[Raziel]

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Author is David Lee

"Cats are practically synonymous with witchcraft and the occult. Probably the most popular image that comes to mind is that of a hook-nosed hag, riding her broomstick with her black-furred feline familiar at her side.

Popular media has done nothing to dispel that image. Cats are portrayed as artful and cunning, often with a hidden agenda. The idea that they are ‘up to something’ or that they are not to be fully trusted still lingers. Cats – especially black ones – seem more suited to the idea that they might have an association with supernatural forces than any other. The slit-pupilled eyes, the inscrutable expression and their nocturnal habits seem to have cast them squarely as denizens of the dark.

So where did this notion originate? Have cats always been seen as servants of sinister supernatural forces, or has their association with magic changed over the years?

The Magical Moggie

The idea can be traced back long before the stereotypical image of the 16th Century crone and well before the demonization of witches as a whole. In Ancient Egypt, cats were seen as having magical powers; powers that were used to protect the home and family of the people that cats chose to live with. They were not seen as pets. Instead, they were seen as deeply spiritual beings that were able to choose who they lived with and for how long.

Today, we merely see this as the cat’s independent nature, borne out of being solitary hunters rather than pack animals. The notion that they had protective powers can also be attributed to their abilities as hunters. Ancient Egypt was fraught with danger, from rats and scorpions to lizards and snakes. Being natural and skilful predators, having a cat was as close as you could get to having some security against poisonous intruders. With the snake, the rat and the scorpion being seen as agents of particular gods, it may well be that the cat’s ability to dispense with them only served to reinforce the idea that they had otherworldly abilities.

A Protected Animal

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and carvings have revealed just how highly cats were thought of. The goddess of justice and death Mafdet (also known as Sekhmet), was thought to have the head of a lion and Bastet, the goddess of fertility and motherhood, was believed to be able to take the form of a cat and, therefore, all cats were deemed to be sacred. In Ancient Egypt, to kill a cat, accidentally or otherwise, would result in the death penalty.

The Greek historian Siculus reported how, in around 60AD, he saw a Roman accidentally kill an Egyptian cat. Despite pleas from the pharaoh, the Roman was overpowered by the resulting mob and killed. In addition, just as humans were mummified, cats were too and there have been many feline mummies unearthed in archaeological digs in temples, pyramids and burial grounds.

How to Skin a Cat

However, in some countries, the cat’s association with the supernatural hasn’t resulted in them being protected, quite so forcibly. In fact, it has worked in completely the other way. In the Voodoo belief, cats are thought to bring good luck – particularly in matters of gambling such as card games or lottery wins. Mojo bags, adorned with black cat motifs, are filled with special herbs and used to bring good fortune.

However, not all occult associations have resulted in cats being treated so reverentially. Unfortunately for the cat, the Black Cat Bone Spell, used by Voodoo priests to make someone invisible or to bring back a lost lover, means that the animal itself is the main ingredient. The belief was that each cat had a magic bone in its body and using it in magical spells and potions could increase their potency significantly. The prescribed method for retrieving that bone was to boil the cat alive until the meat falls from the skeleton. The magical bone would be the one that floats to the surface. To become invisible, the user would keep that bone under his or her tongue.

It’s all in the Eyes

The cat’s appearance and behavior have certainly had something to do with the belief that they have unnatural abilities. An Ancient Chinese belief states that the glow from cat ’s eyes could scare away evil spirits, while the Egyptians believed that the cat had stored away the sun’s rays in its eyes for safekeeping. The way cats’ eyes reflect light was not properly understood and the phenomenon was explained the best way that it could be, given the beliefs of the time.

The way cat ’s eyes reflect light only served to further enhanced their reputation. What we now know to be a simple reflection was once perceived as evidence of unearthly powers. The Norwegians believed that by staring into the eyes of a cat, you would see visions of the fairy world, which is spying on us through the self-same eyes.

A Lingering Association

There’s little doubt that a cat’s appearance and habits would also have had something to do with its association with the occult. Cats are agile and silent and, especially with black cats, can appear to melt into or out of the shadows. While they are not strictly nocturnal creatures, it’s at night that you tend to see cats roaming around and the night was perceived as the time when spirits and magical creatures would go about their malign business. Any creature that chose to go out in the cover of darkness must surely have some supernatural powers to allow it to mingle with the forces of darkness.

However, regardless of its involvement with the Egyptians or the Haitians, the most enduring image is that of the witch and her familiar; the black cat. In addition to the cat’s form and behavior, their synonymy with witches may be due to the fact that m any medieval witches confessed, under the effects of torture, that they had the abilities to shape-shift into feline form. As a result, .in the 17th Century, black cats were routinely hunted down and killed, being seen as servants of the Devil or, on occasion, manifestations of the Devil himself - an association that, on a dark and moonlit night, still lingers."