Maftet: Lessons Along the Nile, Part V

“You believe you’re sitting round this campfire, and in this you’re not wrong. You also believe you’re situated in a large forest but this belief is not as strong. More than this, you believe you’ve been hurled into an altogether different world, but this is far less coherent though inherent in your present experience in which all appearance is precarious and mysterious. But now in brief I’ve shown you something important about belief.” Maftet concluded as she prodded glowing embers of burning timbers.

She looked at me, so torn away, while I looked on with only dismay. Unenlightened and frightened, and why not? I’d been brought to this strange place instantly from safe space of home and hearth, and very possibly from the earth of my birth. “No, you know I won’t deceive; in fact I’d like to relieve you, and I fully expect you to believe whatever I might say in light of what’s now taken place in the space of but a few days, though it seems such a haze and you probably feel like a rat trapped in a maze.” She chanced a chuckle. “I only mean to point out that however much relief you find in belief depends on how deeply and strongly you believe what you receive. I’ve tried to tell you before, but you’ve chosen to ignore. Now the door has been opened for me to explain again, as best I can, and expect you listen with open heart and mind not so blind.”

Maftet quietly kicked a log into the fire and picked up her stick to stir again the embers of timber while she thought and fought inside for something to say to disarm my rising alarm. No harm had yet come, but what more could she say on an otherwise bright and beautiful day. She chanced sad smile, wishing she had some way to dissolve the complexity, resolve my perplexity… Two squirrels twirled in the trees above in playful love. “Look again, my dove, in the distance, towering above the city. What do you see with eyes now free?”

“Yes, in Bubastis, the tall tower, of course, but surely not the one that brought the blow of ice and snow … the Tower built by Bast for power?”

“Yes and no,” Maftet answered slow and on-flowed, “the tower you see is an exotic mystery, built on the foundation of the old, untold to those who now live and survive in this dæmonic hive. The base of Bast now lay beneath thick brick more newly set, but with doors to corridors leading down to drown in darkness all those who dare the crumbling stairs. You were not there, but the room you were in that terrible hour was like a tomb in that very tower, so sour with cats and bats and pissed-stained mats! Bast takes to ancient basement only select few to chew on raw, living flesh so fresh, with screams that make her cream.”

Ere more frightened, I tightened my grip around her hip, and she tauntingly laughed. “Do you know how much pleasure it gives me to lengthen the measure of your fear; what treasure it is to make you quiver and shiver, so you hold me so tight for protection against aggression or infection of some deadly pestilence that lays waste at noon for boon of the abyss? But no need to be upset at my words — yes, of course I heard — but you’re not immortal; only flesh and blood carved from mud. Still, you’re precious in my sight, and right in the light of Dyēus.”

Still clinging and bringing myself as close to Maftet as I could, even if I would crawl inside her and there abide; nevertheless, said I sadly, “You mock and demean me, without one whit of mien; you torment me with gleeful intent and never relent till you’ve given vent…”

“Oh! Hush!” Maftet hugged me tighter with brighter face interlaced with glimmering shimmer of light. “I only tease to appease my own unease… I’ve never loved mortal man, but you’re so unlike your clan; more elegant and feminine, benevolent and delicate, affectionate and compassionate… What more? You’ve bored a hole through my soul, and made yourself part of my very heart. And so now, too, I start to know how Dyēus loves humanity despite its insanity and vanity! And Ma’at loves you, too, because you are so true! So now, you’re enfolded by two lovers who ever hover round you to keep you safe under cover.”

Warm inside, I cherished the moment with no more torment; my spirit rose ecstatically that they chose me to be received and interweaved into their amorous communion. How could it be; I could not see… Of all people, why me? “For that reason,” Maftet smiled. “Your season is like Autumn, humble and beautiful, unpretentious, conscientious and never contentious. As the world turns and burns and you churn inside with still so much to learn and unlearn — for all that, we love you, coy baby boy!” And then provocative touch, erotic kiss, exotic aroma…

“Ah! But now do you understand? About the beginning in unity, one split in two, then restored harmony; foolery that led to cruelty; the burst of anger and hatred when one murdered one in submission to the willing of Lilith for the killing of innocence; how, then, dark death entered upon the earth; how Bast was seduced and cursed, then nursed wickedness and burst forth in insatiable thirst for human vermin? Why it is she built the ancient tower for power to leaven the lesser heaven with evil? How seen and unseen war has continued, and how Şeytan was brought low by near-fatal blow by show of light from bright rising of the one Sun of righteousness? But also how this war continues yet, while earth is beset by the talking apes, who continue to rape Gaia for whom there is no escape? You see, my love-dove, in that drear room in the tower yonder all of this was unclear, but you were so near the whole of history in that room filled with noxious consistory.”

“So the man … who couldn’t understand? Bast tricked him and so he was merely another victim, sweet prize for her lies? Just another spilling of blood for filling of belly?” I shook my head slowly, sadly with look at the newer tower in the distance. “Then such life matters so little…”

“No! But he has a wife, which makes you wonder how he’d blunder into such an odious place … but, then, stupidity was written all over his face!” Another wild kiss. “But you’re not there but here with me, and Ma’at makes three! And we will love you and teach you more, reach deeper into your soul, search heart and mind, and together bind all blackened thoughts and feelings reeling through your inner self.” Tightened hold, another bold kiss. “But where to next, my beloved?”

“Anywhere, but certainly not enclosed in tower; to that I’m adamantly opposed…”

And Maftet smiled and licked her lips again…

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Note: Painting by Lithuanian artist M.K. Ciurlionis; image of Dyēus from www.pinterest.com; image of warrior woman from http://www.iranpoliticsclub.net

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In the Corner with Maftet in Bubastis, Part II

“Step back into black.” Of course I didn’t understand, but waited for no reprimand. “So sad Sia’s not here for you, too, for sheer knowing’s sake to make you wise enough to devise your own escape.” Maftet turned and burned into my eyes. “I see the hole in your soul, and you’ve no idea what’s happening now and how the cow’s readied for slaughter to the daughter of war… Ah! And the claws on more than paws; you don’t see that either, do you?”

“No.” What blow to what ego left; most of it bereft now. Hell! I still didn’t know exactly where I was, and wanted to tear out my hair, and there was no escape, only the misshape of fanciful ideas of…

“Wake up, stupid pup! And take your place where I told you to hide!” She turned on me wild with mild smile, like mother to child and I was beguiled. Laughter. Shake of the head in pity in city so glum, filled with scum. “You’re too easy, ignorant, but not sleazy… I think I’ll end up buckling you to my belt like a whelp to help keep you safe from the strafe of Bast, my little waif. And you would like that, too, wouldn’t you?”

Beautiful. Vicious. Even malicious. Could I help but love her, especially under such fierce cover?

“You’re caught, my love-dove! You’re no good at hiding your thoughts!” Laughter again in kinder tone with knowing shake of the head. “Instead, just be honest; don’t try to lie, or you’ll die. I’m the companion-defender of Ma’at, who sought my skill to kill all untrue and those who skew… But look now! The slick black cat licks and pricks the incarnation of Bast, not to be lost, for revelation of blood, elevation of fixation on oozing red! It’s an exhortation to exploitation of unsuspecting fool, thickheaded mule; perhaps she should consume? He’d only resume his stupid ways in more dull days in disgusting brain-haze!”

Let him die? And not even try…

“Dammit, I told you already! Are you so unsteady in your own mind and so blind? I can hear you, dear!” Fierce look; soul pierce. I wanted to cower under her tower. “Shut up, now, and look! This is how she moves and proves her prowess, what behooves you to comprehend ere you bend to her feline ways on cloudier days in maze of confusion and dark illusion. I’ll not always be with you to correct, protect, and deflect all danger from the ranger of hell.”

Maftet grabbed and held me, nabbed my neck to beckon me listen, looking at glisten-face. “If I were to lie, my lies you’d believe just looking in my eyes, and you could not even try to resist what I insist… but why? You know so little, your spirit so brittle, but I’ll not belittle; after all, only last Spring did you sing your first babe’s song and sigh so nigh strong breast, sweet milk to drink to sink to peaceful sleep in protected keep. How, then, could you know, could you really see here what there is to see and the degree of malice from ages foregone, hidden behind devilish curtains drawn?”

“What don’t I see here in this place so drear? There is Bast; there is man; there is cat. There is dæmon cast, evil plan, and ghoulish feline rat! What more to even the score of what I know as I forego this awful trek bedecked in thin veneer under sneer of deities old and ere so cold?”

Kiss. Shockingly gentle. Smile … kind. “I am not blind but you I will bind to me to be mine at least till we leave the awful beast and grime-ridden place in Bubastis, however slow the pace. But look again and see; remember I said the claws are on more than paws? The two are one, and one is two; it’s true. Aton summoned Sekhmet and Bastet ~ her full name ~ in blame of war and violence, to deplore the double-whore of mindless defiance of peace, commanding all battles to cease; so they converged and merged, struck their blow upon Aton to show the power of unabated hate, and crash the tower and smash every bower of Ennead, but the champion of the pantheon was Ma’at, and she chose me as mate to satiate the anger of Aton and remove all danger of dæmons so loud and proud, who drain stupid men who cant think above notch of the crotch! Do you now more understand, your soul expand to see how out-of-hand is this deific grandstand of wretched whore-war band?”

Ah! But Bast moved again … surreptitiously, expeditiously, suspiciously, but oh-so obviously ambitiously. Ready for the thrill of the kill?

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Final Note: This is the second part of my own ‘spin-off’ inspired by the creative work of unbolt and Tony Single, specifically their collaborative work, the second part of which is entitled, Sekhmet. (You also need to back track to their first part, of course!) Now I will stand in my dark little corner and await (with Maftet) the next installment of their trilogy. In the meantime, I think I kind of/sort of promised something to Jesus and His Church, (also an excellent blog… the last two entries featuring guest writer Jonathan Kent Adams is very worthwhile to read in his Ramblings of a Sinner, Probably the Worst, Hopefully Getting Better: Part 1).