Pluto
Meowing to go out
- Dec 27, 2020
- 4,163
One has to step back to appreciate the scale of time. Tourists from "Ancient Greece" travelled to see the pyramids, which were thousands of years ancient to them. The Gayer-Anderson Cat (pictured) is an ancient statue of the Goddess Bastet dating from around 600 BC, yet the Goddess herself had been venerated for well over 2,000 years at that point.
Queen Cleopatra (70-30BC) lived closer to our present time than the time of Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza (2,600 BC). That pyramid stood as the tallest man-made structure for 3,800 years.
Ancient Egypt is broadly categorised into three Kingdoms – Old, Middle and New – as well as 31 dynasties covering the period of 3,150 BC to 30 BC, when Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Republic.
Because of its historical vastness, in Egyptology one has to accept facts as somewhat fluid. Thus, the Goddess Bastet dates from approximately 3,000 BC, though evolved from a lioness form to the contemporary image of a domestic cat, or cat-headed woman. Accordingly, her role transitioned from a warrior to a gentler deity.
By consensus, her father was the great sun God Ra and her mother the Goddess Isis. Unto the present day, she is variously associated with protection, fertility, dance and music.
It isn't hard to see why Bastet resonates so powerfully for me. During one of the darkest chapters of my life, I was living at home with my abusive family, yet completely brainwashed into believing I was incapable of escaping. A friend who witnessed the situation used the analogy that it was like I was chained up while mother, father and sisters took turns in whipping me.
But during that time, I had my own little Bastet; a light in the darkness. She was the only one who loved me, and her memory remains. Eventually, I was able to leave home and rarely saw her again. I remember around 2013 when I received the news of her passing. I had recently met a new friend and it seemed that she had waited until I was in a good place to leave the world.
By extension, the notion of Bastet as a cosmic deity – a protector, defender and nurturer – gives rise to a feeling that I've yearned for since early childhood. That is, the sense of feeling worthy of being protected and loved; the visceral sensation of a caring force in the universe. Feeling safe rather than the usual constant panic of C-PTSD. This leads to a broader conversation about deities.
Fundamentalist Christian Perspective
A fundamentalist would immediately go on the attack since it is a mortal sin to acknowledge any deity other than their God. The proof for this claim is found in their Bible. Let's talk about that.
Monotheistic, namely Abrahamic religions largely spread via gun and sword. Indigenous, traditional religions have largely been dismantled in the name of globally monopolising the Abrahamic God. No coincidence that this God has such an aggressive personality: angry, vengeful, threatening, petty and cruel. There's even a need for a son, Jesus, to save us from hell, a torturous place which God is either too powerless or too cruel to stop.
Then there are the question marks over originality.
* In the picture above, Bastet fights Ra's (her sun-God father's) arch-rival, Apep, the snake of darkness. (N.B., cats were actually used to catch vermin in Egypt.) A snake of evil later appeared in the Adam and Eve myth.
* The Book of the Heavenly Cow describes humans plotting against Ra; the resulting separation from the creator and the fall of man led to the suffering of the world. Again, remarkably similar to the later Adam and Eve story.
* In the role of creator, there was an account of Ra creating humans from his sweat and tears. In Adam and Eve, woman was created from man's rib. This does lead to a key difference, however; women were scapegoated, suppressed and abused in the Abrahamic world, whereas they were honoured in ancient Egypt.
It is perfectly reasonable to psychoanalyse the act of creating and perpetuating deities, drawing the conclusion that each reflects their respective societies. My personal conclusion is that the Christian God's propensity for violence and cruelty can be grounds to demote it, despite its monopoly on Western religion. It is a sign that we can and should do better.
Atheist Perspective
Modern atheism was born out of objection to the aforementioned violence and insanity of the Abrahamic God and His overzealous followers. This is a very noble cause given the religious violence in the world, past and present. Unfortunately, however, it is difficult to battle an evil without becoming it.
Hence, the intolerance of dissent to their narrative, a 'scorched Earth' approach towards the religious cultures of others, and a loud-mouthed preaching about being the sole possessor of cosmic truth. Then, when asked why the universe exists, the answer is still, "I don't know." Just like the rest of us.
The key here is that bullies on all sides will attack people for finding their own truths or practising their own beliefs. If we psychoanalyse this, what does it say about the 'practitioner'? Frustrated with the state of the world and wanting to hold a simple narrative about life. Just like the rest of us. Oh, and unable to feel anything that could be called sacred or transcendent.
Henotheism
This leads us to the topic of henotheism. Where monotheism – which was briefly flirted with by Akhenaten in Egypt, then reversed by Tutankhamen – entails a single God alone, and polytheism opens the door to multiple Gods, henotheism represents a compromise: there can be multiple Gods, but one reigns supreme.
It could be argued that most religions function this way. In Christianity, Jesus is deified yet God is supreme. Likewise the Prophet Mohammed in Islam. The highest God was Jupiter in Rome and Zeus in Greece.
Similarly, by Egypt's New Kingdom (1,539–1,075 BC), the God Ra had merged with the hidden God Amun to create Amun-Ra – the ultimate God! He was widely worshipped.
Buddhist Perspective
This brings us to the Eastern world. It is common to describe Buddhism as a religion without God. However, the worship of the Lord Buddha himself, and the veneration of masters, could be argued to bear some resemblance to henotheism. However, things take a twist.
The largest difference here is the goal: overcoming the suffering via a transcendent state of no-self. There is also a broader context of reincarnation which implies that everyone will be 'saved', but it may take many lifetimes of suffering unless enlightenment is made the highest priority.
Hindu Perspective
To the untrained eye, the Hindu tradition is quiet openly polytheistic – there's Krishna, Shiva, the Divine Mother, Ganesh and the list goes on. And yet, like Buddhism, the goal is ultimately enlightenment. The key concept here is Brahman. Brahman is the ultimate God, yet differs from Amun-Ra, Jupiter, the Christian God, etc. Even the mightiest of these Gods describes a finite, separate entity.
By contrast, Brahman is infinite and inseparable from all things. That makes Brahman non-dual. Therefore, Brahman includes and transcends all dualities like good/evil, male/female, man/God, heaven/Earth and so forth.
Thus, the concept of Brahman adds two profound revelations:
1) Brahman, the Supreme, is utterly indescribable due to its limitless and all-inclusive nature.
2) Because nothing exists outside of Brahman, it means that your own true nature, here and now, is Brahman.
Thus, while Buddhism defines enlightenment as the negation of the self, in Hinduism this entails the realisation of one's own true nature as Brahman. Obviously, this is a profound, transformative shift in identity, not merely a belief. It must be noted that these are merely different ways of clumsily verbalising the same, indescribable process of enlightenment.
So, then, why all the polytheistic Gods? Simply, the Gods exist to work around the fundamental problem of Brahman's inability to be understood by the suffering human mind. Being infinite, Brahman cannot be imagined, depicted or understood. Thus, the purpose of the Gods is to serve as a bridge between the misery of human life and the bliss of discovering our true nature as infinite and eternal.
The claim is not being made that the Gods are ultimately real. Indeed, the world, and the separate self at the centre of it, are also considered unreal. Clearly, every culture is 'made up', be it religious or secular. Yet suffering is experienced. Instead, the veneration of a God is a practical method to attune the mortal mind to divinity and thus work towards enlightenment.
At this point, it might seem that Western religions, which largely focus on the afterlife as the place of salvation, are left behind. But alas, there have been historical mystics like Meister Eckhart and Rumi who attained a state of oneness with God (enlightenment) by skilfully utilising the framework of their Abrahamic traditions.
Back to Bastet
With this broader perspective, it becomes clear that the veneration of deities like Bastet can serve a practical purpose, psychological and spiritual. Certain errors which are rampant with mainstream religions ('sins', if you like), like arrogance and aggression, deduct the benefit and reinforce the primal human insanity instead of transcending it.
Understanding this, there is automatically tolerance for all viewpoints because the true battle is fought internally. India's tolerance for all sorts of deities is based on this understanding. From an enlightened perspective, there is no reason to exclude other traditions like ancient Egypt, too. Even animal deities are equally valid.
Final Summary
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i genuinely almost cried when I clicked on the link to the pic of them, also because of the reason why the owner of the biggest pusheen collection collected the pusheens :'>
