CATechism

Posted on July 22, 2002 in Cats

CATechism

I have been informed by the best of all possible authorities — namely the above-pictured cat who is at least sixteen — that humans greatly misunderstand the reverence that cats bestow on themselves. It is not self love, but profound reverence for She Whose Purr Created the Universe. Tracy Tutu Wawa, High Priestess of Bast, took time out from her busy sunbathing schedule to explain the theology behind the veneration due to all cats.

A translation of her soft sussurations into our guttural tongue reads as follows:

Cat worship works like this: The body of the cat is to the cat like a votive statue is to Catholics or an icon to an orthodox Christian. [Editor’s Note: Tracy is very wise and learned in human religions. We frequently find her lying atop books, absorbing their contents.] Just as the statue or the icon is not the beatific one depicted, so, too, the body of the Cat is not Bast herself, but an imperfect though beautiful representation of the goddess. Worshippers of Bast take pains to feed, stroke, lick clean, and perform other acts of devotion upon the flesh image. The human, too, may participate in these devotions. A cat is all too happy to transmit their love for the goddess through its person because this accrues what some humans have roughly called “good karma” (as distinguished from mere dogma) and so further establishes the devout one in the good graces of her creator, the mother of all litters and all that is beautiful in the world.