The Clandestine Cat

Cats have a strange effect on people; you may intensely dislike them or be their biggest fan, but few people remain indifferent to their strange allure. They have been worshipped for a very long time, and most readers will have heard of Bast or Pasht as she was sometimes known, the Egyptian cat Goddess. Her Temple was at Bubastis and every spring, festivals would be held in honour of this Goddess of dance, music and fertility featuring Her favoured musical instrument, the Sistrum. This was a hand-held percussion instrument made of wires strung with tinkling metal pieces; it was also sacred to the Egyptian Goddess Isis who occasionally took cat form, and Hathor.

Bast is primarily a lunar Goddess who sometimes took human form although remaining cat-headed. The Nile boatmen believed she protected them against hippopotami. She was not the only cat, however, in the Egyptian tradition. The twins Shu and Tefnut, lion and lioness respectively were created by a sacred sneeze; Sekhmet was also a lioness goddess, solar in nature and rather fierce, although She only used Her strength in defence of the weak, much like a mother cat with kittens. Her power could be used to heal or hurt. The Sun God Ra also took cat form when fighting with the servant of darkness, Apep.

Needless to say the Egyptians treasured their cats, and even strays were fed on Nile fish. The penalty for killing a cat could be death, as in the case of a Roman soldier who was lynched by a mob when e killed a cat.

When the household cat died, all the members of the family were obliged to shave off their eyebrows as a token of mourning. The Egyptians believed that Horus and Set took the dead cat, which was usually mummified, to heaven, and Bast would bless it and grant it immortal life. Both the Egyptians and Chinese associated the phases of the Moon with cats' eyes.

Besides the Egyptian pantheon, cats were also associated with other deities. Hecate, the Greek Goddess of the Underworld, and Hel, the Norse equivalent, were both reputed to take cat form, and Freyja, the Scandinavian Goddess of beauty, love and fertility had Her chariot drawn by two cats. The Roman Goddess Diana also assumed cat form in order to mate with Her brother, Lucifer. The resultant offspring, Aradia, becoming the teacher of witchcraft.

The Scottish Cailleach Bheur, or Blue Hag of Winter, appeared as a cat, as did Black Annis whose bower is in the Dane Hills in Leicestershire.

As a sacred animal, cats gave fertility to the ground and were often buried under fruit trees, and sacrificed in corn fields for this purpose. They were held in high esteem in early Britain, and Hywel Dda, a ninth century South Wales Prince, passed laws relating to the worth of cats, which was measured in corn if one was killed.

Some form of cat worship obviously continued in Europe until the 15th century, when the misnamed Pope Innocent VIII ordered the Inquisition to search out cat worshippers and burn them as witches. Cats are par excellence the animal most associated with witches, and many a poor pussy has suffered as a result. Surprisingly, they only come second in the shape shifting league, with the hare in first place. Satan himself was apparently an admirer of the feline form, since it was one he also assumed.

It may be that cats owe their traditional association with witches to their undoubted psychic nature and ability to see unseen things. A cat that leaves the home of a sick person is a sad sign, as it indicates the coming death of the afflicted, and I'm sure many of us have noticed how responsive our pets are to the realms of the unseen.

Cats are the subject of many popular tales about their own creation. Legend has it that there were no cats at the time of the Ark, and that mice and rats bred prolifically. Noah asked the lion for help, so he sneezed and produced two cats out of his nostrils. The Chinese believe the cat to be a cross between the lioness and the monkey, displaying the dignity of the lioness and the playfulness and curiosity of the monkey.

The tale of the cat that makes its master's fortune by being useful in a cat-less, mouse-ridden place is told in no less than 26 countries! Certainly in most folk tales the cat is astute and intelligent, and seldom misses an opportunity. Examples of this are Puss in Boots, Dick Whittington, and the Russian tale of the cat that marries a pretty vixen and becomes Head Forester.

Sometimes cats appear as enchanted beings, such as the Lady in the Norse tale of Lord Peter and the White Cat, and occasionally they can be demons in disguise. Japanese myth has a number of tales about vampire cats who often take the form of a beautiful woman.

Cats are reputed to have a tribe all of their own and to elect a king for it. Invariably when a group of animals get together it is the cat who is the brains behind the operation. Cats also tend to play the trickster in tales, rather like the fox or hare, such as in the West Indian tale, when Brer Puss gets the better of Brer Anansi, the Spider God.

Monster cats seem few and far between, but the Cat Palau who tangles with King Arthur springs to mind; rescued as a kitten from the sea it grew to monstrous proportions and terrorised the neighbourhood.

Cats are traditionally the enemy of both mice and dogs, and there are many myths concerned with the reason for this enmity, as in the one where the dog is made a nobleman by the lion, and the cat is given his parchment to guard. However, she is careless and a mouse eats it. In another tale a cat improves the fortunes of its owners by recovering a magic measure nearly lost by the dog's incompetence. Sometimes cat and mouse are friends who fall out due to the cat's deceit, although in one tale it is the mouse who causes trouble by eating the cat's food.

Luck and ill-luck with regard to cats is a very regional affair. In Britain, generally black cats are considered lucky, and white the reverse, but in Belgium, Spain, other parts of Europe and the USA, white is the lucky colour. In Scarborough, sailors' wives would try to keep a black cat for the safety of their husbands, but they were often stolen. It was lucky to have a cat, especially a black one, on board a vessel, but they were not to mentioned while at sea. Miners would neither mention nor tolerate one underground: actors also liked cats, but not on stage during a performance - no wonder, they are notorious scene stealers!

In some areas, the Cotswolds for example, it was considered necessary to have a pure white cat and a pure black cat for balance. According to Welsh superstition, kissing a white cat made it go lean, but a black cat would go fat. Cats born in May are considered unlucky; to never catch mice, and to bring spiders, snakes and toads into the house. In Sussex, the unlucky time is just after Michaelmass, when kittens were called "Blackberry Kits", and were said to be particularly wild and mischievious.

Cats are also weather prophets: if a cat washes its face in the parlour, visitors can be expected; elsewhere it's a sign of rain coming. Constant mewing by a ship's cat tells of a difficult journey ahead, and when cats behave wildly it's a sign that wind is coming. In Bohemia the cat was regarded as a symbol of fertility, and was considered ill-luck to mistreat one. Kicking a cat would give rheumatism, and if you drowned one the devil would get you. Cats, love them or hate them, who can resist their spell?

The Clandestine Cat by Tina Pye was published in Children of Sekhmet December 1988