Idols on Four Paws

Posted on July 22, 2005 in Cats Myths & Mysticism

Cats know that they were gods in ancient Egypt. Not an Indra, a Zeus, or a Yahweh who can smite you down in a blast of electricity and wind, but household gods full of good cheer and friendly sentiment, bringing prosperity and joviality to the other occupants. I do not know exactly how they convey the information: it could be by silent miaos pitched well beyond our hearing or in the pattern of the lickings they apply so happily to one another. In our household, our three huddle on the floor or on a prominent piece of furniture for hours of deep meditation. Whether they bring on good fortune or bad is unknown to me. I treat them kindly as if they were my personal angels.

Oh, to have lived in Pharoahnic Egypt, I can imagine them thinking. When the proletariate worshipped them. When common men decorated their tombs with the images of cats. When the loss of a cat occasioned the shaving of the owners’ eyebrows. When the dead were tenderly wrapped in linens and carried to Bubastis where Bast had her temple.

Cat worship was too low for the powerful. The ordinary man or woman rejoiced in the love of feline. Cats did not bring tremendous wealth or power: they were indifferent to it as most of us are indifferent to the persons who run our economic and political life — until they rend us with their self-centered policies. Cats have often been called arrogant. I do not see this. Cruel is another trait ascribed to them. When a cat brings me a bird or a mouse, I see innocence in the eyes. Oh Daddy, do you see what a good hunter I am? (Someone once told me of a large black cat named Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.)

It is not as a servant that I relate to my cats: I am the blessed one, blessed by their attention and friendship. In return for their generosity, we give them catfood, fresh water, and changes of cat litter. We let them out on the deck to sun themselves and protect them from coyotes, the local incarnation of Anubis. (Opossums and raccoons must be Set.) My cats allow me to watch as they ponder existence and laugh when they experiment, sometimes catastrophically. They endure my chirpy posturings of what I think they must be thinking. And most of all, they grant the generous affections of purrs, rubs, licks, and little bites.

My three girls are our idols on four softly padded paws. Worship them against all current conventions, we do. They bring joy and comfort to the household, peace in the heart when we curl up together..