Care of the body…
Every Monday, I share a group Goddess Guidance reading in a secret Facebook group. The goddess that steps forward to meet us there, guides us throughout the week, and I feel she sets the tone for the days ahead. Here’s this week’s reading…
This week’s goddess is… BAST!!
Our Egyptian cat goddess teaches us to be more feline in our approach to life – independent, loving, playful, curious, sensual.
When I opened the door to this week, I instantly found myself transformed into the body of a cat. I begin to clean myself, swiping my paw across my fur, licking and attending to every part of my body. It’s a long process, and I catch myself at one point in awe of just how long and involved this process is, and how focused I am on the job at hand. I ask Bast if she has a message for us and she says….
“Care of the body = care of the soul”
I’ve always taken issue with that CS Lewis quote I see floating around on Pinterest that asserts that “You don’t have a soul, you are a soul, you have a body.” It’s as though the body and soul were considered separate – the soul enduring, while the body temporary, thus giving us a reason to disassociate from the experience of embodiment.
Bast is stepping forward this morning to remind you that the soul is the body, and the body is the soul. The two are interwoven in the synapses, the connective tissues, the epidermal cells, the complex chemistry. Any attempt to divorce the two is an investment in transcending this beautifully rich human experience of fully feeling our flesh.
So this week, tend to your skin, your muscle, your nerves, your joints, your hair. Lotion, stretch, breathe, orgasm, dance, rest, bathe…. care for your body. And in doing so, recognise that you are caring for your soul.
How will you care for your body this week? What is your experience of the body’s messages? What does Bast want you to know?
Mmm… so yes. A week of listening to the needs and desires of your soft animal body.
This amplified awareness of the body is calling us into deeper relationship with what it means to be fully embodied in this moment. Calling our attention to our innate physicality so that we might lean into the sweet robust embrace of the wisdom that lives in the muscle, bone and fascia, the organ, artery and follicle, the hormones, membranes and compounds that compose this very fleshy earthen connection to the here and to the now.
So often, we only bring a level of deeper care and attention to our bodies when we are experiencing discomfort, disease, pain, irritation, and aches. Some sense of things not being ‘right’. The goddess Bast asks us, if we are experiencing good health and wellbeing, not to wait until we experience the opposite before we begin tending, caring and bringing attention to our body.
And if we are suffering, to allow our body to communicate with us through our suffering, so that we might more fully receive its wisdom, while ensuring we receive the very best care available – through our own choices regarding the nourishment, rest and sweet tending, and through the ministrations of others trained in the healing we require and whom we trust to take good care of us.
My wish for you all, and for myself, is that Bast meets each of us where we are in this moment, and offers us the reminder to care for our bodies, care for our souls, in ways that deeply and exquisitely serve us.
I think I might write a post every Monday that speaks a bit more to the goddess that steps forward to guide us in the week ahead. My hope is that you not only find this helpful, but also that it serves us all as a touchstone throughout the week ahead. And if you wish to be in the Facebook group, please do get in touch with me there, and I’ll make the arrangements.
