Are Regular Cats Often Confused With Familiars?

[Throughalloftime]

Hi all-
this is the second (and last) post I will be making about this topic.
So, I have a young black cat. One day this lead me to asking Google if cats could get rid of negative energy. Basically the first thing on google that pops up is articles claiming that black cats especially are good for driving away negative energy, but most just said that cats in general were known to do this. Is this because most people confuse regular cats as familiars? A lot of witches I have talked to recently says their cats are nothing more than another house pet. Is claiming a cat being able to get rid of negative energy or warding off spirits being confused with a familiar that is a cat? I'm aware pets help to calm us down in stressful situations, but other than that, it seems cats are pretty regular companions.

[SpiritTalker]

Well, being curious I looked up "do cats remove harmful energy?" and you are right about what sort of info is printed on the Internet. I read one site called "conscious reminder" about cats removing ghosts by "trapping the ghost in their aura and escorting them to the door." i wonder how the author would know what the cat does? It seems to be a pop-culture slant. Read with discernment.

All I'm saying is such has not been my experience with the assortment of cats I've lived with over the years. My present brood did chase an orb from the front door to the back door, like they'd chase a catnip mouse or laser light...because it was shiny & moved. Heh-heh, so did I.

If the author had mentioned indigo children - but they didn't - I might fancy some empathic communication was happening with cats. I know I pick up my cat's "Human, feed me" loud & clear as my stomach growls in sympathy. But that isn't catching ghosts in one's aura.

The article didn't give any background for where they are taking thier info from (such as folk customs), or the reasoning through which they came to their conclusions. The article I saw even told what color cat to apply for which need using cats something like colored candles. Nothing wrong with that, in fact, it's a rather creative use of a furry lap robe that purrs. And in my house I have a variety of colored cats to choose from ... Those freeloaders and I will be having a chat

Now historically, from what ive gathered by reading about the WC trial records from 1300-1800, anthropologists like Carlo Ginsburg have shown that witches had both spirit as well as animal familiars, and that the witch's astral body could take animal form as it exited the physical body. Among animals, toads were much more common as familiars than cats. Toad venom was used in OOBE flying ointment. Cecil Williamson, witch & founder of WC Museum, & Gemma Gary, author/witch, have noted cat's were good for eves dropping on the local witch competition. They didn't say how. There was no mention of ghost trapping in folk records (Maybe nobody asked?).

The mummified bodies of cats have been found deliberately walled up in homes and stuffed up chimneys, presumably as protective charms, which might be a basis for the assumption that cats deflect negativity. But that's missing the point. Cats were abundant & thus expendable. The sacrifice was the magic, not the poor cat. It's not pretty. Sybil Leek told in her autobiography how, when she nearly died of scarlet fever as a child, her pet owl was sacrificed to save her life. That's a long reach to trapping ghosts in an aura &'living to purr about it; although it's a nice thought, it just doesn't match with the history. Back in the day, a living sacrifice was a strong deterrent. Every culture on Earth has practiced sacrifice and it is still practiced by some beliefs today (think chickens). It's the same reason ancient Hebrews smeared lamb's blood on their doorposts so the plagues would "pass over" them.

And a last comment. A "familiar spirit" might be a guide, a servitor, or a fetch.

[Throughalloftime]

Indigo child...my aunt told me she knew I was a crystal child from the time I was little..is that related?

[SpiritTalker]

I don't know. Indigoes chose to be incarnated at this time to act as guides, and assist in the current global spiritual awakening, as the Earth enters a "rather difficult" transition period. I don't know what a crystal child is, in 21st C speak.

I'm gonna shut up now, because I'm monopolizing the board. Other people will have ideas to share too.

[Siona]

I think there's a lot of confusion about what a familiar is, in general. In much of current traditional witchcraft practice familiars tend to be spirits, and while those spirits may take the form of animals, they are not actually animals. Other witches out there do believe that their physical pets can be familiars. There's just a lot of meanings for the same word out there right now. I've met some people who feel any pet a witch has is automatically a familiar, although many would disagree with that, the idea is out there.

Which is something else to consider - there is just a lot of bad info out there. One site or book puts it out there, and dozens more come along and copy it. Sometimes it's like the game of telephone, the message actually starts out making sense, but warps into something else, or parts of it are lost, etc, and that's what gets repeated. There's no real reason to think cats ward off all spirits and negative energy. (Familiars may not do that, either, depending on the view one takes of a familiar.) It's just a weird bit of misinformation that is apparently getting passed around.

[SnowCat]

My understanding of indigo and crystal children, is that they are similar, but we're born in different generations. The indigos beginning in the baby boomer generation, and becoming more common in the late twentieth century, with crystals being more at the end of the century.

Snow