Cats, cats, and more CATS!

[Lady Motevia]

Ok, so I wanted to share these dreams that I've had within the past 12 hours. I haven't had dreams this vivid in a very long time. So now that I've had these, I feel like I should share them.

The first one happened yesterday after I got home from the doctor (I'm currently in the process of trying to get on SS benefits). I went down for a nap with the baby and this is the dream that resulted from that nap. I don't remember the entire thing, but what I do remember was that we were living in a nicer place than we do now, but my daughter was the same age. I went into the kitchen of this place to find a GIANT tigress just laying on my kitchen floor. Not only that, but my daughter was crawling all over this thing having the time of her life wrestling in its fur. The tigress (I don't know how I knew it was female) was a pale orange with a very white underbelly. I tried to get my daughter off the tiger to prevent the tiger from attacking her and the tigress gave me a warning look like "calm the f*ck down. Right now". Then when I let my daughter go to resume crawling on this tiger, the tiger rested her head on me and started rubbing her face on my arms and lap like a normal cat would. I just got a feeling of calm like the tigress was literally telling me "everything is going to be alright". It felt so real.

The second dream I woke up to tonight. Again, I don't remember what happened before this part, but this dream was all about Bast. Something about her demanding that I do research on her for some reason. In the dream, I just saw her form of a beautiful woman wearing a cat mask. But it looked a lot like the face of that tiger. Everything else was gray and misty.

I'm trying this morning to look up information on Bast, but I'm not finding much that's very in-depth. A bunch of stuff I've found conflicts one another. Does anyone know what these dreams might mean?

[habibidancer]

haha! (not laughing at you, at the conflicting stuff you are finding).

Researching into egyptian lore IS all about conflicting info! Think of it in this context: People assume that when you say ancient Egypt, you are talking about a whole, unified country like the USA... where you have a huge tract of land where everyone does pretty much the same stuff. But that is not the case! Yes, the whole country (usually) was ruled by one pharoah, and the different regions were governed by similar systems of governors that reported up the chain of command. BUT you have these very DIFFERENT regions doing things very differently! one part of egypt took baths, but go far enough up river and everyone takes showers! and the bathers were shocked to learn of this!

Each region had it's own primary deities and yes there might have been temples to Bast in Luxor but they were small compared to Luxor's primaries. It wasn't until much much later that you had national deity worship, like with Isis or Amun. Bast was primary in the delta and lower Egypt (the half of egypt closer to the mediterranean). Stories and lore differed in all these regions because the peoples started out as diverse tribes that were eventually unified under a few very ambitious kings. Like native american tribes have stories about the Great Spirit but it's name is different in each tribe and it has it's own stories in each... but there's overlap of the stories in the plains tribes because their regions overlap, see?

Also, the cats in egypt were different in appearance than our domestic cats. Google the Mau breed and the Abyssinian. Those are the closest to what the cats look like in A.E. paintings. And they were barely domesticated... because they weren't forced to stay inside a house like we do now. They were kept close to people and worshipped because their job was so important to survival (people knew that the cats kept illness, death, and starvation at bay by killing rats and snakes).

Picturing Bast as a cute little domesticated calico is probably not how egyptians saw her. No, she had a wild cat face. She did what wild cats do. Cats are superb mothers, they even mother other cats' kids. Calm the heck down, she knows how to take care of babies, even your baby! right? Bast and Sekhmet are sometimes seen to be sisterly but really they are very separate... but you could safely say that where Sekhmet is the very dangerous side of the Feline, Bast is the more pleasant side. Want to know more about Bast in addition to white man's interpretations of what ancient egyptians did, learn about cats. Wild and domestic. After that, there are some sources that are better than others for learning about specific A.E. deities. I will post them seperately in a bit.

you didn't ask for an interpretation but I love 'interpreting' dreams, however I want to say that you should ignore anything I say about your dream if it doesn't ring true for you. when I interpret them, I tend to be more literal or according to the context, at least for dreams that are remembered so vividly. I only do the more typical "symbol interpretation" if all you remembered of the dream was a tiger.

not that I think this dream needs much interpretation but clearly the Tigress wanted you to realize that that She can look out for you and yours, that you are safe with Her. There might also be a bit of the message that moms don't raise their kids alone: cats are social animals in the wild, they share mothering tasks, that whole "it takes a village to raise a child" concept. Lions live in prides, cats live in colonies. Tigers may not be as social but how do we really know, since they are so few in number and live in secluded areas that are hard to observe them in larger groups. Heck, are there even many wild tigers left? I digress. Anyway, a vivid dream like that I would take pretty literally first.

Then there's the symbology of the tiger:agression, royalty, dignity, power, both creation and destroyer (haha... Bast and Sekhmet). Those symbology interpretations are Western interpretations. Whether or not they apply is up to you. But remember the tarot card Strength... the lion held in place by a young woman. Strength and Agression held in check by Will. You've had some stresses lately, where the urge to act based in Rage (Sekhmet) was held at bay by your own Will.

Our dreams are often our way to work out our stresses, to put those stresses into packages that are easier to digest and deal with. There could be a little of this in that first dream too. The Tigress is saying "I got your back, I can help you take care of you and your family." But maybe She is also trying to "rub off on you" a little of her Power. It's ok to feel that agression, that Rage as long as your actions are held in check by Will. "See how calm I am?" Tigress says, "This is not the time to throw down, I've got this covered. Just relax."

But then, to have Bast show up in a second dream. That all goes down literally. I started out with Bast, and I think anyone wanting to get close with any of the egyptian feline Powers needs to start out visiting with Bast. She's fun, she's perfect for when we are in our motherhood days, but she also prepares you for dealing with the others (Sekhmet or Mut). Don't get me wrong, Bast is no pussy. She kills Apop every night after all (if she didn't, the world would end). But she is Strength held by Will. Her aggression is controlled and always for the sake of those in Her care and is never over-the-top or for the wrong reasons, her actions are never inappropriate to the situation.

One should experience Deity for themselves. If She told you to learn of Her, then that's what you should do. Read from books, or the internet (with a grain of salt) but rely on your own experience of Her. I will post some sources I know of soon.