The Soul of Isis: The Cat Goddess Bastet

The Egyptians revered and honored cats, and quickly came to consider the creatures divine and god-like. Bastet, sometimes referred to as Bast, is the ancient Egyptian Cat Goddess. The word Bastet is used to describe the Cat when she is portrayed as a cat, while the name Bast refers to the Cat Goddess in other forms. Bastet is also referred to by other names including Ailuros, Bubastis, Pacht, Pasht, Pasch, Ubast, Ubasti, and Bastis. She is also identified as “the soul of Isis,” or as Ba en Aset. The Goddess Isis is believed to have a true affinity for Bastet, and Bast’s title “the soul of Isis,” unmistakably and closely link together the two Egyptian Goddess forms.


Bast is considered a patron of both the sun and the moon, a patron Goddess of women like the mother Goddess Isis, and She is a guardian of that which is hidden as well as secrets. Depictions of Bastet include a black cat, a white cat, and cat-headed woman. According to certain myths, Bast is considered the daughter of the Sun God Ra and she was, in the earliest myths, a Sun Goddess. This makes her possibly one of the root Goddesses for future Sun Goddesses or at minimum creates a strong link between Her and Goddesses of the Dawn like Aurora and Eos. Bastet can however, also be linked to moon Goddess depictions like that of Luna as well as Artemis.


This Cat Goddess has also been linked to creation, to creativity, to inspiration, to epiphanies and enlightenment, to the concept of truth, as a guardian of the home, to sex, music and the arts in all its forms. Bastet is a Goddess with a dual nature. Like the nature of the cat which can behave in a tame versus wild fashion, Bastet has been associated with the bestowal of great gifts and equally great wrath. Since Bastet is a Cat Goddess it only makes sense that cats are considered sacred to this Goddess and to harm such animals is to come within the measure of Her wild wrath.


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