Lore of the Cat: The Medium ~ Pawprints and Purrs, Inc.

Cats are, of course, not all white or black, nor are they wholly good or evil. Perhaps because the cat is closely associated with powers of both light and darkness, it has sometimes been thought of as forming a bridge between the two.

The Bridge: Many bridges are reputed to have been built by the Devil. The name Devil's Bridge is attached to structures found in England, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain. Sometimes, as in the case of the Pont de Valentre at Cahors in France, the Devil was entirely responsibile for the construction. At other times, he intervened when human engineers, who had started building a bridge, came to the end of their resources.

There was a snag in accepting the Devil's help: for he demanded, as the price of his work, the soul of the first creature to cross the newly built bridge. A trick commonly played on the Devil was to send across a black cat, so that he received, in exchange for the bridge he'd built, not a Christian soul but something already possessed. A black and white drawing reflecting this belief shows the Celtic bishop, St. Cado, holding a crosier and clad in episcopal robes, meeting Satan on a bridge and handing over to him a black cat.

Although the Devil seems to have resigned himself to this compromise, a story is told of a case where he lost his temper. At Beaugency, a town on the River Loire, Satan was so furious when he found he had been fobbed off with a cat, that he tried to kick down the new bridge. He failed. As he carried off the cat, it tore at his hands and face with its claws. When the Devil could no longer endure the paing, he let the cat go and it took refuge near Sologne. As a result, the locality came to be knowns as Chaffin (Chatfin), and the inhabitants of Beaugency were called cats..

Since the cat and serpent are symbolically akin, there is a gnostic belief that it was a cat that originally sat in the Garden of Eden guarding the Tree of Life with its knowledge of good and evil. The Egyptian solar cat was found hard by the Persea tree, which was also a Tree of Life and consciousness. An engraving by Durer shows a cat sitting at the foot of the Hebraic Tree of Life, with its tail curled around Eve's legs as she receives from the serpent the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. The Flemish painter, Frans Floris, in depicting the Primal Scene, has also placed a cat at the foot of the Tree. The cat is not identified with either power, but takes its place between the two with knowledge of both. The cat formed a bridge not only between good and evil, but between interior and exterior life, and between supernatural forces and men. Celts believed that cats were on intimate terms with all inhabitants of the invisible world, and that cats' eyes were the windows of the fairy king's palace. Through them human beings could see in and fairies could see out. They illumined the fairies' abode with a strange light.

The cat often appears to be mediatating. When it adopts a sphinx-like repose, its narrowed eyes give the impression that it is in touch with an inner life. It appears to have been assumed that, like any other medium, the cat was capable of imparting knowledge thus derived, for it was famed for its oracular powers.

Herodotus referred to Bastet as Mistress of the Oracle. Robert Graves, in his book, The White Goddess, describes an oracular cave shrine in Ireland in which, before the coming of St. Patrick, a slender black cat reclined on a silver chair and gave vituperative answers to people who tried to deceive it.

There was a cat oracle in Burma, too. Sinh, the golden eyed cat which was greatly revered by the pristhood of the Temple of Lao-Tsun, had oracular powers. Its master, the high priest of the goddess with sapphire eyes, took no important decisions without first consulting it. Sacred cats were used for divination purposes in Egypt. When Lapps were in difficulty, it is said that they consulted a black cat which they regarded as an ancestor. The Chinese turned to the cat when they wanted to know the time.

A Russian legend tells of a wise cat which spent its time perched on a gold pillar, singing ballads and telling stories to people who gathered round it. The cat has been associated with the wisest of saints, St. Jerome, who was the father of the Western Church. An Italian painting in the National Gallery shows this saint dressed as a cardinal, presumably translating the Vulgate in his study with a cat curled up at his side to keep him company.

The power of prophecy has also been attributed to cats, perhaps because of their sensitivity to changes of atmosphere and their apparent precognition of death. The Chinese weather prophet was a "winking cat" which slept among peonies and winked at the approach of rain.

Mohammed was very fond of cats. While living in Damascus, he had a cat whom he called Muezza. She used to curl up inside the sleeve of his robe. Once when he had to go out, it is said that he cut off his sleeve rather than disturb her sleep. Apparently he was often seen preaching from the hightest tower of Mecca, holding her in his arms. Mohammedans still treat cats well: the animal beloved by their prophet is allowed freely to enter mosques and the killing of cats is illegal.

The mother cat's habit of carrying her young around in the mouth gave rise to the belief that cats give birth through their mouths. In the Greek myth of Galinthias, the servant who was banished to the underworld and transformed into a cat was condemned to give birth to her young this way. Plutarch goes even further, for he maintains that not only does the cat bring forth young through her mouth, but she has previously been impregnated through her ear.

The cat has been honored as a symbol of the origin of speech, perhaps through its reputation as an oracle and prophet. Egyptian amulets are often inscribed Speech of Bastet. The speeches made by goddesses were stylized and always took much the same form. Typical were those found on charms. It was assumed that the power of the word actually created the conditions to which they referred, with great importance attached to the manner in which magical formulae were spoken.

The Psychopomp: It is said that cats never lose their way. Perhaps this is partly why the cat came to be known as a psychompomp - a messenger who, like the Greek Hermes, leads men into the underworld.

In Finnish folklore, cats are found transporting men from the outer into the inner world. The Kalevala, the national epic of the Finns, describes how a sorcerer entered a house full of men and started to chant his spells. Within a few minutes,

...the men were thrown into a sledge drawn by a discolored cat, and the cat in its rapid course, bore then off to the extreme limits of 'Pohjola' [the world of darkness and evil spirits] as far as the vast deserts of Lapland, where the horse's footstep no longer resounds, and mare's foal finds no pasture.

The Egyptian pharaoh, Tutankhamun, was led into the underworld by a black cat. A gold statuette found in his tomb shows him standing on a plinth which rests on the hips and shoulders of his feline steed.

The Malayan Jakurs venerate the cat. Members of this tribe believe that when they die, they will be lead by a cat on their journey through hell to paradise. They believe this animal will spray the infernal atmosphere with water, to lower the temperature and make it more bearable for them.

The papyrus of Dirpu was an Egyptian funerary text which contained magical formulae and symbolical representations of myths assembled for the use of priests and priestesses in the afterlife. Dirpu was a chantress of Amon-Ra, king of the Theban gods. The papyrus bearing her name shows nine scenes - the fourth depicts the deceased singer being presented by a cat-headed goddess, presumably Bastet, to Osiris, king of the dead. The chantress, who carries a spindle, has been led past a terror of the underworld in the form of a doorkeeper deity with the body of Bes and the head of a jackal, who holds a serpent and two knives. At the feet of Bastet, who is carrying a large ankh, is the monster Ammut, with a knife between its forepaws. At the Judgment of the Dead, human hearts are weighed in scales. Those found wanting are eaten by Ammut, the "devourer of the dead." Osiris, who waits to receive the chantress, stands majestically holding his crook and flagellum. Above the scene is a looped cobra and words spoken by Osiris for Dirpu, who is referred to as "the justified one."

Bastet has been known as the "hidden lady of Bubastis." The images of her which bear the "feather of Maat" point to her partial identification with the goddess of balance and equilibrium. The place of the cat as a medium, lies between good and evil, inner and outer life, gods and men - linking and separating the two. If man consults this animal with access to both worlds and allows it to lead him wherever it will, he may receive knowledge that would otherwise remained hidden. If he acquires foreknowledge of future delights in store for him, the cat will appear to be an "omen of good luck." If he receives a presentiment of disaster, he may declare that the prophetic cat was black.