Breeds of Religion

Apologies for the bad pun, but I literally had no other ideas for a title.

This is a depiction of world religions and belief systems, personified as angelic cats. The idea was knocking around in my head for several years now, but I never knew how to execute it. I finally solved the problem with markers and photoshop.

Religions personified felinified:

    ·         Judaism: Often credited as the first monotheistic religion (but who knows). I chose a silver cat with blue eyes, since the main colors of Judaism are blue and silver or blue and white.

    ·         Christianity: I picked a white angelic looking Persian, for obvious reasons. The stained glass cross was inspired by a necklace I saw a classmate wear in high school.

    ·         Islam: I heard in several places that there’s a legend/folk tale in Islam, about the tabby cat. A cat saved the prophet Muhammad from a snake, and in thanks, Muhammad marked the cat with his initial, “M.” This is why all tabbies have an “M” on their foreheads!

     ·         Hinduism: The oldest world religion, according to some sources. There's no special meaning behind this cat's design; it just felt right. 

     ·         Sikhism: It began as a combination of Hinduism and Islam. I made the cat a longhair, because Sikhs aren’t supposed to cut their hair.  The cat’s collar is also inspired by the Kara, a metal bracelet all Sikhs are traditionally supposed to wear. I assume you’re not supposed to put the Kara on a cat though, so it’s just Kara-inspired. Not an actual Kara. 

     ·         Buddhism: People argue over whether it’s a “religion” or a “philosophy.” But if it is a religion, it’s probably the one with the cleanest record. For the cat's coloring, I was inspired by a picture of a Buddhist statue carved from a red wood.

     ·         Confucianism: Like Buddhism, it’s up for debate whether it’s a religion or a philosophy. But either way, it had an enormous influence on China’s culture. I chose a Siamese cat because I’m unoriginal. 

     ·         Taoism: Another religion originating from China. I chose a “cow cat,” patterned like the Yin Yang. (Note: the Yin Yang is also used in other religions, like Confucianism).

     ·         Shinto: A religion of Japanese origin, entwined with Japanese nationalism. I chose another type of Siamese cat, because I am very uncreative. 

     ·         Zoroastrianism: One of the oldest monotheistic religions, originating in the Middle East. It’s odd that this religion is usually not considered when people talk about “the monotheistic religions.” Zoroastrianism has an emphasis on fire, and it’s been wrongly assumed that they worship it; actually, they just think it represents God’s light and wisdom. Anyway, this is why I chose the fiery coloring and fur texture for the cat. 

     ·         Baha’i: A Middle Eastern religion that branched off from Islam. Though it is not a big religion in numbers, it is one of the most widespread around the world, second only to Christianity. Their symbol is a nine-pointed star, because nine is the highest prime number, and can signify completion. I made the Baha’i cat a calico, because I was intrigued by how the religion encompasses beliefs and figures from so many other religions.

    ·         Wicca/Paganism: This is one of the umbrella cats: this cat stands for Wicca and other Pagan religions with European origins. I had several friends in high school who practiced these religions, but even now I’m still scratchy on a lot of it, because there are so many different variations. But, the pentacle is used as a symbol for a lot of them, so I used it to represent them in this cat. The cat isn’t black because of Halloween witch stereotypes; I made it black because Pagans often consider black a good color, since it’s composed of all the colors of the rainbow, and they’ll often perform rituals in black robes. 

    ·         Native American Spirituality:  Every tribe has its own beliefs, and obviously every individual does too. Some tribes are simply Christian, others blend Christianity with their traditional beliefs, and others just stick with what they had before colonization. Of the latter, some consider their belief system a “way of life,” and not a religion. But others talk about a “Creator” or “Great Spirit.” Anyway, I chose the Medicine wheel, because it shows up as a symbol in multiple tribes.

    ·         Native African Beliefs:  As with Native Americans, it’s extremely diverse and complicated, and I’ve never even been to Africa. The symbol this cat is wearing is a “dame dame,” a symbol of intelligence and integrity—according to the site I pulled it from at least.  And who knows how accurate that was. I don’t even know what tribe it’s supposed to be from (or, heck, which country). I’ll just cross my fingers and hope it doesn’t mean something insulting.

    ·         Asian Shamanism: I grew up in an area with a huge Hmong population, and their traditional religion was Shamanism. Apparently, a lot of Asian cultures practice Shamanism. I’m uncertain if there are any official symbols of Shamanism; but when I Googled symbols for Asian Shamanism, I got a lot of images of circles and rings. Hence the Shamanism cat’s gold ring plate. As for why she’s a tabby, no particular reason. With all the Asian religions out there, they can’t *all* be Siamese cats.

    ·         Australian and New Zeeland Aboriginals: A lot of Australian and New Zeeland Natives are Christian or Muslim, but not all. I don't know how many still practice their original Indigenous religions; but I figured it would be asinine of me to include the Indigenous religions of every other continent, and snub the Down Under. I chose the spiral because it’s basically the only recurring symbol I could find for these cultures.  

    ·         Atheism: If you think Atheists are immoral and selfish, recall that Gene Roddenbery—creator of “Star Trek,” the series famous for portraying a utopian future during a time when most sci-fi shows were bleak and about self-centered antiheroes—was an atheist. I have to wonder if "Star Trek" had some influence on the Athiest crest, which looks suspiciously like a commbadge. 

    ·         Scientology: Generally considered more of a cult than a religion, I mostly just included it because I thought it would look good on a bald cat.

 
Apologies if I left out your religion. If there's one you think I should include I might add it, unless it's something stupid like the Flying Spaghetti Monster. 

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