Tidbits of Cat Mythology and Folklore from various cultures

Arensnuphis (Ari-hes-nefer, Arsnuphis , Harensnuphis)

A benign god of Egyptian Nubia. He had a temple at Philae, where he was
referred to as the companion of Isis, the chief local deity. He is depicted
in the form of a lion, or as a man wearing a plumed crown.

Bast
The Egyptian Goddess of the moon, cats, and sexuality, she is depicted
as either a cat-headed woman or a cat. See Egyptian Cat Goddesses for more
details.

Dedun (Dedwen)
The Egyptian/Nubian god of wealth and incense. He is associated with the
southern lands. Dedun (Dedwen) is usually depicted in human form but also as
a lion.

Freya (or Freija)
Freya, Norse Goddess of Love and Beauty, had a chariot drawn by two huge
gray cats. She is often depicted with rollicking cats.

Grimalkin
Gray cat of celtic lore with magical powers. Used in various fiction as
a farmiliar to witches.

Mafdet
An Egyptian goddess in feline form, possibly that of a panther. She was
noted principally as a destroyer of snakes and scorpions.

Mahes
The Egyptian personification of the summer heat, called 'Lord of the
massacre'. He is represented as a lion or a man with a lion's head. He was
principally worshipped in the area of the Nile Delta.

Malaysia
Malaysians venerated the cat as a godlike creature who eased their
afterlife journey from Hell to Paradise. Anyone who killed a cat was
required to carry and stack as many coconut tree trunks as the cat had
hairs.

Menhit (Menchit)
An ancient Egyptian lion-goddess, and a goddess of war. She is the wife
of the god Chnum, and her son is the god Hike. The three of them were
worshipped as a triad in Latopolis (the current Esna) in Upper Egypt. Her
name means "she who slaughters".

Narasinha
The man-lion, fourth incarnation of Vishnu.

Para
Ancient Finnish household spirits who appear in the shape of a cat,
snake, hare, or frog. They enlarge to amount of food and money with what
they stole elsewhere.

Ra
The Egyptian Sun God, Ra, changed himself into a cat to do battle with
the serpent-like darkness.

Raiju
A Japanese demon whose name means "thunder animal". It is a demon of
lightning in the shape of a cat, badger or weasel. During thunderstorms it
becomes extremely agitated and leaps from tree to tree. If a tree shows the
marks of lightning, people say that Raiju's claws have scratched it open.

Sakhmet, Sekhmet
Egyptian lion-headed Goddess of war.See Egyptian page.

Siam
Siamese god-kings employed a cat for their souls to pass into upon
death. It was believed that the soul rested for the cat's natural life span
before entering Paradise.

Singa
A mythical dragon of the Indonesian Batak people who live in the
mountains in northern Sumatra. Singa appears in the shape of a lion and
shows many similarities with the beneficent Hindu Nagas.

Tjilpa
The ancestral totemic cat-men of Aboriginal Australia.

Tsun-Kyanske
This Burmese Goddess of the Transmutation of Souls, was attended by
priests and their cats, animals were believed to communicate directly with
the goddess.

Cat Weather Lore

* A sneezing cat means rain on the way, and three sneezes in a row portends a cold for the cat's human!
* A cat running wildly about, darting here and there and clawing everything in sight means wind or a storm is on the way; when the cat quiets down, the storm will soon blow itself out.
* Cats washing over their ears has long been held to foretell rain; the old rhyme goes 'When Kitty washes behind her ears, we'll soon be tasting heaven's tears.
* A cat which rolls over and over in the grass, claws the ground and behaves in a skittish manner, is indicating that a brief rain-shower is on the way.
* When the cat is restless and moves from place to place without settling, it is foretelling hard winds.
* A cat who sits with its back to the fire is said to be a portent of frost.
* When a cat spends the night outdoors and caterwauls loudly, it may be foretelling a period of several days' bad weather.

Black Cat Superstitions

1.. In Scotland, a strange black cat on your porch is a sign of upcoming prosperity.

2.. In Ireland, when a black cat crosses your path in the moonlight, it means there is going to be an epidemic illness.

3.. In Italy hundreds of years ago, it was believed that if a black cat lay on the bed of a sick person, that person would die.

4.. Many years ago in England, fishermen's wives kept black cats in their homes while their husbands went away to sea in their fishing boats. They believed that the black cats would prevent danger from occurring to their husbands while they were away. Superstitions centering around the black cat are some of the most widely known and popular superstitions.

5.. In places which saw few witch hunts, black cats retained their status as good luck, and are still considered as such in Britain and Ireland.

6.. In Romanian and Indian culture, especially in the historical region of Moldavia in Romania and everywhere in India, one of the strongest superstitions still feared by many people is that black cats crossing their path represents bad luck, despite the fact that these regions were never affected by witch hunts or anti-paganism. An identical superstition survives also in Central Europe, such as the Czech Republic.

7.. Every black cat has one special bone in its body that will either grant the owner invisibility or can be used to bring back a lost lover (hoodoo).

8.. It is said that a black cat crossing your path is bad luck, but letting one in your house is good luck.

9.. In other folklore, if a cat jumps over a dead body, the corpse will become a vampire. To stop this, the cat has to be killed.

10.. During the 17th century, a cat boiled in oil was believed to be excellent for dressing wounds. Illnesses could be transferred to felines, which were then driven from homes. Diseases could also be created with cats. In order to cause the plague, a powder made from the body of a cat stuffed with fruit, herbs, and grain is hurled down from mountaintops (Russell, 1972).

11.. As a fertility charm, "a cat buried in a field will ensure a bountiful crop" (Guiley ,1989, p. 53).

12.. To destroy crops, some accused witches were said to have filled the skin of a cat with assorted vegetable matter, put it in a spring for a period of three days, and then to dry and grind the mixture. "On a windy day they go up a mountain and scatter the powder across the land as a sacrifice to the Devil, who in return for their offering will destroy the crops" (Kieckhefer , 1989, pp.195-196).

13.. In India it is thought that a reincarnated soul may be "liberated" by throwing a black cat into a fire.

14.. In Bengali folklore women could change their soul into a black cat and that any harm brought to the cat would be suffered by the women.

15.. The Celts thought black cats were reincarnated beings able to divine the future.

16.. German folklore believed that if a black cat jumped on the bed of a sick person it meant death was near.

17.. In Finland it was thought that black cats were thought to carry the souls of the dead to the other world.

18.. In China it is thought the presence of a black cat foretold of poverty.

19.. During the catholic inquisition when millions were killed, innocent people were tied to a stake and set aflame with often a black cat was thrown into the fire with them.