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Last Winter, my family adopted two cats that walked into their yard from the woods of North Carolina. Young, playful and sweeter than they perhaps should be, these two cats are the first my family has ever owned after a lifetime of dogs, due to my superstitious grandmother. One is a classic tabby and one is a black cat they named in honor of my own black cat Diego who’s been gone now since the winter of 2019. Since they were already a bonded pair, they play throughout the night, waking my family with their antics and disheveling the furniture, even recently breaking a lamp. This nighttime activity, which many of us call ‘The Witching Hour’ for our cats nighttime zoomies, is a biological instinct called ‘The Crepuscular Hour’ which refers to animals that are active around dawn or dusk, such as cats, whose inherent hunting activities during these hours when prey are also active, cause them to be alert and rambunctious in domestic settings.

Here, the ‘tumble’ of cat claws plays out this wild hunt, whether it's playing with other cat mates, walking over your head while you're sleeping, or knocking over objects in your home, startling you awake.

The Familiar:

The Witch’s familiar is a phenomena that is distinctly a British import; called ‘Imps’ by Witch-finders and usually small animals such as ferrets, hares, and the ubiquitous cat, often black but not restricted as such: in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth we read of a brindled cat mewling significantly and there is also the gray ‘Grimalkin’ faery cat of Scottish witch lore. The familiar could also be a bird, such as the blackbirds of the crow or raven, or amphibians: toads were historically associated with witches and still are today. However, none are as well known in the collective imagination as the cat, often seen beside the witch of fairytale, folklore and horror alike. Depicted riding astride the witch on her broomstick or nearby her while she concocts potions in her cauldron, these fantastical depictions are not far from what accusers in the witch trials believed familiars were capable of: assisting the witch in all manner of malefic endeavors such as riding to the Sabbath on or as her familiar, using her familiar to curse or hex her neighbors or undertake  other tasks for the witch in her stead. In many cases, women, often women who were anti-social loners, elderly and living alone,  or otherwise occupying the fringes of society in some way, were more apt to keep small animals for companionship. This unfortunately marked “innocent” women as witches during the witchcraze that swept Europe and parts of the US simply for being devoted cat people, as many people are today, for similar reasons.

Whether or not people keep cats today for use as vessels for familiar spirits, Cats have a long history of being revered as powerful creatures. In ancient Egypt, the cat was worshipped as a Goddess, most famously in the form of Bastet ( or Bast ) in the prosperous and sacred city of Bubastis (now known as Tell Basta ). There, the lives of cats, as elsewhere in Egypt, were protected and their deaths were honored by mummification. There are immense cat cemeteries there, a mixture of beloved pets as well as possible sacrifices to the goddess Bastet, highlighting the importance of the creature to both the everyday lives and the religious practices of the ancient peoples of Egypt from which so much culture stems.

Diana, Roman Goddess of the hunt is also associated with cats and their lunar aspects. While this is not one of her primary animals, the famous depiction of her at Ephesus shows her with cats. Due to their nighttime proclivities, and especially the way their eyes grow larger and luminescent, cats have long been associated with the moon. Their ability to see in the dark links them to the Spirit world and the realms of the hidden.