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She is known as the 'Moon Goddess' and may be related to the Egyptian
lion-headed sun goddess 'Tefnut' of Heliopolis who represented the
moisture in the air, clouds, mist, dew, rain and later possibly
the rivers of Britain (and nowadays, probably the weather in Manchester
!). She was the partner of 'Shu', God of the air, son of 'Atum'
(or the great creator sun God 'Ra'), personification of the "Breath
of Life" who held up the sky goddess 'Nut' from the earth god 'Geb'.
In form this would make 'Tefnut' a perfect female equivalent or
partner to the male Creator-God of the early Christians and Celts.
The moon symbol is undoubtably a later Celtic addition, possibly
added to indicate that this version of the middle eastern goddess
'Tefnut' is associated with the river 'Belisama' (Mersey) who's
original Egyptian/Phoenician name was 'Rhebelisama', goddess of
moon and heaven. While there is nothing to say a river can not be
represented by both the sun and moon, this might explain why cats
and cat goddesses of the moon are associated with the distinctly
'solar boat' shaped river Mersey. The Egyptians and Phoenicians
also tied their major solar and lunar dieties to rivers such as
the famous Ra and the River Nile association. While they are renowned
for trading tin from Cornwall, a Phoenician ship has been found
as far north as Scotland raising the possibility that the Phoenicians
first gave the name 'Rhebelisama' to the Mersey as long ago as 650
BC, well before the Romans used the name.
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Archaeology
One
of the illustrations in the original 'Alice In Wonderland' appears
to be an exact copy of the cat on Grappenhall church tower in outline
but a great many more 'Cheshire cat' connections abound and which
are equally important in the discussion of local Celtic sacred sites.
"Cats born in May bring snakes into the house" Is an old north Wales
proverb taken from Elias Owen's 1896 book 'Welsh Folk-Lore' and, while
on the surface relates a belief in the nature of May kittens, may
hide a mystery about the journey of the Welsh Gawain (Hawk Of May)
down a 'road of cats' to face the Green Knight and return to King
Arthur's house with tales or even Saxon followers (snakes) from the
region of the 'serpent river' ! If you are mystified then read on:
Over on the Wirral exists a very important image of a cat carved into
the rocks on Bidston Hill, close to the Observatory. Here can be found
a collection of rock carvings thought to date from the second century
(100 AD to 200 AD) and to be of Romano-Celtic origin. The one of interest
to us is that of a goddess with the moon at her feet and the face
of a cat.