Black cat: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Alternate meanings: Black cat (disambiguation).

In witchcraft, a black cat are a common fixture and symbol. Cats are often included in a select group of animals called a familiar. Cats have long been associated with witchcraft because of their purported psychical and magical skills. Witches, both in past historical and modern-day practices, considered cats to be magical partners and practioners.

Thus, black cats, and cats in general, often participated in magical spells and rituals. Ownership of cats was often cited in witch trials, with the mere association with cats being cited as evidence of working with Satan.

Some witches were purported to have the ability to shapeshift into a cat up to nine times, in reference to the common lore of a "cat having nine lives".

Black cats are referred to in Hebrew and Babylonian folklore as a serpent, coiled on a hearth. During the Middle Ages, Germanic peoples and the Normans attributed bad luck and ill omens to the presence of black cats, most often as harbingers of impending death. This is where the superstition regarding a "black cat crossing your path" finds association with bad luck.

During the witch-hunts, cats were often punished, along with their owners, by being burned alive. Black cats, in particular, were often killed outright.

Black cats were reputed to be especially desirable partners for witches because of their ability to remain unseen in dark places. While most witches valued black cats, others used all or part of a sacrificed animal in magical rituals.

Both historically and today, a number of groups have engaged in ritualistic sacrifice of cats. Wiccans do not subscribe to these practices, being constrained by the Wiccan Rede principle of "And it harm none, so mote it be".