these cats were black and others blue—which means gray when you’re talking cat colors. From what I can tell, when she came to take the dead to her hall, Freya always traveled via cat chariot. What fascinates me about this image is that instead of being the goddess herself, cats are now the vehicle of the goddess. They literally bring the divine to you, especially at the time of death. It’s through the cats that we meet the goddess and are taken by her to the heavenly realm. (Apparently, P.C. Cast was also fascinated by Freya’s cat connection. According to The Fledgling Handbook 101 , Freya was one of Nyx’s vampyre High Priestesses—I should have known!—and the cats that pulled her chariot were her familiars in the same way Nala is Zoey’s.)
The Cat That Predicts Death
W e may have a modern-day equivalent of Freya’s cats. Oscar, a cat who resides in a New England nursing home, is almost always found curled against a patient’s side in the hours before the patient’s death. According to a 2009 article published in The New England Journal of Medicine , Oscar seems to have an uncanny ability to “predict” death and to be there to give comfort to the dying. Perhaps like Freya’s cats, he is there to bring them to the Goddess.
During the Middle Ages, when the church became the preeminent political and religious power throughout Europe, Freya changed. In medieval German stories she was transformed from a beautiful goddess with long golden hair to a wrinkled old hag who was cruel and bloodthirsty. She became known as a witch. And cats, because they were sacred to Freya, became demons or witches’ familiars.
The term “familiar” dates back to the thirteenth century, when it was believed that a spirit—usually a demon—could embody itself in animal form to serve as a protector or companion to a human. The human was usually said to be a witch or a sorcerer who had used magic to summon the evil spirit, and the familiar often took the form of a cat. Familiars were supposedly psychically connected to the witch and helped her work spells. The belief expanded into the idea that witches could change themselves into cats, and any cat might be a witch’s familiar or even the witch herself. In medieval times, when people suspected of witchcraft were being tortured and burned at the stake, these beliefs were not a good thing for cats.
Many of those who were branded witches were originally priestesses of the cults that still worshipped the Goddess and nature spirits. Most were devotees of the moon goddess in one of her many forms and were considered “wise women,” who knew the healing properties of plants and herbs. When the church recast these priests and priestesses as sorcerers and witches, they also recast nature spirits, fairies, and elves as demons. Black cats, in particular, because of their connection with the witchy Freya, were considered omens of death.
The Marcaou
I n France, some people believed in the demonic Marcaou cats, born to the Fairies, that would poison unlucky humans then wait by the dying humans’ beds to carry the spirits to hell. The Fairy queens themselves gave birth to Margotines, beautiful white courtier cats that could shape-shift into attractive young women and bewitch unsuspecting men as they slept.
To be anything other than Christian was evil. In medieval England, around a.d. 906, a cult called the Daughters of Diana was said to celebrate Sabbats four times a year. These were rituals connected with the moon and designed to bring fertility to humans, animals, and plants. To the Daughters of Diana, the moon was represented by her Egyptian symbol, the cat, and so these “witches” would dress themselves as cats. The church claimed that rather than just dressing as cats, they could change themselves into cats. They also claimed that the witches’ tabby cats would transform into coal-black steeds on which the witches would gallop along the country roads—when not riding
The Cat That Predicts Death
W e may have a modern-day equivalent of Freya’s cats. Oscar, a cat who resides in a New England nursing home, is almost always found curled against a patient’s side in the hours before the patient’s death. According to a 2009 article published in The New England Journal of Medicine , Oscar seems to have an uncanny ability to “predict” death and to be there to give comfort to the dying. Perhaps like Freya’s cats, he is there to bring them to the Goddess.
During the Middle Ages, when the church became the preeminent political and religious power throughout Europe, Freya changed. In medieval German stories she was transformed from a beautiful goddess with long golden hair to a wrinkled old hag who was cruel and bloodthirsty. She became known as a witch. And cats, because they were sacred to Freya, became demons or witches’ familiars.
The term “familiar” dates back to the thirteenth century, when it was believed that a spirit—usually a demon—could embody itself in animal form to serve as a protector or companion to a human. The human was usually said to be a witch or a sorcerer who had used magic to summon the evil spirit, and the familiar often took the form of a cat. Familiars were supposedly psychically connected to the witch and helped her work spells. The belief expanded into the idea that witches could change themselves into cats, and any cat might be a witch’s familiar or even the witch herself. In medieval times, when people suspected of witchcraft were being tortured and burned at the stake, these beliefs were not a good thing for cats.
Many of those who were branded witches were originally priestesses of the cults that still worshipped the Goddess and nature spirits. Most were devotees of the moon goddess in one of her many forms and were considered “wise women,” who knew the healing properties of plants and herbs. When the church recast these priests and priestesses as sorcerers and witches, they also recast nature spirits, fairies, and elves as demons. Black cats, in particular, because of their connection with the witchy Freya, were considered omens of death.
The Marcaou
I n France, some people believed in the demonic Marcaou cats, born to the Fairies, that would poison unlucky humans then wait by the dying humans’ beds to carry the spirits to hell. The Fairy queens themselves gave birth to Margotines, beautiful white courtier cats that could shape-shift into attractive young women and bewitch unsuspecting men as they slept.
To be anything other than Christian was evil. In medieval England, around a.d. 906, a cult called the Daughters of Diana was said to celebrate Sabbats four times a year. These were rituals connected with the moon and designed to bring fertility to humans, animals, and plants. To the Daughters of Diana, the moon was represented by her Egyptian symbol, the cat, and so these “witches” would dress themselves as cats. The church claimed that rather than just dressing as cats, they could change themselves into cats. They also claimed that the witches’ tabby cats would transform into coal-black steeds on which the witches would gallop along the country roads—when not riding
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