Cat Worship

"I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The Wisdom of cats is infinitely superior." Hippolyte Taine. (19th Centiry French Critic and Historian)

If you're a cat lover you have at one time, or another been ridiculed by someone in your life who doesn't share your love of felines. Whether its "I can't believe the money, you spend on your cat" or "you really give her a birthday present" or "why would you spend so much money on vet bills." They mock us for caring about our cats and accuse us of "worshipping" them. Well next time they accuse you of worshipping them you can tell them you're not the first.

The Worshipping Begins

The first recorded examples of cat worship occurred some 4950 years ago in ancient Egypt.

Cats chose to live with their egyptian neighbors some 4000 to 6000 years ago when they wandered into egyptian villages and formed a unique and mutual voluntary relationship with humans. No other animal had ever chosen to become domesticated by people.

It is crucial to understand the important role cats played in the life of ordinary Egyptians to understand why cats became central in their religious beliefs.

The ancient Egyptians were farmers and stored excess grain to live on between harvests. Rodents infiltrated and consumed the grain. The African Wildcat, the ancestor of today's house cat, became, and today remain, one of best rodent controllers available. According to Desmond Morris Zoologist, internationally recognized expert on cats, and author of Cat World: A Feline Encyclopedia "There was certainly a great love of cats..it's really easy to understand, Egyptian society depended on the grain stores, the grain stores were the basis for egyptian success and when the mice attacked those grain stores and the Egyptians observed the cats were killing the mice...that was really the start of the whole history of domestication of the cat because the Egyptians then started to look after these cats" says Morris.

Cats protected mans essential commodity - food - from its greatest threat - the rodent. The cat also served to protect Egyptian families from a regular threat which existed in Egypt-- snakes. It was not uncommon for a poisonous snake to wander silently into a man's home and threaten his wife and children with possible death. "They would have protected households against probably any small animals maybe snakes maybe plagues of locust" says Morris.

Cat's were an Egyptians best protector of his home and loved ones from mice, which threatened their food, and snakes which threatened their lives.

The Rise of Bastet

The cat "then became the domestic working cat of Egypt because it was protecting them and so it was a very practical beginning ...the thing developed to the point where later on the cat became not just a household pet but a sacred animal" says Morris.

According to Jaromir Malek author of The Cat in Ancient Egypt by 975 BC., during the twenty-second dynasty, the Egyptians turned the cat into a God as Bastet. Her name literally meaning "She of the City of Bast." Bastet was one of the most revered gods in all Egyptian religion. While she started as a local Goddess her popularity soon spread throughout Egypt. She was a nurturing goddess of fertility, motherhood and prosperity, happiness and well-being reaching her peak during the Ptolemaic period from 332-30 BC. Bastet was worshipped in Egypt for over 1000 years.

The Egyptians held an annual festival in the city of Bubastis honoring Bastet. "The festival was the most popular one in ancient Egypt it was particularly licentious because the cat was always thought of a licentious animal, the sacred cat was thought of being linked to sexual license and apparently a vast amount of alcohol was consumed, and a great deal of sex took place, and that was why the sacred temple of Bubastis held the most popular festival in Egyptian religion at the time" says Morris. At the center of this festival was Bastet's temple where sacred cats were pampered and worshipped.

"We know from the (Greek Historian) Herodotus that people were very sensitive about their cats, he reports that a Roman soldier that killed a cat was stoned to death by the angry Egyptians and there are records that families would shave off their eyebrows in morning...that was done when a cat died in some households" recounts Morris.

Cats were mummified when they died so that they would be able to accompany their owners in the afterlife. "The idea was if your cat had died you had it mummified, and you took it there to be buried in the sacred temple" at Bubastis, says Morris. Many animals were worshipped in ancient Egypt, but no other animal was so universally cherished as the cat.

Bastet also represented fertility for people in ancient Egypt. "Certainly fertility was important because the cat was fertile...it did have this very ornate sexual life; it also gave fertility to the Egyptians because it protected their crops. In an agricultural world your farmer needs to have sons and daughters to work on the farm so fertility was important" says Morris.

Today's breed the Egyptian Mau is a direct descendant of the cat in ancient Egypt. Though in many ways all domestic cats can trace their lineage back to the magnificent Egyptian Wildcat and her incarnation as the Goddess Bastet.

The Norwegian Forest Cat

The Norwegian Forest Cat plays an important role in Norse Mythology. "The main (folk tale) goes back to norse mythology, Freya rode around in her sled that was pulled by two large white cats that were so huge that (the God) Thor couldn't pick them up and the Norwegian people claim that those were Norwegian Forest Cats " says Jim Couch Breeder of Norwegian Forest Cats and President of the Norwegian Forest Cat Fancy Association.

Freya was the blue-eyed blonde Viking Goddess of love, sex, and fertility. The sexual nature of cats led to their connection with Freya. An old Norwegian folk tale says that if a person puts a pan of milk in their fields for Freya's cats to drink she would protect their crops. The connection between cats and crops might have been related to the fact that cats protected crops from mice.

The Siamese

The Siamese is considered a good-luck cat in its native Thailand and its name Maew Kaew actually means Moon-Diamond. The Siamese along with other breeds in Thailand were and still are in some places considered sacred for the role they play as temple cats. "As vermin control - the theory has it that when Buddhism came to Thailand from India a lot of scriptures would have been written on palm leaf manuscripts, the cats were very valuable in the temples to guard against mice and rats from eating the holy books." Says Sue Brown Siamese cat historian and contributor to The Legend of the Siamese Cat by Martin Clutterbuck.

Killing a cat in Thailand was the equivalent to killing a monk "That belief still persists today, there are some vets in Thailand that are unwilling to put down cats" says Brown.

Cats in Thailand were described in the oldest known book on cats. The Tamra Maew or Cat Book of Poems written somewhere between 1350-1767. This book describes 17 different varieties of cats and what they mean in terms of good luck and fortune.

Cats are also used as part of a ceremony involving a newborn baby. "There are ceremonies when a new baby is accepted into the household. There is a little ceremony and they use a gourd, a rock and a cat and the idea is being they want their child to grow up wise as the cat, as hard as the stone and as cool (level headed) as the gourd, it would be the equivalent of christening." Says Brown.

The Siamese is known as the Royal Cat of Siam and while the latest research does not show evidence of this, the cat did play a part in the royal family. "There is a ceremony that takes place at the coronation of a king-the succession of the royal chamber-various symbolic objects are required to be at this ceremony, but a cat has to be one of them and in the thai crown jewels a set of cat jewelry dating from the early 1700's dating back to one of the kings. which consisted of gold and diamond encrusted pendants and necklaces." says Brown.

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