Black Cats: Witch's Best Friend?
Hi! Welcome back to another week of The Willow! This week's topic is black cats and their association with witches. This past weekend, I happened to come across two friendly neighborhood black cats. If I was not allergic to cats and did not have three dogs, they for sure would've been my new pets.
Black cats are infamously known for being bad luck and are typically associated with the occult in the West, especially during Halloween season. Their portrayal in Western media does not help their image either. The neighborhood black cats I encountered certainly did not bring any bad luck or witches to my home, so where did this association come from?
We would have to go back to the Middle Ages around the start of the European witch trials. Black cats already had some association to the occult and supernatural by then, however, Pope Gregory IX is responsible for officially declaring black cats as an "incarnation of Satan" in the church document "Vox in Rama." Their connection with witches also seems to have been strengthened during this time period because those who were accused of witchcraft may have had black cats as pets. With a black cat at an accused witch's household, Christians assumed the black cat either was the witch's familiar or animal form. The well-known superstition about black cats crossing your path is linked to the European witch trials as well since they were considered representatives of a witch.
The Black Death or Bubonic Plague also played a role in the tarnished reputation of black cats, specifically with them being the bearers of bad luck.
Black cats were blamed for the spread of the Black Death because of their association with the occult; this led to reduced numbers in black cats because people believed killing them would get rid of the "evil" they represented or carried. As a result, wild rodents that carried fleas responsible for the transmission of Black Death were not controlled, and the Black Death became more widespread.
Although it's not the Middle Ages anymore, black cats still face challenges: "lower adoption rates and higher euthanasia rates." This could be due to the associations mentioned above, coat color preference, or shelters limiting black cat adoptions due to fears of people's bad intentions. Black cats can be great companions, but it is evident that the public's perception in the West towards them is still stuck in this occult association. If a black cat crosses your path this Halloween season, don't assume the worst! It may be protecting your neighborhood from rodents....
Thanks for reading The Willow!
-Ariel
Sources:
Comments