I’m Jayden. I’ve used tumblr for a long time but this is a separate blog for my practice.
I’m 29 years old and use he/him pronouns. I’m Mexican American.
I'm a pagan witch, but dabble in things outside of that. I’ve started around October 2023 and am always learning. The deity I worship most closely is Bast. I love reading about other paths and religions and keep a curious mind though!
This blog is religious/witchcraft-focused and will not involve fandom (My main account does though). It will, however, bring up topics like politics.
I’m very against generative/LLM AI. Immediate block if I see it.
Weird conspiracies about aliens building the pyramids/ancient societies will also get blocked.
No Harry Potter shit either. Get out or get blocked.
Zero tolerance for any right-wing/conservative/American Republican/etc. angles.
I think more pagans need to learn to accept the divine mystery of it all, sometimes.
things will not always make perfect logical sense because the divine is not necessarily confined to earthly logic.
not that it isn't worthwhile to speculate and discuss, but more of us need to get comfortable with the idea that there may not always BE an answer - or at least not one we're equipped to understand!
Racism in pagan and witchcraft communities can be dismissing the issue of cultural appropriation by claiming it doesn't bother the gods and in fact they want you to do it.
OMG HIIIII i lowk feel drawn to work with bastet (i just get this really warm feeling whenever i think abt her and everything about her intrigues me sm) but im so new to anything kemetic related so idk how to go about it in a way that isn't disrespectful, especially since i can't put up any altars due to my family
ive been doing research but i wanted to hear a first hand perspective (if u don't mind:333)
Hiii!! That's super common, I (and other posts I've read) find Bast's approach to her followers to be very warm and "motherly" (If that so ends up being the person's relationship to her)
Readmore because this got long lmao but I just absolutely adore her and talking about her! I am not at all an expert on her, just a loving follower, but feel free to ask more questions if any come up or chat me up if you like!
To that end, I find a lot of the Netjeru are actually quite gentle and patient with people! They don't really get mad or anything if you make mistakes (Yes I am including the more intense ones like Sekhmet here too! Although this could be from me formally requesting my deities to approach me patiently and more apparent because I was starting out and have a bad habit of missing cues and rationalizing away any intuitive messages. So like by all means, don't be afraid to express your limitations and pacing to them), so I think you'll be fine with most approaches to Bast or anyone else if you're being sincere.
I don't identify myself as Kemetic nowadays, but I do think reading the major myths (Aset and Wesir, The Contendings of Horus and Seth, etc.) and lifestyles of ancient Egyptians throughout their active years (Which is very long.........) will give you a better idea on how she and other Netjeru were worshipped in the past. Unfortunately, her temple in Bubastis was dismantled (The resources of the building were repurposed for other things) and any local mythologies of her are long gone.
I've gotten pretty open in how I approach my gods. Like my altar for her literally has modern toys because they remind me of her. I make a lot of DIY arts and crafts for her too. She loves creativity, art, music, dance, and anything that has you put your heart out there. Making your own prayers is a great way to bond too. If you can't speak them out loud, you'll still be heard. Vocalizing is a very important part of my practice but sometimes I'm in public or near people where I can't do it.
She does like fancy and pretty jewelry, but in my own UPG I've found she places most importance in your joy and how you relate this joy to your own freedom. She likes sweets too, you can put something aside and devote it to her for a while before taking it back and consuming it (You can say thanks and that you're reverting the offering to nourish yourself. Eating offerings is accepted and common in Kemetism, you can read about temple priests doing this).
So I say that in lieu of an altar, you can just make art and sing and dance and just devote these to her. When you feel random bouts of joy, thank her for it. Thank her for the gift of nature, independence, boundary-setting, intuition, a lot more as you learn about her. Cherishing cats and learning their lessons is a good idea too. Even if we don't really have myths on her, her children are enduring. You don't have to own a cat to follow her, some people might tell you this but it's just silly to think of that as a requirement.
I'm going to share this with you as well, it's a Drive of an English translation of a German text and it has plenty of epithets of a lot of the Netjeru, including Bast. Epithets can teach you a lot about a deity! The Sehkemet.weebly website is also a great resource!
Oh, and one last thing. Don't beat yourself up too hard for "not being able to do enough," for her or any other deity. We don't live in a society where we commission temples and take care of the people who do this work. A lot of surviving records in most of these "dead" religions are even geared towards priesthood and not the common person (Most of Ancient Egypt, for example, would be illiterate except for the wealthy and priests), so it can be a bit of a challenge to find what the everyday citizen did. You'll find records of things that were possible because an entire city allocated resources to festivals and such. It's a small window to something much larger.
So by all means, do what is possible for you! She will appreciate it and still love you all the same. She gets me emotional with how loving she is even when I have long stretches of time where I feel too exhausted to do much, or how I can't do some things because I also live at home with my parents.
Here, two final parting gifts:
I once made a list of devotional things you can try out while being low-key (Under a different blog before I moved to this one). It's not exhaustive at all and you can make your own or tweak something if you feel so inspired to!
and here are Bast's pages from Richard H. Wilkinson's The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
I love how when I’m consecrating something, I pull out the oils and the prayers and the sigils and the energy work, and when I’m desecrating something it’s just
*shakes spell envelope vigorously* THANKS FOR EVERYTHING. YOU ARE DESECRATED. YOU ARE JUST NORMAL PAPER NOW. GOT IT??
STAY SAFE!! [ID: the Gilbert Baker pride flag with the words “Happy pride to all those who are unable to celebrate openly and safely. You are loved and seen!” in all-caps black text over it. /end ID]
True and sincere answer to all of the people who ask, "I have just seen X animal, what does this mean?":
Rejoice, my friend, for this is a most auspicious sign! You have received one of the greatest blessings known to human kind: you live in a world full of creatures! Take comfort and enjoy this divine blessing.
IF YOU SEE ANY PAINTING BY "EMILE CORSI" ON HERE, DO NOT REBLOG IT THINKING IT'S REAL AND FROM THE 1800s. IT IS AI-GENERATED AND EMILE CORSI IS NOT A HISTORICAL FIGURE
And if you love the vibes and wish you could find something similar painted by a real person, let me introduce you to John William Waterhouse, on whose work the AI was definitely trained:
This is a good question to ask. The last thing anyone should be doing is over harvesting.
What is acceptable to forage can depend where you are (laws and by-laws), how common the plant is and if it is a protected species or not.
Law aside, is there a lot of the plant? Are there dozens of dandelions or are you taking some of the blossoms from a big tree and leaving plenty for others? That should be fine. Does it repeat flower if you pick some? How does the environment look? Are there lots of the flowers, and (hopefully) different flowers that provide pollen over time?
It's not just the pollinators that need the flowers, the seeds need to spread and things that have gone to seed or fruit can feed a lot of wildlife (or people).
Never strip an area completely and only taking a quarter to a third of whatever it is is a good rule to stick to. The same with fruit or seeds in the wild. (I even leave some currants on the bushes in my garden as a "share" for the birds.)
Funniest thing told to me so far on this path was meeting someone in-person and they go "I don't know what I expected you to look like. I guess I expected to see a cat head??"
I don't know how to articulate this succinctly, but there's people who approach witchcraft like those people who leave 1-star reviews on food recipes and go "Can I substitute heavy cream for coconut water?" and the food in question will be like Heavy Whipping Cream Delight or "I picked up this recipe that is clearly entirely composed of and dependent on the presence of meat but I ignored that and now it sucks, this recipe sucks"
