A Song to Honor the Goddess Bast

In this post, I’ll share the story of my song Dua Bast. The Crow Women recently released it on our new album Pantheon: Honoring the Pagan Divine. I hope you’ll sing this chant when you want to honor the Egyptian cat Goddess Bast.

Finding the song

It was 2016, and I was driving home after attending the Mabon festival outside of Albuquerque. I had recently become a devotee of Bast, and was learning all I could about Her stories and how to best honor Her.

I had scored a beautiful Bast pendant at an auction to benefit the pagan retreat center Ardantane. It’s held every year at Mystic Mabon Southwest. Having always been a huge lover of cats, this was a good start, I knew!

As I drove along, Pagan chants and songs learned over the weekend swirling in my head, I kept wishing I had one for Bast. I am a songwriter whose songs tend to come fully formed, melodies, lyrics and all. Suddenly this melody came into my mind, mysterious and Egyptian sounding to my ear, and I knew this was it.

At first it was just this wordless chant with a rhythm underneath, also wordless, played on drums, or in my case on the piano to give it pitch.

At the time I was not yet a member of the Crow Women, so this was just my own chant between Bast and me. When I joined the group, the album Seasons was being discussed, which includes songs about the Wheel of the Year and the Sabbats, so there really wasn’t a place for my Bast chant. (Instead I wrote Dance of Spring which you can read about in my blog post Spring is a Bloomin’.)

Later in 2022 we began compiling (and composing!) songs for our recently released album Pantheon. Dua Bast would definitely work here!

As I began working the song up for the group to sing, I had the idea of putting words to the drone pitches, and layering the voices on the four notes to make a rich sound underneath the main chant. I used as many honorifics and titles as I could think of, calling on Her as Mother. Click to listen–I’m really happy with the way it turned out.

Cat Mother
Dawn Mother
Sun Mother
East Mother

Flame Mother
Guardian Mother
Fierce Mother
Shield Mother

Queen Mother
Fertile Mother
Nurse Mother
Loving Mother

Huntress Mother
Devouring Mother
Fiery Mother
Guide Mother

Joyful Mother
Dance Mother
Music Mother
Sistrum Mother

Bountiful Mother
Health Mother
Luck Mother
Jeweled Mother

Light Mother
Sensual Mother
Perfume Mother
Tender Mother

from “Dua Bast” by Laura B. Wright (c) 2016, recorded by the Crow Women on “Pantheon: Honoring the Pagan Divine”
Dua Bast was sponsored by Kalisha KFP of Moondancers Coven and is dedicated to Om Seti.

Many faces of Bast

As you can see from the lyrics, Bast is a many-faceted Goddess. She was originally depicted with the head of a lioness (as opposed to a cat), and was associated with warrior-like characteristics, much like Sekhmet. She was the protector of Pharaohs, as well as her father Ra. Traveling with Ra in his boat of a million years, she nightly defeats the serpent Apep, who represents darkness and chaos, ensuring that light and life will continue in the world.

Bast later evolved to a gentler, more motherly goddess, depicted as a woman with the head of a cat. She was honored as a protector of family, children, and the home. She retained her fierceness, as a mother will protect her children. Some statues of Bast show her with kittens, portraying her as a fertility goddess as well.

She is also a joyful Goddess, reminding us to enjoy life and all its pleasures. Bast embodies sensuality, music, dance, celebration, and carpe diem! She is a Goddess of duality, gentle and loving one moment, but ferocious in the next if there is threat or injustice, jumping into the fray with claws out.

Working with Bast

Call on Bast if you need any kind of protection, as this is her primary domain. She is also helpful for times when you are in your own darkness, such as depression. As the slayer of Apep, she can assist you with your personal chaos.

To best honor Bast, sing, dance, and play music; really celebrate life! Take time to appreciate all that you have to be thankful for.

Bast also looks after her own little four-legged children. If your cat is sick or goes missing, call on Bast for aid.

Invocation

Here is a moving invocation to call Bast into your space. It is taken from the book Drawing Down the Sun by Stephanie Woodfield.

Hail Bast!
Daughter of the Sun
Lady of the East
Eye of Ra
Lady of Flames
She who protects the two lands
As the wild desert cat you do stalk your prey
In the form of the raging lioness you do slay the enemies of light
It is you who guides the sun each day,
as the Boat of a Million Years dips below the horizon
And it is you who nightly battles Apep in the Duat
You are the destroyer of chaos,
The champion of light,
Protectress of kings and queens
The sunrise is your gift to us,
You who bears the light of the new day
Lady of light, of joy, and battle,
Fill me with your Golden Light!
Come to me, O Bast!

“Bast Invocation” from “Drawing Down the Sun” by Stephanie Woodfield, Llewellyn Publications (c) 2014

Live in joy with Bast by your side!

cover image of Bast and pyramid by Chris0223 at Pixabay

For more information about the Crow Women pagan choir, and access to all the blog posts by Laura and the other 9 crowsingers who have written for Pagan Song, you can visit the Crow Women author page here on Pagan Song.

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