Spiritual inspiration from felines can be found throughout history. Here are five lessons your cat wants to teach you.
For Spirituality & Health Magazine
“Shockingly, there were no kittens in my Protestant childhood Bible.”
Shockingly, there were no kittens in my Protestant childhood Bible. Alas, the scripture was silent on cats, unless you considered lions (or you were Catholic—a single deuterocanonical verse, Baruch 6:22, includes the word cat). Yet, lessons from inspired felines can be found in many of the world’s wisdom traditions. In Islam, a story is told of the prophet Muhammad’s beloved cat, Muezza, who had fallen asleep on his shirt. Needing the shirt for prayer time, yet reticent to disturb the cat, Muhammad cut off the shirt’s sleeve. In the eighth century, cats in China helped with divination. And, although cats sometimes get a bad rap in Indic spiritualities, how a mama cat carries kittens is used as a delightful metaphor for the soul’s journey from one birth to another. And who doesn’t immediately think of the role of feline familiars in Earth-based spiritualities? Admittedly, it’s hard to top the ancient Egyptians. Considering cats semidivine, they modeled what it means to grieve a cherished animal companion: When a cat passed on, it’s human family would shave off their eyebrows to demonstrate their grief publicly. Today, honor feline wisdom―while keeping your eyebrows intact―with these five helpful examples from the four-legged inspirations.... Read the full article on spiritualityhealth.com