My mother frequently quoted to me the punch-line of a vicar during a rousing sermon: “Do you believe in black cats or God?” My mother reported that the congregation were duly shamed …So much for superstition.

But nowadays, when I contemplated happy children seated round a large statue of the Egyptian Cat Goddess Bast after one of our Goddess ceremonies, I saw truly that God and cat are One; Goddess and God are One; star and butterfly are One.

The magical harmony of spiritual alchemy evokes recognition of the Divine in all that is. Whether you call this the Holy Spirit, or The Light, or Mother and Father of All, the meaning is clear. Basically there is only God/Goddess. All deviations, sin, suffering, folly, are but transient shadows of the Real, the price paid for experience. The secret of alchemy is that the transformation of basic elements into gold is true literally as well as spiritually. My cousin, the Irish scientist Charles Parsons, could through the use of atoms transmute elements: the price of creating gold in this manner would be prohibitively expensive – but not impossible. So it is with matter into spirit. In essence they are One.

Once a lady wished to win a flower exhibition; so she cut water lilies for a vase, severing their vulgar thick slimy roots and rescued them from their home in the earth *** the flowers reacted at once by closing their petals: plant-protest of a worker’s strike action. But alas, we have treated our children - and ourselves with like folly. To give an example, I was taught when young that the best schools in England – therefore of course in the world – were the triad, Eton, Harrow and Winchester. Maharajas and Sheiks – sundry Royals, were sent to these colleges in order to achieve a superior Western caste. The strangest testimonial I have ever heard was a claim on behalf of Winchester. This was to press its status as superior even to Eton … I was solemnly informed: “Some officers serving in the Far East during the 2nd World War, found themselves in prisoner-of-war camps. Of course among them were Etonians and Harovians. But it was officers who had been to Winchester who stood up best to torture!” Just the encouragement mothers would need to send their offspring to this establishment.

Discipline of the period, forced on girls, emphasised purity – suitability for a good marriage. For instance, we girls always referred to our monthly periods as ‘The Curse’. We were told by our clergy that any pain was “sent by God as punishment for Eve’s sin.” The same curse also was alleged to have been exacted during the sufferings of child-birth. Hence women having given birth were instructed to undergo a bizarre church ceremony in the Prayer Book, “The Churching of Women”. This rite was to cleanse mothers from the stain of “Original Sin.” My brother Lawrence, when a Rector, had to perform this insulting ceremony for new mothers. Later he deeply regretted this, when he was converted to the Religion of the Goddess.

What is the reason for this Puritanism that still afflicts major world religions? What is the cure? I like the Ancient Egyptians, who thousands of years ago walked naked and unashamed. I found my own answer in the Alchemy of Isis: how She brought through the Isian Mysteries of the Inner Sun of Ra, which is within all that is. Therefore the transcendent Deity, the One, is manifested through the Many – a Pantheon of Deities, every sort of spirit, and all creatures upon the earth – including humans. The Aten, the Inner Sun of Akhenaton, expresses this unity in diversity, by showing a multitude of rays from one central source.

With the development of material science, an unnatural duality took place which cruelly divided man from nature. Patriarchal religion insisted that Man had dominion over all lesser creatures, including women.

Darwin was a revolutionary who terrified patriarchs. I offer a ridiculous picture! We can imagine a Royal portrait Gallery in a palace, with noble men and women painted wearing ostrich plumes in their hats, their bodies cloaked in ermine skins, and their feet squeezed into leather shoes. But as the gallery reaches its end, behind black curtains are depicted earlier ancestors, including chimpanzees and gorillas, tastefully arrayed with plumed chapeaux, ermine cloaks and leather boots. Puss in Boots? Is he there?

By all means let us ascend to the heights and grow spiritual wings! But let us salvage from the depths of the past our individual souls, wrought courageously through evolving physical matter.

There is no little, no great in Divinity. The cosmic Black Hole and the smallest womb are the nursery of a multitude of beings of every dimension. The eyes of a cat are the Eyes of the Mother Goddess: inscrutable, knowing: beautiful.

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