Bastet

Susie Briggs describes her alter to Bastet

Bastet is a goddess who in her earliest form was one of the many lion goddesses. Her image transformed into that of a cat by 1000 b.c. She is the gentle, approachable side of the mother goddess. Her name means "she of the perfume jar," and she is called "daughter of Re," and "Lady of Ashera." She was worshipped all over Egypt, but particularly in the north in Bubastis. She is the protector of women in childbirth and the symbolic mother and nurse of the king. She appears as a woman wearing a short-sleeved dress with a crosshatched pattern, carrying a sistrum and an ankh. The sistrum is a rattle used to accompany dancing, and the ankh is the hieroglyph for life. These two articles associate her with Hathor, goddess of pleasure, who also carries the sistrum and the ankh.