| IPUY |
| A nocturnal wind made its way through the outskirts of the Nile River Valley, singing like a flute. The sand lifted stubbornly as if it had already known of such a rude awakening to come. The golden grains traveled at great speed before smacking against the walls of the great cat tomb in Bubastis, the city dedicated to Bastet, cat goddess of love, motherhood and fertility. As if the wind and desert knew it was coming, a spirit was as restless as the grains of sand smacking against the pyramid walls, and as transparent as the wind. A tiny meow and the ba awakened. The ba, none other than the immortal manifestation of the individual; the spirit, had come. This was Ipuy's ba, and in it was he, Ipuy. The ba found the casket, and after flowing through the many layers of boxes, drained itself into Ipuy's mouth as if being sucked in by a straw. Down his throat it went, to his very heart. And it returned to the tomb through his mouth again. The ba arose from him and danced beautifully, and like a curious child wandered through the tomb, And like the golden grains of sand smacking against the pyramid walls, the ba went, ambitiously, fearlessly, through the sickeningly narrow passages. Ipuy was a dead cat, and he accepted that. His mind, after almost a year of being completely inanimate, ached from being so suddenly submerged into consciousness. However, Ipuy treasured his unusually strong brain. He knew that with proper use of his mind, he could do anything. He could THINK things into happening or being. And, though his ba, he set out to reinforce that precious talent. With this thought, Ipuy droningly followed his ba to seek out his ka, his life- force. He walked the passages gracefully in slow motion. And through the pyramid wall he went, as if the wall was not even there. He was now out in the open, and the rising sun shone blindingly in his yellow eyes. He smiled. It felt good to feel the warmth of the sun god Amun-Ra once again. Suddenly a force pulled Ipuy into a great speed. Backwards he went, a vague brown fluid, back inside the casket, back into his dead body. That was when Ipuy began to suspect that he might not even have a ka. But without a ka, he might as well not even exist! Without a ka, he could never cross over to the underworld. A ka was needed to reunite with the ba and form akh. An akh would live with the gods. And an akh would come only from a successful transition into the next world. But he knew no ka. Depressed, he curled himself up into a ball and went to sleep. His body arose, and he sat up, forelegs at his sides, in a human position. He rolled over and walked again on all fours, found himself walking through a narrow hallway. Out of the ceilings, without warning, glass walls fell around him, trapping the poor thing. He pawed at it, bewildered and frightened, fixing his eyes on a tiny yellow light shining a distance away from the other side of the glass. The blinding light seemed to make his eyes roll back into his head, and back there he saw a desert and nothing more. He heard a voice that could very well be the definition of beauty. It was a female voice, singing and eerily calling his name. It was now as if his body was in the desert; he looked down and saw his paws and walked, not knowing where this desert would take him. The voice was too intriguing to ignore, and it was not like there was anywhere else to go. He felt the sand in between the toes of his paws, soiling his fur, a great wind howling annoyingly. The land was uninhabited, with not the slightest hint of plant or insect life present. In the distance lay nothing but steep dunes, and of course, the voice.... Climbing another dune, he finally came to a valley, a valley still fairly deserted but with cacti and other desert plants present. Yards away lay an oasis, and sitting on a rock along the water was Isis, the goddess known for bringing the dead back to life. She was the one who had been calling to Ipuy, and hypnotically, he made his way over to her. She smiled and scratched his head. Isis was radiantly beautiful; her clear dark eyes, perfectly lined, spoke gently to him like beckoning freshwater pearls. The wind played with her long black hair, making it brush against Ipuy, soft like a feather, awing him. "Drink," she ordered him. Ipuy looked at his reflection in the oasis and drank. The water, however, did not ripple at the movements of his tongue, but remained still around him as if he were eating pudding, but without even a thick taste. He stared down at his reflection until it released itself from below him and danced upon the surface of the lake. He stopped drinking and watched it. He knew who this immortal twin was. This was Ipuy's ka. Ipuy turned to look at Isis. she motioned from him to go to his ka, but Ipuy hated to swim. After all, he was a cat. Still, he began paddling his paws across the glistening water, but without warning, the flow of the water shifted to a spiraling current, possessing Ipuy with the greed of quicksand. Ipuy panicked, looking to his ka with a pleading look in his yellow eyes. The ka looked at Isis, and like a great bird of prey she flew rapidly over the water, her wings casting a shadow over Ipuy as she stroked him. "Use your talent, Ipuy," she eerily declared. "You have proven the immortal strength of your mind to the Gods. Now you must prove it to your ka." Ipuy tried to mew, but found that he now spoke in a human voice. He cried to Isis, "But everything has been exiled to the back of my mind, by a force I can not control! This blistering headache paralyzes all immortal ability that I once shone so brightly of! Oh, Isis! I've barely enough strength to move even my tongue!" Isis flapped her wings over Ipuy, sending a warm breeze over the water. "You are in your mind, take strength in the natural forces that do surround you! This is it, Ipuy, the back of your mind, the oasis, the spring that once poured from your mind to your body, and still can, a rare talent of which you must now use." Ipuy moaned in pain. He silenced when Isis's silky hair became animate and wrapped around him like a soft magic carpet. Ipuy grazed the water with his front right paw and felt the power gathering. The thoughts and supernatural forces of the environment soaked into Isis's hair, braiding themselves around him, and he rose, triumphant, and walked on the water over to his ka. He knew then that he would finally cross over to live in harmony with his ka in the Underworld. A flashing light pulled him suddenly through the sand, and he and his ka reached their manifestation. When it all subsided, Ipuy shook his head and pawed the ground. Was it all in his mind? He wondered, how had he reached the Underworld? Was that really Isis, or had he imagined the entire episode? |
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| Summary: "Ipuy" tells the story of an Egyptian cat's journey to the underworld. Necessary background information: - Cats were worshiped by the ancient Egyptians. - Isis is the goddess known for bringing the dead back to life. -The Underworld is the Egyptian world where the deceased live eternally. -Amun-Re is the sun god and was the most important god to the Egyptians. |
| click here to learn the meanings of ba, ka, and akh. |
| IPUY |