A circle of Bast

(Digging though my files, I stumbled across the ritual script that I used for an Open Full Moon ritual in 2010. The quarter calls have been used on several occasions since then, with minor changes to confirm to the purpose of the ritual at hand.)

Resetting the East (if the room is not set up right for GD-style ritual):

Oh mighty Bast, granddaughter of the Creator of the Universe, Lady of the Visible Universe, who by Thy Supreme Intelligence has explored and mastered the attributes and magnitudes of the directions, we invoke Thee to grant that whatever hidden and mystic virtue doth reside in the radiant East---the Dayspring of Light---the origin of life---may in answer to this our prayer be this day conferred upon the Throne of the Hierophant of this Temple, who is emblem of the Dawning of that Golden Light which shall illuminate the Path of the Unknown and shall guide us at length to the attainment of the Quintessence, the Stone of the Wise, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.

So mote it be!

Opening East/calling Eastern quarter:

Hail Bast and the guardians of the watchtower of the East, Protectors and lords of Air. Strengthen the element of Air in us and guide us in its ways. Tonight help us build a connection to the hidden intelligences of the astrological energies. Lead us to a greater understanding of the hidden genius that underlies the rituals.

So mote it be!

Opening South: 

Hail Bast and the guardians of the watchtower of the South, Protectors and lords of Fire. Strengthen the element of Fire in us and guide us in its ways. Tonight help us build a connection to the hidden passion of the astrological energies. Lead us to a greater understanding of the hidden power that underlies the rituals. 

So mote it be!

Opening West: 

Hail Bast and the guardians of the watchtower of the West, Protectors and lords of Water. Strengthen the element of Water in us and guide us in its ways. Tonight help us build a connection to the hidden intuition of the astrological energies. Lead us to a greater understanding of the hidden wisdom that underlies the rituals. 

So mote it be!

Opening North: 

Hail Bast and the guardians of the watchtower of the North, Protectors and lords of Earth. Strengthen the element of Earth in us and guide us in its ways. Tonight help us build a connection to the hidden fertility of the astrological energies. Lead us to a greater understanding of the hidden creativity that underlies the rituals. 

So mote it be!

Opening Center:

Welcome almighty Bast, mother and protector, teacher and instructor. Plant the seed of the solar body in us and guide us in the ways of spirit. Tonight help us build a connection to the hidden spirit of the astrological energies. Bast, Heart of Isis, lead us to a greater understanding of the astrological energies’ function and role in ritual.

So mote it be!

Chant used to help charge a talisman:

Bast Guides

Bast Empowers

Bast Heals

Bast Manifests

Bast Accomplishes

Closing Center:

Thank you, almighty Bast, heart of Isis, for your presence here tonight. May what we have partaken of here tonight lead us to a deeper knowledge and connection with the divine forces of the universe. May there always be a bond of peace, harmony and instruction between us. 

Hail and Farewell!

Closing North:

Thank you Bast and the guardians of the watchtower of the North, protectors and lords of Earth, for your presence here tonight. May there always be a bond of peace, harmony and instruction between us. 

Hail and Farewell!

Closing West:

Thank you Bast and the guardians of the watchtower of the West, protectors and lords of Water, for your presence here tonight. May there always be a bond of peace, harmony and instruction between us. 

Hail and Farewell!

Closing South:

Thank you Bast and the guardians of the watchtower of the South, protectors and lords of Fire, for your presence here tonight. May there always be a bond of peace, harmony and instruction between us. 

Hail and Farewell!

Closing East:

Thank you Bast and the guardians of the watchtower of the East, protectors and lords of Air, for your presence here tonight. May there always be a bond of peace, harmony and instruction between us. 

Hail and Farewell!

The circle is open, yet unbroken. Merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again!

Raccoon Apocalypse

Some people worry about the upcoming zombie apocalypse. I don't. That is because I am too busy fighting off the raccoon apocalypse.

When I moved to my current neighborhood eight years ago, I realized immediately that I had squirrels (the black walnut trees inplied that there were squirrels). For many years, I have feared the upcoming squirrel apocalypse, the demonic squirrels (my neighbor pointed out that they are demonic) keep chewing through the phone lines. Once a year, the phone company has to come out and repair the lines.

There was also the small feral cat colony that came with the house. That one surprised me---Sherlock Holmes, I am not. It probably shouldn't have, considering that two of the feral cats checked my wife and I out when we were originally looking at the house.

But honestly, I have never feared the kitty apocalypse that much. After all, I am on good speaking terms with Bast and Sekhmet. Years of loyal service should count for something.

(Yeah, I know---the cats have obviously eaten my brains already.)

Last night, I discovered a new fear---the raccoon apocalypse.

I have known about the raccoons in the neighborhood for some time. Yes, I am living just a few miles from downtown Denver (just north of the Denver Zoo and Golf Course). And I have raccoons visiting my porch late at night.

Last night, the raccoons were busy trying to enter the cat house that Mortimer sleeps in on the porch. (Mortimer refuses to be an indoor cat.) I am not sure if they were upset that there was no cat food in the bowl, or if they were looking for shelter. Either way, Mortimer did not like it. I ended up going outside twice to drive them off the porch.

I am sure that the raccoons thought about eating me. And my neighbor calls the squirrels demonic. I vote that the raccoons are the demonic hoarde of the upcoming apocalypse.

Ngrams Egyptian gods and godforms

Yes, another Ngram post. Last one I promise hope. I will admit that I am curious about some of the graphs that the Google Labs Ngram Tool is kicking out. For instance, I wonder about sections of the one I did on various Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. And there is also the one on godforms that makes me wonder.

Egyptian Gods and Goddesses 1500 to 2008

Egyptian Gods and Goddesses 1800 to 2008

Godforms---what is up with some of these spikes?

Writing a New Invocation to Bast

Greetings to the readers of The Pagan Mom Blog and to my regular readers. Today, I would like to share a few thoughts I had while writing the invocation to Bast that was used for the 31 Days of Deity.

(The guest post I did, an invocation to Bast, should be live now---but considering that I am pre-scheduling this post to go live while I am still sleeping, I could be wrong.)

I chose to write about Bast for two reasons. One, she is the patron deity of the local Golden Dawn lodge I belong to. Two, she keeps bringing me cats. (Ok, maybe she is not bringing me cats, but you must admit that I have quite a few of them.)

The reason I chose to do an invocation is simple: I rather enjoy performing them.

It is not the first time that I have written ritual scripts to use with Bast. One of my pride and joys is the "Wiccan" quarter calls I wrote a couple of years ago. It probably won't be the last time either.

Now in case you are a newbie to the term, an invocation manifests the spiritual and magical energies invoked inside one's own consciousness; its counterpart, an evocation manifests the energies outside oneself. (Ok, that is not completely true; but I am trying to keep this simple.) In Wiccan terms, an invocation is like a "drawing down," and an evocation is like "calling the quarters."

During the course of doing research for creating this invocation, I must admit that I was rather appalled by the general lack of information. While I consulted many different sources, often the result was the same information (a paragraph or two) that I had seen in all the rest of the sources. At a certain point, I discovered myself shaking my head over the fact that Herodotus is still a major source.

This lack of information is not especially surprising. After all, Bast (or Bastet) was a goddess that was worshipped more by the common people of Ancient Egypt than she was by the ruling class. Because of that, Bast was not mentioned often in the literature that forms the core of our knowledge about Ancient Egyptian mythology.

Even less information was attained when consulting the published documents of Golden Dawn and Egyptian Wicca (the first is not surprising, the second more so). There was some unpublished stuff that influenced what I created. If you can see where the unpublished stuff lays, then you have been taught it (or figured it out on your own). I will openly admit that the IHVH formula for invocations, and the seven layers of godforms played a part in what I created.

While Angela wanted us to provide a list of resources for further research, honestly in this case, I feel it would have been useless list. After all, it was a paragraph here, a line there, and information generally being repeated.

No, the resource for further research and work has already been provided: It is the ritual of invocation itself. Think of it as an instructual tool. The various myths, names and titles of Bast have been condensed into the invocation. Even if one does not want to perform the invocation, one can take it apart line by line to get an idea of how complicated the mythology surrounding Bast was.

And on that note, I must issue an apology. You see, I learn a lot from doing invocations and experiencing various magical forces firsthand. It is how I learn. I realize that it is not everyone's cup of tea; but let's be honest, I was writing the invocation for people like myself.

[As always all complaints about my insensitivity will be read, but not necessarily approved.]

Bast as a goddess of abundance

A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking about Bast while I was walking home from one of my college classes. I used to have a friend that gave me a hard time about picking a goddess that was a "party goddess." And I am so not a party person; I am the person in the corner that has been there for five minutes, and that is about an hour too long as far as I am concerned. I am also not very sexually amorous either which also makes Bast look like a bad choice for me; no, I do not go tom-catting around.

Quite simply, I am a prudish stick-in-the-mud. Therefore is his mind, there is no way that Bast should be connected with me. (Obviously, he has no truck with the theory that you should deal with gods who have a different outlook on life than you do, in order to shore up your weaknesses.)

While this former friend and I have parted paths (long story---basically I had no time to spare), I still can't but help think about his "party goddess" label occasionally when I mediate on Bast. I do understand where he was coming from with the comment, as will all those who have read stories about the ancient Egyptian festival of Bast.

But Bast is so much more. She is the lighter side of her dark sister Sekmet. She is probably connected with the Strength card of the Tarot though some energetic or philosophical manner.

Bast was definitely sacred in ancient Egypt, as were her animal of choice, the cat. Now, these are not are typical housecats; these were cats one step removed from the wild. The reason that cats were protected was the fact that they were a much needed form of pest control. Large grain stores tends to attract mice and rats; you need something to keep the scurrying pests down to an acceptable level where they are not eating you out of hut and silo.

Enter the cat. Today, even as I am writing this, I find that it is hard to believe that a cat can be bothered to get up and hunt down anything. But then again, I have three cats on the sofa with me---and they are slowly taking up every spare inch of room.

Yet I do know that they still hunt. Or at least, some of them do. The other day, I found a half-eaten mouse on the front porch. Probably a gift from one of the feral cats that I fed. I hope that they did not expect me to finish eating it for them. I appreciate the present, but even my eating habits are better than that.

Which brings me to why Bast is a goddess of abundance. We all have a bunch of scurry time and money wasters in our lives that if we could get under control, we could actually make some progress towards putting some money into the bank and keeping it there. Securing and protecting the stockpile of wealth, one's resources, and stemming the tide of being nippled to death has the same effect as creating more wealth. Therefore Bast is a goddess of abundance despite the fact that she probably spends as much time sleeping as her four legged counterparts do.

Who really writes this blog

Ahhh...the truth comes out. Did you honestly think that our human could really be the great writer and occultist that he claims to be? No, he is not. It is his owners, the remarkable cats of Bast who are really writing this blog and all those articles. Ignore Morgan; play attention to Lucifer and Apollo instead.