BAST

BAST: Daughter of RA, BAST is the cat-headed Goddess of Fertility, Sensuality and Fire Prevention. She also has a flair for avenging wrongs and is feisty enough for the Greeks to have identifed her with ARTEMIS.

Her official headquarters appears to have been at Bubastis on the Nile Delta, where she had an annual festival. A lot of water has flowed down the Nile since then and festivals are few and far between. Why not hold your own cat festival? It may do you and your cats the power of good.

BAST was a very useful Goddess who performed a vital public service. In the event of fire, her cat servants would run into the flames to draw out the power. These were the original fire extinguishers.

Sadly this practise did lead to a few charred cats. However, cats were revered in Egypt and we're sure there was no deliberate cruelty involved. After all, with nine lives, they might come back, albeit slightly singed. The Egyptians must have been very grateful for these fire-fighting services, as dead cats were mummified and sent to join BAST in the spirit world.

There's a tendency nowadays to regard BAST as the Goddess of Sex and Lesbians, but that has more to do with modern sex-kittens. Cats are very sensual animals but you don't want to get scratched.

We feel sure it is due to BAST's powers that we now have smoke alarms and catflaps, so never underestimate the power of the original cat-woman. Be kind to cats. And remember, kind to cats means tough on rats.

See also our entry on BASTET, who doesn't really exist.