Why were cats associated with witches? Interesting theories from the Middle Ages

It is an extremely interesting question why cats are surrounded by a kind of, almost palpable, mystique that has actually accompanied them for centuries. Just think that even the Egyptians considered cats to be highly mystical creatures, but this is nothing compared to the legends that spread about them in the Middle Ages.

The particularly interesting mystification of cats began in the Middle Ages, which, let’s face it, mostly changed the public’s opinion of cats in a negative direction. These animals were generally associated with things like witches or bad luck. In our article below, we tried to find out what could be behind this strange attitude.

Black cats were killed during the plague

Even though there was a time when cats were revered as gods in Egypt, they have steadily lost popularity over time. Perhaps the truly historical low point in their case began in the middle of the 14th century, when people began to associate black cats with Satan, witchcraft, and demons. It got so bad that many of them were killed during the plague because they believed they had something to do with the spread. However, this turned out to be a major mistake, as the cats could have helped stop the epidemic by killing the rats. This is so true that, according to some research, if more cats had lived during the plague, a significantly higher percentage of people would have survived the pandemic.

The connection between witches and cats

Although the term witchcraft has a negative connotation, it primarily means the “craft of the wise”, as the word “wicca” comes from the word “wicce” (witch) or “wise”. In fact, the witch-hunts started because they turned to these en masse rather than to the Christian Church. Thus it is widely believed that the magical powers of these people come from the devil. Much of 16th-century Europe began to believe that witches were evil, and many were put on trial, tortured, and sentenced to death. And the cats came into connection with all of this because the witches, after practicing naturopathy, got really close to the animal world, so it happened that they kept a cat. Unfortunately, because of this, cats also became part of the so-called witch trials and often met the same terrible fate as their owners…

Celts believed that cats were actually sinful people

In fact, it wasn’t just in the Middle Ages that cats were thought to be from the devil. Because even the Celts were already convinced that cats are actually dead people who were guilty in their previous lives and were forced to remain in this world, but locked in a cat’s body. These stories, which were well known even in the Middle Ages, led to people inventing tales of witches turning into cats after they died, so apparently it was considered necessary to kill cats as well. This was proved by the fact that sometimes a cat escaped into the house, and this was automatically associated with witches escaping to cause harm.

Are black cats still objects of popular belief?

In fact, in areas where witch trials were at their height in the Middle Ages, these legends about black cats bringing bad luck are still alive today. However, in contrast to this, in other countries they are considered more lucky, such as in Scotland, Russia or Japan. Moreover, in Japan, it is believed that it is essential for single women to have cats, as they make them much more attractive in the eyes of men. It is also perfectly clear from this that cats were only associated with evil by those peoples who once benefited from such poisonous propaganda as the situation of witchcraft in the Middle Ages.