweet as well as eat your face type of mean.
I think to get what im talking about one need only look at her sacred children – the cat.
They can be affectionate, funny,playful,charming. but then they can be cruel. Not exactly to us but…you know what im saying if you have ever seen your furbaby going to town on a mouse, mole, some other kind of small rodent or bugs even. I think she has that same capability within herself as well.

This is a short Hymn that i wrote for her about a year ago. I don’t mind if anyone uses it but please give credit where credit is due.
O’ Great Mother
Devouring Queen
Mistress of Heaven
Behold your glory
for all to see
O’ Great Mother
Royal Feline of the Sun
She who takes her children
and binds us all as one
O’ Great Mother
O’ Mighty Eye of Ra
who gives the strong ones valor
Great Lady of the…
Invisible Paw
O’ Great Mother
Devouring Queen
Mistress of Heaven
Behold your glory
For all to See.

Hail Bast  and blessings!

resources:

http://www.per-bast.org/

House of Netjer.

Http://www.netjer.org/

the ancient Egyptian prayer book.
Wepwawet wiki

http://www.wepwawet.org

Gods and Myths in Ancient Egypt.

Dream entry.

Tried to sleep couldn’t sleep yet again. this has been happening for the last couple of weeks and its getting on my effing nerves. I keep thinking of the dreams i have had lately.
It’s not unusual for me at all to get messages in dreams, i have come to this conclusion many years ago.

Since having started my training and working with the elements i have had a number of dreams involving deities.
The first was an oddly intimate dream with Hermes. i don’t like going into detail about that dream because i feel it is something that is meant strictly between he and I but the safeness and peace i felt in the dream was just something i have never felt in one before. it was very comforting to say the least.

after that there was another dream which involved Hermes and Hekate.
The first part of the dream was myself sitting at an altar to Hekate. I was mumbling something to her and cutting my arms. all the while she was walking behind me with her hands behind her back .She was wearing a long black dress that swept the ground as she walked. She was studying me and all the while i could not see her i was just staring straight ahead at the candles on the altar with blood running down my arms.  My teacher believes that Hekate was helping me to deal with things that i could not deal with before.

The second part of this dream involved dear Hermes. It looked like a grand castle and he was wearing his usual attire, The winged cap, winged sandals , travelers cloak and was holding the Caduceus. he  was leading me up a spiral stone stair case and up into this little room. It had an altar set up which consisted of a pentacle,candles, dried flowers and a shell containing dried fruit and a dead mouse.
He looked at me and beckoned for me to join him at the altar when i approched he placed an arm gently on my back and pushed me to the altar. i looked at the contents and then back  to him, I had no idea what to do. Then he told me to concentrate on the mouse and showed me a series of hand signs. I concentrated on this dead mouse ,blowing a steady stream of air and doing the gestures which he had showed me and oddly enough the mouse began to inflate and became alive again. at this i remember looking at him and he smiled a tricksters smile but their was a bit of pride in it.

 

the most recent dream involves mother Hekate.
it was a couple of days ago but its one of those dreams that just stuck. It was my teacher and I we were …Lord i dunno where we were it was a long stretch of land no tree’s or anything that i could recognize but where we were, we were standing on this large area of cement with steps leading up from the center kind of like the theaters of old. In the very center of this area was a large statue of Hekate.it didn’t look like any statue i had ever seen before , she was holding a torch in one hand and the other hand was held up in a beckoning way.you could not see her eyes, they were covered by either bangs of hair or a blind fold but there was a very beautiful,elaborate crescent moon on her cheek
on the other side of the area in front of the statue was a large cauldron or bowl that was for burnt offerings.My teacher was wearing purple,i was wearing black. the entire thing felt very initiatory to me and i can’t really explain why but it did.
I had been sweeping and sometimes it is appropriate to offer her floor sweepings. So i asked Lady Willow if i could offer these things to her to which she replied sure. so i scooped up these sweepings which were more like black and purple sand than dust or dirt and placed them in the bowl and Lady Willow sat fire to it. the smoke curled up around the statue and that’s when the dream changed.

I found it odd that my teacher was in this dream as opposed to a circle mate who also has her as a patron. Because Willow’s patron is Diana and she is a Strega.
but she felt that in the dream we were offering her apart of ourselves and our devotion. I think theres more to it than that. but i do think she is a bit right.