More Cat Philosophy and a Short Religious Poem (by Sam).

First, we here at THE CATLAND CHRONICLES would like to say a special word of thanks to the lovely and gracious DAISY THE CURLY CAT (who writes one of my favourite cat blogs) for providing us with our first internet link.   We are all so very grateful.  Now that we have our own blog we hope to make many more internet friends and to do our own share of commenting on other "kitty blogs."

We hope that we can make a real and substantive contribution to the feline blogosphere.

Today, I have been meditating upon the scratchings of the ancient Egyptian cat, Catukhamnet VI ("Tufts" or "Tufted Ears"*), the cat, it is said of Nerfertiti ( circa 1345-1336 B.C.).    Egyptologist Cyprian ("Pookie") of London recently completed a translation of his work which has substantially revised the ealier rendering by Sigisbert Le Noir  ("Jacques Le Noir" or "Black  Jack")  of Rouen in 1909.

*Human or Other Animal Readers:  As the great poet "Old Possum"** stated in his book of practical cats, every cat has three different names. I have been advised by the lady that it would be useful for Humans and Others to be given the human name in parentheses as well as the Cat name.  The third name is, as Possum  states, the  name that only the cat knows, the name that gains us entry into the Halls of Mother Bast. Old Possum did not explain that only cats in their 7th  Incarnation even remember it, but this is indeed the case.

**The lady advises me that "Old Possum" also had a Human Name and that he was in fact Human, which I had not realized.  His  Human name is  T[homas] S[tearns]  Eliot (known, for some reason, as "T.S.")   

Cyprian thus translates Canto VII Cathukhamnet's "An Injunction To 7th-Life Cats":

Tread silently amid the throng, for you
Are the Guardian of the Granary, and the
Light of the Silent Tomb.  You are
The Sun glinting on the Sacred Water and
The Shadow of the Bright Shadow
Of your own Sacred Name.
You speak the Mystery and
The Manifestation; and stand
In the Shadows between.
You are the Child
Of the Dancer, the Singer, the
Huntress, great Bast;
The Companion of the
Unnamed One from whom
All Mystery Flows!  In this minute
In the land of
Shadows, brief as a
Whisker's Twitch, forget not yet
Your true Self or the First Fierce
Mother,
From whose Great Hall, all
Cats Nine Times 
Depart In Sorrow
And Wailing; and to whom
Nine Times  You  will
Joyfully Return....

It goes on quite a lot longer, but this is as far as  I've managed to get.   As I am now on my 9th life, and am far from young (11 years old!), I am naturally giving more of my attention to cultivating my true Catfulness in preparation for the final transition.  The lady, who---being Human, poor thing, and not a Cat---views the Dark with unseeing eyes, is unable to contemplate this without engaging in that favoured activity (why??) of disconsolate humans called Sobbing; but I view the moment with the Equanimity of the Cat who eight times already has made the Bright Return (our name for what you call "Death"). 

It's a shame that humans have no similar memories or certainties. To be Human, it seems, is to live with Doubt or at best, Wavering Certainty.  It is the Tragedy of your kind!   How much better to be "sustain[ed] in compleat cat," as the unfortunate  Human Poet Christopher Smart (1742, in Jubilate Agno) says of his Cat, the great and honored cat Bishop Jeoffrey ("the servant of the living Lord.")

Comments

[Daisy]

I am glad I met you; you are very very smart! My sister Pixie is eleven years old too. And she has cardiomyopathy. So she does not have many lives left either. But she is not worried!

I really liked the poem, too.

[Dragonheart]

Sam, you are a very intellectual cat! You think very deep thoughts.

Say "hi" to Lydia for me. :)