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

"It is interesting to note that, even during the height of the Roman Catholic church's persecution of cats, not one cat seems to have been excommunicated... Cats didn't escape the long arm of the law during this period, though. Not only were they sentenced to death in witch trials, but they also appeared in non-occult related litigations... Although society has advanced considerably since the Middle Ages, cats are still the subjects of atrocities." ~ John Richard Stephens, author of The Enchanted Cat

Conclusion of The White Cat
The Sacrifice: Cats love the fireside: they gaze into the fire till its warmth overcomes them with drowsiness. The hearth has often been looked upon as a place of transformation: it was the place where the ragged Cinderella (the Hearth Cat) was changed into a princess and where the White Cat became a shining queen.

In addition to the purgatorial fire which purifies and transforms, there is also the fire that represents consciousness, the inner flame that burns in man's soul. Prayers were offered to the ancient goddesses of the domestic hearth who guarded the flame at the center of the family. The flame at the center of Roman civilization was closely guarded by the priestesses of Vesta.

It many be because of the cat's reputation as guardian of the hearth that it was believed to protect houses against destruction by fire. On the other hand, according to Herodotus, cats have a strange compulsion to throw themselves into fires. He describes how, when a house caught fire, the Egyptians would take the precaution of tying up all cats in the vicinity. However, sometimes they would manage to escape and cats leaping over the heads and gliding between the legs of the bystanders, rushed into the flames as if impelled by divine agency to suicide. The Egyptians totally disregarded the destruction of their property in their efforts to rescue their sacred cats from the flames.

There are various aspects of the cat's close association with fire. Sometimes it guards the fire; sometimes it is transformed by the fire or burnt in the fire; at other times, as in the case of the Celtic myth of Maeldune, it is the fire. In many mythologies, fire is an attribute of the Divine Son. In an apocryphal gospel, Christ says, He that is near to me is near the fire. Cats' eyes often seem on fire at night. Bastet (who was connected with Bes, whose name meant fire) represented the flaming eye of the sun. To this extent she was identified with the royal asps, whose forked, flickering, pink tongues symbolized the penetrating rays of the sun. The original eye was transformed into a cobra, and Bastet was sometimes identified with the serpent goddess, Udot, who was also looked upon as the eye of Ra.

In so far as the cat was other than the fire, it was destined to be destroyed by it. It was as an incarnation of the god of the setting sun, for ultimately, the sacrifice people make is always of a god to a god. As the head and tail of the White Cat had to be burnt, in order that the maiden should regain her natural form, so the solar cat had to be sacrified in order that it should rise again and its worshipers be reborn.

The spiritual significance of such a ceremony was so manifest, that in later times, the pagan rite of cat sacrifice had the full support of the Christian Church. At Aix, in Provence, on Corpus Christi, the finest tom cat in the country was chosen each year and wrapped in swaddling clothes like an infant. It was then exhibited in a beautiful shrine for public adoration. People burnt incense, strewed flowers and bent low before this incarnation of the solar god. When the sun crossed the meridan, the feted cat was placed in a wicker basket and thrown alive into a huge bonfire in the city square. During the sacrifice of "the dying god," priests sang anthems and when the ceremony was complete, they marched off in solemn procession.

In the light aspect of its nature, the cat has been found closely connected with virgin birth and with resurrection. It was believed to be immortal, a seer and a healer, and to dedicate much of its life to the help of mankind. The cat said to be born at the same moment as Christ is usually depicted with a cross shaped marking on its back. A Celtic church yard cross at Monasterboice, County Louth, Ireland has two cats sculptured on its base.

The devotees of the cat that emerged as a symbol of Christ knew that all they valued most, had to die in order that new life and light could be born.