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THE TREE OF LIFE
But he may additionally be conceived of as the dog-headed deity.
The dog is a watcher and a guardian, in which function Anubis is
portrayed in the Tuat. By analogy he represents the reason in
man, which is also the guardian of the human consciousness, watch-
ing impressions and reactions to the exterior world. Tradition
declares of Anubis that he was the god who embalmed the body of
Osiris and that he swathed it with the linen swathings made by
Isis. From various other passages in the Book of the Dead it is
clear that Anubis was a great god in the Underworld, and his rank
and importance seems to have been as great as that of Osiris. In
the Judgment scene in the Tuat, Anubis the Watcher appears to
act for Osiris with whom he is intimately connected, for it is he
whose duty it is to examine the tongue of the great Balance, and to
take care that the beam is exactly horizontal.
The goddess Bast or Pasht, who is the deity correspondence of
Yesod the Foundation, is usually represented in the form of a
woman with the head of a Cat. She also has at times the head of
a lioness surmounted by a snake, holding in her right hand a sistrum,
and in her left hand an zgis surmounted by either the head of a
cat or a lioness. She was a personification of the moon, especially
as Khensu her son was aIso a Iunar god. With the head of a lioness
which is usually painted green she symbolized the sunlight ; but
when cat-headed-her connection with the moon is undoubted.
Associated with the sphere of the Foundation, as expressing the
dual aspect of the Astral Light, was not only Bast but Shu. Change
and stability are the two paradoxical characteristics of that Light,
Bast expressing the lunar aspect of change and perpetual flux, and
the idea of stability and a firm foundation to things is expressed
in the form of ~hu. Sometimes he is seen gasping a scorpion, a
serpent, or a hawk-headed sceptre, and was worshipped as the
god of the space which existed between the earth and the sky. It
was he who held up the sky with his hands, one supporting it at
the place of sunrise, and the other at the place of sunset. He has
been identified with the vital principle of things, which is in accord
with the implicit theory of the Astral Light which is the direct
vehicle of the five pranas or vital currents. In his capacity of skybearer,
there is an interesting myth. When the great god Ra
ruled over the gods and men, mankind on earth began to utter
seditious words against him, causing him to determine to destroy
them. Summoning various gods to conference, at the suggestion