"Black" Cats, why not white cats been - pro-witch

[TechNa]

Can someone explain why black cats are the witch symbol.

I mean some areas, even if highly Christian / religious, the old superstitsions maintain that white cats are "evil" while black cats are good.

[SpiritTalker]

I dunno if this is the least bit helpful, but at night, the only thing you can see of a black cat is it's eyes. it's eerie when my cat sits on the window sill, looking in. Cats seem to materialize from one spot to another by stealth tactics, and shape sifting is one of those misunderstood witch talents.

And white is associated with the spirits of the deceased and the Other worlds, in that bones are white and the only thing left of the flesh after death.

[TechNa]

... Most bones are beige. Just sun bleached ones are white.

Then why not a black dog? Or a black wolf? Wolves always seen negatvely. Cats are lucky. Some old time sailors wouldn't go sailing withut a cat on board.

[SnowCat]

Cats were very helpful shipboard, at keeping vermin from infesting and ruining the supplies. I don't know where the black=evil, white=good comes from. Maybe from predators hunting in the dark, and being difficult to see.

Snow

[SpiritTalker]

Can we fail to recall the Grim? Really, I don't write the superstitions. Google the theme and see what you find, all in fun. It's a good question how superstitions emerge.

[TechNa]

Can we fail to recall the Grim? Really, I don't write the superstitions.

Grim as in Harry Potter? The brothers Grimm? The Norse Fossegrim? The sagas about Grim? Grimr as in Odin? None directly tie with this superstiton. Hence my confuson.

[TwilightDancer]

There is the Norse legend that tells of the chariot of the goddess Freya, which was pulled by cats. The legend goes on to say that after seven years of service the cats were rewarded by being turned into witches-disguised as black cats.

Also during the Middle Ages, when fear and punishment of witchcraft started taking root black cats were believed to be the familiar of witches. Another superstition that popped up around this time was that the Christian Devil could turn into a black cat himself.

This is just a few of hundreds of superstitions surrounding black cats and their relation to witches. There's really no way of knowing which one was the start of them all.

[TechNa]

All good possibilities. I always thought it was a bunch of brats that attacked a black cat, throwing stones at it, back in the day and then later encountered the cat's "caretaker" [an old woman] covered in bruises. Or at least that's one legend I heard surrounding the black cat = witch shape-shifting idea.